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- [00:01]
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- [01:10]
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- [01:42]
Dan Bernstein
Dan Bernstein Unfiltered Unfiltered on 312 Sports it's DBU on 312 and we are brought to you today by Chicago Window Guys, 847-29171. Check out the five star reviews at ChicagoNowInDowGuys.com and in partnership with my bookie. The NBA playoffs are easy money at my bookie. Don't overthink it. We're in the finals. You don't need a crazy parlay. No spreadsheets. You need a team you trust because this is the start of an epic series. All the road teams are winning and playoff basketball is fun. My picks yesterday? Half good, half real bad. But if you're new to my bookie, if you've never made a deposit, there's even less reason to sit this one out right now. The promo code DBU. Any bet you choose, up to $500 fully covered. Make your play. If it doesn't hit you, get it right back when you opt in using the bet back bonus token. So maybe you're enjoying all this Knick stuff and all the hoopla of Madison Square Garden. Or maybe you are a Spurs fan getting excited for what's going to be the next 10 years of them probably appearing at this level of the playoffs. Pick your squad, take the shot. Don't just watch the playoffs, cash in on them. Only at my bookie we've been promising to do a deep dive on what is wrong and what may be correctable with your Chicago Cubs. And also take a look at the newly exciting and American League wild card contending Chicago White Sox. Let's do it with one of the smartest baseball people analyzing the game today and that is Joe Sheehan. Joe Sheehan of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter. That must be a fundamental part of your daily and weekly baseball experience in season, off season. You are not doing it right if you are not availing yourself of the knowledge of this man Joe Sheehan who joins us on Dan Bernstein Unfiltered hello again sir. How are you?
- [03:41]
Joe Sheehan
Good.
- [03:41]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Dan.
- [03:41]
Joe Sheehan
What's going on man?
- [03:42]
Dan Bernstein
Well, what's going on is after digesting your recent piece it was very very gory and I so I I tend to to look ahead, look ahead and wait and is there something where he has drawn the conclusion at the end and tell me if I have this right that it is best to keep getting R I S P situations, keep getting runners in scoring position because the inability to drive them in is probably not sustainable. Did I conclude correctly?
- [04:18]
Joe Sheehan
Yeah, the the stickiness is the opportunities you generating as opposed to the performance itself. You look at last year. I split last year's stats into two halves at the All Star break and what I found that opportunities played appearances with runners in scoring position were more highly correlated to second half RISP performance than actual RISP performance was. Teams are bouncing up and down 100 OPS points at a clip. So what the Cubs are doing is a good thing. They're second, excuse me, third in the league, I believe at generating these RIS PPAs. And the performance has been bad. They're 20th in the league over the last month. Obviously Everybody's frustrated. They're 29th ahead of only the Tigers. But as long as you keep generating those opportunities, likely as not the performance itself is going to turn around. So that pro that's not something I'm worried about with the Cubs in terms of, you know, clutch performance, RSP performance. I think they're going to be fine in that arena.
- [05:11]
Dan Bernstein
Arena so what does worry teenage set
- [05:16]
Joe Sheehan
Aside the context, performance R stuff, this is an older roster. They've invested heavily. You know, you, Swanson's 32, Bregman's 32, Suzuki's 31, Kelly's 31. And one of the things we've seen, even I say the last 10, 12 years as pitchers has have evolved into witches is that older players get pushed out of the league a lot sooner or later. Used to talk about age 36 as being where the cliff was and really now the cliff has moved up to 32, 33. You know, we've seen Swanson really look bad this year. I know Bregman took it upon himself after that loss the other night, but I mean he's, he's looked very bad. He looks like an older hitter. You know, the Cubs by letting Tucker go and signing Bregman in his stead did effectively get three years older at that, that spot. So I really worry about are they going to get basically blown out of the batter's box all year because they have all of these older hitters.
- [06:10]
Dan Bernstein
See, you've kind of red pilled me with the age thing and it's, it's not fun to. Once you start seeing that and thinking that you, it creeps on you a little bit. And it's really hard for me to keep collapse risk out of my mind in watching individual at bats and that's. You can't live a life as a baseball fan thinking, oh God, it's the first year of a five year deal and he might be toast already. Is there anything that can be done to, to mitigate the way I kind of look at that or is that three the potential possible reality of the Cubs?
- [06:50]
Joe Sheehan
Well, you go back to baseline skills, right? Do I think that Alex Bregman is probably is totally done? No, but I do think you look and say that guy who played for the first half of the, of last year for the Red Sox, the, that guy might not be coming back. You know, Dansby Swanson might just be a glove man now. You know, Kelly had a kind of a fluke year last year. He's, he's actually off to a decent start. He's at a, I believe like a 110 OPS Plus. I mean he's okay, but you know, how's that going to work as the year goes on? You'd rather be building around guys 26, 27, 28. And the Cubs have that PCA is 23. Nico Horner, they just signed to the long term deal. You think, you know, he's fine. Hopefully Mo Baller will start hitting again. He got off to a great start, hasn't really hit for the last six weeks or so. They do have young players, but I know at the start of the year, I minimized the collapse risk with the Cubs. I looked at the overall quality of the team, the fact that they're still going to be a very good defensive team, the fact that they have really good plate discipline, and didn't worry as much about the aging bats and ball skills of the aging players. So I've been caught a little off guard here by how poor the offense has been.
- [07:53]
Dan Bernstein
And, you know, it's. It's a little counterintuitive that you, you mentioned pitchers becoming sorcerers, which essentially they have. But the Cubs are seeing an inordinate number of breaking pitches, and that's the way a lot of these at bats are ending, where you think, oh, boy, at age, you can't catch up to a hundred anymore. But that really isn't the issue. The issue is a lot of, of this difficult to hit movement that's getting these guys. How does age affect that? Is it, Is it reaction time? I know this is getting a little more physiological, a little more biological, but you. The. We tend to think, boy, you can't catch up to that old heater anymore. And that's not what's going on.
- [08:37]
Joe Sheehan
Well, it is what's going on in the sense that it's all related. One of the trends you see in older players is that they'll become more patient almost to the point of passivity, while they're waiting for that one pitch that they can catch up to. They'll sit on X or they'll sit on. Yeah, the relationship between velocity and the way guys look on breaking balls is similar. Hitters start cheating on the fastball and they can't adjust as well to that breaking ball. When you're younger, you don't have to get the bat started quite as quickly on the fastball. You can catch up to 96, 97, 98 as you get older and you lose a little bit that hand eye, a little bit of that bat speed. You have to start cheating on the fastball a little bit more, and that will make you more susceptible to the breaking pitch. There was a. I want to say it was the ninth inning last night. No, I'm sorry, it was the fourth. I think when Carson Kelly was up with the bases loaded, he swung in an O1 pitch that landed somewhere around Comiskey Rate, whatever we're calling it these days. And to me, that was Indication of a guy who's just trying to get out ahead of the fastball and just look terrible on a breaking ball. The harder guys throw, the more effective their breaking stuff becomes.
