Speaker 1: Check it down, man Now Down. Then it's the Beating
Speaker 1: the Book Podcast Jill alex Bandy Today another edition of
Speaker 1: the pod, It's no odd one if you will, focused
Speaker 1: around the coronavirus itself. Rufus Peabody professional better who announced
Speaker 1: last week via Twitter that he had tested positive for
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen. He walks us through his experience from when
Speaker 1: he first figured out that there was a problem to
Speaker 1: how he feels now and all the steps in between,
Speaker 1: including the testing itself. I think it's a story well
Speaker 1: worth hearing, might normalize it for some folks given these
Speaker 1: very strange times. And then Roxy Roxburro from Pouquette, Thailand
Speaker 1: with his perspective on everything, not just sports betting wise,
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about the virus itself as someone who
Speaker 1: has lived through different periods in this world, War times
Speaker 1: for instance, and how folks reacted then how they are
Speaker 1: reacting now. It's an interesting edition of the Beating the
Speaker 1: Book Podcast, an odd one in odd times. I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoy it. Number less Welcome back to a Numbers
Speaker 1: game with Jill Alexander. It is Kill Alexander live from
Speaker 1: San Francisco on a Numbers game visa the sports betting network. Um,
Speaker 1: this will have very little to do with sports or
Speaker 1: sports betting. I don't know. Maybe we'll stray there somehow,
Speaker 1: But this is just about someone that I'm concerned about,
Speaker 1: though he's going to alleviate those concerns, I think momentarily.
Speaker 1: But just a friend who announced last week on Twitter
Speaker 1: that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, and we
Speaker 1: just want to get a whole story about that update
Speaker 1: his health and just sort of walk us through the
Speaker 1: whole process there. He is looking good. It's uh, one
Speaker 1: of the two or three most successful sports bettors I know.
Speaker 1: Looking good, Rufus Peabody. How you doing, man, I'm doing well.
Speaker 1: You probably just don't know enough sports bettters. Maybe I don't,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's very modest of you. So look, man, um,
Speaker 1: first of all, let's start at the end. How are
Speaker 1: you feeling right now? I'm feeling great. I'm a percent
Speaker 1: I've been symptom free for almost just about two weeks
Speaker 1: at this point. I guess the only symptom that lingered
Speaker 1: was the sort of dulling of my sense of taste,
Speaker 1: which you know, it's mostly back now. I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not sure if it's all the way back, but it's based.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I can I can taste little
Speaker 1: wine taste like again, rather than the pino I had
Speaker 1: last week, which um, I thought it had turned or something.
Speaker 1: And my fiance was like, this tastes great. You know,
Speaker 1: this was a nice bottle of pino that we've gotten
Speaker 1: when we were in Sonoma, and and I was like
Speaker 1: this is it tastes like vinegar? But um, but taste
Speaker 1: is an abstract thing, isn't it like you almost will
Speaker 1: forget what it was like? You're not sure if it's
Speaker 1: all the way back kind of thing. Can we let's
Speaker 1: start at the big inning, if we could rupus because
Speaker 1: you're like fourteen days quarantine. Now you're at the fourteen
Speaker 1: day mark. I think today I was released today. By
Speaker 1: the way, I'm allowed to be allowed to go free.
Speaker 1: So you got I got a call from fourteen days
Speaker 1: I have. So I was out of the apartment last
Speaker 1: Tuesday to get tested. And I guess before that, I
Speaker 1: had the first week before I knew I was positive,
Speaker 1: I had taken trips to the grocery store. Um. But
Speaker 1: aside from that, um, and that was before I had
Speaker 1: any idea I had coronavirus. Obviously, if I once once
Speaker 1: I had a sense that I might have it, I
Speaker 1: obviously stayed inside and didn't go to the grocery store.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was basically, um, I mean it was.
Speaker 1: It was a full week without leaving the apartment. And uh,
Speaker 1: I guess before that another five days before that where
Speaker 1: I basically left only to go to the grocery store. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's let's start at the beginning, because I think we're
Speaker 1: getting ahead of ourselves. What was the what was the
Speaker 1: first moment? I mean, did you feel it? Did you
Speaker 1: have a symptom? Did you hear that someone close to
Speaker 1: you had it? Um? How did this begin for you?
Speaker 1: So I guess, and how it actually began, I think
Speaker 1: is different. Um in retrospect. So I was traveling. I
Speaker 1: was in California forum for this sort of professional betters
Speaker 1: ski trip thing um. And then when I was in
Speaker 1: Colorado for a wedding and went skiing with some friends
Speaker 1: in Veil uh, and then came back to Boston for
Speaker 1: the Sloan Sports Salelis conference. And I didn't sleep well
Speaker 1: that Wednesday night, and so I Thursday I felt well,
Speaker 1: but I just felt tired. Um, I don't know if
Speaker 1: that in retrospect now I'm like, maybe I had it
Speaker 1: and didn't know. Um, I don't know. Um, but Saturday
Speaker 1: morning is the first I really felt like off. I mean,
Speaker 1: I had I had this headache. Um, but I had
Speaker 1: been out late Friday night. Um. It is the Sloan
Speaker 1: Sports Analytics Conference. People do go out kind of hard
Speaker 1: and so Friday night was a late night. So Saturday,
Speaker 1: I mean, I thought I was just a little hungover.
Speaker 1: I didn't think anything of it, and I felt, you know, fatigued.
Speaker 1: But I just was like, well, you know, I had
Speaker 1: a late night, I have a headache. Um that's it.
Speaker 1: That was the extent of the symptoms at that point.
