← Dan Bernstein Unfiltered
Dan Bernstein Unfiltered
Pete Crow-Armstrong Joins Ruth and Gehrig: A Month for the History Books
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- [00:01]
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- [00:47]
Dan Bernstein
Dan Bernstein, Unfiltered Unfiltered on 312Sports on 31 2. And we're brought to you in partnership with my bookie and today also by Chicago Window guys, Russ Armstrong, 847-302-9171. Check out his five star reviews at ChicagoNowdownguys.com and by the Chicago Stars, making this a soccer field summer in Evanston. Come to a match for family friendly pro sports on the lakefront. Get tickets and@chicagostars.com tickets. Happy July. Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.
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Matty Abatecola
Don't try. You lost, man. You lost. Just let it go.
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Dan Bernstein
I did, I did. I, I don't think 1:24am counts, but it's the rules. It's the calendar. I, I, I lost. And we're bitter. The, the family's having some, some discord right now because we're, we're bitter about somebody maybe perhaps bending the rules. But this will all be, is he yelling at each other? Wanted to get to something that's kind of been bubbling around for the last few days.
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Matty Abatecola
Yep.
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Dan Bernstein
Last week or so. And I've had some people, whether it's via email or just people I've run into say hey, what's, what's going on with that? What, what's really happened with Matt Miller? What's your attachment as a show or historically with Matt Miller? And part of this is that to recap, Matt Miller of ESPN at NFL draft scout has been, I mean, going back how long now, sort of a friend of the show, whatever the show has been for a while. I don't know if, does it go, it does go back to your tenure, Matty, right?
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Matty Abatecola
Oh, no, dude. He was on, he, we started off with him on the weekends with me and golf. I mean it goes back before, I mean he was doing, he was just doing his own thing. He wasn't even affiliated with, with anyone.
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Dan Bernstein
Well, he was with Bleacher Report, I believe before that. Dude, it was so it was before Bleacher Report.
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Matty Abatecola
We, yeah, we got him on Twitter and, and we just reached out to him and brought because he had good football stuff on Twitter and we brought him on and then eventually he became a regular part of Boars and Bernstein
- [03:08]
Dan Bernstein
and became a regular with Bleacher Report, eventually parlaying his his success as a draft expert and an NFL analyst to a role at espn. And last week everybody was absolutely shocked to hear that he had gotten into a terrible car accident. And according to the reports, I don't have the police report exactly in front of me, but according to reports he was at fault for crossing the median and steering his SUV into a truck. He is very lucky to be alive, extremely lucky to be alive. It was a near fatal accident and this is all via his Twitter that he said he had lost an arm and that he had to come back from multiple fractures and other injuries and that he faces a long road back. So immediately came the outpourings of sympathy and pledging to help however was needed and wishes for a quick recovery, etc. I want to make sure that you know, full disclosure when it comes to this. I want to make sure that I have tell you exactly what I tweeted directly to him or not tweeted, excuse me, texted directly to him. And all I said was on June 23rd at 8:51am right after it came out, I said I'm sorry to hear about your incident and happy to know you're mostly okay. So I expressed that it was delivered unread, have not heard back there then was the posting of a GoFundMe for medical expenses and it was that GoFundMe that caused some people to wonder about his personal finances or what was going on. I want to give credit here to awful announcing for doing an actually, the piece that they put out here by Ben Khu and Brendan Clean that was posted today is really good work. It's really good journalistic work. And they have compiled all kinds of information from the Reddit thread that has been out and from other things on Twitter and they are using a DBU screenshot on one of them here, here. So you know, if you're if and and we're in there, it's out there. It's just a picture of it, says Matt Miller, ESPN NFL Draft Analyst. And this is from a tweet by a guy named Tommy Callahan. There's, there's a tiny little Bernstein and a Bata Cola above the, the headline box there. And he has been a friend of the shows and we've, I feel that, that our role, the score and I did not know Matt if it went back to you and Jason Goff, you know, finding him doing that. So I feel a little bit invested in helping to elevate his standing and elevate his platform. And because of that he's always been really good to us. He came on Forward Progress Weekly for a while throughout last year and for, for free Gratis just came on and said, yeah, of course I'll do it for you guys. And he's been super cool with that. I would not say that we're friends, but we're industry friends. It's, it is in that way. Every industry has its version of these industry relationships and parasocial relationships. You know, I don't know the names of his family members. I've only met him in person the once at the Super Bowl. Right. It was in San Francisco.
- [07:07]
Matty Abatecola
I was that Tannehill was there. I wasn't there.
