← The Ryen Russillo Podcast
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
The Giannis-Knicks Flirtation. Plus, Jeff Passan on Judge Saving the Yankees, More MLB Playoffs, and Life Advice!
01:43:36
Loading summary
Transcript290 lines
- [00:12]
Ryan Ryen
On today's episode, we've got a couple different things. I want to talk about this Giannis story because I do think it's alarming. It's not more of the same, it's actually different. I just really don't understand the timing. So we'll talk Bucks, we'll talk Giannis, and one paragraph in particular that I think should be alarming. I don't really have trade destinations for him right now. Like, yeah, sure, he'd look great next to Wemby. I don't know if the Knicks have the assets to pull that stuff off. We're talking baseball because it's the playoffs and it's Jeff Passon. So we'll run through the judge home run some of the Philly complaints up against his Dodgers machine, how great the brewers have looked, how the Mariners have been rebuilt. We'll do that some other bigger baseball stuff as well and get you ready for the rest of those series. And Jeff Passon sticking around for life advice. We don't do this a lot. He never let me do this before. Knock $100 off that true coat. But we're doing life advice with passing. It's going to be a lot of fun. So enjoy the pod. This is the Ryan Marcillo podcast, presented by FanDuel, and if you're betting on the NFL, FanDuel is the place to do it. They've got everything. Same game parlays, quick bets for when you want to jump in live and your way so you can set your own lines. The app's fast, it's easy to use, and best of all, when you win, you get paid out instantly. Download the FanDuel app or go to FanDuel.com Ryan R Y E N to get started. The ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 + and present in select states 18 + in D.C. kentucky and Wyoming. Gambling problem call 1-800- gambler or visit rg-help.com call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org ChatInElectric since it's Wednesday and we do do a ton of football, we're doing a little baseball today. Let's do a little basketball to start the show on a Wednesday, October 8th. Because October 7th is a weird day for an NBA rumor. And that's what we got yesterday from Sham Sharania on espn, talking about the uncertainty of Giannis's future in Milwaukee. There's a bunch of different ways to kind of look at this article. Whereas this, the opening public shot, Is it summarizing the uncertainty from the Bucks ownership in front office about their star? Is it the Knicks, who. I don't know what that package is, considering all the assets that they've given up. Unless it's like, hey, you gotta wait a few months on a Bridges deal. So, look, there's a lot of things in this that I already can tell. Like, if you're a Milwaukee Bucks fan, I know this sucks. You've been hearing about this now for a really long time, and your guy's still there. And it feels like the entire NBA world is trying to conspire to try to find a way to get anetokounmpo out of Milwaukee, and it's super frustrating. And I. And I totally understand that the NBA is a really gossipy world. It feels a lot gossipier. Gossier. I don't know if that's a word more gossipy than the other leagues, and I think that's accurate. But there is one thing that I always remind myself whenever I'm hearing something. Like, if I'm hearing something about a player and everybody is saying the same exact thing about that player, is it a chance that everybody's just repeating what everybody else is saying, and it just sounds way better than, hey, do you know anything about this? Nope, I don't know anything. Or if you're like, hey, seven people have said, donovan Mitchell's leaving. So I'm just going to say he's leaving. And. And whenever I, you know, whether it's, you know, the people I talk to or the stuff you listen to that we all listen to, the stuff that we read. Because a lot of the stuff you're like, okay, well, where are you actually getting it from? Even if I'm talking to different teams about a player, and no one is ever saying anything that's specific, nothing is different than anything else anyone else is saying. It doesn't mean that. It means everyone's wrong, but it's kind of like, yeah, I don't know. It kind of sounds like everybody's kind of repeating the same stuff. And that Mitchell stuff was just like, oh, that guy's out of there, that guy's out of there, that guy's out of there. But it's like, okay, but where? Like, what would he do? Because the Knicks thing didn't happen with that trade, and then he ends up with Cleveland. Now the Knicks have Made all of these moves, and Brooklyn doesn't really make a lot of sense because of roster, so where is it actually going to happen? And then he does a deal that's structured in a way that he can reassess where things are. But a guy that everybody had leaving Cleveland decided to stay in Cleveland. So if you're a Milwaukee fan, I think there's some similarities there where it's like, okay, but give me something specific on Giannis. The problem is, is this feels real specific. And I would go back to the combine, which is referenced in this piece, because when I was at the combine in Chicago this past year, everybody was talking about Giannis. Nobody was talking about the guys on the floor. It was just Giannis this, Giannis that. And I would wait. Like, my rule of, am I going to hear anything that's very specific that seems different than just the general, like, hey, that guy's out of there. Because it's more fun, right? It's human nature. It's more fun to sound like you're plugged in and to. Even if something you're sharing isn't even all that insightful, it's better than saying nothing. I think that's a very, very human nature thing in the way information moves. But in the Giannis case, when I would ask teams, stuff was specific. And the one thing that I could never forget where I thought was like, that's alarming. Again, if you're a Bucks fan or you're the Bucks for an office is like, one team had told me, the agent said, hey, if we were to do this, like, we're going to be in control of this, like, it's going to be Yanis. We're not just going to wait around and let them dictate. Like, this is the kind of power I think the second best player in the world should have. And if this were to happen, whatever, it reminded me a little bit of the Russell Wilson thing, where, remember when he was still with Seattle and there was this report that he wanted to be traded, and then his agent was like, well, no, but if he were to be traded, here are four teams that. So you're like, well, that's not good. So I think there's a lot of not good in this article about what could happen over the next year or so. So this paragraph should scare you a little bit. So, again, quote, Buck sources had feared, in part because Antetokounmpo's expressed desire to win another championship, that he would make a formal trade request during the week of July 28th, I guess when Horst, the general manager, John Horst embarked on his one day trip to Greece. Imagine getting on that plane, be like, I'm going to fly to Greece for a day. Hopefully Giannis doesn't ask for a trade. League sources close to the situation, they're always so close. We're expecting the same thing. Antetokounmpo was continually asking himself, even after the Bucs stunning release of Lillard to sign Miles Turner, can this roster truly compete for a title? Antetokounmpo had serious questions about this and shared his feelings directly with Horst, league sources said. If the guy writing the article is saying this line, Antetokounmpo is continually asking himself, that means someone in that camp is telling Shams exactly what Giannis has been thinking. That's not like a thought of. Maybe he was thinking this, maybe he was thinking that. That paragraph has a lot of stuff in there, at least to me, where I'm like, okay, like it all feels a little bit more real. This message is brought to you by Apple Card It's a great time to apply for an Apple Card you'll love earning up to 3% unlimited daily cash back on every purchase and no fees period. Through this special referral offer. When you get a new Apple Card, you can earn bonus daily cash. To qualify, you must apply at Apple Co getdailycash Apple Card issued by Goldman.
- [07:39]
Jeff Passon
Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch. Variable APRs for Apple Card range from 17.99% to 28.24% based on creditworthiness rates as of October 1, 2025. Offer may not be available elsewhere. Terms and limitations apply.
- [07:56]
Ryan Ryen
Now the other part of this room, Milwaukee, is kind of banking on where they're at in the East. I don't know, man. I mean, maybe it's the Tatum injury, the Halliburton injury. No fear yet of Cleveland despite an incredible run last year and then of course, losing in the playoffs. The Knicks feeling like they have kind of a playoff ceiling that isn't awesome. Is it Philly? Is it Atlanta? Is it Orlando? I mean, I looked at the FanDuel odds today. Milwaukee, even with this uncertainty in the east, because I don't think it's like impossible to sit here and say, hey, what if Giannis, you know, just crushes again this year? Things work out, could they be a top four seed with the void around the east, you know, it doesn't feel great, but it doesn't feel impossible. They're eighth to win the East. This morning on FanDuel. I was actually a little surprised by that. And the Turner deal, which is not egregious. It's four years, 108 for that kind of player, 27 million. I mean, he's not my favorite guy, but I like him a lot more the last couple years than I liked in the previous years when it felt like he was in a trade market forever. That kind of money for him, that's totally fine. But you got to remember, they wave Lillard, they stretch it five years, that's 113 million. Stop me if you've heard this before. The cap is going up, so you can eat some of that dead money. It's not awesome. But then you factor in Kuzma's two years remaining and 45 million. You know, it's Giannis, it's Turner, it's Kuzma. Those are your top three paid players. And then it's the rest of the pieces where you're like, is Kevin Porter Jr. Gonna be playing point guard again? Like, what's going on here? So it's not a great team. And even though I think Horst, in this front office and ownership and everybody, they were incredibly committed to doing something different and got really creative. It's like, all that for Miles Turner. It does remind me, and I've brought this up numerous times with other teams and how they've moved. February 2008, the Cavs, like, Man, we gotta do something for LeBron. We gotta do something for LeBron. They paid Larry Hughes. They had a decent sized number on Drew Gooden at that point, and they flipped them for Ben Wallace, who was owed, like, 40 million, and Wally Zerbiak was owed, like, 25 million. Again, those numbers seem like nothing now, 17 years later. But those were big, big numbers at the time. And it was like, we might be a little bit better, but we also are probably a little bit more expensive. And it, hey, check it out, LeBron. We did something. And what you end up doing is you're doing any marginal move that's probably more expensive, that screws you more long term. Just by trying to show your star that you are. You're active, that you're out there, that you're trying to do anything. And look, Giannis plays against all these guys, and he can look around, and at this stage, 30, what, 31 in December. He's probably going like, I mean, who would ever be sitting in that scenario being like, we're awesome. We're going to kill everybody this year. And look, some of the playoff success, lack of success, obviously, the playoff Success because Giannis and an unbelievably constructed team compliment around him going back to that team that won a title and 21 and 50 points in elimination game. In game six, he makes all his free throws. I mean, this is like all time stuff. But to be fair, in thinking about the acquisition of Giannis, which I still think teams would be like, whatever, I have a chance to do this if it's within the next year or so or into next summer, you know, he's missed, he's missed playoff time two of the last three playoffs and this team has gone nowhere for, you know, this is like a three year run here where there's really not much to look at. So why would this all of a sudden get better with this roster? So look, even if they were a top four seed, hey, they get off to a good start. That was brought up a lot, right? What if they get off to a good start? Things are kind of clicking, you know, they, they figure it out somehow one of the other teams is hurt beyond just Boston Indiana, like, there's, there's a path we could talk it out of. Like, how does, how does this work? But what does that even mean? What if at the end of the year they're a top four seed in the East? And then it's like Giannis is facing a summer in 26 where he has one year left on his contract at 58 and a half million going into a player option for 27, 28. And at 62.7 million, like, what's realistically going to happen? Where will the Bucks look like in versus the NBA landscape at the end of next playoff run where you're like, okay, Giannis is going to be psyched to be here and do another extension with this team. And it's an extension that'll be eligible for next October, I believe it's four years, 275 million. So that's when he would probably have his leverage. But it doesn't really matter because he kind of has that leverage right now. I think the weirdest thing about this story is, why now? Why, why is this out? Because clearly this is out for a reason. They wanted Shams to do this, but on October 7th. And it also gets back to like, one of the things I've talked about for a long time is we haven't had the international guy do what the American star has done in the NBA. Not like, not like some of the all time, you know, American guys being like, I'm done. Like you're trading me. Hey, you have Two years left in your contract. Don't care. Hey, you have four years. Your extension hasn't kicked in yet. With four years left, don't care. Not playing. Is it your back? No, it's my elbow. You know, hey, fire the coach, fire the gm, or I'm out of here. You know, we haven't, we haven't really had that happen. Whenever I bring it up too, it's like if one of these guys ends up doing it, one of the profile, high profile, international guys, it's like, oh, Seaver Solo. Like, I didn't say it was never going to happen. It's like the QB that I don't like that throws for three touchdowns on a Sunday. I was like, I didn't say he was going to have zero touchdowns the rest of his fucking career. So maybe the best thing for Milwaukee fans is that Giannis might just be bad at this thing where he wants out. He feels this tremendous loyalty. He said all the right things. I mean, he really is just an absolute joy to listen when he listens to a. Well, joy to listen to. But when he himself listens to a question and then spends a little time trying to figure out, like when he talked about the thing with Halliburton's dad, I was like, man, I love the fucking guy. I love him. But October 7th, man, that's not how this is done. You're going to be hot. You're going to be getting this stuff out in July. So maybe that's the sliver of optimism for Milwaukee fans that it doesn't really make any sense that this would come out less than two weeks before the season starts. The Ryan Versillo Podcast is brought to you by fanduel. Ready to fire up your Saturday Spanduels Get a boost you don't want to miss. It's called boosting with the boys and it's giving everyone a college football profit boost every single week. So here's how it works. Each week we're giving everyone a profit boost to use on college football. No invite only Nonsense. Everyone gets the boost. We're talking real games, real teams, real Saturdays with an extra payout on the line. It's easy, it's fun. It's only on FanDuel. Go to FanDuel.com Ryan R. Yen to download the app and get in on the action. Must be 21 and older in present in select states are 18 plus in present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Opt in required bonus issued as non withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply. Increase including any token expiration and max wager amount. See terms@sportsbook.fanduel.com gambling problem. Call 100 Gambler or visit rg-help.com call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org ChatInCeneticUT this episode is brought to you by State Farm. Having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. It's like needing an offensive guard, but getting an elementary school crossing guard. Sure, they're both guards, but who's going to protect your quarterback on the football field? You wouldn't settle for just anything for your team. So don't settle for just any insurance. When it comes to getting the help you need, State Farm is the real deal. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. He covers baseball for espn. He's a terrific guest with us, it's Jeff Passon. All right, I read your piece this morning on the Judge home run. There's a lot of stuff in there that I love, but, you know, look, they're down.02. They're at home at 6 1. It's the largest deficit overcome in an elimination game. Yankee history. It's the biggest blown lead for Toronto all season long. 6 3. Judge hits the home run, an absurd sequence of pitches. What did that home run mean for Judging? The Yankees.
