Speaker 1: Welcome back to the fire Drill. Uh. This Sunday, not
Speaker 1: a lot of golf going on, but we still knocked
Speaker 1: out an hour long podcast. It goes on derailments, which
Speaker 1: I love, which I really love. But it started they're serious,
Speaker 1: there's funny. Um. We obviously started with the match Tiger Woods,
Speaker 1: Uh Jordan's Charles Barkley and what he adds Um. Michael
Speaker 1: didn't even know the match had happened, but he adds
Speaker 1: a lot to it too, about his thoughts about uh,
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods is placed in the game and those kind
Speaker 1: of things. We talked about Grant Wall. Alan talked to
Speaker 1: him before he went to the World Cup for about
Speaker 1: an hour, UM about a bunch of things, and they
Speaker 1: had worked together a long time, all three of them
Speaker 1: at Sports Illustrated and his place in the journalistic world
Speaker 1: and um, just how sad it all is, um. And
Speaker 1: then we talked about We went on a tangent about
Speaker 1: the movie straight out of Compton, and I'm not going
Speaker 1: to add anything to it except to just I promise
Speaker 1: it's towards the end. I promise it is worth the
Speaker 1: time to stay. Alan and Michael went to the movie
Speaker 1: and that's all I'm gonna add because the details of it,
Speaker 1: of them going is just well worth the wait. Is
Speaker 1: almost nothing to do with golf, except that we tie
Speaker 1: it into Alan and Phil Mickelson, which I think was
Speaker 1: a great uh comparison. It really is uh in a
Speaker 1: very microcosmic uh look into what it is to be
Speaker 1: a journalist sending out a story that that you know
Speaker 1: is going to kind of disrupt the golf world. Um.
Speaker 1: Before we uh send it off, I want to do
Speaker 1: a few things. Uh. First of all, our sponsors, power Points,
Speaker 1: don't make part download the app. Uh. It's a great
Speaker 1: way to keep scoring. Uh. It's awesome. You should try it.
Speaker 1: Once you try it, you'll be hooked. U power Points app,
Speaker 1: Android or Apple, Go get it. Um. And then dormy
Speaker 1: Workshop awesome club covers. I just have to say artisanal
Speaker 1: dial because I get tweets about using the words artisanal. Now, um,
Speaker 1: so I have to use an artisanal club covers. Putter
Speaker 1: covers really awesome, go check them out. And then before
Speaker 1: we get into the pod, a couple of house cleaning
Speaker 1: cleaning things that we have to take out of need.
Speaker 1: A fourth is an awesome new podcast, Alan, Michael, Jeff Ogilvie,
Speaker 1: and a mystery guest every week UM sponsored by Echo.
Speaker 1: They have a great contest going on with Links Soul.
Speaker 1: Go to our YouTube page, comment on the last UM
Speaker 1: Need a Fourth and be entered in a chance to
Speaker 1: win two and fifty dollar gift card from Link Soul.
Speaker 1: Brandon Chamberly was the last guest. It was very good,
Speaker 1: very different side of Brandle that a lot of people
Speaker 1: haven't seen. It's it's different than the personality you see
Speaker 1: on TV. It was very cool him and Jeff talking
Speaker 1: about the US Open, really really interesting. UM go there,
Speaker 1: check out our YouTube page. Lots of stuff besides this
Speaker 1: stuff I just mentioned, So subscribe there. Do that stuff.
Speaker 1: It helps us out. UM, there's Alpena stuff, there's uh,
Speaker 1: there'll be Grind episodes on there. There's Journeys need a
Speaker 1: fourth podcast. This podcast is on there. Jake's giving me
Speaker 1: the like, you gotta cut this out, it's time to go. Uh,
Speaker 1: he's giving me the high sign. But please do all
Speaker 1: those things that helps support what we're doing at fire Pit. UM,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening. Without further ado, here's the three of
Speaker 1: us talking golf. Mostly I got Dot, he can't get
Speaker 1: Jan nothing thing. What I'm thinking about can't get them
Speaker 1: out nothing. Think what I'm thinking about Christmas, Hanukah and
Speaker 1: Kwanza came early with Tiger Woods um playing in the
Speaker 1: the match. Uh, you know it was under the lights,
Speaker 1: it was on made for TV. What did you guys
Speaker 1: think of this spectacle? Did not know it was played
Speaker 1: until you just said it. This is the rigorous preparation
Speaker 1: that we like for this podcast. So great, right, it's
Speaker 1: amazing that it is amazing? Does he meant to play
Speaker 1: in the Father's Son Tournament? First? What's the order here
Speaker 1: that's on deck? You know this coming week? Well, well,
Speaker 1: Charlie Woods, the biggest star in golf by my calculations,
Speaker 1: will make his annual appearance. Um, here's my take on it.
Speaker 1: Here's my I also did not know it was on
Speaker 1: in the morning, Like I knew it was coming up,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know it was yesterday. But I said
Speaker 1: to my wife as we were watching it, is like,
Speaker 1: would I make any sort of special plans, cancel anything
Speaker 1: to to like watch it? Of course not, but like,
Speaker 1: was it fine TV last night on a Saturday night
Speaker 1: where there's no college football or anything? Yeah? It was fine.
Speaker 1: It was great. I mean it was it was fine.
Speaker 1: It wasn't it was, it was, it was. It was fun.
Speaker 1: I mean it was some septimes. What else am I
Speaker 1: gonna watch? Will? Fortunately? What time? What time did it
Speaker 1: come on for? We East Coast views seated up at seven? Michael,
Speaker 1: It was like an hour long pre pre damn and
Speaker 1: then an hour and obviously Tiger played pretty terrible. Um
Speaker 1: and uh, it was. I mean it had moments. Charles
Speaker 1: Barkley is by far the best part of the match.
Speaker 1: It's everything j Barkley repartee a little forced, but undeniably
Speaker 1: funny in spots like he had one great lines like
Speaker 1: the next match is gonna be Charles versus a plate
Speaker 1: of cheese fries like that that was legit, laugh out
Speaker 1: loud and um so, I mean obviously Tiger was the focus,
Speaker 1: especially after he pulled out of the World Challenge, and
Speaker 1: I thought it was weird. You know, he said he
Speaker 1: hadn't touched the club for two and a half weeks.
Speaker 1: I mean, we know that Tiger is a man of
Speaker 1: immense pride, and even though this has no meaning, he's
Speaker 1: still on very graphic public display. And I think it
Speaker 1: tells you how much he's fighting his body. If he
Speaker 1: didn't prepare at all. I mean, uh, and he was.
Speaker 1: His play was very scratchy, especially the first five or
Speaker 1: six holes, and then he kind of found it a
Speaker 1: little bit hit some shots. But um, that to me
Speaker 1: is a red flag, you know. And this this ongoing question,
Speaker 1: like how much golf is Tiger? Would he gonna play?
Speaker 1: I mean, prime time national audience. He didn't. He didn't
Speaker 1: even he didn't even hit a small bucket. So did
Speaker 1: he say why he had not hit balls before? I'm sure,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just assuming it's the plantar fasciitists which
Speaker 1: knocked him out of the World Challenge, But no, he
Speaker 1: said Alan, he said, what knocked him out of the
Speaker 1: uh the World Challenge is his inability to walk. I thought, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean I think that might have been a little hyperbolic.
