Chicago Cubs? Chicago White Sox? Top 10 MLB Players of All-Time | Friday Feedback

Summary

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Dan Bernstein Unfiltered – February 13, 2026

Episode Overview

In this lively Friday installment of Dan Bernstein Unfiltered, hosts Dan Bernstein and Matt Abbatacola unpack listener feedback, debate the cultural fallout from the Super Bowl halftime show, reminisce about baseball legends, and reveal their personal Top 10 MLB Players of All Time. The show blends sharp takes, sports nostalgia, and classic Chicago candor—delivering plenty for hardcore fans and casual listeners alike.

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Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Friday Feedback Friday: Listener Questions & Banter

Timestamps: 03:26 – 35:16

A. Family Sports Rivalry Gets Real (03:26–06:37)

• Listener Email (Eric): Eric seeks advice after a playful act (teaching his Bears slogan to his niece) leads to his Packers-fan brother-in-law freezing him out.
  • Dan: “It's time to help him find his sister a new husband.” (05:00)
  • Matt: “Your brother-in-law just might be a dick... I just want to make sure he’s not treating your sister that way.” (05:18)

B. On AI De-Aging and Filters (06:38–08:09)

• Listeners joke about Dan using YouTube blur filters while critiquing AI de-aging in commercials.
  • Matt: “It’s a filter to make us look pretty... Nobody wants that.” (07:31, 07:57)

C. Bad Bunny, Social Media Outrage, & Race in America (08:14–21:28)

• In-depth reflection on fallout from the Super Bowl halftime show, addressing criticisms about language, representation, and accusations of racism.
  • Matt: “It was awkward to listen to someone sing in a different language... because I wanted to hear what he was saying.” (10:19)
  • Clarification: Disliking the music ≠ racism, but demanding “only English because American football is for Americans” does connote racism.
  • Dan: “If that was your perspective, you are a racist. Period... If you didn't enjoy the music, that's fine.” (12:20)
  • Listener Critique (Timothy Hall): Rebukes the hosts' "broad brush" approach.
    • Matt: “I'm not a fucking racist. I'm not going to list all my credentials… you want listeners? Stick to sports.” (14:54)
    • Dan: “Anyone who lists their credentials to show they’re not racist is probably more racist than anyone else.” (15:44)

D. Emails Praising Halftime Show & Camera Work (16:36–21:28)

• Email from Alyssa (Teacher): Praises cultural visibility & storytelling, offers emotional insight on how the performance resonated, especially for communities affected by ICE.

E. Fun Callbacks & Cubs Art Trivia (21:28–24:14)

• Jokes about “The Girl from Ipanema” as Dick Jauron’s headset theme, the Norman Rockwell “Dugout” painting, and the Cubs being “lovable losers.”

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2. Chicago Sports Chatter: Cubs, White Sox, and the New Bears Stadium

Timestamps: 24:14 – 33:09

A. Critiquing the Modern MLB Landscape & Player Moves (24:14–25:24)

• Discussion of Nick Castellanos' decline and how contending teams evaluate talent.

B. Super Bowl Halftime Parties Abroad (25:24–28:38)

• Listener Email (John, Berlin): Describes Bad Bunny’s global impact and how the NFL is expanding abroad. Notes a double standard in “American” complaints about non-English acts: “There’s a double standard for European culture vs. others.” (28:15)

C. Bears’ New Stadium – Identity Crisis? (29:00–33:09)

• Listener Email (Canuck Boy): Raises concern that the new stadium’s “clean, safe, revenue-ready” feel lacks Chicago’s grit.
  • Matt: “Fans are going to assume it’s about cost, control, and efficiency more than innovation. Right now, our conversation is about where the stadium goes… next we need to discuss the building itself.” (32:00)

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3. Top 10 MLB Players of All Time: Personal Favorites Edition

Timestamps: 35:16 – 74:44

Ground Rules:

• Both hosts independently write their lists without outside help, focusing on players they saw play and who genuinely moved them as fans.

Dan Abbatacola’s Top 10:

(Selected Quotes and Insights)

1. Ryne Sandberg – “He’s the reason I wanted to play second base as a kid...” (49:29)
2. Nolan Ryan – “At 63, he threw an 85 mph dart over the plate... in khakis and a polo!” (48:45)
3. Frank Thomas – “The greatest right-handed hitter I’ve ever seen—my favorite, personally and professionally.” (46:47)
4. Greg Maddux
5. Ken Griffey Jr. – “The 1995 playoffs against the Yankees... he was unstoppable.” (45:54)
6. Joey Votto
7. Todd Helton
8. Dave Parker
9. Sammy Sosa – “People would leave the track to watch Sosa or McGwire hit—it was electric.” (39:53)
10. Jake Arrieta

• Honorable Mention: Darwin Barney (personal connection), Pete Crow-Armstrong (“Haven’t been this excited about a young Cub in years.”)

Dan Bernstein’s Top 10:

1. Iván Calderón – “There is a small and blessed sect of people who have been given an awareness to appreciate him better...” (73:06)
2. Frank Thomas – “One of the greatest baseball players I’ve ever seen.” (69:33)
3. Harold Baines
4. George Brett – “He was the ballplayer’s ballplayer. Everything about him just was baseball.” (67:45)
5. Ozzie Guillén – “He was just a delight…one of the greatest fielders I’ve ever seen.” (65:31)
6. Reggie Jackson
7. Sandy Koufax
8. Bo Jackson – “There were so many, oh my god, I can’t believe what I just saw, moments.” (58:47)
9. Rickey Henderson
10. Ichiro Suzuki

Memorable Tangents:

• Matt: “I never really identified with pitchers… there’s only one pitcher on my list.” (47:26)
• Dan, on Iván Calderón: “No one truly appreciates or understands Yvonne Calderón…some of us will never stop trying.” (73:06)

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4. Olympics Update & Quirky Sports News

Timestamps: 75:06 – 81:29

Olympic Highlights

• U.S. and Canada score wins in men’s and women’s hockey.
• Emotional stories from Super-G and snowboard events, including Breezy Johnson’s crash and Chloe Kim’s silver.

Weird News

• Hockey Fan Arrested: A Slovakian fugitive on the run for 16 years is captured after showing up at the Olympics to watch hockey. (80:05)
  • Dan: “We tell you hockey's not good for you. He ended up getting arrested.”

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5. DBU Picks: Sports Gambling Corner

Timestamps: 83:12 – 85:54

Picks of the Day:

• College Basketball: Wisconsin (+2.5) vs. Michigan State; Miami (OH) (-10) vs. Ohio.
• Golf: Akshay Bhatia at +2200 at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Dan on online haters: “Anyone who wants to list their credentials to show how they're not racist is probably more racist than anyone else.” (15:44)
• Matt on football rivalries: “Your family should be much more important than which team you root for in the jersey you wear.” (06:20)
• John from Berlin's email: “If you don’t like something about a culture and can’t articulate a specific reason why, that’s just prejudice or racism—latent or overt.” (28:15)
• Dan on Sandberg: “He’s the reason why I wanted to play second base as a kid... and he autographed [my jersey]: ‘Matt, I can’t believe you made it to 50.’” (49:29)

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Tone & Style

• The episode is characteristically blunt, playful, and unapologetic—a mix of sports bar banter and hard-earned insights from two longtime Chicago voices. Authentic fan perspectives blend with social commentary, making this episode resonate well beyond box scores.

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Essential Timestamps

• 03:26 – Listener family rivalry question
• 12:20 – Matt’s Bad Bunny “racism” rant
• 16:36 – Alyssa’s thoughtful halftime show letter
• 21:28 – Dick Jauron/Girl from Ipanema callback
• 32:00 – Bears stadium identity discussion
• 35:16–74:44 – Top 10 MLB Players deep dive

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Takeaway

This episode’s strength is its frankness: whether addressing race and culture in sports, tackling listener pushback, or sharing nostalgic baseball favorites, Dan and Matt keep the conversation smart, unguarded, and distinctly Chicago. Even if you missed the show, you’ll walk away understanding both the passion and perspective of two lifelong fans who’ve seen it all.

Transcript

[VRBoCare Announcer]

Day or night. VRBoCare is here 247 to help make every part of your stay seamless. If anything comes up or you simply need a little guidance, support is ready whenever you reach out. From the moment you book to the moment you head home. We're here to help things run smoothly because a great trip starts with the right support. And hey, a good playlist doesn't hurt either.

[Dan Bernstein]

Dan Bernstein, Unfiltered Unfiltered on 3 1, 2 sports.

[Matt Abaticola]

Dan Bernstein Unfiltered on 312 sports is brought to you in partnership with my bookie. Hello, Matt Abaticola here. That's not the same. That's a different color shirt that you have on. That's not the bright yellow.

[Dan Bernstein]

No, this is, this is green.

[Matt Abaticola]

I'm just, I have to compare it to the Pac man machine behind you, because Pacman machine, you were blending into it. You had sort of Pac man cabinet camouflage on before. You don't.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, I was Pac Mat yesterday, as someone said in the comments.

[Matt Abaticola]

Pacmat, yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, no, this one is, this is a green one. It's an ugly color. It's similar. It's similar to the green that we have now in our slammers baseball program. But, yeah, it's. It's ugly fishing shirt weather.

[Matt Abaticola]

Well, soon it's. Well, it, it's 50 degrees today, I believe, and it's not really fishing time yet. We're in the. In between. We're in this liminal space here. But soon, soon, my pretties.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, you can still fish, though. You could fish today.

[Matt Abaticola]

I mean, you can. Yeah. The water temperature at the moment in southern LAKE Michigan is 33 degrees. I need it to.

