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Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode, the ThunderDome on this MLB official opening day Thursday, March 26, 2026. This program begins now. Sports are the greatest and it's officially opening day for mlb. We are a baseball group, aren't we? Yeah. Let's play ball. It's game day. It was a fun one last night as the Yankees beat the hell out of the San Francisco Giants to officially kick off MLB today. Now all the other teams and then tomorrow will be kicking off their 162 game journey to find out who's going to be seated high enough to play in the playoffs to potentially become the misters of October and win an MLB super duper.
B
Yeah, the commissioner's trophy where did. Well, you want to win the pennant
A
as well on the way. That's what we're looking to do. All these teams today obviously stars across the board taking the mound and the field and the batter's box for the first time all season. Paul Skins, ladies and gentlemen, is going to be taking on the Mets. He's fresh out of a world baseball classic where he was dealing. Had to take on a home run derby all star lineup in the Dominican Republic. That's his last outing that we've seen. Let's assume he'll be able to deal with the lowly 350 million-plus SAL New York Mets today. Paul Skeens obviously showed up looking incredible today in a suit. He's obviously ready to do his thing as are all the boys. Shohei Ohtani, we've been getting word out of spring training here that he's pitching all over the place. 11 strikeouts and four innings of work. Yes. There's only 12 outs in four innings in baseball unless they change the rules. I don't know. They had one last night that I, they kind of skipped over live as it was happening in the abs. But there's new things happening in baseball and this guy down here, he. He's certainly new to society as well. This guy does everything. This guy's outrageous. The stars are in abundance and I think MLB's going to hold up its end of the bargain this season. There has been a goal made around a thunderdome. Let's head over to the talks to table at Boston. Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Ty, huge day. Congrats to your Yankees last night. What a second inning. I believe five runs. I believe you guys put up there. Jazz. Chisholm was miked up. He was awesome. Aaron judge struck out 100 times but everybody else was good. Feels like it was a Good night to be a Yankee. And how do we feel about baseball officially starting?
B
Very excited that baseball is back. Very excited that the Yankees beat the hell out of the Giants. And Logan Webb, who we just saw look untouchable in the World Baseball Classic, gets rough, roughed up like he rarely did last year. So I'm feeling great. Yeah, you mentioned it. You know, you on a big showcase platform like that, you'd like to see Judgy not wear the golden sombrero and strike out four times, something he didn't do all of last year. But that's why if you're a Yankees fan, you're feeling good. Bottom of the order came through. They hit a lot of, had a lot of hard hit balls. So anytime you're, you're beating a team 7 nothing, you're feeling pretty damn good going into the next day.
A
The Yankees seven run win is their largest in a game in which Aaron Judge struck out at least four times. There's 15 games in which this has happened. So it's not completely abnormal. Those of us who bet on him to maybe do something. Yeah, on the ball, didn't love watching it. I mean, but there's a chance that Aaron Judge right now is overthinking because I heard Barry Bonds in there talking. That was the first time I've heard Barry in an extended conversation with anybody anywhere. And I think he even admitted that at one point. He said, I talked to my teammates,
B
yes, terrible teammate off the field, but
A
on the field I'm exactly everything you want. But they were chit chatting about the Aaron Judge. Maybe he's thinking too much, you know, and you could start to think about how thinking would potentially really get in the head. In effect, whenever you got to be free, you got to be smooth. You got to time things up. Anytime you're dealing with timing, if there's any thinking and any fidgeting, you're obviously going to mess that up. So in punting and kicking, it's a very similar thing. Golf is a similar thing, I assume pitching is a similar thing. And then batting, if you're thinking, that's definitely not what you want to be doing. Now I have gotten a base hit off of Clayton Kershaw.
B
That's a good point.
C
Documented.
A
Okay, so I know what it's like to be in there with a whole thing.
B
Yeah, exactly.
A
You got good wood. Yeah, exactly. I know what it's like to be in there. The first couple. When you're thinking in there, the only thing I'm thinking is I can't Believe I'm doing this. And then he hit a curveball and I go. Then I had to actually get into a mode where it was like, hey, we'll just swing. Just look and swing. And if you start to think you have no chance. If Aaron Judge is this, this is game one.
B
Yeah, exactly. That's why, that's why there's no panic. Because baseball is one of those things where it's.
A
Is this going to be 162 game over session.
D
Let's not forget the WC final either.
B
Yeah, exactly. So he's. Like I said, you don't want to necessarily start the season in a bit of a slow.
A
We had no hits in that WBC final.
D
Strikeouts, I believe.
C
Oh, but seven of his last eight
B
years, this is, this is a guy who's won.
A
We Love Aaron Judge.
B
Three MVPs in the last four years. He won the batting title last year. Like, he's a great hitter. Bas. Baseball is one of those things too, where you can't, if you strike out four times in the first game, you can't just be like, oh, boy, I'm pressing. I got to change my entire process because that's how you end up striking out 30 times in your next 40 at bats. So he'll be fine. No, exactly. He'll, he'll, he'll be fine. He'll be just fine. And I'm sure for once for him, it was nice to be like, oh, great, I don't got to put the entire team on my back and do everything. Everybody else can chip in and I can have an off night too.
A
Jazz Chisholm said. Very familiar faces in the clubhouse. We all like each other. We all hang out with each other as his family. You know, everybody's coming back. We all get it how it is. So, you know, this year could be the year for the Yankees. That's certainly what it looked like last night. Netflix had their debut in baseball.
B
I mean, you give him a little bit of grace because it was the first one, but I was not a fan.
A
What are you talking about?
B
It just a lot of kind of me.
A
New baseball fan.
B
Right.
A
I don't know what it's supposed to look like. I do know three outs, water stats, strikes, balls, innings. I could see how people were complaining about that in the baseball world.
B
Right. Score bug was not good.
A
Hey, we need to know what, what's happening in the pitch. This was great, though.
B
It was.
C
This was awesome.
A
This was phenomenal. It was Jazz. Chisholm was incredible. I think that was the most loose I'VE ever seen somebody actually do it. Gave great answers, came across very likable, made no mistakes and is a stud. So I think it was a phenomenal give and take. But there are some things I think in the production that people are upset about. Like, hey, we gotta know how many strikes and balls and outs and who is this?
B
Yeah, exactly.
A
Also, we have no idea what's going on in that particular aspect. So I think maybe they were trying to get too cinema y, you think? Maybe trying to clear the frame, clear the picture a little bit without realizing, like, hey, we kind of live and die with the information that is on that as baseball watchers.
B
Yeah, I mean, maybe. But also I, I wasn't. That was what I was expecting was like, hey, they can probably have that like, little extra flare of C cinema that like an ESPN broadcast wouldn't have. But I wasn't overly. Like, it's what we talk about with a lot of these other things when like a new place comes in and does sports. It's like the proof is in the pudding. Like the people have figured out how to broadcast a baseball game. Like, we, we know what to. You don't need to reinvent the wheel like they tried to do. And I knew there was going to be a bunch of goofy bullshit with
A
Netflix associated Bert showcasing that people hit it in the water and this is what happens. We've been watching this since Barry was playing with the Giants.
B
Right.
A
I like that gimmick. I like, I think the one to be.
B
I wasn't opposed to this at all.
A
Barrel roll would have liked to see
B
Bert something like that.
A
I know Bert could do it. He said it was cold out there, though. He said shirtless was certainly a decision that he felt obligated to make. Obviously felt like that, boy, it was a bad one because it was a little breezy and the temperature had changed. Would have seen some kayak tricks maybe, but instead that is a big part of the San Francisco Giant stadium.
B
I do believe it is like that. I thought, you know, like, that's cool because that is. People do do that. They go there and they buy tickets and they sit out in the bay and try to catch a homer. Like they would do that instead. But like you talked about it earlier, like, this was just weird. Like those guys don't really have any chemistry with each other. And it was, it just felt so forced. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think Jimmy uso. I don't think any of them were bad, but it's just like, you know, it's. It's a seven nothing ball game. I don't know if Jimmy USO is actually a Giants fan. If he was, though. Like, he kind of. He played it like he was. He was like, my team is getting their ass beat right now. I don't want to do whatever goofy we have to do right now. Like, what pump up speech would you give him right now, Jimmy? He was just like, we just need to. We need to score some runs, man. You know?
A
You're saying they took a lot of shots. Maybe not all worked. And on that note, the lefties looking like they were sent from the baseball gods with a little bit of a glow around them with that, you know, the Adobe ad behind it. I love that that happened because that's something that, in theory, super genius.
C
Exactly.
A
We can actually sell six of those if we just kind of rotate them.
B
Yep.
A
The NHL's been doing it.
B
Yeah, exactly.
A
The NHL board space used to be like, this is what we're talking NASCAR type shit. But the board space in hockey way back in the day was a huge deal. And that's how, like, companies would be like, hey, we're a part of the city, basically. So once the whole le green screen, we could kind of put it on. People in the stadium see one thing, people watching at home see another thing. And then they found out that they can just cycle those things through there. It was like, boom, this is what we're doing. Oh, yeah. And we can put shit on the ice, you know? Cause the ice, we could do that as well. So the NHL has really weaponized the technology of being able to put shit that isn't there and being able to just cycle through it. So in baseball, I assume they've been doing this for a while, or maybe this is one of the first times. No, this is the first time.
B
No, I'm saying, saying this like, you see this on. If you watch your team, you see this on every local broadcast, and it's never an issue. It doesn't look like.
A
Okay, so this is not brand new technology for.
B
No, not at all. That's why it was like, what the is going on? Why we know how to. We know how to do this and have it not look weird on tv.
A
Okay. All right, well, hey, Netflix, you did it.
B
Yeah.
A
First baseball night. Thank you for getting into sports. We appreciate it, but sports have already been done, basically. And as we continue to transition into this new era of different platforms, different people, what we would like to just continue to echo as somebody who has potentially talked to some of these people and just have somebody in the room who's done whatever you're looking for people to do, you know, like somebody that has watched baseball should be in the
B
room, you would think.
A
But all these people are in baseball.
B
Yeah.
A
Okay. Everybody's in. Do you have anybody that's ever like sat and watched baseball and like, hey, we need the score, but incredible job.
C
Yeah, incredible.
A
Absolutely incredible.
B
Like, theatricality of this stuff was incredible.
A
Incredible. There was a lot of good stuff that was awesome. That score, they're incredible. The, this thing dissipates to like, all of it was awesome. The score bug, though, not being on there is like, hey, I feel like that's rule number one. And then also seeing stuff like this is where Fox went wrong or whoever was cutting World Baseball Classic, like, need to see the pitch. And that's baseball right there. You need to see that. So if you're going to pump in other highlights in there to keep the action, we appreciate it, I think. But what baseball people are saying, I'm not considering myself a baseball person, but we need to see what baseball is there. So all the other shit's on top of it. And good luck going forward. And we appreciate you investing money in sport.
B
Absolutely.
A
Like, we do appreciate you investing money in sports.
B
It's very cool and it's different, so it's kind of exciting. But like you mentioned it, like with the ABS thing, like, they, they dedicated a bunch of time to that in the preshow. This is a, is a big deal. This is the first time this has ever happened in Major League Baseball. Like a massive moment in the history of baseball. And they fucking missed it on the broadcast because they wanted to interview Tony Vitalo, you know, first time manager for the Giants. Like, and these things stink. The managers are never going to say anything. Like, the Jazz thing was cool. Like, you can do away with that. But for them to miss that moment when they dedicated a bunch of time to it, had John Cena come in and explain what it was and all this kind of stuff, everyone's talking about it, like, that should be kind of rule number one. Hey, make sure that we kind of go into this because this is going to be a big deal moving forward. And then they just completely missed it. It was just like crazy. And you know, saying first pitch is going to be at 805 and then having first pitch not be till 8:25, like that really irks me. Maybe other people didn't really always starts on time. These are long games. We don't need to delay it by. Don't Pull the rug over my eyes and tell me it's going to be 805. Because then by 8:13, I'm like, what the hell is going on? Like, I could be go and get something done, but I know as soon as I go, go do that, I'm going to miss first pitch. So I'm just going to sit here. I'm going to let Netflix shove whatever they wanted down my throat about, you know, high sales. Winds of the sea. That's starting in two weeks. Okay, I'll. I'll do it. I'll do it. And then, boom. Finally. Oh, 8:25. Boy, I was about to fall asleep, but now we got first pitch, so I'm back. I'm ready to go. It just, you know, it was their first one, but, yeah, a lot to be desired, I'd say.
A
I, you know, and baseball is good, so let's remember that.
B
Yeah, yeah. One. That's all I care about.
A
And baseball isn't boring. I guess. This is a. It's a podcast that a gentleman.
B
I believe so.
A
Sent shirts that are Thunderdom. Good packaging, broke through. Not easy to crack the code. Lot of things get shipped here. Tough to crack through. People have come up with some very creative ideas, and to them we say, we thank you. If they're too asinine, straight to the fire. But if they're clever. Let's see what that is. Open it up. Let's see what that is. There's been a lot of things. Somebody has sent a package in the form of a man wearing a thong.
B
That's right.
A
With a guitar.
B
Happy Jewel.
D
That was our favorite.
C
And what happened?
A
Guy has not gotten hired, but I did see his resume.
C
He cracked the code and he.
A
I think he went to Ball State. And if we're hiring, we will certainly reach out to him because we know where that resume still is. But it did get through and we appreciate that. This particular shirt was in a great box. Got through, parked right on top of there, opened it up. Felt like it was a sign from the baseball gods. Literally saw it this morning. Fits perfectly. One half of the Hammer Cowboys. Baseball isn't boring. You've been trying to say this my whole life. You have been a massive Pirates fan. Obviously played baseball. This is the first time the Pirates actually have a chance this year. And Paul Skeen's on the mound gets everybody excited. What are we betting on in baseball? Obviously, you said first five today. Is there anything we need to see after what we learned last night, are the WBC boys not going to be great? Like what? How do we kind of view what we saw last night going into today? Toad?
D
Yeah, I mean, as far as the WBC boys, the pitching, you know, last night wasn't great. From our WBC guy, Aaron Judge struck out four times. I don't know if that's an anomaly or not. We'll see today, obviously, with Skeens on the mound and others going who are in the wbc, Shohei being one of them, obviously. Bryce Harper batting was in WBC and many, many others tonight. There's 11 games today, and you can bet on literally everything. You can bet on home runs, singles, how many doubles, how many faces, how many strikeouts, how many innings they're gonna go. The game lines over. Unders the first five. First inning I did last night. No run in the first inning, which was a bit of a sweat. We had first and third, but we got through that. You could have a yes run in the first inning. Literally, with baseball, you could bet. There are so many things to bet on, and it's a. It's a great time.
B
I.
C
The.
D
The account has been emptied.
A
So if today doesn't go well, let's go. Yeah. Huge shout out to the Lakers last night. You're up 30, I think, in the third quarter. That's unbelievable. Obi topping. Congrats on making that boom. Eight and a half to spread here. 137. 127, obviously. That's 10. And the game's over and the Lakers win and the Pacers continue to lose. Okay, look, could have scored 100 points last night if he wants.
C
Yeah.
A
LeBron James doing stuff. He dunking on guys.
B
Exactly.
D
Playing no defense here.
A
Win by. Not only that. Look at the. Look at gambling boom. Minus 1100. 5000 bucks. Tyree's having time of his life, huh? Happy to see you up. And Adam, genuinely. Yeah, genuinely happy.
B
No joke.
A
Very happy for you. Very, very happy. No, we're not. But I was not in a good spot when I saw this clip for the first time. I woke up this morning, I saw we were up 100, whatever in third quarter, go to bed, wake up this morning, check the old DraftKings account, because now I'm. Make some plays for opening day. Money's gone.
B
That can't be.
A
That can't be right. They made a mistake.
C
Void.
A
I go into my bets to see if the crown was mine, and it just didn't get transferred. The crown has still never been mine. I am still scrolling through reds. I mean, it has been a tough time. I have no idea how we lost it. And then Mick goes, did you see, man? I was with you. I was celebrating already. Look at this shot by Obi. And it bounces. He goes, that's how we lost. I was there, man. He is actually there. He said he was celebrating the dub as they were coming down. So it's actually his fault why we lost. But nonetheless, today I'm going to put more money into the but today. Okay. We're hitting bets.
