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- [00:00]
Chad Millman
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:04]
Simon Hunter
Okay? Have you heard about this? Last year, Degree changed the formula for their Cool Rush deodorant. The fans rebelled and wanted the old scent back and Degree listened and that doesn't happen often. They admitted they effed up and are bringing the original Cool Rush scent back. And it's exactly how you remember it. Cool, crisp and fresh. There's a reason why it's the number one men's antiperspirant. And it's back in Walmart, Target and other stores now for under $4. You so try it and see what the fuss is about. Head to your local Walmart, Target and try to og Cool Rush for yourself.
- [00:42]
Jason Benetti
Welcome to the Favorites, the podcast, part of the Volume Podcast Network. I am Chad Millman of the Action Network. Today I'm joined as always by my co host, my companion, my compadre, my bff, Professional Better Simon Hunter. Hello, Simon.
- [00:58]
Chad Millman
Chad.
- [00:59]
Unnamed Speaker
How we doing, brother?
- [01:00]
Jason Benetti
You sound a little froggy.
- [01:02]
Unnamed Speaker
It's early in the morning, brother. I'm not, I'm not a married man with kids.
- [01:08]
Jason Benetti
I feel like he was waking up.
- [01:09]
Unnamed Speaker
At 9 in the morning. So yeah, like I'm hurting, brother.
- [01:14]
Jason Benetti
By this time in the morning, I have fed the dog, I have fed my kid. I have defended myself from dirty looks for walking into the room where my kid was just to give him his food. I. I have exercised, I have showered, I have prepped for our podcast. I am ready to roll. I'm going to need a nap.
- [01:31]
Unnamed Speaker
Well, I went to bed at 2. I went to bed two hours ago. So that's. That perfectly sums up the level we're on right now in different worlds.
- [01:37]
Jason Benetti
Why did you go to bed 2 hours ago?
- [01:39]
Unnamed Speaker
Cuz life's fun. I'm not going to tell you what I did, but I had a good night, let's just put it that way. And yeah, nothing, nothing criminal mainly. Maybe a new video game came out, Chad. Who knows? Either way, I literally do whatever I want. I'm living the dream, brother.
- [01:56]
Jason Benetti
It's amazing we're BFFs because you and I are living entirely different lives. You know who's got an exciting life? Our guest. Because he is not only living the dream, he is considered by many, including myself, to be one of the very best sports broadcasters working today. He's been on the show before. He's the television play by play voice of the Detroit Tigers and so many other games. College basketball, college football. You name it, he's doing it. He's the host of the have a Seat podcast. Some of the hardest working vocal cords in the business. Welcome back to the show. Jason Benetti.
- [02:38]
Chad Millman
Gentlemen. How are you? I think my life is somewhere in. In between you two.
- [02:44]
Jason Benetti
Well, that's a good place to be. You're on the road every single night, basically. You work nights. I mean, you basically. You're basically like a lounge singer.
- [02:53]
Chad Millman
Yeah. Honestly, that's not far. That's not far from the truth. There's a Dire Straits song called all the Road Running. It's just. It's Mark Knopfler. I think that's pretty much my life. That or up in the Air with George Clooney. But I don't know which is sadder. But if it's all for nothing all the road are running, spinning.
- [03:17]
Jason Benetti
Matt Mitchell, our producer, who you graciously hosted at a Brewers Tigers game earlier this season, I thought that was a class act. His favorite call of yours was 2022. College football TCU at Baylor. TCU has the ball. They're down two with 22 seconds left. Third and seven, Baylor 26 yard line with no timeouts for TCU. If they lose, they lose a shot at the College Football Playoff. Can you tell our listeners what happens next?