[Dan Bernstein]

It's a little cold.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah. But the sunshine helps every little bit. Every day of sunshine bringing that lake temperature up. And that means soon the powerful little footballs known as smallmouth bass will be making their way back. Nice. They just have to. They got to warm up. The gobies have to be around and then they'll come back. But we are here on a Friday, and that means it is Friday feedback Friday. And I go through all of the stuff that you send in via email and comments and voice messages through the app, and I just want you to know we're not going to. I'm not going to highlight a voice message just to do it. I do listen. I do listen. And there, there are some that are sent very late at night and there are some that are extremely odd, and there are some that are very regular from. So don't think I'm not Hearing that I'm not listening. I do, I do. Sometimes if you leave seven of them, I can't tell you I'm going to listen to all seven on the same topic. But we're here for you. You are being heard. So I just, I want that known. I also appreciate it when you take the time to put your words together via email because I know that there's an. Judging from the quality and the quantity of some of these, I know how hard you work on it. So I do absolutely appreciate it. Ready?

[Dan Bernstein]

I am ready. Yes.

[Matt Abaticola]

Okay. I'm just making sure. Here is one where I want to start and I think this is an easy one. Just asking for advice. This is from Eric. Eric says Dan Matt, I need some feedback. Friday help with a Bears packers family situation that has gotten a little more serious than I expected. I'm a lifelong Bears fan. My sister and I were both raised in the Chicago area and she's now married to a Packers fan. They live out west with their one and a half year old daughter, my niece. And when I was visiting over the holidays I was was playing with my niece and trying to teach her to say good, better, best. Nothing crazy, just having fun doing what I would consider my duty as her uncle. Harmless sports banter she can barely string words together. Yet my brother in law did not see it that way. Since that trip, he hasn't talked to me in almost two months. It feels like he's genuinely upset and holding a grudge over it. I honestly did not think teaching a toddler a bear's slogan would qualify as crossing a line. But here we are. So I'm asking you both, did I take it too far? Is this something for which I should apologize to keep the peace? Or is this just part of the cost of being related to someone who chose the wrong side of the rivalry? Appreciate any advice you have. That's from Eric.

[Dan Bernstein]

Did you respond to that? Because I responded to Eric.

[Matt Abaticola]

Oh yeah. I did not respond via email. I was sort of holding my response for this segment, but go ahead.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, I told Eric that it's time to help him find his sister find a new husband.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah. That is. I think that's kind of cutting to the chase of what I was going to say. That there's something wrong with your brother in law. Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

Just to put it mildly.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah. Yeah. If in fact this somehow crosses a line, teaching his one and a half year old to say good, better, best, you taking the time to do that and. And he's got a problem with it where now he's freezing you out. I do not think highly of him. I think your brother in law just might be a dick. And if he's treating you that way, I just want to make sure he's not treating your sister that way.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. So that was my initial response and he responded back in email and I just, I said, you know, if this is like a legit situation. Which he said it was. I just said I'm sorry that you're, you're dealing with that because that is, that's completely insane.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

To take like a football rivalry to that, to that measure. Like it should be fun, good spirited, good natured type of jabbing and rivalry when it comes to football. But at the end of the day, your family should be much more important than which team you root for in the jersey.

[Matt Abaticola]

Aware.

[Dan Bernstein]

And if the guy legitimately is that angry about it, he probably should sit down and talk to someone because that's not okay.

[Matt Abaticola]

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I think your advice is well presented. I wasn't quite sure where to go with it, but presuming it's real. Yeah. Don't mess around with something like this. There's something wrong with that guy.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, that's not okay.

[Matt Abaticola]

I want to highlight a comment on YouTube that came in after the Super Bowl. I think this was, this is Monday show. And we were talking about the commercials and I was talking about the one that ended up where Ted Danson showed up and there was all that sort of uncomfortable A.I. d aging.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, that was the Dunkin Donuts with Ben Affleck. And. Yeah.

[Matt Abaticola]

And this commenter, I Zombie at I Zombie said Dan, who blurs his image on YouTube to hide his aging, hates the AI DE aging.

[Dan Bernstein]

That was good. No, that was funny.

[Matt Abaticola]

I laughed out loud at that. And. Yeah. But trust me, I'm doing you a favor with that. That.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. And it's not a, it's, it's not a blurring. It's a, it's a filter to make us look pretty.

[Matt Abaticola]

It is. Well, which is essentially a blurring. But, but it. Yes, that, that is absolutely true. And I think I'm doing you a favor. And that way you don't necessarily have to scream.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, thank you, Dan. I just, I want to point out one thing here. I generally don't contribute much to Friday feedback. Friday.

[Matt Abaticola]

I like. Don't sell yourself short here. Let me just show you what it would look like if I took the filter off there, see? Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

Put it back on quick.

[Matt Abaticola]

Nobody. Nobody. No, no, no, no.

[Dan Bernstein]

Put it back on. Put it back on. Put it back on. Put it back on. It's like zombie TV.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah, nobody wants that.

[Dan Bernstein]

So this is Dan Bernstein, 30 years after the bomb dropped.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah. You don't. You don't.

[Dan Bernstein]

You don't want Zombie db No. I want to contribute one thing here about the. The Monday show where we were talking about the halftime. Yeah, the halftime show with Bad Bunny and the. The social media post that Cody put out for us. And he does a fantastic job. Totally appreciate all the work that he does for our social media platforms. He put one out on Instagram. My conversation with you about Bad Bunny and the halftime show. So there's a couple things I've learned, I think, and not necessarily saying that I learned this week, but there's a few things about social media that I've understood for years, but there's one that I did learn this week, I think. I think people see social media posts and they don't listen to the entire post. They hear something and then they react immediately without finishing listening to it. I know that's true because a lot of comments came through saying the exact same thing I said in the, like, the second half of the social media post. A lot of people were. I was surprised. I didn't think it was a controversial thing for me to say that it's awkward. It was awkward to listen to someone sing in a different language that you don't understand. Okay. Because it's for that amount of time for 13 straight minutes. And a lot of people were like, oh, you should just enjoy the music. And, you know, music is universal. And had people listen to the entire comment, they would have gotten to the end of the comment where I said, what I did enjoy, though, was the music and the dancing, and I appreciated the storytelling. And then after the fact, when I read the story, I was able to understand it was like a Broadway play, and it was beautiful. And the story he told it was deliberate and it was wonderful, and it was smart and how much I loved it. And people just responded pretty quickly. And then there were people making comparisons to going to the opera and hearing someone sing in Italian. I, you know, I'm not going to. I'm not going to say that those are, you know, you know, apples and apples. Comparison of the Bad Bunny halftime show and an Italian oper. Not that one is greater than the other and more superior. They're both fantastic, and if you enjoy them, great. Go for it. It's just.

[Matt Abaticola]

It's.

[Dan Bernstein]

I felt. And it's okay for me to say I felt awkward. That's how I Felt. Not saying that you need to feel that way, but it is because I wanted to hear what he was saying because I wanted to know the message that he was saying in his songs. And I didn't know. And after the fact, I found out. That's all. That's why it was awkward. I'm not saying it was a bad thing, but here's the more important thing. When we said that if you need an alternative option for the Bad Bunny halftime show because you're a real American and you wanted something in English, that was all in English, that is where we said your decision there is based in hate and racism. That's what we said, and that's accurate, and I stand by it. If you do not enjoy Bad Bunny's music, then that doesn't make you racist. That is not what we were saying. If you didn't enjoy the halftime show yet you watched it, fine. Everyone has preferences. I don't like some types of music. It doesn't mean that I'm full of hate or racist towards those people who sing them. And I'm not saying that if you didn't enjoy the halftime show, I'm not saying that you're racist or full of hate. We never said that. You cannot enjoy Bad Bunny's music. What we were saying. And I'll make it really clear. If you needed an alternate option to the Bad Bunny halftime show because you wanted something in English, and this is American football, and I want American and I want English because that's what I believe in. None of this foreign stuff. If that was your perspective, you are a racist, period. If you didn't enjoy the music, that's fine. You don't have to, and that's okay. That doesn't make you racist. Some people. There were so many comments, Dan. They're like, well, Matt, just because I didn't enjoy it doesn't make me racist and full of hate.

[Matt Abaticola]

You're.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, no, Dan, it doesn't. It doesn't. Because you cannot enjoy something. And that's okay. There's a movie that you might like that I might not like. It doesn't mean I'm racist against that person. You know, there might be a movie that I like that you don't like. Doesn't mean you're racist against those actors in that movie. We all have different preferences. But if you determined that you needed something different, something American, something in English, then yes, sir, ma', am, you are racist. Period.

[Matt Abaticola]

I thought there was a lot.

[Dan Bernstein]

Does that make sense? Is that clear?

[Matt Abaticola]

It does. I think I Don't know that you speak entirely for me in that regard. I think there's a lot of hiding, a lot of coding going on, a lot of sort of filtration, if you will. And I think there were a lot of hit dogs hollering is what I heard.

[Dan Bernstein]

Okay. No, and I. I get you, and I understand that. And, like, I mean, I'll be. I'll be completely transparent. Bad Bunny is not my style of music.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah. I don't.

[Dan Bernstein]

I don't get in the car and.

[Matt Abaticola]

Turn on Bad Bunny.

[Dan Bernstein]

I don't. Now. I did. Leading up to the Super Bowl. Now, my. My wife enjoys Bad Bunny, and I know a lot of people that like Bad Bunny. So leading up to the Super Bowl, I would put him on in my car, I'd go to Apple Music and I would play Bad Bunny, and I would drive and I would listen to the songs. And while I enjoy the music and you know how it makes you kind of dance in your chair, and I enjoy that, the rhythm of it and the actual sound of it, it's just not for me. And I'm not going to go back and listen to Bad Bunny. That doesn't mean that I'm racist or hate Bad Bunny. It just. That's just not my style. Like, I love country music. You're not going to listen to the same country music that I. You're probably not gonna listen to any country music.

[Matt Abaticola]

Maybe that's not true.

