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Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business of Sports where in a situation

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Speaker 1: that we haven't dealt with in modern times, the pandemic

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Speaker 1: here has really accelerated the investments that we've been havocating

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Speaker 1: for for a year. From a macro standpoint, I think

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Speaker 1: our sport industry is really forced to look at the

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Speaker 1: business a little bit differently in depth conversations with the

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Speaker 1: leaders in the sports industry, and he sport is a

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Speaker 1: good admiration. We're still moving forward part of something much

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Speaker 1: bigger than the sport right now, the health and sadustry

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Speaker 1: of our stakeholders are real, smart important every moment. I

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Speaker 1: think we're all from a business respective thinking about the

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Speaker 1: impact that the virus is having across the country. In

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio, Hi everyone, I'm

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

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Speaker 1: And this is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast where

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Speaker 1: we explore the big money issues in the world of sports.

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Speaker 1: Well a big weekend, guys. For sure, Baseball is back

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Speaker 1: sort of. We're going to get to that in just

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Speaker 1: a few minutes. But all eyes in many ways in

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Speaker 1: the sports world. Hearned to Atlanta once again, not for

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Speaker 1: their winning ways. We don't often turn to Atlanta for

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Speaker 1: uh their winning ways, but a lot of controversy. Let's

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Speaker 1: start with Major League Baseball because it was opening weekend

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Speaker 1: and Major League Baseball coming out with a pretty bold move,

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Speaker 1: I dare say on Friday and saying, owing to the

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Speaker 1: Republican controlled legislature and the Republican governor passing what many

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Speaker 1: see as a lot of restrictive laws and regulations around voting,

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Speaker 1: they are pulling the All Star Game from Truis Field

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Speaker 1: there in Cobb County that was set to be held

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Speaker 1: later in the summer. Lyncha, I want to start with you,

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Speaker 1: what was your gut on this and as you thought

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Speaker 1: about it and talked to people through the weekend. Well,

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Speaker 1: last year, Major League Baseball was the caboose among all

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Speaker 1: the major sports leagues when it came out to denouncing

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Speaker 1: the death of George Floyd the surgeon, the demand for

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Speaker 1: social justice. We're all waiting for Major League Baseball to

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Speaker 1: react when all the other leagues had. Now they have

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Speaker 1: become the leader they have that didn't wait for a

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Speaker 1: ground swell. They didn't wait for any boycotts or any

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Speaker 1: any additional pressure this months ago until the All Star Game,

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Speaker 1: and I thought it was the right move. I applaud

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Speaker 1: Rob Manfred in Major League Baseball for pulling the game

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Speaker 1: out of there. Now, I know a lot of people say, well,

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Speaker 1: you know where they were gonna honor Henry Aaron. You

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Speaker 1: can honor Henry Aaron at any ballpark across the United

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Speaker 1: States of America. And if Henry Aaron were alive today,

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Speaker 1: he'd be giving a standing ovation to Rob Manfred from

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Speaker 1: moving the game and taking a standing moving it out

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Speaker 1: of Atlanta. I tend to agree with you. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think you have some complicated issues on the ground there, um,

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Speaker 1: Michael Barr. It also feels like this is a direct reaction.

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Speaker 1: And I believe I read somewhere and heard uh that

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Speaker 1: the Players Alliance, who we have had on this show,

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Speaker 1: Curtis Granderson's group, they were directly involved in applying some

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Speaker 1: pressure to Commissioner Manfred and others. So once again athletes

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Speaker 1: driving the converse asian. Oh yeah. And in fact, now

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Speaker 1: that this has happened, other corporations are applauding MLB's move.

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Speaker 1: From Delta and Coca Cola, they're applauding it as well.

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Speaker 1: So it's and what it does is that it puts

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Speaker 1: pressure on other corporations. Now, well, what are you gonna do,

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Speaker 1: because some big names have have spoken about it. Are

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Speaker 1: you going to, you know, say something about the Georgia

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Speaker 1: voting laws or what's going to happen? Yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: it's interesting. I've been looking into this pretty extensively. Atlanta's

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Speaker 1: many people know who are listening to this, and you

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Speaker 1: guys certainly knows my hometown. And uh, I've spent a

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Speaker 1: lot of time over the past few months on a

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Speaker 1: short documentary that was released last week through our Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Quicktake Originals group that is all about sort of this

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Speaker 1: nexus of sports and business and culture and politics. And

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Speaker 1: it was largely centered on the NBA in the NFL

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Speaker 1: and and and it's an illusion to some point, Lynch,

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Speaker 1: you to your point about how the MLB, which by

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Speaker 1: the way, didn't even come into the conversation in uh

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Speaker 1: in my piece because the Rays were largely left out

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Speaker 1: of these discussions despite having as you mentioned, Lynchy, Hey,

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Speaker 1: Garon you know, is probably the most famous Brave ever

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Speaker 1: the Braves. They moved their stadium out to Cobb County

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Speaker 1: outside of Fulton County, which encombs as a lot of Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: and really the activism, both in terms of the athletes

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Speaker 1: and in terms of the teams was left to the Hawks.