- [07:09]
Dan Bernstein
That's right, that's right. That's right. So that was when, when we went to San Francisco. That was the only time I think in person that he, that he sat down with us. So I'm extremely troubled to hear about in the wake of his accident, allegations that have surfaced about his history with fantasy leagues and scouting tutoring where the money is shady at the very least, what has happened with a lot of this money, supposed charity, fantasy leagues, etc. And I can't, I'm not going to read the entire article here because it is a long piece at awful announcing but I think they do a really good job setting it up by explaining saying the sports media world was rocked last week when ESPN analyst Matt Miller tweeted he lost an arm in a near fatal car accident. Support for Miller poured in from all corners of the Internet and a GoFundMe posted by his sister in law was promoted by by high profile ESPN colleagues with donations from Pat McAfee, Mina Kimes and Adam Schefter. Social media was doing what it does in the wake of a tragedy. Circling the wagons, offering support, rallying around someone in the midst of a terrible ordeal said the honeymoon didn't last long. The GoFundMe mentioned that Miller hoped to make a full recovery in return and as the best one armed bartender ever, a nod to the luxury lounge he recently opened in his hometown of Joplin Missouri. But beyond Miller's hope of recovering and returning to his entrepreneurial endeavors, questions have arisen that may further complicate a return to his role as an active analyst at espn. And they go through the Reddit thread of people who sort of flooded these well wishes here about people who were accusing him of stealing money, essentially of scamming people out of money under the name of charity for help with fantasy leagues where the payouts didn't come or the the attention to the leagues didn't really come. And then it goes through when he said he was going to do lessons to help people learn how to scout football. And then there was some concern that, that there wasn't follow through there. Especially the involvement of charities became a concern when people believed they were entering fantasy leagues where half the money went to the winner and half the money went to charity and there aren't records of the monies reaching charities. I believe that Matt Miller was banned from a platform called Sleeper, which was a fantasy league, and there were people that were angry enough to begin complaining to Sleeper about violations of their rules. There were people who were not getting any payments out without threatening to go to ESPN and ESPN PR and ESPN hr, et cetera. Regarding the history of not delivering on some things and awful announcing did a really good job tracking down some of these people and getting more information about their experiences. There was a foundation that he formed called the 417 foundation that was supposed to help students get winter clothing. And the 417 foundation incorporated in Missouri only in December of 2018 and it received a cease and desist form that was sent and tracking that as a charitable arm. So there's something going on here. I think it would, it would be naive to not look at the preponderance of this information and believe that there is something afoot. One of the differences and one of the refreshing differences about this job currently, as opposed to our, you know, previous working for a large publicly traded media company is I don't have to go through all sorts of layers of bureaucracy here to tell you what I think and what my plan is and what my plan is for 312Sports. In regard to this, I obviously feel awful about his accident and I hope that he recovers as well as humanly possible from this awful, awful accident. And I'm happy he's alive. I am also as of right now, clearly, regardless of what happens, we are suspending our professional relationship with Matt. And this is at the moment, this is my decision. And I think it's a pretty easy one here. I'm very disappointed, very troubled to hear about these allegations. I had never heard anything about this until now. I'm not in the fantasy football circles until that Reddit thread was posted. And also thankfully many emailers, not just the ones from the thread, those have sent the thread and have said, hey, you should know what's going on. And I really do appreciate that because it's been important and I do need to know. You're right. I think as we are taking a larger role than we did in being a part of this particular startup business that isn't even a year old yet, we're just about 10 months old in a week that we got to know these things and we got to look out for some of these things. And so that's really where it stands is I'm in the same place and I think we, I can't speak for you, Maddie, also because I, you know that your relationship with him goes back and I'd be interested to know how you feel sort of personally about it too. But I can say this. As far as dbu, as far as forward progress, as far as three, one, two sports, these, we, there must be what I think at this point would be an impossibly positive resolution to some of these business stories outside of the accident and the recovery. I want to look this, look at this as a couple of pieces here and clearly they've been conflated. I don't know that there's any reason to think that there are relationships between the two aspects here. But just the business stuff, just the concerns and the increasing and increasingly troubling evidentiary trail, I cannot in any good conscience continue a business relationship at this point, full stop.
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Matty Abatecola
Yeah, that's a, that's a no brainer. And that's certainly the, the, the decision that, that we've made here. So that, yeah, and it's, I totally support that. Obviously on a personal level. I mean, I'm glad that he's, he, he didn't. That he survived that crash. And you know, Matt and I were never close friends outside of like a work relationship. Yeah. So I mean, you know, it's very similar to how you ordered it, but I certainly would not, not return a phone call or answer a phone call if the guy ever wanted to talk.
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Dan Bernstein
So.
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Commercial Announcer
Right.
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Dan Bernstein
That's sort of where I am here.
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Matty Abatecola
A ton of, of personal things he needs to deal with beyond just his physical recovery. But I would always be there to support him and help as a human being if he ever needed a, someone to answer a Call or make a call. I would. I would certainly do that for him. I. I don't. You know, we've never had that kind of relationship, so I don't think that would happen. I did text him afterwards and said that, you know, that if he, if he needed anything, he could always reach out, reach out and, you know, and just wished him a speedy recovery and just couldn't. I didn't. I really. I was kind of at a loss for words of what. How horrific the accident sounded. But, yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna shut the guy out of my life if he wants to reach out, but I also don't expect on a personal level for him to reach out.
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Dan Bernstein
So, yeah, that's it. I just thought that I owed you the 3 1, 2 listener or the 3 part of our 3 1, 2 community. That all I can give you is complete transparency on this. That.
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Matty Abatecola
That's. Yeah, and we just. Yeah, we just. We can't have him on the show. We just can't. I mean, there's. It's just. There's too much there. And, you know, if there's. If the outcomes of this is. Is. Is different than what. What we think it would be right now, then we certainly would. Would. Would have that conversation down the road. But right now, at that time, just moving forward, we just can't have him on as a. As a. As a contributor, an analyst of any kind. It's just.
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Dan Bernstein
Yeah. And I, I. And again, I use the term disappointed, but it. I feel a little guilty, too. It isn't. It isn't just disappointment where, if, in fact these allegations appear true, that I feel that because of the role that Boris and Bernstein played and even all the other shows since then, Bernstein and Goff and burst in, McKnight and Holmes and Rahimi. Matt Miller's been a staple,
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Matty Abatecola
a significant part of our time at the Score.
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Dan Bernstein
Staple. And I feel guilty if my role and our role in elevating his brand in any way aided and abet Unknowingly. Unknowingly aided and abetted any illegal activity, any fraud, especially under the name of charity.