Speaker 1: What he what he said in the Hero World Challenge
Speaker 1: press conference, Like, um, because he was writing a cart
Speaker 1: last night, he presumably he could write a cart from
Speaker 1: his front door to his practice facility in his backyard.
Speaker 1: Like there's if if the foot really didn't cause him
Speaker 1: any discomfort, why didn't hit some balls? And it doesn't
Speaker 1: It doesn't track as Tiger talking about his body and
Speaker 1: his injuries often is confounding and mysterious and contradictory. I
Speaker 1: think this is another example because like if if, if,
Speaker 1: if walking is the issue, you can certainly hit some
Speaker 1: some balls on the range without doing much walking. So
Speaker 1: I don't know that that that was. That was a
Speaker 1: little mysterious, And you know, I've said it, and maybe
Speaker 1: you guys don't have the same feelings. Maybe you do. Uh,
Speaker 1: but but yesterday, like Tigers at least right now has
Speaker 1: become a ceremonial golfer, at least in the short term.
Speaker 1: Hopefully not in long term, but right now he has.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if I to it on this
Speaker 1: podcast or a different one, but like we used to
Speaker 1: go to the senior event near us when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, and my dad would always want to go
Speaker 1: watch Arnie right and Jack and they both were like
Speaker 1: well past their pride by that time, and I always
Speaker 1: was like, what the hell is he doing? Like who
Speaker 1: wants to go watch you know, a guy shoot seventy
Speaker 1: six on a pretty relatively easy golf course. And now
Speaker 1: I get it, Like there was some like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: just like to watch Tiger play golf. I would, of course,
Speaker 1: I wish he would have played better. Uh, But I
Speaker 1: just like to see him out there. Obviously I wish
Speaker 1: he was better than who cares about yesterday, But just
Speaker 1: in general, I hope he can teat up again. But
Speaker 1: I just think it makes me think of the fact
Speaker 1: that he was important too, that we were lucky to
Speaker 1: have him in our in the time that I grew
Speaker 1: up watching golf. I think that British Show Open was
Speaker 1: a big set back for him because I think he
Speaker 1: he prepared really hard for it, and I don't I mean,
Speaker 1: I swallowed the kool aid, drink the kool aid and
Speaker 1: and believe the hype. I thought he'd go out there
Speaker 1: and shoot for good scores, and of course when he didn't,
Speaker 1: he just made you look at Tiger, you know, when
Speaker 1: that was over, it made you look at Tiger differently.
Speaker 1: To your comment, Ryan Andy North told me a great
Speaker 1: story about Arnold Palmer that I can't remember the year
Speaker 1: of the tournament, but Arnold was saying his in his sixties.
Speaker 1: Now he's well beyond contending on the senior tour, but
Speaker 1: he was playing really well at the senior event, and um,
Speaker 1: I guess the second round, you know, the the penultimate round,
Speaker 1: he comes to the eighteenth hole island Green, shallow green.
Speaker 1: It's an automatic layup for everyone. You can't hold it
Speaker 1: with anything more than about a nine iron. Arnie hits
Speaker 1: a good drive and he pulls out like his three wood,
Speaker 1: and the crowd murmurs and gets excited, and he like
Speaker 1: rips one of course, bounces over the green, drops one,
Speaker 1: hits like three in the water. And he was and
Speaker 1: as North told it, like Arnie was on the edge
Speaker 1: of contention. You know, if he makes a birdie there,
Speaker 1: he's like in tenth place or something, he's got a chance.
Speaker 1: I'd be huge for TV. And everyone's before idle do
Speaker 1: he makes like a twelve or something. And afterwards off
Speaker 1: air because and North was commenting, he's like Arnie, what
Speaker 1: the funk man? And and Palmer goes. Those people came
Speaker 1: to see Arnold Palmer, and I gave them Arnold Palmer
Speaker 1: pretty great. He was like, like I pictured like clear Eastwood,
Speaker 1: you know, with a little sneer and the hat pulled
Speaker 1: though it I mean, it's ridiculous, but it's funny, but
Speaker 1: it's also it's insightful, Like there's just you know that
Speaker 1: Arnie had a role to play, and he embraced it. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, Jack Nicholas was more ambivalent about being a
Speaker 1: quote unquote semonial golfer. You know, he said he'd never
Speaker 1: be one, but then he did. And he's still hitting
Speaker 1: the first tea at the Masters, like he's actually grown
Speaker 1: comfortable with that. That the question for Tiger is will
Speaker 1: he embrace that role and what is it going to
Speaker 1: look like? Or does he have you know, so much
Speaker 1: pride and he still sticks to that I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: tee it up if I can't win kind of eat
Speaker 1: those like, what are we gonna see from Tiger and
Speaker 1: going forward? That that's a big question. Yeah, agreed. Uh,
Speaker 1: Yet yesterday, for the first time I felt like he
Speaker 1: was really a ceremonial golfer. I mean it was It
Speaker 1: wasn't good golf. He was obviously in a lot of discomfort.
Speaker 1: And I just hope it's the planner stuff and you
Speaker 1: can get back to I mean, we've talked about it
Speaker 1: last week. It's just a couple of times, one more
Speaker 1: time in his career even just be around, even near
Speaker 1: so we can discuss whether it will ever happen again.
Speaker 1: As Nicholas says, never ever, ever, ever, ever count out
Speaker 1: this Tiger Woods. But I think he must know on
Speaker 1: some level that when he won that Masters in two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen, it was a gift. He played okay really
Speaker 1: uh and he squeezed one out and there's not gonna
Speaker 1: be another one. Now that's that's depressing but probably accurate. Um,
Speaker 1: and all right, that that was We kind of thought
Speaker 1: the two thousand nineteen Masters that was it, like that
Speaker 1: was the gift. But then you get greedy, like, well,
Speaker 1: if he did it, then you could do it again.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, if he gets a firm, fast
Speaker 1: links course and he gets a good side of the
Speaker 1: draw and you can talk to off all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1: But after smashing up his foot, I mean that it was.
Speaker 1: And I thought you were gonna say after smashing up
Speaker 1: that car, I mean yeah, we're saying that. I yeah,
Speaker 1: that up the side of the road, and we've been
Speaker 1: down this road before. He's yeah, I mean, by his
Speaker 1: own admission, his life changed that day. Yeah. Well that
Speaker 1: was a morbidly funny moment in the match where because um,
Speaker 1: you know, Justin Thomas and George Shore wearing shorts, so
Speaker 1: it led to the inevitable talk about calf muscles. And tigers,
Speaker 1: like I got a good calf singular. It was pretty funny.
Speaker 1: He went over George's peace and a few other people's
Speaker 1: head in the moment, but it was it was funny. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that's the reality, you know. Uh, I mean,
Speaker 1: we never talks about his back anymore like that. That's
Speaker 1: what I thought was gonna back part of his body. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the one functional part of his body. Diffuse, FYI,
Speaker 1: how are you going to drive the golf ball anywhere
Speaker 1: with one good calf? He's driving it pretty well though.