[Dan Bernstein]

But that's. And that's all I listen to. And if you. You know, and that's fine. We all have preferences to it. So just because you didn't enjoy it doesn't mean that you. You're. And so we can agree to disagree on our. Or we can disagree a bit on what our. Our thoughts were on it. I think if you didn't enjoy it, it doesn't make you. So don't confuse what I said. And I think when you listen to social media stuff and you want to react to it, listen to the entire thing. Like, listen to it all before you react. That's all.

[Matt Abaticola]

A lot of feedback on this, including this note from Timothy Hall. Timothy hall says, you2 never cease to amaze me with your asinine painting with the broadest brush you can find. You're better than that, aren't you? All caps. This constant everyone who disagrees with us is racist is tiresome and patently false. Bad Bunny's show sucked. It was the NFL's attempt to pander to the Latino community. Not my words s, but rather my Latino Friends. So his Latino friends said that it was the NFL's attempt to pander. He's.

[Dan Bernstein]

Did he post pictures of all the Latino friends that he has?

[Matt Abaticola]

You liked it? Awesome. Enjoy. No issues. You can't stop there. You have to turn it into an anti maga rant with you throwing around the racist word fuck. Take a course in marketing. Learn how to grow a business. Something clearly neither of you know shit about. I'm not a fucking racist. I'm not going to list all my credentials. You want listeners? You want money? Leave your political opinions and labeling to your personal life and stick to sports. That's from Timothy Hall.

[Dan Bernstein]

Do you want to go first? Do you want me to go?

[Matt Abaticola]

No, I'm good. You're good? I thought the super bowl was sports. That's all I thought.

[Dan Bernstein]

Timothy, you are racist.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

I can just tell by your email. I don't need to know you at all.

[Matt Abaticola]

Latino friends told me.

[Dan Bernstein]

And anyone who wants to list their credentials to show how they're not racist is generally probably more racist than anyone else. Also, Timothy Hall, I'll tell you this. Yes, it did divulge into a MAGA rant. And if you still want to support and follow that cult that is destroying the Constitution and the democracy of this country, then you go ahead and do that.

[Matt Abaticola]

Have fun.

[Dan Bernstein]

You go ahead and do that. I will not support or stand by with this MAGA beast and monster that is running this government right now into the dirt, into the ground, and destroying everything that the United States stands for, Period. So, yeah, if it turned into a MAGA rant, I'm fine with that because that's. That's perfectly suitable because that's the right thing to do. If you still want to support that, then, yeah, you're a racist individual that supports the destruction of this country, Period.

[Matt Abaticola]

And this is from Alyssa. Alyssa says Dan. Matt, I appreciated your thoughts of the super bowl halftime show. I want to take a moment to expand on, Dan, what you said about the outstanding camera work and how that impacted the show. As a disclaimer, I'm not Latina. I can't speak to the cultural impact of the show the way someone who is Latinx or from Puerto Rico could. I'm a teacher at a dual language English Spanish school, and many families in our district have been affected by ICE in recent months. It's been heartbreaking for our community. I was thrilled to see such a joyful celebration of the Latino diaspora on one of the world's biggest stages on Sunday. The camera work was a contributor to the Artistic design and incredible storytelling. The opening shot transports us to the sugarcane fields of Puerto Rico and Bad Bunny invites us to become a part of his community. We see the taco stand, the nail salon and the jeweler at eye level, at his eye level, as if we're walking alongside him. We spend much of the show at this eye level view and we enjoy a number of shots moving among the performers as if we are also dancing outside the bar or we are a guest at that wedding. The first time we find ourselves truly outside of the show is around the 10 minute mark when the camera cuts to a wide shot of the workers on the utility poles as Bad Bunny holds the light blue Puerto Rican flag, a symbol of the Puerto Rican independence movement, and performs his song El Agapon, the Blackout. While there are other references throughout the show to Puerto Rico's hardships as a territory or, let's be real, a colony of the United States, this is perhaps the most pointed and the way the camera captures this moment demonstrates this. We as Americans have enjoyed the economic benefits of annexing Puerto Rico, but we're very much outsiders when it comes to the struggles of the island for which we're largely responsible. Once the party ends, we are nowhere to be found other than Donald Trump throwing a few rolls of paper towels at people's heads. After Hurricane Maria, we once again return to the field level view for the end of the show as Bad Bunny shouts God bless America while surrounded by dancers, musicians and flag bearers representing all of the Americas in front of a billboard declaring in English, the only thing more powerful than hate is love. It is again an invitation to be fully part of his community. But the call for true unity is clear. To borrow a phrase from my own culture, we can't only show up for the simcha or the celebrations. We must show up for the struggles. We are one nation, one people, one humanity. And Bad Bunny's performance was historic. For a number of reasons. It could not have been more perfect to meet the moment.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, that was a fantastic email. So well written, really informative. A couple other things too on this, Dan, that if you set out to watch the super bowl and we all consume it different ways, you choose to get closer to kickoff before you turn on. I had it on for hours leading up to it and for a lot of people, that's how we do it. Super bowl, the super bowl, the game is a day long event. If you can't put aside 13 minutes to participate in the halftime show of this day long event and you demand something different, something American something with meatloaf and fried chicken, you know, and apple pie like Megyn Kelly wants to have, because that's what American football is. Then, yeah, you're probably a racist individual and full of hate, period. And on top of that, they put on this alternate halftime show to appease the orange God.

[Matt Abaticola]

It wasn't for you.

[Dan Bernstein]

And what's he doing?

[Matt Abaticola]

He didn't watch. He didn't watch.

[Dan Bernstein]

He watched Bad Bunny so he could comment on social media and then demand that they change the kickoff rules. After his rant about Bad Bunny and how bad the show was. He didn't even watch. When are MAGA people gonna get it through their brains that he doesn't care about you at all?

[Matt Abaticola]

Resents you?

[Dan Bernstein]

He doesn't care about you at all. He's using you, and you're allowing him to be. To use you to get more money in his own pocket to protect his friends. And then all this whole idea of, oh, my God, the children shouldn't watch all this twerking and the dancing that those Latinos were doing. Oh, it was offensive to my children's eyes. Sure. Would you rather fly the new island and rape them instead? Is that better? Because that's what MAGA protects.

[Matt Abaticola]

Well said. I agree. Mickey says, guys love the pod. I need to send something about a personal coincidence that I heard the other day. I was listening to DBU on Tuesday, and you guys mentioned the Girl from Ipanema as the music playing in Dick Jaron's headset, which. Which was a reference to Borz and Bernstein, as I understand it, and possibly remember it had been a while since I, or maybe anyone, had even thought about this, having been 20 plus years since Dick Giron even coached the Bears. It made sense. Later that day, I was tuned into the Scores afternoon show, and Lawrence and Spiegel had Boog Schambi and Jason Benetti on. And during that segment, I believe Spiegel mentioned the Girl from Ipanema, to which Benetti responded, which is playing in Dick Duran's headset. Oh, God. I'd simply like to request you two stop taking requests from the worms in my head and let me go back to my meat and ferment diet.

[Dan Bernstein]

That's great.

[Matt Abaticola]

That's from Mickey. And I did reply to him, and I said, we podcast specifically to brain worms.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yes. 100%, yes.

[Matt Abaticola]

They're huge fans. Brainworms.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, number one. Number one.

[Matt Abaticola]

They love us. We're number one among Brain wor. Yep. They're absolutely enormous fans. There's another little callback here. This is from Shabadger, who says, I'm very familiar with the Norman Rockwell Cubs painting that now hangs in the Art Institute. Growing up in the 70s, as an oft disappointed Cubs fan living in Morton, Illinois, I had a replica of the picture on my wall. Since I saw it every day, I've had a lot of time to ruminate on the painting and the title. The title is the Dugout. Parenthetically, bottom of the Ninth. It's definitely a road game. The fans sitting directly behind the dugout are not supporting the Cubs. It's supposed to be a game against the Boston Braves at Braves Field. Since the title says bottom of the ninth, by definition, the Cubs would be either winning or tied.

[Dan Bernstein]

Correct. Why are they so depressed?

[Matt Abaticola]

The body language is not that of a team winning or tied. If it were called top of the ninth, I get it. Come on, Norman. Measure twice. Name your paintings once.

[Dan Bernstein]

Very good.

[Matt Abaticola]

Norman Rockwell.

[American Express Announcer]

Who?

[Matt Abaticola]

You. Crap.

[Dan Bernstein]

So maybe it was just they. They knew that they were going to lose, and that's why they were just. They were just, you know, resigned to their fate of being lovable losers.

[Matt Abaticola]

I didn't. I really didn't pick that up either.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, that's funny.

[Matt Abaticola]

But that's really good. I have this also from our buddy John in Berlin.

[Dan Bernstein]

And actually, just off to the side there, what you don't see on the actual painting is Nick Castellano's with a big kegger.

[Matt Abaticola]

Well, how about that?

[Dan Bernstein]

Doing a keg stand.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah. And. And. And no for every.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yes. Correct. No is the correct answer. No. No, no, no, no. He's the correct. Yes.

[Matt Abaticola]

Thank you.

[Dan Bernstein]

Thank you for saying that.

[Matt Abaticola]

I know you remember him as good. He's not good anymore. He's an outmaker, team love maker. Won't you mess around with me? And he's. He doesn't walk. He cannot field. He's slow as shit. You don't. Wait.

[Dan Bernstein]

What just happened to his career, Dan? What just happened again?

[Matt Abaticola]

He was cut by the Phillies.

[Dan Bernstein]

And do the teams that contend for World Series, do they. Do they cut good players?

[Matt Abaticola]

Well, rarely. He's being replaced by a guy who's also kind of bad. Like a. Dollis Garcia is not any Great shakes at 32. But even. Even, like, they're like, yeah, this guy's even better. We can have Nick Castellanos around.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Matt Abaticola]

And they don't like him.