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Matty Abatecola
Well, I could, I could say, I mean, I understand why you're saying that, but I don't recall ever in our years at the Score or any other shows he was on, certainly not shows that I hosted. Did we ever talk about his fantasy football stuff?
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Dan Bernstein
No, we never promoted.
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Matty Abatecola
It was never.
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Dan Bernstein
No, that's important.
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Matty Abatecola
Never even came up as a topic.
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Dan Bernstein
True. But he, and he never came on and said hey, yeah, if I'm going to come on, let me, let me plug my scouting thing and let me plug. That was never a part of it.
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Matty Abatecola
So when this awful announcing story came out, it's, honestly, it's the first I'd ever heard of him being involved in fantasy football.
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Dan Bernstein
Me too.
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Matty Abatecola
And the paragraph about offering lessons to help people learn how to scout, I'd never heard that before. So that's all new stuff. And I, I, I understand where you're coming from and how your, your brain operates, but we never promoted that fantasy stuff. We never promoted the scouting stuff. That was never part of it. I know, but never an ask of his.
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Dan Bernstein
Correct. But passively, passively. The idea of, of, of making his, you know, increasing his Q ratings helped with that.
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Matty Abatecola
Sure, I, I get that. And, but, you know, I'm gonna give him the credit for all the hard work that he did to get to becoming really a no. 1 on Twitter, to becoming a national recognized voice of football. He did all that work on his own through Bleacher Report and then obviously espn and I would think that contributed more to developing his brand and growing his brand than being on a radio show with a bunch of dopes. But again, I think this is, it's very important to, to point out that that was never an ask. We never promoted it. I never even knew. I, honestly, until I saw this article. I never knew that he was involved in fantasy football, even in casual text conversations or emails or phone calls we may have had. It never even came up right around the show. I knew of other things in life that he was involved in, just in having conversations about scheduling things, but that, that never, ever came up one time. So I was surprised to read it all and then to have the unfortunate attachment to charities and not following through. Yeah, that's, that, that's, that's pretty pathetic, man.
- [19:55]
Dan Bernstein
So, and I'll just, I'll close with this, that, that if you are one of those who believe you were wronged, if all of this proves true and, or there's, there's more. As things get unearthed and various paths are followed. And if you're, if you're, if you're mad at me, like, yeah, well, birthday. I, he was on your show and it was your imprimatur that made him seem important. And I thought if he was cool with you, he was. And now I'm out a bunch of money. I'm sorry, that's all I can say. I, if that is the case and you feel that anything that went on sort of, you know contributed to the likelihood that you would find them trustworthy. I'm sorry, because it's, that's just the way the way my mind works is what should I have known? What should I still know? And, and thanks for sending me stuff. You know, I'm not regularly on Reddit. I don't know the world of fantasy football all that well, but I all I can do is react to what I do know when I know it. And that's why I'm sharing that with you today. And I appreciate the understanding. On July 5, the Chicago Stars return to Evanston vs Utah Royals FC the Chicago Stars celebrating a summer of soccer on the north side and you don't want to miss it with an easy to get to stadium tickets starting at $19. Pro women's soccer has never been more accessible. Come to a match for family friendly pre match entertainment, then cheer on us Olympians like Mallory Swanson and Alyssa Nayer playing right on the lakefront at Evanston. Summer soccer doesn't get much better than this. Get your Tickets now@chicagostars.com Tickets this episode
- [21:35]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
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- [21:56]
Dan Bernstein
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Commercial Announcer
That's it.
- [22:47]
Dan Bernstein
That's the code DBU for Dan Bernstein, unfiltered. And remember, once you see it on screen, the bet it is gone. And that is only at my bookie. Bulls are doing things. We're going to do this all in fine detail with the latest edition of Organizations Win Championships. We're record just a couple hours, but Norman Powell is a Bull and that's a pretty interesting signing for them. As we were saying, boy, they need shooting, they need a two guard or, you know, something resembling a two guard. And they also need a veteran leader or two. And what's going to be a very, very young team. Well, hello All Star 2 guard Norman Powell, coming off of his best pro year with the Miami Heat and the Bulls signed him to a fairly lucrative deal here. And I was very interested to see what was going on with the money because I wasn't sure how they were going to begin to manage the $31 million in salary cap room that they had. And for Norman Powell to get 2 years and 45 million, that about cleans it up. Now because you have Nick Claxton and they use that money as their. And they ended up trading away Mamadou Gaye just as consideration, but they added Nick Claxton. They then signed Zach Collins, which surprised me a little bit. I thought Zach Collins would be gone. I thought he would fetch more money elsewhere. But Zach Collins was signed to a two year deal and it ends up being for less money than I thought. Two years, $17 million on the extension. So I wonder how healthy he is. But you now have that backup big, not a great rim protector. We can do a little bit of that. So you've, you've got another rotational big and you have a, an all star last year two guard. So the question was, and this is what I think I want to delve into more today on owc. The question I have in my mind is how do you now build a roster that can stay out of the basement? Because the way, remember they changed the lottery rules, you don't want to be one of the worst worst teams. They don't reward that anymore. You have to be competitive enough. You want to be right there around, you know, between like the 10th worst team. You can be in the bottom third. You just can't be near the bottom bottom. You've got to compete if you want more lottery balls to get a chance at some of those higher picks. So, and no one's ever done this before, so the Bulls might be a test case. This Bulls team going into the new lottery rules and this as explained in the Sun Times. So the Bulls aren't looking for a playoff push with this roster, but because of the new 3, 2, 1 lottery rules, finishing bottom three is less than ideal. So the sweet spot for best lottery odds is number four through number 10. And this might just work. And if you get a little too good because you have some of these older veteran stopgap players, they're not terrible. It's not the worst thing that can happen if you end up in the play in it's you. You wouldn't look at that as oh my God, they blew it. They were supposed to be awful and they're not. That was part of the reason why they changed all these rules. I don't know how it's going to work. And there are some reports that and I think was Joe Collie that said the Bulls were talking with the Cavaliers about Max Strus, the guy they had. They had him in the G League. They had him on a two way. Remember that Just if you now have to give up assets to get back a guy that you had in your organization because nobody else wanted him. You talk about a developmental failure, a massive developmental failure. That would be. But God it's it. The Bulls are interesting. I'll say that they're. With some of these moves they are making themselves interesting enough. The goal of the year has to be to create a roster competitive enough to develop the players that matter. That's what it is. They're not playing for a draft pick. Ideally your next star. You're built around guys here and that's Caleb Wilson. So how can you create a warm incubator, a nest, a place where your level of competition, your level of leadership, your practice habits, all of it can idealize the development. How do you maximize your development? And that doesn't mean be bad. I'm looking at this as a global question for the Bulls here where everything you do and if you. If you go through half the season and maybe you're close to 500, maybe you get some injury luck and maybe you are able to. To provide a. Like a template, a structure in which your most important players can. Can get good really quickly and solidly. What is the phrase that they use? Not skipping steps. The Bulls like to say that they're not skipping steps and that's why it's very interesting now to see what they consider to be these steps.