Speaker 1: His ball speed was like up there with those guys yesterday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know he's you know, he's got some he he's
Speaker 1: got some of his speed back. And he mentioned that
Speaker 1: in the Bahamas that he's gotten some speedback, and he
Speaker 1: you know, he's not gonna have the ball speed of
Speaker 1: Rory McElroy, but he was up there with speed and
Speaker 1: even you know, threatened JT a few times. Like he's
Speaker 1: so physically strong in the upper body that it's like
Speaker 1: he could just jerk the club down through the hitting
Speaker 1: area with some speed. But um, you know, it's still
Speaker 1: it's not the most efficient or possibly repeatable action. But
Speaker 1: he's he's making it work. But anyway, yeah, who won
Speaker 1: the thing? It wasn't Tiger. Um, yeah, they It wasn't close.
Speaker 1: It wasn't close. The Tigers straight better ball for the
Speaker 1: twelve holds uh. One Club Challenge, Yeah, the one Club Challenge.
Speaker 1: They played one hole every and everyone got to choose
Speaker 1: which club and it was chaos. It was anarchy. It
Speaker 1: was fun. Guys are balling crazy places, trying to bend it. Tiger,
Speaker 1: I think he played down the wrong fairway on purpose.
Speaker 1: I'm not even sure. I thought it was gonna be ridiculous,
Speaker 1: and then it turned out to be like really fun.
Speaker 1: I was like, it was chaos, it was it was
Speaker 1: totally Yeah, and so Michael, when they played, you couldn't
Speaker 1: if like so JT and Justin went first, and they
Speaker 1: get to choose their clubs and you couldn't choose the
Speaker 1: clubs that they chose, so like those clubs, you know,
Speaker 1: everyone had to use a different club. Yeah, it sounds
Speaker 1: too gimmicky for me, but quick as side of four
Speaker 1: club tournament on the PGA Tour would be super cool.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well that's the whole point that, like Thomas
Speaker 1: made a really good part with his five would to
Speaker 1: win the whole and that was cool. Um so for
Speaker 1: a club hubs and an opportunity for Jones bag. Are
Speaker 1: they a sponsor of Irris Jones Jones Golf? Should be?
Speaker 1: But not yet. Well perhaps they will become one. I'm
Speaker 1: a user. Uh uh but Jones bag four clubs? Uh
Speaker 1: what clubs are they gonna be? And really manufacturer shots
Speaker 1: for four straight days? That would be really cool to see.
Speaker 1: That would be cool. What would be what would be
Speaker 1: your four club? Well, you know I play one every year,
Speaker 1: so now it's a very short course. But uh, driver
Speaker 1: six iron sandwich putter, because I can hood that six
Speaker 1: and turn into a for Yeah, I would go driver
Speaker 1: putter for sure, probably weds and then yeah, you gotta
Speaker 1: have like a I would go eight iron maybe maybe
Speaker 1: a But then then I was I was almost gonna
Speaker 1: say driver hybrid like seven iron putter, just because you
Speaker 1: can use a hybrid anything from one seventy to ten.
Speaker 1: You know, if you're you're in the wrong trap, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have a hard time getting out with the seven earned.
Speaker 1: That's true, that's true. Unless you want to go you
Speaker 1: gotta have a wedge of some sort. I mean, I
Speaker 1: that's fun, not a fun conversation. Yeah. And by the way,
Speaker 1: and it would have been cool if Jay Monahan would
Speaker 1: have said, you know, we're gonna spice things up here.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have a program Event're not a program. We're
Speaker 1: gonna have a mixed team event. We're gonna have a
Speaker 1: four club event. We're gonna have another kind of team event. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, there was an opportunity there to do more
Speaker 1: than just bringing money. How about bringing bands. I know
Speaker 1: we've talked about this before, but really the starting point
Speaker 1: for this whole reconfiguration of what the PG door should
Speaker 1: be began with holding onto the players to making sure
Speaker 1: they get paid. But it should have been it should
Speaker 1: have begun with us, what's gonna make us watch? If
Speaker 1: it begin with us watching, the money would come. That's
Speaker 1: too well, Uh has nothing to do with it. I
Speaker 1: have to know. Well, I mean, you weren't here, uh
Speaker 1: for the Michael lighting conversation. Michael's lighting is different every
Speaker 1: week and wonderful this week. I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1: It's like a because he's holding a flashlight or we're
Speaker 1: not sure. But second of all, where's the baseball, Michael?
Speaker 1: I need a story on the baseball that you're holding,
Speaker 1: well just the ball. I don't know have I told
Speaker 1: this story on Uh. Michael and I have spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time together and we can uh we'll talk
Speaker 1: about it later of why, but lately on the phone
Speaker 1: in cars at hotels and uh, I'm driving with go
Speaker 1: to Hollow as well gold on Cold Hollow um or
Speaker 1: driving from Alpena to Cleveland, and I'm with like one
Speaker 1: of the greater running, greatest writers of our time, doing
Speaker 1: millions millions of like his like just he's interviewed, talked to,
Speaker 1: knows everybody. And I say, Michael, what's the most uh,
Speaker 1: what's your what's the piece that you love the most?
Speaker 1: Just an article, not a book or anything. And I
Speaker 1: was like, Oh, this is gonna be about Obama or
Speaker 1: Trump or a million other people. And he says, uh,
Speaker 1: I once went and wrote an article about the Cincinnati
Speaker 1: Reds and they were like forty games out and I
Speaker 1: want to to to uh write about you know, what
Speaker 1: professionalism meant and why they're still there. And I was
Speaker 1: like I'm sitting and I'm sitting on the edge of
Speaker 1: my seat and going like, oh, there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: guy who you know has cancer and he won the
Speaker 1: All Star Game and you know it's gonna be an
Speaker 1: amazing story. And I go, yeah, what happened? And he's like, no,
Speaker 1: that's the story. And I was like, literally, nothing happened.
Speaker 1: That's what happened. Nothing, And that was like and then
Speaker 1: I couldn't find it and Michael sent it to me.
Speaker 1: It's a great article. It's just like of all the
Speaker 1: stories that he's written, books, the people he's met, it
Speaker 1: was just the last we were. We were in Cleveland
Speaker 1: that may have sponsor and you're nice, you're nice to
Speaker 1: remember even the conversation run all. Let's make a quick
Speaker 1: nod to our former he this is inadequate, but uh,
Speaker 1: al and I worked for years with a wonderful college
Speaker 1: named Grant Wall. Many of you would know that anybody
Speaker 1: who follows soccer would would know the name too. I
Speaker 1: don't even know how to describe what he is. What
Speaker 1: Roger Angel was to baseball and what herb Wind was
Speaker 1: to golf, Grant Wall was too to soccer writing and uh,
Speaker 1: forty eight or nine he died in Cutter covering the
Speaker 1: World Cup. Just tragic loss for his family and great person. Yeah, Grant,
Speaker 1: I mean it's we came up together at s I.
Speaker 1: I mean I think we were hired the same year
Speaker 1: and say, yeah, you too, Michael, I mean you arrived
Speaker 1: with right and um. But you know, Grant I were
Speaker 1: the same aids, and we kind of progressed more or
Speaker 1: less at the same time. And we were never super close,
Speaker 1: but it was always a He was a he was
Speaker 1: a writing nerd like I am. So we would talk
Speaker 1: about stories and talk about journalism and just a wonderful
Speaker 1: human being, just so kind and generous and tremendous talent.