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Speaker 1: That and the Falcons and the Hawks, as we know,

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Speaker 1: the NBA has really led the way. So here's a

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Speaker 1: piece of that documentary that that really digs into what

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Speaker 1: happened in early one. This is Atlanta, Georgia. It's my hometown.

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Speaker 1: It's also where I became a sports fan. I some

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Speaker 1: sports as a kid, and I love sports. In fact,

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Speaker 1: my first real job in journalism was covering the Olympic Games.

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Speaker 1: I've changed a lot since then. I can see it

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Speaker 1: in my hairline alone. But the city has to, especially

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Speaker 1: in downtown Atlanta, which remains the epicenter of sports in Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: The Hawks play within steps of the Falcons, and the

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Speaker 1: College Football Hall of Fame is right across Centennial Park.

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Speaker 1: Georgia Tech plays football, and one of the oldest stadiums

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Speaker 1: in the n C double A just up the street.

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Speaker 1: And all of this is located in the heart of

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Speaker 1: Fulton County. You've probably heard that name a few times

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Speaker 1: in the recent elections Fulton County from Fulton County Fulton County.

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Speaker 1: A big part of that difference is in these counties

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Speaker 1: in this metro Atlanta area, a solidly read state for

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Speaker 1: almost thirty years back to when Bill Clinton was first elected,

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Speaker 1: Georgia was suddenly in play in and record voter turnout

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Speaker 1: ultimately played a key role in determining the balance of

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Speaker 1: power in the United States. But if you were living

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Speaker 1: in Atlanta last summer, record setting voting seemed unlikely at best.

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Speaker 1: It seems like this playing out across Fulton County Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: starting early in the morning extending through midnight the June

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Speaker 1: ninth primary election is a primary example of systematic impression

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Speaker 1: that the people of this county still face, but far

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Speaker 1: from disaster, Fulton County became a model of turnout and

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Speaker 1: voter efficiency along the way, creating one of the largest

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Speaker 1: voting precincts in the history of the United States. At

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Speaker 1: the heart of the effort Atlanta's sports franchises and athletes.

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Speaker 1: And while some owners would open their doors literally and

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Speaker 1: figuratively to activism, others would oppose it and end up

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Speaker 1: losing their teams altogether. When you own a sports franchise,

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Speaker 1: hopefully any business, but certainly a sports franchise, you have

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Speaker 1: an obligation to try to be relevant to the public

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Speaker 1: and to the community you operate in, and that's actually

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Speaker 1: good business and the right thing to do. We just

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Speaker 1: literally feel a culture shift happening. I've felt like I

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Speaker 1: was just excited to be a part of a city

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Speaker 1: that stands for something. By now, we all know the

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Speaker 1: results of those key elections, but behind the scenes were

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Speaker 1: a series of crucial moves. I wanted to hear from

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Speaker 1: the people who made those decisions and who once again

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Speaker 1: turned Atlanta into a microcosm of race, politics, and sports.

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Speaker 1: So Lynchy, you know, obviously this is something I care

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Speaker 1: a lot about and spend a lot and spent a

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Speaker 1: lot of time on um. It was a reminder to me,

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Speaker 1: even as I was watching it eight hundred times, in

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Speaker 1: producing it and digging into it, just how much the

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Speaker 1: NBA has really led the way, but also that it's

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Speaker 1: not without consequence, and it's not without controversy. No, and

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Speaker 1: that's how I run. For st of all, I want

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Speaker 1: to applaud you on the piece. I watched it last

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Speaker 1: night at some of the best thirty minutes of television

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Speaker 1: I've seen in a long, long time. So high FHI

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Speaker 1: for you, j k Um. I find it so ironic

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Speaker 1: that Atlanta was the leader amongst sports teams that opened

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Speaker 1: up their facilities for voting. Remember, we had Steve was,

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Speaker 1: we had Steve Steve Coonan and they opened the State

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Speaker 1: Farm Arena UH to a lot of voters in Fulton County.