- [03:54]
Chad Millman
Oh, so, yeah, I almost, like, get emotional thinking about this moment because. And that's so cheesy, right? Like it's a. It's a sports play by play call, right? But it's everything you want in a team concept emotionally. So, like, you know those big moments where a play by play person yells and it's just the play by play announcer, and it sounds like, you know, whatever. Like it sounds great, but when you do it together, it just means a lot, you know, because you know that you've kind of. It's like a great scene in a movie that, that you build off of each other to make sure that. That you're both feeling the emotion of it. Like, I have some actor friends who've told me, like, when you see two actors sitting at a diner, right, and the camera is over one of their shoulders, it's not always that, that that second person is in the scene as, as the person who's talking is looking straightforward, they might be doing that alone. I've had actor friends tell me that they respect most the actors who will sit opposite them and give them the emotional reaction for them to feed off of so they can have that real human concept that is this. So TCU runs the ball without timeouts to set the ball up in the middle of the field. And then they absolutely. Fire drill three alarms send Their kicker on running with the field goal unit. As time is ticking away like sand is moving fast from the hourglass. Gravity is pulling harder for some reason. And they are sprinting, hunting this kicker onto the field so he can make the biggest kick of his life. And nothing will surpass that as the biggest kick of his life. As we found out, like, his name's Griffin Kell. They absolutely nail it and win the game. But in that moment, you know, I say, it's a run on third down. Brock gets some urgency in his voice. I join in. I'm a little more urgent than Brock. They build the line, the offensive line. As they're doing it, we're kicking up the energy piece by piece. He nails it. I make the call. Brock jumps in and says, wow. And then says, I don't believe what we just saw or some version of that, but it was every level that they went to. You know, almost like a. Like a menu at a Buffalo Wing restaurant where it's like, oh, there's this many chili peppers. No, no, no, no. There are this many chili peppers and this many. We did it together and we felt the energy. And I remember very distinctly there is a moment after we're done narrating it where it's just the scene that Brock and I were like, if you had the Snoop cam in the booth. Brock and I are looking at each other just like, wow. And Brock says, I am shaking. Third down. Another run. Demarcato.
- [07:10]
Unnamed Speaker
Gotta get on the field.
- [07:11]
Chad Millman
Yeah, you gotta hustle here. A run. And now it's a total scramble. Emergency mode for the unbeaten Horn Frogs. Hypno Toad in a hurry. Griffin Kell for the win. TCU is undefeated still. Wow. Unreal. I am shaking. I can't believe what Sonny Dykes just did. That is a walk off, really. A runoff for the ages. It's the genesis of my Brock impression, which I am very excited about. But, like, everything is a little extra emotional in that moment. And then you have a guy who is so good because he's done a lot of talk radio. He's so good at getting the emotion out of moments. And I think that was really. That was our first of three seasons together. And that was the moment that I think we would both. And our entire crew would look fondly on and say, like, I think that's kind of when we hit the pocket.
- [08:26]
Jason Benetti
So you're in St. Louis. You travel constantly. You do every single sport. Like. Like. Because I watch every Bulls game. I've heard you do Bulls games, both preseason games and like early season games when Adam Amin might be on the road for Fox. And I know you do college basketball. I know you do college football, obviously doing the Tigers like travel warrior, travel nightmare. Do you subscribe to the theory that you get paid for the travel and the rest is fun? How do you manage the travel? Where do you never want to go again?
- [09:05]
Chad Millman
Oh, wow. Hat tip to the Trailblazers, by the way, for giving me five games this year and letting me stay on the NBA circuit because I did enjoy it a great deal and very small nod to them. You talk about the Statcast show. What they do with Tom Haberstrough reminds me a lot of Petriello. And so I felt very much at home just bringing it full circle with what they do that I can probe the depths of Tom when I fill in for Kevin, who has been so super generous to me. Place I never want to go to again is an absolute trap because if I go back there, they will remind me of that. You know, my first year doing minor league baseball, I was with a team in Salem, Virginia where our parking lot was where Borat went to the rodeo. In my country, they take them and.
- [10:01]
Jason Benetti
They take them to jail and finish. Take them out and hang them. Yes.
