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Speaker 1: This is the Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. Hello,

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Speaker 1: I'm Jason Kelly, and I'm Michael Barr and I'm Mike Lynch.

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Speaker 1: We're here Monday's Wednesday. Sorry, we are here Monday's, Wednesdays

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Speaker 1: and Thursdays. Exploring the big money issues in the world

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Speaker 1: of sports. Talked to some of the biggest players in

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Speaker 1: the industry. Today. We're gonna talk amongst ourselves about one

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Speaker 1: big headline this morning. The XFL not dead yet. Dwayne

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Speaker 1: the Rock Johnson coming in part of a group paying

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Speaker 1: fifteen million dollars, which ultimately not a lot of money

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Speaker 1: to buy a not just a franchise, but a league. Uh,

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Speaker 1: the Rock is going to save the XFL. Mike Lynch.

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Speaker 1: Finally the Rock has come back to football. Well Rock,

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Speaker 1: we all know The Rock played in Canada. I played

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Speaker 1: four years at the University of Miami. He's a great businessman,

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Speaker 1: he's an entrepreneur. I think he's gonna of major, major

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Speaker 1: challenge trying to relaunch the x XFL, which had a

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Speaker 1: big view of ship it's first week. A couple of

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Speaker 1: weeks before they folded, they were down to about half

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Speaker 1: of that and they were in leagues that have come

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Speaker 1: and gone. We had the World Football League, the USFL,

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Speaker 1: the XFL has been around this. I think the third

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Speaker 1: try it's a big challenge for the Rock. But I

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Speaker 1: wish him the best because I still think that there's

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Speaker 1: enough of pretty good players that can't make an NFL

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Speaker 1: team that could stock a league like the XFL. Bar

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Speaker 1: what do you think? I mean, like I had and

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Speaker 1: you and I were remembering that it was more than

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Speaker 1: two years ago now. We sat down at a Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Business of Sports luncheon with all of her luck, the

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Speaker 1: then UH commissioner. This was obviously a year ahead of

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Speaker 1: the launch, and they had put a lot of work

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Speaker 1: into this. It was Vince McMahon's shop. As a fan,

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Speaker 1: like what do you what do you think about the

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Speaker 1: XFL as a product? I thought it was going to

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Speaker 1: be a great product, but no, he could see COVID

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Speaker 1: nineteen coming. They are the bad end of bad timing

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Speaker 1: is what happened. And I thought that the product was

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Speaker 1: going to be great. Uh, And I was excited to

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Speaker 1: see it, but I mean, obviously, um that went up

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Speaker 1: in smoke. And and to be honest, I mean, I

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Speaker 1: know I don't wanna, you know, choose upsides, But I

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Speaker 1: always feel bad for somebody like Oliver Luck. Uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: you put your dreams into this and it just goes

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Speaker 1: up in flames pretty much not of your fault, and

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Speaker 1: it's it's a sad thing to see. And you know,

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Speaker 1: hopefully Mr Rock can can bring this back and uh

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Speaker 1: hopefully get the timing right and and somehow maybe work

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Speaker 1: Oliver look back into it. I don't know that's Mr

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Speaker 1: the Rock, Yes, Mr Yeah. I mean I'm fascinated by

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Speaker 1: this in part because Dwayne Johnson a K. The has

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Speaker 1: been very successful in business. I know that, you know

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Speaker 1: through his work with Endeavor w and E, who has

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Speaker 1: represented him. He's got a couple of business relationships there

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Speaker 1: the Titan Games as a show on television. He has

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Speaker 1: this company and his partner or his one of his

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Speaker 1: partners in this is his partner in his production company.

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Speaker 1: Talking about Danny Garcia and she is the chairwoman CEO

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Speaker 1: of the Garcia Companies and she's a co founder with

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Speaker 1: Dwayne Johnson of Seven Bucks Companies. This is a production

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Speaker 1: company and so they are very focused on the media

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Speaker 1: aspect of this. This is in many ways, and I

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Speaker 1: think if you go back to what the XFL was

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Speaker 1: meant to be. In its Vince McMahon iteration, this is

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Speaker 1: a media play. In many cases, it's obviously a sports play,

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Speaker 1: but doing this right from a media perspective only becomes

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Speaker 1: that much more important in this world we're living in