- [16:12]
Jeff Passon
I think it saved their season, certainly. And I don't think it's being overly dramatic to suggest that because as Aaron Judge goes, so go the New York Yankees. I also don't want to act like this was a feat done in, like, game seven of the World Series. I mean, we're in the third game of the Division Series at this point, so this is not going to be on the highlight reel of Aaron Judge's career. That final moment. Like, I think we're still waiting for what that final moment is going to be. But to me, it was just, I just get so annoyed with the idea that because you haven't done something, it means you're not going to. And I understand, like, it's human behavior when we see somebody do something consistently. And the consistent behavior in this case was Aaron Judge faltering during the playoffs. It tends to burrow into our minds that this is standard operating procedure. This is how it goes. But Aaron Judge has always just been too talented and too accomplished to not be able to have moments like this. And I wonder if his career winds up being a little bit closer to Clayton Kershaw's, where he's had some October moments and he's found success, but they're kind of balanced out by those bad ones or. Or if in his mid and late 30s, he just completely flips the script and becomes a God in October. And a lot of that is going to be dependent, Ryan, on the teammates that are surrounding him and the willingness of the Steinbrenner family to go out in this world where the Yankees are no longer the big bully on the block. They're no longer the ones who are spending the most or even making the most money anymore and put a representative team around him year in, year out.
- [18:14]
Ryan Ryen
Can we talk about the pitch, though, at least here? Just because you have, you have some numbers. Like, basically, Judge only hits home runs on pitches in the strike zone, right? And so for him to muscle this ball down that line for it to even stay fair, like, give me some of the stuff that you had from the piece this morning on what his batting average is in the strike zone against everybody else, which I couldn't. I had to read it twice. And the fact that he put one out at this kind of velocity.
- [18:49]
Jeff Passon
53 home runs this season, all 53 on pitches in the rulebook strike zone where Aaron Judge is batting.400 on the season, that is 40 points higher than Boba Shet, who's second. Judge is slugging over.850. It's 100 points ahead of Ohtani. Like, it's just the. It's the rule of Aaron Judge. Like, you try to get ahead of him so you can throw pitches outside of the zone. And it's because when it comes to balls that are there, he's not good. He batted.109 on pitches outside of the strike zone this year, had one rbi, did not have a single extra base hit. So the scenario is the Yankees trail six to three. Guy named Louis Varland, who the Blue Jays got at the trade deadline, comes in. And Louis Varlan used to be a starter, transitioned to a reliever pumping 100. And it's not just like a weak hundred, it's 100 with a lot of backspin on it, which translates to what baseball evaluators call carry. Essentially, when you have more backspin on a fastball, gravity takes it down less. So there's an optical illusion on high spin. Fast falls and high spin. High velocity fastballs are the absolute apex of what you can throw. Louis Varlund throws a 90 mile an hour curveball. Ryan, that, that is a real thing these days. And I'm sure we're going to talk more about the velocity in this postseason because it, to me, is the defining feature. But he sees a 90 mile an hour curveball, fouls it off, swings through 100 mile an hour fastball. And Louis Varland at that point has to figure out, okay, am I going to go back to that breaking ball and make sure it's out of the zone or am I going to beat him up and in. Where pitchers have been following scouting reports saying you can beat Aaron Judge up and in with good parry fastballs. And so Louis Varlan goes with a fastball and it's measured at 1.2ft off the center of the plate. Now that's 14.4 inches. If you bisect the plate, that's eight and a half inches right there. So it is six inches inside of the innermost part of the plate and well above the belt. And what Aaron Judge does to, to put his body in a position to do this, it's not just like you pull your hands in and you swing. The man is fucking 6 foot 7 and 282 pounds. And to have the proprioception to organize your body when something is traveling at you that fast, running in on you and still be able to stay inside the baseball but not too far inside where you hook it and it just goes foul. To manage to keep your body in a position to hit a ball like that hard and keep it fair is a monumental thing that a handful of players in the history of baseball can do only the best do. What Aaron Judge did last night and that I think was the manifestation of that talent that I was talking about. He's too good to completely collapse in a month where there's good pitching because he hits good pitching and he consistently hits good pitching. In this scenario though, he went out of character and that to me was like the most interesting part of it. Aaron Judge is the most process oriented athlete I've ever run into. It is obnoxiously boring. And he always goes back to that. Because going back to it's the process, Ryan, I think is the safest thing anyone in sports can do. Like it's a built in excuse. My process has been good. If I followed my process and it didn't work, oh well, I'll go back and do it again. He didn't follow his process this time. The moment was there, he needed to adjust and he had the ability to do so in absolutely magnificent fashion.
- [22:52]
Ryan Ryen
On the Toronto side of this, Varlund was the scheduled starter here for Game 4 against Schlitler. But I mean, again, you know, it feels like these teams in ways that we've never seen before, I mean, other than the last few years. It's just no one seems to care about the next game.
- [23:12]
Jeff Passon
No, nor. Nor should they. I actually, I actually like that, like, you got 27 outs today to get. How do I get them? I will, I will deal with the consequences of that tomorrow. And in playoff baseball, like, you have to think that way. It's. It's enormously risky and you wind up putting yourself in a position if you're the Toronto Blue Jays, where you have to rely on Eric Lauer to, to get bulk innings for you. And Eric Lauer was good this season, but still, Eric Lauer is a soft tossing lefty against the lineup with a bunch of guys who can hit the ball over the fence like it's. It. It's one of those things where I think Toronto found itself out over its skis after Game 3 for Game 4, knowing that in Game 5, they've got Kevin Gossman and Trey Savage in their pocket if they need both of them.
- [24:05]
Ryan Ryen
Let's switch to Philly. They're pissed off. We could talk about Harper and Schwarber's numbers, 114 here with a bunch of K's. We could talk about the bunt call in game two. We can talk about.
- [24:18]
Jeff Passon
No, I was fine with the bump, by the way.
- [24:20]
Ryan Ryen
Okay, well, let's. Let's go through it. Who do Philly fans or what do Philly fans have a right to be pissed about?
- [24:27]
Jeff Passon
Philly fans have a right to be pissed about two things in that situation. And I think number one is. So let's look at the scenario. Man on second, down a run, Bryson started to play the guy who has the ability to manipulate the bat well and is good at bunting. And in that situation, you don't know what the Dodgers are going to do. What you know is that Nick Castellanos is on second base. And he's the first part that I think they have the right to be mad at because it's incumbent on him to read what's going on around him and react accordingly. And what the Dodgers were trying to do is. Mookie Betts called the wheel play for those unfamiliar, because bunt defense really isn't used very much anymore. How the wheel play works is that when you think a bunt is happening and there's a run around second, you are essentially sacrificing the ability to police him by crashing your third baseman and your first baseman to get the bunt. And then the wheel is that the shortstop and the second baseman roll around to the corners. So right there, Mookie Betts is Going on a dead sprint on that first pitch, showing that he had the wheel play. Normally, if you're the Dodgers, it's imperative that that first pitch is a strike because running the wheel is like kind of thing. When you show it, the other team should know, okay, this is how we have to handle it. We cannot bunt it hard to the third baseman. We cannot bunt it hard to the first baseman. It's almost like you try to get it back to the pitcher and, and hope that the pitcher does a poor job of fielding and, or panics and wants to just go to first and get that out. So right there, like it's both the Phillies on their bench should be calling out or either calling timeout or preparing, doing something. And Nick Castellano's Jimmy Rollins, I thought, did a really excellent breakdown on TBS's post game show about how baserunners need to understand these little scenarios and just don't anymore. Because when Mookie Betts starts crashing to third base, all Nick Cassiano has to do is run with him. You have no risk of getting back picked at second base if the bunt doesn't get laid down because there is no second baseman there. The second baseman came crashing over to first to run the wheel. And so Mookie Betts starts on the sprint and Nick Castellanos has just taken a regular secondary lead. Then the bunk gets put down and it necessitated a really good play from Max Muncie going in, picking the ball up, wheeling around and throwing it to the third base. Mookie Betts being there and laying down the tag. This was an execution error in both the Phillies not understanding after that first pitch what they needed to relay to their base runner, who's not very good, and their baserunner just not getting what his responsibility was in that sense. And that's what the Phillies have done in October. Not just 2025 Ryan, but going back to this whole generation, they just have not been able to execute when it's necessary. And when the top of your lineup's not hitting, if you don't have execution, you don't have shit.