Speaker 1: And just felt like kind of lethargic. But on Sunday
Speaker 1: the headache, uh was a little bit worse. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: I I felt I sort of had the chills on
Speaker 1: Sunday a little bit. Um so, probably a slight fever.
Speaker 1: I didn't take my temperature or anything. But my fiancee
Speaker 1: got sick that um, I guess she she got sick
Speaker 1: on and I guess Monday afternoon and was was home
Speaker 1: from from work that entire week. And that's when I
Speaker 1: you know, I sort of realized. I guess that, um,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe I was maybe I had given it
Speaker 1: to her, and obviously that that that's what happened, that
Speaker 1: you had given it to her. I'm sure I've been traveling.
Speaker 1: She hadn't been traveling or anything. And I from what
Speaker 1: somebody told me, veil was actually kind of the hotbed
Speaker 1: it's in terms of within Colorado. So the coronavirus and
Speaker 1: you know, I've been on I've been on planes. I
Speaker 1: had been you know, with you know, with a bunch
Speaker 1: of people. I mean, there's I'm sure I got it
Speaker 1: somewhere in my travels. Does she still want to get
Speaker 1: married to you? Even after that? And she's still in,
Speaker 1: she's all in, you know, the quarantine has been Uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's tested us a little bit, but she's yeah,
Speaker 1: we're still it's still a little young about if you
Speaker 1: can get through this rufus, you can get through it all.
Speaker 1: Congratulations to you, by the way, on that I should
Speaker 1: say on your on your pending nuptials. Um, so okay,
Speaker 1: So you then I guess you're like, okay, well I
Speaker 1: gotta get tested. So this is also very vague because
Speaker 1: we talk about this in media all the time. Oh,
Speaker 1: they're getting testos. So what do you do? Do you
Speaker 1: walk up? And I'm not trying to well, maybe I'm
Speaker 1: trying to be funny, but maybe I'm not. Where did
Speaker 1: you just walk in somewhere and you're like, Hey, I'm
Speaker 1: rufus peabody, I'm awesome at NFL props. Where's my test? Like? Weird?
Speaker 1: You like, how do you get it? Because it's not
Speaker 1: readily available to everybody. I don't believe, right, I don't
Speaker 1: think I, in retrospect, probably didn't need to be tested
Speaker 1: because I wasn't really showing symptoms. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I said I had a little bit of a cough
Speaker 1: because I had a mild cough. But I, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I got tested because my fiance as a doctor, and
Speaker 1: so that was the protocol at the time. They wanted
Speaker 1: me to get tested as well. Uh. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I went to mass General Hospital and they had they
Speaker 1: turned a parking lot into sort of a testing area,
Speaker 1: and you know, I gave them my information and I
Speaker 1: was in and out pretty quickly. But but I remember
Speaker 1: when I was talking to them, they said that I
Speaker 1: was one of the last people that was gonna be
Speaker 1: tested that didn't really have sort of life threatening symptoms.
Speaker 1: They were just telling because they said, you know, this
Speaker 1: is going to go through the population. We're just you know,
Speaker 1: people need to just stay at home if unless they
Speaker 1: need medical attention. Wait, they said you were one of
Speaker 1: the last people who did who wouldn't have life threatening symptoms.
Speaker 1: That what they said to you there was getting acid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean at least there. I mean, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of because they're having to prioritize the people that
Speaker 1: that most need, you know, medical attention, most need this
Speaker 1: test because you know they don't have that many tests.
Speaker 1: Can I can I ask a very ignorant question, what
Speaker 1: is the test um? They stick this little swab up
Speaker 1: your nose like and it feels like they're trying to
Speaker 1: like poke through your brain. It's quite uncomfortable. They're do
Speaker 1: un build nostrils. Yeah, so I can't they just can
Speaker 1: they just take blood or something like a shot would
Speaker 1: have been better. By the way, in in no form,
Speaker 1: like I've watched CNN or whatever media outlet NonStop for
Speaker 1: the last you know, two weeks, NonStop. I've not heard
Speaker 1: one person say they jam a swab up and try
Speaker 1: to like, that's the test, that's that's terrible. So and
Speaker 1: how quickly did you know your result? I didn't know
Speaker 1: results until I think it was Saturing morning. But I
Speaker 1: was pretty pretty damn sure that I was positive, even
Speaker 1: the fact that I've been living with my fiance in
Speaker 1: an apartment, so I mean, I knew, I knew. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Ruth's doing me a favor. Can you hang out through
Speaker 1: a break because I want to talk to you about
Speaker 1: a little bit more about this. I know it's all
Speaker 1: normal for you at this point, but it's all new
Speaker 1: to us. Rufus Peabody kind enough to join us on
Speaker 1: the show to give us his experience about testing positive
Speaker 1: for the coronavirus. Will come back right here on a
Speaker 1: numbers game at feast. Welcome back to a Numbers game
Speaker 1: with you, Alexander. Normally Rufus Peabody has to sweat Jim
Speaker 1: Furick on a championship Sunday. This was a much bigger
Speaker 1: sweat in his life. A virus. I don't know, maybe,
Speaker 1: I mean, were you nervous at any point, Rufus, I
Speaker 1: wasn't you know? My symptoms were mild. I'm very fortunate.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of other people have had had
Speaker 1: it a lot worse than I have. I know, um,
Speaker 1: other people in the betting community as well have. I mean,
Speaker 1: Spanky has mentioned on Twitter the symptoms he's had and
Speaker 1: it sounds like he's had a real battle, but he's
Speaker 1: coming out. Oh I didn't know that. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: well I gotta get with Spanky and see if he's
Speaker 1: all right. Um So, so, look like you mentioned you
Speaker 1: were at the Sloan Sports Conference, so you know, and
Speaker 1: I'm not and I really am not trying to be funny,
Speaker 1: but the only thing I think about is, like you know,
Speaker 1: so many people's story in college, when there's a an STD,
Speaker 1: you have to contact all of your previous partners, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, just so you know, I tested positive for this,
Speaker 1: you may want to check too. Did you learn of
Speaker 1: anyone at Sloan who ended up positive? Did you have
Speaker 1: to contact people that you were in close proximity to? So, actually,
Speaker 1: one of the reasons I did get tested is because
Speaker 1: I did go to the conference. I my fiancee told
Speaker 1: the you know, the people she talked to public health
Speaker 1: or you know, Um, I forget who it was, but
Speaker 1: but I told them that I had been at this
Speaker 1: this conference with a lot of people, and so I
Speaker 1: think that's one reason they wanted me to get tested.