- [10:04]
Chad Millman
High five. So I was with this team in Salem and our first road trip we went to Northern Virginia. It's a team that's now defunct. They've moved and I believe the hotel probably no longer is standing, but most of the team got bedbugs from that, that hotel. So I'd rather not go there ever again. Thanks for that. I'd also rather not go to the hotel in New York City during college basketball season this season where the fire alarm went off four times in a two hour span. And I was, I swear to you, I was on the 742nd floor. I don't remember what floor it was, but I think it was 7:42. So. So yeah, no thanks on that. But I actually, I had a couple announcers and I actually felt this way too. Say to me like older announcers, really revered announcers say to me during COVID if they never let us travel again. This once we were traveling once more. If they never let us travel again, I would have quit. And I actually feel the same way because you can't do it justice, you can't do it right without being at the game in the city. And so I actually, I remind myself even when travel is tough, like I've had a couple cross countries for Fox this year and I don't care. I'M like, as long as I know when I need to, when I get to sleep next, when I get to have that one night of sleep, that's kind of my reset button. I'm good. Because I did miss it a great deal when we weren't traveling, when I was sitting at home in 2020 off a kit in my living room, like, making leftovers and doing Korean baseball games from Chicago. Like, I really missed it. I missed the travel. I missed it a lot. 2021. Like, I was very vocal about the White Sox not traveling TV and Major League Baseball not traveling tv. And, you know, you don't, you don't know what the plot's going to look like 20 pages later when you're in the middle of the story. I didn't know if we were ever going to travel again there. There seemed to be some networks who were pretty comfortable, you know, regionally and then, you know, teams. Teams, but also networks, but also leagues that kind of were okay with it for a little while, but a lot of us pushed back. And I think it was important because you don't get the same entertainment value out of a game done from a studio. You just don't.
- [12:24]
Jason Benetti
You're in St. Louis today, one of my favorite towns where my mommy is from. Do you know why the date October 2, 2018 is significant?
- [12:36]
Chad Millman
I think that was Cubs Rockies wild card day.
- [12:42]
Jason Benetti
That's exactly what it was. It was the first ever MLB stat cast on espn. You were the play by play. To this day, it is the best baseball broadcast I've ever heard. I'm not even kidding, Simon. I don't know why you're laughing.
- [13:03]
Unnamed Speaker
Like, the most shocking part, Chad, is the fact that the Rockies were in the wild card round. That's. That's the most shocking part of this conversation.
- [13:09]
Jason Benetti
They were good back then.
- [13:11]
Unnamed Speaker
They were.
- [13:12]
Jason Benetti
That was like, by the way, talking about St. Louis, Nolan Arenado, I think that's like when he was sort of in his prime. And I think they won that game, actually. But I couldn't even tell you the final score. I think it actually, I can't tell you. I think it went extra innings and I think The Rockies won 2 1. But Jason, truly, that was a revelatory broadcast. Like, loved every second of it. And I remember I had just left ESPN to launch Action less than a year earlier. And one of the reasons, like, we launched Action is because I just didn't think ESPN was going to get it. Like, when it came to this kind of information, this, that would engage fans in an accessible way. And that broadcast did that. I remember emailing Phil Orleans, who, you know, is the producer of MLB's broadcasts, and I'm like, this was fucking ridiculous. And I feel like when you were in the moment, explain to people like, what that was. Cause I do think it was transformative. Explain to people how it came about and your part in it and what you thought of it.
- [14:20]
Chad Millman
Yeah, man, you just hit me right in the heart because that show changed my life in some ways, not just career wise, but just informationally. You know, the whole goal for us for that show was to be not really different. I think that would be. The inclination is like, hey, let's be different. Our goal for that show was to make sure that if it was on the screen, it was really specifically relevant. Like, it made sense to this moment. It made sense to this specific player. The graphics when we walked up a player like this was his. His best attribute. This is how he might impact the game. And Mike Petriello, who works for mlb, he's a statcast guru. With his help, you know, I got to really understand exactly how powerful the information can be that we had. But, you know, it was. It was Eduardo Perez, Mike and myself in the booth. Andy Jacobson was our producer, who's now the producer sort of Sunday Night Baseball on espn, the main show. And we all got together and basically just said, hey, let's. Let's make this information sing as much as possible as specifically as possible. And. And my first recollection from that day is when we were having our meeting, we had. We had breakfast at the hotel in downtown Chicago, and I was living there at the time. So I went from home to. To the hotel and we were talking about all this information. And I said to the group, I said, hey, is there still time for us to tell stories? And I remember Phil. Phil Orleans, who you mentioned jumping in and saying, absolutely. Like, that should still be a part of this show, but the information is different. And it just kind of jigsaw puzzled in for me at that point where it was like, okay, we are using stats in the most muscular way possible while also keeping the joy of baseball. And I remember distinctly, shoot, I don't remember who player was, but I remember late in that game, we put up sort of a Trivial Pursuit pie piece, like a whole pie of underneath a player. It was a specialty graphic they had built for us for his directional outs above average. And he was really good one direction, and I swear to you, the next batted ball was in that direction. And he made the catch. I. I Don't remember who it might have been. Like Charlie Culberson. I don't remember who it was but. But I just kind of looked at Mike and he looked at me and Eduardo and I are laughing and it was just like, oh man. We have fully unlocked the potential of what baseball on television might be. So yeah, that was, that was an amazing night. We didn't, we Mike, Mike found a place for us to eat and it was like the wrong direction. Like we went further north instead of south back to the city and we were all making fun of him and like, but we didn't care. I swear to you. I was up until 4:30 in the morning just buzzing on the high of teamwork.