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Speaker 1: And it was many TIA teams across the UH country

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Speaker 1: did the same thing and fall soup. But they were

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Speaker 1: the leader. And now you know, they've got to clean

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Speaker 1: up a mess that was created by the you know,

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Speaker 1: the governor and the legislature, and here we go. You know,

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Speaker 1: I was looking at. One of the first guys that

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Speaker 1: responded to this was Lebron James, who ironically just became

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Speaker 1: on last Friday officially the first black owner of the

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Speaker 1: Boston Red Sox ever. And he was very proud to

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Speaker 1: call himself part of the Major League face Baseball family

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Speaker 1: today UH more than a vote and UH black lives matter.

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Speaker 1: So how ironic that that on that day that the

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Speaker 1: decision was made by Major League Baseball, here comes Lebron James,

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Speaker 1: charming and yeah, I mean, bar, you're a longtime baseball fan,

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Speaker 1: I know, and you know this is a league that

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Speaker 1: has wrestled with this, you know, back um to the

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Speaker 1: days of Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron. And I think

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Speaker 1: with the passing of Hank Aaron last year, we were

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Speaker 1: all reminded, and there's been some great pieces written about

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Speaker 1: this of how difficult it was for him during that time.

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Speaker 1: And it wasn't just because he was playing in Atlanta

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Speaker 1: and playing in the Deep South, although that certainly contributed

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Speaker 1: to it, um, but you know, as a black man

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Speaker 1: he was his life was threatened many times, he couldn't

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Speaker 1: stay at some of the same hotels that his teammates

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Speaker 1: stayed in, and you know, by small it is fair

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Speaker 1: to say has had it, has had a tough time

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Speaker 1: of this over the years. Well, he wasn't having problems

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Speaker 1: just in Atlanta. He was catching hell when he was

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Speaker 1: with the Milwaukee Braves. And it's the same thing, the

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Speaker 1: same old story and after and I know we're going

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Speaker 1: to talk about this a little later about the Masters,

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Speaker 1: but I also think about another black athlete, Lee Elder,

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Speaker 1: who first was able to play in the Masters, and

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Speaker 1: he was talking about all the threats he got then.

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Speaker 1: This is so now spend the clock back for Hank

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Speaker 1: Aaron when You're in the fifties and he's dealing with

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Speaker 1: all of this. It's ridiculous. I have just never understood it. So, Lynchy,

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Speaker 1: we designate you commissioner of Baseball for a day. I,

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Speaker 1: by the way, I think you'd be a very good

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Speaker 1: commissioner of baseball. All due respect to my to my

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Speaker 1: neighbor Rob Manfred here in Westchester County. But um, where

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Speaker 1: do you put it? Where do where do you put

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Speaker 1: the the All Star Game? Keeping in mind that you

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Speaker 1: are honoring Hankkaren as you pointed out, Um, you know

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Speaker 1: this is this will be more so than last year,

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Speaker 1: a little bit more normal, um of a season, So

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Speaker 1: there will be some economic benefit to wherever you put

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Speaker 1: the game. Where do you put it? Well, you can

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Speaker 1: put it in Milwaukee, where he spent a good part

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Speaker 1: of his career playing for the Milwaukee Braves. You could

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Speaker 1: put it in Kansas City. They have the most famous

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Speaker 1: team in the Negro Leagues, the Kansas City Monarchs. Um,

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Speaker 1: that would be my first two choices right there. And

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm sure that either one of those two cities,

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Speaker 1: there's certainly enough time up to, you know, to scramble

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Speaker 1: and put a game together. I know this game was

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Speaker 1: awarded two years ago to Atlanta. Now you have basically

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Speaker 1: three months to get it ready for a July three

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Speaker 1: All Star Game. That would my two picks. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: totally agree with you. I think Milwaukee is my number

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Speaker 1: one pick in part because of the Hank aaron Um legacy.

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Speaker 1: It is considered to be, you know, under the ownership

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Speaker 1: of Marc Adnacio and his group, very well run franchise.

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Speaker 1: It's a nice ballpark, it's a good town. So that

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Speaker 1: that to me makes makes the most sense. And I like, Uh,

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Speaker 1: I like Kansas City as well. And I mean, listen,

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Speaker 1: you know, shifting gears slightly. You think about uh, Michael

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Speaker 1: Barr having to get ready in in a short amount

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Speaker 1: of time. Uh, Indianapolis, we'll see the game tonight, the

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Speaker 1: final game. Uh. They seem to have pulled off and

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Speaker 1: historic all in one place March Madness for the men's tournament.