- [09:45]
Dan Bernstein
It reminds me a little bit and I'm just trying to picture it's a long time ago and you as a close Yankee Observer Saw a 34 year old Kevin ukuleles. We saw the 33 year old Kevin Ukuleles here with the White Sox and it wasn't, it wasn't a full collapse, but you knew something wasn't exactly right. You knew this. The ball just wasn't jumping off the bat in the same way. And that's my worry with Bregman is the expected weighted on base average that has really cratered. And the. It's one thing to miss a pitch, it's another thing to get the pitch and have it not go anywhere.
- [10:27]
Joe Sheehan
Yeah, I think these bat to ball metrics that we have you mentioned ex woba, which you can get at baseball savant, really gets at the heart of the problem because somebody like Bregman is going to continue to have that plate discipline that's going to give him the walk rate, it's going to keep the OBP respectable, it's going to keep the OPS and the weighted runs created respectable. But when you look down at some of these process numbers, you can see the problem, which is that just not generating the sign, the same kind of hard contact. And you know, Bregman's a guy who has gotten a lot of value out of pulling fly balls. Maybe you guys traded for Isaac, Isaac parades a couple of years ago, the same idea like, oh, he's gonna be able to pull, pull fly balls and regularly. It'll be a good thing for him. And he's just not that guy anyway. He can't get the bat through the ball with that kind of power anymore. So is Bregman going to be a replacement level player? No, because the glove and the walks will keep him above a certain level. But now you have a lineup that is kind of missing that one guy with Suzuki in a bit of a slump with Ballesteros not really coming through. Michael Bush had a great year last year. I think this year is more like what he actually is. I'm not sure. He's a, excuse me, a 149 way to run cradle type player. So this is a lineup with a lot of good hitters, but maybe not that one scary monster in the middle that they really need Bregman or Suzuki or somebody like that to be.
- [11:41]
Dan Bernstein
Why Can't PCA be that monster?
- [11:44]
Joe Sheehan
Well, they haven't put him in that position. He's generally batted first or eighth. You could go ahead and bat him third. I mean, just terms of lineup construction and what you're expecting from a guy, he's a, the walk rate's better this year, but he's a low OBP slugger. That's the kind of player that he is and really he is a good fit. Now one of the things with him is that he struggled with lefties. Historically he's been a little bit better this year. So you kind of wedge him in the right spot in the lineup. But yeah, a lineup goes Bush, Horner, pca, Suzuki and kind of go on from there. I think that might be a good spot landing spot eventually for, for pca. But again, he's somebody who's always going to be a little bit susceptible to lefties. It's tough having a. I won't call him a platoon player because I don't think he's a platoon player. But until very recently I was advocating for him to be hit for lefties late in the game. You know, the way he, the way council will do for Bush, the way he will do for Ballesteros, we've turned. He basically let PCA go. But even at that, if he's reasonably effective against, against lefties, he's still not going to be that guy. So you're creating a target in the middle of your lineup for, for left handed relievers.
- [12:46]
Dan Bernstein
Before we get into a little bit to what's going on around the league in generally in general, is there anything about the rise in pitching dominance or the fact that everything we talk about with hitting stems from how do you adjust to the, the, the, the weight of all of the great pitching out there? Do we have enough data to know what the ABS challenges have done? Is has there been an advantage, has there been a difference in the way certain pitchers are able to, to navigate a strike zone with the fact that it's better regulated?
- [13:27]
Joe Sheehan
I don't think we have any information at the individual level yet. I think the single biggest trend has been towards turning into a mostly a catcher system. Pitchers almost never challenged now because they're bad at it and teams have learned that catchers are so good at it that we really want to hold our challenges for our catchers. So as the season has gone on, catchers have taken a larger percentage of the challenges early in the year. The first couple of weeks, Dan, there was a big spike in walk rate. That's pretty Much washed out to where walk rate in June is basically what it's been really since the middle of April, has been what it was in recent years. So to me, the challenge system has just turned into another way to help pitchers beat hitters. So I'm a little disappointed by that. I do think it's changed pitcher and umpire behavior a little bit. You just don't see that strike 2 inches off the plate anymore. We've taken that out of the game and that's a good thing. But by and large, to me, the challenge system is just turning into another weapon to, to keep offense out of the game.
- [14:24]
Dan Bernstein
I always wonder what the, the early 90s Braves would have been with this system. When we used to watch, you know, was it Javi Lopez who's setting up in the opposite batter's box and the umpire would reward simply hitting the catcher's mitt wherever the the catcher happened to be? And it was praised. Those Rays, they're just talking about, well, as long as it's called the same way for both teams. And if you establish that they're going to keep giving you that. And it's like, well, that's not hitters.
- [14:53]
Joe Sheehan
Nobody ever talked, and this has been my issue about pitch framing too. Nobody ever asked the hitters, hey, what do you guys think of pitch framing? What do you think about it when a pitch is 2 inch, 3 inches off the plate and called a strike because he hit the glove?
- [15:06]
Dan Bernstein
I wonder who'd be the spokesman for the hitters union. I hadn't really quite thought about them organizing and on, on that level before, but you're right, it has, it has never been a concern how the offenses feel. And then everybody laments the lack of offense and.
- [15:21]
Joe Sheehan
Well, I do anyway. I'm not sure. I don't actually hear about it a lot. I personally find the current version of baseball to be quite stagnant. We're going to hit. We're likely going to have a batting average in the league under.250 for the sixth straight season. 2020 doesn't count. And it'll be only the third time in history that's happened. You got to go back to the 1900s and then the 1960s, both of which we call dead ball errors. So the lack of hits in today's game is a real problem.
- [15:47]
Dan Bernstein
Well, I mean, we could do a whole show on this, I know we could, about the idea of, of lifting the ball or launching the ball, which is the sort of now used as a pejorative term. But the idea of the entire Big grassy area with only three guys out there, and then this tiny dirt area that's filled with people. You'd rather hit it out there because it's much more likely that something good is going to happen out there. And the simplicity of that concept seems to flummox some people who don't understand why it's the most efficient way to score runs. Not to mention how difficult it is to sequence the number of little things together that result in a run when you can just hit it 400ft right
- [16:30]
Joe Sheehan
when you're hit, when you have a.240 hitting league, 245 hitting league, it's very hard to string three singles together the way you might have when the league was hitting.265. Also, too, this idea that hitting the ball hard and up is something that was invented by baseball prospectus in 2012,
- [16:42]
Dan Bernstein
it was invented by Babe Ruth.