- [27:39]
Ryan Ryen
The matchup though, it felt like once NOLA was announced, then it was like, okay, now we're really mad about all of this stuff. And I was looking at, you know, there was a number there and it's like, okay, against curveballs, the Dodgers right handed curveballs are hitting like 140 is the number or no. 214, 140. And they're like, all right, no, no problem. And then Phillies manager's like, look, he's been in a ton of spots, and it's like, okay, but you also have Suarez is an option and all this stuff. So it feels like it's building into getting pre pissed off about what could potentially happen in Game 3. There's nothing about, like, I. I bring this up to people and it'll be like, all right, it's one thing to be bummed out, but you're like, pre bummed out. You're. You're prepping to then be bummed out about something that may not even happen here. But Yamamoto's been just. We think it's turned runs since the start of September. So how do you see this pitching matchup, which clearly seems to favor, based at least on recent history here, the Dodgers going home.
- [28:35]
Jeff Passon
Yeah, I mean, I think the Dodgers are overwhelming favorites. I think I said after that game on Twitter that that was a must win for Philadelphia, and technically speaking, it was not. You know, they're still alive, but for all intents and purposes, going back to Los Angeles, down to nothing, Having to face Yoshinobu Yamamoto is an enormous task. Now, admittedly, like, Christopher Sanchez could be on full rest for Game four, and we saw how awesome he was against Shohei Otani. Like, that's the part of this that I think is roughest for Phillies fans. They got two banger performances from Christopher Sanchez and Jesus Lizardo and still couldn't win the game. Like, if that's. If that's what the Dodgers are playing like at this point, man, they've won nine in a row. Ohtani hasn't really gotten all that hot with the bat yet. You know, had the four strikeouts, three looking in Game one. You know, Mookie Betts, this series hasn't really gotten it going. Like, if this is just like, if the Dodgers are playing like this and absolutely stomping Philadelphia right now, what's it going to be like when they start playing really well? Like, that's the scary part for all the other teams involved. And that's why, like, I'm not rooting for anything. You know me. I don't. I root for, like, matchups and storylines. And the idea that the Dodgers and the brewers are barreling toward each other in the National League Championship Series is just so rich and delicious with story and such a. I think it's like all of the issues baseball is facing existentially right now distilled into one series. And I don't mean to be, like, too overly dramatic and say that would be the series for the Soul of baseball. But I really do think the Dodgers and how they fare during this postseason is going to have a demonstrable effect on whether we see baseball in 2027 or not. I think if the Dodgers win the World Series this year, all of the owners who say this game is unfair and needs a salary cap are going to have another arrow in their quiver to fire and that they're going to have the backing of fans who are just tired of the dodge at this point and tired of seeing what they do.
- [31:07]
Ryan Ryen
Are some of those owners going to be owners with payroll that ranked in the top 30 of the USA Today 2002 baseball playoff or Baseball Payroll Edition? Like, I go back to that all the time. Like, I'll look back from 20, 25 years ago and then I'll see a couple salaries in 2025 and be like, this salary would have been the entire payroll. Right, right. Like there's a. I mean, seriously, anybody can do the exercise. It's embarrassing for some of these teams today. Like, your payroll would have ranked like 26th into the, you know, so you're just sitting there.
- [31:42]
Jeff Passon
I know.
- [31:42]
Ryan Ryen
Like, so I, I mean, look, the Dodgers, part of it, like, I understand the angst and all, but them being good because they're like being expensive and good. And now they're, they think they're going to get all this public momentum to be like, the Dodgers are bad, the Reds are bad, the Athletics are bad for baseball. It's not the Dodgers fault.
- [32:02]
Jeff Passon
No, but the Dodgers win. And if another team wins and yours doesn't, that inherently makes that other team bad. And it's. Is it fair? No, of course not. The Dodgers are just an extraordinarily well run machine. They're really, really good business that everybody else is jealous of. And I think something I wrote earlier this week, I had a paragraph in there where I tried to explain what the Dodgers do. It was the story about how Roki Sasaki came back from throwing like 93 at Triple A and found 100 miles an hour again and is now essentially Dodgers closer. And it's a story of not just player development, but of exceptional communication inside of a large organization where in other places egos might have taken over or there would have been some sort of glitch in the matrix. What the Dodgers do, though, is so much better than just go and spend money. It's like you can have two things at once. You can have a huge financial advantage over other teams, but if you don't complement that with sound decision making and with good process and with the ability to look at a player like Sasaki, who's broken and put Humpty Dumpty back together again, then you're like the 2010 Yankees. You know, you're just bloated and, you know, not 20 times wrong. It's more like the early 2000 or mid 2000s Yankees. But those Giambi teams and those teams that just had nothing beyond those stars who were past their prime, that's what the Dodgers could be. Instead, they're a machine. And I think that's the most frustrating part. They not only do they have the most money, but they might have the most competency, too.
- [33:59]
Ryan Ryen
I'm doing this just because I. I wanted to make sure I followed up on it on the payroll stuff. And now I have a million tabs open, so I don't know what's going to happen here.
- [34:09]
Jeff Passon
At what, at what point? At what point do you have too many tabs in a window? And you just start another window.
- [34:15]
Ryan Ryen
I'll just cl. I just. I go, hey, guess what? It's been two months. You're not reading that article.
- [34:22]
Jeff Passon
I hate those articles. They sit there, dude, and they judge you. I'm digitally judged by my browser, and it's like, you are so lazy that you haven't read this. I'm like, I know when I just click on another tab because I start feeling guilty, I get browser tab guilt, and it's awful.
- [34:41]
Ryan Ryen
All right, well, I'm going to have to make this point another time. But basically, if you look at the Athletics payroll, I think if you go back to 24, some of the Pirates payroll, like, it's just absurd to think that those are mid tier payrolls. Almost 25 years ago. If you look up some of that stuff, let's stay on the brewers then, because they've looked great for good reason. Now, what I do love about them is that they're not a home run team, but they're a score runs team. One of their players, I was reading about it this morning and his quote was like, look, we make them throw us out. And they forced, essentially, they had the most errors made against them of any team. So in a world of, like, trying to figure out prioritizing velocity, the home run lineup that we have with Seattle, that's so impressive, and it feels like it can solve a lot of your playoff problems. Milwaukee's also hitting the COVID off the ball. On top of everything else, it feels like Milwaukee's kind of this wagon of a team at the right time. And the Cubs, it just, it Felt overwhelming in those two games.
- [35:46]
Jeff Passon
It was overwhelming. And they're one of those teams that you still have to like rub your eyes and say, really? Like, you know, you look at the roster and it does not look like a wagon. You look at the record and 162 games is the great adjudicator. Like there is no small sample over the course of an entire baseball regular season. And if you end the year with the best record of any team, it is not an accident. And I appreciate you pointing out the baserunning there because it is really, really good. They're near the top of the sport. And going from first to third on a single, going from second to home, going from first to home on a double is stolen bases. They're right near the top. Like they, they make you make plays, they put pressure on you like that. They run a hard 90. Like they, they are really fundamentally sound. And the built. I think it reflects their financial state. Mark Adonisio, their owner just does not spend money in free agency. It's become like something of a running joke just how few free agents the brewers actually do sign. And yet I appreciate that you brought up velocity and home runs because while the brewers do not have home runs, they do have a ton of velocity. You look at their bullpen and it is guy after guy after guy who can reach triple digits. And I think that reflects just how much of a development organization that is. It's hard to develop home run hitters because once you start messing with the guys swing and trying to get a little more uppercut into it, you often take him out of how he is naturally meant to swing. And I think like the launch angle revolution that exists or that existed 10 years when guys started trying to do more uppercut swings that, that's kind of stopped right now. Like nobody's messing with his swing to try just to get uppercut. Maybe, maybe a little bit more loft on it, maybe hit the ball in the air more. But to hit home runs, that's a hard thing to do. On the other hand, like developing velocity, that doesn't cost money, man. Like you can find 100 miles an hour in the fifth round of the draft these days. And as Cam Schlitler showed with the Yankees, you can find 10 miles an hour over the course of two and a half years. Like the team's ability to develop hard throwing pitchers is, is better than ever, which I thought that we were getting close to like reaching that, that point where it flattens out a little. Oh no. Like the average fastball this Postseason, last I checked. Let me, let me take a look right now. But last I checked, the average fastball this postseason was 96.1 miles per hour. Like, think about that, Ryan, 96 on the average fastball. It's down to 95.9 now.
- [38:49]
Ryan Ryen
It looks like we're not that many years removed. I mean, it's not 25 years ago, is it? 10 to 15? Like, if you had one guy touching 96, 97, everybody was excited about whenever you got to see him.
- [39:00]
Jeff Passon
Yeah. Like, Ricky Vaughn was sitting 96 to 97 in major league and he was the biggest thing in baseball. And that was, you know, that was 30 years ago at this point.
- [39:10]
Ryan Ryen
That's like Ice Cube in America's most wanted saying 225 is what I'm mentioned. And it's like, dude, would you even brag about that now?
- [39:18]
Jeff Passon
Like, guys who don't throw hard throw 96. Now that's the, that's, that's the way it's, it's so. And it's so hard to hit velocity. That's the thing when you look at, when you ask yourself, why is it so imperative that guy is so hard? All you have to do is just look at the splits, look at the numbers on pitches of 100 miles per hour. 99, 98, 97. Like, it's directly. I'm not even going to say correlated. Like, it's positive. The harder you throw, the better you are. So guys train themselves to throw hard because they know that's their path to the big leagues. And the weeding out process is the ones who can get it over the plate. Like, if you can throw hard and you have some even like, tiny semblance of control, you're going to be a big leaguer and you're probably going to be an effective one.
- [40:09]
Ryan Ryen
I do have Seattle thoughts. Mariners fans, don't worry. But staying on this, because I was looking at it the other night, you know, whether it's me getting pissed off about the inability to hit cuff, man, I don't know if that's an age thing. It just blows my mind how many guys suck at throwing the ball in from the outfield. And it feels like it happened.
- [40:27]
Jeff Passon
They don't work on it. That's why.
- [40:30]
Ryan Ryen
Yeah, but you're good enough to be. But think about it like you're good enough to be a major league baseball player. It means you've probably thrown this ball thousands and thousands of times. So then to not have any arm or any idea of accuracy or like the cutoff Guy, you're like, where? Where was that throw? Like there'll be throws. I'm like, I don't even know who he was throwing it to. And I don't. It would be like a bunch of basketball players being bad at jumping because like even if you can't shoot or you have no vision or you have no handle, you physically have jumped thousands and thousands of times playing this sport. So the just the act of throwing a baseball, I imagine most of these dudes have done.
- [41:17]
Jeff Passon
Is this like, is this like, is this like cut off PTSD from having to watch Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon throwing the ball in from left field all those years?
- [41:26]
Ryan Ryen
I think it was more like Bernie Williams last Gold Glove where I was like, are you guys fucking kidding me? And it was clear, like he just physically was shot at the end. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't like. I thought he was a terrific center fielder.
- [41:39]
Jeff Passon
They fixed the Gold Gloves actually. Like Gold Gloves.
- [41:42]
Ryan Ryen
That's a long time ago.
- [41:43]
Jeff Passon
Yes.
- [41:45]
Ryan Ryen
I have a lot of Bernie Williams.
- [41:47]
Jeff Passon
Rafael Palmero winning a Gold Glove the year he played like 90% of his games at DH was the best.
- [41:54]
Ryan Ryen
That was the best. There's also something else I would think is worth bringing up. Whenever they put up the Yankees like all time home run stuff, can you put up a games played thing?