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Matty Abatecola
Yeah, and I love the hiring of Tiago Splitter in regards to helping develop not only the players but the structure around and what they do moving forward. And I love hearing everything from Caleb Wilson that I've heard because I think everything you just said, he sounds like the kind of kid I know he's only 19. That is going to set the tone for what it's Going to look like. You talk about practices and you talk about that development that he's not going to go out there just to be a part of it. I think he sounds like the kind of kid that wants to set the
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Dan Bernstein
tone for it, and you need veterans. He's a kid.
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Progressive Insurance Announcer
Yeah, he's a kid.
- [29:29]
I saw you.
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Dan Bernstein
He's a kid. And so is Noah Esenge. Don't forget about Noah Essenge also.
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Matty Abatecola
Yes.
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Dan Bernstein
Don't forget about him.
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Matty Abatecola
And now he's 7 5. I just heard.
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Dan Bernstein
Well, he's. He's.
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Matty Abatecola
He grew again overnight.
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Dan Bernstein
He's 7 5, he's 7 9, and he's a point guard. But don't. Don't forget about Noah Sange. Yeah. That he. He's important in here, too. And maybe he won't be. Maybe this regime will take a look at him, be like, yeah, you don't know.
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Matty Abatecola
You just don't know.
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Dan Bernstein
It's possible. Or.
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Matty Abatecola
Or they could.
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Dan Bernstein
They could look at and be like, oh, my God. God, what, do we have a winner here? And then all. Then it'll be Noah Senge holding the Larry o' Brien trophy as the confetti falls. And every. And somewhere AK is going to be like, see?
- [30:11]
Commercial Announcer
Huh?
- [30:12]
Dan Bernstein
That could happen.
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Matty Abatecola
The Bulls also did wave Cam Jones, too.
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Dan Bernstein
Yes, they did. So what was your favorite part of the Cam Jones Bulls era? What do you think?
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Matty Abatecola
What was it his picture on the website in a different uniform?
- [30:27]
Dan Bernstein
I think it was when I found out who he was, that was my favorite Cam Jones moment. You know, my favorite window guy is. And I have one. I do the rankings every morning. Every single morning. It's the first thing I do. I wake up and I do my personal ranking of ranking 1 through 10 every morning. I know it's. It's all Russ Armstrong. I keep. It's actually a magnetic board in the bedroom. Beth wanted me to take it down. She's like, you know, And I said, no, no, I've got to have it here. This entire wall is my ranking of window guys. And what can I tell you? Russ Armstrong is still number one with a bullet because he's the best. And it's actually right near one of the windows that he put in where I keep the window guy rankings board. He is the owner, proprietor, operator, director of social operations and comedy bits. He does everything for Chicago window guys. He owns the factory. It's right here in Chicago. He's the person that comes to your house to give you the estimate. And he will help explain the overwhelming avalanche of advertisements and teasers and things that you see and hear about Windows. This and get windows here, replace these windows and this company through these. He's just going to make it easy. Russ makes the windows. Russ's people install the windows and then he does it all for a fair price that will match. He guarantees his price will match anybody else you bring out to your home to give you an estimate. But with Russ you're gonna get the best product. You're also going to get the peace of mind of dealing with Russ. So call him. And when you're getting quotes, ask these other places, hey, who's installing my windows by the way? And like we installers, our installers. And well, who are they? Well, we hire them every day, we find them in parking lots and then they install your windows. They wouldn't say that. Russ doesn't do that. Russ has a crew that does the installations. They're his people that do it. Same people that were in my house and in and around your house. These, these are the same people. So you can feel good knowing that. 847-302-9171 and check out his five star reviews. Chicagowindow guys.com if you listened to off the Ivy for today, you heard some of the numbers that our own Mattabaticola put together regarding the month of June that Pete Crowe Armstrong had. And I thought that these deserve much more publicity. So what Pete Crow Armstrong did in June for the Cubs was historic. In June alone, the Cubs young center fielder was worth 3.1 wins. Wins in the month of replacement. In a month that's a decent MLB season. You're three win player. You're a solid everyday major league player. No, not a star. So PCA's June alone was worth 3.1 wins. Here are some more numbers. His slash line. A batting average of.381. An on base percentage of.468 and a slugging percentage of.781. That's an OPS of 1.25. 1.25. So let's compare these. So wait a second. Cubs June. Hold wait a second there, Bernstein. I remember in 1998 Sammy Sosa had the greatest June any Cub had ever had.