Speaker 1: And so after you know, that's why, and that is
Speaker 1: the reason I did end up tweeting that out. And
Speaker 1: before that, I told people that I thought I was
Speaker 1: positive people that I have been in close proximity with
Speaker 1: at Sloan And unfortunately a few of those people, UM,
Speaker 1: I think have have tested positive and you look like
Speaker 1: they have it despite not having gotten tested. So UM,
Speaker 1: I feel I feel pretty bad about that I didn't. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if I had known that I had it, I would
Speaker 1: not have UM, I would not have gone to the conference. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think people are aware that you wouldn't have done
Speaker 1: anything purposefully. I asked this of Roxy, your buddy Roxy
Speaker 1: as well as my Roxy. Roxborro was on the show
Speaker 1: from Thailand just before you, and I asked him because
Speaker 1: he has obviously decades of experience that he's wise, and
Speaker 1: I just wanted to get his perspective on what he's
Speaker 1: you know, the thing that's impacted him the most from
Speaker 1: all this, what's disappointed him the most about the world's
Speaker 1: reaction to the pandemic, and he had some pretty poignant words.
Speaker 1: I'm just curious as a guy who tested positive and
Speaker 1: is now hopefully all the way through this. What as
Speaker 1: you from your perspective, which is a very unique one,
Speaker 1: as you look out at how Americans specifically, let's say,
Speaker 1: are reacting to this, anything jumped to mind for you, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we could you know this is good? This isn't so
Speaker 1: good kind of thing that we're doing well. I think
Speaker 1: we needed to sort of address this earlier than we did.
Speaker 1: It seemed like the warning signs were all there, and
Speaker 1: I know, um people there were. There's people I follow
Speaker 1: on Twitter much smarter than myself, like like Ed Miller,
Speaker 1: who were tweeting out about um about uh, the seriousness
Speaker 1: of this all the way back in late January and
Speaker 1: early February. And so I think if we had sort
Speaker 1: of learned from from what South Korea did and sort
Speaker 1: of testing everybody uh and and tracking down where they've
Speaker 1: been and everything like that, I think we could have
Speaker 1: done a better job controlling this. But but it's hard.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's tough, and I think that what we're
Speaker 1: doing now in terms of the sort of the stay
Speaker 1: at home shelter and place stuff, UM is while it's
Speaker 1: awful for the economy, I think it's it's probably necessary
Speaker 1: at this point, but it is interesting that the sort
Speaker 1: of trade off here with with public health versus versus
Speaker 1: the economy. At this point, I feel like, um, I
Speaker 1: know that I know Trump and some of the conservatives
Speaker 1: have been talking about well as this, you know, the
Speaker 1: you know, is it worth it? And I don't have
Speaker 1: the answer that I mean, I think, but I do
Speaker 1: think we need to be prioritizing how more than the
Speaker 1: economy and hopefully at some point, um, the economy is
Speaker 1: able to bounce back. Yeah, I think I would agree
Speaker 1: with that sentiment. Um, let me just let me just
Speaker 1: sort of try to crowbar something sports betting related into this. Um,
Speaker 1: it's actually not that difficult. I had someone at Bookmaker.
Speaker 1: I think you're a guy, would love to get the opinion,
Speaker 1: your opinion on this, someone at Bookmaker. UM relate or
Speaker 1: at least I got this from somebody at Bookmaker that
Speaker 1: on Saturday this past Saturday. So no poker and no Chris,
Speaker 1: just Bookmaker specifically that site this past Saturday. So we're
Speaker 1: talking what e sports, random tennis that's not even like
Speaker 1: top you know level tennis, King Pong, Australian rules football, whatever,
Speaker 1: all these random sports that are going on marginally in
Speaker 1: the world, just on Saturday alone, no poker, just bookmaker
Speaker 1: one and twenty five thousand dollars in Handle And I
Speaker 1: thought about that all day Sunday, and I'm just like,
Speaker 1: if this isn't like less than number one in how
Speaker 1: gambling or in sports betting specifically, here is a it's
Speaker 1: got to be addictive, right, people are just action junkies
Speaker 1: of a segment. We're just talking about segments now, And
Speaker 1: just like the inability of people too to just stop
Speaker 1: and be like, yeah, this is not something I would
Speaker 1: ever bet on. Why should I do it now? And
Speaker 1: I just thought, I was like, I gotta ask rufus
Speaker 1: is reaction to something like that, because for me, that
Speaker 1: should be like the first thing that's ever said on
Speaker 1: any gamblers anonymous thing like we did a hundred twenty
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars in Handle on a day where nothing
Speaker 1: was going on. It's amazing or maybe I mean, I
Speaker 1: think it shows how big the offshore betting world is.