- [16:44]
Joe Sheehan
It was invented by George Wright. I mean, you go back to the 1860s and 1870s, guys were always trying to do this. We just have put numbers to it, and that scares people.
- [16:52]
Dan Bernstein
I do want to mention the play of the Chicago White Sox that has been. When you do check in on them every once in a while, they do some really exciting things and they play a very energetic brand of baseball. And you deserve a lot of credit for noticing the green shoots that had been growing after the burn down. And this, it. It's the lack of quality of the American League has helped us see this perhaps a little bit sooner. But how much do you say that this improvement, the, the, the rise of their base level of play is believable and independent of a bad division and a bad league?
- [17:41]
Joe Sheehan
I think they were going to be. You know, I shouldn't, I shouldn't say that, actually. I thought they would regress from last year. Typically, teams that improve by 20 games the way the Sox did last year, regress. It's a concept called the plexiglass principle. And I think some of what we're seeing, yeah, is the AL is weak this year and somebody has to win the games, but they're a better team. You know, Burke and Martin at the front of the rotation, they're really probably more of a 2 number 3 starters than the one 2 that they've looked like. But that's an improvement over what the Sox have had in recent years. You look at a Grant Taylor coming on, they haven't had a relief like this in a very long time. Real good young players coming through like Sam Antonacci, the Chase Major author, I think is a is going to be a good player and inexpensive for four years or so. The Murakami signing has obviously worked out very well. I've named a lot of the good things that are happening. I don't know that necessarily this is the final form. They're going to have to hit in the draft a couple of more times. They're going to eventually have to spend real money to flesh this out. I'm a little bit skeptical about whether they can hold this together this year. The back part of the roster just isn't very good. You look at K. Fetty and kind of the floating fifth starter at this point using openers. You look at the bullpen after Taylor, I have a lot of skepticism about whether they could hold the run prevention together. It's a better defensive team. I'm not sure it's a good defensive team. Sam Antonacci's really changed them a lot. If you look at since the day that Antonacci got called up, they're basically a 600 ball team and getting a real center fielder out there. I'm not sure he's never, he's going to continue to hit the way he has, but having a plus center fielder out there makes a difference. So yeah, there are real, there's real improvement here. And again, you look at the al, it's going to be very hard for them to fall out of the race by the trade deadline, which I think creates an interesting dynamic. I go back to the the 2021 Red Sox dam and they were supposed to be in the middle of a rebuild. Heim Bloom had taken over and at the end of 2019 they had an awful 2020. But you know, 2020 doesn't count. And they played really surprisingly well in 21 and it kind of put them off track. It created a set of expectations, oh, we're back. The rebuild is over. And it wasn't. It was just they had a bunch of guys had really good years and eventually they fell from that and Bloom got fired. Now the Red Sox are kind of in the middle, middle of nowhere. I think it's going to be a challenge for Chris Getz to continue to stay the course and like, hey look, this is a long term project. We don't want to get sidetracked trading future talent for current talent. And even beyond that, you know, do you want to trade a Sean Newton? Do you want to trade a Brandon Iser? Guys who are not really going to be part of the future here. I think that's an interesting decision. Set coming up in about six weeks.
- [20:18]
Dan Bernstein
Lastly, to finish out on the Cubs, you've been high man on them for a while and you have trusted Jed Hoyer's vision for a while and this, this last month has been sobering and for whatever reason there has, there are a lot of people kind of shaken to their core after that magnificent unsustainable start and 15 wins in a row at home and two 10 game win streaks. As of right now, what are the Cubs? Is this a 90 win team? Because the math is daunting is Is this an 80 to 85 win team? How good are they?
- [21:00]
Joe Sheehan
Because the offense isn't as good as I projected it to be and really the starting pitching to a certain extent as well. I was very high on Edward Cabrera. I love that trade. Obviously Cabrera, between the injury and the command hasn't been that guy. I think you've got to realistically downgrade the expectations. I want to say I had them at 95 and 67 to start the year. That doesn't seem realistic now. I think you're looking at a team that's going to be in the wild card mix. I think it's going to make the playoffs. I think it is going to be a wild card team. But all of the things that could have gone wrong this year have gone wrong for them. And I don't mean the luck stuff, I mean actual decline of the players that have been acquired by Hoyer. I know a lot of people want to see him fired. I'm not on that train. I will say that if they don't make the playoffs this year and you've got a team that went out and made this commitment to Bregman, that went out and traded for career, that did things to win this year, I'm not sure what next year looks like because next year Bregman's 33, Kelly's 32, Swans 33. You still don't have a number one starter. You probably don't have a number two starter. And those guys, unless you're going to sign Tarek Scubal, those guys aren't in the market this winter. So I've had a hard time separating the last seven or eight years of Cubs history, assigning blame between ownership and the gm. But we've seen the gm now, the front office, pobo whatever titles you want to use here, make some aggressive moves in recent years and it might not be paying off. And at that point, yeah, maybe you do have to question the leadership.
- [22:23]
Dan Bernstein
What about managing? Are you, are you cool with counsel?
- [22:27]
Joe Sheehan
The version of council we got in Chicago is just to me strikingly different than the one we got in in Milwaukee. I'm sure if that's a smaller version of what happens with GM so far GMs were sometimes a GM from a a low payroll team will go to a large payroll franchise and have some adjustment issues. And it's almost like council has got to gone through a similar thing in the managerial department where he's not quite as creative and aggressive that he was as he was in Milwaukee. I just, I see a level of passivity there. I see a level of not really trusting young players. I'm been a little frustrated. Moises by Esteros has played what, four complete games this year and they just
- [23:03]
Dan Bernstein
sent down Kevin Alcantara. We were just talking about it on on off the iv, our Cubs podcast about that's a guy who at one point hot prospect looks the look is guy, toolsy guy. He made a terrible mistake that contributed to an avoidable loss and he's. He's out and down.