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Matty Abatecola
Oh really? No.
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Dan Bernstein
Okay, Sammy, that June in 98 batted.298 on base.331 slugged a robust.842 with his 20 home runs. But that was only an OPS of 1.173. And you're talking about a hundred point different in batting average too. All right, sir. Well let's go back to 2007. How about Alfonso Soriano? Remember that? Remember that? Remember the Lou Pinella team? And Alfonso Soriano, also a center fielder and a leadoff guy with power. What about that? Here's that slash line. Alfonso Soriano. 2007. His June. 336. 379. 697. That's an OPS of 1076. Pretty damn good. Now maybe, maybe as you sit somewhere in the home for the aged Cubs fans, somebody is raising a crooked bony finger and pointing it going, bernstein, why don't you go back to 1930? 1930. Hack Wilson. I was there. Okay, okay. Fictional, angry old person that I just made up and now is I'm oddly anxious about hack Wilson. 361 fo fody foe. 731. Pretty good. That is 1176 ops. That's not as good as Pete Crowe Armstrong. But when you consider that Hack Wilson did a lot of that drunk,
- [36:32]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
you
- [36:33]
Dan Bernstein
know, now that I think about it, is there some sort of of adjustment factor for the fact that he was drunk? Because that can't be easy.
- [36:47]
Matty Abatecola
So while Pete's numbers are better, that's more impressive, Is that what you're saying?
- [36:50]
Dan Bernstein
It may. It may be more impressive than Hack Wilson put up those numbers in June of 1930 while most of the time completely obliterated. But I'm not done because at the, at the home for aged Cubs fans, next to that guy's bed, there's another guy and that guy turned and he turned to the guy next to him and he said, ah, you and your Hack Wilson. I go back a year earlier to 1929. Rogers the Rajah Hornsby. 1929 Chicago Cubs Rogers Hornsby batted 362, was on base 483 and slugged 723. That's an OPS of 1206. That, that is lower than that of Pete Crow Armstrong. That was the best June. And I would argue if we did this for every month and one could, that it may be the greatest month in Chicago Cubs history.
- [38:12]
Matty Abatecola
I'm going to, I'm going to say that confidently that it is the greatest month offensively for Chicago Cubs history. Because, Dan, I can tell you this right now that Pete Carl Armstrong and this is from Optistats. Pete Pearl Armstrong is one of three players in Major League baseball history to have a month where they hit 375 or more, slugged 775 or more, had 80 or more total bases, had 15 or more walks, had 10 or more home runs and five or more stolen bases. One of three players in all the years, the decades of Major League Baseball. 377.
- [39:01]
Dan Bernstein
Let me just ask this. What did Eric Davis do in May of 87?
- [39:07]
Matty Abatecola
I will look that up.
- [39:08]
Dan Bernstein
I'm just.
- [39:09]
Matty Abatecola
Yeah.
- [39:10]
Dan Bernstein
Just out of the top of my head as a kid. Not a kid. I was, I was headed off to college. But I just remember, I'll look it up. It's like every time when I would open the paper and I would look at the box score and we would make fun of it and then Eric Davis's box score, my friend Dave and I would call each other and just say, did you look at it yet? What's. What was his box line? So it would be at bats, runs, hits, rbi. And you know, most people, you. It would be like 4111-4010, Eric Davis, every day it was like 4, 4, 3, 6. God damn. Like every single day he was doing that.
- [39:59]
Matty Abatecola
But he never had a month like this where.375 average,775 slugging, 80 total bases, 15 walks, 10 home runs, five stolen bases. It's happened three times in major league baseball.
- [40:11]
Dan Bernstein
Okay.
- [40:12]
Matty Abatecola
Ted Williams, once by Pete Crow, Armstrong in June of 2026.
- [40:17]
Dan Bernstein
Okay.
- [40:18]
Matty Abatecola
Once in 1920, July. Oh, actually, God, this guy did it three times. June of 1920. July of 1920. May of 1930, Babe Ruth, pretty good. And in June of 1930. June. June jumps out at you a lot. June of 1930, Lou Gehrig.
- [40:39]
Dan Bernstein
So Hack Wilson had that June and Garrig had an even better one that same June.
- [40:45]
Matty Abatecola
Yes.
- [40:48]
Dan Bernstein
And he wasn't drunk.
- [40:49]
Matty Abatecola
Yeah. And he. Yeah, he slugged. As far as we know, he slugged at minimum. 40 points higher. His average was at minimum. He was 14 points higher. Yes. Had a better month than Hack Wilson did, but Pete Crow, Armstrong, Babe Ruth three times, and Lou Gehrig one time. The only three times it's ever happened or the only three players ever do it in a month. So I think we could confidently say the best month by Cubs player ever.
- [41:19]
Dan Bernstein
Yep. Certainly a position player. Certainly outside of pitchers, that is. God, he's walking with Ruth and Gehrig. That's pretty special. And. And the fact that it came after he was so bad.
- [41:36]
Matty Abatecola
Yep.
