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- [00:01]
Dan Bernstein
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.
- [00:22]
Sponsor Announcer
This message is brought to you by Apple Card Apple Card is a no fee credit card that you can apply for right from the Wallet app on your iPhone, subject to credit approval. Variable APRs for Apple Card range from 17.49% to 27.74% based on credit worthiness rates as of January 1, 2026. Existing customers can view their Variable APR in the Wallet app or@card.apple.com Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and more@applecard.com Everybody talked about it since I first moved to Oregon. The big one. The earthquake that trashed the whole West Coast.
- [00:59]
Dan Bernstein
Total destruction. Officially calling it the largest natural disaster in American history. I just didn't know what would help me next.
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Sponsor Announcer
So I took it all. Even the gun.
- [01:10]
Dan Bernstein
It was time cello see why American Afterlife is the number one fiction and drama podcast in America presented by pair of thieves. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Available now. Dan Bernstein Unfiltered Unfiltered on 312 Sports it's DBU on 312 brought to you in partnership with my bookie and today also by Chicago Window Guys. Call Russ Armstrong at 847-302-9171 and buy Aura Frames right now you can get 25 off their best selling Carver Mat frame especially for Mother's Day with with the code DBU. That's a u r a frames.com promo code DBU. I think it's time to start getting realistic and serious about the Chicago Cubs. Meaning it is May 6th. I don't think we have a silly day today. We had Star wars day. We had Cinco de Mayo yesterday and I think today we just get to have a normal May 6. And the Cubs are really good. They're really good. We know that now. There have been enough bits of data to pile together to understand that I'm not going to go through everything about, you know, playoff possibilities and percentages and all that stuff. You have watched this team and especially with the feeling of some of these walk off wins right now. I've used this term in the past and I'm kind of loath to use it now because it's Cheesy. And there are. There are better ways and more real ways of understanding such things. But I've used the term baseball magic, going back 30 years, that there are. I think it was Matt Fishman and I originally that were talking about it and saying, you know, sometimes teams just get that little bit of baseball magic where things are going weird, things are happening, things are going on. And if you listen off the Ivy today, I was giving the stats of, you know, what Michael Bush has done since that Canada Goose landed in shallow left field and was standing there right before he blooped in a hit. And the guy's been like a 1000 ops since that moment. There was somebody else that mentioned that person in Tampa whose ass fell out of their pants. And I think The Cubs are 20 and 6 since the unveiling of the giant Tampa ass crack. So they're whatever may have caused this kind of baseball magic. Other than Jed Hoyer putting together a really solid baseball team and Craig Counsel doing what he can to get through the meteor shower of injuries to steer the ship and keep his deflector shields intact, working his way through the. Whatever you want to call it, you know, the minefield. I'm mixing my science fiction movie metaphors here is I mixed Galaxy Quest with Empire Strikes Back. I will never do that again.
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Co-host
Oh, I think. I think we all understood that. We got it.
- [04:21]
Dan Bernstein
It was clear. Right. Because in the one galaxy quest, it's a minefield, and they go through spoiler alert, but they realize that the mines become into his gravitational field, and then he takes everything right into Saren's ship to destroy it at the end.
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Co-host
Yeah, because you got to stay away from those mimes they'll.
- [04:38]
Dan Bernstein
They'll take. Not mimes. Not mimes. It's not a mime field. They're all trapped in a box and walking against the wind.
- [04:47]
Co-host
It'd be easy to avoid that if they're trapped in a box.
- [04:49]
Dan Bernstein
True. You see, stay away from the guy who's. Who's pulling on the rope.
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Co-host
Well, I guess it depends on the kind of box and if it's George's box or not, but.
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Dan Bernstein
Right. I don't know. I thought you're doing a rangy thing there. I wasn't sure.
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Co-host
Yeah, I did both. See, I combined them both. That's right. Box.
- [05:07]
Dan Bernstein
To understand that the Cubs are, if not the favorite. They are a favorite to win the World Series right now. So this is. I think you probably missed the betting trade on whatever you could get on these Cubs, but they're really Good. And now you've got to reconcile yourself as a Cubs fan to everything, meaning a little bit more. I'm not saying September pressure on these games, but maybe you don't really need pressure this year in this division. And I think that we're going to laugh about the NL Central having all these winning records. If you give it three months, I think this thing is going to probably start to separate out real quick. And when you jot down, when you get to the end of a season right before the playoffs start and you know what the seeds are and you know who's won what or where or even before then, when we're talking about magic number talk in September, hell, maybe we'll start talking magic number at the end of August. I'm getting ahead of myself. But think big, dream big. This is a season to do that. That it isn't one of those years where, yeah, I know we've had so many Cub seasons, whether it was post 2016, in the intervening 10 years. We had had plenty of seasons where we knew the Cubs were good, but then there was all sorts of messed up stuff with their offense. How many times you'd hear Theo Epstein say our offense broke and then, you know, they'd fire the hitting coach every year. Here goes John Maley's out and here's Chili Davis. And then he's out and somebody else is in and it's got to be the hitting coach. They would keep doing that. But this, this offense is really good. The defense is sensational and they have weathered an injury storm thanks to whomever and whatever. But if they can get to the other side and get toward the deadline or maybe before the deadline with enough ammo to make these well considered moves, this is a time to begin. If you weren't before watching them, it's all fun. I don't want to take the fun out of it. Please don't accuse me because you'll know when I'm trying to do that. Because to me, when they're, when there's something at stake, everything becomes more fun. And I think in the back of our mind we, we kind of like, oh, this is fun. They're good, this is fun. But now it's like, yeah, they're, they're, they're good and this is fun. But you got a chance here to, to step on some teams necks. You got a chance here and that's, this was the, the first, first head to head here against the Reds. You got an opportunity, you win one more of these remaining two, be nice but you win them both and go ahead and get greedy and start showing these other teams in the division the kind of baseball that you're getting ready to play here. And if they can figure out their bullpen, which is going to be a work in progress the whole year, there are going to be more injuries. That's a fact. But what we've learned and what you would you see here is the difference between losing a position player and losing a pitcher is just different. You can get through your if your organization is properly built, it should be designed to get you through some pitching injuries here and there.