- [23:20]
Joe Sheehan
Well, one of the issues is where do you plan right? I mean you've got Suzuki PCA Hap across the outfield. Even if you want to, you want to DH one of those. Okay, what is Byesteros going to do? You're going to put him back behind the plate? It's definitely. It's weird to say this about what a 33 and 31 team, but they do have too much talent. And I think one of them is, well, Pedro, Pedro Ramirez got called up the other day. Pedro Ramirez has no future on this team. The second baseman, shortstop and third basin are signed forever. Like there's not really anything he can do here. They, I think they need to showcase him for a trade. You look at in the Miners, James Triantos. I don't know what James Triantos ever does for this team, but because I don't see a spot to put him on the roster, I guess, you know, left field next year. But I mean to me obviously that would hopefully be alcon. So it's really a strange thing. And I think one of the things you look at the Cubs here going forward six weeks, I think they've got to go for it this year. And whether that means, you know, dealing away some of these hitting prospects who don't fit or even if a Jackson Wiggins turns up healthy, do you turn him into your third starter down the stretch or you try to turn him into a veteran starter. I think they're going to have to go for it this summer in a way that they haven't had to in previous years.
- [24:25]
Dan Bernstein
Joe let us know the best way to get signed up for the newsletter. For people who are curious saying, look, this is the kind of baseball wisdom that I need every single day. I need to have the thinking inside the box, which is one of my favorite pieces. When you just will decide a day to pick out numbers from box scores that tell stories in your mind and flesh those out. If people want to be part of the joshi and baseball world, how do they do it?
- [24:50]
Joe Sheehan
Joe sheehan.com is where you can read a whole bunch of free stuff that I've done. I run excerpts of every newsletter that I publish. You can actually there's an email link there. If you have any questions about the newsletter, please send them. Get information about Subscription it is a subscription newsletter. It's been just celebrated 16th birthday. It was one of the first ones back in 2010. Yeah, I can't teach you to drive though. Somebody else is gonna have to do that. But it's, it's, I think people enjoy it. Thousands of people that subscribe for almost two decades now. People enjoy it. It's a lot of fun. Dan, you talk about it being a smart newsletter. I think also some passion for the game comes through as well. It's very readable. I want to make sure that it's accessible for fans as well. So Joe sheehan.com is where you get all that information.
- [25:28]
Dan Bernstein
Joe Sheehan has been our guest on Dan Bernstein Unfiltered. Thanks for it. Much appreciated as always, Joe.
- [25:33]
Joe Sheehan
Thanks Dan.
- [25:34]
Dan Bernstein
That is Joe Sheehan. Another friend of DBU is Russ Armstrong, the owner of Chicago Window Guys and you need to call him because it's time to get windows. It's going to be what, 95 tomorrow or something like that and you're going to hear your AC kicking on and why don't you take all that lovely cool air and here's an idea. Keep it in the house instead of heating up the area around or cooling off the area around your house and paying for that, you don't need to do that. It should just be in what you own right there. And Russ can help you do that by replacing your windows with better windows with low emissivity double paned glass with those awesome non metal spacers inside that don't rust and are actually flexible and as the temperature changes can provide better performance from your windows. So talk to him about that. I'm not the window expert. He is. Trust me. This is all stuff that Russ told me. So let him tell you when you call him, you're like, well, Russ isn't going to help me out. He's the owner. Yeah, but that's what he, that's what he does. That he's, he is the business. It's Chicago Window guys. His number, 847302, 9171. And you can read all the nice things that everybody has to say about russ@chicagowindowguys.com he's going to match any price. Don't get hung up on price because as soon as you, you go about your day, you're going to be inundated with windows advertising and this and that and this. Buy one get one free, and this. Buy two, get one or buy one, get 50% off. They're all teasers and they're all trying to get you in there to sell you things you don't need. Russ isn't going to do that. He can sit down, he can give you an estimate and if you go get quotes, you say, well, they said this and they said this. You can say, okay, well here's what we're going to do. He's going to match any price just to make sure that you get the best windows at the best price with the nicest and most efficient experience. So call him 847-302-9171. Check out his five star reviews at Chicago Window Guys dot com. Last night's basketball game was an experience and it, it really hit home for me. I, you know, I don't usually watch pregame, but because of the, everything that was going on, I had, I got home, I made a couple of dinners, I put the groceries away and then I looked at my phone and I saw a picture. Did you see the picture of Wemby being wanded down as he was at. This is Victor Wembanyama as he is entering Madison Square Garden. They do the whole walk in thing and they, and then it's up. Gotta go through TSA because dipshit's here and they have to, they have to wand him down. And it's like, okay, you're, you're good. Go ahead.
- [28:26]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Well, you can't trust anybody these days. Yeah, go ahead.
- [28:28]
Dan Bernstein
Victor Webb. We can't trust a Frenchman who has been aligned with leftist causes. You might be a sleeper cell. So off he goes. And I said, all right, fine, I got it. I have to turn this on to see what's going on there. And I actually thought that for the first time in a while, especially at halftime, the, the, the, that crew was on it like engaged. Draymond and Shaq and Kenny Smith is a little off. And Barkley was on it. Like there was. There was a different energy there. When Mike Breen said, I have never felt Madison Square Garden like this. That's Mike Breen. That's the voice of the Knicks. That isn't just some parachute in TV guy who may do a handful of games there. That's his office. That's his home. And he said, I've never felt it like this before. Just incredible. And then when Jose Alvarado goes flying into the crowd. Oh, no. I hope that old man is okay. Oh, it's Mike Bloomberg. He lands on Mike Bloomberg.
- [29:43]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Yeah.
- [29:43]
Dan Bernstein
There were, there were a few celebrities there last. Oh, my God. Every cutaway. Every cutaway had somebody. Is it. And then they showed Bob Kraft sitting next to Howard Lutnick. Did you see that?
- [29:55]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Who was next to Larry David?
- [29:57]
Dan Bernstein
Oh, my God. I know.
- [29:59]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
You know what does it. And I'll tell you from personal experience. I, I've been to a basketball game in Madison Square Garden, and it was a Pistons, Knicks game, and it was. You know what? It's very reasonable, Dan, to fall asleep there because it's low energy.
- [30:16]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah. Right.
- [30:17]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
It's quiet. There's barely anyone around you. So it's a very great place to
- [30:22]
Dan Bernstein
go for a nap.
- [30:23]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Adult response to fall asleep at a game at msg. So, yes, let's, let's, let's pull back
- [30:28]
Dan Bernstein
a little bit on the criticism. I'm glad you said that. That there's, there's nothing wrong with, you know, you're just, you're a little tired and you think, you know, where would be a nice, peaceful place where I can just kind of rest my eyes.
- [30:41]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Yeah. Game three of the NBA.