[Dan Bernstein]

So no is the answer.

[Matt Abaticola]

Thank you. The answer is no. Because I've heard too much, too many questions. No. John in Berlin says, I loved your treatment of the halftime show. I've been buzzing from it for days. I thought it was amazing. The creativity, the production, the videography. Top notch. Glad you guys recognize that. Like many, I'm sure I was in some group chats with friends from home that had very different opinions and it was frustrating to say the least. I think the pinnacle of Matty's rant on Monday summed up my feelings when he exploded with it's art. Enjoy it for what it is. As for the language issue, who cares? If you care about the lyrics, look them up later. It doesn't need to detract from your enjoyment of the music and the spectacle of the performance. It's like the opera. Does anyone go to a beautifully sung Italian opera and come out and say what was that? I couldn't understand a word they were saying. They should be singing in English. No, of course not.

[Dan Bernstein]

Why does it gotta be a Bob going to the opera there?

[Matt Abaticola]

It's Bobby opera.

[Dan Bernstein]

Totally made it a Bob.

[Matt Abaticola]

There's a double standard for European culture versus others. The other things I was fighting about in my chats, people's ignorance about the expansion of the NFL abroad, all of this. It's an American sport. The halftime show should showcase Americans. I noticed they didn't complain when it was the rolling stones, Paul McCartney, Coldplay, U2, Shakira or previously Bad Bunny. But I digress. The NFL is trying to catch up to the NBA and MLB in global reach. When I moved here to Berlin, Germany 15 years ago, I could barely find a place to watch the NFL. Now it's all over the place. It's getting big here. That's why the choice of Bad Bunny made sense. He's a global superstar. The NFL understands that. And I can attest to this. I hosted my annual super bowl party at my club in Berlin and had about 50 people there. Half of them were there just for the halftime show and they stayed until 2:30am to watch it. I just felt sorry that some of them had to get introduced to American football with that God awful first half. My crowd was probably 10 different countries represented the people dancing, cheering, going crazy with excitement. The whole performance, it was beautiful. It was inspiring. And my final sentiment is this. If you don't like a specific thing about a culture, that can be okay. If you hate trumpets and therefore you don't like some traditional Latin music, that's called preference. But if you don't like something about a culture and you can't articulate a specific reason why, that's just prejudice or racism, latent or overt. We all understand what's going on here and it's sad, but at my party there was lots of celebration and that brings me hope. Keep it up. God bless John in Berlin.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, I love when John reaches out. It's always well thought out. Such good stuff. And I loved his line there about the double standard when it comes to European culture and others. He's spot on there. And I think I'm actually working on us doing a live forward progress from John's super bowl party next year in Berlin. So we're going to see if we make that happen.

[Matt Abaticola]

How sweet would that be? How much fun would that be? My goodness. Last thing I have is. You'll know this name. This is Canuck boy. Yep. Who goes back a long, long time. And this he sort of expanded my thinking on a subject that we've discussed in great detail. He says, guys, everybody keeps arguing about location and funding and Arlington Heights versus the land of I get it. But I don't hear anybody really digging into the actual design of the Bears stadium itself. And I think we probably should be. Especially after I toured Allegiant Stadium in Vegas last week, I spent a couple hours walking the concourses, looking at sight lines, standing in the lower bowl, checking out the premium areas. It's clean, very clean. It's sleek, it's modern, it's polished concrete, sharp lighting, massive video board, efficient layout. It feels like a high end convention center built to host football games for the Raiders. Everything works. Nothing is offensive. It also felt kind of bland. Vegas compensates for it because Vegas itself is a spectacle. The Strip is the personality. The stadium's just a container. But if you pulled that building out of Nevada and dropped it into another city, it wouldn't scream identity. It would just scream new NFL stadium. Compare that to U.S. bank Stadium, where the Vikings play. That building has angles and aggressiveness. It looks like a Nordic spaceship landed in downtown. You feel like you're somewhere, somewhere specific. Even Lambeau Field. It's not flashy, it's not futuristic, but it has the character of brick and history. Cold air that hits you in the lungs. You know where you are. And when you look at the Bears model from the renderings, it looks a lot like allegiant, smooth curves, enclosed dome feel, corporate template, safe, functional, revenue ready and super bowl compliant. What it does not look is particularly Chicago. If the Bears are using that same blueprint, fans are going to assume it's about cost, control and efficiency more than innovation. Fair or not, these early visuals feel really bare bones and clean and safe and conservative. That's not what people are hoping for after decades in Soldier Field. So right now our conversation is about what where the stadium goes. And I think once that dust settles, we should all start looking at the building and realize that at the moment it feels like a neutral site, event venue, more than a cathedral for Chicago football. I could be wrong. Maybe the interior design and materials and surrounding development will inject that personality. But based on what I saw in Vegas, if this ends up being allegiant, North Bears fans may be underwhelmed. I'm curious what you guys think.

[Dan Bernstein]

That's really good. And it's something I haven't given a whole lot of thought to because we've been talking about the location, so he's spot on and really well written. Yeah. I think they should make the new bear stadium look like a giant bear cave.

[Matt Abaticola]

Oh, right.

[Dan Bernstein]

Roaring sounds. Yeah, you can just have that piped in everywhere.

[Matt Abaticola]

Bones lying around. Right.

[Dan Bernstein]

Instead of walking into the bathroom, when hearing the broadcast, you hear roaring sounds of bears. Well, he.

[Matt Abaticola]

I think this is a bone. It's absolutely worth discussion and we will absolutely talk about it. I don't think we're there yet, but I'm saving this. And all I'll say is Canuck boy, you're right. And it is absolutely worth, I think, our guy, Lee Bay from the Chicago Sun Times, when we. We start knowing more about what it's going to look like and when, like you say, when the dust settles, I would love to have architecture experts on and. Or design experts on to discuss exactly what it's going to feel like because that will matter to those people who do go to games.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. And I guess at the end of the day, it really shouldn't matter to me because I'll just be watching on tv so.

[Matt Abaticola]

Right. That I. I've said that it's. I don't go to games. It doesn't really matter to me at all. You know, it matters to me especially.

[Dan Bernstein]

I guess, I guess we'll start going though, once we, like, get the broadcast rights, right?

[Matt Abaticola]

What? Three. One, two. Sports.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yes.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yes. When we. Oh, yeah, we got to get into the bidding on that because I, I have. I have the guy from Portage, Indiana, who's figured out a way to. To create money and he's gonna give us the money and then we'll buy all the rights. I like it. I like the plan. There you go. If you have not registered your account at MyBookie yet at MyBookie AG, you're missing out, because right now, go there. Go to MyBookie AG. Once you register and make your deposit with our promo code, which is DBU for Dan Bernstein, unfiltered, then you've got a $500 bet back, bonus token. So what that means is that first bet is covered up to 500 bucks. If it doesn't hit, you can run it back. And right now there's all kinds of stuff. We have our DBU picks coming up a little bit later in the show. I've got some thoughts on some golf that's going on maybe, but we got college basketball, we got pro basketball, there's baseball futures. There's even once the NFL numbers start coming out and you want to get early, early, early futures there, that's all going to be there for you. But the place to go is MyBookie AG. One account, one wallet, whatever you like to bet. Matty almost hit a massive parlay last night.

[Dan Bernstein]

What was it two nights ago?

[Matt Abaticola]

Two nights ago? Was it 25,000 or something like that?

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, I was. I had a five team parlay and the magic cost me.

[Matt Abaticola]

Damn magic. Go to my bookie, Dot AG right now. Make sure you use the promo code dbu. So register deposit then. You're not just watching, you're making it pay. With my bookie.

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[Matt Abaticola]

And unless you have something that will conclude Friday, feedback Friday.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yes, sir. No, we're good there. And it's time to get into our weekly top 10 list. And this was a fun one. This was a fun one. I sat down at the kitchen counter without the committee because the committee's gone. They're just here during football season. And our top 10 list today are our top 10 favorite baseball players of all time. And we didn't talk about the parameters or anything, but what I did is I kept it to people that I actually saw play in their career.

[Matt Abaticola]

Can I tell you about my process?

[Dan Bernstein]

Yes.

[Matt Abaticola]

I'm not. I know you're going to give your list. I just. I found this really interesting when we do these favorite things. The same thing I did when we did favorite sports movies. I did not want to consult anything. I. So I went down to do cardio on my recumbent bike and I didn't bring my phone and I just said, look, I'm just going to have a clipboard and I'm going to do this from my head. And if later I need to cross check just to make sure I didn't miss anything or didn't forget anything, that's fine. But the way I could do this honestly was without any technological help and just writing all the names down, sorting through them, and then eventually putting numbers next to them. And I. Then I did that, and I bounced it off of my best childhood friend. I called him late in the event. I spent two hours doing this, and I called him late in the evening, and I just said, here's what's going on. And I said, is this a representative list? You've known me since I was 2 years old. Am I forgetting anybody? And that. That was sort of my process to make sure. And I hadn't. I hadn't. There were a couple that maybe I was. I didn't give enough thought and had to reconsider, but I was. I really enjoyed doing this because it made me really be honest about how I felt about certain baseball players.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, I just. I just sat down with pen and paper and started thinking about baseball players and then jotting them down without looking at any technology, as you did. But I wanted to make sure I saw at least a portion of their career. There were a couple guys who I maybe watched after their peak, but they still played, and I still saw them play live. So that's where I wanted to go. And I also deliberately wanted to avoid the Cubs. So there are Cubs on my list, but I wanted to stay away only because I could have filled my list with Cub players.