- [41:39]
Dan Bernstein
And say, I don't know, because remember we were looking at the numbers with him. Like if you put together the second half of last year and this year, you're talking about a guy who's, you know, under a 100. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. What a, what a testament to the work that he's done and to whatever Jed Hoyer saw in this kid when he, when he traded a rental fee of Javi Baez him. Was it two and a half months of Javi Baez, oh man. Turned into this. Who, if he stays healthy, could end up being one of the greatest players in your history. If this is predictive, absolutely amazing.
- [42:19]
Matty Abatecola
Let me, let me pull up Eric Davis for you real quick.
- [42:21]
Dan Bernstein
I'm just here if you can, if
- [42:23]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
you could do that.
- [42:23]
Dan Bernstein
I'm just wondering what Eric Davis did in May of 87. I just remember it being absolutely wild, especially on the base paths because that's also when Bill James was trying to create a new stat called secondary average which talked about what your value was after reaching first base. And now that's been subsumed into all the other better stats. But he was one of the first to at least mathematically statistically begin asking some of these questions about, okay, your batting average is this and your slugging is this, but what is actually going on in some of that. And I think Thomas Boswell tried to come up with the, his whole total bases platform, but that was just the Wild west before a, a better statistical revolution. But you know, because James came up with a lot of stats, he ended up scrapping because he didn't necessarily like him. But I remember Eric Davis being a subject of that.
- [43:20]
Matty Abatecola
Well, that's insane. So here, here is Eric Davis the month of May that you asked about. Yeah, his slash line was.329, 404, 841, 1246. So. And PCA finished 1249. So he, he slugged more than PCA. His on base was much lower and his batting average was lower. But. So he had a 1246, month of May, April and March. Eric Davis was an 1164 OPS and in July he was a 1075 OPS and he finished ninth and MVP voting ninth. How did they get that voting wrong?
- [44:04]
Dan Bernstein
Ninth. How is this ninth? Andre Dawson was only a four win
- [44:10]
Matty Abatecola
player on a last place team.
- [44:12]
Dan Bernstein
On a LA. It was a four win play. Look at the people fish ahead of him. Howard Johnson 4.4. Dale Murphy was 7.7 and finished 11th in MVP voting. You know why? Because people were stupid. Yeah, people were baseball stupid. That's Incredible. Mike Schmidt Six war, 14th. Bill Doran Obviously 4.7 were 18. That's incredible.
- [44:41]
Matty Abatecola
They didn't look at war, so.
- [44:43]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, they didn't look at whether or not you were good at baseball or not.
- [44:48]
Matty Abatecola
Yeah. The Reds finished that season six games behind the Giants in the NL west.
- [44:55]
Dan Bernstein
Man.
- [44:56]
Matty Abatecola
Of course the year that the Twins won also the year wasn't it we just talked about that where Maybe it was 86 or Bly Levin and who else was it combined for the most home runs allowed?
- [45:07]
Dan Bernstein
Frank Viola.
- [45:08]
Matty Abatecola
Yeah, Viola. And yeah. So they were the worst. The most in 86. And then they were also really bad in 87. But they won the World Series in 87.
- [45:15]
Dan Bernstein
They did well if the. The Cubs are 10 games over 500 and they lead baseball and home run surrendered. As long as they're not multi home run. You know, multi run homers. I guess not so bad.
- [45:28]
Matty Abatecola
But good call. And Eric Davison is May of 87. That's so again PCA for June of 26 here he's at 1249 ops. Eric Davis was a 1246 ops.
- [45:39]
Dan Bernstein
That's right. You know, sometimes. Sometimes his brain still works a little bit. Sometimes. If you're looking for something to do with the family on July 5th, that is Sunday, correct? I believe.
- [45:51]
Matty Abatecola
Correct.
- [45:51]
Dan Bernstein
Sunday the Chicago Stars are returning to Evanston against Utah Royals fc. The Chicago Stars are celebrating a summer of soccer on the north side. Do not miss it. The the stadium. If you haven't been Martin Stadium, easy to get to via your car, your bike, CTA or Metro right on the shores of Lake Michigan. So you've got that lovely place and tickets starting at just 19 bucks. Come on. You don't get chances like this to see professional sports. This is pro women's soccer. This accessible, this inexpensive. You can come to a match and not only do you get the actual match. Watching us Olympians watching Mallory Swanson, watching Alyssa Nayer right on Lakefront in Evanston. But you also get the whole aspect of the game day that they've got. Pre match entertainment for the whole family, kids zone yard games, the mini pitch. All these young soccer players that want to see their role models play up close. You can do it right now, Sunday, right on the lakefront. Summer soccer does not get better than this. So get your tickets now at Chicago Stars.