Speaker 1: I mean he he did college basketball for five or
Speaker 1: seven years before he did soccer, and he was an
Speaker 1: incredible college basketball writer. But his first love was with soccer.
Speaker 1: And that's that's you know, where he had had this
Speaker 1: international influence And yeah, it's I still can't believe it
Speaker 1: because right before he left for the World Cup, I
Speaker 1: talked him on the phone for at least forty five minutes.
Speaker 1: Yees this year you did a month ago? If that? Well,
Speaker 1: because Grant, you know, he spent the last three years
Speaker 1: he left s I, and he was he was really
Speaker 1: a pioneer of in some ways for in the sports
Speaker 1: writing world. For substack. You know, he was one of
Speaker 1: the first kind of blue chips sports writers to go
Speaker 1: to substack, and he'd done extremely well growing that audience.
Speaker 1: And um so as as here's the fire but collective,
Speaker 1: as we've talked about different ways to reach readers, we've
Speaker 1: had conversations with substacks. So I wanted I wanted Grant's
Speaker 1: take on it, and of course turned into wide ranging
Speaker 1: conversation about the old days at s I and various
Speaker 1: colleagues and what we're doing here at the collective. And
Speaker 1: he's very inquisitive, very thoughtful dude. So it was it was,
Speaker 1: I mean, were both like, oh, it's a busy day.
Speaker 1: I got maybe fifteen minutes and you know, it's just
Speaker 1: we just kept going. It was. It was really fun
Speaker 1: and um so yeah, all of it is is so stunning,
Speaker 1: up to including the fact like he was tweeting just
Speaker 1: you know, minutes before he collapsed and and then that
Speaker 1: was an emotional day and I got on this text
Speaker 1: right with old s I folks and um and I
Speaker 1: was reading some of the coverage and then I was
Speaker 1: I was curious was happening on social media. I went
Speaker 1: to Instagram and there's Grants like Instagram story pops up
Speaker 1: you know, he had just been putting out videos and
Speaker 1: and stuff. I mean just I think it said eight
Speaker 1: hours earlier and now he was gone. It was like
Speaker 1: so surreal, is like having a ghost in your phone
Speaker 1: and um, still trying to process the whole thing. Really yeah,
Speaker 1: I did not realize his wife was such trying to
Speaker 1: accomplished a medical doctor. Yeah, yeah, Dr Selene Grounder. So
Speaker 1: she um, she's been in an infectious disease expert for
Speaker 1: many years. And in fact, Grant did some great stories
Speaker 1: with Bill Walton. And one time I was talking to
Speaker 1: Bill Walton because I was doing in u c l
Speaker 1: a usc basketball story and he was just happy to
Speaker 1: be in the arena and I was when a sports
Speaker 1: ahilster and he's like, oh, do you know Grant? I said,
Speaker 1: of course, no, Grant. He's like he's like Grants okay,
Speaker 1: but his wife's amazing, like you know, you know, she's
Speaker 1: like changing the world. And he went on this whole
Speaker 1: you know Bill Walton esque riff and and so yeah
Speaker 1: in in Coe when when COVID happened, Um Selene she
Speaker 1: she became a contributor on CNN and was was incredibly
Speaker 1: well spoken. She's on Biden's advisory counsel, like she she's
Speaker 1: become a very important voice in all of this, and
Speaker 1: and that was and Grant was so proud of her,
Speaker 1: and it was really cute to hear him talk about
Speaker 1: her because all three of us probably know, like we
Speaker 1: have public jobs, and people get jaw about what we do,
Speaker 1: and so whatever your significant other accomplishes in life, like
Speaker 1: we can all agree what Ryan's wife's work as a
Speaker 1: nurse was far more important than what we do. And
Speaker 1: like I always say, my only job is people something
Speaker 1: to read while they're on the throne, like you gotta
Speaker 1: have some perspective. But yeah, I'm sure people are more
Speaker 1: excited about Ryan's job than about Mrs monday Ques contributions
Speaker 1: to society and so, but it was cute for Great
Speaker 1: because all you know, he'd always been disacclaimed writer and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden his wife is like famous, and
Speaker 1: instead of him being whatever competitive about it, he was
Speaker 1: just so proud of her. And that was a sweet
Speaker 1: element to there their whole story. And of course it's
Speaker 1: it's part of the tragedy for they didn't you know,
Speaker 1: I say, how nice for you on a very quite
Speaker 1: kind of way, at least have a chance to have
Speaker 1: that one conversation so recently. Um, what what what? What
Speaker 1: was to deal with him leaving us? Ah, well, it
Speaker 1: was just you know, as as you know, Michael, when
Speaker 1: we left, it was kind of similar timing. They were
Speaker 1: very much in a cost cutting mode and just it
Speaker 1: was like every year, lose ten percent of the of
Speaker 1: the staff kind of thing. And so, um, and so
Speaker 1: I read it. I don't know, you guys wouldn't know
Speaker 1: better than I obviously, but I read that he spoke
Speaker 1: out about s I cutting salaries during COVID and and
Speaker 1: was gone soon after that. So yeah, yeah, well so
Speaker 1: it got it's this is where we're getting deep in
Speaker 1: the wheacher. But yeah, it actually turned it got messy
Speaker 1: because he wounded up suing Sports Ill Straight because some
Speaker 1: of their leadership had said some things about him in
Speaker 1: the press. And he won the settlement, so he actually
Speaker 1: came back and did a victory lap at s I,
Speaker 1: and did I think the deal was As part of
Speaker 1: the settlement, he wrote a few more long form pieces
Speaker 1: and so he Grant got kind of a curtain call
Speaker 1: at Sports Hill Straight and which was which was cool.
Speaker 1: But um, and yeah, I mean he was a very
Speaker 1: passionate guy like he wore his hard on his sleeve
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you were charting to slave and he
Speaker 1: wore the gay Pride T shirt into the stadium there
Speaker 1: those who followed. Is what life near the end would
Speaker 1: know about that. Just an extremely principled, fine person and
Speaker 1: as as I would have known him. And Alan tell
Speaker 1: me if I have this wrong, Just a paragon of
Speaker 1: of of fitness, just slender. So this is an interesting
Speaker 1: undercurrent to all of this. You know, Grant's brother went
Speaker 1: on on social media and and said, and so Grant
Speaker 1: had warned to the first game this it's a rainbow
Speaker 1: T shirt that a soccer ball, and and he got
Speaker 1: detained by security because we all know Cutter is not
Speaker 1: really an open society that's tolerant of other people's points
Speaker 1: of views and lifestyles and whatever and um. And then
Speaker 1: Granted also written extensively about the horrible conditions of the
Speaker 1: migrant workers who are used to build all the soccer
Speaker 1: stadiums over there. And when his last post was was
Speaker 1: about that because I guess a worker died in his stadium.
Speaker 1: And so so Grant's brother Eric said, you know, he
Speaker 1: thought that they Granted had been murdered essentially, and it
Speaker 1: was not a natural causes, which I hope that's not true.