- [08:39]
Co-host
If you look at the three division leaders right now, Dan, in the nl, those being the Braves, the Cubs and the Dodgers, those three have the most pitchers on the injured list of any team in the National League with 11 for the Cubs, 10 for the Dodgers, nine for the Braves. That was as of a few days ago, I think the end of last week. We discussed that on off the Ivy and I've really come around full circle on the whole idea. We've talked about this a lot and off the IV as well too. There's a giant pile of outs that Craig Council needs to get. I no longer care how those outs are gotten. I don't care about roles and about a guy in your bullpen and this guy. I trust Craig Counsel to make the right decision with matchups and the timing and the situation of the game to call on the correct arm to go out there and get whether it's one out or the next three outs or the next six outs. And I don't care when Daniel Palencia comes in. I don't care who closes a game. I don't care who the last arm out of the bullpen is. As long as they're the first team to get those 27 outs and win that game. That's all that matters. And I think he's done a really good job right now with a team that has suffered a lot of injuries, not only just in their starting rotation but within their bullpen, which has just been a great, great work of what he's done in utilizing the arms that have been there, whether they're working things out under the disguise of an injury or they actually are injured. He's done a really good job here through the first 36 games at 24 and 12. You're two and a half on top of the Cardinals and now you've opened a four game lead on the Reds with these first two wins.
- [10:21]
Dan Bernstein
There will be a time soon when we start talking about jumping the market on an acquisition that when we say deadline, we don't really mean deadline anymore. If you are going to spend resources on reinforcements, better sooner than later, make the value more yours than theirs. It may mean that they cost a little bit more. That's okay. Better now than later. So start considering some of these things, start thinking about some of these things. And as you know, I know we have the baseball draft. That usually is when you can start to turbocharge some things. As you get the new influx of assets, you can get a better understanding of where people are in your organization. That's also a time when you, who knows, you get teams that change scouting directors and you know that there are people that the previous regime drafted that are on the outs. So nothing is probably going to happen until after we get on the other side of the draft. But when you are this good, the clock changes and your responsibility changes to maximize an opportunity like this. We always say every season sacred, but every season of a really good team is even more so right now by era, and this is as improbable as you could imagine. The Cubs are the 8th best pitching staff by ERA in baseball. Even this year with these guys where it's been nonstop shuttling on the, on the back end, sometimes even at the front end of your starters, of your high leverage relievers of your circle of trust, whatever you've had to do. Now obviously leading in games has helped you dictate some of these situations if you're going to lose. And defense obviously helps you dictate some of these situations. But right now the cubs are at a 383-team-era sandwich in between Texas and Pittsburgh. And then if you look at X fib, expected fielder, independent pitching, they're still right there at 3.94. That's ninth. So the fact that you have a more controllable peripheral that helps underline your old stat like era, that gives you a sense of something at the moment, despite losing the guys that you lost and being without your hundred mile an hour throwing closer as long as you were and with people just dropping right and left. Justin Steele isn't coming back. Kate Horton isn't coming back. They're going to need help. They're going to have to add arms. The question is, when those talks start to get serious, how far down the road are they in identifying what teams they expect to fall out, who with the relationships that they have around the league? I mean, you're not having probably detailed conversations at this point, but there might be some people who you know, can Say, hey, stay by the phone. Just let's, you know, let's, let's have a little talk about this and this just so we're beginning the beginnings of a conversation right here. And maybe somebody wakes up on a day and says, all right, go ahead and do it. Or my owner said, I'm allowed to do this. And we're on. The Cubs need to be actively setting up all of these possible transactions to do what they can do to burnish what is clearly a fantastic season at the moment. So I gave you the numbers for the pitching. As far as fielding goes, the Cubs right now are second to the Boston Red Sox in the defensive runs above average. They are also at the moment in defensive runs saved. They are seventh where Boston has got fourth. 30 defensive runs saved already, which is pretty spectacular. And these are all the various there's if you look at outs above average, which is another defensive metric, the Chicago Cubs are the best defensive team in baseball. So those are the ones that I usually look at. I look at defensive runs above average. I look at outs above average from stat cast and then defensive runs saves. That brings you the fielding bible. It brings you the stat cast numbers and it brings you the way that fan graphs does it using whatever their newest version of UZR150 or whatever it may be. So the Cubs, amazingly can be argued are a top 10 pitching team. They are arguably the best or second best defense in baseball right now. And then when it comes to hitting, you have them at the moment. Let's see if I, if I look at what do you want to pick Weighted runs created plus second, that, that to me is the best offensive stat. The Cubs are at 122 as a team. Atlanta is at 123. That's pretty good. That's, that is, that is spectacular stuff. Actually, when you start thinking about being good at all of those things and their, their BABIP is right at 298. They are as a team. That's a large, it's usually a large enough group. You don't see huge variances in BABIP because you have enough batted ball events right now. But that's much more of an individual stat. But this is by any measure, by any measure, one of the very best teams in baseball.
- [16:07]
Co-host
Yeah. And there's no, no doubt about that. While I understand your premise of maybe moving the timeline up a little sooner, as far as making a transaction a transaction, I understand the premise. I don't think it's going to happen. Jed Hoyer talked last week about, just about that, about maybe looking to get into the market sooner rather than later, earlier than normal. And he, he said he's just not going to do that. He said that, that they're going to work internally to get to a point where they're using their internal assets to figure things out. And while it's working right now, and they are 12 games over.500 and they are opening a lead in the NL Central and they're on a current seven game win streak after having a 10 game win streak earlier in the season. There's really no necessary moves to, to sell off more assets earlier while you're still being productive winning like this. Now, I do agree that he, I, I, I'm sure he is and I hope he is being a little more proactive in those initial calls and setting things up.