Speaker 1: And I wonder what the limits were on those bets too,
Speaker 1: that dollars, like, you know, two hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 1: at a time, probably that's right, like one one burrito
Speaker 1: at a time, as they say, Yeah, no, it's absolutely
Speaker 1: it's it's amazing to me. Would this be a time
Speaker 1: and you were you were texting me this the other day, like,
Speaker 1: and you've gone through it, and I know you aren't worried,
Speaker 1: So I don't want to like exaggerate the fear factor here,
Speaker 1: but this would be a time where you would now
Speaker 1: start your great time, as great a time as there
Speaker 1: has ever been, where there's no sports a distractor, you
Speaker 1: would do your research and development as you call it,
Speaker 1: with your handicapping. Now. Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, I've been
Speaker 1: quite distracted. It's kind of hard to get away from
Speaker 1: the news and everything. And also, um, my fiance and
Speaker 1: I are both in the in the apartment, so we're
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's it's not the best work environment necessarily,
Speaker 1: although she's working from home now, so uh we we
Speaker 1: have the way too. Is she doing well too, I
Speaker 1: should ask, she's great? Yeah? Um, was she worried? I
Speaker 1: don't think she was worried about her own health? Um,
Speaker 1: I mean she she had it worse than I did.
Speaker 1: She had but she got through it. I mean she
Speaker 1: had that symptoms for maybe three days, but we have
Speaker 1: to take our temperature. Um. We had we had somebody
Speaker 1: from public health calling us every day and we had
Speaker 1: to report our temperature in the morning and the afternoon
Speaker 1: and so UM. If she had left me, I would
Speaker 1: have totally tweeted out a picture of our white board
Speaker 1: because it's been interesting the patterns um uh, and I
Speaker 1: would have wanted to get people to set a line
Speaker 1: on it. Instead, I tested a few buddies, um, including you, Gilu.
Speaker 1: So explain to people what you did. Yeah, So, I mean,
Speaker 1: so it was really interesting. There was a four day
Speaker 1: pattern where in the morning I would have the lower
Speaker 1: temperature and in the afternoon or at night she would
Speaker 1: have the higher temperature. UM. And it was you know,
Speaker 1: every single day, um, for four straight days. And so
Speaker 1: I was curious whether people thought that would be uh,
Speaker 1: just how much signal was, you know, how much signal
Speaker 1: there was in there versus how much it was just
Speaker 1: sort of animous and what the family factors were, because
Speaker 1: so my temperature would increased throout the day, like it
Speaker 1: was like ninety seven points something in the morning, and
Speaker 1: then it would be like ninety eight points something at night,
Speaker 1: and hers was sort of the opposite, and so, um,
Speaker 1: I found it fascinating. But today we actually, um, we
Speaker 1: retired last night for the first time, and I was
Speaker 1: actually higher than she was this morning. So it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of um yeah, I would have lost the money
Speaker 1: betting on it. Actually, it's it's hard to explain over
Speaker 1: the radio, so yeah, without the white board itself. But basically,
Speaker 1: your temperature at night would be more than a degree
Speaker 1: higher than hers, like yours would Yours would be more bouncy,
Speaker 1: your temperature from morning tonight and you I think the
Speaker 1: question you asked was would you lay minus four hundred
Speaker 1: that my temperature would be higher than my fiance's based
Speaker 1: on like a five or four day sample size kind
Speaker 1: of thing. And so it's kind of a good sports
Speaker 1: betting case study where it's like signal or noise? Is
Speaker 1: this enough to go on to lay that kind of juice?
Speaker 1: 's something like at what was your conclusion? Ultimately, my
Speaker 1: conclusion was that it was signal. I mean I know
Speaker 1: that people in general were we we tend to see
Speaker 1: patterns where none actually exist. But my temperature was her
Speaker 1: temperature was about a degree higher than mine every morning,
Speaker 1: and mine was about a degree higher than hers. Every night.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't I mean, it wasn't like just a
Speaker 1: small amount. It was it was quite quite significant. It's awesome.
Speaker 1: It's awesome that you came up with that exercise to
Speaker 1: go through. All right, so the both of you are okay,
Speaker 1: You're both going to be okay. Um, by the way,
Speaker 1: did that temperature fluctuation? Did you ever call a doctor
Speaker 1: and say, hey, is this something that should be worried about?
Speaker 1: Or were you just don't know? I mean once, so
Speaker 1: we have the ear thermometers that um, the instant thermometer things,
Speaker 1: and so we do each ear and take the higher
Speaker 1: of the two. And once I like I got like
Speaker 1: ninety four point one or something. I think there was
Speaker 1: an error. So because she said I would be dead
Speaker 1: if that was actually my temperature, rufus was our first
Speaker 1: it was our first true evidence that you, in fact
Speaker 1: are the robot we always thought you were like this
Speaker 1: guy you will not enter emotion into his sports betting um,
Speaker 1: and there it is. There's the happens. So okay, the
Speaker 1: both of you are going to be okay. So glad
Speaker 1: to hear that I've never met your fiance, but tell
Speaker 1: her where We're all glad When are you getting married?
Speaker 1: When is the day you're getting married? Um, March next year.
Speaker 1: Mar next year. We're hopefully all of this will have
Speaker 1: gone by now. We just celebrated our negative one year anniversary.
Speaker 1: Is that what you're calling it? Your negative one year?