Speaker 1: That would be really dark. I mean, Grant hadn't hadn't
Speaker 1: had some health issues over there. He thought he had
Speaker 1: bronchitis or whatever. So I don't know about all that.
Speaker 1: But you know, I didn't go to the live event
Speaker 1: in Saudi Arabia even though I wanted to. But various
Speaker 1: people in my life, including our calling Matt Janelle and
Speaker 1: others like felt strongly I shouldn't go because, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I've I've been in sort of the front lines of
Speaker 1: all this live stuff and the Michelson quotes and all
Speaker 1: of it, and I always felt like that's totally overblown.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, there I talked to some international
Speaker 1: businessman types who have done a lot of work in
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, and my whole point was nothing Live Golf
Speaker 1: does want anything that happened to me that would make
Speaker 1: them look terrible. The MBS doesn't want that that he's
Speaker 1: the host of this thing. Like I'm I'm probably the
Speaker 1: safest person in Saudi Arabia. But these guys who I
Speaker 1: spoke to have been over there a lot, said, well,
Speaker 1: there's actually these elements within the country they were working
Speaker 1: against MBS, and you know, they're always looking for good
Speaker 1: targets to create. You know, it's like this rogue element.
Speaker 1: You know, you're the state apparatus wants you to be okay,
Speaker 1: but you can't account for for you know, fanatics and
Speaker 1: others with agendas and so it was like low probability,
Speaker 1: high high um outcomes. So I wound up not making
Speaker 1: the trip. There's other reasons to scheduling and everything else,
Speaker 1: but um, so that just gave me a little shudder.
Speaker 1: You know what, what what Grant's brother put out there publicly,
Speaker 1: if if if in some way there was any kind
Speaker 1: of foul play, because what he had typed, it's like
Speaker 1: we'll never know the truth. That will never know that.
Speaker 1: And um it's just like for me, it had some
Speaker 1: some resonance because I ultimately like to not to make
Speaker 1: a trip over that part of the world. So anyway,
Speaker 1: ye know, was Walton a golfer aroun No he no,
Speaker 1: he he would actually we gotta get him. We gotta
Speaker 1: looking up with Michael Murphy like he I could. I
Speaker 1: could see Bill Walton getting into that. The whole essence
Speaker 1: of of you know, this the spiritual out of golf,
Speaker 1: which some believe in and and and embrace and others
Speaker 1: are are not so into, which is fine. But like
Speaker 1: they'd be fellow travelers for sure. And um but to
Speaker 1: my to my knowledge, I don't think he's ever touched
Speaker 1: the club. Yeah he Uh remember John pappt with You
Speaker 1: would have known John Papaak? I'm sure Alan, Yeah, you
Speaker 1: maybe have gone by Timmy arrived. Yeah, four imagining editor
Speaker 1: Sports Illustrated. He was gone before I got there, But
Speaker 1: I didn't meet him that Um, Peter Carey's retirement some
Speaker 1: some function where a bunch of old sid folks got together.
Speaker 1: So I met him. I know of him. What what
Speaker 1: what's your story? Well, he he used to tell a
Speaker 1: funny story about he was he was gonna ghost right
Speaker 1: Walton's memoir and uh and and he told John about
Speaker 1: how he grew up without a TV. And well, it's
Speaker 1: like why you grew up with that too? He once like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we had no two interhouse and then Papa neck is
Speaker 1: having a mealer or something with Walton's mother and uh
Speaker 1: and John sci like, so what's steal you guys didn't
Speaker 1: have a TV growing up? By the way, Ryan French
Speaker 1: didn't have a TV growing up for a large number, long,
Speaker 1: long period of time, and Mrs Walton says, uh, is
Speaker 1: John still telling that story? Of course we had a TV.
Speaker 1: So then so then John was back to Walton says,
Speaker 1: your mom says you had a TV and and you know,
Speaker 1: to make a long story short, Walton's like, this is
Speaker 1: not gonna work out if you're actually gonna fact check me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's just for the record, I actually didn't have a TV,
Speaker 1: and it's been fact checked with well one parent. I
Speaker 1: can't really fact check, but one parent has in fact
Speaker 1: fact checked the fact that the only I've tried to
Speaker 1: fact check it. You know, the dispute is whether it died.
Speaker 1: It definitely died during the Stanley Cup playoffs. The question
Speaker 1: is was it in the final or in the game
Speaker 1: pre stating the final. I'm sure Ryan, all the controvers
Speaker 1: will fact checking. Ryan sending you to his dad at
Speaker 1: this point, check out my dad and keep your pants on, dude.
Speaker 1: That well, okay, so that's from a story that that
Speaker 1: was told before we were taping. But Ryan, you did
Speaker 1: write a beautiful, bitter sweet piece for fire Pit Collective
Speaker 1: dot com this week about your your father's ongoing battle
Speaker 1: with dementia, which is very heart wrenching and all of
Speaker 1: us can relate. But on that basis, let me just
Speaker 1: explain my joke without being too graphic. Dad whom I met,
Speaker 1: who's a great guy, and by the way, it looks
Speaker 1: so fit, he's gonna go another thirty years. Uh if
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to move, He's come up with a
Speaker 1: very effective way of like back off, nobody's gonna get
Speaker 1: nobody's gonna move this guy away from where he wants
Speaker 1: to bed. Yeah. Yeah, my dad was having a bad
Speaker 1: day and uh, when he has a bad day, we
Speaker 1: often take him to my house just to like take
Speaker 1: the stress off my mother. And he's like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to go, and uh said, well we have to go,
Speaker 1: And he pulled down his pants, underwear and everything, and
Speaker 1: it was highly effective. I mean it was a highly
Speaker 1: effective way to not move anywhere. So I mean, well done, dad. Yeah.
Speaker 1: For those who don't know, we'll we'll save this for
Speaker 1: another time. But Ryan and his dad had a tradition.
Speaker 1: When Ryan was much younger, they would go as as
Speaker 1: many families going camping trips, they would go on caddy
Speaker 1: camping trips and Uh, they would pitch tent and caddy
Speaker 1: and low level events and and a lot of what
Speaker 1: Brian does today professionally writing about dreamers in the game
Speaker 1: and Monday qualifiers and the rest come from his experiences,
Speaker 1: uh with these caddy camping trips with his dad. But
Speaker 1: let's say that for another time, if that's okay. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and Ryan's written about that beautifully, which is also on
Speaker 1: our website. Um his origin story when the early days
Speaker 1: of the fire pit. Um, well, so I want to
Speaker 1: ask about this Ryan, since it's ostensibly as a golf podcast,
Speaker 1: we've gotten very far afield, which is fine. That's part
Speaker 1: of the charm of these these fire drills. But um,
Speaker 1: I missed it when it came out. But I just
Speaker 1: I have floating on PGA tour dot com. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure why. And this announcement about the the expanded pathway
Speaker 1: the Japan Tour top three finishers are now going to
Speaker 1: be exempt onto the euro Tour, and then the top
Speaker 1: ten finishers on the euro Tour as we know, are
Speaker 1: going to be exempt on the PGA Tour. And so
Speaker 1: there is this they have formalized this, um, this new
Speaker 1: way to reach the PGA Tour. Do you think there's
Speaker 1: there's any any grinders in your orbit? Will be like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna go play Japan. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: finish top three. I'm gonna go play Europe. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: finish top ten, And that's the easiest way to get
Speaker 1: tour card. Like is that is that a viable route? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean, um more and more guys have gone to
Speaker 1: Japan Tour Q school even before this announcement. Um hm.