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Dan Bernstein
That's all I want.
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Co-host
Yeah. And, and I'm sure, I'm sure that's happening. I just don't anticipate anything happening sooner than it should. Just given on what he said last week about it and you know, I'm curious to see what else. You know, I think, I think the market needs to plan a little bit longer too as some teams need to drop off and become a little further away from the, the dream of a postseason chase as well.
- [17:30]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, I'm not asking for him to be rash. Sure. I'm just, no, make, make the calls because it is, it's, it's noble that he's, that they're looking internally, that they feel that the options that they have right now, that they know their guys and we talked on OTI today about off the Ivy. You told me not to use the abbreviation off the Ivy about Ryan Rollison. And that's an example of a guy who was a journeyman who absolutely got his ass kicked last year in Colorado and they've found value there, which they've already found. And it already everything he's done already, even if he were to disappear into the vapor today and never be heard from again, he's been a valuable player on this team in just those six appearances that he's made over eight and two thirds innings. So if in fact they feel similarly about other people in their organization or awesome, but make the calls anyway, you don't have to act on them, you don't have to do. Even if you just want to call some of your counterparts and talk about your golf game or talk about the last book you read and maybe squeeze in there. Hey, by the way, how are we thinking about some of the People we got in the organ, you guys, you know, just. I'm here. You got my number. Text me, call me. And it's no big secret. It's There. There's a way to do this, to just make sure everybody knows. Don't. Don't trade this guy to anybody without checking with me first. That's all. That's fair.
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Co-host
Yeah, absolutely.
- [19:07]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah. Just. I got. I'm keeping my eye on some people. I know you like this guy, but depending on how you guys do or where you are this year and they know. They. They know who's competing and who's not and who has what marching orders. With a work stoppage coming and where they are regarding salary and our work stoppage likely coming, I should say that there's. There's opportunity, there's value. I want to keep getting reports from my pro personnel guys that are all over the league, looking at everybody else's Triple A team and everybody else's double A team and everyone else everywhere. So this is. Don't lose sight of this. This season really matters more now because the Cubs can certainly win a championship this year. And it's fun to think you give you. If you get a little. A little shiver of excitement there, it's okay. This. This is one of those times. I'm not saying you gotta. You gotta be breathlessly panting at every outcome for a game on a Wednesday night. But just understand that this all is part of something that might be meaningful, that might really matter to you a lot later.
- [20:24]
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- [20:53]
Co-host
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- [20:57]
Dan Bernstein
If the hot tub's broken, that's a verbo care thing. If my teenager starts calling me Leslie,
- [21:01]
Co-host
that's a family thing. Leslie. Verbo care and 247 life support. If you know you verbo terms apply. See verbo.com trust for details.
- [21:08]
Dan Bernstein
The NBA playoffs are easy money right now at my bookie. If you. You do what I struggle to do often, and that is stop overthinking it, because you don't need a crazy over mechanized parlay with everything relying on every other little lever there. You don't need a spreadsheet. How about just pick a team. Find a team you like. Find a team you trust. Look at the numbers and go. And that's why playoff basketball hits so well at my book. You got a clean board. You can keep it simple. If you want to back the thunder, go ahead. Do you think the Pistons finally stared into the abyss and. And that was their. Their understanding, their wake up that now has them ready to compete like a number one seed? Well, then write them right. Teams built to win. If you're new to my bookie, if you've never made a deposit, there's even less reason to sit this one out because we have a promo code for you. And that's the first three letters of the words in this show. DBU for Dan Bernstein. Unfiltered. When you use that code, any bet you choose up to $500 is then fully covered. You make your play, and if it doesn't hit, you get it right back when you opt in using the bet back bonus token. So you register, you deposit, and you use the code. Dbu. Pick your squad, take the shot. Don't just watch the playoffs. Cash in on them. Only at my bookie, you know.
- [22:30]
Co-host
One last note on the Cubs, dan. It's their 24th win, as we mentioned, in their first 36 games, only the third time in their long history they've done that.
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Dan Bernstein
Wow.
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Co-host
The other two seasons, 1969 and 2016,
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Dan Bernstein
both historic cub seasons, the latter being a whole hell of a lot better. That was the greatest thing about them winning the World Series is it got the. The celebration of the 69 chokers go away out of the back burner. 69 clubs. Yeah. The 69 Cubs, what do they do? Oh, they had a horrible choke and the Mets just blew by them.
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Co-host
Yeah, that's why we need another Bears super bowl championship.
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Dan Bernstein
Yeah. I will say though, and maybe this is for another time, but when you bring that up, the 2016 Cubs, they never really overstayed their welcome and became annoying because Joe Madden, everybody knows they won the World Series in spite of him. And then he got cranky and weird and bailed and left town and is gone and yeah, it put his, his,
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Co-host
his scope right on the. Right on the forehead of the Giants manager. Didn't.
- [23:47]
Dan Bernstein
He wasn't.
- [23:47]
Co-host
He didn't go after the Giants new manager before the season started.
- [23:51]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, well, he's. He's got a bad thought for everybody at this point. Now, yeah, Joe. Joe has got. Gotten pretty embittered in his old age, and maybe he's just realized now that he's not going to get another job and that's that. But he. At least he left and he's not here hanging around, you know, selling stuff to us. He's in.
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Co-host
He's.
- [24:13]
Dan Bernstein
Same goes for all the guys they traded away. You know, poor Chris Bryant is having sort of, you know, horrible back problems and he's in terrible pain. Javier Baez just had that awful injury and Schwaber is rolling. He's fine. He's. He's trying to back his way into the hall of Fame by mashing home runs.
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Co-host
Rizzo's back. He's a team ambassador, isn't he?
- [24:31]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, but is he around?
- [24:35]
Co-host
No, he's not. Not like, not like on the bear side of things. No.