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Speaker 1: right now, because there are no fans in the stands,

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Speaker 1: and the XFL, while it had some attendance early on

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Speaker 1: before the pandemic set in, it was very focused on

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Speaker 1: being a novel and exciting media property. And also, and

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Speaker 1: we were talking about this guy's ahead of this recording,

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Speaker 1: it also will only be successful if it has some

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Speaker 1: sort of obvious relationship literally and figuratively to the NFL,

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Speaker 1: to the real pro football league or the established pro

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Speaker 1: football league out there. And I think if you see

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Speaker 1: some success stories, either college players going through or players

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Speaker 1: who maybe didn't make it initially in the NFL to

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Speaker 1: come back through the XFL, I think you could get

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Speaker 1: some storylines that ultimately will prop this league up. And

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Speaker 1: it doesn't hurt. I made this point to you guys

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Speaker 1: as well. It doesn't hurt that Dwayne the Rock Johnson

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Speaker 1: is uh a guy that people like, whether you like

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Speaker 1: him as the star of a show, the star of

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Speaker 1: a movie. Personally, in my house, we know him as

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Speaker 1: the voice of Maui from the movie Mowanna. That's the

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Speaker 1: main way that we know him. So that just sort

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Speaker 1: of shows what I'm watching him. Well, let's let's let's

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Speaker 1: look at some of the fledgling leagues, like the the

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Speaker 1: a f L. When when they finally got Joe Namath

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Speaker 1: that get him some credibility, they had a name. When

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Speaker 1: the us f L came out, they lured Herschel Walker

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Speaker 1: and Doug Flute him, so they had a name. Now,

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Speaker 1: this XFL is not going to attract any big name

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Speaker 1: college football players. The biggest name they have is The Rock.

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Speaker 1: So in addition to being an owner, I think The

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Speaker 1: Rock should actually be in the booth broadcasting the game

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Speaker 1: because you know he every time he opens his mouth,

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Speaker 1: he's entertainment. And when you know, when the Rock talks,

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Speaker 1: people listen. So they're not gonna get anybody to come

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Speaker 1: over and play any big name player. I think I

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Speaker 1: think the Rock needs to be very highly visible in

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Speaker 1: this league and a reason to tune in, and he'll

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Speaker 1: have a stake in it all right. So speaking of

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Speaker 1: tuning in, this was a big weekend for sports, probably

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Speaker 1: the first real sports weekend across a number of the

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Speaker 1: big pro sports that we've had really since pandemic set in.

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Speaker 1: So my question to each of you, Michael Barr, I

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Speaker 1: will start with you, what'd you watch? Oh? You know

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Speaker 1: what I watched this Sunday, Loud New Hampshire. I always

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Speaker 1: loved watching NASCAR, and and it was. But the problem

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Speaker 1: I had was I had to keep flipping back from channel.

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Speaker 1: The channel was like, Okay, there's a baseball game on. No, wait,

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Speaker 1: I gotta go back to a loud New Hampshire. I

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Speaker 1: gotta flip this over and and I haven't had that

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Speaker 1: in a long time. And I have to be honest,

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Speaker 1: it was nice to be able to do that. But

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Speaker 1: the main category was loud New Hampshire. Rad Keselowski one. Alright,

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Speaker 1: so we've waited what four and a half months for

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Speaker 1: live sporting events around here. So we have two teams playing,

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Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics playing the Portland Trailblazers on ABC, and

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Speaker 1: we've got the Boston Bruins playing the Philadelphia Flyers. What

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Speaker 1: time to by? Both games scheduled to play head to head?

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Speaker 1: Can they just could someone have just made some common

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Speaker 1: sense and say Okay, we're gonna play one of them

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Speaker 1: at twelve thirty, one of them at three thirty. Thankfully

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Speaker 1: the Red Sox and Yankees didn't didn't go until seven o'clock.