Speaker 1: So if you're a pro golfer in the grinder mode
Speaker 1: and you don't have status, math doesn't doesn't ever add up,
Speaker 1: or you would never be at a bundant qualifier right
Speaker 1: like it just doesn't. Like reality is you're probably not
Speaker 1: going to get through. So yes percent, there will be
Speaker 1: players like the odds of you going to Japan, playing
Speaker 1: in a country you don't know very well, finishing top three,
Speaker 1: then going to Europe a country you don't know, but
Speaker 1: a hundred percent will be a ton of players that
Speaker 1: do it, and they'll that will be the carrot that
Speaker 1: put you know, makes them go like, oh Japan, I
Speaker 1: would have never gone before, but now I can get
Speaker 1: to the European Tour and so there I go, and
Speaker 1: I I always wonder is a lot of the guys
Speaker 1: who go to Japan. Uh, A lot of Australians go there. Uh.
Speaker 1: Brian Watts is probably the most famous American that absolutely
Speaker 1: dominated in Japan for a long time. Uh. They didn't
Speaker 1: want to leave. So I would be really interesting to
Speaker 1: see what the three like. It's a relatively short schedule,
Speaker 1: you know, It's like, yeah, it's very good money. It's
Speaker 1: obviously a smaller country, so travel isn't difficult. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it's there's a lot of good things going for the
Speaker 1: Japan tour. A lot of guys who go there don't
Speaker 1: want to leave. They were just very content playing twenty
Speaker 1: times a year in a very small country for good
Speaker 1: money and going home. The foreign the foreign players that
Speaker 1: go over there and that and that's it. So I
Speaker 1: remember um our colleague Tom Verducci at Sports Illustrade went
Speaker 1: over and did a Brian Watts feature. He was already
Speaker 1: in Japan for you know. Verducci of course is on
Speaker 1: the Mount Rushmore of baseball writers, and he was doing
Speaker 1: a baseball story. But it was like, hey, if you're there,
Speaker 1: this is the early days of golf. Plus I think
Speaker 1: it was it could have been, but um, and so
Speaker 1: he did. He did this story on Brian Wats, who
Speaker 1: he had had tremendous success over there, and but I
Speaker 1: might take away and I haven't read the story now
Speaker 1: in a quarter century, but it seemed like a very
Speaker 1: kind of lonely life like he he did not integrate
Speaker 1: into the tour at all. He was playing golf and
Speaker 1: he's in his hotel room and didn't learn the language,
Speaker 1: didn't eat the food, was you know, subsisting on McDonald's
Speaker 1: or whatever else you could get. And um, so that's
Speaker 1: an underrated aspect. Like you know, golf, golf talent travels.
Speaker 1: We know that. But there's plenty of guys who didn't
Speaker 1: feel comfortable in the US, whether it was saving by
Speaker 1: a stereos or on Hell Cabrera or you know many others,
Speaker 1: and they didn't play their best over here. And it
Speaker 1: flows both ways. Just because you're really talented American golfer.
Speaker 1: Not only there's the cultural stuff. There's the golf courses
Speaker 1: are different over there, the grasses are different, like all
Speaker 1: of it. So I've done stats on Brian Watts because
Speaker 1: I think I've told Michael this story is one of
Speaker 1: my moments of like how good pro golfers are. I
Speaker 1: was in high school and Brian Watts was behind this
Speaker 1: tree at the Bwick Open and Flint and my dad
Speaker 1: and I were standing behind him. Obviously no one knew
Speaker 1: who Brian Watts was, so there's no fans around and
Speaker 1: there's like a low hanging tree in front of him,
Speaker 1: and I was like, well, is he gonna hook it?
Speaker 1: Is he gonna slice it? And no, he just hit
Speaker 1: a stinger right under it and like ran it up,
Speaker 1: you know, on the front of the green. And I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, that's very you know, these guys are
Speaker 1: different breed. Okay, here's my set that I tweeted in
Speaker 1: October two. Anytime I'm on the Japan Tour site reminds
Speaker 1: me of American Brian Watt's career there from nine to
Speaker 1: he had twelve wins, twelve runner ups and sixty three
Speaker 1: top tens in just a hundred and twenty four events.
Speaker 1: Tiger ask, yeah it is, and it was and he was.
Speaker 1: And he lost cent a playoff in a British Open. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he made that. He made a great run. I'm guessing
Speaker 1: that's when Verguici wrote about could have been yeah, I
Speaker 1: have to look that up, but it was and that's
Speaker 1: where he came and when he came back here and
Speaker 1: he did okay here, I mean, never did anything great,
Speaker 1: but kept his card a few times for sure. You know.
Speaker 1: You know who else in that same vein Todd Hamilton
Speaker 1: played overseas for years. Uh yeah, I mean he was
Speaker 1: another one, John Garty. He U still love writing about
Speaker 1: about Scott Dullop. I mean, but of course I would,
Speaker 1: and you would know better, Ryan. I mean, I'm sure
Speaker 1: the competition and the depth is has gotten um is,
Speaker 1: it has certainly become um more real and and and
Speaker 1: more cutthroat on on every tour. So of course it's
Speaker 1: gonna happen in Japan. But I do remember there was
Speaker 1: sort of these protectionists rules. It was hard in those
Speaker 1: days in the nineties to get on the Japan tour
Speaker 1: if you were not Japanese. How how much has it
Speaker 1: opened up since? I mean not a ton. I think
Speaker 1: there are still rules in place that only X amount
Speaker 1: of foreign players can be in a field at a time.
Speaker 1: I'll have to confirm that. But for a long time
Speaker 1: there was only like X amount of players that that
Speaker 1: could be outside of Japan. So Um, yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: a lot of players don't get from from that standpoint.
Speaker 1: Chan Kim was an All American at at Arizona State,
Speaker 1: has won a bunch on the Japan Tour and got
Speaker 1: through Q School this year. He was like top hunter
Speaker 1: player in the world. I think he had like a
Speaker 1: top twenty five and the p G A even last year.
Speaker 1: And uh have got as corn ferry stuff. So it's
Speaker 1: always it's always interesting to see like he's obviously does
Speaker 1: very well on the Japan tour. Will be interesting to
Speaker 1: see what he does on the corn Ferry tour. And
Speaker 1: I love smokers and chain Kim is a legendary smoker.