C
Yes.
A
All day today. We know what baseball is.
E
That's right.
A
Today we're fully invested in MLB for a season. Yeah. Joining us now is a man who's obviously going to help us for that. Going to help us through it all. He's a guy who has been preaching baseball to us pretty loudly.
D
Yeah.
A
With incredible hair and always a good looking fit.
B
That's right.
D
Yeah.
A
Ladies and gentlemen, the voice of baseball to multiple generations. ESPN Zone. Jack Passing.
F
Gentlemen, happy opening day to everyone.
A
Dude, Happy opening day to you. Even though opening night was last night. How do we kind of judge that? Is that normal? What's normal? What's not normal?
F
What is normal anymore?
B
Well said, Jet.
A
That's all. That's what the good, the bad and the ugly is all about. You know what I mean? What is normal? What is normal? That's a good call. I enjoyed watching the Yankees get hot in the second inning there. I enjoyed watching, you know, baseball get celebrated for an evening. I enjoyed the thought that another league is kicking off another journey to championship stuff last night. And it got me pumped up about today, Jet. And when I talked to you this morning, I think I told you this. We're making a pact and a pledge in here in Thunderdome. We're going to try to watch 100 of the games of the teams that we root for this year. 100 now. Not going to be able to watch the whole thing. Nobody's expecting that. But at least follow along with 100 games of 162 season. I'm with the Buckeye. I'm with the Buckos. I'm with the the Brewers.
G
Royals.
A
Rolls Dodgers. I love the Dodgers.
D
Cies maybe.
A
Who's that? Cies maybe. I like the Cubs.
B
Phillies.
A
Yeah. I like Bryce Harper. 100 games.
B
100amongst him. Not 600 total. Okay.
A
I cannot get 100 per. But I am going to follow along. Okay. And it starts today with Paul Skeen. Can you tell me who I need to expect to win this entire thing? Is it Dodgers again? Is it Yankees again? Are the Pittsburgh Pirates. Who are the most bet on team? I believe on DraftKings because of how good their odds are and how they've done in the past whenever they've spent actual money. Like, what are the storylines you think we need to watch for this particular season? And what should today tell us about all of it?
F
The Dodgers are the clear favorites. And, Pat, we haven't seen a team like the dodgers since the 1998-2000 Yankees. They're one of only two franchises ever, along with the 72-74 as to win three consecutive World Series championships. So that's what the Dodgers are trying to do this season, and they're trying to do it with arguably their most talented team ever. You've got Shohei, they've got Freddie Freeman, they've got Mookie Betts, their rotation, and then they bring in Kyle Tucker, and then they bring in Edwin Diaz, and it's like, you know, Roki Sasaki is struggling this spring. And the Dodgers say, so what? We got four more starters who are every bit as good, if not better than he is after them. And, you know, I think for fans, there is certainly some frustration that it feels like it's a done deal. But let's not forget the Los Angeles Dodgers went almost a decade of winning like they are now without getting a World Series championship. It's hard at the end of the year to be crowned champion. And so the idea that this is a done deal, no, it's not close. Are the Dodgers going to win the National League West? Yeah, probably. But after that, October's a weird time, man. And so I think it's good, frankly, in some ways that there are all these other teams chasing this monolith, this mega team that they've put together. And you see on the board there, the New York Yankees. Good baseball team. Seattle Mariners. They are my pick to win the American League. The New York Mets are going to to be interesting in that opening day matchup.
C
Pat.
F
With Paul Skeens rolling into Citi Field today, the newly constructed New York Mets against arguably the best pitcher in the world right now. Like, that's going to be a hell of a game on a slate, frankly, of a bunch of good games today.
A
Yeah, I think there is a pack slate which we're excited about. A lot of stars that we remember and know, which I think is a good part of what MLB had last year. Year the stars played well. So, like Aaron Judge striking out four times last night, not necessarily that big of a bummer because at WBC for most people, we saw him hitting the ball all over the place. But I think like if only if we didn't have WBC and we just had opening night last night and Aaron Judge does shitty. I think it's not good for baseball.
B
I agree.
A
I, I think it is. I genuinely. The stars playing well in baseball I think is good for baseball. And last year it felt like all the stars were playing well and we got this new big dumper character that's hit from both sides of the plate. It felt like last year had a lot of good storylines and that's because the big names were playing well and the marquee were playing well. And last question for me, as we clean up, kind of the Dodgers are going for greatness that has never been seen before. Roki Sasaki, obviously great righty. Let's talk about another great righty out of Japan, Shohei Ohtani. 11 strikeouts, four innings, there's 12 outs, right? So that's, that's 11 of 12 strikeouts. He's full time pitcher this year while also being hitter for the Dodgers. How do we view the Shohei Ohtani season? And have we ever seen anything like this before?
F
If we have seen something like this, it was 100 years ago and it was in the Negro leagues and then before that it was Babe Ruth. But something like this in the modern era, no, we have not. And here's the thing, Pat. Shohei Ohtani has won four MVPs in his career. It was interesting though, the last time he was a full time pitcher four years ago at this point, wound up blowing out his elbow the next year. But his batting actually suffered a little bit. But he had his best pitching season, started 28 games, like a 2, 3 ERA. And I think Shohei Ohtani finding this version of himself again is going to be something to really keep an eye on over the course of the season because nobody else can do this. Like absolutely nobody else guys have tried and it's just too difficult. But him, he is as locked in of an athlete as I've seen. It's interesting though, I was talking with Dave Roberts, doctors manager and I was like, you've been with Shohei for three years now. What sort of evolution have you seen? And he said when he got here, we got the sense that he was solely and intently focused on being the best baseball player of all time. And he's loosened up a little over the last couple years and he's more comfortable now. And you know, with everything with ippe, his translator seemingly in the past, at this point he has the ability to focus on being that best ballplayer. Ever. And I'll tell you what, there's no better way to show that, to absolutely indelibly stamp that on your resume than to have the kind of year that he can, if he's pitching full time and also hitting it in MVP level.
A
What? I asked him if I thought he could strike himself out, and he said yes. I think he views himself as a pitcher who can hit, right?
B
Yeah.
F
I mean, he was. When he came over here, the belief was that most teams wanted him to be only a pitcher. And his insistence on hitting is how he wound up with his team in Japan. And it's one of the reasons that the Angels said, yeah, you can do whatever you want. You know, he didn't get the sense that they were going to make him strictly into a pitcher like some organizations wanted to see.
A
So I think this is a big personal thing for him because there's a lot of people, I think baseball people that. That are much smarter in the sport than I and have a lot more research on the topic than I do. Especially, you know, with the modern stats that we have for medical and everything like that. It's like, I think personally he wants to be a pitcher. Doesn't care about, like, hey, you're going to burn yourself out for hitting or you're going to be this. I think, like, since he's a little kid, I think he's viewed himself as a pitcher. So I think he probably wants to be respected as a pitcher, as I think that might be a. A deep. You know, like, I see myself as this. The entire thing. Yeah. Like when I got drafted.
H
But he does.
F
He points to himself, too.
A
When I got drafted to punt instead of field goal kick, it was like, I'm a kicker. I'm not a punter. You know, I do these things, but I'm a kicker. And then, lo and behold, Vinitari is still playing. I think he just retired. They're like, well, yeah, okay, you'll get a chance whenever Adam Vinitari retires. All right, this old guy will certainly do that. And then, lo and behold, he never retired. He was always better than me. So it's like, yeah, okay, I'm never going to do it. But I assume there's something in him that's like, I'm supposed to be. This is who I am. So if he's fully locked in and the Dodgers are promoting it, and you said he wants to be greatest baseball player of all time, we got fireworks all season. It sounds like from Shohei. I am excited about that. That's good. For baseball. Also good for baseball. Tony, Tony's boy doing his thing. Con man has a picture question for you, Jet.
C
Yeah, Jet, obviously Tony, Tony's boy is going to do his thing. I think we all know that. That is a fact. He is the future of the baseball league. But what do you think about the balls this season, Jack? Can we assume there's going to be nights like last night, not many dingers, or are we expecting kind of the balls to be a little more juiced? A lot of home runs. Let's make this super entertaining especially if next year we might not have baseball.
F
Great question, Connor, because I got a number of texts from people this spring training who are convinced that the balls are juiced. Now, now some of this was based on what was going on out in Arizona and you guys were out in Arizona a little bit earlier this month. So, so you saw to, I mean for lack of a better term, it was hot as balls out there. Like it was gross all spring long and with warmer weather the balls go flying a little bit more. So maybe it was that I asked around and the, you know, the league said there's no difference in the exit data right now. But the league on this matter has been a little wishy washy in the past. So
A
I mean I like juice balls. Yeah, we can't do juice dudes. Right. That's not safe. Even though the science nowadays, you know, from my understanding is pretty good. Who knows what it is long term, but it is pretty good. Which you know, back in juice baseball days we all remember what was going on. So if we get our juice guys baseball days, that's good.
F
Yeah.
A
If we could just have juice baseballs that are going to add a little bit more excitement, maybe get some more balls into the kayaks where Bert Kreischer was your buddy.
F
Skeens is not going to like that, that like they're not hitting.
A
Yeah, SK doesn't care. SK Says no excuses. He stands so casually too. Like whenever he, he stands on the, the bump I guess he just starts out so casual. Just like I, I, I wonder how they get to all their different, like how many different stances have they gone to get? Because I mean I pitched what about a quarter of an inning. I had three different styles of. Yeah, I think my legs supposed to confusing them, you know. And then Clayton Kershaw comes down with that big son of a Right there. That was a pretty intimidating situation. I wonder how they get there. But yeah, you're right, the pitchers don't love juice balls. But you Know. Throw where the bat ain't.
B
Okay, good point.
A
Throw where a bat ain't. We don't have to worry about it.
F
Big, big strikeout guy. Pat McAfee. I like it.
A
No, I'm a big home run guy. I want to see home runs. But on that note, I want to see Paul Skeen strike out everybody, buddy. I. I don't like watching Logan Webb. I don't like what happened to Logan Webb last night.
B
It'll be fine. It'll be fine.
A
I don't like what happened because C and I singles. I'm a big fan.
B
I don't know if I go that far. They hit the piss on him. Yeah, he'll be fine.
A
Yeah, I. It looked like a bad, bad ending there. They really started going there. I don't like what happened, but those guys, I would like them to strike everybody out, everybody else. I want home runs. I like offense, you know, I like seeing. I like seeing Bam out of Bioga for 83 points on ethical or unethical buckets.
C
Well said. They honored him overseas, by the way, with a banner. I don't know if you saw that.
A
No. Did they? In.
C
In Taiwan, they actually put a banner up. Unfortunately, they put Dwight Howard on it instead of Bam out of box. But they did put a banner up for the 83.9.
I
That's right.
D
Dwight's big over there.
A
He is. He is. We talked to him recently. A lot has happened. A lot has happened.
B
But NBA champion.
A
As sports, baby. As sports. As we continue to go baseball Juice balls, I think is good. I want to see dingers. Except for against Paul Skeens. You skipped over to parts when you were talking about who's going to win. So riddle me this. I saw a stat online. Andrew Filiponi, Pony Express posted that the Pittsburgh Pirates are 22nd in salary this year. Pretty good. The last time we were this high in salary, we won 95 games or something like that. And then we won a little bit of a run of playoffs. The Pirates are trying. And also the Pirates were forced to watch Yinzers tell them what it would mean if they weren't asked for once. It was pretty good video. This is good social media. I don't know who did it, who created this, who came up with the idea. Maybe not himself did. To motivate the boys. Whoever came up with the idea. Good. And also to the Pirates players that sat there and actually watched it, thank you for doing that. Because that could have been something. They easily could have been like, oh, that's dope.
F
Yeah, Sweet.
A
See you later. But instead, it sounds like they all want to win for Pittsburgh. They're the most bet on team. Can you tell me a little bit about the teams like the Pirates, who maybe aren't the big seller or spenders, which are certainly a part of this next collective bargaining conversation? Who are the teams we should look at? Right. Aren't the Tigers one of those teams? The Guardians, Aren't they one of the teams? The Royals. The Royals are in there. Who. Which one of these teams most poised to kind of go on run? And who should we be watching that we know? I guess at this stage, Pat, I
F
got this buddy named Clark. And Clark loves nothing more than going to the casino, sitting down in front of the dancing drum slot machine and saying, today is going to be my day. Today is going to be my day. That's how Pittsburgh Pirates fans feel right now. Today is going to be their day. That this season has a chance to be their day. And let me tell you something. When you've got Paul Skeens in that rotation, when you've got Bubba Chandler in that rotation, you've got Braxton Ashcraft and Mitch Kelly. We got an Ashcraft coming back. The Ashcraft. The Ashcraft can play, Pat.
A
Yeah, he can.
F
He's gonna have it.
A
Seth Hernandez coming.
F
He's going to have a good season.
A
Cracking bats, kicking ass. That's Ashcraft baseball.
D
Connor Griffin's gonna be up eventually.
A
That's right. We. We know all these guys. We know all these guys.
C
Shit.
F
If they can play good hands well, if they can play better defense than you and if they can just hit the ball a little bit, their pitching. Pat, I realistically believe that the Pittsburgh Pirates have a chance to make the playoffs here. I think their starting pitching is that good. And look, maybe, maybe this is not the season. Maybe it's next year. Maybe it's after that. Oh, look at this everywhere.
D
Hold on.
F
Can we, can we get a couple games of catch going right now? Like, is there enough room in there?
A
Hit a home run yesterday. Thanks. Don't worry about it. Almost broke camera.
C
We're skipping stone all day.
A
Yeah, we're doing it. Okay. So the Pirates going to playoffs. That's all I want to hear. I like that a lot. Now let's talk about other teams that are going to make the playoffs. Go ahead, Ty.
B
Yeah, Jet. So I know you like the Mariners in the AL and the Dodgers in all likelihood will be representing the nl. What are the chances, you think that, that four teams from the AL east getting to the playoffs this year a lot of people have been very high on the Red Sox after what they did this off season. Obviously the Yankees Blue Jays arguably were the best team in baseball last year. And then the Orioles are kind of up and coming. I've seen a lot of that. Like, what is your prediction for the AL east this year?
F
I don't think they're going to get four playoff teams and I don't think so because when you look at the American League Central guys, like there are a couple of, of a couple of bad teams there. And I think Detroit and Kansas City are both good. And I'm not saying Detroit and Kansas City are necessarily going to make the playoffs, but American League east is just going to be beaten up on each. You know, you look in the AL west and I think the Mariners are clearly the best team there, but every other team you can make an argument for, like the A's can hit the Rangers. I think Wyatt Langford has a legitimate shot to be an MVP candidate. He is really, really good. The Houston Astros, year in, year out, they're good. So when you got beating up on each other in the fashion that they are, I think it's just going to be difficult for four teams to get to 90 plus wins. But damn, they're talented. Teams like you can make a great argument in favor of the Yankees. The Red Sox rotation is good and deep and I think Roman Anthony is going to have a monster year. The Orioles, it's a brand new team, it seems like, but Pete Alonso in the middle of that lineup. I got a big year ahead for Gunner Henderson and a completely revamped rotation. And then of course, let's not forget the Blue Jays, who took the Dodgers to one out in the ninth inning in Game 7 of the World Series last year and frankly probably should have won that series. We can't be sleeping on them.
A
So just real quick. I know they're a Canadian team, so you're going to want them to win more than you. Okay. Yeah, I don't even need to hear that. They should have won.
F
I am tired, tired of the slander here. I am tired of the slander. McAfee.
A
I know it was a fun run watching. I mean, not for you, not, not for you. And obviously we saw you personally and through the FaceTime, through the entirety of it all, but it was a. That World Baseball Classic was the greatest.
C
Dude, so awesome.
A
That was the greatest Jet. I am. I couldn't be a bigger fan of what's going on there.
C
It's made us want to Watch like it's made us each individually want to watch the 100 games of our teams. Yes, that because of that.
F
And isn't that the point though? Isn't that the beauty of that tournament that you guys got to see in person what that Venezuela heavy crowd was like? It was different. It's not baseball like we expect or we come to know in the US but it opens your eyes to what the game's like around the world and it allows you to appreciate what's coming more. And that's why the WBC is great. It's not a matter of. Of who won. It's a matter of it makes you love the ball.