- [17:27]
Jason Benetti
Did you have a lot of experience or interest in that kind of information before that game?
- [17:37]
Chad Millman
We kind of had a dry run by doing the Home Run Derby. I think 2018 was the first time we did the derby, so we hadn't done on a game. You're exactly right. There was no. This was the first time we rolled it out in a game broadcast. But we did the derby. And I want to say 2018 was Washington. I want to say it was, it was Nats park with Bryce Harper and his dad just piping in fastballs like over and over and over again to the point where they were like, you're cheating, you're throwing too many, you know, whatever it might be. But so we did that and you know, we could kind of get a feel for what the information might be. And so I had been able to, you know, kick the tires on baseball savant and, and get to kind of learn for myself over the course of the season in preparation. But then when you see it in play and you see how like he maps can show you exactly what might happen in a game off a pitcher's hand based on specific matchups, it is, it's intoxicating in so many ways. And, and also we had what I remember as like a 14 inning game, but we got off the air and I wasn't looking at social media, but we the air. And I remember people being like, well that went well. And I was like, oh, how well? And then I looked at social media and it was like, do this more. That's the best thing ever. And like, you know, the concept allowed us to be able to do that. But we also happen to have in the booth two analysts who are virtually egoless. And so Eduardo and Mike can, you know, it wasn't like, I think this camp and I think that camp, that's not the Point like that is the really overly basic way to, to do a show like that. It's like, well, I'm here for analytics, I'm here for baseball garbage. That's garbage. That's not how this works. How it works is you take the information, you funnel it to a player, they tell you how it hits them. We then ask follow ups to the person who's kind of the information guy and they talk to each other like human beings. But I think that's why, you know, if I don't want to put words in your mouth, Chad. But when you said like, ESPN might not get it, I feel like if you were doing that as sort of like a hot take show, it would devolve into just yelling at each other about who's right. And that's entertaining for 12 seconds, but not 12 innings.
- [20:04]
Jason Benetti
One of the topics that comes up often. I get asked this all the time, and I'm sure people ask Simon about this too. Is that kind of stat cast? It's really one nuanced piece of language away from being a gambling cast. I'm asked all the time, do you think that gambling will be a regular part of broadcasts? My answer is usually no, because I don't know that there's a big enough audience of gamblers that it's worth incorporating it for the people who aren't gamblers. But do you ever think about how to incorporate gambling information into your broadcast? And you do every sport, so it's not, it's not just for baseball. But do you think about that as a circumstance or as something that is of value? How do you consider that sort of new aspect of sports?
- [21:00]
Chad Millman
Yeah, it's a tough one for me because of my multiple employments. I'm an employee of the Tigers. I am not a gambler. I by definition can't be, but I wouldn't be anyway a sports gambler. So it's a tough question, but I also do play by play on FanDuel Sports Network. Right. So church and state are not as separate as they used to be. And I, you know, I'm not going to be like Victorian England about this either in the way that I perceive it because, you know, we do the FanDuel home run odds on our Tigers games and all that stuff. I wouldn't do it. I can't do it. But I would say, you know, like what, what I am, what I always marvel at in baseball. There's going to be a little bit of a generic answer, but it's only because, like the specific answer probably Isn't worth it for me. But, but the kind of generic answer is I marvel at how much information there is that could help people if they wanted to just follow the game, right? So I guess I would, I would push back a little bit on like not even push back. But I don't know the distinction between information and gambling information anymore. You know, like, I think all information could be used to follow the game very specifically, step by step. But we do. I will say this is the part that I feel comfortable being very specific. And I think it's, I think it's some version of a novel thought. You all be the judge. But you know, we, we spend a lot of time in our baseball prep trying to find tendencies. Like, we had a game the other day where a Red Sox starter was throwing a lot of sinkers to right handers that were pooling off the inside corner. So you look at his heat map and there's this red blob inside off the plate to right handers. So his sinker is not a strike most of the time. So we pulled that heat map because it was kind of a novel. Lo and behold, the first sinker he throws to a right handed batter in the game is Gleyber Torres. And he homers off of it and it's in off the plate and he like opens up to hammer it. And you know, the first thought is, oh my gosh, you can follow along with anything through baseball savant. And then my second thought was, oh, people could use this information. You know, like, that did run through my mind of like, if, if you're that good, it's a little bit like, and I don't want to be like insider trading, tiptoe the line guy, but, you know, like, I read one of Jim Cramer's books in 2006 and he's talking about listening to earnings calls over and over again for like companies that have had IPOs. Right? And so I think the information is out there if you want to dive into it. But again, the danger is danger. But like the, the counterbalance of that is everybody in baseball is looking for tendency breakers. If your first pitch swing rate is 4%, at some point you got to bust that tendency. And so just when you think you have it sized up, somebody does something else completely different. And to me, informationally, that's the fun of it. But I, you know, that would be the thing that if you were somebody who's inclined to place a wager on a sporting event, it might frustrate you.