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Dan Bernstein
No. And David. David Ross got pissed that he got fired and he left. Kyle Hendricks just took a job in the front office in, In Detroit.
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Co-host
Oh, yeah.
- [24:49]
Dan Bernstein
Good for him.
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Co-host
Yeah, absolutely.
- [24:52]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah. And from what Jason Benetti says about the way they're. They've been doing business there, he's. He's had really nice things to say about everybody that he's dealt with there. So I'm not surprised that that's a landing spot for Kyle Hendricks. But the Cubs have. Have not. We're not craving another World Series championship just to get all these people away from us and, you know, off our televisions or off the sides of buses and every place that you would see everybod. Everything. So they've been. They've done a nice job of, of disappearing, although they. They come back for the convention, right? They do, yeah.
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Co-host
They come back for the convention and, you know, you get your opportunity here to celebrate 10 years since the championship, and I'm fine with that.
- [25:36]
Dan Bernstein
Perfect.
- [25:37]
Co-host
But then we're done. We're done. We don't need a 20 year remembrance. We don't need a 30 year. We don't want to be talking about it 40 years from now still, like you're taking advantage of this opportunity right now at 10 years and then close that off, turn the page, move on. We're done with 2016, but let's get
- [25:56]
Dan Bernstein
some more and then leave it to the next people to handle that. We will have today the first public appearance of the man running the Chicago Bulls. And I am very interested to hear what Bryson Graham, the executive vice president of basketball operations of the Bulls, has to say when he meets the assembled media. And I'm more interested perhaps, than I Usually am. And it is a. It's been a criticism that people levied at me about winning the press conference. And does it matter? I do think that the first press conference, someone has that very first impression, at least for me in my history in this city has often been a pretty good indication of whether or not somebody's an idiot. Like you can usually if it's Matt Eberfluss, if it's Tim Beckman, if it's Jim Boylan, if we're talking a complete idiot, you know it. I trust that this guy is not a complete idiot. And the reason this is more significant is because of the following quote that I saw from Michael Reinsdorf. And this was in John Greenberg's article in the Athletic. And this was a note from what Michael said after he let the previous regime go. I think he said some of the biggest mistakes we've made over the years is we've not followed a process. I think that's really important conviction. I think we need someone not afraid to pull the trigger. Communicator. Okay. We have a history at the Bulls in the top position. Other than Jim Paxton. They haven't always been the best communicators going back to the days of Jerry Krause. It wasn't one of our tourists strengths in terms of communicating with the media. And again, this is the owner of the Bulls saying this, not me. I want someone who's really strong in communication, not just internally within the organization, but also externally. Here you go. You get one first impression chance, and that's today. What do we want to ask? A lot. I want to know where they are in the potential hiring of a general manager, how he feels he needs to construct this front office. I want to know overall how he can describe the work that needs to be done to get the front office up to proper speed and up to league standard.
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Co-host
It is.
- [28:53]
Dan Bernstein
We're doing it again and we talked about it yesterday, to have to be in a situation to build everything out. This is again from the Athletic. For one, Graham needs to hire a coach. For another, he needs to add to a front office that is consistently on the small side for an NBA team. There's no excuse for that. There's absolutely no excuse for not having enough people doing the jobs that need to be done. And it's his job to come in, recognize that and staff it out. We want to know the characteristics of the coach for whom he's looking. And he may have somebody in mind. And he's not going to tell us that, I presume or Hell, maybe, maybe he's. I'm interviewing this guy, this guy, this guy and this guy. We don't know. I have no idea what to expect from Bryson Graham and we need to find out what he's looking for in a coach. It. Does previous NBA head coaching experience matter? Is it a prerequisite? And he's got to be pinned down on some of these things. And then if he, he may make a blanket statement to say, I don't, I'm not going to talk about any of our individual players today until I've had a chance to talk to them, etc, etc. Etc. We got to find out, can Josh Giddey be the point guard of an NBA champion? Can modest Bouz Ellis be a starter? Or the, the number two or the number three on an NBA champion? How do you feel about second round draft picks? And apparently how do you feel about Noah Assange? It's funny because that name came up on Organizations Win Championships and we did do a special episode that's up. And while I'm here, I want to say we, we have to delay OWC a day instead of recording today. My co host is packing and coming home from college and like today and I, it's, it's going to be impossible for us to do a show today. I tried to get him to do it. It just, it just. So we're going to do it tomorrow so please don't be mad at me. But this, this one I had to give him and just be like, all right, get, get, get home safely with all your stuff and without mistakes and all that. So we can pack them up and ship them off to Scandinavia for over a month. So there's a lot going on there where we're going to be a day late on owc. Sorry for that. But one thing that came up was Noah Assange that we completely forgot about is here was this, this gangly raw child who got hurt and then was kind of out of it and had some nice games in the G League and just it was thrown into his professional career and thrown into another country and looked, sounded, appeared in so many ways overwhelmed. And as was mentioned to me by somebody who would know, saying it could be the biggest blessing in disguise that he had what is essentially a red shirt year that he had the opportunity to just acclimate, to just kind of learn how to live his life on, you know, by himself on this side of the pond, the whole thing and apparently grow. Now here we go. According to Joe Cowley, Noah Assange is now 7ft tall.
- [32:24]
Co-host
And how tall was he when they drafted him?
- [32:26]
Dan Bernstein
Six, eight? He grew four inches. What? Wow. And how old is he now?
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Co-host
He's 19, right?
- [32:35]
Dan Bernstein
19.
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Co-host
Okay. Yeah.
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Dan Bernstein
I mean, that's.
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Co-host
That's very much possible. Yes. But it's insane to hear that.
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Dan Bernstein
It is. It does happen. He's listed by the NBA at 6, 8, and I don't think he's 7ft tall. But if Cowley says he's close to 7ft tall, what is he, 6, 10, 6 11, and he's 7, 2, 7, 6. I want to see him. I definitely want to know. And then the strength and conditioning coaches have to reconsider a little bit and
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Co-host
be like, oh, whoa.