A
I would like us to win. We would. We would like us to win.
F
It would have been nice. It would have been nice.
A
It would have been a great night.
B
Yeah.
A
Oh. Not that it wasn't.
F
But walking out of there, you guys, afterward. Yeah, you, you, you. You looked like you had a good night, Pat.
A
We did, but you didn't see us outside when we had to do the. Around all the paunch haze. Yeah.
C
You know, they're taking shots at the bar.
A
We're just having so much fun. Singing, dancing. We're just walking behind them like didn't even think we to lose this. Didn't even think about this being a possibility because we got a long way to get home here now. We got a long. We got to figure out how to get to the parking lot that we were at a lot of shutdown. No idea, no clue how to get there. Where's your okay? Absolutely. Yep. Certainly everything. Then we get the driver. All right. Now we got to get to airport. Yeah, right. That's going to take forever. No chance that's happening. We just sat there. Miami. Yeah, we're doing that. Then obviously get on play far. That shit's way down there. And then when we land land was 4 degrees and we're still losers. And we lost the whole time. We didn't even think about any of.
F
And your voice. And your voice was gone that night too.
D
Yeah.
A
I had cheerful fan. Yeah. I was fan out there. But that night, what I learned about baseball and why it isn't boring. Baseball isn't boring. Shout out. You know who did this, right? You know this guy?
G
I do.
A
Rob Bradford.
F
Great guy.
A
Hey, Rob.
C
Okay, thank you, Rob. All right, Bob.
A
Bob, Good work getting us in here. What I realized is the parts that I thought were the most boring. Boring. Okay. We're actually maybe just building pieces to the story here. You know, this is kind of just this is building the story that's happening. If Bryce Harper did not hit that two run home run, I think baseball loses me forever. I think baseball loses me forever. And I'm not saying that that matters. I'm just talking as a personal experience. I'm not saying like. No, no, you know, I'm not doing that. I'm just telling you, me personally, as a fan, would have never fucking watched baseball again. I would have never. Not a single. Yeah, right. Is this what I'm going to invest my life in? He hits that home run, though, and I feel that moment of like, oh, it's even better now because we didn't have anything for so long. Like that was just like. I guess it would be called a beautiful thing. Yeah, yeah.
B
It's like a euphoric experience.
A
It was. It was exactly like that. So what I used to think was like, terrible was the build up to that, like, come though. Ah, geez Louise, this sucks. But then when that moment happens and it's a four, I mean, it was like a volcanic eruption of happiness came out of my body. It was outrageous. You know, I've never felt that with a sport before.
F
Obviously with daughter, like, you're finally seeing it all this time.
A
I'm feeling it.
F
All these years I've been coming on this show, man, and been preaching the way I've been preaching. That's what it was for that moment right there.
A
Thank you, Bryce.
F
And you know, it's impossible not to love. And it's why, listen, it's a long season ahead, Pat. And there are unquestionably some moments in a baseball season. Yeah. Where you're like, God, this is a lot of time. This is a lot of energy I'm investing in. The way I look at it is you're investing in a durable thing. And what I mean by that. Our attention spans are so bifurcated right now. We got things coming at us right and left.
A
We got insidious.
F
We're getting pulled in every direction. It is. It's quite insidious. You know, we're getting pulled. All this. This is our ability to invest in a story. And that's what a baseball season is. Every baseball season is a story that's told in 162 chapters. And all you're hoping for is for a little overtime in October where those are the most meaningful moments. And given given time for that investing. Because that's what it is. It's an investment. Investing time in that. It's worth it, man. And it's what makes the game as great as it is is, that's why it isn't boring.
C
That's right.
A
It's building.
C
You know, baseball is building.
A
Baseball is building because you're building somewhere till you get to that climax and then you hit it. And in Venezuela shouldn't win after that. Bifurcate. Divide into two branches or forks just below Cairo. The river Bifurcates is an example. Good word. We appreciate you bringing that into our lives for sure. And thank you for. For promoting baseball as much to us. You've finally cracked code. We're in. And now granted.
F
Hell yeah, it.
A
It can't happen. We know that physically, Paul skin gives up 10 home runs today. I'm probably not watching baseball ever again. But maybe one.
D
Maybe one. I doubt 10.
C
We're talking about Paul Skins here.
A
Well, the issue is happening. Who's leadoff for the Mets? Do we know?
D
Well, their lineup is fr.
A
Is he a good hitter?
B
Yes, he is. He's very good.
C
He knocked that dude out at second base at one time.
A
Love, Love him. I like the way this guy plays base. That's not him.
B
Yeah, you're thinking of Jose Ramirez, who's also very good.
A
Okay. I love him. Is he lead off for the bets today against Paul Skeens?
B
No, he plays for the Guardians.
A
Okay.
B
So they may see them down the road.
A
Okay, so who's lead off for the Mets?
B
Francisco Lindor.
A
Lindor, okay. He's a good hitter.
B
Very good. Yeah.
A
So he knows that Paul's coming with straight gas on that first. Is this his thing that everybody knows? Everybody in baseball knows the first pitch is a fastball.
F
Yeah. Because if you throw a first pitch off speed, you're just kind of a dick.
A
Yeah. So the first pitch is potentially the worst part of the whole night for the pitching team, basically. Right. Like, that's what I learned through wbc. Our first pitch was getting yanked back to back to back three games. And I'm like, hey, how come we're just giving up fucking jacks to start the game? That's not a fun way to start the game. And then I'm told like, ah, yeah, pitcher has to throw a fastball in that first one. It's like, do we have to Every time they're like, doesn't.
F
Does it? Doesn't have to. You know what? Skins. Skins might come in with a splinter on the first one.
B
That's.
F
That's what I want to see. Like, looks like a fastball, then. Then dies. Death at the end.
A
Yeah, I like that. I just don't like that. We just feel obligated because of a sports thing that we got to give the hitter one. It's like, let's not do that.
B
The flip side of that is a lot of these guys just take the first pitch too. You know, you don't know if he's going to be super aggressive, so he might take that first pitch just right down the middle. See what skiing got today. Okay, now we're go.
A
Oh, so that's like penalty kick, chipping it down the middle of the.
B
Yeah, a little bit.
A
But those WBC guys were like, hey, first pitch going to be the best one that we got. We gotta. We gotta swing. We. Okay. All right, well, hopefully that, whatever the case.
F
Yeah. Pat, you know, you know what I love about this? You are literally in real time breaking down, like the psychology of a baseball player and like the intricacies of the game without even knowing it. Like, these are the questions that they all ask themselves. And so if you see a first pitch breaking ball today, you're going to think to yourself, man, that guy's trying to get in that other guy's head. Mess with him a little bit, not messing around.
A
Yeah, I appreciate that. So I've been playing poker since I'm like a kid, you know, so like, there's always a reason for everything. When I was. I knew Kershaw was coming with a curve on the foul. The foul tip out. I knew it was curve because I ran one out. And he like, probably was like, oh, is that right? Let's fucking go ahead and break this guy. And I knew, I knew that's what he was going to try to do. And it felt really good that I actually like, oh, he's going to try to embarrass me right now. Let's not get embarrassed.
F
Exactly right.
A
Let's not get embarrassed right now. And then, bang, foul. And then he catches it and dunks it on me. But anyways, but it was that amount of thought, obviously I didn't know about, and that's why baseball is important. You're the man. We appreciate the hell out of you. Happy baseball season. Good luck this year, boys.
F
Thank you for everything you're doing too. It truly is appreciated spreading the gospel to a lot of new fans, frankly, and I love that. And who to thought Pat McAfee being the Pied Piper of baseball.
A
I was actually at the podium at the press conference of the All Star Game, and that was quite a moment. That was quite a moment. We will all remember that were there. And that experience hit in real time. And While I was up there, I was like, I just met these guys like five days ago. Now I'm the Dana White of their organization. Yeah, here we go. I enjoy it. I appreciate it. You all have been good to us. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, Jet Passage. Jet has been very good to us. The baseball community has been very good to us.
D
Appreciative.
A
Yeah. Very, very appreciative. It does feel like they're NHL is very appreciative.
D
They have been in the past sports. Those sports are appreciative.
A
Are you doing. I don't know, it just kind of stopped me in my tracks thinking about the NHL, trying to figure out have they or. Yeah, that's what I don't want.
D
As in G he.
A
Yes, definitely appreciative and thankful. But remember teams, I mean teams. Oh, yeah, yeah.
B
Well, yeah, you're right.
A
One of the greatest moments I've ever had in calculus. Well, that's kind of what we're talking about here in this entire.
D
I'm talking about the league, not individual team.
A
Okay. I respect. Yeah. Mlb, NHL, NFL.
C
Ever.
A
Yeah, yeah. NBA.
B
Silver.
A
Really though? What?
C
Silver is in here.
A
Adam Silver was literally right here. I don't care. LeBron James came in here. That's what we're talking about. You think a little bronversation had an agenda, you're out of your mind. Steve Nash. Thank you, Foxy. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a guy who's going to be so disgusted by what you were just trying to.
G
I don't think.
C
Speaking of no agendas.
A
He just wants the other guy. Yeah, Stanford. Steve, this guy's disgusting. Steve, this is disgusting. What's going on here? I'm so sorry that you have to join this right now.
G
I am still taking to Jeff Pass and anointing Pat McAfee, baseball psychologist. I've never, never. I was going to hear that one. I'll tell you what, McAfee, baseball psychology.
A
That's what they say. I like to get deep thinking, you know, that is what they say to us in our show.
G
So it is rock, paper, scissors.
A
Come on.
G
Some things on that one.
A
Yeah, see, Steve. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm a checkers player. Okay. But if the event involves a checkers outcome, which is right now, as opposed to a long term one, I'm normally. Okay, but if it's a long, like if it's a long, I ain't got you. But if we're in the moment, I'm normally going to have the Right traffic strategy to get through. Set moment. And that duck, that Oregon duck had no idea, no idea. Just full bird brain blender. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And Steve, now you have the trick as well. So you'll be undefeated. Speaking of being undefeated, I have been completely duff eated. Steve. I don't know if you saw. I put five grand down on USA to beat Italian baseball. It was a minus 1100. I just wanted to cry one time. I wanted the crown to be mine one time. I wanted to see, see a winner. I want to scroll through my bets and see a green hit. Illy wins. Congrats to Pasquatch. Last night lakers were up 100 and then OB Toppin hits a state fan.
C
It's a bad beat.
G
He needed multiple stops. The Pacers scored basically every time down the, down the court. LeBron had a turnover late, then a missed shot. The Pacers just feasted from the three point line. And that OB shot. You saw Nemhard have a shot that was going to be contested tested right there. And then he gives it up open look and cha Ching.
A
Yeah, I guess what happened there. But what I'm saying is first round of tournament, second round of tournament. I lost on everything. Duke -28 and a half. See, I loaded up on that. John Shire. Yeah, thanks Steve. So what I'm saying here is we have brought you on today to maybe give me a crown one time. Okay, I would just like a crown. Crying one time. What do I need to be looking for in these Sweet 16 games? And what teams do you enjoy kind of maybe going on a run here as basketball really starts to explode in the college spot?
G
Yeah, I just. I love the storylines with all these games. Pat, when you look at tonight, you have arguably the best freshman in the country in Darius Acuff Jr. Against the best defensive team in the country in Arizona. And my favorite thing about Arizona is they come out, they don't care who scores scores. They have different leading scorers. It seems like every other game buries is a guy that leads the team in scoring now. But the matchup of what Acuff. Because no one could stay in front of Acuff Jr. It's, it's just no matter who he plays, the run through the SEC tournament, the numbers he's putting up, you know, it just gets lost with the talk of Peterson and then Devonsa and boozer. Acuff Jr. Is, is tremendous. But Arizona has multiple, multiple guys to throw at him. When you look at Bradley, who is Big 12 player of the year, buries is going to guard him. I mean Karchenkov could come off and help off the bench. So I look at as a tough matchup for Arkansas because they don't really get interested in the defensive side and Arizona knows that. You know, Arkansas wants to go up and down dunk on you, you know, get follow, follow dunks, acuff throws alley oops. But I think it's a tough matchup for Arkansas because also so they go three days straight at in Nashville for the SEC tournament. They fly out to Portland and play and then they play that, you know, the upstart high point team. And then I saw Cal sitting courtside at the Sacramento Kings game the other night. No, nobody really does that by choice, but that just told me Arkansas cut the travel in half and just went to Sacramento from Portland. But I think it's been a lot. Arizona, I believe has the most pressure on them in any team in a tournament because it's been 25 years since they've been in the final four. There's some serious names that have gone through that program and coaches, I like Arizona minus the points tonight against our
A
minus seven and a half. The other guy likes it minus 112 right now on DraftKings. Steve, we love how you're swinging seemingly the basketball bat right now. Everything you just broke down I love especially because KOA Pete, he announced his commitment to Arizona on our program. That football player, he's lived up to the hype completely. And then the rest of the team, they're talking about maybe the most dark dominant ever if they can continue to do this. So you like Arizona -7 and a half. Calipari was talking about $6 billion the other day. Calipari was talking about a cuff. This guy, unstoppable, unguardable. What you're saying is Calipari might need to inspire a little bit of defensive wood bopping. That's what you're saying in this entire thing. Is that your breakdown? Basically. So you like over under, looking for
G
Arkansas to bend their knees a little bit, play a little more defense and I just don't see that happen.
A
Okay, what over under are you leaning towards?
G
Probably over the way Arkansas is going to dictate. And if they're trailing, it's the ball's going to be going up and I think like I said, Arizona is going to be able to score. I would lean towards the over.
A
Okay, any other teams that we need to be looking at here. Whenever you talk about college hoops or any other sports that maybe I can get a Crown one time from DraftKings.
G
The Crown is yours. You just got to keep believing the crown is yours. I look at the best matchup, I think, in the whole Sweet 16 is tonight in Illinois and Houston. Houston. And it just feels like because Houston. The talk has been since they were put in that region, the regional was going to be in Houston. Florida was the 1 seed. If they advanced, they were going to have to go to Houston to play Houston. I just look at Illinois as a team with plenty of capability. They are enormous across the board. And when you look at Wagler, he's the kid, probably the cheapest in nil from a freshman standpoint, that's done the most. And when you look at Houston, they offset size better than anyone in the country because of how physical. Physical they play. And that's just the brand that Kelvin brings to the table with his teams. But Illinois has enough firepower to. To. To do that. They have enough size to rebound. So, you know, going against, you know, the public or, you know, everybody, the narrative, whatever you want to say, I believe Illinois has enough to. To pull it off tonight. I'll take Illinois in the upset on the money line. I love. So, yeah, we're gonna. We're gonna go moneyline there. Illinois.
A
Houston likes to be physical. Illinois won't mind that because they got the bodies. If they weren't as big, maybe the physicality be bit. But Illinois is built for the Houston game is what you're saying. Stanford, Steve.
G
Yes. My. My only issue with Illinois and like I said, but they have plenty of options. I don't know what their best five is to close the game. Like, if they're trailing, then you got to have Boswell on there for defense. He's not good as a scorer as Stojakovic is, so it's. It's. They do have multiple ball handlers. So I look at Illinois.
A
Okay. I think I saw him down in Texas whenever he was on his visit. Right?
I
Yeah.
A
Okay. This guy's a guy.
B
Yeah.
A
Has he. Because he's become one. He did not go to Texas. I just found it.
B
No, no, I believe he went to. What, Cal, Transferred to Illinois. Yeah.
A
Oh, Stoyakovich.
C
Yeah.
A
He's a dog.
G
Started at Stanford.
B
Started at Stanford. There you go.
G
Yeah.
D
Don't they.
A
You guys got sports still.
G
Yeah.
D
Well, you guys are playing each other in super duper.
C
Yeah.
A
They got a huge match. The crown.
G
Crown. That's the utter crown.
A
Well done.
B
Nailed it.
A
Well done. Still bringing it. There's a couple others as well, but that one is definitely the underground. Well, just know Stanford's got no shot at it. We're taking out the Toronto Blue Jays in the second round and we got probably Minnesota and West Virginia is going to win the super duper auto crown. You're 100% right. Stanford, good sports. Still legit. Yeah, we're getting there.