- [42:06]
Jeff Passon
I'm totally with you.
- [42:07]
Ryan Ryen
The Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth numbers. People don't understand what those numbers really are. It's like Bernie Williams played in 100 plus playoff games because played like another.
- [42:17]
Jeff Passon
Season of playoff games.
- [42:20]
Ryan Ryen
Go ahead, go ahead.
- [42:22]
Jeff Passon
Well, no, just everybody else. You just used to go right to the World Series, right? That's why there were four rounds of playoffs.
- [42:32]
Ryan Ryen
Every time I see it, it's like, man, that's great. He's up there with some all timers. You're like, well, no shit he is. He played in 121 playoff games. Let's do it right now. I'm on it. I've been, I've been reference guy all morning. All right, look, do you want to guess how many playoff games Mickey mantle played in? 65. I put you in a tough spot.
- [42:57]
Jeff Passon
That was actually the number that I had in my head.
- [42:59]
Ryan Ryen
I just followed you. How about this number? I'm going to throw this at you. See now I just lost the fucking tab again. This is awful.
- [43:08]
Jeff Passon
This is. The tabs are beating you.
- [43:12]
Ryan Ryen
I know. I'm not even sure. Okay, all right. I found it again. We're back in Baseball Almanac. I'm on it. All right. So, speaking of the velocity and everything that we're talking about, and we've discussed this in the past, it's just zero approach whatsoever. Like, when a guy chokes up now it's, like, noted, like, that guy. Did that guy just choke up? Oh, my God.
- [43:32]
Jeff Passon
Right? Approach.
- [43:34]
Ryan Ryen
So in the early 90s, we averaged, on a whole, for the entire league, 23, 24, 23, 93. Dialed it up a little bit. 26,000 strikeouts total. All right, so we're in the low 20s for a stretch there. Every year since 2017, excluding the 2020 season, where we had stuff going on every season, 2017, all the way through 2025, we've had over 40,000 combined strikeouts in a season of baseball. Yep. Yeah. All right.
- [44:12]
Ceruti
That's it.
- [44:13]
Jeff Passon
No, it's. I. I wish there were fewer strikeouts. It's why I really like watching the Blue Jays play. They don't strike out. It's why I like watching the brewers play. They do not strike out. They put the ball in play. You know, to. To a lesser extent, the Mariners. But the Mariners have some guys in that lineup who were ball and play Merchants. And that's my, like, my style of baseball that I love. I want to see fewer strikeouts. Absolutely. It's just, unfortunately, not a particularly realistic thing with the combination of stuff and how guys approach strikeouts, and that. That's why strikeouts have always been so confusing to me. I understand exactly why pitchers want strikeouts. Right. Pitchers crave strikeouts because if the ball is not in play, you don't have the inherent 29 to 30% chance of it landing every time a ball is put into the field of play. But with hitters, shouldn't something that the person you're opposing desires extremely be something that you want to avoid? How can strikeouts be great for pitchers but also acceptable and okay for hitters? I understand there are context issues there. And, you know, the argument is that you gain more by swinging the way that guys swing. That tends to lead to strikeouts. But at the same time, it's just like, you can have both. Like, there are guys who are capable of hitting the ball hard and putting it in play. And those, to me, are the ones that every team should be going after every year.
- [45:47]
Ryan Ryen
I just don't understand the lack of change of approach. You know, every pitch used to mean you had to reassess then what the situation is. Right. And especially if there's a guy on second and you're not a home run over, you have to figure out a way to make contact, and it's like, no I hit.211 with 12 home runs this season, and I'm closing my eyes on a one, two count and swinging as hard as. Like, no one will ever convince me that because of launch rate, that's still a good approach. All right, old man rant over. Let's talk Seattle.
- [46:23]
Jeff Passon
I was just gonna say, do you have old man basketball takes? What's like your. Your best old man basketball take?
- [46:33]
Ryan Ryen
I don't know. I'm so. I'm so young and modern in that sport. So I don't. I don't really know. I don't know what it would be. I think maybe. I don't think it's an old man thing. It's just certain players that are really prolific, like stat counting players that once they're off the ball are completely useless. So it's like that player may have stats that tell us he's more valuable than this guy, but if he doesn't have the ball, then he doesn't know what to do or play basketball. That means he's probably not as valuable as. But I don't think that's old man. I just think that's the eyes, baby. That's just watching. That's the hours put in. What's the old man basketball?
- [47:16]
Jeff Passon
Too many. Too many threes.
- [47:18]
Ryan Ryen
Too many threes, yeah.
- [47:20]
Jeff Passon
Too many threes. I understand. I'm. I am beginning. I think this is like what middle age is doing to me. I'm beginning to push back in my head on the idea that efficiency is a God. Efficiency is a God in business. Efficiency in sports makes it too predictable.
- [47:46]
Ryan Ryen
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's definitely some other arguments you could make here of like, did we solve everything or make it all worse.
- [47:55]
Jeff Passon
Right. Exactly. That's exactly right.
- [47:58]
Ryan Ryen
Yeah. Now the three point.
- [48:00]
Jeff Passon
I want to talk about the Mariners.
- [48:02]
Ryan Ryen
No, I just felt like, you know, Seattle fans were huge in Seattle Large. I was reading an article about them this morning.
- [48:09]
Ceruti
Okay.
- [48:10]
Ryan Ryen
And I don't know if it's a bit results based because I do have a results based question for you here. I still have some stuff. And you're sticking around for life advice.
- [48:17]
Jeff Passon
I hope so.
- [48:18]
Ryan Ryen
All right. You are, right. Yeah. Yeah. Done. No problem. We're making it up here towards the end, so I'm just gonna.
- [48:25]
Jeff Passon
I'm just gonna fill the Wargon, sit in the back.
- [48:28]
Ryan Ryen
Who thought. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Thank you. I read an article this morning that was basically. It was really interesting. It's good. I can't even say that it was wrong because I'm not locked in enough but the Seattle build and how it was, it was almost like they won a bunch of games seven years ago. They're like, we're not this good, so we could trick ourselves or we could, we could shift. And I don't know if that's a shift in the way some Western Conference teams are trying to avoid the Golden State warriors, which would have made sense. It's like, you know what, what's the point? I don't know if Houston was that kind of team. It was presented maybe that like, hey, Houston's just. Absolutely. I mean, you do go back to some of those Houston teams. You're like, that team was, was stacked. But what does this Seattle series and a chance for them to be in the ALCS for the first time in a very long time. What does this say about. Again, look, they're a game away from it and we can't get too carried away about like, hey, up two zero. Because here we are talking about the Yankees having all this momentum. But I think there's a bigger picture Mariners thing on, on how deliberate it felt like this front office was about resetting it and building for these moments. Now with this roster, you're spot on.
- [49:49]
Jeff Passon
There and they were not in a position to go chasing because ownership there never was going to spend like goo gobs on free agent. But I think what the Mariners understood is that like, player development in baseball is everything. Paul Tabone just got hired from the Red Sox where he was the scouting director and was in charge of the farm system that's produced Roman Anthony, Marcelo Meyer and has a bunch of other guys coming in. I talked with him when he took the Washington Nationals job and he said, young under control position, playing talent in particular is everything in modern baseball and it allows you to do all kinds of other things. And the Mariners got Cal Raleigh in the third round and they signed Julio Rodriguez out of the Dominican Republic. And you know, their farm system right now, like, in addition to their big league club being exceptional, their farm system might be the best in baseball too. So this is not going to be like a one year flash in the pan thing. They are, they are set for the next half decade if everything breaks right. And it's hard sometimes to humble yourself to the idea that what you're doing isn't working and you essentially need to have a fresh start. But I think when ownership will give you the rope to do that and you believe in the development process that you have in place, then you can. And the interesting part of the Mariners to me is like, they've had this pitching for three years now. And the fact that almost all of them have managed to stay healthy or healthy enough with their arms to continue performing like this, like Logan Gilbert, George Kirby. I know Brian wu's out with a peck right now, but these are all guys that they've developed. And finally, the Mariners actually went all in, or pretty close to all in at the deadline. Getting Geno Suarez, getting Josh Naylor to. To lengthen this lineup, that's been phenomenal. And I just, like, I don't root for teams, you know that I am rooting for Seattle just as a city. Like, they're not Cleveland, they're not Buffalo. But in terms of baseball, man, they have been through it. And to see them get this now, like Toronto, Seattle would be really fun. ALCs because this is organizations. Two of them that for 30 years haven't seen, you know, for the Mariners, their entire history, they haven't been to the World Series. Blue Jays haven't been to the World Series in over three decades. And tortured fan bases, like, getting their moment. That, to me, is like, what sports is for.
- [52:43]
Ryan Ryen
Two quick things before we pivot to extended passing. A year ago, maybe it was more than a year ago, I was worried about the pitch clock in the playoffs. I didn't care about the pitch clock in the regular season, but I was like, my favorite thing is that moment where pick an inning, pick a score, pick a scenario, batter, pitcher, matchup, but just checking the runner first, looking over the camera shots. It's my favorite part of baseball. And just going, he has to get, like, depending on which side you're rooting for, like, it's 1:1. And you're like, okay, what's he like? Did he throw two different. Like, what is he going to throw here? Because he can't be 2:1. He can't be 2:1. And I was like, the pitch clock is. Is going to ruin that. I'm worried it has not. I don't even notice it. It's been great. So you were right.
- [53:36]
Jeff Passon
It's just so awesome. Like, I'm so. I'm just so glad that it worked. And I think it's like one of those stories of business innovations done exceptionally well. I was asking someone this a couple days ago, and I'm curious, as someone who's not there day to day, your thoughts. Did the pitch clock change the public's opinion at all on Rob Manford? Will that be in the first paragraph of his obituary, that he's the one who instituted pitch clock in baseball?
- [54:15]
Ryan Ryen
Well, he Deserves a ton of credit for it. And I think my frustration is always that the history is so bad between these two groups. Anything from baseball and ownership and then the union, and it doesn't matter what they propose. And it just gets really frustrating. Even though I would just historically say I'm always on the player side of things when it comes to CBAs or any of this kind of stuff, it's like, hey, get in the fucking box, man. Like, you know, it's just like, why. Why do you want the right to take forever in between both pitches? Like, who. Who is that for? What does it really mean? And it's like, if Manfred. Which all the data would tell you is. I mean, it's. It's just really hard. Like, it's that moment that I'm talking about that. That. What's. Is it going to be one two, or is it going to be two one, right? Because then it changes the entire at bat, especially if it's a really good hitter. And then if it's a really great pitcher, it's like, man, he might not even give in on two 1. And that's like, my favorite stuff. But that moment doesn't mean anything to you unless you've paid all of that attention before, right? And I'm worried that, like, you know, the idea you can have anything within a second at your fingertips. It's like, is baseball even positioned? It can be an incredible product, but is it even positioned? Because how long do I have to sit around to care about that count and care about that pitch? Right? And it's. You know, it's just amazing how often when you're introduced to a storyline or a character, then you care about that person, whether it's a documentary or whether it's something that's scripted. It's like, you have to make. Like, when I watch a movie and be like, yeah, this movie was all right, but I didn't care about anybody. Like, I didn't care about whether or not this guy lived. They got back together. I just didn't care. And you have to make all of us care to pay off any of this stuff. So I think Manfred has done something that it seems so silly now, removed from it being, like, who didn't want that? We've got to figure out a way to get people invested without immediately going, how long does that thing take? No. And I don't know if more people.