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Speaker 1: This has gotta be the top five in March Madness tournaments.

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Speaker 1: I just it's like, oh my goodness. I think the

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Speaker 1: best one I had seen was uh a headline it

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Speaker 1: brings me to the next point. So why are the

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Speaker 1: has been spectacular. It's it's got to be a spike

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Speaker 1: be interested in your perspective of this. I think part

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Speaker 1: live viewing. You know, I would argue that, Um, that

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Speaker 1: Sugs shot will be viewed millions, if not billions of

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Speaker 1: that I saw about it. Um, I'm sure they're gonna

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Speaker 1: be TikTok's created off of it. I mean, it is

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Speaker 1: unbelievable in its timeliness. It's got to be. And you

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Speaker 1: know your your basketball history, in your sports history better

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Speaker 1: than anyone. It's got to be one of the biggest

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Speaker 1: shots in the history of sports. Without questions. You think

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Speaker 1: of Christian Laytner's shots, that certainly comes to mind. Um,

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Speaker 1: Gordon to Heywood almost made one for Butler because he

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Speaker 1: this was and what he did before he made the shot,

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Speaker 1: He went up and blocked a sured dunk and then

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Speaker 1: started a fast break which resulted in two points as well.

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Speaker 1: What a ballplayer this kid is. And I was, you know,

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Speaker 1: one of my dough I was just happened late at

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Speaker 1: night and I was screaming downstairs, No, oh my god,

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Speaker 1: what is going on? Dad? Everything alright? Someone breaking into

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Speaker 1: the house. No, you gotta see this. It's taken care less.

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Speaker 1: You know. It was unbelievable. It was unbelieved. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it reminded me a little bit of that um of

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Speaker 1: that Villanova North Carolina game a few years ago, where

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Speaker 1: you think, you know, you think it's going to overtime,

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Speaker 1: you think you know, we're playing extra ball here, and

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Speaker 1: then just a just the dagger. Um. One interesting bit

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Speaker 1: of trivia that that I read this morning. So the

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Speaker 1: final tonight is obviously going to be Gonzaga versus Baylor

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Speaker 1: to number one seeds, which we don't see that often,

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Speaker 1: but notably um and I'm I'm calling back to I

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Speaker 1: think some of Lynch he's in and my shared heritage,

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Speaker 1: at least on on the religious side, So, um, you

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Speaker 1: got a Catholic school in Gonzaga, a Baptist school in Baylor.

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Speaker 1: When was the last two times to religiously affiliated schools

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Speaker 1: faced off in the n C Double A Final nineteen

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Speaker 1: Villanelva Georgetown. You got it, bingo. Yeah, also had to

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Speaker 1: be a Georgetown connection. Had to be. We knew this

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Speaker 1: was going somewhere. You're like, okay, so it's got to

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Speaker 1: be Georgetown. When was the last time Georgetown was good? Right? Eighties? Okay?

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Speaker 1: So let's um. And by the way, it's still too

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Speaker 1: soon to talk about that game. We we like to

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Speaker 1: talk about four um a little bit more. UM, So

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Speaker 1: let's talk about baseball if we can just for a

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Speaker 1: minute or two. Opening Day, opening weekend of tough, tough

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Speaker 1: look for both your Boston Red Sox and your then

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Speaker 1: by your I mean my Atlanta Breves. Um. But a nice,

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Speaker 1: nice couple outings for the Detroit Tigers. Uh. You know

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Speaker 1: who we didn't see play, Um, the Mets. Maybe they

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Speaker 1: find new ways to lose it. In this case, they

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Speaker 1: find new ways not to play. Uh COVID. So Opening

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Speaker 1: Day is at least, as we tape this on Monday morning,

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Speaker 1: going to be today what's your outlook for the MLB season,

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Speaker 1: bar I think it's gonna be good, and I would

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Speaker 1: like the cautious attitude about the Nationals. That's why, in

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Speaker 1: case anybody's wondering, that's why the Mets did not play

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Speaker 1: their series opener against the Nationals because there were several

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Speaker 1: national players is that tested positive for COVID And now

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Speaker 1: tonight's game with the Nationals against the Braves that's been

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Speaker 1: scrapped because of the same thing. So, but I do

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Speaker 1: like the cautious tone. We we need that. But I

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Speaker 1: think it's gonna be fine. I think we're gonna we're

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Speaker 1: gonna see a hundred sixty two games. Yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be It's gonna be an up

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Speaker 1: and down season, for sure. I do wonder. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I was watching the Phillies and the Braves over the weekend,