- [33:12]
Dan Bernstein
The strength and conditioning NBA plan for every guy is based on their frame. It's based on what? How can we put the right weight on this frame with a vision for position. For the positions that guy's going to guard. And there's a plan here.
- [33:32]
Co-host
Yeah. I'd like to know how much weight he's put on. If he's. If he's growing four inches.
- [33:35]
Dan Bernstein
I would, too. I would like to know what the plan is, because if. If this is something now that is going to make him a better defensive player, because that really was the effort for improvement for him has been all defensive perimeter shooting and defense because we know he's a really good athlete. And he's. He's quick, he's athletic. But if you're talking about the difference between a 610 wing and a 6, 8 wing. Now, this is the kind of player that, as far as just profile, just silhouette and first blush, you now have a much more significant chunk of raw material than you did before in Noah A. Senge. And he is an enigma wrapped in a riddle and covered in mystery. But it gets pretty exciting if, in fact, he's. He's big. Now, the bow. If it depends on where the height came from. Because if his neck just grew or his head just grew and all of a sudden he has a giant head, you can be taller, but it's not effective. Height your shoulders.
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Co-host
I'm gonna. I'm gonna take a stab at this and say that his. I'm sure his neck didn't just grow
- [34:49]
Dan Bernstein
4 inches, but it has to be the. Has to be the right kind. Like you. You want it to be his legs and his hips and his trunk and everything growing. If. If he just stretched it. You were like his. The top of his head grew.
- [35:01]
Co-host
Yeah. And his shoulders are certain freak all of a sudden. Let's just. Let's assume that he grew the right
- [35:05]
Dan Bernstein
way so his standing reach is higher, maybe his arms got longer because that's even better. If his wingspan, if he increased height and wingspan or if he's broader and that increased his wings, whatever it might be, that's where the effectiveness is. I always look at standing reach plus vertical and then wingspan because otherwise you get these weird scouting reports of a guy who's 7 1, but his shoulders are in the same place as a guy who's 68 just because he has a long neck and a tall head.
- [35:36]
Co-host
All right, so a couple main things you want to hear from Bryson Graham today.
- [35:41]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, I, I yes.
- [35:43]
Co-host
What is it?
- [35:44]
Dan Bernstein
Top top of my list is, first of all, what's your what kind of coach do you want? Is experience as a head coach a prerequisite? What is the coaching interview process going to be? How are then what is the structure of your front office? Who answers to whom? Is this decided before you are interviewing? Are you hiring one general manager? Are you going to hire under an associate vice president or a GM in charge of stats and spreadsheets and one who's underneath you on the scouting side? Or, or are you the scouting side guy? And then they could get a Dave Lewin type to be your quant guy because they need that. But is that are you going to build a team of rivals or do you want to have people who think differently about the game or is everybody going to be in lockstep and you're lined up like magnetized iron filings? Everybody in the same direction, Everybody coexisting with conviction and consensus. There's different ways to do it. He's been around a lot of different people. We can't just say he's going to do exactly what Joe Dumars did or he's going to do what he's learned from various people at the Atlanta Hawks. We need to hear it from him. We got to hear the word championships. We have to hear the word titles or championships. I would also I as mentioned yesterday, you don't have to pander. You don't have to once you get past your thank yous. Oh, who's going to welcome him to Chicago? Schuster. It'll be Schuster. You think it's a good guess. WI nomination is that there will be at least one Chicago reporter that does the official welcome to Chicago. My money's on David Shuster because Bruce isn't going to be there, but because otherwise it's always welcome to like gives the it's like the giving him the key to the city. You get the official welcome.
- [37:54]
Co-host
But
- [37:57]
Dan Bernstein
I want to hear the terms that he uses, and I hope he doesn't pander, as every time I drive by the Michael Jordan statue, I get chills, because Michael Jordan. I don't want to hear lip service paid to Michael Jordan. It was 30 years ago. It's enough.
- [38:16]
Co-host
Yeah, we're good.
- [38:17]
Dan Bernstein
We're good on that. We're good on any of that. And if you want to talk about the six trophies, you can do that, but only to say that's the standard. That is the standard. And everything that we do is for that not to compete, not to do dinner theater, not to sell tickets for that night, not to run a fun show for tourists, to win championships. I want to hear a verbal commitment to that being the goal. Every day they wake up and come into the office, that every single thing that they do is in the effort as a. As an organization to have the parades, to have the confetti and have more of those trophies. That's what I want to hear.
- [39:03]
Co-host
Sounds good. I like it.
- [39:04]
Dan Bernstein
Okay, well, let's go get it, and let's find out exactly how tall Noah Esenge is and how he got that tall. When you need windows, there is one call that you're going to make that is going to make you happier than any other call that you're going to make when you're trying to get windows, and that call is to Russ Armstrong. When you call 847-302-9171 or go to ChicagoNowNowGuys.com you can start a process that is going to be transparent and personable and simple. It's really not all that hard, as some other places would make you think it is, to sort through everything you need to know about windows. Because in this case, Russ is the one who knows everything. And all you have to know is what number he's going to give you after he walks around the house, finds out exactly what you want. Maybe you want a special bay window in the front. Maybe you want a skylight put in. Maybe you want sliding glass doors or maybe French doors overlooking your patio for the summer for grilling. He can do all of that. And then he's going to say, well, we can do this. This is how long it would take. I'm going to go make the windows. Here's what we're looking at. Pick exactly the kind you want, and. And here's a number. And if you say, well, these people offered me this, and these people offered me that, he's going to work with all of that. And then he's going to match the price. He guarantees that he will match or beat the price. And that way you're not falling for a sales gimmick that you hear elsewhere. And if you're like, I am that, you're always worried about being a sucker, this is sucker proof. Because whatever deal you might have, Russ can say, okay, that's real. That's not, that's good. They're giving you something you don't want here, and here's what I can do for you. And then chances are you're going to, to go with Russ because every time I recommended him to somebody, everybody's like, oh my God, this is great. So, yeah, do that. 847-302-9171. Check out Russ's five star reviews at ChicagoNowBeyond.com We've got growing chaos in the world of professional golf with. And I can't get enough of watching live golf wither and die and watching everybody involved have to very, very slowly look for whatever their next options are in their professional lives because this thing should never have happened. And it was the Saudi sovereign fund that spent billions and billions of dollars. They might as well just lit it on fire. Fire. So Bryson DeChambeau was asked if LIV Golf goes under, which they're going to because they're, they're already saying that they're looking for future investors and why anybody with a brain would say, well, you already Lost what, $5 billion? I want a chunk of that. I'm gonna come right in there and throw more money at it.