G
Our women's lacrosse team this year is awesome.
A
Okay. Because you guys create Olympic Olympians, right? Like, that's the big deal. I. I hope Stanford be our own
G
country in the Olympics.
A
Yeah. I just hope Stanford remains committed to sports as a whole. You know what I mean?
G
I do, too.
A
Legit.
G
I believe we have a foundation that you got to start with. A foundation you build. You know, you talked earlier about building up. You got to build up, you know?
A
Yeah. Are you on the base of that thing on all fours, helping out or are they. What's going on?
H
Trying.
G
Yeah, trying.
A
I think you need to get a good, sturdy base in this entire thing, you know what I mean? For the Stanford foundation, building its way up. I mean, your name is associated with their school whether they like it or not. That's right.
G
That's. That's true. But I do trust who's in charge now. I. I will say that. So Andrew Luck. I will be. Yes.
A
All right. Good luck, Stanford.
G
Yeah.
A
Hey, for that super duper utter crown thing, five public push ups, you and me for this first round round game. Bet.
G
Sure.
A
All right, cool. As you know, I can. You can. Or I could deliver those one at a time. Two and three, five at a time. And it's in public.
F
All right.
A
All right.
C
Boom.
G
I was in Japan together.
C
Oh, you can make a call.
A
I think you could text them in. If you text them in, though, it has to be multiple. Cannot be just a single one.
F
Okay.
A
But yeah, if we're together, it can't
G
be one text of the five right. A row.
A
You can say, hey, hit five right now. Yeah. But I'm saying you can't just say text like, hey, I see you right now. You do one. I. I think that's a little lazy. I think we should have to be around each other, don't you think?
G
So I got, I got you. Yeah.
A
Yes. You know Shibuya over in Tokyo, Japan?
G
No roll call.
C
Sh, sh. Shabuya.
A
Shabuya is the most. It's the most
C
active fact. Right?
A
Yeah. Crosswalk. It's a five way crosswalk in Japan outside of their train station. Station. It's like, I forget how many thousands of people are walking across every single time. It's clean Though the quell Jackson had to hit three public push ups right in the middle of that thing. Almost got his ass trampled and ran over and that was some of the best. So I will try not to put you in any dangerous situations, but I cannot promise anything. There's a chance.
G
I appreciate that.
A
Yeah, no problem. If I happen to see you on your inst. There. Shibuya. Yep, right there. That Shibuya. That is Shibuya. Is that the next.
G
That's a whole lot of shabl.
A
Fucking nailed it. I'm so happy to hear that, Ohio, by the way, to everybody in Japan. We are watching long. Okay, let's continue to get some crowns. Maybe five public push ups between Stanford, Steve and I over to super duper otter crown basketball tournament between West Virginia and Stanford. But we need to win crown on draftkings and obviously opening day. Go ahead, Tone.
D
Yeah, Steve, it is opening day and I believe your Mets take on my Pittsburgh Pirates and Paul Skeen. So good luck with that. At 1:15. We're 20 minutes till first pitch on that. That one. Do you have anything on that one? And then any other winners throughout the day On MLB opening day, I look
G
at the Mets as the one thing we still hang our hat on is we're the greatest opening day team in the history of baseball. Even starting our franchise in 1962 with six straight losses. But we are now at 40 and 23. It's the best winning percentage pretty good in the game on opening day, coming off a loss last year to Milwaukee. But during the course of all Those years from 1962 on, they have not faced a guy like Paul Skeens. So I will let you guys have this one. I like the Pirates with on the bump. I love what I've seen in the WBC that you guys have documented and met still figuring out what that lineup is gonna be. I do like the additions, the fresh races they got in Peralta, a lot of pressure on him as they were backed into a corner late in the trade deadline and gave up two huge prospects. But scheme the Pirates, can we say they've invested a little more?
A
Yeah, they're up over a hundred million dollars. Okay, we're popping mitts right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
G
Popping the myth. Yeah, yeah. So pirates and then I looked at tonight is Seattle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seattle tonight. Logan Gilbert. I like that lineup a lot against Cleveland who's another team that's in in flux. It feels like we know this the finish to the year that Seattle had. So I like Logan Gilbert on that team with plenty of balance. Get Cal R back in the mix. Heard you guys talking about him, how he just wanted to get back. No offense to the wbc, but he needs some at bats. Had to get some at bats and expect big things from Seattle. I think, you know, Jeff pointed out the best team in that division. I believe that. And I like them in the home opener, which would be an awesome, awesome atmosphere in their first home game of the year.
A
All the Hammer down boys just utilized their talk back to my ear button and said, minus 199 pick. Okay, yeah, we like that. That's it. We like that.
D
I did not.
A
This guy got a. Minus 1100. Maybe he wants to give out to us. Yeah, that's. That's what the.
G
Well, you can throw all these things in the parlay too, you know, and
A
then, hey, I'm Patty Parlays. Hey, don't you worry about that. I'm not here all day. I'm with you.
G
Speaking of, I imagine one of those guys in your ear was gumpy in the back talking and he had a minute. I mean, it won.
H
I had it.
G
Lakers. What was it? Nick's Nuggets the other night?
A
Minus 125.
G
Yeah. Minus 1. What's wrong with minus parlays? Nothing. They win nothing.
A
Minus 199. They are talking, though. I will say they're both. I don't like it. We just want the crown. We just want the crown.
D
We want crowds. It was not me. It was those two. You know it.
C
Red Sox minus 167.
G
I know who it was. Don't you?
A
Only paid to lose. You're the best. Ladies and gentlemen, Stanford team. Thank you. Hour two. On the other side, we got John Boy joining us.
C
Let's go.
A
A business success and a baseball stud. Can't wait to chat with him. And Adam Schefter and AJ Hawk. We'll see you then.
F
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A
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J
by Rich Eisen here. The tax deadline will be here before you know it and you just want to know your taxes are actually being handled. But the old way, you hand everything off and then silence. Days pass, weeks pass. You start wondering, should I send another follow up email? It feels like you're chasing updates and getting nowhere. But now taxes are different because your taxes are done for you by a Turbo. TurboTax Full Service Expert. With Intuit TurboTax, you can match with your dedicated tax expert and hand off everything right in the app. And while your expert checks for every deduction, you'll see real time updates on your phone. So you always know exactly where things stand. Suddenly you're not refreshing your inbox, you're going for a run, grabbing a coffee, scrolling anything other than a just checking in message because your TurboTax expert is handling it and keeping you in the loop. So this tax season, get your best possible outcome and every dollar you deserve without the guesswork. Visit TurboTax.com today to learn more. Real time updates only in iOS mobile app only available with TurboTax full service experts.
A
Hello beautiful people and welcome back to our humble abode. The Thunder down on this Sweet 16. MLB Opening Day Thursday, March 26, 20206 hour 2 Star Time Sports. I try to get a little bust of rhymes in there, a little twist up. You remember him, he, he used to go overnight celebrity ridiculous. Eminem obviously had quite a rapid word per minute as well whenever he wanted to. Those fast talkers are certainly intriguing to me, especially if they're not able to mess up ever. You know, that is, that is certainly a fascinating thing. I try to get in there to time it up, but it's such a big day. Yeah, Sweet 16 is happening. MLB has its opening day after opening night last night where the Yankees just absolutely throat punched the San Francisco Giants. Now Aaron Judge didn't have his best night to say the least. Four strikeouts. It's happened how many other times?
B
It's 15 times in his career, but he didn't do it once all of last year.
A
Okay, so we're getting this out of the way for this particular season and then we're going to get moving. But the Yankees throttle the Giants on Netflix, officially launching the MLB season. And then today is now officially opening day. The stars will be out and in just a matter of moments, Paul Skeens will be taking the bump against the New York Mets. Bryce Harper's going to be hitting baseball. Shohei is going to be out there doing his thing. Every star that you can think of is going to be trying to create magic for MLB Today. And friend of the program, Jacob Mizaroski, pitcher For the brewers is on the bump over there. He's going to be going for 104 miles an hour for $100,000 donation to a charity of his church choosing. Once again, if he blows his arm out trying to do that, that is not on us.
B
Not liable.
A
Toxic table is here at Boss Connor and at Ty Schmid, one half of the Hammer Cowboys. AP Tone is here. And joining us live from Anakin, Ohio, is a man who is a college football national champion, super bowl champion Rider cup winner. Ladies and gentlemen, Ohio guy, A.J.
C
hawk
A
wearing the pin.
H
Sorry about it. Ken Grifford Jr. Ever heard of him? He.
B
Yeah.
H
Opening day, boys.
A
Okay, so that's a Ken Griffey Jr. Jersey for Cincinnati Reds that you're wearing there.
H
Oh, yeah. It's even got a fake autograph somewhere on the back. So, yeah, we're good to go.
A
I like a good fake autograph, obviously. Anything to appear to up the value of something or if you got hustled into it, that's great. I don't think of him as a Red, should I? I should think of Ken Griffith Jr. As a Red, because I see him as Seattle Mariner with that backwards hat doing something really cool.
H
That was early on in his career. I mean, he spent like eight, eight, nine seasons in Cincinnati.
A
How's Cincinnati? Cincinnati? Good baseball team?
H
Yeah, great baseball team. What do you mean? That's where baseball started.
A
Baseball started in Cincinnati, Ohio.
H
But I mean, I believe the Reds are the oldest team, actually. Real quick trivia question. What was the reds record in 1869, Pat? I would assume undefeated.
I
I'll tell you.
G
Undefeated.
A
The only time that.
C
A long way away from 1860.
A
How many wins? 18. What?
H
57 and 0. That's probably the proper amount of games they should have, too. 57 and 0. How about that?
F
What year was.
A
Was that?
H
1869.
E
18.
H
Yeah, 1869.
A
The red stockings at the point, they obviously with the times, with the generations. Go ahead and cut that thing down to the Reds. I had no idea that the Reds were good in the 1800. Are they good in 2000? Like 26? Are they good now or what?
G
They.
H
There's. There's rumors of the big, big Red machine, you know, making a comeback, these new age versions. So who are the.
A
Who are your favorite guys on the team nowadays? If you had.
H
I mean, we know Ellie De La Cruz. We know he's a. He's. He is the face of the league almost pretty much, if you think about it.
A
Yeah. And do you have your notes down below you there? Is that what you.
H
I don't have any notes, but we did sign Suarez.
A
I know, I know.
H
Ty knows about Suarez. 49 homers last year.
B
Yeah.
A
Venezuela hit it. Yeah, he's the good.
H
I'm glad you guys are paying attention. Joey Voto.
G
Whoops.
H
Just got the talent. Unbelievable clock. Look at that. I honestly do want one of these.
A
Okay. The city's city has one, so AJ Deserves one.
B
That's awesome.
A
Joey Voto gets Gave this clock to the city? Is that what you're saying?
H
Yeah, he gifted it to Cincinnati because, you know, he said, you guys are awesome. This is a great franchise. You deserve a beautiful clock like this.
A
Thank you, Cincinnati. It's always the right time is what Joey Voto said. I don't know how anybody that would be playing against the Reds today has a chance. Who are you guys playing today?
H
It doesn't really matter. It's about us. Usually, you know, that's all I care about. I know. I think we are playing the Red Sox, but it is about us.
A
Oh, the Red Sox. Funny you say that because you have a jersey on. And the only other person that has a jersey on today is con man Ken Griffey Jr. So he's got a legend on. Are you wearing. Whose jersey is that?
C
Ken Griffey's. Pretty cool. I. I guess. But when we're talking about American heroes, this. This is the kid.
F
Okay?
C
This is Teddy Ball. It's Ted Williams. And I. I don't know if enough people know.
A
AJ you know Ted Williams?
H
Yeah. I know that he is cryogenically frozen still. So, yeah, he's doing well.
C
Those are the things. Those are the things that people joke about, but he ain't no joke. Why don't we pull up this graphic right now? Fox, Just teach some people. Okay, first of all, Ted Williams.
B
Okay,
A
hold on, hold on.
C
Yeah, he batted.406. He's a freak of nature. He has the greatest eyes in the history of mankind. You see a lot of AL mvp. You see a lot of All Stars, triple crown in 1942. That one pops up to me. Because you know what he did after that year, A.J. he went to war. Damn it. Okay? He went 1942, triple crown, MVP. And then he said, you know what? My country needs me. He then went, basically taught half the pilots for World War II down in Florida. Everybody was like, oh, my God. The kid just taught me how to fly. I know it better than anybody. He comes back after that to baseball. What's he do? Oh, I don't know. He wins the Al MVP. Okay, you see that other one right there? 1946. That's when he basically took over the league once again. All right, Hawker. And then. Oh, was he done there after World War II?
A
Why don't you.
C
Wait a second, Hawks.
A
Okay, wait a second.
H
I didn't get that.
C
I'm trying to talk about an American hero. Do you support the truth? Do you support the troops? It sounds like you don't talk about the troops.
A
We're trying to talk about the troops,
C
so just shut up for a second, okay? After that, he wasn't done with war, all right? He went over to the Korean War as well. He had 39 combat missions. Nobody for the Cincinnati Reds ever did that. You know what a lot of aviation people say? They say Ted Williams basically invented the Perkachev Cobra, which is one of those moves. Which is what is the move where you're flying and then you stop on the dial? You know the movie Top Gun? They basically based it off of Ted Williams. Maverick is an iteration of Ted Williams. The only reason they did a volleyball scene, which is because they didn't want to do baseball, and TC didn't want to act like you could hit a baseball like Ted freaking Williams, okay? No, not like Ted Williams. That's how good this guy is.
E
Okay?
C
Tt can hit a baseball, but not like Teddy Ballgame. So for you to come out and say, oh, in 1860, the team went and they won 57 games. No one gives a shit, okay? What we care about is American heroes. Teddy Ballgame, Ted Williams, the greatest hitter in the history of mankind, probably would have been the greatest baseball player ever if he didn't serve in two wars. How many Cincinnati Reds players do you know, Hawk? None. Not on this team. You were checking your notes, looking at Ellie De La Cruz, Roman Anthony, Garrett Crochet. He's going to shove it today. But it all starts with that guy right there. There's a reason he's got a statue outside Fenway park, baby. He's an American hero.
A
Congratulations, con man.
H
Yeah, he is.
F
I agree.
H
He is. I agree with everything you say about Teddy Williams. I didn't. Never said anything poor of Ted Williams. You know that.
A
Okay, well, we appreciate the fact that you respect Ted Williams, but. Yeah, I don't think you fully understood what was happening here this morning. You know, as Bailey McComas was representing the Cincinnati Reds fans in the Thunderdome, and then obviously, you. Come on, we love. Baseball is happening. The Red Sox are taking on the Reds. It really is Ted Williams versus Ken Griffey.
C
Junior can't wait.
A
That's. That's what it's all about today. And that's why we shouldn't cover this sport. Okay, well, everything just happened right there now on Jeff's Cobra.
C
To learn that. I feel like I educated a lot of people. I think that's the point.
A
Hey, you nailed it. Yeah. You really.
C
A lot of people in the aviation world do believe Ted Williams was the first one to ever pull it off without their wings snapping off his plane.
A
Yeah, because he. The Cobra, obviously, that thing. I mean, you gotta.
C
You gotta stop that thing on a dime. Most people couldn't do that back then because the planes were made out of wood.
A
You're gonna listen to you back on that one and you're gonna say, I nailed it.
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A
Absolutely.
C
Pugachev's Cobra probably could have come out a little cleaner.
A
No, the whole thing. The Ted Williams cell. That was good. I mean, did your. AJ was crying. Okay.
C
Yeah.
A
We got a graphic in this entire.
C
Always does. Anytime someone just is trying to support the troops, he's always.
A
Oh, really?
C
Like, all right, dude, whatever.
A
Did kind of walk right in. That was fun game Let you go first. He's been dressed like this. Obviously the whole show. Didn't talk about it one time in the first album. I did not.
H
I know what I was getting into, I guess. Yeah, I'll stand up for the rest. I can.
A
Hey, we're doing baseball. Okay.
B
That's right.
A
There's. Yep.
C
100 games.