[Matt Abaticola]

Well, that's part of the honesty, though.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, I know. But. But I mean, from. I mean. But I wanted to find players outside of Chicago as well that I loved for whatever reason. So here's the list. So I got down to 12 players with two honorable mentions, and I'll start with those. And they are actually Chicago cup players, honorable mentions. The first one goes to Darwin Barney. And not because of his performance on the field, but because of the relationship I developed with him as a reporter for the first time, covering a team for the score and not really knowing how to do my job and not knowing, you know, where to be at the right time. And you had some reporters that were helpful, but it was really helpful having a player accept me and kind of bring me in, which opened other doors to other players.

[Matt Abaticola]

Do you guys keep in touch? We do.

[Dan Bernstein]

We do. And having him do that for me, and he didn't have to. He was just a nice guy and a guy that was a peripheral player, but he was very open and honest. And our conversations led to my opportunities to talk to other players that were actually more contributing on the field than he was. So he gets a Gold Glover.

[Matt Abaticola]

By the way, that's a Gold Glove winner. Darwin Barney.

[Dan Bernstein]

More of a personal reason than his playing. My second honorable mention is probably a guy that would eventually make this top 10 list if we were to do it again down the road, but it's just too soon in his career. But I love, love, love watching the kid play. And it's the current center fielder for your Chicago Cubs pca. I just, I, I am very. I haven't been this excited about a young player in Chicago in a very long time. So he gets an honorable mention for me. Number 10 is also a Chicago Cub, and he was a part of the championship team that I also developed a personal relationship with. So this is more. This is like kind of split on the field performance and the personal stuff we developed. But number 10 is Jake Arietta, who was, I mean, he put together a stretch of pitching for a year plus. That was just something I've never seen before and certainly haven't seen in Chicago.

[Matt Abaticola]

He was Bob Gibson.

[Dan Bernstein]

It was unbelievable. And then on top of that, he was a great guy. And we just had a great connection and did remotes together and just hung out together just by choice. So that was really, really cool. So Jake areatta is number 10. Number nine is Sammy Sosa. And it just goes back to the home run balls and then. And specifically that 98 season with Mark McGuire. At that time, I was bartending at Arlington Racetrack. I was in the Paddock Pub and it was a great bar and it was a great crowd and I had great regulars. And during that 98 season, people, regardless of what was happening on the race course, people would flock to my TVs if they were at that level. To watch Sammy or McGuire batting. If they were playing the Cardinals, it didn't matter. I mean, people could have a ticket in their hand watching a race. They would walk away from that side of the track to come to the outside prac to sit at my bar and watch Sammy Sosa bat. So it just. And I, you know, I loved it. And that was, that was really exciting. And I have those great memories there from working at the track because of Sammy. Number eight is a guy who. I was more familiar with his later part of his career. And this is a, again, a personal thing that developed because of my brother's love for, for the Pittsburgh Pirates. And it's Dave Parker. And I remember Dave Parker in the 85 season with the Cincinnati Reds. And that was a team managed by Pete Rose. They finished second in the NL West.

[Matt Abaticola]

That's when he was betting on him.

[Dan Bernstein]

Right? That's when he was betting on him. And Dave Parker actually had a really good season in 85, 85. He led the league in doubles and also RBIs. He had 42 doubles and 125 RBIs. He was 34 years old. He was an all Star, a silver Slugger, and he was second in MVP voting.

[Matt Abaticola]

He just missed my list. Oh, seriously, just missed. I just one of those larger than life guys who I was always attracted to these like, big, powerful strike. And he smiled a lot.

[Dan Bernstein]

All the time.

[Matt Abaticola]

He always smiled.

[Dan Bernstein]

And so they finished 89 and 72 that year. I also love the 85 season because the Royals beat the Class Cardinals in a World Series. Not for any love to the Royals, but anytime the Cardinals lose, that's a good thing. But at 34, he led the league in doubles and RBIs. MVP voting. He came in second. My brother loved the the Pittsburgh Pirates. So much so that he painted his bedroom yellow walls with three black lines and a big giant black p. I don't know. I think. I think it was the uniforms. He liked the hats and you know, we are family, the uniforms. And so I got attracted to the Pirates because of my older brother. And then Dave Parker was a guy that I always remembered. And then I remember that 85 season. So Dave Parker is number eight. Number seven is a guy that played for the Colorado Rockies. And he was a guy for a stretch of years from early the early 2000s, 2000 to 2004, he put up some unbelievable offensive numbers. And it's Todd Helton. I just, I always liked Todd Helton and liked watching him bat. And you could say all you want about playing in Colorado, I don't care. You still had to go swing the bat and hit the ball. In 2000, he led Major League Baseball with an OPS of 1162.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yep.

[Dan Bernstein]

And from 2000 to 2004, just look at his offensive numbers, where he ranked in baseball. It was just unbelievable. And I always enjoyed watching him play. Number six. Very similar in the storyline is Reds first baseman Joey Votto always like call.

[Matt Abaticola]

Good call.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. Always loved watching Joey Votto play. And he was always a guy. Of course, seeing him play the Cubs a lot, I was always like, fuck, why can't the Cubs have that guy? Why can't the Cubs get a guy like Joey Votto? I just, I love Joey Votto and I Was always attracted to left handed hitters because I couldn't do anything left handed. And I was always like. They were always like these magical, weird creatures, the guys that were really good lefty. So I always loved Joey Votto, number six.

[Matt Abaticola]

And also Joey Votto. Smart, funny and nice and is part.

[Dan Bernstein]

Of Major League Baseball's broadcast now, which is great. So he'll be. Is it Major League Baseball, he's joining the network or is he joining.

[Matt Abaticola]

Or it's Fox.

[Dan Bernstein]

Fox or NBC?

[Matt Abaticola]

One of those.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, yeah, it's him.

[Matt Abaticola]

From him Rizzo.

[Dan Bernstein]

Then your guy Kershaw.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah, that's my guy.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, is that. Was that a mistake? I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. I can take that out of the. I can edit that out. Thank you. I know you don't want to be associated or do you know you don't. Okay, my bad. Number five for me is one of the best I've ever seen. And it's Ken Griffey Jr. I don't really need to say a whole lot about Ken Griffey Jr. His career even, you know, the smallest of baseball fans know Ken Griffey Jr. Just a beautiful swing, beautiful athlete. And I'll take out that 2008 season when he was with the White Sox. But what really stands out for me, dan, is the 1995 playoffs when Seattle played the Yankees and then lost in the ALCS to the Indians. These were his numbers against the Yankees. He had A. His OPS against the Yankees was 1488 and he had 24 total bases, five home runs. He had 391 in the series that they beat the Yankees. And then he goes on, they lose the Indians in the ALCS. But his OPS was 1011. He had 12 total bases. He had 333. But most specifically, though, I remember watching that series against the Yankees and just thought, oh my God, you know, so tired of the Yankees at that point in my, you know, I was in my young 20s and I was like, God, the first Yankees. Always, always, always. And to see what he did against the Yankees just always stood out to me. And then is one of the smoothest players I've ever seen. So number five is Ken Griffey Jr. Actually, I have a picture of him hanging on my wall down here, which you can't see some of my. So, you know, it's funny, some of the athletes I have hanging up, but on here I have Ken Griffey Jr. I have Shaq, Muhammad Ali and then I have Jordan and Tiger. Those are the only athletes they have hanging up on the walls.

[Matt Abaticola]

Pretty good list.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, right. Yeah, not too bad.

[Matt Abaticola]

Not too bad.

[Dan Bernstein]

Number four for me is Cubs pitcher and I'll always remember his Cubs pitcher, not Braves pitcher Greg Maddox. Heartbreaking to see him leave the Chicago Cubs over money, which is really pathetic. And then to go and watch the career that he had in Atlanta. So it was as it's hard to root for other NL teams but luckily the Cubs weren't really good all those years. So it was easy to root for Greg Maddox and the Braves all those years that they won the division and went to the playoffs and won the World Series. So Greg Maddox, number four. For me, number three is a guy we've talked about recently on this show and is the greatest right handed hitter I've ever seen. My favorite right handed hitter. And again, this is a personal tie to that. I've gotten to know him on a personal level and he's a great guy. It's number three for me is Frank Thomas.

[Matt Abaticola]

That's my number two. Okay.

[Dan Bernstein]

So I thought we would maybe cross there. And Greg Maddox.

[Matt Abaticola]

I love him and I appreciate him. It just wasn't. It just never somebody who. It's hard to explain. I had to be really honest about it.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. No, but there just wasn't that emotional.

[Matt Abaticola]

Connection for you I never had. For me, Maddox was much more appreciation.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. So I, I thought for sure we would have Frank Thomas as a crossover and I thought you might have Greg Maddox in there just before his pitching power and his pitching ability. So. So yeah, so we were right. We said one or two at most. So one. Right.

[Matt Abaticola]

I didn't identify with pitchers.

[Dan Bernstein]

Really.

[Matt Abaticola]

For whatever reason. I didn't.

[Dan Bernstein]

Interesting.

[Matt Abaticola]

I just, it was all my list is there's only one pitcher on my list. Really. Yep. Didn't it just never identify with pitchers?

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, I guess now that I say that when I have one, two and then three for me because number two is a guy that again, I saw more later in his career, but even later in his career the guy was a fucking dominant on the mound. This guy at the age of 43 and 44, led major league baseball Dan in whip hits per nine and strikeouts per nine. After the age of 40, he pitched 1271 innings, had 1437 strikeouts and 933 hits. That's after the age of 40, 11 times. Led major league baseball in strikeouts four times. He did that after the age of 40. And of course it's number two for me is Nolan Ryan. And a lot of Nolan Ryan. I saw a lot after the fact. I mean, again, later in his career, he was still a dominant pitcher. But the fact that he never won a Cy Young for all the years that he pitched and the way that he dominated for years in baseball is really incredible. But the final thing that clinched it for me and my love for Nolan Ryan was back in 2010, he threw out the first pitch of a Rangers game and he was 60, 63 years old.