- [41:54]
Co-host
Yeah. And they, they told those guys that they, they were set through 2032. Well, that was, that was what they, that's what they told the golfers.
- [42:04]
Dan Bernstein
Well, they're not. And they're not.
- [42:06]
Co-host
I mean, they're not. Yeah.
- [42:08]
Dan Bernstein
And Bryson DeChambeau has won two majors and he said he's had some conversations with the PGA Tour. They have not gotten into the specifics about how he would get back to the PGA Tour and apparently the PGA Tour would. The phrase I use is make these guys crawl over broken glass. And I guess that's what they're doing with. He suggested, according to the ESPN story, that the tour is prepared to hit him with severe penalties if he wants to come back. And he described the punishment as quite unfortunate, in my opinion, considering what I could do for them. So the egos need to get dropped. Which one is it? Is it? They don't really realize what I can do for them. And egos need to get dropped.
- [43:03]
Co-host
Right.
- [43:04]
Dan Bernstein
Okay. Everybody needs to come in with a level headed playing field. Now, there is a mixed metaphor or mixed idiom. It's level playing field. Come in with a level headed playing field, an opportunistic mindset to grow the game of golf. And he said, that's what I do on YouTube. And he said, from my perspective, I'd love to grow my YouTube channel three times, maybe even more. And he said this while practicing in preparation for this week's live tournament at Trump National. He said, I'd love to. He said, I'd love to do a bunch of dubbing in different languages, giving the world more reason to watch YouTube. And then I'd love. Okay. And then I'd love to play tournaments that want me. And to what you said about the investment fund from the Saudis saying they'd Finance Live through 2032? DeChambeau said, I was completely shocked. I didn't expect it to happen a couple of months before that. It's like, we're here until 2032, we've got financing until 2032, and then, you know, I haven't had any communication. And unfortunately things are moving on in a different direction. Obviously they wanted to move on. Move on meaning get out of this shitty business. Yeah, that's what they wanted to do. But if he wants to grow his YouTube channel, great. But that's not the question. The question is, what do his multi millions of sponsors want? Because it's not about the purses in golf. Even though I do think the PGA might have to go back and drop their numbers down to reasonable purses now that they're not competing with live anymore. I don't think it's sustainable for the PGA to be generating that kind of money. But if I am a club company, if I'm, you know, whoever he's working with, I know he works with Jumbo Max grips and he has some very specific club needs because all of his irons are the same length. But they don't. They're not looking for YouTube at this point when they have what they have known are major network television deals. And Live never got that. They never got the TV clearance as part of the reason why they're dead. If I'm Bryson DeChambeau, suck it up. Take the L just hat in hand, go to the PGA Tour. And I don't know if this is a leverage play for him because you can't say the egos need to get dropped and then trot out, hey, man, I got to grow my YouTube channel. I'd say if tournaments will take me, they'll take me, but I'm in this business right now. It sounds like the opposite of egos needing to get dropped. It sounds like he is saying, you need me more than I need you. I don't think so.
- [46:03]
Co-host
Yeah. That's not the case. His current sponsorships, Reebok for apparel and footwear, Qualcomm Technologies, Kalshi Stitch Golf. Those are his main ones.
- [46:16]
Dan Bernstein
Okay. Not a. Not a ball. Not a. I mean, most guys are gonna.
- [46:20]
Co-host
Titleist ball listing. And this is regular Google as well.
- [46:24]
Dan Bernstein
Okay. All right. Well, this is. If I were advising him, I think it would be, hey, ins. You know, instead of being antagonistic and becoming an adverse party, while you're saying one thing about egos getting dropped. And on the other hand, as you're. You're saying, well, I'm just going to grow my YouTube channel and falling back on that, clearly for leverage purposes, which is it? Pick one or the other, and you may just be better saying, I want to come back. What do I have to do? And just kill them with kindness. Which has never been Bryson DeChambeau's strength, unfortunately. And maybe this is just his. His nature to do it in a way that's combative. But one thing I will say that his YouTube work has done is it has humanized him a little bit. It's been more of a. Of a PR vehicle for him. And the advice that I would give him is keep doing that. That. Keep. Keep doing the soft stuff and keep trying to. You can make yourself marketable and personable and much more human with the YouTube channel and don't lose it. But all with the goal of getting back to the PGA Tour, because that's where you belong. That's what you do for a living. Right.
- [47:42]
Co-host
This whole. The whole thing is silly. I mean, that's. That's what the. The goal should be. And he's wanting one thing while saying things that. That won't lead to what he actually wants.
- [47:52]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah. And it's just not consistent. Yeah.
- [47:55]
Co-host
It's too bad. I mean, if, like, if you're a golfer, you need to be in the pga. It's just. It's that simple. Now I also think I'd be curious to know, like, what type of penalties the PGA is going to impose on a guy like DeChambeau. And I also think there, too, like, you. You want the best golfers playing week
- [48:13]
Dan Bernstein
after week, of course.
- [48:16]
Co-host
So I'd be curious to know what kind of penalties they are. And maybe those need to lighten up a little bit as well.