A
150 of them.
C
Maybe took me 100 hours to figure it out.
A
What did you do? How'd you guys get in, by the way?
D
We didn't.
C
I had to make a new email. Okay.
B
What's the email?
C
I love baseball and the Red Sox. Gmail.com. nobody emailed me. I wish I didn't say that. But that being said, I had to make that email in order to sign up on the. On a 14 different websites to figure it out. But I got there, so we're going to do it.
D
MLB TV used to be so easy to use and then ESPN took it over and it was a disaster.
A
What happened? What did happen, actually, because we have
D
relayed the message when YouTube TV and ESPN was having their argument earlier in the year and I just wanted to watch football. And you couldn't sign up for football. It just happened again yesterday. We just kicked it down the road.
B
I don't know.
D
I didn't go to sign up for the new email because my Disney account's linked and my daughter loves Moana so
A
I didn't want to that up, but Moana is awesome.
D
I still don't know if it works. I'll wait because the Buckos are on NBC today, so I won't find out till tomorrow if it actually worked if I could watch pirates out of market.
A
All right, well, let's assume that'll get figured out.
B
Okay.
A
Okay.
B
Or it won't and you guys will be out of luck.
A
Wait, you get to do it.
D
He was grandfather.
B
I'm grandfathered in, so I'm not really worried about all.
D
I'm also grandfather watching the game for so long.
A
All right, I guess I'll just follow along on socials. There is one account that I have followed along with throughout my non baseball world for over the last few years, and I think a lot of people have, which is why immediate investments start coming in to a company that is creating sports content, which is obviously good for all of the sport, but certainly good for the entrepreneurs that are covering a sport that they love in a way that people think that they could get involved with it. And I have followed along with Lazen. Gentlemen, the man behind John Boy, Jimmy o'. Brien. Yay. How you doing, brother?
E
Thank you for having me. Appreciate it, guys.
A
Dude, thank you for joining us. I have followed along with your for a lot longer than I would assume that you would realize. I think you've done great for the sport and I appreciate the fact that you're getting, you know, blessings to continue to do as such. So thank you for joining us and thank you for serving sport the way that you. You have without even realizing that you've been supplying me basically with most of my information in baseball.
E
All right, well, some people might get mad at you. You can just pin the blame on me there. If you're just repeating what I say, that's fine. That's what it's all about. You know, we've built this. This niche of like, I'm not an expert, I'm just a fan. It's perfect place to live.
A
Yeah, well, you create great highlights, you bring things together, you showcase the things that I think us and fans would like to see. So I appreciate what you do and how you go about doing it. Now you are a Yankees fan, obviously, and clearly first place.
B
Hell, yeah. Good point.
A
Undefeated. Yeah, I get it. 1869, you know, the Reds were undefeated too. Do you know that?
E
That's like according to one guy's record book.
A
Oh, so we're saying that's not real.
E
There's probably something not real about it, but I'm sure they were good.
A
Oh, this is 100.
H
100. No. Yeah, it's probably more games.
E
I mean like a rainy day and that's that. That game card is getting ruined. And then they probably redid it. So I don't know.
H
Oh, they kept great records.
A
1869. I don't know if no one in
D
the Reds organization would ever do anything sketchy.
A
Okay.
E
I don't think they had good enough pens to like last.
A
What is the inch? That's a good call. Like, how do we even.
H
I mean, how'd the Bible make it? Guys, come on now.
A
It's a little bit older. Oh, say the Reds in 1869 in the Old Testament. All right, let's move along. Everybody's chasing what those Reds lied to people about doing, which is being undefeated. Can you tell me about the Yankees a little bit more? And then we'll talk about all the other teams in the MLB and then the boys and can I say the mlb. And when I say that, why does everybody attack me?
E
Well, you know what? I don't. I don't really care about a lot of that stuff. I found the more that I talk to players, the more they like, you know, Trevor Plouffe is on our show. He played in the big leagues for a long time and he'll call them refs every now and then. And like baseball fans are up and it's an umpire or Aaron Boone calls them points instead of runs. I mean, his grandpa managed, his dad managed, his brother plays. Like it's as baseball families you can get. So sometimes I've learned fans kind of care about the verbiage when the players don't even uphold it. So yes, you can say the MLB if you want. I'm not going to correct you.
A
Okay. The MLB then kicked off last night a big way on Netflix. I saw you talking about the score bug tie. Also pissed about some of this stuff and how it all goes. But let's just talk about the game itself. Yankees look great. Judge didn't look great. Is this a year because we live with Ty, who's also a die hard Yankees fan? You guys have to win this year or are you guys just going to let the Dodgers become the team that everybody desires in mlb? Is that kind of the narrative that is potentially available?
E
They have to win every year. They haven't done it in a while. So it's hard to still have this stance and attitude as a Yankees fans. I think a lot of younger Yankees fans are really confused with how they're supposed to act because their dad or their older, like, cousins are telling them like, it's World Series or bust. And it hasn't even been close to that in a long time. So I'd like it if they won. I do like that they returned a lot of guys. So the chemistry in the room and kind of just like, you know, Boone knowing how players tick, there's only one new player on the offensive side of the ball. Like, that's very weird. I think the White Sox have 13 new players or something like that. So that's odd that they have, you know, they're calling it the run it back Yankees because it's just a lot of guys that were there last year. They didn't add many new faces at all. They're spinning it as a good thing. And we're in March, so I'm accepting it as a good thing. If it starts to go south come June, then I'm going to be back and say, this is the problem. But it's the, you know, we're optimistic. It's March.
A
Yeah, optimistic in March. I love that. And then later saying, oh, we expected different results with the same old shit. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. I'm exc. Excited to hear that come out of your mouth and out of Ty's mouth through its entirety. Jazz Chisholm actually mentioned that. He said, it's like a family, you know, in the clubhouse, all very comfortable. He was spectacular. He. He was this. Now, obviously, no score bug. We don't know who the hell is hitting against where, and we don't know anything.
B
But how many outs, how many balls, how many strikes?
E
That would be like if a network took over an NFL game. And they were like, you know what? For this quarter, we're not going to do the yellow line. But, you know, as fans, we've been given. That's insane. I'm like, I was personally insulted by it. I saw a foul ball and then I saw a swing and miss. I was like, what is it? Strike two. Strike three. Like, I was. That's basically how my dad grew up watching baseball. They didn't have the count. I told him all the time, dad, you had no idea what you were watching. Watch a pitch and then react by base. What the players did like, come on, that's crazy.
A
It was crazy. But the Josh Chisholm interview was fantastic. And everybody seemed to play well, except for. I normally will only kind of stir the pot with Ty, you know, especially when big Dumper's doing what he's doing from both sides of the Plate and just such a. A force and a dynamic.
B
Sure.
A
You know, human being. I'm always going, judges going to beat this guy for mv. Okay. Okay. And this entire judge striking out four times.
I
What.
A
What are you taking out of this? Are we worried WBC hangover is happening or what are your thoughts on it?
E
Well, they're, you know, Logan Webb also didn't do well, so they're both Team USA guys. So, you know, if you want to start a. Is Team USA jinx nar if we've got enough ammo to, you know, nudge it along.
A
Oh, no. Is going to get it again.
E
If one guy's not going to get hits and the rest of the lineup hits.
I
I.
E
It's fine to me if it's Judge, maybe this is him being a captain and saying, look, you guys can get it done without me. That's fine. You know, if this was Jazz or McMahon or, well, some of the guys that are at the end of the batting order, you'd. You'd say, oh, man, like, you know, if this lasts, like, we got an issue issue here. Judge can have. He can go bad for two weeks. He did this two years ago. He had a bad first three weeks, I think. Didn't hit a home run for a while and then broke the AL home run record. So if there's one guy that has earned to not worry about at all, it's Aaron Jackson.
A
So you guys all get the talking points. Ty has a question for you.
B
Yeah, Jimmy, just curious what you think the abs, like how that's going to impact everything this year? Obviously it would have been nice to see it last night. We missed it, you know, first one in history. They spent a good portion visibly uncomfortable, a good portion of the pregame show. You know, hey, we had to bring in John Cena to let us know what the abs was. They dedicated a lot of time to it. And then some half assed question to Tony Vitello about nothing steals the moment and we don't know what's going to happen. But how big of an impact?
A
AJ, take it easy.
B
HG's Lou, it's a big deal. They're acting like, you know, I mean, it is a big deal and it, it wasn't a big deal at all last night. It was actually like the most insignificant part of the game almost. But how do you think that's going to impact everything this year? I saw a lot of people like bringing up, you know, situations that maybe we haven't thought of. Like a full count where it's Potentially a strike, you know, or a ball and it gets challenged, guys going to second, gets tagged out, etc. Etc. How big of an impact do you think this is going to have on like the day in, day out of the season?
E
I. It should have a decent impact, but I think guys are going to be hesitant. Like, the umpire missed I think 11 calls. Yeah. Yesterday. And they only challenged one and it was incorrect. And then the very next pitch was such a bad call and then they didn't want to challenge it because they want to burn another. So they're going to have to figure out the limbo of that. Networks are going to have to figure it out. You, you don't. You have to show us if they challenge it? Well, absolutely, 100%. But also the next pitch is way off the plate. You got to show us. Hey, should he have challenged it? Like, they got to be way more ready to show us the info here because it's going to change the sport from a viewer standpoint. Baseball has had different strike zones and that's been the beauty of the game. Because technology didn't exist, you had to accept it as beauty, even though it's awful where, you know, this umpire calls the wide strike zone, this umpire calls a tall strike zone. And then you would have to learn it as the game goes. Well, now there's a strike zone, which I've been saying forever as a surface level fan, someone getting into the sport, which I encounter more now in this position. Position, they just kind of want to know, like, wait, isn't it easier if I just know what the zone is? Yeah, all the time. And it's a little more standard and new fans don't want to accept all the old crap that baseball fans accepted simply because they had to. Now on that, I'm excited for like that.
A
On that note, I am new fan and I am certainly an advocate for that box that I see on the screen every single pitch, whether they challenge it or not, being accurate, especially if I'm betting on how this is going. And then all of a sudden we beat the Dominican Republic on a tall strike zone. And I got all baseball people telling me it's bullshit. It's like, well, hey, I've been saying we need to use the little electronic boxy thing. You guys, baseball people have been telling me that that's the, that's the beauty of the game. The umpire has the strike center or whatever and then all of a sudden we beat the Dominican Republican. Everybody has a problem with it. I don't think I fully Understand where we actually stand on what the old folks want now in baseball, what the new people want in baseball. I think we just want consistency. Right. Just like in every sport.
E
Yeah. It's just nice to know what's what, you know, like if it's a steady rule, I, I, there's a lot of misconceptions that go around. And I'm not coming at the umpires here, but everyone's like, umpires are 94 accurate. They're not. Anytime, Anytime a guy swings, the umpire does not have to make a call. Anytime the ball hits the dirt, the umpire does not have to make a call. Anytime it's right in the middle of the zone. You know, everyone knows what that is.
A
Balls on that one time just a week ago.
E
Yeah, but balls that are like on the edges. If you look at their percentage of those calls, which are when they're actually needed. And I'm not blaming the umps, I think it's too hard to do now. Guys throw too fast, they move too much, but they, they get them right 80% of the time. That's, that's two out of 10 is a lot. There's like 300 pitches per team.
A
That's 30.
E
Well, a lot of those pitches wouldn't count towards the stat. I just said so I was wrong at the end,
A
but they're wrong way more than we expect them to be because we're being told the wrong numbers. Yeah, I got you.
E
James is throwing pitches at 95 that move every way. These umpires don't age out. We got like 70 year old guys. Eyes go at like 40. Like that's a known fact.
A
Yeah, yeah, science tells us that. And no, we don't have any. Teddy Williams back here with the best eyes in the history.
C
Never again.
A
Best eyes in the history of mankind.
C
Yeah, ever.
A
He hit 406 and then he was,
C
and then I believe he was about 820 in the cockpit. So I mean, if you run those
A
numbers, he was batting, he was hitting
C
20 in the cockpit.
A
Is that a big like, that's like a spray type, isn't it?
C
He only missed like twice. And that's because the plane was already shot down, headed towards the water.
A
Oh. So once again, these are kind of faulty stats again.
C
Yeah, A lot of people would say he was a perfect shooter.
A
How many missions again?
C
39 combat missions. Just want to make sure it's emphasized
A
so people know that that's a lot. Okay, let's get back to baseball. The ABS is going to change it. It's going to change baseball forever. The 15 second shot clock thing. Awesome.
E
I like that's been great, right?
A
We like this, right?
E
Yeah. Go watch an old game. It was crazy. It's crazy how long they were taking mistaken.
A
Was it the pitchers or the batters?
E
It was everyone. So it's a big game. So when the batter and the pitcher are there, it's a big game of who's settled. So if the batter, if the pitcher makes you wait, you know, back in the day you called holding a guy. So if the pitcher just stands there and just stays still, you know, and whole and freezes the batter, now his rhythm's off. You know, you want to get into that little like wobble and if you get frozen, so then the batter would stay, step out and then sometimes then the pitcher would step out because it's tit for tat.
A
It's like sumo wrestling. It would go on forever. We had a sumo wrestling thing happen. Ichi ended up winning. Shout out to you. Absolute beast. At a big night out in Pittsburgh. And we did a best of three. So we thought, all right, so this
B
should just take five minutes.
C
Should be quick.
A
It was 40 minutes. They weren't ready each time. It was not. We're stepping out of this. And Shane Gillis was refing that thing. He had no idea when they were stepping out or when they were stepping, stepping out. And you got to get down in there. This one feels a little more intense. Okay, here we go. I didn't know baseball was like that.
B
Oh yeah. That's why, I mean the game games you sometimes you watch four and a half, five hour games.
A
Well, I wouldn't. Yeah. You're saying like people would though. You guys would.
B
Without a doubt.
C
Yeah.
A
Thank you guys for your service keeping this sport alive so that I can get here to this stage of it. AJ has a question for you. John boy.
H
Yeah, I'm just curious your thoughts on all of the, I mean especially last night, but all the gimmicks that are to going, going on the pre game shows and the different people they add to it. I know there's some, some guys in studio that feel very strongly, but how, where do you think that's going as far as, you know, a baseball goes like how much are they going to integrate into games and pre games to try to spice things up a bit?
E
I, I, I'd like them to push the needle however they feel like they want to. Pregame and post game. I really don't matter. It is entertainment. I just usually networks get games and they use the in and out commercials to promote themselves. Themselves. You know, if you watch a Fox game, the last commercial before they come back is the new Fox show. Or the first commercial after they. When they go to break is the new Fox show. Netflix not using those areas, but using the full inning to promote their own stuff. That's what I got a problem with. Like, I understand the business pretty well. I know why you're paying a premium to get this game. I. I know what you want to advertise the other stuff. So you get new people to sign up and then you show them all the other stuff they can watch on YouTube, your site. But don't use a full inning where you take all the score bug away from me. You take all the announcing away from me. And now I'm just my dad in 1972. You should have put in black and white, like watching nothing. I have no idea what's going on. I haven't been trained to watch baseball that way. So they can do all that dumb stuff. I'm not saying it's not.
A
It's fun.
E
Fun dumb in an endearing way. Like the, like the taxi cabs and that's like silly, I guess is the better word. I'm going do all that. I'm not going to really complain.
A
Yeah, yeah.
E
I'm not going to complain. The post game MVP with the hot dogs like that made me laugh. But use the time that you use and has been established. Don't do it in the middle of the game.
A
Yeah, that's like whenever Liv tried to reinvent watching golf.
B
Exactly.
A
Golf coverages, like, hey, they already figured out golf coverage. Just do it. Just do your own little way on it, which is what you basically said to them. But I do appreciate, you know, that new people are putting money into sports. We got to continue to remember that money into sports is a good thing. Let's just not, you know, once you get to money. Let's get sports people around when we're making decisions. That'd be awesome. Speaking of decisions being made, the Pittsburgh Pirates decisions are already paying off. Two run shot for Brian Lowe. He's the second at bat. Low first guy who got it loud. Yeah. Love, love, love, love. Brandon, you know him.
E
You go like this.
A
You go in the first.
E
Be loud. Be loud.