Speaker 1: Is that? That's also it's also my sister's birthday, So
Speaker 1: I'm never going to forget it. Lizzie, Please tell Liszie
Speaker 1: she's still podcasting. She is. Lizzie is actually, um, she's
Speaker 1: running a podcasting for the Smithsonian podcast. Let me just
Speaker 1: say this. As talented as Rufus is in sports betting,
Speaker 1: and I hope you won't object to this. Rum is
Speaker 1: Lizzie from the very first moment that I ever ever
Speaker 1: heard her do a podcast. There is something about her
Speaker 1: nature that draws you in. She is spectacular at what
Speaker 1: she does, and I hope she pursues it, uh, for
Speaker 1: as long as she wants to. Maybe she has bigger aspirations.
Speaker 1: I don't know. No, she's so it's it's I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give it a plug. It's called Side Door. It's the
Speaker 1: Smithsonian's podcast. It's really interesting and um, there was one
Speaker 1: particular episode on I think it was Apollo twelve the
Speaker 1: fifty at the anniversary of Popolotov. Was it was really
Speaker 1: interesting though, um, and it's not the stuff that I
Speaker 1: would normally be interested in, but it was. It's a
Speaker 1: great storytelling makes history, hope, Rufus, thank you for doing this.
Speaker 1: Great to see you. I think you gave a lot
Speaker 1: of people comfort just in telling the story, just sort
Speaker 1: of normalizing it a bit. Glad you're doing well. Congratulations again.
Speaker 1: Best to you man. Good to see your face. Thanks Gil.
Speaker 1: Stay safe out there, Rufus, anybody or in there exactly.
Speaker 1: Everybody should be uh quarantining as I am here in
Speaker 1: the uh the place in San Francisco that I have here,
Speaker 1: as you should be in your spot wherever you are.
Speaker 1: Stay safe. It's a numbers game with your host, Kill Alexander.
Speaker 1: Believe in the analytics. Our two up a numbers game
Speaker 1: right here at Visa, the Mega Stats and Information Network,
Speaker 1: the first sports betting network in all the land. It's
Speaker 1: Gill Alexander again, live from San Francisco. Serious XM Channel
Speaker 1: two O four, Visa dot Com, the Visa app, Food
Speaker 1: Boa slaying a game plus on down the line. Appreciate
Speaker 1: you taking us in today. Um, it is surreal these
Speaker 1: times and it is, Uh, like I said, it's like
Speaker 1: living in a sci fi movie. I just got a
Speaker 1: text from Seth Walder from ESPN does great analytics stuff
Speaker 1: for ESPN dot com, and it was just mentioning, just
Speaker 1: sort of a text and random test where he said,
Speaker 1: I was on your show. He said, it was just
Speaker 1: checking I was on your show exactly two weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and it seems like it was a different year. And
Speaker 1: I think it's really how it's it's really a great
Speaker 1: reflection of how most people think about this, the speed
Speaker 1: with which events have taken place, and just the surreal
Speaker 1: nature of it all. It's mind boggling. I had this
Speaker 1: gentleman on the show a little before I had Seth
Speaker 1: on so a few weeks back. That seems like a
Speaker 1: different era. We come to him now, or we or
Speaker 1: he comes to us. I should say from Pouquette, Thailand
Speaker 1: and shout out to the guys behind the glass from
Speaker 1: making it happen once again. It's our friend, friend of show,
Speaker 1: friend of network, the legendary Roxy Roxborough. Good evening, Roxy,
Speaker 1: or I should say, uh, it's but what is it
Speaker 1: ten pm? There? How you doing? Hey? It is evening,
Speaker 1: Gil and I would call this the year of going
Speaker 1: nowhere fast. Yeah, I mean when, first of all, glad
Speaker 1: to hear your voice, glad to hear you're you're doing
Speaker 1: well and safe there. When did you leave Las Vegas?
Speaker 1: How much of it was precipitated by the fact that
Speaker 1: you felt um that, and let's be honest, that a
Speaker 1: gentleman of your age might want to get out of
Speaker 1: that sort of epicenter. Well I made. I was Santa Anita,
Speaker 1: I think mark seventh and eight for the big Cap weekend,
Speaker 1: and I hadn't plans to fly back to Thailand, and
Speaker 1: I was thinking about it. I changed it, didn't go
Speaker 1: through Korea, and I didn't go through Bangkok. I changed
Speaker 1: the plane at the last minute to go to Singapore
Speaker 1: and then changed straight to Bouquette. Now, if I hadn't
Speaker 1: waited three or four days, I might not have gone back,
Speaker 1: only because of the travel. I'm if I had to
Speaker 1: be isolated in one place, my book at home would
Speaker 1: be the one. But the information was changing so fast,
Speaker 1: so three or four days later I probably would would
Speaker 1: have stayed in Las Vegas. You you tweeted something about
Speaker 1: it where you felt, and you'll correct me if I'm wrong,
Speaker 1: and maybe I'm not quoting this. This is just paraphrasing
Speaker 1: that you felt that Vegas casinos were Is it fair
Speaker 1: to say that you felt they were a little slow
Speaker 1: on the draw and closing things up? I did, um
Speaker 1: from mostly from monetary standpoint, though. I thought that if
Speaker 1: Las Vegas got to be known as the epicenter of
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen in America, would do the referable damage and
Speaker 1: the losses would be much larger than they would be
Speaker 1: if they closed dirtly. Um. Some people in the industry
Speaker 1: sort of agreed with it. Some nod. Uh. They got
Speaker 1: to this spot probably a little week a week later
Speaker 1: than than they should have. UM. But you know, it's
Speaker 1: it brings to it. Brings also up the concept of
Speaker 1: h they all out for casinos or long term loans
Speaker 1: to casinos. And this is a pretty interesting question because
Speaker 1: if you picked a couple of businesses that were probably
Speaker 1: the least benefit to society, casinos in the back, but
Speaker 1: would be right up there in the top five. However,
Speaker 1: they become such an integral part of state revenues in
Speaker 1: every state where they're legal, um, that you just can't
Speaker 1: let them go down to two Their their a line
Speaker 1: item in the budget. Um, they're needed at every state
Speaker 1: for revenue now, and there probably will be as loath
Speaker 1: as loathsome as it is. And this is somebody who
Speaker 1: spent his entire life gambling. There will have to be, um,
Speaker 1: some assistance, federal assistance. You can stay should rely on
Speaker 1: the states to do it. But um, the states don't
Speaker 1: have the wherever all the federal governments. They can't start
Speaker 1: pretty money. So I will be a package to help
Speaker 1: the casinos. I mean, and you must realize. Roxy, by
Speaker 1: the way, you can follow Roxy on Twitter at Roxy
Speaker 1: Las Vegas. Great follow always has very very philosophical things
Speaker 1: to share with us. I mean, you must realize that
Speaker 1: when people here casinos are seeking bailouts, and even this
Speaker 1: applies even to gamblers, it just pisces people off. That's
Speaker 1: their knee jerk reaction to that. Yes, I mean they're
Speaker 1: pretty good multiplier for the economy in that the dollars
Speaker 1: that they earned hire any more employees than just the
Speaker 1: employees in the casinos. And I keep going back to that.