- [48:22]
Dan Bernstein
Let's do the math. I, I, I think Bryson's got to do the math and he's got to go to all of his sponsors and say what are my deals going to go back to being worth if I end up on the PGA Tour? And, or say hey, if, if there are penalties here and if you find the value in me going back on the PGA Tour because of the television coverage and everything else, can you, you know, help brother out here? Brother out.
- [48:47]
Co-host
Yeah.
- [48:47]
Dan Bernstein
And maybe we redo my contract and that way it's a less onerous penalty and everybody wins and, and we all get back back in the, in the regular PGA Tour golf business and back to doing what we want to do. Then you keep your YouTube channel, get different sponsors for your YouTube channel or just, and if you own that and you want to use that as a money maker and PR outlet, it doesn't have to be one or the other, but you got to play on a tour. You're not going to have some independent, you know, you're barnstorming or busking the country as like an unaffiliated non conference kind of player here you're not Notre Dame with your own TV contract. So getting the right there were, there
- [49:27]
Co-host
were 14 million viewers of Sunday's final round of the the Masters. It peaked at 20 million. I mean I'm sure response would love yes some of that instead of his YouTube channel.
- [49:37]
Dan Bernstein
But again, and you're still in your prime.
- [49:39]
Co-host
Do both figure it out and let's work this out because the whole thing is silly.
- [49:44]
Dan Bernstein
The whole thing was silly and stupid and, and misguided and I'm just. The more live golf can eat shit, the happier I am. But ultimately I want my, my weekends to have the best players in the world competing at the highest level on all these awesome courses and, and have it and not and take the stupid out of it. Take the cheering in the teams and the silliness and the noise and take that all out of it. That, that didn't work. Nobody wants it. It's enough. But if you want to bet golf, you know where you can do that. You don't have to just throw a dart at one player outright and then sweat it out for four days. Go to my bookie. You can bet the whole tournament however you want it, not just who wins the trophy. It could be round two and you're betting a head to head matchup that you like. You can just bet that round. You can bet the cut line if you got A good sense for, oh, that guy's putting well and the wind just died down, so maybe he's getting to the back nine with a chance to make some hay and make the cut, all that kind of thing. See how the greens are drying out. You can wait for Sunday. You can jump on somebody making a charge to win. PGA Tour betting is better when you keep it simple. With my bookie, I know there's overwhelming amount of data here where you don't, you don't need to know ball flights and putting stats on whatever kind of. Whether it's Poana or Bermuda. You don't need to be a weather guy. Although I kind of enjoy that. But if you need a little extra to sweeten the deal, I got it for you right here, right this pocket. Bang. DBU. The promo code, those three letters, DBU. And then your first bet is covered up to $500 when you make your first deposit. So register deposit, use the code dbu. And there you go. Don't overthink it. Find your angle, make your pick, and then cash in at my bookie Betty. I noticed there was a college football story in the never ending quest for coaches to find their own time to be able to play golf. That's kind of how they start talking about, we can't have this calendar and we can't have this calendar. We got to rearrange this calendar. And it's almost always for coaches working too hard or having too many demands on their time because they can't leverage one job against another job and get paid at the month that they want to do it. What's the debate right now? Just so make sure I got my facts straight here.
- [52:07]
Co-host
Yeah, no, it's the American Football Coaches Association. So they've recommended four changes to the college football calendar and these all make sense. And you know, I, I appreciate what you said, what you said there about finding their own time, but these actually make sense for the sport of college football. So they announced yesterday four proposed changes. One, ending conference championship games.
- [52:30]
Dan Bernstein
Woohoo.
- [52:33]
Co-host
Two, reducing open weeks in seasons from two to one. Preserving an exclusive window for the Army Navy game in December, but allowing postseason games to be played on the same day.
- [52:47]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, fine. What's the point? Who gives a crap?
- [52:53]
Co-host
I could say a lot about it. Yeah, but I mean, we don't need to make them angry, but it's just.
- [52:58]
Dan Bernstein
Do you personally know anybody who cares about that game?
- [53:02]
Co-host
I do. I know one family very well, my nephew who actually played not on the army team, but like an army club football team and went to West Point.
- [53:11]
Dan Bernstein
Okay.
- [53:12]
Co-host
So I know they care about it. It's a huge, huge day in their household every year.
- [53:19]
Dan Bernstein
All right?
- [53:20]
Co-host
Outside of that, that's all. That's all I know.
- [53:22]
Dan Bernstein
So I don't know anybody who cares or has ever cared about that game.
- [53:27]
Co-host
So they want to keep that window open, but allow other playoff game, other postseason games we played on the same day, which they rightfully show. And then the fourth thing is reducing the minimum number of days between games to no fewer than six, which also makes a great deal of sense.
- [53:44]
Dan Bernstein
Well, the mission creep of football every night has been in the. To the detriment of a lot of the. The players asking them to with these quick turnarounds and weird travel. Yeah, I like that.
- [53:59]
Co-host
Yep. And then just. Just so you have the. That these numbers in front of you as well, too. The championship game in 2027 is currently scheduled to happen January 24th. Okay. I think this past one where Indiana won was January 19th. I'm not mistaken. 2028. It's January 25th as scheduled. And just to keep this in mind, too, so you have all the facts. Transfer portal, that window is January 2nd through January 16th.
- [54:28]
Dan Bernstein
Okay. Now, so that's it.
- [54:31]
Co-host
Those are the four proposals and the four. Yeah. Ideas. And I think. I think they're all smart.
- [54:36]
Dan Bernstein
This is the coaches association now, so
- [54:39]
Co-host
the American Football Coaches Association.
- [54:42]
Dan Bernstein
All right? Now, if the afca, the August afca, can have such thoughts, I would like to know what labor thinks, because they get a say in this, too. And the coaches obviously want a calendar that not only allows them to have time to play golf, but gives them the most possible power over the timing of player movement, the. The size of the time windows, the position of the time windows for the transfer portal.