- [24:28]
Jason Benetti
Simon, I know you're A big baseball fan. I know how much you love the Phillies. When you watch a game, do you watch it through the lens of information and analytics or because it's not a sport you bet on, Is it just a purely visceral experience?
- [24:47]
Unnamed Speaker
I mean, I do bet. I just don't bet it professionally.
- [24:49]
Chad Millman
So, like, right.
- [24:50]
Unnamed Speaker
If I. If I'm getting good info, I'll always take a position. But it's also like last. Last night, perfect example. As a Phillies fan, it was an easy bet. They're playing the Rockies. Okay, they open minus, I believe, 250. And I say to myself, I'll wait till it's live, hope the Rockies get up one or two. Sure enough, I think it was a third or fourth inning. Rockies are up three. 2. Take a position on the Phillies at a plus number. I think they end up winning the game like nine. Three, Chad. So it's just those type of things. I'll take positions on where the Rockies are so bad and, you know, the pitching tendencies. And right now, the Phillies are going through an issue with their bullpen that we had a guy basically tested positive for who knows what. But it's. It's funny where the market moves off of that. Where the Phillies are, travel day, they're going to the Rockies play Colorado, and that number is usually min. Rockies are probably the worst team in baseball. Huge numbers, minus 300. And guys I knew who don't even bet, they know how bad the Rockies are, so they'll bet on that game. So that's the type of thing where I think back in the day, that guy never bet. And that, to me, is the biggest difference now with. Especially what Jason's talking about, where, like, I like that Jason's not out here acting like he knows what he's talking about. When he works for a gambling company where he's. He stays in his lane. And he does it because it's part of his job. If they're like, hey, Jason, give it out. A home run guy, he'll do it. I mean, he watches the game. He knows what he's talking about. He's just letting people know, like, I don't do this for a living. I'm just doing this. It's part of the job. I like that, and I like that there's more of that in baseball, because I want. I do want to hear from people like Jason who are around the game a lot, knows the game, but he's not coming from. From any type of angle. Right? He's just going strictly off what he knows. What numbers he follows and all that. So to me, I know Jason might not love it because it's like, it's a new territory for him. I love people like him getting into this type of stuff because it's something that me loves gambling. I love hearing his view of baseball through that lens. So, yeah, it's my first question. You, Jason, is just, do you hate it or have you embraced it a little bit? Where it's. It's just fun giving that perspective on those type of numbers. Do you even hear from fans about your. Your picks or anything like that? Are you just. Are you just all about the job?