- [30:43]
Dan Bernstein
You know, just one of the things, like, you know, like, like you're, like you're watching the Valero Open on a Sunday afternoon.
- [30:49]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Exactly. And sitting in your Lazy Boy.
- [30:52]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah. Just kind of rest your eyes.
- [30:54]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
And maybe it's a very reasonable reaction.
- [30:56]
Dan Bernstein
And I'm like, this is like. Dad, dad, I'm up. I, I can hear everything you're saying. No, I'm not sleeping. Dad, you fell asleep. No, I didn't.
- [31:05]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
No, I didn't.
- [31:06]
Dan Bernstein
No, I didn't. I'm not. I, I can hear everything you're saying. It's all good.
- [31:10]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Oh, boy.
- [31:11]
Dan Bernstein
But it was a. It was a quote crackling basketball game, and I am, I am finding myself, though, thinking it's getting the physicality that's going on out there. And I'm not just talking about the Fouling. If you just don't watch the ball every once in a while, watch Towns and Wemby trying to get position and this tangle of arms, it looks like a Looney Tunes, like, fight cloud. Like when the Tasmanian Devil gets, you know, whipped into a cloud and something gets pulled in and there's arms and legs and things flying out there and then they emerge. That's the kind of thing that's going on in these games. And it is really difficult to officiate. I thought they're. I think they're doing a good job. We. It bogged down late with some of the challenges that did get it right. But they are, they are punching each other. And I mean, it's not just little pushes, like they're wrapping up arms, twisting their arms. Did you see Wemby grab Jalen Brunson by the neck and throw him down? Shaq was awesome at halftime. Did you hear Shaq?
- [32:23]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
No. What did he say?
- [32:24]
Dan Bernstein
Oh, you got to find it. Because he says something like, he did the right thing. That's what you do. Get the. Get out of here. Get that crap out of here. With those little people bothering me, you can only take so much. And I was about. Because I was wary and I'm waiting. Okay, they're going to go to Shaquille o', Neill, Neil, and he's gonna say something about whether Victor Weminyama. And I love the fact that Shaq was like, yep, I have no problem with him grabbing that guy by the neck and throwing him down. Because after a while, you just get sick of people doing that to you when you're a big. So he was. He was speaking up for. For big people. And Wemby, the. When you start seeing him get all those alley oops and the tip ins, when he's that close to the basket and he can affect a game with that proximity to the basket, it changes things. I. And I think the recipe is there for the Knicks. It's going to be a tough one to replicate, but they have to play fast. You can't get into a half court battle as much as Brunson feels like he can rescue you. And as close as they made it, hitting some of those circus shots, that's not a sustainable recipe that they've got to make sure they get back before Wemby sets himself because his ability to cover, to change, strong side, weak side. There almost is no strong side, weak side with him because all he has to do is take one step. He can defend both sides because of his ability to move and Continue to cover the back baseline and all of his entire zone of efficacy. Just because of his length, you can't let it get established. And the only way you can do is push, push, push. Every man advantage should be right at the basket and you're complaining about, we're not getting to the line, we're not getting the line. You got to go to the basket to get to the line. And if Wemby makes you turn around, you're not going to shoot as many foul shots. So I get it. It's a, it's a huge disparity in the score sheet. But that was, it was just a fun game to watch. It was well broadcast. The, the Knicks fans are just awesome. I just. The whole thing, the, the fact that they stopped in the middle of the national anthem to deliver one of the most certain thunderous rounds of booing you're ever going to hear in your life. There's. You talk about no ambiguity whatsoever. It was spectacular. And, and the, the cowardice of hiding that video shot in the middle of the national anthem, like, oh, they'll never stop and boo, so we'll show it during the anthem. And that way nobody would dare boo during the national anthem.
- [35:17]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Well, guess what?
- [35:18]
Dan Bernstein
Oh, really? And also huge credit if you really watch from start to finish of the anthem. The whole thing was poetry. Avery Wilson, I want to give him credit in this. It wasn't just the anthem. You're talking about a Broadway star out there in fine voice who wrested the crowd back. It was all the distraction and everybody's waiting and all this symbolism and all the discomfort and all the tension, and they do it and they, and they. There's. And they boo him thunderously. And then Avery Wilson got everybody back and, and brought that song home and really had everybody there and in, in the national anthem that has itself has been so politicized and polarized and made into a thing. Huge credit to Avery Wilson who, through the strength of his own performance, brought that back and delivered it with all of the emotions and all the tension in that room and everything that was injected into it, into that sort of boiling cultural moment. He ended up being at the center of it. He did. The Knicks fans themselves did. And Avery Wilson, I thought, did a wonderful job. And he didn't make it about himself when I thought his initially, you know, and it's all. It's not some, some show off pop star either. Really good job by him, I thought, respecting the moment and delivering a performance with everything else going on. I can't imagine how Difficult, that is. But it was, it was a great basketball game. And you always say the season or the series doesn't begin until the road team wins a game.
- [37:22]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Well, well, that happened three times.
- [37:25]
Dan Bernstein
I, I guess the series has begun.
- [37:30]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
I didn't like the, the flagrant foul call on Brunson on the three point attempt when he had his, he turned, he ended up turning his back.
- [37:38]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, that's letter of the law.
- [37:40]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
The foot of the shooter that went out and I didn't, I didn't like that at all.
- [37:43]
Dan Bernstein
That is, that's not intent as much as it is letter of the law.
- [37:48]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
I didn't.
- [37:48]
Dan Bernstein
You cannot be there no part of your body. You, you must make sure that you have established a fair landing area.
- [37:57]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
He did. His foot went forward into, into Brunson's leg.
- [38:00]
Dan Bernstein
Replay again. That was. He put his foot back and turned away.
- [38:05]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Yeah, I don't, I don't like it. His foot went a lot further forward than it needed to be on the three point line. Okay, I thought, I thought it was a shitty call.
- [38:13]
Dan Bernstein
Okay, I am going to get to a shitty call. There was a really, really, really shitty call yesterday and I, I feel two ways about it, okay? And this terrible call was made by Lubbock Texas judge Ken Curry. Did you see this?
- [38:40]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
I.
- [38:42]
Dan Bernstein
He came down with a temporary injunction against the NCAA that's going to allow Brendan Sorsby to play for Texas Tech.
- [38:50]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah.
- [38:51]
Dan Bernstein
Did you. What? Yeah, what? Brendan Soresby is now going to play college football after admitting to gambling. Not only gambling on college sports, he gambled on games involving his own team while he was at Indiana and while he was at Cincinnati. I. What did they say? Close to $90,000. Is that the number that I saw?