Speaker 1: They're a big part of state revenue. Of course in
Speaker 1: Nevada is most of the state revenue, so it's uh,
Speaker 1: it is different from most places. But I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: that well people were loath to give the banks a
Speaker 1: bail out in two thousand and eight. Team there are
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, but that was a systemic issue
Speaker 1: for financial system. UM. And also we didn't know if
Speaker 1: they were when it was going to be over in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight. And this thing looks like it will.
Speaker 1: You know, there will be a conclusion there is UH
Speaker 1: light at the end of the tunnel with the coronavirus.
Speaker 1: Maybe it might be six months down the road, it
Speaker 1: might be a year down the road, but I think
Speaker 1: most people think that eventually, UM, the world will get
Speaker 1: a grip on it. And gilread decline where the financial
Speaker 1: crisis UH looked like a collapse of the financial system,
Speaker 1: and there wasn't any clear way that there was going
Speaker 1: to be a timeline when the normalcy would return. Talking
Speaker 1: to Roxy Roxborro from Pouquette, Thailand, UM, we'll get to
Speaker 1: your I know we want to get to your story
Speaker 1: about the late Tony Selina's momentarily, so we'll cheer it
Speaker 1: up a little. But last thing about the pandemic that
Speaker 1: is the coronavirus UM from your standpoint and from all
Speaker 1: your observations throughout your years, what has been the thing
Speaker 1: about this roxy that has that has been the most
Speaker 1: noteworthy to you? Is it the way that people have reacted,
Speaker 1: um in so many different ways. Some people, you know,
Speaker 1: slow to the take on this, where they're like, it's nothing. Uh,
Speaker 1: some people who were overly you know who maybe maybe
Speaker 1: the pendulum swung in the other direction, or just what
Speaker 1: is it about this just from a human observation standpoint,
Speaker 1: where you've been like, huh, didn't didn't really expect that,
Speaker 1: or that's interesting. I'm a little disappointed that everybody is
Speaker 1: in this for themselves. Gil. You know that our parents
Speaker 1: and our grandparents lived through two devastating world wars Um
Speaker 1: and the Spanish Flew, and duty became a calling card
Speaker 1: in their life. They did things for the better of
Speaker 1: the country and society. They also lived through a depression
Speaker 1: that really where there's no light at the end of
Speaker 1: the tunnel, and the only light at the end of
Speaker 1: the tunnel was to get involved in a world war.
Speaker 1: That was that at one time I had the men
Speaker 1: in the country unemployed and with no chance to ever
Speaker 1: get a job. And so they are parents and grandparents
Speaker 1: were learned a thrift and they learned duty. And for
Speaker 1: some reason the message didn't sink into well to my
Speaker 1: generation and then the generations after me. And I think
Speaker 1: that's a bit of a disappointment. I think that's Uh,
Speaker 1: those are words that I think, you know, if people
Speaker 1: agree or disagree, those are words to ponder. I think
Speaker 1: that's that's about as good a perspective as as we're
Speaker 1: going to get on this. Thank you for that, Roxy,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, Uh, cheguing, And there's no artful way
Speaker 1: to segue to this from that, Um, because we hope
Speaker 1: the best for everybody. We hope everybody stays safe. But
Speaker 1: nine days ago, a legendary Las Vegas gambler, Um, you
Speaker 1: knew him far better than I did. I will tell
Speaker 1: you that I knew Tony Selina's only from my observation
Speaker 1: of him in the early part of last decade. I
Speaker 1: would see him on a pretty regular basis, Roxy, Uh,
Speaker 1: coming in and out of the hard rock Hotel. Tony
Speaker 1: was always accompanied um by someone, uh, a lady friend,
Speaker 1: let's call it. And Uh he seemed to be having
Speaker 1: just a wonderful time even into his later years. But
Speaker 1: you've known him for decades and he was a He
Speaker 1: was a champion of contests, just a colorful character. And
Speaker 1: you you have your favorite. Tony's the least story to
Speaker 1: share with us today. I have a few of them.
Speaker 1: M First of all, if he only came in with
Speaker 1: one young lady, things must have been sort of slow.
Speaker 1: Back in Texas they've called those funky tonk angels are
Speaker 1: back in the old joints. You know. In Arkansas saw
Speaker 1: at ust angels in the seventies. We call them perfect angels.
Speaker 1: And they were just young ladies that were trying to
Speaker 1: find the fast at the high living. And he was
Speaker 1: a magnet for them. And he really was a colorful character.