- [56:20]
Jeff Passon
Are watching it because, well, I'm convinced that it's like. Like that.
- [56:28]
Ryan Ryen
Okay? But I'm talking about, like, is it a Is it a bump up? Which, you know, is. Is that. Or are we. We're returning this ship around here on baseball, like, that's, that's the thing that I'm worried about long term about the sport. I don't want to do a fixed baseball thing here because we're in the midst of awesome playoffs, but I think.
- [56:45]
Jeff Passon
I think it's worth mentioning that when something is bleeding, like stanching the bleeding is, is not an easy thing to do. Sometimes if a product is bleeding, it just fucking bleeds out.
- [56:54]
Ryan Ryen
Right.
- [56:55]
Jeff Passon
Right. And this, this was, this was the tourniquet on baseball. Like this, I think is what is allowing the game to heal a little bit.
- [57:05]
Ryan Ryen
That's perfectly set. Perfectly said. The tourniquet of baseball. Unrelated, I hope you've seen my threads, posts and that if I see breaking news in baseball, I may share that with my audience. But I do credit you. Have you noticed those?
- [57:29]
Jeff Passon
No. Honestly, I think I guess I have to follow you now, don't I?
- [57:33]
Ryan Ryen
Like, you know, I mean, I'm tagging you on all of them. I'm not just writing your name so that you don't get the love. So I want people to be able, like, well, if resilience is passing at it first.
- [57:43]
Jeff Passon
I did mention, I did see one of them, I think. I don't, I don't check mentions on social media. Like, just. I would, I would just rather not be on social media. Like, it's, it's, it's a real. It's a real like cognitive dissonance with me because I understand it's an enormous part of my job. And, and in a lot of people's minds, it's like, it used to be like, I would, I would occasionally get recognized by someone and, and they would, I know, seriously, very popular. They would say, you know, like, I really, I really like your writing. I enjoy your stories. And that, that warmed my heart, made me feel really good. And now it's like, I enjoy your mediocre sentences written in fewer than 280 characters. And I'm like, what, like, what has this done to me? What have I become? I think. And that's how like 25 and below, it's like I'm known through social media. It's not the TV thing, It's not the writing. It is Twitter. And that is a terrifying thing for me.
- [58:58]
Ryan Ryen
Yeah, you had a trade and I had read somewhere else that cash was involved, so you had kind of the headline of it. And then I said, following up and confirming Jeff Passon's report Cash was involved in this trade, but I'm different than some of the other vultures. I'll be like, passon did have it first.
- [59:17]
Jeff Passon
How bored are you looking for posts that you have to make a bid out of baseball news that isn't even news.
- [59:28]
Ryan Ryen
Well, look, I mean, if Cash is involved, that's part of the transaction.
- [59:31]
Jeff Passon
I just think it always is.
- [59:34]
Ryan Ryen
Right? Okay.
- [59:36]
Jeff Passon
Indeed.
- [59:37]
Ryan Ryen
There's probably going to be an ad between this. Hopefully not in the middle of the Giannis monologue. But let's, let's throw to a hard break and then bring Jeff Passon back for life advice, because he just wants to come on, apparently, and talk about the guy worried about the bad neighborhood. And then we're going to have him read emails with us. So let's do it. This episode is brought to you by Prime Video. Thursday Night Football is on, and it's only on Prime Video. This week, it's a rivalry renewed as the Philadelphia Eagles take on the New York Giants. G Men. Stand up right. Jackson Dart. Look out, folks. There's a new sheriff in town and his name is Jackson Dart. And he wears chains behind center, not behind center, because they were out of shotgun almost the entire game. I'm telling you right now, if I'm on the Eagles, and I'm not, I'm a podcaster. But if I were on the Eagles and I were on this Eagles defense and I watched the tape of that game, you're like, hey, you'd be looking around going, I cannot wait until this guy tries to run me over. Coverage begins at 7pm Eastern with football's best party, TNF Tonight, presented by Verizon. Not a Prime member. Not a problem. Simply sign up for a 30 day free trial. It's the Eagles and Giants Thursday at 7pm Eastern only on Prime Video. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com Amazon prime for details. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. It's like needing an offensive guard, but getting an elementary school crossing guard. Sure, they're both guards, but who's going to protect your quarterback on the football field? You wouldn't settle for just anything for your team. So don't settle for just any insurance. When it comes to getting the help you need, State Farm is the real deal. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
- [61:24]
Jeff Passon
You want details? Fine.
- [61:26]
Ryan Ryen
I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up?
- [61:31]
Jeff Passon
I have a ridiculous house. House in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids.
- [61:37]
Ryan Ryen
I am liquid.
- [61:40]
Jeff Passon
So now you know what's possible.
- [61:42]
Ryan Ryen
Let me tell you what's required. Today's life advice is presented by State Farm. Having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. It's like expecting the leadership of a team captain on the football field, but getting a sea captain. What? Sure, they're both captains, but who's going to run your offense? So don't settle for just any insurance when they're State Farm. We're mixing it up today. 3 wide, 4 wide. Van Pelt used to do that. Brad Dougherty, 4 wide when he was doing his NASCAR stuff. Ceruti, Kyle.
- [62:14]
Ceruti
Nice.
- [62:14]
Ryan Ryen
And Jeff. Jeff pass. And who's just. He wanted to stay. And we love it.
- [62:20]
Jeff Passon
I like on days where the top of the show or the guest is in a sport that I'm not particularly interested in, I will pull it up and tap the moment that goes straight to life Advice. Like, I'll be honest.
- [62:37]
Ryan Ryen
How often? Like 90% of the time you do.
- [62:39]
Jeff Passon
That at like 80. Yeah. Listen, if there's one thing I'm bringing to life advice, it's going to be honesty. So I, you know, I don't want to lie about that. I'm so perpetually entertained by this segment. And I was telling Saruti like I'll yell at the radio. Like I listen when I'm in the car. And when I heard about the guy who didn't want the poor girlfriend, I like, I am. No, that's what it is.
- [63:13]
Ryan Ryen
That's what it is. Right. But just so the audience getting caught up. Her financial state not well.
- [63:21]
Jeff Passon
So if somebody's looking at her, that poor girl.
- [63:25]
Ryan Ryen
Sure.
- [63:25]
Jeff Passon
The phrase there contains multitudes. He told on himself immediately the second that he was prioritizing the well being of his car over the potential of a relationship with her. He told you everything about it that you needed to know. It was never going to work if his car was the first thing he thought about.
- [63:50]
Kyle
Good guy, Jeff.
- [63:51]
Ryan Ryen
Nice. Yeah, you're really nice. Is this what you're going to be like on all of them?
- [63:56]
Jeff Passon
I mean, we'll see. Like, I don't know what the questions are here. I'm really excited to hear him though.
- [64:01]
Ryan Ryen
Well, because the guy followed up.
- [64:04]
Kyle
Oh, really?
- [64:05]
Ryan Ryen
Yeah. Dun, dun, dun. Here we go. It's perfect. Passing to even know we're doing this. No follow up. Thanks for going through my scenario on the show. Should have made it a bit more clear. Apologies. We had the movie on but didn't really watch the movie. So after we finished it was A little past midnight when she was wondering if I wanted to stay or not. She wanted you to stay, by the way. We have hung out before, and that was when we were still coworkers. She's always been pretty cool, not caring if I stay over or leave. Okay. It's a new 2025 Honda Accord that I maybe splurged a bit too much on, but they gave me more money, I thought, for my old one, so that's why I just went ahead and did it. Plus, I wanted all the features I didn't have before, so.
- [64:51]
Kyle
Wireless charging in that thing.
- [64:52]
Ryan Ryen
This guy's.
- [64:53]
Kyle
Think about it.
- [64:54]
Ryan Ryen
He just got the car, Jeff. He's excited. It's got the features. It's something he normally wouldn't do. Does that change your opinion at all?
- [65:03]
Jeff Passon
As somebody who owns a Honda Accord, I can tell you right now, it's not a car that if the girl is worth it, that you're gonna be very concerned about. Like a Honda Accord. I thought it was gonna be a nice car.
- [65:22]
Ryan Ryen
Oh, man. Oh, no.
- [65:24]
Kyle
Those things last a quarter century, Jeff. What do you mean?
- [65:27]
Jeff Passon
It's proven they're great cars.
- [65:30]
Ceruti
I do feel like the Honda Accord stands are. Yeah, they're. They're big fans of the cars. I don't know.
- [65:34]
Ryan Ryen
Mariners fans driving around it right now. I've had this since the last ALCs. I'm definitely a little particular about things for sure, but more so right now with no job just being another whole thing to deal with. Ceru kind of nailed it with me thinking I might have left something on the table with her, and that was my mindset going in. I think I'm awesome, but I wouldn't say she has no options either. Oh, okay. All right. So it went for potential narcissism to. No way. Because he was aware of somebody else's thing. Narcissists are bad at that. Nearest Amtrak station to me is about 25 minutes the other way, so it ends up being a longer commute. She also doesn't have one close to her as well. There are, in fact, two parking garages about a 15 minute walk away, so I might try that for next time and see how that goes. What comes the worst, I could just Uber from the garage to her place if it's dark out already. Thanks for the advice. If the parking garage doesn't go well, I'll just chalk it up to bad timing. The distance a bit too much for right now. We never know what will happen in the future. Appreciate y'. All. All right. Okay.
- [66:35]
Kyle
That's life advice right there. Never thought about the garage. How about that?
- [66:40]
Ryan Ryen
Well, we didn't know. Didn't Ceruti kind of throw it out at some point?
- [66:43]
Ceruti
No, it was just.
- [66:44]
Ryan Ryen
It was offered up as.
- [66:45]
Ceruti
As an option, I think, by Kyle, which is smart, you know, but then if you're. Man, I don't know.
- [66:50]
Ryan Ryen
He must still want to hook up with her. He's already mapping out garages and the Amtrak thing and the whole deal, so maybe she is worth it.
- [66:57]
Kyle
He does want it to work. He does want it to work. The hour plus would have been just too crazy. We go to different schools. Could never work. You know, that would just be way too much to budget on top of a life. Guy's looking for a job.
- [67:07]
Ryan Ryen
I don't know, man. Okay, we had a million followers.
- [67:10]
Jeff Passon
It's not going to work, guys. I'm sorry. Do I have to be the one to point this out? Come on. We're talking about a parking garage 15 minutes away. There's no way the guy is going to go and walk 15 minutes to and from every time. If he's concerned about things, the Uber's going to become too expensive. Like, they're just. Sometimes it's not in the cards, and that's okay. And accepting that is the real sign of maturity and growth.
- [67:44]
Kyle
And leaving the door open by exiting like a gentleman and not ghosting it. Totally. Leave it. It's back on the table.
- [67:52]
Ryan Ryen
What if he knows karate?
- [67:54]
Kyle
Been itching to test that out.
- [67:58]
Ceruti
Game changer. Yeah.
- [68:01]
Ryan Ryen
Yeah.