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- [47:35]
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- [48:05]
Dan Bernstein
We are going to be off on Friday. It's company holiday for the July 4th, the holiday that falls on Saturday. So they're doing the holiday Friday. So we're not going to be doing a full Friday feedback Friday, which is why I didn't think it would be out of bounds to do a quick follow up here. I've got a couple of follow ups and when we were talking yesterday about the the summer of the alligator attacks in Florida and what happens there and why people like swimming in alligator infested rivers and it's just what people do and just thinking like why would you do that? Why would you be an Aries known to hold alligators, especially in the early morning or late at night when they're at their most active or at times when you know you're in mating season and they can become extremely aggressive and yet people do that. So we got some feedback here from our friend Not Dead Guy and here's what Not Dead Guy said. This is just so we for our own edification here, what is going on with stupid people in Florida and alligator infested waters and you would think that you can avoid some of these run ins, he said. I heard your discussion on alligator attacks in Florida. I happen to live in Ocala, Florida in Marion County. Allow me to give you some additional info on these attacks. 1. The woman who was killed was in a kayak and floated unknowingly over a gator nest. She was knocked from the kayak into the clutches of the gator. Number two, the kid whose hand was bitten, I'm not sure if he was in the water or on land. Although rare gators have pulled people and animals from the shore. So it does happen and apparently it was now known that that kid, he said that word on the street is that it was a local celebrity gator. He said, I am fishing the Okawaha river not far from the fish camp where the kid's hand got bit. People are saying that the gator went after the fish he caught. He hooked the gator as Happens sometimes. But he didn't cut the line. He was attempting to retrieve his hook. Where were his parents, you ask? Fishing the opposite side of the pier. So he wasn't given the sage advice to cut the line. Said my source is legit. And says Alice, the alligator now is no more because of a dumb kid and his dumb parents. Sky, point to the local celebrity alligator Alice. So that kind of sucks.
- [51:16]
Matty Abatecola
Well, I said that yesterday that it all sucks. I mean, if you're going to go where an alligator has a nest or alligator infested waters and you want to swim, it's just, it's stupid that. That the alligator has to die for being an alligator. Yeah.
- [51:31]
Dan Bernstein
It's also, it does happen where other fish can grab the fish that you catch or other animals can grab the fish that you catch. It's not necessarily an opportunity. This happens all the time. They call sharks. The tax man gotta pay the tax man. And if you're fishing where there are sharks and you know where there are sharks everywhere in saltwater and a lot of times you're reeling in your bonito or your Jack crevel or your snook or your speckled trout, and the tax man comes, you know what you do? You give your money to the tax man. If it's a shark some days, oh, hey, I hooked the shark. No, no. Unless you are using very, very, very special equipment, you cut that line.
- [52:26]
Matty Abatecola
Dan, if it's a shark or an alligator that you're battling, throw the whole pole in the water. I mean, seriously, don't even, don't do that. Don't other waste of time cutting it. Just get the. Away from the alligator.
- [52:37]
Dan Bernstein
Don't get away. Do not reach to retrieve your hook. That lure is gone. If it's in the mouth of an alligator or if it's in the mouth of a bull shark or a black tip, whatever it may be, let it, let it go. It's okay. That's just nature doing what it does. I've been in the situation many times. I have had walleye grabbed by northern pike. Now that's a little different. And if you, if you land that northern pike, if it's still got the walleye in its mouth and you're able to net the northern, that counts. That's good. That's a legal catch.
- [53:12]
Matty Abatecola
Yeah, but that's also not going to eat your arm off.
- [53:14]
Dan Bernstein
It's not going to eat you. It might bite you. It might. It might scrape your finger. I've got the scars to prove it, but it ain't going to bite your hand off.
- [53:21]
Matty Abatecola
No.
- [53:22]
Dan Bernstein
And it's not going to thrash around and maybe bite your neck. So just, just don't be needed. But there's more here from Not Dan
- [53:30]
Matty Abatecola
because like we said yesterday that if like an alligator knocks down your front door and comes running into your living room, great. You should.
- [53:36]
Dan Bernstein
Right, Right, Right. Shoot it and make shoes out of it. But you're. You're in its house.
- [53:42]
Matty Abatecola
Right.
- [53:43]
Dan Bernstein
Being stupid.
- [53:44]
Matty Abatecola
That shouldn't. That the animal shouldn't have to die
- [53:46]
Dan Bernstein
because you're an idiot and not dead Guy adds a couple things here. He said. Here are some other tidbits. He said you had all the details but Florida people do Florida stuff. Locals down here swim in all the lakes and rivers. The Rainbow river is spring fed. It's crystal clear. It's interesting. It's April through September is gator mating and nesting season. The river is packed with tubers. Not like potatoes like people in tubes.
- [54:21]
Matty Abatecola
Yep.
- [54:22]
Dan Bernstein
All summer, every summer. I'm surprised the number of alligator attacks is not higher. He said. Here are some other Florida tidbits. Dan, you mentioned actually touching a manatee accidentally while kayaking. He said it is illegal, but no harm, no foul, he said. 2. The state cat, the panther is rare and endangered. There is a potential sighting in my subdivision, so who knows. He also sent pictures of what else is in his subdivision that include multiple black bear. And he said the forests are full of black bears, bobcats, wildcats, rattlesnakes and coyotes. It's also full of a nomadic tribe called the Rainbow People who live off the grid in the forest.
- [55:12]
Commercial Announcer
What?
- [55:13]
Dan Bernstein
And I looked that up. He's right. They don't live there all the time, but there is a hippie commune group that started in 1970. I did a deep dive on the Rainbow People of Florida.
- [55:29]
Matty Abatecola
Oh yeah.
- [55:29]
Dan Bernstein
Because he sent me this and it started after a. Around the time of Woodstock there in Oregon. There was a state sponsored rock music festival in rural Oregon involving local bands there and a group was created called the Rainbow Something and now they've got. There was. There's the Wikipedia article has a picture of the Rainbow People in Bosnia who the US is playing today in soccer. But so I, I was. I was up late reading some of these things. So he said if you want to know how not dead guy stays not dead, he fishes from a bass boat. So there is risk when I fish from shore. He said but I keep my time super limited. I fish from piers. What I don't do is swim, kayak tube or canoe. Our lakes and rivers here have Also crocodiles, pythons and water moccasins. Said if you, if. If y' all need a Florida correspondent, I'm your guy. He says, unless. Unless I get attacked by a gator, a bear, a coyote, a panther, a snake, a croc, or Uncle Terry's sick monkeys who all have herpes. They were still down there. Thank you. Thank you for the help. Not dead guy. I've got one more follow up. Do you remember when I was discussing the White Sox Sam Antonacci?