A
Yeah. Well, be loud. Be loud with the bat. It sounds like this guy. Two run shot here. First apple batter for o'.
D
Neil.
A
Chris on base. Shoot. First pitch, I think under half a run, man. Yeah, that's not the bucko bats ready
D
for all the screw yeah.
A
The crown will never be yours, brother. The crown will never be yours. Tone has a question for you, John boy.
D
Yeah, I do.
A
Pirates are about to be undefeated.
D
Up to
E
see.
D
That's a guy we paid in the offseason.
A
That's what happens.
D
You score runs. Okay.
B
Yeah.
A
Hold the phone. The Pirates have a home run welder.
D
Yeah.
A
Yeah.
D
That's what I'm talking.
A
Yeah, we got a little. We got a little taken. Fig and mig welding going on down there. The boys are in the fire. Wow. In. Better cover your eyes.
B
That's awesome.
A
Yeah, you're right. Because it's so damn bright. Yeah. I love what you're doing, boys. Undefeated.
D
Yeah, Jimmy, obviously.
A
What if the game never ends? What if we get a hit at every bat? That. That's kind of what's happening right now against the Mets. What if. If. What if 9 go through all hits?
E
That's called batting around.
A
Okay. How often does this happen?
B
Yankees did it last time out in an inning.
E
Decent amount.
A
Yeah, I saw Judge a lot.
E
Yeah, yeah, he was getting up a lot of games. There's 15 games a day, so, you know, things happen a lot.
A
Yeah, a lot of stats in your guys. A lot of numbers a week. We couldn't see any of them on screen last night, but there's a lot of stats here. Go ahead, Tone. Go ahead, Tone.
D
Yeah, Jimmy, obviously now that The Buff are up 20 on the Mets, we know that this is one of those teams, but is there anyone else you think in the NL that can compete with the Dodgers? The other ones that obviously the favorites.
C
The.
D
The Phillies, the Cubs and those Mets that are down two out of the Pirates. But anyone that can't compete with the Dodgers, you think Indiana.
E
Now this might make your guys audience upset. When it comes to baseball, I'm a coastal elitist. So I just haven't believed in a Central team in, In a really long time. Sorry to you, Pirates, Pittsburgh, but come on. Yeah, I know, but they're in the Central Division. But they are east coast people.
A
Everybody that's been at B kind of. I. I think we do share some east coast traits. Yes, I think we certainly.
E
Definitely.
A
Yeah. I think we're much more east coast than we are Midwest.
C
No doubt, but still a little Midwest.
A
Yeah, there is a little time.
E
Yeah, it's a blend.
A
Comes in from.
E
There's a lot of Ohio in you.
A
Yeah, Ohio comes in and Ohio will ooze.
C
Yeah, yeah, they drink it too.
E
I think whichever team comes out of the NL east, if we get a team that really Puts it together out of the Phillies, Braves, Mets, I choose them to challenge the Dodgers the most. Although I love the Padres team, I really do like the Padres lineup, but they just play the Dodgers so much and Dodgers really good.
A
So, yeah, the Dodgers. Unbelievable. So much fun. And everybody's saying they're ruining in the game. Okay, they're. They're potentially going to change the entire cba, obviously, in the new rules. Maybe we do change the game a bit here and how it goes. Go ahead, con man.
C
Yeah, Jimmy. It feels like one of the biggest and best parts of the World Baseball Classic was just like the pimping of home runs, of big plays. Like when Julio Rodriguez Rob Judge's home run and he went bananas and threw up the X. Like, those moments were awesome. The whole dugout clearing when they hit home runs, those moments were awesome. Do you think, think that kind of that will be accepted more in baseball? The pimping of home runs, of big plays, you know, huge celebrations. Do you think that'll carry on a little just because so many people found that attractive when watching baseball for the first time?
E
I think definitely something we did during COVID was me and Jake, my partner, we went back, we watched big moments from every World series game from 1977 to now. Like that we're on you YouTube. And we learned a couple things. People been pimping home runs for a long time in crazy ways. The narrative that baseball's dying was first in print in 1892 and has been every year since then. And I think this, like, you can't pimp home runs or like bat flip is the same way. Because we were kind of shocked. We were like, wait a second. That dude just threw his bat, stared down the pitcher and slowly went around the back bases. What Junior Caminero is doing where he's like doing a. A dance around every base as he runs it. That's new. And you and guys would retaliate. Like pitchers would hit the guy that were mad because pitchers are like the big bad bully in baseball because they have the weapon and no one and no one else does. So they've run the game and they have like the softest egos. So that's why baseball is in this state now.
A
These younger guys, guys sounds like they're cool with it. From our understanding, you would know better than us. But we just asked the Miz the other day, hey, if you hit one on me, you do what you got to do because I'm going to do the same thing. Paul, I don't think cares I don't think Paul cares at all. I do remember those older guys though, that like what. As the person was turning, they would be like, oh, yeah.
B
Ready to fight them as they're going around the bases. And yeah.
A
I didn't even think.
E
We had it last year in Colorado when Des hit a home run. Who is the pitcher in Colorado? I know his name, but I'm blanking on it. He got mad at him, was like, run. And we. We also had it with school for the Tigers. Cy Young winner and Zach.
A
I don't know about scubal so we can go ahead.
E
Who's the short stuff for the Angels? Zach Netto. They did it perfectly. They jawed at each other like fu, fu. And then two seconds later they looked at each other and they nodded like, sorry, man. And after the game, they were like. It was heat of the moment. He hit a home run. I was mad at him. Like, I still think that we should allow athletes to have like short fuses because that kind of makes athletes athletes in a way. Like when you get into that zone.
A
Yeah. We don't need to be hampering competitive edge. We're looking for a competitive spirit in competitive edge out of guys. And I think if some people. Not every Barry Sanders handball the ref every single time. But if your natural reaction is to let the person know that you just. Hey, all the work that I put in, okay. Was for that moment right there. And I just. You're a punk, dude. Like, that is. If that is your natural reaction. I think you should be allowed to do that. The NFL tried to get rid of dancing was not good. It was not good. Eliminating emotion from an emotional thing is never a good idea. I think so whenever like the whole anti pimping a was like a thing for baseball that I learned about. I'm like, we don't want entertain. We don't want emotion, but we want them to care.
E
I don't know how that I will tell you. If you want to see the worst version of it, go watch college baseball from like five years years ago. They put in the strictest rules. You're not even allowed to like talk to each other now or look at each other. And everyone gets upset because I have a contrarian opinion because I'm like, they needed that. Those kids were insane. They were like doing WWE wrestling stuff with like 10 people in the fans and it was always at the other team. Like they'd hit a home run and instead of celebrating wildly with their boys, they'd just be like so aggressive. College is Crazy now you can't like, like fish pump. You're kicked out of the game. And I say it was.
B
They needed.
E
Was.
A
It's like the Tennessee.
E
I mean it was insane what the college kids were doing.
A
You're saying the boys needed a little bit of it too much. We need a little bit of a. This needs to slow down. And then we assume they'll allow a little bit back. And then there'll come a generation that'll go too far again and they'll have to come back. I love that. Didn't the Tennessee. Yeah. Against Georgia.
B
Yeah.
C
Spiked it. Go Dogs Stone Lawless.
A
You remember that? And then the guy stole the old
B
homer to end the game.
A
Yeah. Which by the way, the Dominican guy stealing Aaron Judges Julio Rodriguez. Oh my God. And then doing a full. That was. See, that's what I'm talking. I want more of that. See, I understand baseball. We don't need all that. We don't need all that. I. I respect. Hey, thank you for joining us, man.
E
I appreciate it.
A
Will you do it more throughout the season? A long season, man. Long season. Yeah, yeah.
E
We have a crazy schedule.
H
Yeah.
E
162 games in 180 days just on it's baseball season is unbelievable.
A
What do you do? How. How many shows you put out? How much? Because I see all your clips, obviously. So what is.
E
I do three Yankees episodes a week. I do at least three of the like the breakdown, the lip reading things a week.
C
Awesome.
E
And then we have a bunch of other shows and as the company we have, you know, it's like, I think it's like 200 things a week covering baseball to die hard people that love the stats. My breakdown videos are much more to people that have never watched a full game. Like, here's a storyline, here's some narrative and here's what's like happened between the cracks.
A
Yeah, you got me. Yeah.
B
Yeah.
A
I'm the guy. Yeah. I'm the one you're talking about there. Yeah.
H
Yep.
A
I appreciate it. Yeah, no problem.
D
I loved it.
A
Yeah. I loved everything.
H
They're great.
A
Yeah. This guy did this. This guy doing this at this time. It's fantastic. I appreciate you taking time and we'll see you again, man. Good luck out there. Have a great season. Thank you.
E
See you guys.
A
Ladies and gentlemen, what's on the other side of the card? I saw you holding a card. Are you a fidgety guy or do you have actual.
E
Yeah, very fidgety. I'm like, yeah, fidget spinners were made for me. We just did our pregame show. And these were all my notes for that. And they just never left my hand.
A
Any good ones? Any good notes that we didn't get to on this particular show? Roman, Anthony, you want some real.
E
My favorite ones?
A
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
E
Okay. The Mets. Let me see. You want negative ones or positive ones?
B
If it's the Mets, you can fire a couple negative ones out there.
A
Yeah, it depends who it's against.
E
I found more positive for the Mets, actually. All right, here's what I did. This is. I really love dumb stats, so I'll give you a real dumb one. I was looking at the most popular names that have hit home runs on opening day.
A
What?
E
I. I used to have a show called Stats that Exist but Don't Matter. And it was basically like, here's some. I. I'd lay out a whole framework of why this is important. And, and the stats. And at the end I say, but this doesn't matter at all. And then the video would end.
A
Oh, that's clever. A curveball. Yeah, yeah.
E
Like this was. I just wasted your time. The name Mike, that's the. That's the most common first name for opening day home runs. There's only one Mike in the league right now. Mike Trout.
D
Really?
E
Most common last name, you're like this. Pittsburgh is Dave Davis. And the most common age for. For guys that hit opening home runs is 26. Henry Davis got the start today for Pittsburgh. Last name Davis, age 26. So if he hits a home run, I'm a genius. If he doesn't is a stat.
A
You're the man, ladies and gentlemen. Shawn. Boy. Thank you, bud. Yeah. Yeah. That was awesome.
C
That's awesome.
K
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A
Henry Davis. This guy, Tank Davis.
B
Yeah. Former number one overall pick and he
A
plays catcher for the Pirates. And, well, what we know is he's got pop time. AJ from here to here.
C
Studied Kendall his whole life.
A
And I hope the Mets and I know they got a lot of money in research and like that. He's not scared to do bang and boom. One guy's on first.
H
First.
A
Yeah, he's a little lazy. Keep him tight, especially when there's a lefty bat and he'll go behind that batter. One of these right here and turns out, last conversation about baseball here that we're going to have for the next at least 20 minutes. I'm a sidearm thrower now. Now you see that? Yeah. I just learned. I just learned that I'm a sidearm pocket.
C
Show him.
A
Okay. Yeah, I'm a sidearm fan.
H
Is this like when you're turning 2 or 3? Just in general, it's just what I'm
C
having to, you know, just throwing it.
H
Okay.
J
All right.
H
That's good to change that arm angle.
A
What do you mean change it?
E
This is.
A
This is what my natural.
B
He found his arm slot.
A
This is what I. Oh, that's what
C
I should have been doing.
A
Oh, no, drop the stone.
B
I got another stone.
C
Yeah.
A
Hey.
D
Yeah, so I'm on the transfer.
A
I'm turning that right here. You see that edge? Yeah.
H
Good.
A
Right. And also I'm tucking this thing like this right here.
C
Boom.
A
You're out popping mitts. Yeah.
H
That'd be scary to see if you were standing on the mound, pitching, throwing, dropping down and throwing that at me. As a right hander now, I do
A
think I probably should be submarine. And when I'm pitching against Clayton Kershaw, probably give me a little bit more accuracy in this entire thing. But I don't think I'm supposed to be a pitcher, brother. That strike zone was small up there. That was a. I was standing there trying to find it and I just don't know if I would have been able to hit. Who's that guy that got drafted? Couldn't hit strike zone. End up being a tight end.
C
Aiden Hurst.
A
Yeah, I understand. I don't know how anyone thing up there.
B
He was a bucko legend.
C
Adrian doesn't even have a glove. That's how you know.
H
That's because I don't have one up here. I should have brought it up.
A
You're right. Yeah. The only baseball stuff of Cincinnati is known for is 1869.
C
Yeah. And clocks.
A
And also the opening day celebration is incredible.
C
It is sweet.
H
It's like a St. Patty's Day situation every year.
A
That's what I heard. And then your owner goes and goes. So what, you. You want me to move the team?
C
All right, I will shut up.
H
That was a couple years ago. Couple years ago. I think he's changes too.
A
We're at a different time. I understand. We're at a different time since we have a clock out front now. Chuck Logano sending some fact checks in the group text. I don't know if he saw. Yeah. What did he say there?
C
What did he say?
H
Chuck has his truth. He has his truth.
A
Chuck said that. Turns out the oldest continuously operating baseball team is the Atlanta Braves. They were founded in 1871 as the Boston Red Stockings.
B
Oh.
A
And then they moved from Boston and Milwaukee to Atlanta. But the franchise itself itself has existed continuously. Close second. Chicago cubs established in 1876. So 1869. I don't even think. I don't even think they're talking as the league even was there. So.
C
And the Red Stockings turned into the Red Sox once they went to Atlanta and became that team. Yeah.
G
I'm calling on chat here.
A
Google.
B
AI was.
G
Was singing a different tune.
A
Oh, no. AI is wrong. Well, you know, we have. We have come across a time where we have more access to information. But what's the accurate information at the time that we are currently at. Yeah, that is kind of a crazy time to be a part of. So we're very lucky that we have human AIs a part of our world. Ladies and gentlemen, one of those senior NFL Insider for espn.
I
What's going on, guys?
A
Hey, Ali, Look. How do they look? Yeah. Yeah. So bright. So bright. Aj, this man just went to the dentist this morning. Just got the entire thing. We're. I mean, we're fresh out of a cleaning right now. These are the whitest that they are going to be. Not. Not as white as AJ's, right. I mean, AJ. I mean, we got some good grills right now. Shefford. I Don't know if you're breaking more news right now or what you are currently up to in this NFL cycle, but we do know there's a couple things that are certainly worthy of a conversation. Miles Garrett's getting traded from the Cleveland Browns. Why did they do a whole new contract for Miles Garrett unless they are trying to trade him is the question that is heating up around the Internet. Obviously, the Internet is going to grab onto fodder and grab onto any piece of information and run however they want to run with it. But is this setting up for a Miles Garrett trade and what exactly happened with his contract that sent everybody into an uproar?
I
Yeah, well, here's what happened, okay? And again, I got a call on Tuesday night. A team called me, and they're like, hey, hey, hey, hey. All right. Do you see this Miles Garrett thing? I'm like, no. What? They said his option bonuses were shifted around. I'm like, yeah. And they're like, well, if you're shifting option bonuses around, usually there's like, some trade smoke. Now, let me say this. Right away, I called the Browns. I'm like, what's going on on here? And they're like, we are 100% definitely not trading him. I'm like, okay. Now, I will say this. They were adamant about it. Adamant about it. And they're like, don't even bring it up and dignify the fact, because we're not trading him.
A
Shout out us, then. Just bring it up. Shout out us, dude. Yeah, sorry about it.
I
But hold on.
C
So.
I
So the great part is, with a great part. Part is it comes out, of course, you know, field the eight sees it, other people see it, that the contract language was modified, and everybody makes the conclusion that other teams also drew. Oh, something's going on. Now, here's what I would say again, all I can say is that the Browns were adamant. To me, we are not trading Miles Garrett. This was not done to trade Myles Garrett. This was done to give us more cav flexibility. I'm just telling they couldn't have been stronger about it, but that's not going to discourage other people from wondering and speculating, could he be traded? And again, I'm just telling you, they told me no. Now, I will say this also.
A
Now, you. You twice now. You've. Now everybody else in the NFL is saying, you don't do that unless you're thinking about trading somebody potential eventually. But the Browns are saying unequivocally, 100% now. Now there is. You've done that a Couple different times.