- [68:01]
Kyle
Cause karate, you have to be in, like, a real, like, defend yourself situation. You can't just try that shit out at the bars, you know? Like, that's. That's part of the tenants.
- [68:08]
Jeff Passon
Right?
- [68:08]
Kyle
You have to. Your back has to be against the wall. So maybe.
- [68:12]
Ryan Ryen
Yeah, you've made an oath. Yeah, that's just hitting the pads. Like, that's a whole different spiritual thing. So a lot of Rolex people chiming in to our guy on that vintage Rolex. Some of the service stuff that we talked about. There are a lot of people hitting us up saying, if you give it back to Rolex, they will replace the vintage parts with new parts. Something to think about. There are far more educated people than me on that one, so good luck with all that. All right, let's get to a couple emails here, because we got to get. We got to get hot here with Jeff. We got to figure out. Let's go right at it. Ooh, this one's spicy. I've been saving this one wrong to celebrate my Biggest haters demise. Sup, Jim? Stats 51020 0. Built like a white version of Mike Tyson circa his mid-90s return. Oh, okay. Could stand to lose five to ten pounds to get into peak shape. He also. Yeah, he was. He was going through it a bit there prior to Buster Douglas. All right, play like Draymond and pick up because it's all I got. But someone must initiate the action. All right, all right. So I think it might be. It might be worth pointing out he thinks he looks like Tyson and plays like Draymond, so potentially something. Yeah.
- [69:34]
Jeff Passon
Like, it's all coming together very quickly here. You don't even have to read it.
- [69:42]
Ryan Ryen
Maybe a touch of a darker submission, but feel the need to shoot it out there into the universe. My wife's sister recently died Suddenly, completely unexpected. Mid-40s. Had an undiagnosed heart condition. While tragic that someone so youngish would die, she was not, and I repeat, all caps. Not a pleasant person. God damn. A less discerning person might use a disparaging and derogatory term that starts with a C to describe her. I would never do that.
- [70:19]
Kyle
Crazy.
- [70:20]
Ryan Ryen
Come on.
- [70:20]
Kyle
We don't say crazy.
- [70:22]
Ryan Ryen
So I will simply settle by describing her as a miserable bitch. Okay, sorry, kids. This is aggressive earmuffs.
- [70:31]
Jeff Passon
Yeah, yeah.
- [70:32]
Ryan Ryen
I mean, it's not even the word. It's the content here. I mean, remember, the title was wrong to celebrate my haters. My biggest hater's demise. And then he's like, so my wife's sister died, all right, she did not like me and expressed it many times, but I always held my tongue in check to not start drama for the sake of my wife, who is the exact opposite personality of her sister. At this point in her life. All of her friends passed her by in terms of having family, so she lashed out and drove many of them away. The few friends that she retained were just as miserable as her tale is old this time. There are other unpleasant details about her life, but suffice to say, she is not a person who lived a fulfilling and happy life. After getting over the initial shock of her sudden passing and the logistics that come with it, I have now settled into my emotions with a clear head. I'm ecstatic. Tony on peyote in Vegas after Chrissy died. Ecstatic. I am so happy that I will never have to deal with that nightmare for the next 40 years, as I had dreaded. My wife is still in the grieving phase despite their very turbulent relationship, and I cannot talk with her about this. Most likely forever yeah, good instincts, good awareness. Six months from now, full court vision.
- [71:38]
Kyle
Very good.
- [71:39]
Ryan Ryen
Now that some time's past, Hunter, that's never happening. However, I would love to commiserate with someone who knew her as I am sure other people have feigned remorse at her passing. Is there any good way to reach out with feelers to people who knew her without any negative blowback? Or do I just keep my mouth shut and enjoy the newfound bliss in my life? I also realize I could be viewed as a cold blooded asshole for having these feelings of joy in this scenario. And I'm fine with that because that's how awful she was. So a nice easy one for you, Jeff. Floor is yours.
- [72:10]
Kyle
Take the lead on this.
- [72:13]
Jeff Passon
Oh boy. Like die needs to find a little bit of peace in his life. There's no such like, you're alive man. And if the only thing that you're taking away from her passing is joy, you're not being there number one for your wife. And that that's. I've been married for. It's going to be 19 years.
- [72:45]
Ryan Ryen
Damn. In January pass is like the oldest young guy.
- [72:50]
Ceruti
It's crazy. Yeah.
- [72:54]
Jeff Passon
And I have, I have had actually a very similar relationship with. It was with my father in law. It was a. You know, my father in law essentially is the reason that I married. And I'll be very quick with the story. It can get very long winded. But Wright Thompson and I were going out trying to go drink for drink with the world beer drinking champion for a story that he was going to write. And I met my wife that night but I did not get her phone number. So in right story as I was editing it because he was all fucked up that night and I needed to be there to like see. Okay, is all of this true? He talked about how I was talking with the woman and did not get her number. And I wrote in parentheses, Sarah, if you're reading jpasson@casey starr.com she saw it, did not get back in touch with me. Her dad however, did. And so that is why I am married these days because of that email. But he was, he was a really complicated person and he did some things that I did not like. And it passed. He passed a couple of years ago. And you know, in some respects are like, is my life easier without the constant like knowledge that he could be doing something chaotic? Yes, but, but the loss, it doesn't matter to you. You are a secondary character. You have enormous main character energy right here. This is about your wife and how she's trying to deal with a really tragic thing and the fact that you're sitting there doing cartwheels in your head and celebrating it while your wife's still trying to process her feelings. Your number one priority should be making sure that she's doing okay and putting aside every last feeling you have about this woman, whether she was good to you, bad to otherwise, and be there to be supportive for your wife. Like, step to the side, bro. You are not the guy here whose feelings matter. And the person whose feelings matter are the ones that you should be prioritizing.
- [75:03]
Ceruti
Wow. Whoa. Well said. Yeah, we haven't had a lot of debut life advices, but hard to follow that up. Jeff.
- [75:09]
Kyle
Yeah, usually we're trying to give our guy the benefit of the doubt, but, I mean, it's your first run, so.
- [75:14]
Jeff Passon
I'm not giving him any.
- [75:16]
Ceruti
I'm just kidding.
- [75:17]
Kyle
We like to keep the listeners.
- [75:18]
Ceruti
Usually my question would be, what's, like, what's the end game here for the guy too? Like, you want to go out and like, get beers, start a message with other people and just talk shit about her? Like, what, I don't understand. Like, what, what is what beyond her dying there, there's, there's more enjoyment for you to get out of this. Like, that's, that's insane. So I've been putting aside everything that Jeff said about like, yeah, this is kind of like more on your wife and how she feels than it is. You, like, why are you trying to suck every last drop of I don't like fun out of this horrible thing. Like, just, just be happy that maybe you don't have to deal with her anymore. That, that's the win for you. So I, I, yeah, the main character energy here is wild.
- [75:53]
Jeff Passon
Yeah.
- [75:53]
Kyle
The other thing I'd say is, I mean, nobody's kind of as stuck with this woman as you were. No one has felt maybe a coworker, but like, you have to like, you know, go through the company rolodex or something to get in touch with those people. Like, no one feels as stuck with this person as you do because she was your in laws. No one else will have that relationship to be like, God, every freaking Christmas, Thanksgiving. Like, this is gonna be terrible. No one really had. They just will choose not to be around her unless there's someone she worked with. And I doubt they'll, you know, you'll get in contact with those people. So anyone you ask is not gonna feel as strongly about this as you do. Cause no one else was really stuck with her in the way that, you know, you were, or maybe her ex husband or whatever. And. Yeah, so I just think when everyone's going around the table saying what they're thankful for, you can go ahead and do that in your head, but, you know, that's about as much joy as you're gonna be able to find out of this. And I am with Jeff a little bit. I think there's gotta be a little more to life than playing that back in your head all the time. I'm not gonna compare it to the relationship I have with these rabbits. We did lose one recently. Outwardly, I'm very, very, very, very there for my wife. And she was cleaning him yesterday and she thought about the one we lost, and there were tears, and I hugged, grabbed tissues. That's what you gotta be on the outside. And on the inside, who knows what's going on in there? That's okay.
- [77:13]
Ryan Ryen
Sounds like you need another rabbit, man.
- [77:18]
Ceruti
He did text us that he has to share the travel stories with the rabbits cross country, so we'll do that on another episode maybe Friday.
- [77:24]
Ryan Ryen
I hung out with a rabbit yesterday. Yeah, that would be great.
- [77:29]
Kyle
So that was a real photo of a rabbit. I mean, I've been seeing so much AI stuff that's merged with reality. I don't know what's what, but that was a rabbit.
- [77:36]
Ryan Ryen
You thought I would do that? Yeah. You thought I would do that to you? No. I was at my brother's. His wife has a couple rabbits. They threw one on my chest and it was just hanging out. I think its name was Pumpkin, and it was a little bunny. And I took the picture for you and Ceruti. Just me chilling with a rabbit. Because I don't even know when the next time that's gonna happen is. Between the most recent rabbit hangout and then what happened yesterday has been a really long time. Jeff, that was incredible. But you're right. Like, what does this guy want to do? Does he want to start a club? Does he want to make shirts? Here's what I would say, is that everything Jeff said was much more mature than anything I would say. He makes sense there. You have to think about the other person, not yourself. There is likely a scenario year plus from now where there'll be some sort of thing, and you're going to be in the corner tanking beers with somebody else who hated her just as much as you did, and you two are going to be having the best time ever. So I think this thing will happen naturally, even if it feels like right now you're coming off As a dick. Yeah.
- [78:38]
Kyle
Play the long game.
- [78:39]
Ryan Ryen
Yeah. All right. All right. Maybe one a little less intense. Oh, bad hosting. Here we go. Good afternoon. Yeah, let me give you my stats quick. 6, 4, 2. Solid. Could dunk with two hands at age 20, but now maybe you can get some foam on that backboard. 40 years old. 40 year old. Former D3 hooper in New England. Player comp. Late career. Antonio McDyce. Super athletic forward. Always attacks the rim. Dude, you might be able to dunk again. I don't understand you guys that could just throw it down. 30, 40 years old. Just don't like. I think a lot of the inactivity happens because of a mental state of like, oh, I can do it. I mean, you know what?
- [79:25]
Ceruti
I. I do think a lot of guys want to be old too. They're like, ah, man, you know, just get up there in age and they just like. They like, like that part of life. And I'll fall into that trap too, every once in a while. And I'm like, actually, no, dude, you're like in your mid-30s.
- [79:35]
Ryan Ryen
Like, relax.
- [79:36]
Ceruti
Like, I don't know why I want to be old. Just. I guarantee it's gonna easy cop out.
- [79:39]
Jeff Passon
It's.
- [79:40]
Ryan Ryen
It's gonna happen to everybody. It's. It's pretty. I'm pretty sure of it. My biggest thing with the old thing is just don't tell vets stories. Don't tell bad stories. Because I see much older people doing it a lot. I had a thing the other day. Farmer's market was included. So that already adds a couple years to, like, the experience.
- [79:56]
Kyle
You were telling a farmer's market story?
- [79:58]
Ryan Ryen
No, but I'm gonna tell one right now. But I didn't. I told myself, I move. Yeah, yeah, here we go. Let me pull up my. My suspenders. There's an awesome fruit guy here in Manhattan Beach. Everybody goes to him every single week. Like, hybrid fruits. A cherry, apricot thing, mango. I mean, it's wild what they're doing over there.