- [26:52]
Chad Millman
So I honestly don't build them. Like, I, I. It's not my choice. It's graphics that builds them. Like, I'm totally. I'm. I'm very pretty agnostic. Like, I just. I. It is a line that because I'm a team employee, it's just not ever worth it. Like, I will say, like, hey, Here are the FanDuel home run odds. And then he's got this many. Or like, we, you know, like, looking into it. There's this matchup or that matchup. But I, I really, truly, I give the information for the information sake. And if people want to use it for whatever purpose, right, to, like, make fun of their little brother who doesn't know as much about baseball or whatever it might be. Like, I. I so, you know, like, I've played blackjack. I'm happy to go to Vegas and play blackjack. Like, that is. That's, like, I enjoy that. But I also, like, it is just not worth it for me in any way to go any closer. Because, you know, like, we. Our producer said to me last week, like, hey, you know, they. They want us to talk a little bit about Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe and all that stuff. And I was like, I don't really have one of these, like, really strong opinions about this, and I also don't know that I want to go into it, because if my opinion ends up being. As I suss it out, like, if my opinion ends up being, hey, they shouldn't be allowed in the hall of Fame Fame, and I work for FanDuel Sports Network. Like, then what? Right? Like that. Then what. So, you know, I'm a. It's interesting because I'm a team employee, and our games are aired on FanDuel Sports Network. And I think, like, to your point, Chad, I think there's an alt cast out there. Like, I really do think there's an alt cast, and teams have tried it. Teams have tried it for sure. Like I know they tried it in Chicago, like a specific gambling cast and things like that. And I, you know, I think you just have to figure out exactly what the rules are that are going to keep you employed. Like the only thing that stops me from having a very open conversation is I'm a team employee and I cannot bet on baseball. Cannot. Will. Not. Not going to happen.
- [29:13]
Jason Benetti
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- [29:16]
Unnamed Speaker
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- [30:40]
Jason Benetti
I always know, even when I don't know, like flipping through the channels for a college football game or a college basketball game. I know when it's a Benetti broadcast A because your voice is distinctive but. But B there is something funny and charming that you slip into or like a reference that is good for 10% of the people, but those 10% that get it freaking love it and then become sort of acolytes. You've done this with the Tigers broadcasts, a couple of which have gone a bit viral. One I think was you basically called an entire inning as if you were golf announcers, right? Explain sort of what happened there.
- [31:26]
Chad Millman
You could argue that baseball is a sport that actually could be called like golf. Very calming Tapper. And he just taps it in with a throw to first job through two you're on six to the seventh tee box. He goes thank you for that. I would say again, I just told you I don't gamble on sports, but I would say I would take the under on 10% of people understand the references. Maybe 10 total people.
- [31:58]
Jason Benetti
Well, I'm one of them.
- [31:59]
Chad Millman
Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Jackson Jobe, the pitcher for the Tigers. His father is Brandt Jobe, who is a longtime PGA Tour golfer. And we had a picture of Jackson caddying for Brandt just before Jackson's fourth birthday at the Masters way back in the day, like 18 and a half years ago. And so we showed it earlier, but then we got into the thick of the game, and I don't know what made me do it, but maybe it's my partner, Andy Dirks, also being a circus animal. And so I just started, you know, as a golf person, and he came right with immediately. And then we did it for, I don't know, a minute and a half, two minutes, and then broke character and then told the Jackson Joe golf story again. And, you know, there. There was a time in my life where that would have just been the whole thing. Right. Just because it's fun to be golf announcers and it's fun to laugh and enjoy life. I do. As an aside, I do think it's pretty funny when people tweet at us like, you're laughing so much. Stick to the game. Like, dear sir or madam or whomever, I'm sorry you're miserable. Sincerely, us. Like imagining when you're eight, imagining a world where somebody writes into you and says, laugh less. That is. It's like you're reading the Grinch that Stole Christmas, you know, like, that's like, what's going on there. And so I just. I think those are entertaining. But the reason we did it is because of Jackson and his story. And what I was going to say is, there was a time in my life where we would have just been really indulgent and done the golf voice because it's funny. And he and I are a little bit like Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly and stepbrothers, you know, but it's about the kid and it's about his story. And so I think. I think that kind of helped it land.
- [34:01]
Unnamed Speaker
Have you.
- [34:02]
Jason Benetti
You've been with the Tigers now? This is your second season. Of course, you were with the White Sox for many years before that. The favorite team of Pope Leo xiv. What's it like? And you're a Chicago guy. How are you enjoying Detroit? How would you compare it to a Chicago baseball experience?
- [34:29]
Chad Millman
Well, I thought this was Going to be a Pope question. Because the Pope, the Pope lived for a while. New Pope lived for a while, like, four blocks from where I grew up in Homewood, Illinois. So my text thread was exploding from my high school friends and I that day when we found out, like, there's a picture of New Pope at Aurelio's Pizza on the south side. And, like, he knows to say, hey, use the old oven at Aurelio's Pizza. So, you know, we were doing like the whole, like, I wonder if the Pope's ever been to Chuck's House of Magic. Or, like, did he get his T shirts made at knicksknacks? Or, like, all of this stuff, right. South side of Chicago suburbs stuff. So, yeah, I thought I was going.