Speaker 1: He spent money like crazy. Um. He came out here
Speaker 1: now late seventies, and I want to say, and he
Speaker 1: went on a roll. It was unbelievable. He was playing
Speaker 1: high limit poker and he started winning a sports system
Speaker 1: about everything inies. He won the he won the Castaway
Speaker 1: Football Championship, which was the only contest um at the time.
Speaker 1: And he was good at publicity. He really could roll
Speaker 1: out of pr machine. He had that soft spoken, southern
Speaker 1: uh uh, gentlemanly way about him. Always had a hat,
Speaker 1: boots wore a jacket and uh a string tie and
Speaker 1: uh he us was a high roller and very nice guy.
Speaker 1: He did some things. Look, I never could understand if
Speaker 1: you're a gambler. But he used to play in the
Speaker 1: highest poker games in town. And then a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks later or three weeks later, you see him playing
Speaker 1: five and ten and you look at him and he'd say, Hey,
Speaker 1: it's better to be playing than not. You know, it's
Speaker 1: it's better to be playing. I'll get it out. It's
Speaker 1: better to be broken playing and not playing at all.
Speaker 1: He could just yeah, I mean to me, I never
Speaker 1: could get my round. Uh. The mindset around that that
Speaker 1: people could be gambling really high, betting ten times on
Speaker 1: an NFL game and three weeks later betting uh two twenty.
Speaker 1: But it was just a mindset that he had. He
Speaker 1: always had confidence he was going to get back at action.
Speaker 1: And he was a pretty fancy cowd a lot of people.
Speaker 1: He got quite a reputation in Texas, and people came
Speaker 1: out to UH want to follow Tony around and he'd
Speaker 1: give him picks, and he charged him for picks. One
Speaker 1: thing he did was pretty interesting. He started a really
Speaker 1: sophisticated newsletter, UM called the high Roller I believe it was.
Speaker 1: This was in the yearly eighties, and he had a
Speaker 1: staff that included Arnie Lange and Mike Lee. And then
Speaker 1: he had the long Horn Club, which is the one
Speaker 1: where he uh, for a lot of money you can
Speaker 1: get his picks. And he was it was more of
Speaker 1: a smart smart man stout than as opposed to like
Speaker 1: as the professor or Horowitz. Um, I'll tell you one
Speaker 1: one story. We were drinking the bar and they started us.
Speaker 1: They had a piano bar in there. We were having
Speaker 1: a few drinks and a couple of guys were supposed
Speaker 1: to meet him there, young guys in the early twenties,
Speaker 1: and uh, what happened? They've gone and broke while I
Speaker 1: was they gets made. Their parents told him to look
Speaker 1: up Tony. He'd give you money to come home. So, uh,
Speaker 1: Tony gave him a three roll dice for couple hund
Speaker 1: each and they lost it. Then he came down and
Speaker 1: had to drink, and he gave the waitress fifty bucks
Speaker 1: to tell the piano player to sing Whiskey River. And
Speaker 1: then he looked at those guys he said, you know,
Speaker 1: I know what's happening. You would think old tones and
Speaker 1: then to give need the money to go home. But
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna do it because you won't ever learn nothing.
Speaker 1: That was Tony. You know, he could drop money left
Speaker 1: and right. Probably the bus take it home. Back then
Speaker 1: was twenty. But that that was Tony. You had you
Speaker 1: had another you said you had a couple of stories
Speaker 1: about him too. Was there another one you wanted to tell?
Speaker 1: Where's that? The one? Wow? That that that was? That
Speaker 1: was one of the first thing. We used to go
Speaker 1: to a disco in town called the Brewery, and it
Speaker 1: was it was the hot place to get into it
Speaker 1: at the time, and they had a rule no hats.
Speaker 1: Tony never took his hat off. And at one time
Speaker 1: with the doorman they were going back and forth whether
Speaker 1: you know, fifty dollars to wear the hat. They said no,
Speaker 1: it's a hundred dollars where they had. It's two d
Speaker 1: where they had. They said no. So he takes the
Speaker 1: hat off. He sends one of the gals to the
Speaker 1: back and to go to the kitchen with fifty dollars
Speaker 1: in it, and Tony goes into the club and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, somebody comes out of the kitchen
Speaker 1: with the hat and gives the tool. So he was
Speaker 1: just just a character. I mean, I don't think we
Speaker 1: get more of those people left. I mean he has
Speaker 1: license plates. Eddie Texan who was a gale or would
Speaker 1: have to have a Cadillac long white Cadillac. That's that's
Speaker 1: just the way it was. Now. In ninety or seventy nine,
Speaker 1: Cadillac came out with this Saville Grand Opera coup. It
Speaker 1: was a bizarre looking car. It was really uh hard
Speaker 1: to get. They didn't make many of them Selinas and
Speaker 1: Gary Austen put in orders for them. When they got them,
Speaker 1: delivered his license plate with T SW T S A
Speaker 1: L and then he just became known as TSAL after that.
Speaker 1: He's ahead of his time with that. Yeah. Uh, you're so,
Speaker 1: what do they call that? You're a man of letters?
Speaker 1: What's that a portmanteau or actually I don't know what
Speaker 1: they call that. All I know is that in today's
Speaker 1: modern backing, whether it's like you know, see Webb Chris Webber, like,
Speaker 1: that's how that's how guys are referred to as j Low.
Speaker 1: I think it's a yeah's a French word called portmanteau.
Speaker 1: When you take I let you um mostal is Formanteau.