I
Sorry. Okay. Well, you know, I just got out of the dentist pack. You know, the, the. The summer is wearing off my mouth. Anyway, the option bonuses removed every year in the contract. So it wasn't just this year. So could there be a point in two or three years when it's easier to trade him? Yes, absolutely. But the Browns say we're not trading him.
A
Okay. That's all we can tell you. Okay. We appreciate the inside information from other teams views upon it and also the Browns views on it. I think the Browns have been pretty clear that they do not want Miles Garrett to go anywhere else. Miles Garrett came out publicly, kind of took a slight shot at the front office. Andrew Barry, for what he said about going to Canton. But publicly loud. This shit was loud. And they end up making him the highest paid defensive non quarterback of all time. And he's still there. So it's like, I think the Browns have been very adamant about this is our guy. But I love the fact that everybody sees the shift and goes, we would only do that if we were trying to fucking.
H
So got to give him some flexibility down the line. That's what I would assume. Like it gives them flexibility in, you know, year, two or three years if they want to move them, I guess.
A
Well, that's what Andrew Barry's saying. I think that is kind of maybe not Andrew Barry. Maybe it is Hasm, maybe it is Monkin. Who knows? Who, Shafter.
B
Yeah.
A
You know, we don't know. Was Shefter there whenever Monkin showed up the first day as a head coach? Oh, remember at the building? Oh, yeah, yeah.
C
He was grabbing coffee.
A
I think you're in the background going, coming out of the bathroom or something. All right, we'll figure that out as we go. Big news coming out of the NFL. We have a game on Wednesday night to kick off the season and Thursday night. In the past, it has been Thursday night and Friday night. Now the Thursday game will actually be played at 10, 10:35am in Melbourne, Australia, and the game will be live Thursday night here in the United States of America. Felt like there was a lot of backlash to this one, but I would like to say if kickoff week is going to be Wednesday, Thursday, and why not Foxy need Friday. Why not throw in a Friday game? If this just becomes the new norm, we'd be okay with it. What are your thoughts on how this is going to roll out and how do you think we landed on Wednesday, Thursday for the. The NFL? Shefty?
I
Well, I don't think they're allowed to do Fridays.
A
We have last couple years, remember Brazil and then, you know, so I get it.
H
Friday.
I
Yeah, there. There are certain rules, but in this particular case, with them wanting to play in Australia as badly as they did and with that game working out to be Friday morning in Australia, Thursday night back in the States, that meant that they had to move up to Seattle home over opener to Wednesday, September 9th. So it's going to be a great week because Monday's Labor Day and typically that week, everybody in the fancy football community, you may not care about this, but anybody who plays fancy football there, we always did our draft the night before the season. Wednesday, I can tell you this, they're going to be fancy football drafts everywhere. Tuesday night, the season's going to open Wednesday. Wednesday night. Give me another game Thursday night. And that's going to be that week. Wednesday night is the first time the league has had a Wednesday night home opener since 2012. Cowboys, Giants. Which was the year they moved it up to accommodate the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night when Barack Obama was scheduled to talk that night. So first time in 14 years that they're opening on a Wednesday night. It'll be in Seattle that Wednesday tonight, and it'll be a great week of football. What's the matter? Pat S.K.
A
is getting hammered.
B
Skino's getting shelled in the bottom of the first.
A
Yeah, it's four, too. And they're all celebrating. I don't know.
C
Oh, no.
A
I appreciate what you just said. Everything's good. All right. I'm sorry. I just was showing the low light. If Paul Skeen's getting shelled right now, it's the first inning. We're down four, two Mets. I mean, it is five, five to the match. Sorry about that. Wednesday night, since 2012, whenever we made the NFL moved from the Democratic National Convention. I think last year we had a Friday game. The year before that, we had a Friday game. I thought Thursday, Friday was going to be the rollout for the NFL season nowadays Wednesday, Thursday is going to have to be just as good. Maybe Friday, get out to a high school football game. High school football game. And we're going to be so excited for ball whenever this happens. I'm excited to see how it plays and I'm excited to see if the Australians show up. 10:35am oh, they're going to be there.
I
They're going to be there.
A
Have you talked to them? Like, do you know? Do you.
I
Yeah, they're going to be there.
A
Okay. I love the Australians. I've been there. It's really far away. The only issue that we have with their Aussie rules football is it's impossible to watch because the time change is so crazy. When I was over there communicating with you guys for just like damn near
B
impossible my family, unless you just stayed up all night, it was like a
A
damn near impossible thing. So I know they have an NFL fan base over there. We are very thankful. We think they will love our game too over there from what I know of their people. And obviously we've got Australians in the leagues and have for a while, but it's like, man. 10:35am they're being expected to show up. In turn, they will. Hey, Aussie. Aussie Ozzy. I don't think they do that. AJ Has a question for you. Shefty.
H
Yeah, she. What's going on with Tom Brady? He said, said he wanted to come back. He was going to play again. Again. Then the NFL. What shuts him down or he says they do not like this. Can you tell us exactly what happened here?
I
I think probably a lot of players toy with the idea at some point or another with coming out of retirement and returning to play again in the NFL. Most players are not as accomplished and as decorated as Tom Brady. So when he has that idea and even checks into it with the NFL as a minority owner owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, obviously they conveyed to him that they didn't care for that particular idea. By the way, you know how much I love this, right? When. When we're doing the show and information flows in this. I was telling you the Sports Broadcasting act of 1961 prohibits NFL games on the second Friday in September to the second Saturday in December starting at 6pm or later. Labor Day is Monday, September 7th. So the NFL cannot violate the Sports broadcasting Act of 1961 and Schedule A game Friday night this year.
A
Didn't we? Last year they played a game on Friday last. I. I'm pretty. Two years in a row and two years ago. Yeah. So did they just pause the sport?
B
It was a week one. So it was the first Friday in September, not the second Friday in September. So then you must be able to do it the first week of September and then after. After that.
A
So we changed it. We. We moved it up a week, I guess.
B
I guess.
A
Why do we do that?
B
Good question.
I
Well, Labor Day. Labor day is Monday, September 7th this year. Last year it was earlier. So Labor Day is later this year, which because of the rule, the Sports broadcasting act of 61, it prohibits the NFL from playing that Friday night.
A
Can't wear white, can't play football on Friday.
C
You gotta be kidding me.
B
All right.
A
I didn't know Labor Day had so much implication. It really does. 1961. Geez. We've been doing it 65 years like this and we're trying to change it. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, We. We. That is grossly ignorant out of us. And thank you to the stats machine from the government that just sent you that piece of information. While we are chatting here, let's talk about the NFL in 2000 from Capitol Hill.
I
Straight from Capitol Hill.
C
Trump texted you.
H
Wow.
A
President, Mr. President.
H
Which one?
A
Mr. President texted you.
I
Yep, yep, yep.
B
All right.
I
Yeah, listen, I'd like. I'd like for them to take care of the TSA issue before we fly out to the owners meetings, but. Yeah, but the Sports Broadcasting act of 1969.
A
Let's take care of that. Tsa.
F
Yeah.
C
Please, please, please.
A
We get some photos out of there. We need to live our lives. Connor has a question for you. Shefty.
C
Shefty. Five league rule proposals were kind of thrown out there by the competition committee. One of them in particular, though was the one year only allowing the NFL right there at five, allowing the NFL officiating department to correct clear obvious misses. Basically, if there are replacement refs, it feels like all roads are leading to the replacement refs. Is that the kind of vibe you're getting? Because the latest thing was that essentially the NFL didn't have somebody there for the counter proposal. Allegedly from the NFL ra. So what are you kind of hearing? What's your feel on the situation and should we expect this ref thing to last all offseason?
I
Look, I think that this country's got a lot of issues right now, TSA among them. But this is right. Shortly thereafter, we got a problem with the referee and then trying to figure out a new CBA here. And the two sides are far apart. The talks have broken off the way it was described to me and it has been described to me for the last couple of weeks. Ty and I have talked about this. It's. It was dire a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't seem like it's changed at all. And the NFL RA feels like the league is not making good faith efforts. The league feels like the NFL RA is not stepping forward and. And open to talking and figuring out a solution. Who knows what's right. But both sides are accusing the other of not being willing to get a deal done. And the NFL is already taking steps to basically have rules in place if there are replacement officials, whether they can review calls from Park Avenue in New York, whether there are officials being brought in from the college level, whatever may be. I think everybody's preparing with the idea that replacement officials are certainly possible. Like we are a long ways away. The CBA doesn't expire to the end of May and there's always a lot of saber rattling in advance. But right now it doesn't sound good. Today it doesn't sound good. Could it change next month, next week? Sure. Today bad.
A
Lot of. A lot of public negotiating going on. The NFL has released a counter statement to the NFL. Ra this has happened, I believe in real time. We continue to focus on investing in accountability and performance in our officiating. Scott and his team haven't changed their approach in almost two years, continuing to demand raises at almost double the rates of the increases realized by the players over the course of this cba. And in addition, millions of dollars in marketing fees that rank and file union members never see. We are ready to continue negotiations to reach a fair and reasonable agreement. But in the meantime, while the union refuses to engage in a meaningful way, we will continue to prepare for the exploration for the current agreement or expiration of the current agreement because we will be playing football in August. A lot of public posturing going on.
C
Yep.
A
Good luck to all parties. We need refs.
B
Yeah. Big time.
A
Yeah, we need good refs. Okay, so let's figure this out because those high school refs from before almost ruined the game. They almost ruined the game. Shafter. And I don't know what your tweets were from around that time. I'd like to go back and see if you're putting enough heat on on these replacement refs for ruin in the game. Now on that note, once that fail marry happens, the Refs association goes to the NFL. No postgame pressers. This is not full time. No ability to fire us. We refer as long as we want. Do you want? You tell me.
C
Up to you.
A
And they got him.
I
They didn't.
A
Nobody's ever got the NFL like that before. I don't know if the NFL is going to take two of those. I don't know if that's be going to to happen. So them publicly saying we're going to create rules so that if these ass refs have to ref our games, we're calling the games in New York. I'm fascinated to see how it goes. This is a big deal for the sport. Hopefully they're able to figure it out. Hopefully they're able to come together. And we need refs we need good refs. We also need refs that, you know, if you suck,
C
hit it.
A
Get him the hell out. It's a meritocracy, brother, you know what I mean?
I
You're going to hear a lot more about this, I guarantee that. A lot more as the summer gets closer. This. This one isn't going away anytime soon.
A
I don't think Spot's got his heels in the sand. Does fish in their face and we ain't moving. You are a disgrace. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Shefter. Thank you, Chefy. Speaking of disgrace, Paul Skin got pulled in the first.
C
There's a WBC curse going on.
D
He had a tough. Well, he walked the first batter, which is never.
A
He hit a guy.
D
He also hit a guy.
C
And he also.
A
Also hit a guy. So the walk wasn't to him.
B
2.
D
He had two walks and then hit a guy, which wasn't great. O' Neal Cruz. Home runs.
B
He didn't give up 10 home runs. He gave up a triple and a double back to back, which kind of killed him, but.
D
And this. The sun in New York.
A
How many outs here? We got one out. Oh, no.
B
Well, I didn't see. See that.
A
The Pirates.
B
This is what we worried about with the four.
D
They already had four runs at that point.
B
True.
C
They're gonna look back.
B
Long game.
C
They got two in the first inning too.
A
That is the Pirates. I was told it was different.
D
No, we didn't say that.
A
I just. Savannah Banana that thing. We never said. The Savannah Banana guy catches that, does a backflip.
H
P Mrs. Stanford coach to take him too. Stanford. Steve. That was his pick.
D
It's a long game.
A
This is Pittsburgh Pirates.
H
It is a long game.
D
That's son.
A
That happens.
C
Stop showing this.
A
I'm not doing it. I'm not doing. I'm not giving up on baseball today.
B
No, you can't. You can't.
A
We'll see. We'll be back tomorrow. Be a friend. Tell friend something nice by. Change your life. Goodbye.
C
Oh, let's. Hey, get that glove on. Get that glove on. Get that stuff.
H
Get ready for four o'.
A
Clock.
H
Get ready for four.
F
Ten.
C
All right. Yeah.
A
Popping mix.
C
There it is.
B
Skino.
D
Feel that Stone guy couldn't throw a strike.
B
Jesus.
E
Right.
A
For the good of Skino.
D
Started the game.
A
3.
H
Worn out.
C
I just did.
A
A guy in the outfield can't do that. What's that, buddy? You're saying he's worn out?
H
He might be worn out a little bit. I don't know.
D
Or maybe the wbc.
H
What the they were seeing the ball today, though.
C
Sometimes you make good pitch.
D
Can't fill the wbc.
A
We're not doing that easy. Baseball needs to be more boring when Paul SK Is pitching. Ru, can I get that shirt ruined.
D
All the best players in the world.
A
Oh, man. They're not going to blame.
C
I mean, the.
A
They. They might.
D
Yeah, if.
C
If the red.
A
That's what I'm thinking.
C
The S. Lay an egg.
A
All right, let's do some picks for sweet sixteen tonight.
H
Hey, you mean get beat like they're going to and should up?
B
All right, it's not that bad, guys. Skino's ERA right now is only 67.5.
A
Okay, what does that mean?
B
But last year his ERA was like, like below two.
D
It means if he would have went nine innings, he would have given up 67.
A
Correct.
C
That's.
F
That's right.
H
But he didn't.
A
Hold on.
C
Okay. He only went one inning.
B
It's. He didn't go one inning. So that's why it's a little skewed. He got two out, so he'll be able to. To really crater that thing only up from here.
C
And what happens when the buckos come back and win 65?
D
That'd be cool.
A
I need them to do that in the first five innings.
C
They will.
A
Okay. I need them to speed this.
C
They will.
A
Yeah. I heard the first five is. This is the one.
B
It's SK In. So many parlays today.
D
So many drawing board, man.
A
I want the crown. One time sucks.
C
First five.
A
No. We got to bet Scubal Scubal quit on America. You know, he's throwing a gem today.
B
That's a playing slam. Diego, what did I say to you
D
this morning about skiings? So I said to somebody I was very worried about skiing.
B
You did say that. Actually. You're right.
A
What do you mean he walked in a good suit?
D
It was just something off in his last training start.
A
He was hanging out. Paul Skeens era, no pitcher in live ball air since 1920 has posted a sub 2.0 ERA in three consecutive seasons.
C
And that's going to continue nice until he bounces back.
A
So I do know about getting yourself behind the eight ball pretty good. If you give up a punt return early in the season, you might as well. The fucking season's over. You might as well because your. Your net is however, negative. So if you punt that from the 40, your net is a negative 40. So you need. What's that? You need an 80 yard net to get that thing. You're kind of constantly chasing, chasing that One forever. You know, we're a fun one for punting is the team decides to punt from the plus 37. Week one. That's fun. Okay. That's really cool. Can't just kick a field goal. Here is what we're doing. N. Yeah. Put this thing 17 yards up into the sky. You're going to fight that for the rest of your season. That's what SK Is going to have to do for the rest of the year.
C
Huh? He'll.
B
He'll be okay. I mean, if he throws seven innings and doesn't give up any runs, you know, his next outing, that thing's going to.
A
To go.
B
Yeah.
A
Let's put some picks in for tonight. Sweet 16 Thursday. We obviously are chasing the crown. The crown has been very elusive. So if you would like to fade us, probably. Good move. And by us, I mean me. Somehow, everybody else that I talk to in this office wins when I'm not betting with them. Ain't that kind of how it goes, foxy? That was 100,000%. Oh, we lost on darts. You did. I'm like, you're the one giving me the bet.
C
Well, speaking of, we do have a mortal lock.
A
Don't say that.
C
This is a cannot lose.
D
Johnny Clayton versus John Rock.
C
Yeah. Go. Go.
A
Go.
C
Go. Is going up against the gout man. Is going up against John Rock, who is yet to win one.
E
Okay.
A
Gout man still battling.
C
Oh, yeah. I think it's feeding him at this point.
A
His limp was improving a little. AJ aj I gone to European darts to try to find a crown.
C
They're in Munich tonight.
D
That's a dangerous line. Johnny Clayton should be minus 5,000.