- [80:19]
Ceruti
All right.
- [80:20]
Ryan Ryen
But there's like small little windows. So I had family in town. I bought some fruit for them. I was like, you gotta try all these different fruits. Whatever. They were like, fine. There was still some leftover fruit gap. Two weeks goes by, went to the farmer's market. I'm like, oh, you know what? That fruit's probably bad. Let me get some new one. But I hadn't thrown out the previous fruit yet, but I know it had been two weeks. Bought the new stuff, threw it in the fridge. For whatever reason, I Put it behind the old stuff. I was cleaning out the fridge, post family coming to visit, because there always ends up being food in there that I don't fucking want. Mayonnaise jars in particular. I chucked the new fruit anti mayonnaise. Then I go into the old fruit, take a bite, and I'm like, you threw away the new stuff and you kept the old stuff? So I went to the farmer's market yesterday again. It's not even a mile from my house. I bought the new fruit, and as I was checking out, my guy's like, what's up, man? And I'm like, don't tell him that fruit story. I'm going to work hard.
- [81:16]
Kyle
He's not going to like it as much as you think he's going to like that.
- [81:19]
Ryan Ryen
No one is. No one even listening to this right now liked it as much as me telling you that I didn't tell that story. So, yeah, this guy can't dunk. And I've yet to tell the fruit vendor that story. We'll see. Two years. This reminds me of a couple years ago. Jeff's like, what the fuck? I thought we answered emails. Let's get back to the email.
- [81:36]
Ceruti
Wait, are you an anti mayo guy?
- [81:37]
Ryan Ryen
Real quick?
- [81:38]
Jeff Passon
That's that.
- [81:38]
Ceruti
I didn't love that.
- [81:39]
Ryan Ryen
Oh, man.
- [81:40]
Kyle
Usually I can spot those guys and it's like. And it's not anti. It's like, hate it. Not in the house.
- [81:46]
Ryan Ryen
Like, do I try?
- [81:48]
Kyle
Don't even accidentally give me anything with mayo that you didn't know. I'm actually not going to forgive you for not knowing. That's how much I hate mayo. There are a couple of guys that are just vehemently opposed to.
- [81:59]
Ryan Ryen
So look, lightly apply to a chicken salad. I'm in roast sandwich. Yeah, it's okay. But you start doing dumb shit like putting it on a steak and cheese, you know?
- [82:10]
Jeff Passon
Well, yeah, that's just irresponsible mayo usage, though. Mayo is. Mayo is the most. Mayo is the most functional condiment I think there is. And it took me like 30 years to realize this. And I'm really disappointed that I didn't hop on the train sooner. The best way to toast a bun for a hamburger is to lightly spread some mayo on it. Put it down in. Absolutely, yeah.
- [82:34]
Ryan Ryen
That gets back to the root of what the mayo is. So that would make a ton of sense. Jeff and I would agree with you there, but, you know, somebody throws together a chicken parm, and you're like, oh, shredded lettuce and mayo to go, what.
- [82:46]
Jeff Passon
Asshole is throwing mayo on.
- [82:48]
Ryan Ryen
I've seen it happen.
- [82:48]
Jeff Passon
That's a user error, not a condiment error.
- [82:51]
Kyle
Well, I don't know. Ryan seems like he's walking it back. It sound like you were upset there was mayo in your frid.
- [82:57]
Ceruti
Yeah, it sounds like. It sounds like you don't like mayo in places mayo should be, which I think everyone agrees with. Like, I like mayo.
- [83:04]
Kyle
Like, but that wouldn't translate to how I can't believe they bought some mayo while they were here.
- [83:07]
Ryan Ryen
I mean, that's, you know, it's fine that they bought mayo. I don't want it around. Yeah, all right, all right.
- [83:12]
Kyle
So you're not as reasonable as you just tried to come off. That's okay.
- [83:16]
Ryan Ryen
Just. Well, because I'm not making chicken salad at home anymore. Although I do used to little shout out to the double A Trent and Thunder when I couldn't afford anything. Still waiting on the commission check. But I used to make this. I found out I was a big, you know, back with a cooking background. I would make this vat of chicken salad, right? So it was a lemon, grape, a couple bay leaves in there. Seems like you only use one at a time.
- [83:40]
Ceruti
Maybe a walnut. A little too expensive at the time.
- [83:43]
Ryan Ryen
Walnuts, legumes. I was just marketed out of that entire thing. So I would make bats this chicken chicken salad. So I would use mayo back then. Now I'm not. Things have gotten better. I'm not making bins of chicken salad to get through the week.
- [83:58]
Kyle
I gotta say, things are doing pretty good for me over here. Moving all that stuff.
- [84:01]
Ryan Ryen
I pretty moving.
- [84:03]
Kyle
I got back into the tuna salad game. Made a vat of that the other day.
- [84:07]
Jeff Passon
Yeah.
- [84:09]
Ryan Ryen
Anything to add? Any food prep stuff, Chip or you just want to get back to the email?
- [84:14]
Jeff Passon
No, I mean, I would. The truth, I could talk food all day. I would 100% be a chef if I were not a writer. I love cooking. It is what I do. Like when I have any downtime I have, I'm guy with way too many food pictures on his phone. Like problematically. So what are you working on right now? I spent summer perfecting a fried chicken sandwich.
- [84:41]
Kyle
Great thing to be able to smash, dude.
- [84:43]
Jeff Passon
Yes. And it's any hints.
- [84:48]
Ryan Ryen
You know, anything for the rest of us that are out there.
- [84:50]
Kyle
You're submerging that chicken or are you making sure it just gets half and you're flipping responsibly?
- [84:54]
Ceruti
Shallow fry? Yeah.
- [84:56]
Jeff Passon
Oh, no, no, no. I used to do the shallow fry, but then when my 18 year old started wanting to gain Weight. I realized that I had like a test subject where all my late night munchy desires could be projected onto him. And he was capable of eating all the things that I always wanted to back in the day. And so, yeah, you got to go full fry. Nice. And the key to the crust is a combination of rice flour and cornstarch. That's how you get like the crispy, shattery crust on it. Always brine it in pickle juice for 24 hours beforehand. And I, in the little slaw, I take a beet and I shred like either a red or a yellow beet and it gives color and there's a lot of sweetness inside a beet. So it compliments. If you like, spread on some Nashville hot cayenne juice onto the chicken, you can get like spicy, savory. It's good shit like that a lot.
- [85:59]
Kyle
Love everything. I just heard.
- [86:03]
Jeff Passon
Ryan.
- [86:04]
Ryan Ryen
No, it looked like Serdi wanted to get in there. I bought some of the beats yesterday.
- [86:07]
Ceruti
Yeah, you're actually the only time I've had beets recently is when we went out to dinner.
- [86:11]
Ryan Ryen
Ryan.
- [86:12]
Ceruti
I think that was in like, it was in Utah. Maybe.
- [86:13]
Ryan Ryen
I forget where it was.
- [86:14]
Ceruti
Was it Park City? I'm not a big beat guy, but in the right setting, I love. I love a beat. But no, I was. I was gonna say passing. I know earlier you said like you were kind of like anti social media. And I, and I, And I do get that. But it sounds like there needs to be some sort of like burner Instagram cooking, like Chef passin account, because, like, I would follow that. That's good wholesome content. Like, that's the good part.
- [86:33]
Kyle
Let me.
- [86:35]
Jeff Passon
There's the chicken.
- [86:36]
Ryan Ryen
Here it is. There we go.
- [86:37]
Ceruti
That was like a stock photo for like a. Yeah, for like a chicken place. Good lighting.
- [86:42]
Jeff Passon
And let me. You know what? I'm just not going to do this. I could do it all day. It's very boring. I'm sorry. Let's get to the email. Ryan.
- [86:48]
Ceruti
I want to see the beat slot, but yeah, okay.
- [86:50]
Ryan Ryen
All right. So this guy can't dunk anymore. Currently only able to rely on the mid range jump shot and pick and pops. Trying to avoid the Achilles and knee injuries with every move I make. Let me get to the situation. A friend of mine, let's call him Larry, invited our friend group from college to his house for a hot Sunday afternoon cookout. Cookout. There are about five of us, all with kids, live within two hours of the Boston area. And somehow we all made it to work. That Day I was on my way back from my in laws lake house in Maine. Must be nice.
- [87:18]
Kyle
Wow.
- [87:19]
Ryan Ryen
I decided to bring one of my two kids to the house on my way back to where I live south of Boston. You've name dropped my town. Sounds great to hear it on the airways. Needham, Dedham, Duxbury. Our friend group gets to the house all around the same time. Two coolers left out, one for beer, one for water. No food or apps have yet to be seen. About an hour into the party, party host Larry came out to the outdoor table that all of us were sitting at and said quote, we're going to order from this local takeout place and he sent us the menu. I proceeded to text him my order thinking that the party hosts were going to treat us. He received my text and then told me in front of everybody that I would place the order and I would pay for it on my own and he could pick it up while he was getting his own food. I was taken back by Larry's response and I could see the eyes of the other guests light up as much as light up in a way that was as much shock as I was in. Another friend of mine, let's call him Dominic, and I got together and ended up ordering pizzas and appetizers for everyone in their families to take from. Okay, so you and Dom stepped it up. Larry isn't my best friend of the group. He maybe ranks five out of five. That's last. Yeah, let me tell you, I am not a fan of his wife. She's made some political Instagram posts that basically tell you if you don't agree with her, you're a racist Nazi. And to unfollow her, even though I agree with 75% of what she posts, it just makes me uncomfortable why she's like that. I know that this style of posting was not the idea of Larry, but his wife. Since Larry comes from a very cultured background, child of immigrants, big family, that just doesn't usually happen. It's clear that she runs the show in that household, being the breadwinner of the household. While Larry is still trying to find his way, I'm not going to say anything to him questioning his decision or hosting talents and haven't really talked about it with the other guys there. But I my too old fashioned for thinking that this is crazy. At least let your guests know that there will be no food beforehand and that we would be responsible for feeding our own kids. The hosts have two kids on their own as well. Let me know what you guys think, is this normal? I don't think it's normal to invite a bunch of people over to your place and then say, hey, everybody, I'll pick up the orders that you all individually pay for. Are we coming over? Are we coming over? Honestly, my biggest takeaway from that email is just some of the guys that sign up for. Hell, you know, some. Some dame, little twinkler in her eye looking at you in a way you've never, you know, maybe been just on a. Just an absolute rut of, like, seven years. And you. Yeah, you're like, I'm pain.
- [89:55]
Kyle
Cold.
- [89:56]
Ryan Ryen
You know, just cannot. The slump busters are turning me down. I'm putting away. I have two college funds. I have two college funds and no kids. Right? Like, I gotta get in the game now. It's like, all right, but this woman is going to boss you around and make you look like an absolute dickhead in front of all of your friends. I'm in. That was my takeaway. Doesn't answer any of this stuff. Jeff, you are our guest. Your first thoughts?
- [90:25]
Jeff Passon
I think there's a common theme, and this goes back to that episode where the college. Or was it a high school graduation party? The college graduation party where they had the tiny table and the. I'm not crazy. I heard this, right?
- [90:46]
Kyle
We've done a lot of these. We need a little more info.