Speaker 1: I think I know it right, but I think i'm
Speaker 1: I'm I think you are, but you're so right like
Speaker 1: someone like him. I mean, could you imagine if someone
Speaker 1: tried to be him today, Like let's say Roxy, Let's
Speaker 1: say I decided. Let's say I decided tomorrow. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna change my brand. I'm gonna put on a
Speaker 1: massive cowboy hat or whatever it is and just be
Speaker 1: this larger life character. Like people would just die laughing.
Speaker 1: Not not just because it's me, but I'm just saying
Speaker 1: anybody who tried to be a character today. And I
Speaker 1: was talking to Chrissy yesterday because he was kind enough
Speaker 1: to tell some of his stories. Yesterday we were talking
Speaker 1: about Crying Kenny. I told your famous Crying Kenny story
Speaker 1: by the way, about the downtown Freddie Brown under I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hit him. But I think about characters like that,
Speaker 1: it just they couldn't exist today. They wouldn't be allowed
Speaker 1: to exist, you know, they wouldn't. I think one of
Speaker 1: the reasons to be appears existed in the late seventies
Speaker 1: and early eighties was it was a transition then in
Speaker 1: Las Vegas from going to sports books to uh sports
Speaker 1: books only into casinos with sports books, and the casinos
Speaker 1: nearly they sort of tolerated a lot of that behavior.
Speaker 1: They just figured, Okay, this is uh, this is what
Speaker 1: you get when you get the sports book. And then
Speaker 1: eventually they decided no, it's it's not up to the
Speaker 1: standards they want their property be. And these characters started
Speaker 1: disappearing over over time. Um, the Reads book had a
Speaker 1: lot of characters like that also. But no, you you
Speaker 1: couldn't do it today. Now I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: how you build a brand image, Um, like Tony's probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't work today. No, No, I don't think so, you know,
Speaker 1: I think I think Vegas and Dave's chick is pretty
Speaker 1: bad and he gets people to send him money. So boy,
Speaker 1: it's a great it's a great point. It's not like
Speaker 1: it's it's not like it's absent, is isn't it? Um?
Speaker 1: By the way, I have Tony Selia stories. I mentioned
Speaker 1: this yesterday. I have a Tony Selia story, but I
Speaker 1: absolutely can't share it on the air. Um. One day
Speaker 1: perhaps I will whenever I write my book, roxy if
Speaker 1: I ever do. UM, I leave you with this, and
Speaker 1: I said this to Michael Lombardi last segment. There's no
Speaker 1: way I could possibly uh you know, ask you the
Speaker 1: unfair question of hey, what do you think this all ends?
Speaker 1: But for someone with your sort of instinct on things
Speaker 1: like this and your knowledge of baseball history and strikes
Speaker 1: and shortened seasons, truncated seasons, what do you think baseball?
Speaker 1: Right now, they're thinking to themselves, what do you think
Speaker 1: they they would settle for? Like, what's the worst case
Speaker 1: scenario where we'd see a season here? Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that there's to be a cut off, probably around the
Speaker 1: August one. I mean, I think that's pushing it. But
Speaker 1: I don't see them playing the studio game. Studio sports
Speaker 1: aren't going to work because as soon as the players
Speaker 1: who are infected, what difference does it make. That's the
Speaker 1: one thing that people don't understand. All they say they'll
Speaker 1: just play without crowds, but once the players get in
Speaker 1: fact that they'll start spreading among themselves. So that to me,
Speaker 1: that's a nonstarter. Um, you know, baseball is Baseball is
Speaker 1: like an old friend. Uh you really happy when when
Speaker 1: you when you see him, and he's always in your life.
Speaker 1: And this will be uh well, barrying the strike here,
Speaker 1: this will be the time, we don't have any baseball
Speaker 1: I remember this is a little philosophical, but when I
Speaker 1: used to work with the Vancouver Canucks, like in a
Speaker 1: late sixties and the announcer drove me home after like
Speaker 1: an eight to one game, Kim Robs and the legendary
Speaker 1: Vancouver announcer, and he told me that, you know, even
Speaker 1: if the game's bad, you have to put your best
Speaker 1: into it because there's always a lot of people out there.
Speaker 1: They can't get out, they have medical problems or their lonely,
Speaker 1: and they depend on you. So you always have to
Speaker 1: give you the best. And I think there's going to
Speaker 1: be there's a lot of people that um watch their
Speaker 1: local team, um all hundred and sixty two games, uh,
Speaker 1: which you know, it's hard for us to believe that
Speaker 1: you could watch a team, even a bad team, play
Speaker 1: every game of the year. But there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people that's their life, and I think that's the disappointing
Speaker 1: part of it. Yeah, Roxy, Uh, it's great to talk
Speaker 1: to you. I could talk to you about anything, sports
Speaker 1: or otherwise, and I think I speak on behalf of everybody.
Speaker 1: We appreciate the perspective, especially what you said earlier about
Speaker 1: the thing that sort of disappointed you the most about
Speaker 1: all this, because I think those are words that people should,
Speaker 1: uh should definitely pay he to. What are you doing
Speaker 1: the rest of the night in poquette raging? What's going on? Hey,
Speaker 1: there's nothing to do. We're shut down like most of
Speaker 1: the world. Uh, I'm just sitting around the wasting too
Speaker 1: much time on the internet. However, I am. I Actually
Speaker 1: this is the incentive I needed to start to put
Speaker 1: together my book. So I'm actually starting outlines on it,
Speaker 1: and I'm the outline have you using is the players,
Speaker 1: the layers, and the language. So I've got a list
Speaker 1: of the people that I want to mention from the
Speaker 1: betting side and the bookmaking side, and then my language.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Roxy, I appreciate it. State Safe