- [57:00]
Matty Abatecola
Yeah.
- [57:01]
Dan Bernstein
Oh yeah, yeah. And how every time I heard Sam Antonacci, I was all. I kept saying to myself, I was singing to myself the Mike north song about his guy, the owner of Basta Pasta, Tino Antonacci. And he always said it like that. I don't know why. He just did t. No Anton. So it stuck in my mind. So I brought it up. I'm like, oh yeah, I went to Basta Pasta and I met him. I said I didn't think he liked me. Hahaha, whatever. So I get an email yesterday, 312Sports. And it says, hi, Dan, Tino Antonacci here. I have had several people ask me why I dislike Bernstein. Now, now you can go on all day. But he just, he said, he said, I remember we had a nice conversation back in the day about how to make mussels. He said that was at Jilly's, one of Terry Bors favorites, he says. So he said, stop by Pennyville Station in Park Ridge. I'm there during the day. He also mentioned if Sam Antonacci has some bloodlines in Triggiano, Italy, we might be related. And then he adds, go Cubbies. So I'm going to try to find that out. And as you know, Matty, you know where Triggiano is. It's where your people are from.
- [58:35]
Matty Abatecola
Yep.
- [58:36]
Dan Bernstein
So I'm waiting that if we get some kind of like twist ending here
- [58:41]
Matty Abatecola
where instead of and I are related.
- [58:43]
Dan Bernstein
Yes. Instead of Sam Antonacci and Tito Antonacci, that you end up being related. That there's somehow some, some ancient connection between the. The Abate Colas and the Antonaccis. Or maybe, or maybe everybody's related. I don't know because. So I also, I have put in a request to somebody who is around Sam Antonacci regularly to say if you get the chance. That's all I said. I said if you get the chance. Ask him this. I can assure you the reasons for me asking this are stupid. So I'm waiting to see if that gets taken care of for us. But I did want to follow up the T. No. Antonacci is alive and well and still in the hospitality and restaurant industry in Park Ridge. So there you go. We can bring everything around full circle. If you are ready for tonight's game. And that, of course, is USA and Bosnia, then you already know about the bet that's there at my bookie. And that is. Is the McDonald's logo going to appear? Will it show up in the broadcast? It's an actual bet at my bookie. But there's all kinds of other bets. That's the cool thing. You can go in there and look who's going to score and when they're going to score and what the final score is going to be. If you want to give yourself a little bit more to chew on in tonight's game, because we got day baseball, so we've got a night soccer game. Why not get on that a little bit? USA Bosnia, the round of 32. And my bookie is your place to bet all the World cup stuff. So use the promo code DBU when you sign up and that will give you a deposit bonus and it will get you up to $500 in protection on your first bet at my bookie. So don't forget when you register, when you deposit dbu, just those three letters and then you're set with my bookie. So you want to make that bet about the golden arches. Once you see it on screen, the bet's gone. But there's all kinds of other stuff for you. The code is dbu. It is only at my bookie. We also have refreshed our Rewards page at 312Sports app and 312Sports.com so if you can get, go get the App App Store, Google Play. I'm gonna have the winners for you tomorrow for June. But these are the rewards for July. They just keep staying awesome. We have on our rewards page on the 312Sports app a 100 gift certificate to Lil Bob Ariba, which is the little sister of Cafe Babaria. Baba Riba, which was really, I think, the first big tapas place. It's still going with all the small plates that you like. You know, the spicy potatoes. I believe they're patatas bravas, the bacon wrapped dates, the baked goat cheese. A $100 gift certificate to Wildfire. A four pack of tickets to the Bristol Renaissance Fair. That's July 11th through September 7th. And get ready for this. Tickets to see AC DC at Notre Dame Stadium.
- [61:58]
Matty Abatecola
Wow.
- [62:00]
Dan Bernstein
Yup. And. And Angus Young standing under Touchdown Jesus and and see, this is really cool because if you've been to an AC DC concert, you know devil horns that light up like light up devil horns and all sorts of red devil things underneath the auspices of Touchdown Jesus himself. That's pretty cool. ACDC September 4th at Notre Dame Stadium is now you say what's the code? What's the code word? What's the code word? Enter the promo code Summer on any reward S U M M E R We'll have the June winners for you tomorrow. But enter the promo code summer on any reward for a chance to win. That's pretty cool stuff. And see, that's what we do for you. We're, we're all things to all people here on Dan Bernstein Unfiltered it has been brought to you today by Chicago Window guys Russ Armstrong 847-302-9171 chicagowindowguys.com by the Chicago Stars making this a soccer field summer in Evanston. Come to a match for family friendly pro sports on the lakefront. Get tickets at Chicago Stars and in partnership with my bookie Dan Bernstein, unfiltered unfiltered on 312 sports. On July 5, the Chicago Stars returned to Evanston vs Utah Royals FC. The Chicago Stars celebrating a summer of soccer on the north side and you don't want to miss it with an easy to get to stadium and tickets starting at $19. Pro women's soccer Soccer has never been more accessible. Come to a match for family friendly pre match entertainment then cheer on us Olympians like Mallory Swanson and Alyssa Nayer playing right on the lakefront at Evanston. Summer soccer doesn't get much better than this. Get your tickets now@chicagostars.com tickets.