- [55:18]
Co-host
It's interesting because in argument like this, I would normally lean to one side or the other, but I support both. Like, I want the kids to be able to move and do as they please and earn money off of college football. But I also think the portal window and this timing should make sense for the college football season. I don't like that it is right in the middle of their postseason. It doesn't. That doesn't make sense to me.
- [55:45]
Dan Bernstein
I also want the people who are breaking their bodies to enrich everyone, to have the ability to play where they want for the money that they want.
- [55:58]
Co-host
I agree with that. I support both sides.
- [56:01]
Dan Bernstein
Yep. Yes. And to make the most that they possibly can. And I would say supporting both sides, I do not support the overpowered coaches going ever Going back to the power that they used. No, no, no.
- [56:18]
Co-host
What I, What I support, when I say I support both sides. I support this notion of, let's find a really good place to put this portal window. Yeah. I get right now, right now, it's not in a very good spot. I, I think so. I support that. I support the. Finding the best place for it to go. And I also support the players be able to choose where they want to play for the amount of money that they can get.
- [56:38]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, I think there's got to be a sweet spot here. I think there's got to be. I just want it to be collectively done. I want to make sure that we don't have sort of competing edicts where somebody. And then, as usually happens in college football, nobody ends up actually knowing who's in charge of anything. And then we have one of those, you know, stupid blue ribbon national panels that accomplished absolutely nothing.
- [57:02]
Co-host
Now, you applauded when they. I mentioned the first note, which was the end of conference championship games, which I, I support wholeheartedly.
- [57:10]
Dan Bernstein
Yes, I do, too. I, I don't think if you're expanding
- [57:12]
Co-host
the 24 playoff teams, if that's the goal, which the coaches support that as well, too. You don't need conference championship.
- [57:18]
Dan Bernstein
Right. Any of the teams that are competing for conference championships don't really care about the conference championships. They might say that they do. And the athletic directors like to say, oh, well, in all of our sports here, whether it's fencing or rowing, and we've won all of the. Look at our gymnastics and our swimming and diving and look at all these conference championships you've won. Not for football. Nobody, nobody, remember, nobody cares.
- [57:38]
Co-host
Why, why, why play an extra game to this sport, Right? And you're not compete for a national championship.
- [57:44]
Dan Bernstein
People aren't celebrating the conference championship, having parades or conference championships and wearing their T shirts that say conference champions on it. That any team that's competing for. That is competing for things that are much, much bigger and much more important. And I think it's okay to recognize that, that we don't have these ideas of conference. We want our, our local area. We are the best team in our region, and that's a big deal for these kids. All right, fine. And then go to Division 3 and go to Division 2 and compete for those. And that's. And that's all fun. But when you're talking about professional football and this, that's what it is. This is professional football. Professional football teams don't celebrate conference championships unless they're like I don't know, like the Nashville Predators or something. A professional hockey team will put banners up there for everybody smiling when they came to work. But this is a, this is pro football. And as it becomes more professional, some of the college trappings that dead ender traditionalists are going to want might end up going away for the benefit of everyone. And that's fine. And I think we need to learn to live with that. You know, Mother's Day is coming up and that means like, oh yeah, we got to do dinner and I'll get her flowers or candy or pajamas or something. And then the kids will make a little card and they'll give it to mommy. No, no, it's not what you're going to do. I got a better idea. How about you get the number one digital frame that comes in that lovely gift box that you saw and maybe this entire lovely family can be yours as well. If we can make that available instead of your family, we can, we can have a better looking family that can come over and take care of your wife and your mother and everybody else. But with the Aura frame with free unlimited storage personalized in that gift box, preloaded photos of however you want, mom or your wife. When the gift comes from the kids to be surprised, you can do whatever you want with that ever changing, always updatable, perfect quality digital frame. The gift box is included. You can share all your photos and videos effortlessly. The App reached number one on the App Store Christmas Day of 2025 and it's been named number one by Wirecutter. Aura frames. You can save on the gifts moms love when you visit auraframes.com for a limited time, listeners can get $25 off their best selling Carver Matte FR frame with the code DBU. That's a U R A frames.com promo code DBU. And you can have make it fun pictures. You can make it heartwarming nostalgic pictures. You can even alternate old pictures and new pictures. You can tell a story if you want. You want to really get creative, all you have to do is go to auraframes.com use the promo code DBU for your $25 off, and then your Mother's day planning gift giving done. And you can support the show too by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply.
- [61:01]
Co-host
We've been using our Aura frame based on the season or holidays, so we rotate the pictures through that way while adding new ones on top of it as well.
- [61:10]
Dan Bernstein
It's been great.
- [61:11]
Co-host
We love it. It's right. It's like a. It's like a focal point of our. Of our family area.
- [61:16]
Dan Bernstein
Nice. Yeah. You ever. You ever roast anybody in there and throw in something maybe they don't want? You're like, remember this? Why is that picture on there?
- [61:24]
Co-host
I've half thought of doing that when I'll. I'll. I'll snap pictures of Natalie when she's not expecting it, you know, like, we're just sitting on the couch, and I'll snap a pic and I'll. I'll be like, hey, babe. And she'll turn and I'll take a picture of her. Oh, I. Yeah, one of those on the frames. Yeah.
- [61:40]
Dan Bernstein
There. There would be a phone that would need to be removed from my rectum.
- [61:47]
Co-host
That's the difference why I. I consider it. I'm. I'm not. Because I'm. I don't want to be rude to her, but she also wouldn't physically hurt me. Like maybe someone in your home would.
- [61:58]
Dan Bernstein
So I'll give thanks for that. And also to our sponsors. For today's show, we thank Aura Frames. We thank Chicago Window guys and Russ Armstrong at 847-302-9171. And Dan Bernstein, unfiltered, as always, is brought to you in partnership with my bookie, Dan Bernstein. Unfiltered. Unfiltered. On three, one, two, Sports.