- [35:14]
Jason Benetti
To go there next. I was going to ease in with a question about Detroit.
- [35:18]
Chad Millman
All right, so here's the answer. I'll give you the answer about Detroit. I. Detroit is an amazing sports town. Like, I knew it when I went there. You know, I'd been there for you.
- [35:29]
Unnamed Speaker
Picked a good time to go, though, you have to admit.
- [35:31]
Chad Millman
Totally. Yeah, totally, totally. Totally accurate. Very accurate. Like when. When the town is like buzzing over Lions, Pistons, Tigers, when for so long it was the Red Wings that were propping up the town, you're like, oh, this all could go right all at once very soon. So, yeah, I'm there at the very right time. That is 100% true. But that's part of the. Honestly, like, I'm not saying that I expected 31 and 11 to race playoff spot last year, but I did. You know, like, I do think the world of A.J. hinch and I do think the world of Scott Harris and Jeff Greenberg. Like, I think they have a lockstep between front office and manager that most Major League baseball teams don't have. And, you know, there was a time where I think people thought AJ Hinch was going to be the White Sox manager, in part because his signature was on the Tony La Russa welcome graphic that the White Sox did. You know, so, like, that, that was a thing, that was a very public thing that he was being courted in part for White Sox job. And I always was thrilled about the thought that he and I could, you know, in our separate jobs, work together and I be able to narrate his decision making because I do think, like, he. He is a little stat castish. Like, I can really vibe with AJ because he sees all of those details and he uses it in his analysis. So a little bit like the Statcast show to circle back like, the Statcast show helped me narrate AJ Hinch, because that level of specificity is what he uses. But, you know, long story short, I. Having done White Sox games, I know Chicago is split, and that becomes your existence. Sox, Cubs. Socks, Cubs. I had never been in a team job where the entire state loves your team, and that I should have known was coming, and I did know was coming, but until you don't have people walking up to you and saying, like, I'm a Cub fan, but. Or I'm a Cub fan and I blank you right. Like, you don't. You don't realize how valuable it is to have an entire state behind a team.
- [37:47]
Jason Benetti
When we were in. We had an event for the show in Chicago at Joe's on weed the last weekend in March, and we were all going down there, and I was going to hang out with my family on Friday night. And Simon, who was relatively alone. I don't really know what happened that night. He. He was gonna go. It was like the opening weekend for the White Sox. And I'm like, dude, don't bother. You're not going to the south side to be in a stadium where it's going to be freezing and there's going to be eight people there. Like, it's just a different experience. I said, if the Cubs were home, you know, you'd go to.
- [38:25]
Chad Millman
It is great food, though. I will say Rate Field has great food. That. That is the. That is definitely something I would stump for, is. Is some of the better food in the.
- [38:34]
Jason Benetti
Yeah, but when you're cooking for eight people, it's easy.
- [38:39]
Chad Millman
I will tell you, I have never cooked for eight people in my life because one sometimes is a stretch.
- [38:46]
Jason Benetti
Yeah. So. But here's my question about Detroit, because last year they had that crazy run and. And A.J. hinch, like, I feel like that could be the perfect marriage of broadcaster and manager. But, you know, whenever I think of. Some of the best movies are baseball movies where the team goes on that run through June, July, August. Right. And they sort of have the great montage. Think about, like, every major league, right?
- [39:12]
Chad Millman
Yep.
- [39:13]
Jason Benetti
What is it like when you're in that? Like, does it feel like it's sped up? Do you feel the momentum every single day? How does that energy manifest itself for you?