Speaker 1: That dude sucks down the vape pen. I mean sucks
Speaker 1: it down. Well, there's a like a communal aspect, like
Speaker 1: the smokers, like they stick together. They're always looking for
Speaker 1: a freaking match or a lighter. It just seems like
Speaker 1: there's more of a hang. But so it's interesting. I
Speaker 1: have I have teenage kids, and um, you know, the
Speaker 1: vape pens are everywhere and I'm always lecturing them and um,
Speaker 1: one thing one thing I've picked up from them is
Speaker 1: they would never know in their age would ever smoke
Speaker 1: a cigarette. They're appalled by the idea of cigarettes, like
Speaker 1: they're dirty, they taste bad, your hair smells like the
Speaker 1: vade pens are one thing which I don't support. I'd
Speaker 1: like to go on record with that. But the um
Speaker 1: like America's youth is not down for cigarettes. They're just
Speaker 1: like UM. So I guess that's progress, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: as I understand it, it's the it's the actual it's
Speaker 1: the smoking that causes the cancer. The v pens reduce
Speaker 1: that drastically, So maybe this is some sort of progress,
Speaker 1: But that one's getting hooked on the apens, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think if you, as Rory mclroy, what's the most
Speaker 1: significant development in his life, and let's say the past
Speaker 1: ten years, I'm sure he would cite his marriage and
Speaker 1: the birth of his his daughter, you know, first and second.
Speaker 1: But I would guess, I don't know this, but I
Speaker 1: would guess he would cite third as uh he would
Speaker 1: cite as third his father's decision to quit smoking. His
Speaker 1: father was a barman, and you know, like a lot
Speaker 1: of bar people in all countries, but especially in uh
Speaker 1: In in Ireland and Northern Ireland, uh was was a
Speaker 1: heavy smoker and uh he looks great. Jerry McRoy. Uh,
Speaker 1: and I know, well, we've talked about Jerry and I've
Speaker 1: talked about a little bit about what improvement in his life.
Speaker 1: The other day I was laughed out of the room,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about to societal developments, you know, in
Speaker 1: our lifetime. I once asked my father in law, what
Speaker 1: what what's the greatest invention of of your lifetime? He
Speaker 1: was he was witty in a dryway, and he said, uh,
Speaker 1: the automatic garage door opener. Great, great answer. But I
Speaker 1: would say, you know it's over any flight, Uh you know, now, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys remember this, but of
Speaker 1: course there used to be smoking sections and planes, and
Speaker 1: it was a joke because it's not like there was
Speaker 1: a partition. Smoke just moved all over the your clothes,
Speaker 1: just especially at an overseas flight. You know, you're on
Speaker 1: the plane for eight hours, you just stank by the
Speaker 1: time you came off. So anyway, I say so, in
Speaker 1: the tradition of my my father in law and his
Speaker 1: overhead garaged opener, I sighted a smoke free plane travel
Speaker 1: and I was laughed out of the room. But okay, quickly,
Speaker 1: be I I like people are leaving Alan's house at
Speaker 1: this point, so maybe it's time to wrap up, but
Speaker 1: uh quickly. Next week I will be playing On Friday,
Speaker 1: I will be playing Shadow Creek, the very exclusive and
Speaker 1: cool nice Shadow Creek. Uh and uh, thank you Mark
Speaker 1: Baldwin for getting a sponsorship that you now have to
Speaker 1: give your friends because you have credit and you can't
Speaker 1: use it all Ryan. Is it actually exclusive or is
Speaker 1: it more of the case of if you pay enough
Speaker 1: money at you know, one of the casinos, you can
Speaker 1: get on it. Yeah, probably that it's the latter, but
Speaker 1: still cool. That'll be a cool experience. I've I've never
Speaker 1: played Shadow Creek. I mean, it's it's so man made.
Speaker 1: I mean it's I was there for Match one. Have
Speaker 1: you been on I've never been on the grounds. I've
Speaker 1: seen all the pot It's a good golf course. It's
Speaker 1: I mean, for me, that's a shocker to admit. Is
Speaker 1: But if you didn't know where you were and you
Speaker 1: just saw the golfers, wow, this place is pretty good. Yeah. Um, well,
Speaker 1: you know, Arnold Palmer never won a major after he
Speaker 1: quit smoking, so um, I think we should just just
Speaker 1: for just for our friends in the in the industry,
Speaker 1: we should offer a little balance this conversation. I'm kidding,
Speaker 1: I kind of know what Ryan's talking about it because
Speaker 1: definitely one of the cool sites from one of Cronshaw's
Speaker 1: wins at Augusta's. I think he's going down ten and
Speaker 1: and he's cutting the cigarette the cuff, yeah, like nobody
Speaker 1: can see him, I know, the cuff, and we see
Speaker 1: the smoke coming up out of your hand. I always
Speaker 1: wonder if anyone any golf forever like end of their
Speaker 1: career by singing their fingers trying to cut a cigarette,
Speaker 1: like it's so ridiculous. Of course, back by today they
Speaker 1: would the caddies would put the cigarette up to see
Speaker 1: which way the wind was buying. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's old. Yeah. Back to back to Tan Kim.
Speaker 1: He does the same thing. He holds his vapepen, you know,
Speaker 1: like this, and then takes it away and then this
Speaker 1: all I know about vpens is it produces a massive
Speaker 1: out of smoke blowing out, and it's like he just
Speaker 1: blows this humongous cloud out and you're like, hey, Chan,
Speaker 1: you might as well just like you don't have to
Speaker 1: hide the vape pen because it's kind of your cover's blown.
Speaker 1: After you does he do that? What tourists? Does you
Speaker 1: do that? On any two? I I the first time
Speaker 1: I saw him, and I had heard about it, But
Speaker 1: the first time I saw him was at a Monday qualifier.
Speaker 1: Uh for the way, can you do can you? Can
Speaker 1: you smoke a vapen on aug in a PUGA tour event? Then?
Speaker 1: I mean he was I don't know, sorry, chance if
Speaker 1: you're getting suspended for them, I don't think smoke is
Speaker 1: the right verb. Michael. I think you could hit the
Speaker 1: vape pen. Yeah, thank that's what the kids say. That's
Speaker 1: what the kids say. I'm just I'm just trying to help.
Speaker 1: If you're trying to light the vape pen the plastical mels,
Speaker 1: it'll be a mess. It's cartridges. It's cartridges. If you
Speaker 1: believe that. Yeah, sure, it's killing everyone. The fire Girl
Speaker 1: podcast sponsored by jewel Um. But as we all in
Speaker 1: our vapepen. But I think it's time to add this podcast.
Speaker 1: But speaking Ryan's family, here's some really good reading and
Speaker 1: I'm not It's called Notes from the North Country and
Speaker 1: the writer is Obi Eustace. Obi Eustace is Ryan's maternal grandfather.
Speaker 1: I don't know. If I don't know if the camera
Speaker 1: will pick up on this and move it to your right.
Speaker 1: There there it is. There's yeah, oh my god, that's
Speaker 1: actually this. Obi Eustace is like, you know, thorough meets
Speaker 1: eb White. I mean it's really clean, tight, no profanity. Uh.
Speaker 1: The writing gene is the writing gene. You oh gotta
Speaker 1: add one thing. And then Ryan had an an aunt.
Speaker 1: His Obi Eustace is dodger and she could write her
Speaker 1: bottom off if I might use that word. Um anyway,
Speaker 1: all right, well this has been a fire drill podcast
Speaker 1: like few others, but admittedly it was a slow weekend golf.
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll come back. Well next week we'll have the
Speaker 1: father son and more tire and Charlie and everything else
Speaker 1: to um to kick around. And I actually like the
Speaker 1: fathers son. Beyond that aspect, it's cool to see all
Speaker 1: these kids, you know, and how much it means them.