- [39:24]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
That sounds correct.
- [39:25]
Dan Bernstein
There was an insane amount of money that this kid. So all he said was, I have a gambling problem. It's a disease and I'm being discriminated against. Now, I've got some complicated feelings about this. First of all, whether or not you have a chemical or physiological or psychological gambling disease, you still can't gamble on the sports that you're playing. You have to be removed from the sport. If you say I have something that's wrong with me that I can't control that makes me gamble on this stuff, you can't be a part of it. That's not discrimination, as I understood. And I think Craig Calcatera, as always as a lawyer, does a pretty good job explaining some of these things. And in the cup of Coffee newsletter, he was saying, what Discrimination would be is if somebody with a clinically diagnosed gambling problem were somehow treated differently after the fact that the. It's. It's cut and dried. The rule is, regardless of why you're gambling, you can't be playing. If you're gambling on. You have a pattern of gambling on the games. And it is then, then if you are treated differently than somebody who got caught once or twice or doesn't have a clinically diagnosed problem, if then at that point you are treated differently, that could be discrimination. But it cannot be illegal for an organization to remove an admitted gambler from sports that need to maintain the semblance of integrity. Like, that's. That can't be considered discrimination. But the problem that I have is I love when the NCAA loses. And there's part of me that loves the chaos. And I love seeing nervous, powerful people who are begging and when. When the poster person for this is Nick Saban. And when you have all of these people that all kind of look similar, all these old white men who are troubled by players being empowered. I always love it when players win. And the entrenched powers that be who feel entitled to make money off the backs of all this free labor are losing and confused and uncertain. I love that. I also think it's a wrong decision made by the judge. Does that make sense?
- [42:23]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Can I, you know. Yeah.
- [42:25]
Dan Bernstein
No.
- [42:25]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
I mean, you could disagree with it and still find joy in the outcome of it. I think you're exactly right. It's. It's very clear that you. You can't bet on sports. You can't participate in sports. It's just. It's black and white. There's no discrimination. There's no discussion. There's no debate to it. He bet approximately $90,000 over. Over the course of more than 9,000 bets.
- [42:49]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, that's. Sorry, you can't be a part of what we. And I don't even know who the we is anywhere. That's the problem. And. But these. Oh, help us, Congress, help us. You're asking for Congress to help you. One of the. Probably a section of a profession in this country that may be worse at its stated job than anyone else ever. The idea of this US Congress, you're begging them to help you when they'd rather not do anything about anything. Most of the time they rather not even be there half the time. Oh, help us. Because we don't understand. We don't know what the rules are. Figure it out yourselves. Here's you go talk. Talk to each other. That the players can Talk to your owners or whatever you want, whatever terms you want to use. But this idea of chaos in fake amateur sports, that's actually always been professional sports and should it be controlled like professional sports and governed in the same way? Watching them go through this is. Is just fun because I don't really care about college sports outcomes. They don't matter to me that much. They're just, it's enjoy whatever, have fun with it. And if it's important to you, that's great. But to see that many people, and when, you know, when all of the people who are really concerned and scared and asking, oh, help us, help us, what they're saying is, my world doesn't make sense to me anymore and my. My previous revenue streams that I could count on for so long because of other people's free labor aren't going to be available to me. And then what am I possibly going to do? That's good, that's fun, that's fun. I absolutely love that. So in this case, Scoresby should not be playing college football. He should be getting help and he should be figuring out how he can live a successful life while controlling his gambling problem. But for the moment, he has no place playing, playing organized sports anywhere because you can't trust him, period. So wrong decision. But the outcomes of it are immensely, immensely entertaining. And I. I'm trying to sort of carve out a place where these things can be okay. On another note, literally. Did you see what happened in LA last night on the stage where a band got back together and it was the last night or the night before, but I'm seeing all this stuff today. The band Rush is back. The. They did a show in LA to begin a reunion tour. I don't know if you're a fan. I am. I guess I'm a fan sometimes of. Not all of it. Like, I can't go deep into, like, the weirdo, Neil Peart, Ayn Rand, early years stuff, but I like a lot of what they do. I think musically there's, There's. They carved out sort of a math rock hybrid of Prague and some. A little bit of some. Some metal sensibility in there and created a style of music that is kind of inimitable in large part because of the level of talent of their original drummer. I thought we'd never hear from them again, but to hear the stories told. I watched some interviews with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson saying they weren't sure that the band could ever exist again just because of the singular greatness of Neil Peart and his remarkable speed, ability, jazz sense. You know, he was always a Buddy Rich disciple in a lot of the way he played and the way he used jazz basis for his rock work Pioneering. So. But I'll be damned. They found a drummer and they found a drummer who goes against everything that has always been said about Rush. And if you're saying. What are you talking about? Well, go to McSweeney's, which is like a very sort of literary satire journal. I call it like the Ivy League Onion. And they once did a piece saying that, ladies, here is your new form of infallible birth control. And it's called the Music of Rush. It's hysterical. I think I've read Layla and I did this before and I read excerpts from it when we were on the show. And who did they find to be their drummer to replace the legendary Neil peart, but German YouTube sensation Anika Nelis. I've heard her name mispronounced already, which is in. It's in vogue for Rush drummers. If Rush has a drummer. There have to be people who argue about the pronunciation of her name. I've heard Annika Niles. I've heard Anika Neils because you. You go through these interviews and she says it differently in German sometimes than she does in English. But she was a German preschool teacher who started making videos, who is a trained. She's. She is a devotee of former Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro was like, really? He was her idol. And he's also a drummers drummer, a brilliant session drummer who became the pioneering drummer for Toto. And don't laugh. Jeff Porcaro was really, really good. And she did it. She did it. She did the drum fills on Tom Sawyer for people who really know the music to do it live. There were a bunch of moments. There's one where she lost stick in midair and grabbed it out of the air. But all of the. What are considered the. The tests of the drumming moments in a Rush show, she apparently passed with flying colors. And the responses of the band showed it. They had rehearsed with her and they said after rehearsing with her was the first time that they thought that the muse, that their music could live. And she's been awesome about talking about Neil Peart and talking about how her playing is to remember him. The whole point of her being there is not to take his place, not to make people forget about him, which obviously they can't. It is to appreciate, find new avenues in the music or replicate a lot of this stuff as best she can. It was just the first show. The very, very first show. So obviously in her performance, she's trying to hit the marks and there are. There are so many to hit. I don't have a drummer's ear. I can't go in and critique it. But, you know, if it sounds right and, you know, if it doesn't and you can. What I. What did I look at? I looked at the reactions of Alex Lifeson and Getty Lee, and they looked happy and proud and excited watching her do all this stuff. So it's. I. I never thought I would see it again. And if you are a huge Rush fan, if you were out there, you know, watching these shows, they apparently say that they're going to do a lot of changes to their set list as they continue to. To evolve this show and evolve on. On the reunion. There's going to be some staples, gonna be some tent poles that they're gonna do, and then there's gonna be a lot of changes and some deep cuts and everything else. But I just thought it was really cool and somewhat positively ironic to have a band that in large part has almost an entirely all male fan base find their drummer. And it's this German preschool teacher who happened to be the. It's like a movie. And I just thought it was. It was kind of. It was really cool to see and I. It's great to see how many Rush fans have welcomed her and welcomed the band back with open arms.