[Matt Abaticola]

Dude.

[Dan Bernstein]

And he didn't walk up and toss one over home plate. Threw an 85 mile an hour dart over the plate at 63 years old in a pair of khakis and a red polo. And he walks up there, you're just like, all right, this is awesome. It's Nolan Ryan. He's a bald old man.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

He's going to throw a strike. He'll throw a strike. No, he throws an 85 mile an hour heater down the middle of the zone. It was unbelievable. So number two for me is Nolan Ryan. And number one, I would bet you could guess we've talked about him before on the show, actually early on in the iteration of this show. But number one for me is Ryan. Not Ryan, but Ryan Sandberg. Number one. He's the reason why I wanted to play second base as a kid.

[Matt Abaticola]

Wow.

[Dan Bernstein]

My favorite player. And then getting somewhat of a personal connection through him. Having him on the show for years with us, being able to get to know his family a little bit. And then the ultimate thing was Rosner doing me the greatest solid ever at the age of 50. For my birthday, Rosner got Sandberg to sign a jersey for me. And I'm getting it framed.

[Matt Abaticola]

I thought it's supposed to be behind you.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, I know, dude. And I've been delayed on doing that. It'll hang behind me. But he autographed it to me and it says, matt, I can't believe you made it to 50. And it's hall of Famer 84 MVP in his signature. So number one for me is Ryan Sandberg and he'll always be my number one.

[Matt Abaticola]

If you need windows, Russ Armstrong is the number one for you. He's going to be at the top of your list when you do your favorite owners of window companies. Because who else are you going to put on there? Come on. Who else is. It's Russ and it's Chicago Window Guys at 847-302-9171. You can go there and check out his five star reviews at ChicagoNowdownGuys.com and I know you. You're bombarded with advertising about windows. And you always hear about buy one, get one free or buy one, buy two, get one. Whatever it is that Russ will explain to you what the real deals are, what good windows are and what the good prices are. He'll match any price that so you don't have to fall for the gimmicks. It's just the best product at the best price guaranteed. It's his factory here in Chicago where he will custom make windows for your house to your specifications. And then the people who install, the people who measure are not third party labor, they're all Russ's people. So I've recommended Russ to friends, to coworkers, to neighbors because we had the same houses and the same builders windows. But Russ has done over my whole house so I can recommend him highly. 847-302-9171 and check out his 5 star [e-mail] so as mentioned, I tried to do this just remembering and just thinking about how I was going to do it. And I tried to make sure these were my favorites and I didn't want to mix in what happened after I started working in pro baseball. I didn't want to mix that in too much. I mean some of it's inevitable. But I started working in pro baseball in the summer of 8869 and since I was born nice and some of these along the way, I wanted just to make sure that this was just as a fan, for the most part my favorite. So there are some others in here that deserve special mention though, somebody like Steve Stone and Jimmy Pearsall who I was able to work with for a long time and Steve obviously who's become a friend over the years. Also there's a group of three players with whom I worked semi regularly through the station who I'm not gonna say my favorite players, but these are all people who are just very well raised and well mannered young men.

[Dan Bernstein]

Can I guess one?

[Matt Abaticola]

Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

Mickey Morandini, score baseball expert.

[Matt Abaticola]

No, it was not Mickey. Although that day, I'll never forget that day at Cubby Bear, one of my all time memories. I don't think you remember it.

[Dan Bernstein]

I do. No, I remember I walked in, put my bag down on the stage, laid down on top of my bag, my head as a pillow and went to sleep.

[Matt Abaticola]

And that was Mickey Moore and he were asking him about players like I never seen him. I didn't watch, I don't know, he wasn't watching Cubs games, he wasn't watching baseball or baseball as our baseball expert. But no the three names on that list, in no particular order, Chris Bryant, Ian Happ, and Gordon Beckham, all really good dudes who shared in multiple interviews not just their successes, but their vulnerabilities. And people who answered the bell in good times and in bad times, especially Gordon Beckham. What he did over the years as his. As his career peaked very quickly and declined relatively quickly as well. But just pros in every respect and, and I appreciate them from the relationship that I was able to have professionally with Bryant and Hap and Beckham. I also have a special note in this for Scott Efross. Scott Efross, the former Cub who was traded to the Yankees in the Hayden Wisneski deal and who, thanks to a connection with Ian Happ, Scott Efross, who also was switched from 3/4 over the top arm angle to a sidearm arm angle. And it happened with our son when Jason's high school coach decided to make him a sidearmer. And he was uncertain. He was a little nervous about it and wasn't sure how it was going to work and had some growing pains in the process through spring baseball and workouts and everything. And Scott Efross, out of the goodness of his heart, he, Ian Hap said, yeah, you know, check him out, give him a call. And I got in touch with Scott and just thought. I said, hey, you know, can you pass a couple of words of advice in this transition? And I thought I was gonna get a note from him and I included Jason in the emails. I thought I was just gonna, hey, you know, hang in there, don't let him get you down, stay on top of the slider, that kind of thing. And he didn't. He said, hey, I need video. He said, I want you to record two bullpen sessions. I need to see from behind the plate. I need to see from behind him. I want every pitch in his arsenal and I want it. I want to know the grips. So I sent him all this stuff. He sent back a scouting report, like a workup, and then called Jason and They talked for 45 minutes on the phone. And this is, you know, this is just doing this because he wanted to. He said, I love working with young pitchers. And then he said, hey, text me with any questions. And he talked to him about sequencing. He talked to him about the position of everything where you are on the rubber, where, and delivery and feel and explaining things that I didn't even understand. Cause they're talking, you know, pitcher to pitcher about some of this stuff. And it was incredibly, incredibly helpful.

[Dan Bernstein]

Very Cool.

[Matt Abaticola]

It was really cool. And I. And it was. And the two of them have remained in touch and it's. So I have a special mention there for Scott everest. Now number 10, Ichiro Suzuki.

[Dan Bernstein]

Okay, almost. Almost on my list, buddy.

[Matt Abaticola]

Almost on your list.

[Dan Bernstein]

Almost on my list. Yes.

[Matt Abaticola]

It just a remarkable unicorn of a baseball player. And I was old enough when he arrived to, you know, and I was already working, but old enough to understand what he was doing. I remember Terry and I had a big argument about him. He's like, nah, nah, he's a little fast slappy guy. And I said, he's a lot more than a little fast slappy guy. I remember that. I said, he is that, but only when he wants to be, because he can be all things. And when you'd go to games and just watch, watch the way his stretching was different, everything, his rhythm was different. And he was just an amazing baseball player. And we found out in retirement, as everybody has talked about him and certainly at the hall of Fame, just what he's meant to people and just how serious a person he is while not taking himself too seriously. That's sort of a theme here in some of this stuff. It does not apply to my number nine, however, my number nine favorite baseball player of all time is Rickey Henderson. I mean, what more do you want, right? You know, I remember seeing his name for the first time in the, in the AL Red book. And they were the, the Oakley was talking about this, this kid in their system who's rising fast, who is at AAA Tacoma. And they'd never seen anything like his combination of power and speed. I'm like, okay, I can't wait to see him. Well, we saw him and he's number nine, number eight. Unfortunately, by the time he got to the White Sox, he was, was not himself, but Bo Jackson almost on my list because that stuff that he did, there were so many, oh my God, I can't believe what I just saw. Moments with him, his highlights that will live forever. And it was, it was a time when the. Some of the greatest athletes in the world chose baseball as at least a part of what they do. They don't real. Most don't do that anymore. The greatest athletes are playing basketball, they're playing football. They're. They're not choosing baseball in the way that they used to. And that was the time where you knew you were watching one of the world's greatest athletes.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, dude, that's another one that we could have had a crossover. It was a fight to not have mod but that dart he threw from the right field wall to home plate on the line.

[Matt Abaticola]

It's just one of the one on the left field wall, the one that he did for the corner in left, where nobody understood the physics was at.

[Dan Bernstein]

The first base, right to home. Oh, was it.

[Matt Abaticola]

There was one from left field to home where everybody looked like how even umpires, everybody, like, wait, that didn't. There's no way that just happened. And there were so many of those even little things that he did. But Bo was. And his biography by Jeff Pearlman about the legends and trying to debunk what's real and what's not real. It's a great piece of writing, as always, by Jeff Perlman.

[Dan Bernstein]

It's funny because with, with Bo Jackson, when I, when the name gets in my brain, I think football, I know, and first and foremost, I'm always football. And then as a kid growing up playing Techno bowl, you know, it's just, I'm always thinking of Bo Jackson. But yeah, that was a, that was a debate. So I'm good. I'm glad you put him on there. It's fun.

[Matt Abaticola]

Number seven is the only pitcher on my list and the only one I did not see play. And he's there because he took up an outsized play place for a lot of us culturally. And that's Sandy Koufax. Okay, Sandy Koufax at 7 was it. He mattered. And there are a couple of documentaries that talk about his outsized meaning. For a lot of people it was Hank Greenberg, and then for the next generation it was Koufax. And I can't speak to whether or not it's been Sean Green or Alex Bregman for others, but to always know, or even Steve Stone for that matter, but to always know that there was Koufax, an undeniable great of all time, who was a Jewish kid from the city who was not a big guy and not remarkably strong, but he was undoubtedly, unquestionably, one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He was always there. Knowing that that's number seven.

[Dan Bernstein]

You know, on that note, too, I did. I finished yesterday, the Mel Brooks documentary. Yeah, I watched Part two. So I want to. We'll put a pin in it and we'll circle back to it and we'll, you know, do all the other corporate terms. We'll talk about it again down the road. I'd like to just have that conversation with you.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah, absolutely. Number six on my list, Reggie Jackson. I mean, I, I was, I was. That's your wheelhouse for A brief time I was really into the Yankees because they're pretty. President for a while was Al Rosen, who was sort of a shirt tail relative of mine. He was my. My grandfather remarried later in life to his. His sister something. It was. There was a family connection. Okay. And I got to meet him. And he also sent me a bunch of Yankee stuff in the 70s. And I mean.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh yeah, you'd mentioned that. That's right.