- [90:48]
Ryan Ryen
I think there was a table. All right, That's a good start.
- [90:52]
Jeff Passon
Wasn't there a college graduation party with a table and not enough food? And there was, like, all kinds of disappointment.
- [90:58]
Kyle
Yes. This was like the. This was like the Mexican food that was prepared. And then there was like, they were asking for money for the bad food.
- [91:04]
Ceruti
I remember.
- [91:04]
Ryan Ryen
And by the way, the pictures were unbelievable. Yeah, sure.
- [91:09]
Kyle
Sad.
- [91:12]
Jeff Passon
I think it gets back to this. When you go to a party that sucks, don't focus on how much that party sucks. Focus on all the things that you can do to make sure your parties do not suck going forward. You're going to go to bad parties. It's an inevitable thing, and it knocks you off course, especially if you have kids. There's nothing worse than hungry kids who you don't know when you're going to feed or how you're going to feed or what you're going to feed. But. But poor Larry. Like, you gotta give. Give Larry a little bit of a break here. Even though he's five of five on the list, if somebody is hosting a bad party, they probably don't even know it. And, you know, if you can have that conversation with him subtly afterward. Or if you can invite him to a party and show this is what a real party is supposed to look like. Teachable mama, then yeah, then you would be making the world a better place. Knowing Larry's not gonna have shitty parties.
- [92:15]
Kyle
I think the kids are the thing that would have stopped me from making like jokes. Like parents, I mean, like, you know, wives and whatever. Like okay, I'm actually okay in this scenario to be like, did you hear that stuff that Kyle was saying at Larry's party? I mean, because everyone would get it, the kids. I think you don't wanna like, you know, bash adults bashing each other in front of kids. I think that's certainly a thing that would've stopped me. But outside of that, I think I certainly would have had a few light jokey things to say. And it probably would have came up three or four times. Not directly, maybe to the other people, definitely once to Larry. And that's okay. If his uncool wife is around to hear.
- [92:53]
Jeff Passon
It is very obviously horrendous form to have somebody over at your house and not provide food and kids.
- [93:01]
Ryan Ryen
What do you think's going to happen with the kids? Be like, sorry, Larry's wife said no food is non catered.
- [93:08]
Ceruti
We only got a six piece nugget. Sorry.
- [93:10]
Kyle
How many garlic knots are your kids gonna eat before? Come on.
- [93:16]
Jeff Passon
We have this, this running thing. And I've been in a fantasy baseball league since I was 10 years old. Like we started off with our dads doing stats by hand in 1991. Like that's how old this thing is. And this league is still around. And one year we're at the draft and a buddy of ours is coming by and we ask him to bring some food and he shows up with one small domino's pizza. And so and so ever since then, it has been the running joke that Mike Lipson, I'm sorry for doing this to you. Lipson. Mike Lipson will not bring enough food to whatever you need. And I think that to me is like if you're hosting a party over buy food. Like, you take the risk.
- [94:07]
Kyle
You assume all the risks.
- [94:08]
Jeff Passon
Yes, you do, but it's a necessity because you don't want to be the person who ever runs out of food at a party. That is a memorable thing at a party. You will always remember who did not bring enough food, have enough food. You know, if you have leftovers at the end, you'll eat the leftovers. Like you figure it out, you send them home.
- [94:28]
Kyle
People like to be Pushed. They twist my arm. I'll take those chicken wings, I guess. I guess, like, well, I'll help you if it's helping you out.
- [94:33]
Ryan Ryen
I'll take them home.
- [94:34]
Ceruti
I grew up in a family. I grew up in a family where my mom would get so nervous that we wouldn't have enough food that she would literally tell us to eat last, right? And we would have. And we would be freezing chicken cutlets.
- [94:46]
Jeff Passon
For like six months.
- [94:47]
Ceruti
Like, you know, like, hell yeah, dude. But, like, that's so I.
- [94:52]
Ryan Ryen
So I say son of immigrants to our email.
- [94:56]
Ceruti
What's up? I. These people don't get it.
- [94:59]
Ryan Ryen
I didn't understand part of the email. I'm sorry.
- [95:02]
Ceruti
It's fair. These people don't get it. And I think this is just like an ongoing joke with your friends. I don't know that I would shame Larry necessarily, because it does sound like he doesn't need to be shamed right now based on situation. Maybe a little. All right.
- [95:15]
Kyle
Maybe a little bit. He needs to learn. He needs to hate this so much that he pushes back and be like, I'm sorry, I'm running out to Price Chopper and I'm just gonna get a spread. Fine, I'll do the grill. If you don't think it's. If it's beneath you, I'm sorry, I can't ever let this happen again. I'm already. That guy in the group chat. They've changed my contact picture to empty plate or something. Like, we have to. It has to be enough that he will push back against this lady who's kind of ruining all of his interactions with his friends when she's involved.
- [95:43]
Ryan Ryen
Maybe you just like, next time you grab a beer at his place, you just pause and be like, venmo, yeah.
- [95:50]
Ceruti
Sure, I'll go pick. I'll go pick one up for you if you want one.
- [95:53]
Ryan Ryen
It's such a bummer. It's such a bummer because I. I think you're right. If the emailer is. Has this figured out, the whole thing, like, you don't want to make a scene at it, but you do exactly what you did. You look around, you're like, are you fucking kidding me? This is going to happen. And you pulled the all time move, saving it, because I cannot get past the part with kids. If you were younger dudes and you invited dudes over and you're like, hey, there's no food. There's even an age that I think under that threshold, it's like, what did you think I was doing? This is a catered affair. We're 26.
- [96:24]
Jeff Passon
Yeah.
- [96:24]
Kyle
What are you out of your mind?
- [96:25]
Jeff Passon
How dare you?
- [96:26]
Ryan Ryen
And then show up like, I didn't put. You think I got an apron on. But then there's a number where. North of that age and being like a real person, it's expected if you're taking the initiative to invite all these people and that, you know, kids are going to be there. Kids don't want to hear about budgets. Kids don't want to hear about, like, any.
- [96:48]
Ceruti
The kid thing is crazy because you could just. Just get like, a packet of pizza rolls or, you know, bagel bites and, like, the kids are going to be fine. Like, you don't even have to go above and beyond. It's like the bare minimum for kids.
- [97:02]
Ryan Ryen
All right, we got one last one here. Hey, boys. Five, seven.
- [97:12]
Jeff Passon
Why'd you say it like that?
- [97:13]
Ceruti
I don't.
- [97:13]
Ryan Ryen
No, no, I just say it like that. 5, 7. But play like that. Because I read the next part a longer. Earl Boykins. Oh, okay, okay, okay. I mean, we never had that before, so. I'm not laughing at 5, 7. I just. All right, here's the dilemma. No, I. I saw Earl Boykin, so I knew. Right. All right.
- [97:40]
Jeff Passon
So as like, a borderline short guy. I know the look from tall guys when. When you're. When you got a little height shame going on.
- [97:49]
Ryan Ryen
I don't. There was no height shame. I saw Earl Boykins.
- [97:53]
Ceruti
I laughed.
- [97:54]
Jeff Passon
All right, all right, all right, okay.
- [97:55]
Kyle
I laughed at 5, 7. If we're taking accountability here. I laughed at his pronunciation, his delivery of 5, 7. If, you know, Ryan, you know, delivery is everything here. And he hammed that up a little bit. Anyway.
- [98:09]
Ryan Ryen
All right, here we go. I work in a very specialized profession. The profession is media. And the issue is there are certain sports that seem to be prioritized on certain shows. If you go on this show and yell about the NBA, you'll be a guest. If you go on this show and yell about the NFL, you'll be a guest. But if you work on baseball, you seem to be stuck. How. How can I get more run on first take? Jeff P.
- [98:45]
Jeff Passon
That's fucked up. I'm five dash.
- [98:51]
Ryan Ryen
That's a big thing, too, I think the boundary. Yeah. Because the height is wrong. Yeah.
- [99:01]
Jeff Passon
You know what the most wrong part of that is that I have, like, a burning desire to be on a hot take show. I'm just not good at those.
- [99:09]
Ryan Ryen
I don't think baseball is good for those shows. I would actually end with the result part of. Of baseball. Evaluation, I think, is even worse than NFL or NBA. So all we have is the audience is, you took this pitcher out, then the team scored runs against the next pitcher, and it's like, that's the dumbest thing I said. And then that's all the show can be the next day. Football, you can get mad at. Interceptions, Basketball, there's all sorts of stuff. Rarely can you get mad. Baseball does not allow itself. Like, guess what happened with Schwaber and Hart? They just haven't hit the ball well for two games.
- [99:48]
Jeff Passon
As much as it's interesting, seeing the sports media landscape and just how NFL dominated, it really is. And here's the thing. If things had gone differently 20 years ago and I had gotten a different job instead of the national baseball writer job at the Kansas City Star, I might be covering the NFL right now, and it might be a completely different thing. But I think there. There are avenues around. That's what I like about the media landscape. Now you will talk baseball with me. All sorts of different people will talk baseball with me. I'll go on. Pardon my take. And there are shows on ESPN that want to talk baseball. Like, there's enough room. Even if baseball is not on, like, the most prevalent shows, there's enough room still and enough ability for people to find it that it doesn't matter what sport you have right now. Like, if it's interesting, people can watch it, you can put it out there. So even though it took me way too long to get that joke, and I'm sitting here now like, oh, God, I'm so dim, I enjoy going on and sparring with Stephen A. When he wants to talk baseball. And if that is more infrequently than I wish it were, that's okay. Take advantage of it and, you know, use that. Use that opportunity when it's there to. To Spread the gospel.
- [101:13]
Ryan Ryen
2, 4, 6, 8. Who do we appreciate? Jeff. Jeff. Jeff Passon, everybody. Life advice, baseball insight, full circle. We covered it all.
- [101:28]
Ceruti
90.
- [101:29]
Ryan Ryen
We came out. Yeah, we came out with, like, 104 on the outside on that first one. And you handle it like a champ. You mean a ton to us. Thanks for coming on the show. And we'll have you on again, I imagine.
- [101:43]
Jeff Passon
Thank you for letting me do this. I'm at the point in my life, in my career now where I've been doing this for a long time, and what matters to me is getting to do fun things with people that. That I really like. And you guys allowing me into this. This vaunted circle here and just on the show all the time means a lot. So sincerely thank you for that and for all you guys do in getting me through very long car rides.
- [102:15]
Ryan Ryen
Thanks man. That was awesome. Jeff Passon, everybody. Thanks to Jeff, thanks to Kyle, thanks to Steve. Thanks to Jonathan Frias. We want to remind everybody that we have a read because today's Life Advice was presented by State Farm. State Farm is ready to support you whenever you need them, whether that's in person, on the phone, online, or through their app. You want a good neighbor there to help you out, so don't settle for just any insurance. When there's State Farm, talk to an agent today like a good neighbor. State Farm is there Ryan Rosilla Podcast Ringer Spotify they were gonna name me Michael Jordan.
- [102:47]
Jeff Passon
My dad was like, I don't think he can live up to it.
- [102:49]
Ryan Ryen
So they named me Michael. Jared must be 21 and older and present in select states. For Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 + in present in D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling Problem Call 100 Gambler or visit rg-help.com, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is there. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text HOPE NY in New York.