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Speaker 1: Otherwise we could have had three games going at the

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Speaker 1: same time, which would have worn out a set of

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Speaker 1: batteries in the remote. Absolutely. Yeah, picture and picture and picture. Well,

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Speaker 1: I have to say so. I was actually in New Hampshire,

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Speaker 1: so I wasn't far from you, Lynchy, and not too

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Speaker 1: far from the race. I was there for a lacrosse

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Speaker 1: tournament and I went out for a socially distanced dinner

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Speaker 1: with some other dads and our sons, and I found

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Speaker 1: myself at a great barbecue place in Manchester, New Hampshire,

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Speaker 1: I think and a. It was essentially a sports bar,

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Speaker 1: and it was I have to tell you, such a

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Speaker 1: great feeling to sit there and watch the NBA on

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Speaker 1: one screen and then Major League Baseball on another screen.

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Speaker 1: I will say, the Lynch, you'll get a kick out

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Speaker 1: of this. I said to one of the other dads, Oh, well,

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Speaker 1: this is nice. Nice they have the Yankee game one

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Speaker 1: are And I said, actually I should correct myself. Here

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Speaker 1: in New Hampshire they call it the Red Sox game.

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Speaker 1: That's what we're talking about here. But yeah, I mean, look,

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Speaker 1: no fans, it feels different. But the quality of play

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Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about this last week. The

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Speaker 1: quality of play, certainly uh for the high tier professional sports,

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Speaker 1: I think has been great. I mean, the NBA games

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Speaker 1: have been super fun to watch. It's a great product

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Speaker 1: on the field. And even baseball. I don't know how

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Speaker 1: you guys feel, and Lynch you, I'll start with you.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how you feel about it, but the

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Speaker 1: quality of baseball has been pretty good, even if some

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Speaker 1: of the teams, and I'm not naming names here, have

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Speaker 1: been a little crummy. Okay, So I know you're referring

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Speaker 1: to the Red Sox, so I'll get it right out

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Speaker 1: of the shoot. They were swept by the Yankees. They

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Speaker 1: have three and seven. They have the tied for the

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Speaker 1: worst record in baseball, even worse than your Detroit Tigers.

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Speaker 1: Michael Barr, you know, it's an upside down world when

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Speaker 1: this happens. But I think the quality of play is

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Speaker 1: is pretty good. Um. I think the podcasters remote broadcasting

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Speaker 1: and doing a great job. Um. I think the piped

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Speaker 1: in crowd noise is going to become an acquired taste.

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Speaker 1: That might be the best way to put it. I'm

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Speaker 1: not sure right away if I like it or not,

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Speaker 1: but it certainly does add to the ambiance. Um and

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Speaker 1: I think I had one of my daughters coming in

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Speaker 1: and and said, they allowed fans at these games, Dad,

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Speaker 1: And I said, no, no, that's just the crowd noise.

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Speaker 1: So with without without her looking at the TV, just

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Speaker 1: hearing it, she thought that there was actually a crowd

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Speaker 1: at the game. So that part, I guess work from

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Speaker 1: the production standpoint. How's the racing been? All the racing

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Speaker 1: has been great when you when you watch it, keep

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Speaker 1: in mind it if there was any sport that was

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Speaker 1: built to protect from COVID nineteen, it's automobile racing. You're

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Speaker 1: in your own cockpit, you've got the racing helmet on.

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Speaker 1: It's so from that point it's one of the best.

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Speaker 1: And and of course you know when somebody gets mad

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Speaker 1: at somebody on the racetrack, it's still gonna you know,

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Speaker 1: you're still gonna have some fun doing that. I'm watching

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Speaker 1: them at the ends. Socially distanced ramming into someone else's car. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's some built in social distance there even if you're

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Speaker 1: you know, but what are they saying if if you

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Speaker 1: ain't rubbing, you ain't racing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's been

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Speaker 1: a lot of rubbing. All right. Well, here's to hoping

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Speaker 1: that we continue to see some live sports. Major League

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Speaker 1: Baseball as of this taping, you know, continues to limp along. Well, obviously,

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Speaker 1: see how that plays out through the course of the week.

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Speaker 1: You can catch our podcast right here every Monday, Wednesday

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Speaker 1: and Thursday. I'm Jason Kelly. Catch me on Twitter at

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Speaker 1: Jason Kelly News. And I'm Michael Barr And you can

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Speaker 1: catch me on Twitter at Big Bar Sports. Happy forty

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Speaker 1: third birthday to Tom Brady. I'm Mike Lynch. You can

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Speaker 1: catch me at Lynch w CBB. They're listening to Blueberg

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Speaker 1: Business of Sports from Blueberg Radio around the world.