[Matt Abaticola]

Just the coolest stuff. Baseballs and jackets and things and programs and stuff. And Reggie that after the three homer performance, obviously, but even before then, just his entire time as a Yankee and how he dominated national headlines and he was. He just hit the ball so damn hard and so far and was a great athlete. I was compared him to Sosa. I really. That was the closest thing to Sammy Sosa. And when I watched Sosa and what he became, regardless of why there was a Reggie Jackson ness to him, the massive ego. The only. The biggest difference is that Reggie's really smart. That's the difference. Reggie is just always knew what he was doing. Always knew that he was kind of playing a character and leaned into it, but also was willing to make fun of himself.

[Dan Bernstein]

What was that? 78, the three home run. Yes, that's 78. Right. So you.

[Matt Abaticola]

That.

[Dan Bernstein]

So that makes you nine years old. Yeah, that's. That's wheelhouse.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah, for sure. Watching the World Series and. Oh my God, the. He'd already hit two. He'd already hit two. And it's Charlie Huff, the knuckleballer, throwing at 50 miles an hour. And Reggie supplying all the power down to one knee and puts it in the batter's eye 500ft away. And it was just. It was impossibly superhuman to me at the time. And the candy bar is awesome. And even the candy bar they brought back is awesome. Number five is Ozzy Guillen. He arrived in 85. We knew when Lamar Hoyt was traded. You know, a lot of us are thinking, what, what? They traded Lamar Hoyt to San Diego. What, what happened? They're getting back Tim Lawler and Luis Salazar. Those guys are bad. What happened? We don't want those guys. And they said, but the real. The key to the trade was this kid. He was this kid. I remember when it happened, when I found out about it, I think it was at Northbrook Court. And the guy who owned the hat, the baseball hat store was a fan. He's like, yeah, I don't know. His name is Gullen. And this guy Gullen is. He's supposed to Be I'm like, well, I don't know anything about him. He's just. He's like 18 or something. He's like, yeah, he's supposed to be really good. And he was just a joy. Ozzy was just a delight and funny and it just to watch him in the field, to to watch even routine plays he made look cool. The impossible plays he was able to make. One of the greatest fielders I've ever seen in my life. And as a hitter. Hilarious that Ozzy like everything about his at bats. And the way Hawk Harrelson loved watching Ozzy hit and knew he wasn't good. But it didn't matter because he was fun. And every once in a while he would have the two worst swings you've ever seen in your life. Like no chance overmatched swings. And I remember Hawk would be like, he just setting him up and then he reach out over the plate and slap something over the third baseman's head.

[Dan Bernstein]

It was funny. I almost mentioned Ozzie Guillen too, but it would have been for me more as a manager because I loved watching him as a manager and what he did for the White Sox. And one of my early on in my career was one of the bigger controversial things that ever happened on air. Lawrence and I were doing a show and we were talking about, this is 2004, talking about Dusty Baker and Ozzie Guillen. And I made the comment that Ozzie Guillen will win a World Series. As a manager long before Dusty Baker and as a Cubs fan, I got destroyed by Cub fans. I mean just absolutely destroyed. How could I say that? How could I think that put. To put that out there. You can think it, but to say it on the radio was one thing.

[Matt Abaticola]

And I believe it was a betrayal to say it.

[Dan Bernstein]

It was 100% betrayal. And I remember just thinking that this guy is going to lead this team to a World Series. Because what he did was a master class in leading a clubhouse and a team and everything in not an egotistical way, but in a deliberate managerial way, was about Ozzie Guillen and his players were just left to play the game. And what you saw in 2005 was the result of that. Now eventually he kind of got away from him a little bit, but it was, it was a beautiful display of being a manager of a baseball team in 05. And yeah, so he almost got a mention for me, but I was afraid I'd get backlash to again now.

[Matt Abaticola]

So Ozzy is number five, number four, and the last non White Sox player on my List is Von Calderon. Number four is the baseball players. Baseball player that he. He came up to his team at just the right age for me. I watched his entire career. I impersonated his swing when I could. And there was just something about him. The rugged, tough ball player. Just my schema of what a baseball player looks like and does at the highest levels.

[Dan Bernstein]

A righty or lefty hitter.

[Matt Abaticola]

Lefty. And I had the rare joy. And I told him this later. I had the rare joy of watching him take batting practice when he was in his 40s, years after he retired. And he got to Wrigley Field shortly after interleague play started. And I was at Wrigley three hours early. He was there three hours early with the visiting team. And the wind was whipping out. All the flags were just starched stiff straight out. And he said, he comes down, he goes, holy shit, look at fucking wind. I got to take BP and he got a batting practice pitcher. And I got to watch him. He. It was him. Rich Dower and George Brett took batting practice. He didn't know that there's nobody there. I told him later that I saw that, that I was there, that I got to watch it. And it was just really neat to hear his response and hear him talk about it. But George Brett was the ballplayer's ball player. And everything about him that's like that. You just wanted him to, like, be your older brother. You wanted him to, like, like, just be like that. That was. That was the guy. It was. Everything about him just was baseball. And he wasn't on the White Sox. And that made me unhappy because.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, you said not a White Sox.

[Matt Abaticola]

That's not a White Sox. Now. Now we get to my top three favorite players of all time. Number three is Harold Baines. Okay. And I don't know if he's anybody's favorite player because Harold has no personality at all.

[Dan Bernstein]

I'm sure he might not even be his own favorite player.

[Matt Abaticola]

I don't know.

[Dan Bernstein]

I.

[Matt Abaticola]

Nobody really. There's just. There's not a whole lot there to Harold you can try.

[Dan Bernstein]

Just came into this job.

[Matt Abaticola]

Everybody has tried to figure out what else is going on there, but there isn't a lot going on. All he did was hit line drives, and he did it a lot. And he did it in key situations. And my biased memories of him, like, I didn't. This is why I didn't consult stats. I know what the stats say. But in my mind, when he would come up in the seventh inning with. With runners on first and third and two out. He's hitting it in the gap and remembering him before the knees went and then how he sustained as a DH even after the knees went. That's why he's. He just. He did so much good at so many different times. Not to any great ends outside of 83, but. Harold Baines, number two. Number two, as mentioned on my list, is Frank Thomas, one of the greatest baseball players I've ever seen. Somebody who was. When he was drafted and as he was coming up and we just knew that there was something really, really special going on. And to. It always hurt my heart when he was fighting with management and everything. All the bad blood that happened and the contractual issues that he had with Jerry Reinsdorf and the diminished skills clause and all of that. But I'm so. And I. It made me happy. And I. And I told Frank this after the World Series, that he mattered, even though he wasn't on the World Series winning team at the time. He did play that year and there was a stretch of a couple weeks where he went crazy and just. He had a. He had an. Like an old Frank run and he. I want to say he had 12 homers in a really short period of time. Time. And I know of course he got a. A ring. I want to get just that stretch. So we have that there. In 2005, Frank Thomas played in only 34 games for the.05 White Sox. But he hit in those games, 12 home runs. He slugged.590. He had an OPS of 9:05 and OPS plus of 1.31. He mattered in the season in which they won the World Series. And I don't think that that gets appreciated.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. And just ops plus just so you know that like 100 is average.

[Matt Abaticola]

Right.

[Dan Bernstein]

An average number. So his number of 131. That's pretty darn good.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah, he was. He was 31% better than an average hitter in that year's run environment. Do you know what. What his career best OPS plus was in a season?

[Dan Bernstein]

I wouldn't even venture a guess without.

[Matt Abaticola]

212. Jesus.

[Dan Bernstein]

Okay. I wasn't going to go that high. I could have made a guess because I wouldn't have been high.

[Matt Abaticola]

That was 1994. That was the canceled season where he. His OPS was 1.217.

[Dan Bernstein]

Wow.

[Matt Abaticola]

And his OPS.

[Dan Bernstein]

OPS+ was.212.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah. His slash line in 1994, he batted.353. His on base percentage was.487 and he slugged.729.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. Absolute shame about that season. I mean, whites are totally, totally robbed. What a terrible year.

[Matt Abaticola]

Brutal. And my number one player of all time, my favorite baseball player of all time. There's only a handful of us on earth who have been blessed by the high priests with an ability to understand him and not even to understand. No one understands him. No one truly appreciates or understands Yvonne Calderon. But there is a small and blessed sect of people who at least have been given by some higher power an awareness to be allowed to learn how to appreciate him better, to have been shown the light that there is so much more to be understood over time. And we may never be meant to understand the greatness of Yvonne Calderon in all of its glory, but some of us will never stop trying and know that we must protect his memory forever. And he was taken from us too young. Will never quite understand why he needed to be shot that many times on that day in that particular place and why it had to happen as it was foretold in the ancient writings, in the ancient tablets. But there is really no, there's no argument. There isn't much to be said. And you can't really, you're not supposed to say his name too many times. But, but yes, my favorite baseball player of all time is Yvonne Calderon.

[Dan Bernstein]

All right, that's our top 10 list for today. Our top 10 favorite baseball players of all time. And I've got a fun, fun topic for next week around the Olympics.

[Matt Abaticola]

Okay.

[Dan Bernstein]

But wanted to give you a long Runway to work up to this one. So it's going to be fun. I'll, I'll let you know when we're done today. All right, what we're doing for next Friday with an Olympic theme theme to it. And speaking of an Olympic theme, Dan.

[Matt Abaticola]

It is now time for a 312 sports Olympic update with our Olympic correspondent Matt of At A Cola.