- [51:25]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Didn't McSweeney's do a couple pieces I really enjoyed. Wasn't that where they did the Top Gun one? And then also the one about Piano Man.
- [51:35]
Dan Bernstein
The piano is great. Also one of my. One of my favorite. There's a. When he does responses to Mr. Henley's complaints about the Hotel California, as if there was a. Yeah, it's like. It's like a regional hotel manager getting back to him about how he's going to make his stay better in the future.
- [51:58]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Okay, I haven't read that, but the Piano man one is just. Is great. The Top Gun one is just fantastic.
- [52:04]
Joe Sheehan
Yeah.
- [52:04]
Dan Bernstein
The Piano man one is people in the bar in which the Piano man is singing, reacting to how they're talked about in the story in the song.
- [52:15]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Yeah, it's really funny.
- [52:16]
Dan Bernstein
And responding like Davey in the Navy. And it was like, you never call me Davey. It's Dave. What do you. You gotta.
- [52:28]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
You gotta hear.
- [52:28]
Dan Bernstein
It's very good. Yeah. But. All right, so. So Rush is back and. Yes. I. I can't ever Talk about Rush. You've been waiting for it.
- [52:36]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
I've been waiting for it. Hold on, hold on. It's taking this way. Hang on. It's seven minutes. Hold on.
- [52:41]
Dan Bernstein
All together now. Die, baby. Yeah,
- [52:47]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Seven minutes. I'm disappointed.
- [52:49]
Dan Bernstein
I wonder if. I wonder if he went. I gotta. I should text him. I should tell you.
- [52:54]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Oh, yeah, because he's out. He's out.
- [52:56]
Dan Bernstein
Yes, yes. Are they coming to Arizona? See, check the Rush tour schedule. Are they coming here? Check the reunion tour schedule. See if the new Rush.
- [53:05]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Oh, no. If he's out in AZ and they
- [53:06]
Dan Bernstein
were in la, they might be in Glendale. I mean, that's, that's a big. That, you know, Taylor Swift, they did a huge show out there. Glendale's a big stop. I don't know if they're going to fill that place up, but I rushed Hackett.
- [53:22]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
That's it. That's what we're all waiting for.
- [53:26]
Dan Bernstein
I. I also want to mention last night. So Maddie, can you. I don't know if you have it loaded in. I'll just show the picture from my phone. Can I show the picture of you and Frank?
- [53:37]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Oh, yeah, I don't have it. I don't have it loaded in.
- [53:39]
Dan Bernstein
I laughed so hard because Frank. Is that a standard poodle? Was he.
- [53:43]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
No, he's a. He's a Bernie Doodle.
- [53:45]
Dan Bernstein
A Bernie do.
- [53:46]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
He's 103 pounds.
- [53:48]
Dan Bernstein
Three pounds. Now Matt is. You're what, six? Two, six, two. Yeah. So he says in this picture. It says. All it says is just watching hoops with Frank. And there are some dogs that think they're smaller dogs and they just don't know. They think they're smaller dogs and they can just climb up on you. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the 103 pound basketball watching lap dog. Look at that.
- [54:23]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
He's just chilling.
- [54:24]
Dan Bernstein
Look at me. Look at the size of that dog. That's a big man there. Matt is 6 to 210 pounds, maybe.
- [54:32]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
No, I'm 220.
- [54:33]
Dan Bernstein
Okay. Huh. We're watching basketball. Oh, okay. I'm gonna sit on your lap.
- [54:41]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Yeah, so yeah, he. He generally drapes across Natalie on the couch, but yeah, he, he climbed all the way up and he was.
- [54:50]
Dan Bernstein
That's so funny.
- [54:51]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Yes, I love that.
- [54:53]
Dan Bernstein
And then I'm picturing Jose Alvarado sitting on top of Michael Bloomberg like that right there.
- [55:01]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
So, hey, last night or we early evening, we went and saw this new movie up Obsession. And I know you're not familiar with it.
- [55:08]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, I'm not. For some reason that missed me so
- [55:10]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
it's like a 22 year old guy, wrote it, directed it, Focus films put it out. It was very, very cheap to, to make and it's made like 225 million worldwide, and it's absolutely, positively terrifying. I mean, I, I was, I was emotionally shook and uncomfortable watching this film. So just to summarize it for you real quick, a group of friends, two guys, two girls, nerdy guy in the group likes one of the girls in the group, has never had the courage over years to tell her. And he goes to this store to buy her this new necklace. She like lost a necklace or something. And it's like one of those crystals stores, you know?
- [55:52]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, yeah, like, like a Reiki thing. Get your labradorite and your carnelian.
- [55:57]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Correct.
- [55:57]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah.
- [55:57]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
So he goes in there and there's a little gag gift. It's called the One Wish Willow. It's like seven bucks.
- [56:04]
Dan Bernstein
Oh, so it's the monkey. It's the monkey's paw.
- [56:06]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Okay. So, yeah, you make a wish, you break the stick, and your wish comes true. So he makes the wish that she would love him more than anyone in the world. And it turns into a crazy psychotic obsession. And it is absolutely 100% terrifying.
- [56:21]
Dan Bernstein
Okay. Yeah, it's a monkey's paw.
- [56:23]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Oh, it's very enjoyable.
- [56:24]
Dan Bernstein
Well, it's the one thing that profilers will tell you about, like fan mail and stuff like that, that the people who say they love you are more likely to kill you than the people who say they hate you.
- [56:35]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Yeah, dude, it is. It was very disturbing and very entertaining and very uncomfortable and unsettling. And it was just really well done and really cheaply made. Not like as in quality, but in just in low cost. And it's again, It's. It's delivered $225 million worldwide. Really entertaining. It's definitely worth a watch.