A
All right.
B
I would agree.
C
Go, Johnny, go. Go.
B
I think I'm better at darts than Johnny Rock is based on what we. But based on what we've watched the last several weeks.
A
Gumpy, are you betting on this?
G
Yeah.
D
John Rock is absolute shambles. All across Europe there, they are saying, John Rock.
A
What is this? He hasn't won.
D
He hasn't won one match since joining Premier League. This is night eight.
C
This is night eight in Munich, and Gumpy's been part of the Clayton coupe since day one.
A
We haven't hit a team ride bet yet, boys. That's what I'm. You know how you do it?
I
We're doing it.
A
Go, Johnny, go. Go,
B
Johnny, go.
A
Okay.
H
He's fighting through it.
A
He. He took that gout foot and put it right to somebody's ass. Last time I watch, getting the dart out was. He's top of the table every Time a little.
G
Clayton Parlay is even money. Just saying.
C
Yeah, and also G. V is back from his kidney stone.
A
Ls got bunting. Yeah, right again.
D
And Van Veen's going up against go in price.
A
I'm not doing that. All right. I'm emptying the account.
C
Bunting beat John Rock six nil last week.
A
I just emptied the account on Johnny Clayton. We do not think you should do that. Once again, I am on one of the Colts.
D
What time's that tip off?
C
215.
A
215tip.
D
And Jim, we've got to have eyes on that one.
A
Go, Johnny. Go, Go. Connor loves darts. It is something. He really loves it.
C
It's so fun. I'm skipping stone. Just moved.
G
Minus 140.
A
It's falling like a rock. It was.
H
Was minus 160 this morning.
A
I don't know what's going on, but I'm worried about the contacted up.
D
I just bet a thousand on John.
A
Me too. Me too. Hold on, hold on. All right, I'll jump in. All right, team ride. Here we go.
B
Johnny Clayton. Go, Johnny, go, go.
H
Can he throw from a wheelchair if he needs to?
C
Oh, yes.
A
He basically is in one.
D
You could. You could shoot from a wheelchair.
H
I need to watch him.
C
It's down to my 140. What? Yeah.
D
I don't know what's happening.
A
All right, let's move along. Let's just act like it's not a big problem.
D
It's Basically like the 2008 Patriots vs. The Cleveland Browns and the lines dropping.
A
We don't know what do they have Miles Garrett or they trade him.
D
They traded him.
A
I don't think they're trading Miles Garrett.
D
Why is that? Because, chef, he told you.
H
Not this year. I don't think so.
A
This year, chef, he said whether they told me 100% unequivocally, they are not trading. Like, I don't think she would go that hard, you know? Once again, speaking of going hard on things, Dan Orlovsky. We love you, buddy.
B
Love you, Dan.
A
Love you, darling. Love you, Dana.
H
Something else happen?
A
No, just the same thing.
C
Just, you know, he's still going.
D
Oh, he's still crying.
A
I. I saw some people. Because yesterday we gave that picture up, though. Yeah. Being kind. We're trying to be. We love you, Dano. We love.
C
That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to be kind.
A
Well, Dana didn't answer my facetime first time, long time the other day. So he's pretty upset. Then I saw, you know, we did A We love you, Dan. We love you, Dan. We birthed you, Dan. Like we. We did one of those, you know, like a parent.
B
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
A
Yesterday. And I saw a lot of people saying, oh, the ESPN black SUVs. Just shut up. Told Pat to apologize. Dan. It's like, nope. I just knew Dan was probably going through it pretty good.
B
Yeah.
A
And we want to let Dan know we are sorry that it happened on our particular program. We still believe that we are. Right.
F
Yeah.
B
But it's all love.
A
We don't love the way that it. They're putting his picture up and then asking if any people of the past have done anything of significance before because he said his front endo play name, big games. Obviously he just won the national championship, ran through CFP and they're undefeated 16 0. So obviously everybody's like Dan. And Dan was just trying to like. Well, in the moment, he was just battling. I think Dan was talking to us as if he was in a living room and we lost him.
B
We knew that was going to happen.
A
That's Dan. Yikes. Oh, no. Wow. Second day of construction and we lose.
C
What do you know?
A
You're still live, Bill. All right, all right. This is good. This is great. But we love Dano. That's what we love.
C
Love Dan.
A
We love Dan Orlovsky, actually. We just disagree on this particular fact. And also we like Ty Simpson. Like, I like Ty. I hope Ty Simpson's good. I like Ty Simpson's moxie. I just think that Fernando has earned
D
the right to just, you know, play big games.
C
Clear cut.
A
This is the one guy. Could they both be good?
B
Yeah.
A
Could they both be bad?
B
Yeah.
C
Yes.
A
Could one of them be good and one of them be bad? Yeah. That's draft, baby. The draft is literally one of those. You, you, you don't know. Now you can piece things together. Traits and tape and you piece those things together to try to predict and which is what every NFL team is trying to do in these things. And I think we see some things obviously that we really like, especially whenever we have, you know, inter. Like on. I did a lot of this for a living, but when I wasn't doing this, I was just standing on the sidelines. So feel pass is like, you know, pretty comfortable location for me. Can't see shit. You know, sidelines a lot better. The end zone can't really see much, but down there you can. And it's just like boots on the ground. We have pretty good conviction that Fernando is a guy just like from everything that we've Seen in between. Not just on the tape, but like, in between downs, sideline, how he is with his team, all that type of stuff.
C
Teammates talking about him.
F
Yeah.
A
Pretty good prediction. But he might be ass in the NFL. There's a chance he's ass in the NFL. Never know. We have no idea. But we feel very good about it. And we also think he's earning the right to just. This guy's number one guy. Like, we think, once again, Ty Simpson.
B
These guys are sawing through something out there right now. Know they're doing it and just.
A
Unbelievable.
C
Oh, no. We can cut this wire.
A
Unbelievable. Honestly, I don't even know. We got to call. We got to call the town, I guess. Hey, shout out to the generators.
B
Yeah, still bringing it.
A
Still bringing it. Still bringing it. Generators. Had to add another one of those before this whole thing began. Yeah. Okay. This is sweet. All right, let's get out of here. Okay, I'm. I'm sure that wasn't just them right there.
B
Probably not. I wouldn't think so. Cuz if they cut through something, we'd. We'd be really.
A
I mean, we kind of were twice,
B
though, but it came back on.
A
We're down, actually. We're down.
B
Okay,
A
we're back. Yeah, yeah, we're back.
D
While we're here, should we put it on record that also while you said what you just said, Dan did that to himself.
A
Dan did choose to do all these. But Dan was talking like he was in a living room with us, like, trying to make.
C
He forgot.
D
Which is his fault.
A
Agreed. But he was in his car, you know, his fault.
H
I think he handles it well. I. I'm sure. I. Yeah, I don't. I think Dan handles it fine. I. I don't think he's. It's affecting his life too much, do you?
A
We hope so. We love you, you, Dan. We love you, Dano. And we'll. We'll find out 10, 15 years if you're right exactly about Tyson, and we'll find out about Fernando.
G
Yeah.
A
And hopefully they're both hall of Famers.
F
Hopefully, actually.
A
All right, let's get the hell out of here. I'm gonna go talk to a couple construction folks. I. I think I have to talk to the city. Hey, we need power. So, like, how do we.
C
What just.
A
How do we not just do that?
D
You guys cut something out here.
A
Hey, I saw a backhoe again, driving through the. And then we lost all the.
C
Oh, these are your wires.
A
We appreciate the workers. These guys are working their asses all out there, but can we get a little heads up about the power out there, they need to keep it. Who cares? Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in a sing together. We're back tomorrow for an incredible feel good Friday.
B
Hell yeah.
A
Yeah, Tomorrow's a good Friday.
D
Huge day.
A
Oh, yeah. We got Daniel, Jeremiah. Join us. Boom. Moving his sticks.
B
Boom.
A
Coach Krzyzewski's on tomorrow. Two great guests. Who?
D
Two great guests.
A
Oh, I thought you said some. Three, I think. I think we have three.
E
Who else?
D
You only said two names.
A
Oh, Pete Crow. Armstrong joined the game. I forgot about him.
G
Him?
H
Yes.
A
Loved him. In wbc.
C
Yeah, for a couple innings.
A
Wanted to see him a little more.
I
Yeah.
A
In wbc.
D
Does he know about the curse? Sweet.
A
Well, to tell him.
B
Well, he didn't play enough. I don't think to.
C
Yeah, and Roman's gonna break that anyways at 4 against those shitty red legs.
G
Better.
A
Anybody in Cincinnati playing wbc? Oh, Suarez. He's your stud.
H
These kids he warmed up.
A
I meant his family. He. He's awesome. He's a good guy. God, he was good at baseball too.
H
He might hit 75 homers this year.
B
I doubt it.
C
Not today maybe.
A
I mean, that's the optimism of March, isn't it? Sweet 16, let's make our picks. Should we do graphics still? I got Purdue. Okay, A.J.
H
i got Purdue.
A
I got Iowa.
H
Yeah, Jimmy. Nebraska. Alaska.
A
I got Arizona.
H
Arkansas.
A
I got. Illinois.
H
Illinois.
A
All right, there you go. Write that down.
H
Houston's a scary team. Houston scares me. But I. I do like Illinois in this one.
A
The other guy said they're big enough to handle Houston or Illinois is big enough to handle Houston's physicality. They said they'll be able to. Because remember Houston's. They bop wood.
B
Yes, they do. They.
A
They really. They. They bop wood. He's saying Illinois can handle that cuz their size. Now if Houston wins, I'm okay with that cuz I like physicality happening, but sounds like Illinois is like that as well. Purdue. Let's go for Indiana. Indiana's had a hell of. The state of Indiana's had a hell of a run. I'm not saying anybody that are Hoosiers fans are pulling for Purdue. That's not how that goes at all. But would be sick if the state of Indiana just kind of continues to a lot of fun. We got the Bears here now. Got the football. Natty. Maybe get the basketball national championship. They got a point guard, you know, Notre Dame maybe gets lacrosse. And they got a point guard who's just D. He's a little bit of a defensive liability, but on the offensive side, he certainly can pass that.
C
All time leader ever. Yeah.
A
Braden Smith.
H
Yep. Yeah, he's awesome.
A
He is fun to watch. Great fade, too. Great light fade on his head. All right, so enjoy the night. We'll be back tomorrow. Be a friend. Tell a friend some nice might change your life or understand the other. We will remind people when Paul skin's on mine again.
H
Okay.
B
Bad start.
C
That's gonna happen long season.
H
They can still win that game.
A
Yeah, for sure.
B
Boom.
A
I don't. Okay. I do care if the Pirates win.
B
Yeah.
A
It's not just about how Skeens does this game.
C
One of 100. Let's lock in here of teams two.
A
Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice might change your life. Go throw a baseball around. So fun. And here in Indiana, I mean, we lost power before it even started. I think there's some real storms coming, so across the Midwest. Let's keep our eyes on eyes on head on swivel.
C
Be safe.
D
Eyes on the skies.
A
Yeah, but not too much. Make sure you get in the basement whenever it gets to the point. Bingo. What is the tor con. Yeah, what's that?
D
Tornado condition index.
A
And it's out of how many?
D
10.
A
And what were we at yesterday when we read the dot?
D
We're going in tonight with a four or five.
A
Okay. So moderate.
B
Yeah.
D
Yeah.
A
Do you see the torcon?
H
I did not see the torcon.
E
No.
A
Well, I think it was Ryan Hall, y'. All. Maybe.
D
Yeah, it was Ryan Hall, y'.
A
All.
C
Sure.
A
Who was it? Bill. Bill. Which one did you pull from? Internet meteorologist. Do we know which one Bill pulled from? Because it's not fake.
B
So now it's not fake. Was he a max velocity guy?
A
No, it might be max velocity.
D
Nick's definitely a max velocity guy.
A
I don't mind Ryan Hall, y'.
D
All.
A
He'll. He'll sit in it. Oh, yeah. Ryan Hall, y' all will go live for 10, 20, 15 hours. Bill's not answering.
B
Yeah, Bill's, like, personally powering the generator.
C
Oh, he's on the bike.
D
He's on the bike.
A
Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Team on three. We'll see you tomorrow, A.J. great work today. Go Reds, Bub.
H
Yes. Go Reds. 410. Can't wait.
A
I know you and Herbie are pumped up about the Reds.
H
Herb's probably there.
A
That's a Red Sox fan looking to steal the day from Cincinnati. Crochet coming down the chute.
C
Coming at you.
A
What if the Red Sox win and say that Joey vato clock looks like the time is ours, pal. And they take it out of the city Red.
C
Just like our socks.
H
Andrew Abbott might throw a perfect game today.
D
Nice job.
C
Yeah, right. He's a dog.
A
That's not true. We do not feel that way. Be your friend. Tell a friend something nice. You might change your life. Or in second a thing together. Let's enjoy the hell out of sport. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this. You all are the greatest of all time. I saw a tweet from 2017 that I put out this morning and it felt good for a Throwback Thursday. And the only reason why any of it turns out to be so true is because people allow us to do this for a living. And because you boys kick ass so much. Let's do it again tomorrow before we go into the greatest weekend of all time.
D
Hell yeah.
B
Hell yes.
A
Oh, no.
B
Sounds like we got some more bad news coming down the chute.
A
Is it just the USA guys? Mizaroski just gave up a homer at first at bat. Okay.
C
He didn't play wbc, so maybe it's just.
A
Okay, good.
C
No juice balls.
G
Let's go.
A
Is it just people we know? I don't like what people are already going to start saying. I know what they're going to start saying. I've seen it.
F
Yep.
A
Be a friend. Tell a friend we won't talk to skeens ever again. Or judgy. Be a friend. Tell friend something nice might change your life. We're going to sit together. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. It is outrageous that this is our job. But we're so incredibly thankful. We would like our friends to start doing better in a sport that we're trying to get into though. Stat.
I
Stat.
A
That's gonna have to. I know me. I've been with me a long time. We're gonna need that to quick. We're gonna have to turn these things around quick.
B
They will.
A
I hope. Because I'm loving it right now. John Boy on Guy was spectacular. We had two baseball guests on the day.
F
Yeah.
D
Oh, Opening day.
A
Could you imagine going back and telling me that a couple years ago? Yeah. Right away. Two. But to do. Are we trying to sabotage a program? That's what I would have said.
D
Two chairs. No.
C
Look at that shirt.
A
It's from Rob Banford.
H
Yep.
A
Rob. Okay. Okay.
D
Let me cool.
A
Manford said, be a friend. Tell a friend something nice about. Change your life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Love you guys. Team on three.
C
Oh, you too.
A
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D
Now that's something to shout about.
F
Tab we're on available to account holders
B
online Ts and Cs at website. What's gambling really costing you?
F
For free and confidential support, visit gamblinghelponline.org
A
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On MLB’s Opening Day, Pat McAfee and the crew dive into baseball’s return, preview the Sweet 16 in March Madness, and break down the day in sports with insiders and personalities like Jeff Passan, Stanford Steve, Jomboy, Adam Schefter, and AJ Hawk. The Thunderdome pledges full MLB fandom and debates who will seize baseball’s biggest prizes in 2026. Segments cover Opening Night’s Netflix production, Shohei Ohtani’s unprecedented role, the Yankees’ and Pirates’ hopes, betting mania, and a spirited celebration of both sports history and ridiculousness.
As always, the show is a chaotic, irreverent mix of sports insight and inside jokes—mixing deep dives (“Every baseball season is a story told in 162 chapters”) with riffs on technical snafus, betting disasters, and crew rivalry. “New fans” ask simple questions and “old heads” defend the soul of the game, but everyone’s united by a love of sport, a thirst for the elusive “crown,” and a commitment to having fun. The Thunderdome’s pledge: “We are fully invested in MLB for a season.”
This episode delivers a fast-paced, joke-filled, insider-packed survey of where MLB stands as a new season opens, with a strong side of March Madness chaos and the usual McAfee show absurdity. From real baseball talk with Passan and Jomboy to the show’s own sometimes-clueless but always-passionate conversion to baseball fandom, this is a celebration of sports as entertainment, drama, and community—plus a blueprint for gambling futility.
Be a friend, tell a friend—something nice might change your life.