[Dan Bernstein]

All right, well, here's what happened yesterday in the Olympics. We talked about men's hockey. Starting Canada beat Chechia 5 0, the US over Latvia 5 to 1. In women's play, Canada beat Finland 5 to nothing. Women's super G. Now this was a fun event. I watched this last night. Several Americans competed in the the medal round, but they, they all fell. Breezy Johnson actually had a really bad. They all fell. Dude, there were so many women that and snowboarding and downhill skiing last night. I don't know if it was because of the snow weather conditions, but everyone pretty much fell. So if you were able to get down the track, you were going to have a good chance of getting a medal. Last Night. Breezy Johnson. She went, like, second to last. I thought she might have a chance for a gold. Missed a turn and then went straight into, like, you know, those big red, like, the gates, the fence they have set up on the perimeter. Went right into the net, like, hard.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yikes.

[Dan Bernstein]

But she got up. She was. She was totally fine. And yesterday or two days ago, she got engaged. I saw that right on the mountain. Yeah, she got engaged. And, like, the box that the ring was in had some. Some Taylor Swift lyrics on it. And there was a picture of it posted along with the proposal. And apparently Taylor Swift responded on the Instagram photo.

[Matt Abaticola]

Nice. Yeah, really cool, Breezy.

[Dan Bernstein]

But in the women's super G, the winner was Frederica Brigione from Italy. Won the gold. Now a very accomplished downhill skier, but this was really cool for her because 10 months ago, she had a terrible crash, terrible wipeout on the mountain. Required surgery. They showed her rehabbing and working out this scar that went from, like, the middle of her thigh down to her calf. The number is, like, 42 stitches. And. And, dude. So she comes back, and just about two weeks ago, got clearance that she was able to ski again and do this, and here she is competing in the Olympics and ends up winning the gold medal. So it was a really cool story. Despite what happened to the Americans, Americans in the women's half pipe final, this was. American Chloe Kim was going for a third consecutive gold in. In the snowboard. Would have been the first person to ever get three consecutive golds, but she fell on her third and final run. So she was. She got silver. And then, of course, we talked about her yesterday. That is the. In a relationship with Miles Garrett. Miles Garrett was there for. But still got a silver medal. Did great, but lost by, like, two points and then had a chance to win it. She was the final one to compete and then fell in her third run, so couldn't do it, but had the lead all the way up to that point. Today, there's some events going on. We have women's hockey. The U.S. team takes on Italy at 210. And then around noon today, we have the men's singles for ice skating. The final is happening. That's the quad. God, Melanin is going for a gold. So that's at noon today. And then our medal count right now, we have a new leader. Actually tied with Italy is Norway at 18. Along with Italy, the USA is in second with 14, Austria 12. And then France and Japan with 10. And there was some controversy. We talked about yesterday. Was it Maddie Chop Maddie Shock Chalk and Evan Bates, the ice dancers, this figure skaters, the married couple. So they lost the gold medal to a couple from France and it was like less than two points. And there was an online.

[Matt Abaticola]

Isn't. Isn't the Frenchman the guy who's been like arrested for domestic assault or something?

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, I don't know that about. No, no, I don't know that about him. But what the controversy is is the. The judge that was part of the scoring for this finals is a French judge. And apparently there's been controversy with this French judge. Previously had the score that. That was given to the French couple was like 8 points higher than everybody else. So they're kind of thinking that the books were cooked a little bit from this French judge. And it's not the first time this has happened, so. Because I heard that there was a story of a. Natalie told me that there was an online petition being signed for people to look at this thing. And I was like, all right, that's just. They're being, you know, sore losers, little sour grapes on it. But then come to find out it's this controversy with the same French judge that has awarded this couple points so much higher than every other judge in multiple competitions. It seems kind of. Kind of shady. So. And if you take that score out, the American couple who was favored to win wins pretty easily. So. Yeah, that's. That's pretty interesting. And one last thing I want to have. I want to share for you. This is a great story. I don't know if you saw this. This is why we could talk about hockey being bad for you, Dan.

[Matt Abaticola]

Okay.

[Dan Bernstein]

A Slovak fugitive who had been on the run for 16 years. Excuse me. Was finally arrested when he turned up in Milan to support his national hockey team at the Milan Winter Olympics. Police said Friday. The 44 year old man who was not named, was wanted. Was. He was named. It's not in the story.

[Matt Abaticola]

Okay.

[Dan Bernstein]

He was wanted by Italian authorities for a series of thefts dating back to 2010. So he shows up in Milan to watch his team play because he wants to watch the national hockey team play. And he ends up getting arrested by Italian police because they managed to track him down. And they arrested him Wednesday after he checked into a camp.

[Matt Abaticola]

A camp.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, he checked into a campsite in the outskirts of Milan and thanks to an automatic alert from the campsite reception, the man was taken into. Into custody and serve a prison, blah, blah, blah. To serve a pending sentence of 10 months to seven years, according to the police.

[Matt Abaticola]

Right. Well, their system worked, I guess.

[Dan Bernstein]

Okay, so that's where, see, we tell you hockey's not good for you. Ended up getting arrested. So, dude, like, like you're wanted by Italian authorities for 16 years and you're like, you know what? I'm probably in the clear now. I'm going to go watch this hockey game.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah. I'm just going to go to a campsite and set up a tent. There's no way I'm still off the grid. Did he use a credit card?

[Dan Bernstein]

I don't know. He must have. Maybe it's just his name was flagged. I don't know. I don't know. But he got arrested for going to watch his team play hockey.

[Matt Abaticola]

Wow. And that has been a 312 sports. Sports Olympic updates. If there has ever been a time to get in on my bookie and all that, they have their full menu, their panoply of sports wagering options. Now is the time. One account, one wallet. You want to bet the spread? Yep. You want to bet on the live bet of the the second half of an NBA game, because there's all sorts of opportunities once the game is started. Maybe a team goes out to a huge lead and I don't know, maybe, you know, that team isn't in great shape and tends to get kind of tired and might blow that big lead. So you want to hit the money line. The Bulls, Maybe you want to do that.

[Dan Bernstein]

Bulls.

[Matt Abaticola]

You can go to my bookie, Dot AG now. And we have a promo code for you. It's D B. You know those letters? Dan Bernstein, unfiltered DBU. Then your first bet is covered up to 500 bucks. If it doesn't hit, you got a bet back, bonus token, and you can run it back. And that way you're not just watching whatever game, you're making it pay with my Bookie. So MyBookie AG the promo code when you register and deposit is DBU, which brings us to our DBU picks that are brought to you by my bookie.

[Dan Bernstein]

I got some college games for you that I want to start with. I'm just going to stay away from the NBA today, and let's look at some college. I have two games. First, we're going to go in the Big Ten, and we're going to take Wisconsin getting two and a half points. They're hosting Michigan State. So Wisconsin plus two and a half against Michigan State. Wisconsin is at home. And then this next game.

[Matt Abaticola]

Daniel.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, boy. I look forward to this every year. And you can throw out the record books when these two teams together I already did.

[Matt Abaticola]

I threw them out already.

[Dan Bernstein]

There you go.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah, they're not here.

[Dan Bernstein]

What I like to call this is the battle for Ohio, Dan, and it's the Redbirds. Miami of Ohio. Aren't they undefeated, laying 10. They are, and they're laying 10 points to the Ohio Bobcats. So we're going to take the. We're going to. We're going to lay the 10. Miami of Ohio laying 10 against Ohio Bobcats and Wisconsin getting two and a half against Michigan State.

[Matt Abaticola]

Well, you know, our sales director, our sales manager, I should say, Drew Medland, his daughter is at Miami and he has been talking up the Redbirds now for a while. He was. He was mentioning this game earlier this morning.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, really?

[Matt Abaticola]

Yes. Very excited about the Redbirds Bobcats maxion that is taking place. Place.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, man.

[Matt Abaticola]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

The battle for Ohio, it's huge.

[Matt Abaticola]

I don't know if it's. Ohio is ever going to be the same.

[Dan Bernstein]

Ohio may not survive.

[Matt Abaticola]

I am. I am putting my money for my DBU pick, my money for the Pebble Beach Pro Am, which, as I always mentioned, sign of spring. That means spring is here. When we get to the Pebble Beach Pro Am, I'm going to take. And the way I do this just so maybe I can buy it off. I don't know if this person is going to win, but I may get enough of an odds increase just in these last three rounds to. To want them to. To buy it off my hands. And that is plus 2200 for Akshay Bhatia. Akshay Batia is my bet because of that. Plus 2200. I like that. I think it's a matter of time before he has another win. And if you watch Akshay, he is a unique dude because he is a very, very thin person. He is 6 foot one. What do you think his listed weight.

[Dan Bernstein]

Is at 611 45, 1 30. Oof.

[Matt Abaticola]

Wow. That is official height and weight is 6111 30.

[Dan Bernstein]

That's thin.

[Matt Abaticola]

That is. And he's a lefty, so you. You can't miss him. You can't miss my guy, Akshay, but I'm going to take him.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, you might if he stands behind one of his clubs.

[Matt Abaticola]

Exactly right. If he just slips into the. Into the bag next to the seven iron. But yeah, AKJ Bhatia at plus 2200. That is my DBU pick. And you can lock in your picks now with my bookie. Bet on anything, anywhere, anytime. That will conclude one of our favorite days. These. These fun Friday shows that have included our Friday Feedback Friday, our top 10 list. And we'll keep doing them because you seem to like them. So keep sending stuff in. By the way, for Friday Feedback Friday whenever I save it, I have a special file for it. You don't have to do it on Thursday. You can do it whenever, throughout the week. And I will definitely keep eyes and ears on everything that you send in. And that's going to do it for Dan Bernstein. Unfiltered Brought to you in partnership with my bookie, Dan Bernstein.

[Dan Bernstein]

Unfiltered unfiltered on 312 sports.

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