- [56:57]
Dan Bernstein
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- [58:05]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Oh, that's right. I forgot about the closing line because the first time you did that new read and you were like, please gamble. And I was like, responsibly. Okay, thank you. I was like, all right, well that's, that's a new way to go.
- [58:17]
Dan Bernstein
All right. Please.
- [58:19]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Yeah, so we went and saw the movie and then came home and watched and watched basketball with Frank. So that's when he decided to jump on top me. Yeah, we just want to give a quick, a quick shout out to, to my, my wife Natalie. Today is our, our three year anniversary.
- [58:33]
Dan Bernstein
Hey, mazel tov.
- [58:35]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Thank you.
- [58:35]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, that's great.
- [58:37]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
That's very. So started the day off this morning together with some tacos.
- [58:41]
Dan Bernstein
Taco Tuesday?
- [58:42]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
No, we're gonna, we're doing out to night. We're gonna try a new restaurant out. I'll let you know about it tomorrow.
- [58:47]
Dan Bernstein
Okay.
- [58:49]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
And then also want to give a little quick shout out to the, the boys here at Libertyville High School and a semifinal game tonight against Lane Tech. They win tonight. They go to the state championship. Try to, to defend their baseball state title. So they won last year trying to make it a repeat.
- [59:05]
Dan Bernstein
Everybody hates Lane Tech.
- [59:07]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Oh really?
- [59:08]
Dan Bernstein
Oh yeah, everybody hates Lane Tech.
- [59:10]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Well then yeah, Libertyville beat them today. So let's, let's hope that happens.
- [59:13]
Dan Bernstein
That's been. Look, the right people asked me about like Chicago public school rivalries in baseball.
- [59:20]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Okay.
- [59:20]
Dan Bernstein
And I said basically everybody says anybody but Lane Tech. Why?
- [59:24]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Why? Okay, I didn't know this. Why is Lane Tech such a hated program?
- [59:28]
Dan Bernstein
It just. A lot of people don't like their coach.
- [59:31]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Okay.
- [59:31]
Dan Bernstein
I forgot his name, but even like his own players don't like him and people who have played for him don't like him. I talked to one of the, one of the best players that's come through their team and I used to work with one of the best players come through their team in a long time who said that that coach makes baseball less. And I don't. Yeah, I just, I. I've heard all kinds of, of stuff out of there. That it. But you know, they're good. It's just the school's enormous, and I don't want to get people mad at me because they can come over to my house and beat me up, but it just sort of been the thing, basically. Basically anybody roots for, like, Taft had an awesome team this year. I went to the game when Taft at Granderson, when Taft beat up On Jones in the semifinals of the city championship. Taft won. They won the city this year. So congratulations to them. They had a really good baseball team, really aggressive hitters, made some terrific plays in the field. But, yeah, I'm always. Anybody playing Lane, I'm. I'll root for whoever's playing them. Despite the fact I know a lot of kids who played baseball at Lane, who are wonderful, wonderful kids who I like very much.
- [60:32]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
So good luck to the. The fellas there at LHS trying to get a second state title in a row here, taking on the apparently not well liked Lame Tech.
- [60:43]
Dan Bernstein
Because they. They were also the. They had. They had a Native American name that hadn't been changed for a long time. It's one of the reasons I didn't really. If I allowed the kids, they. Obviously, we live right next door. So both kids looked at Lane. Neither one wanted to go there. And some of it was I didn't want to root for a team that was called the Indians. So they changed it, and I think they changed it. Part of why people don't like them is their mascot. Like, their actual team name is Champions.
- [61:16]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
So it's like, so they're the Lane Tech champions.
- [61:18]
Dan Bernstein
That's kind of what they had. Yeah, it's like, come on, man. Come on, come on. Like, that's. They're always like, really? You're gonna call yourselves the champion? Like, that's your team name, the champions. Okay. See how that goes for you. Also, did you prank me yesterday?
- [61:38]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
No.
- [61:39]
Dan Bernstein
Well, you promise?
- [61:41]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Yeah. No.
- [61:41]
Dan Bernstein
Do you promise? Because it's. It's okay if you did.
- [61:44]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
No, I didn't. Well, tell me what happened. Yeah.
- [61:47]
Dan Bernstein
All right. Well, I did not know. I've gone. I. I've gone my entire life without putting this together. Are. Is it tradition that most Chinese places are closed on Monday?
- [62:01]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Oh. Oh, yeah. No, I did. I did not do that on. On purpose to you. I didn't. No. I don't know. I just.
- [62:09]
Dan Bernstein
You got me all excited to order Chinese.
- [62:12]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Yeah. And then texted me that they were closed. I was disappointed for you.
- [62:15]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah. So. So I thought, okay, great. I'm gonna do barbecue pork chow fun and Szechuan Eggplant and hot and sour soup from House of Wasan. And then they're closed. And I'm like, okay, fine, I got an alternate. I can go to number one chop suey right here. I can get crispy duck, the Cantonese style duck, you know, and they have shrimp toast there, which I love. And they're closed. And then someone sent an email that said. Or was it in the comments? Some. Some I got. Somebody said, hey, Maddie's pranking Bernstein because he knows Chinese places are closed on Mondays.
- [62:50]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
Well, no, I didn't. I didn't know that. That wasn't. I mean, if I could have done that deliberately to get you excited, I would have, but that was not about my intention.
- [62:57]
Dan Bernstein
Fair enough. I just wanted it clear. Make sure we did this. You know, I didn't. I. On the air, not off. All right. Okay, that's good. It was fine. I made ribs. I made ribs. And. And I got some of the. Some Mac and cheese, and everything was okay.
- [63:12]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
So let me tell you. So there's a place in Libertyville where I, when I ordered, order my Chinese Hunan palace is my go to spot. And they're open Mondays.
- [63:20]
Dan Bernstein
All right, so fair enough. I didn't know it was a thing. That's why I was checking. Yeah, all right, all right. Okay.
- [63:28]
Matt (Co-host or Guest)
No, but I mean, I. I would if. I would. If I had that much forethought, I would have definitely done that to you. But that wasn't my intention.
- [63:33]
Dan Bernstein
All right, there. Fair enough. All good. Appreciated. Today's Dan Bernstein Unfiltered has been brought to you by Russ Armstrong and Chicago Window. Guys, give them a call. Get your new windows 847-3-002, 9171 and go to chicagowindowguys. Com and also been brought to you in partnership with my bookie, Dan Bernstein Unfiltered. Unfiltered. On three, One, two, Sports.