- [39:22]
Chad Millman
Yeah, it's interesting because that montage that usually starts somewhere near mid season, and this mid season, the Tigers traded away Jack Flaherty and traded away Mark Hannah and Carson Kelly and Andrew Chaffin and others. So it was that, you know, exodus that you're used to when you were playing for the long game. And so on the last day of July, little did we know it was a plot point, but it was like a red herring, right? It was in there as misdirection was the trade deadline. And so there wasn't that slow build. It was just like one day you're not, and the next day you are. There was a glimpse right before the All Star break when they beat the Dodgers twice in a row on two straight walk offs. But until we got to August and they, they got super scalding hot, we didn't know. I don't think any of us knew. And it also required that a couple teams really fade. I mean, Minnesota had to fade to let the Tigers back in. And that happened. And Seattle didn't play, you know, outsized baseball either. And so, you know, we get to that point in September where we're in San Diego and the Tigers have given up a lead to the Padres and lost because of Jackson Merrill in part in day two of the. And then maybe that was day one, but, but then Parker Meadows hits this grand. No, that was day two because Parker Meadows, game three, to avoid a sweep, hits this grand Islam in the ninth inning off the Padres closer. And like, none of us knew it was coming. And I had to recalibrate. Like on the walk back to the hotel, I was going separately from the team because of college football. On the walk back to the hotel, I remember thinking to myself, I'm not going to be surprised again if they're going to do this. Like, I am going to be on it from jump street expecting that they're going to do this, because if they do make this comeback, and this was 30 days in advance, but, but, you know, that grand slam, I was on it, but I wasn't expecting it. And those are separate things. And I think this team felt the same, that they were doing some things, but they weren't expecting to win. And Spencer Torkelson actually just told us this on the podcast the other day. Like, this is the first team he's been a part of in pro ball that he's felt like they come to the ballpark and they expect to win. And I think there's a difference. And so in the way I did my job, I just started expecting fully the unexpected. And that is a recalibration. And so that, that was, that was really valuable and important because then there were all these moments and I was like, okay, when's the next one? When's the next one? When's the Next one, When's the next one? And you almost have to do it like that and not be disappointed if it doesn't come. But just thinking like, all right, we're going to drill this one now because they're going to do something, and lo and behold, they did something over and over and over again.
- [42:25]
Jason Benetti
But does that just make your call different? Is that like that? What does that look like?
- [42:31]
Chad Millman
Yeah, it looks like Robin Ventura told me when he was the White Sox manager my first year, we were at dinner and he said some version of, you know, I've told writers before, try one game, not even in. Like, this is going to sound like he was like ripping writers or something. He didn't. He didn't mean it at all like this. He just meant it as a thought exercise for one game. Really lock in on every single pitch. Like, really lock in. Like, don't look at your computer, don't write something. Don't talk to the person next to you. Be eyes up on every single pitch. You're going to be exhausted. And that was ringing in my ears as this was going on because I'm like, I think I'm an attention payer. I think I'm watching the field most times and I think I'm locked in most times. But I'm also talking to my partner. And sometimes there's a pitch that comes where we're in the middle of something as the pitch comes. That's okay. You're a baseball announcer. I shifted last year as much as I humanly could to, like, this pitch is meaningful, that pitch is meaningful, and that is not sustainable from April to July. It is not like you just can't because at some point you become over serious. Like last night as we're taping this, the tigers were down 11 to nothing and Tomas Nido was pitching. And we did a bit on the air where Dan Petrie convinced me to believe that a comeback was possible. Because I basically said, like, I'm under no obligation to tell the people at home that the Tigers are likely to win this game. And he was like, ah, come on. And then there were two hits in a row. And I said, well, great. Dylan Dingler's the tying run next time he comes up, right? Like, you just can't pretend that every pitch matters until it does, though. That's the fun about baseball. It's a little bit like a Bugatti, right? You go 0 to 60 real fast. And that's the way that felt.
- [44:39]
Jason Benetti
Jason Benetti watching Tigers games is worth getting the MLB package just to hear you doing brother. Thanks for coming on the show. Good luck with the rest of the season.
- [44:51]
Chad Millman
Yes he does. Somebody alert NASA.
- [44:56]
Jason Benetti
Simon and I will return with our next episode of the Favorites Tuesday on The Action Network YouTube page. Download from Spotify, Apple Pods. Wherever you get your pods rate, Review Subscribe. Leave us five stars. Say whatever you want. Feedback is a gift. Until next time. Love you. Action Network reminds you Please gamble responsibly. If you or someone you care about has a gambling problem, help is available 247 at 1-800-GAMBLER.
- [45:31]
Unnamed Speaker
Okay.
- [45:31]
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- [46:04]
Chad Millman
This is an iHeart podcast.