Speaker 1: Like I was, I was talking to Stuart Sink and
Speaker 1: he's treating he's playing with his son and they're treating
Speaker 1: it like the fifth major man. It means a lot
Speaker 1: to them. I think it's really cute and um. So
Speaker 1: that that's a good one. But maybe we'll have we'll
Speaker 1: do something thematic for our The ensuing weeks will be
Speaker 1: the last fire drill of the year, but until then,
Speaker 1: the listeners are gonna have to go on this journey
Speaker 1: with us to the unexpected places this podcast goes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was great. I mean, you know, I love derailments.
Speaker 1: I love deraimants, and this was full blown derailment. Outside
Speaker 1: of the first eight minutes, I don't think we talked
Speaker 1: about golf, and it's great and I love it. I
Speaker 1: love to listen to you guys, and uh, that was one.
Speaker 1: I love this one last story before we go because
Speaker 1: Michael and I we both loved the movies and UM
Speaker 1: and we were at let's see we're in Milwaukee, so
Speaker 1: it was one of the PG championships at Whistling Straits
Speaker 1: and Straight out of Compton had just opened and I
Speaker 1: was like, we gotta go see this on the big screen.
Speaker 1: And we went and in downtown Milwaukee. It was an
Speaker 1: amazing crowd. The energy was phenomenal. UM and we Uh,
Speaker 1: that's one of the more memorable visits to the cinema
Speaker 1: we've had, but there's there's been a bunch of them.
Speaker 1: I was really struck by how good the music was,
Speaker 1: and that's music that I had heard a lot, as
Speaker 1: people do, just you know, in an ambient kind of
Speaker 1: way in a car or whatever, and it never made
Speaker 1: an impression on me. And in that setting, as you
Speaker 1: were saying, the energy of the audience, uh, and a
Speaker 1: lot of things going going on, the tenor of the times,
Speaker 1: but the music really made a powerful impact on me.
Speaker 1: I'm totally with you. You know. I know Ryan's got
Speaker 1: a thing going about virtual golf and is that is
Speaker 1: that the phrase, right, not virtual golf, but as I say, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, possibly qualifying for a corn ferry event
Speaker 1: for via virtual golfing whatever, there is nothing like experience
Speaker 1: of seeing Tiger Woods in person. If anybody can, I
Speaker 1: would suggest they do it while they can, any any
Speaker 1: elite golfer to see what they do with the golf ball.
Speaker 1: Just like Ryan was talking about before about Brian Watts
Speaker 1: under over, how about through you know, see Li've golf
Speaker 1: if you can. And of course there's nothing like going
Speaker 1: to a movie there absolutely nothing. Okay, just on the
Speaker 1: side and Michael, as Michael would say, may if I may, Ellen, uh,
Speaker 1: if I may, uh, gentleman as a colleague, but mostly
Speaker 1: as a fan. Can you just write the story of
Speaker 1: going to see Straight out of Compton, because obviously there's
Speaker 1: more to it, and there's a lot of layers, and
Speaker 1: I can I sense that there was a ton going on.
Speaker 1: So can you like just get together, get your memory
Speaker 1: race together and write like a quick, feel like two
Speaker 1: thousand words story on it, because it sounds amazing there was.
Speaker 1: I will say this, like if you remember in the movie,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've seen it, Ryan, I don't
Speaker 1: how many of our listeners have seen it, but of
Speaker 1: course n w ay have. They have the song fu
Speaker 1: the police and they get letters from the FBI and
Speaker 1: UM and all this stuff, and they go to play
Speaker 1: a concert I believe it's in Philadelphia actually, Michael, and
Speaker 1: before the concert, um, there's all these old white police
Speaker 1: officers and their lecturing all all these dudes in the band, saying,
Speaker 1: if you know, if if you play that song, we're
Speaker 1: gonna arrest you. And it's very sort of in some
Speaker 1: ways the climactic moment of the movie. So it's mid
Speaker 1: concert and and dre and Easier looking at each other
Speaker 1: and they're just looking at each other like they're just
Speaker 1: looking at like should we and just at the moment
Speaker 1: like builds and build should we? Should we? I don't know?
Speaker 1: Should we? And then and they just launch into the
Speaker 1: song and I find that extremely inspiring and it probably
Speaker 1: informs my own you know, yeah, I mean I again,
Speaker 1: like I want to know everything, like to Jewish gentlemen
Speaker 1: walking into a straight out accountant. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: a dometown of Milwaukee. I need to know everything about it.
Speaker 1: And we could do a podcast on just that, just that. No,
Speaker 1: but I think about that little moment, and of course
Speaker 1: it's stylized and who knows if it actually happened in reality,
Speaker 1: but that moment the movie, like, you know, because you
Speaker 1: get to these forks on the road as writers, and
Speaker 1: even like the Michelson excerpt from my book that like
Speaker 1: touched off all kinds of stuff because you know, we're
Speaker 1: a startup, we were not a giant operation. I had
Speaker 1: to press the published button on that story and I
Speaker 1: literally hovered the cursor over that for a minute, not
Speaker 1: a minute, ten seconds, and I was like, I, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't know it was gonna get as crazy as
Speaker 1: it got, but I knew as soon as that story
Speaker 1: went live that things were gonna start happening. And I
Speaker 1: was like, fuck, boom, no question, and it was like
Speaker 1: like it was that in a micro caused him like
Speaker 1: it was that moment. So, um, I think about that
Speaker 1: that movie that's seen a lot. So it's really neat. Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe it wasn't. You're going to change yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: Well we've tried to end this podcast like seven times.
Speaker 1: I think we should actually end it. The listeners are
Speaker 1: gonna learn to dread that phrase. They're probably sitting in
Speaker 1: a parking lot somewhere. They have something to do, but
Speaker 1: they're trying to get in the podcast, if I know. Anyway,
Speaker 1: especially if they have that thing like I have, Like
Speaker 1: if there's a good song on you get to your destination,
Speaker 1: you can't. You cannot leave the car until the song.
Speaker 1: I had it just last night. You can't leave the
Speaker 1: car until the song is completed. So if they're listening
Speaker 1: to the pod and they like it in the car,
Speaker 1: you can't. Of course, of these days, people just go
Speaker 1: from one device to another, so it's not so difficult.
Speaker 1: I guess I'm dating myself. But anyway, that's to thank
Speaker 1: you for sharing that, Alan, that was very interesting. This
Speaker 1: is Alan Schipnik. That was Michael Bamber and Ryan f
Speaker 1: This was a fire drill. We do them every Sunday.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. We do appreciate your your fidelity,
Speaker 1: and your indulgence. We will be back at it next week.
Speaker 1: We have the father's son and various other things to
Speaker 1: talk about, so until then, thanks for listening. A bit
Speaker 1: Big played to win, made a fortune within my ship game,
Speaker 1: and I run the table, never thought I could fall.
Speaker 1: Then the winter time hit me like a cannon ball,
Speaker 1: and now I can't shake this losing the stream. Every
Speaker 1: road I take is a dead end stream. I got
Speaker 1: thoughts in my head. Can't get trying not to think
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking about about in my head, can't get
Speaker 1: him out, trying not to think what I'm thinking about
Speaker 1: o