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Speaker 1: and uh, other than the quality of baseball being suboptimal

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Speaker 1: from the Braves, for sector they scored by the way,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw this three runs over

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Speaker 1: three games, three zero three um in any case. Setting

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Speaker 1: that aside, I mean fans in the stands there in

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Speaker 1: Philly and obviously it's not full yet unless you are

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Speaker 1: in Arlington, Texas. But you know this is the business

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Speaker 1: side that has to come in because Lynchy, we remember

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Speaker 1: from all the discussions we had last summer at a

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Speaker 1: majority of the revenue for baseball is the gate they

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Speaker 1: need butts in those seats they do. Forty usually is

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Speaker 1: the the average number of Major League Baseball, and there's

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Speaker 1: a disparity on all the different seats. We've talked about

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Speaker 1: this before. Now I'm gonna here in Boston. They have

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Speaker 1: the smallest ballpark, but Governor Baker also has the smallest percentage.

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Speaker 1: Only of the thirty seven thousand plus can goins. That's

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Speaker 1: roughly you go to Arlington, Texas, they're allowing and forty

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Speaker 1: people are allowed down there. So there's gonna be a

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Speaker 1: little bit of the haves and the have nots until

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Speaker 1: we get the percent capacity in around Major League Baseball

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Speaker 1: and limited attendance this week down we're gonna end up

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Speaker 1: where we started down in Georgia the Masters in AUGUSTA. Um,

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Speaker 1: if it feels like we just played the Masters, it's

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Speaker 1: because we did. It was in November. It was delayed

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Speaker 1: um from last April. But now it is much more

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Speaker 1: on and schedule a little bit of a different feel

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Speaker 1: in terms of how many people will be there. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, Bar you you referenced this earlier. I would

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Speaker 1: have to thank given and again starting where we are,

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Speaker 1: ending where we started. Um, I gotta think with the

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Speaker 1: complicated history of Augusta National when it comes to both

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Speaker 1: race and gender, this discussion around voting rights, this discussion

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Speaker 1: around access, this discussion around equality is going to continue

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Speaker 1: throughout this weekend in Augusta. Oh yeah, and a part

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Speaker 1: of that I mentioned Lee Elder earlier. He will join

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Speaker 1: uh Jack Nicholas on the you know, the ceremonial first tea,

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Speaker 1: uh to start the tournament. So Lee Older is going

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Speaker 1: to be out there. And it makes you think about

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Speaker 1: all of the stuff that that that I'm glad that

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Speaker 1: things are changing, that we still need a long way

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Speaker 1: to go. Let's put it that way. It was a

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Speaker 1: long way to go. And I think we all think

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Speaker 1: back to and I think we talked about this on

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Speaker 1: this podcast watching that recent Tiger Woods documentary which was

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Speaker 1: based on our pal Jeff Benedict's book, and seeing the

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Speaker 1: way that the the lords as it were, of of

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Speaker 1: Augusta National, led by Billy Payne. Um the way they

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Speaker 1: treated Tiger Woods, you know, back when he was going

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Speaker 1: through a lot of his troubles. I mean, Augusta National

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Speaker 1: that no one has ever accused them of being in

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Speaker 1: any way progressive. Let's say that. So we'll see, um,

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Speaker 1: we'll see how it goes. Um. You know, I was

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Speaker 1: a little surprised over the weekend that it wasn't um

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Speaker 1: catching more attention, you know, the fact that, uh, that's

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Speaker 1: the other big sporting event that's going on down there,

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Speaker 1: especially in light of what happened with Major League Baseball,

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Speaker 1: so uh, playball t off. Sports are back in some ways,

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Speaker 1: but it continues to be a very complicated world. Gentleman,

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Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast Michael barn

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Speaker 1: along with Mike Lynch and Jason and Kelly and I'm

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Speaker 1: up here in Boston with my winless Boston Red Sox

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Speaker 1: on Mike Lynch. You can follow me at Lynchy w CBB,

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Speaker 1: and I'm Jason Kelly. You can follow me on Twitter

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Speaker 1: at Jason Kelly News. We're here each and every Monday,

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Speaker 1: Wednesday and Thursday exploring the world of money in sports.

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Speaker 1: Join us again at the end of the week for

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Speaker 1: more conversations. We're getting into it this week. And speaking

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Speaker 1: of the Masters, you can catch live Masters coverage across

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio across the weekend. Go get Him Tigers here

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Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports, Bloomberg Radio around the

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Speaker 1: world and online wherever you get your podcasts.