“Bubbles with the Captain”

Summary

The Tony Kornheiser Show

Episode: “Bubbles with the Captain”

Date: June 29, 2026

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Episode Overview

This lively episode features Tony Kornheiser, joined by mainstays Michael Wilbon and baseball insider Mark Feinsand, for a freewheeling discussion that kicks off with golf and weekend stories, runs through World Cup soccer and baseball surprises, touches on the quirks of Hallmark sports movies, then closes with robust listener engagement and sports media gripes. True to form, Tony’s wandering curiosity ensures equal parts sports insight, personal storytelling, and cultural commentary—with a generous helping of humor and strong opinions.

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Key Topics and Discussion Points

1. Reflections on Podcasting and Assumptions

• Tony Kornheiser notes many still don’t know what a podcast is:

  "You would be amazed at how many people have no idea what a podcast is or how many people do them or what it's supposed to be." (01:52)

2. Weekend Sports Watching — Golf, Baseball, and the Golf Course Experience

Golf: Travelers/Bristol Open Drama

• Tony details missing both the men's and women's golf tournaments due to travel and family obligations.
  • On missing the men’s event during a rain delay:

  “I go over to the men's tournament where the leaderboard at one point is Scheffler, Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark and Colin Morikawa—it's like, it's one of the great leaderboards you're ever going to see.” (03:26)

• They discuss the rain, playoff drama, and the tension of Scheffler's clutch putting.
  • On clutch moments:

  "Scheffler had to make down the stretch three or four different holes. Had to make par putts of five to eight feet. And did." (06:00)

Baseball: Nationals’ Heart-Stopper and Garcia's Hot Streak

• Tony laments his growing “panic” as a Nats fan, focusing on bullpen woes and clutch double plays.
  • “You watched a good team beat a not as good team, and you watch them beat them three days in a row in the top of the ninth.” (07:31)
• The crew celebrates the explosive month of Luis García Jr.
  • On home runs:

  "I think this is maybe five consecutive games with home runs. I think he's at nine for the month of June..." (08:36)

The Lido Beach Golf Course Adventure

• Tony shares a detailed and nostalgic account of playing at Lido Beach Golf Club:
  • Describes affordable muni golf, changing community, and running into fans—even at Walgreens.
  • “It is, and I mean this in the best possible way. It's a dog track. I mean, come on, you know, it's... totally flat.” (12:42)
  • On celebrity encounters:

  “Two different people come over, and they start, it's him, it's him, it's him. Can we take a picture? ...It's lovely. It's completely lovely. It's fine. They tell you their life story, and you pose for a picture.” (15:19, 15:35)

• Reflects on Lido's history and the rebuilding required post-Hurricane Sandy.

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3. Listener Letters & Hallmark Movie Satire

• Tony reads a tongue-in-cheek letter describing a Hallmark Christmas movie centered around the Chicago Bears:

  “She isn’t looking for love, but finds it when a man, down on his luck and hungry for a beef sandwich while needing a Christmas tree, stumbles on the stand. It’s love at first bite.” (21:06)

• Michael Wilbon is asked if he’d cameo like Luke Russert did for the Bills—he adamantly declines.

  Wilbon: “No, no, no.” (22:13) Kornheiser: “Would you do it?...”
  Wilbon: “Really? No. No, you can't do that.” (22:45–22:58)

  • Amusing detour into Bears jersey numbers and Hallmark tropes (“gazebo at Navy Pier”).

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4. Soccer & The World Cup: Trends and Teams

• Wilbon and Tony break down the U.S. versus Bosnia/Slovenia, their European losing streak, and the rise of African talent in European squads.
  • Wilbon: “We’ve lost 12 straight [to Europe]... The last time we beat somebody was Bosnia, I think, in 2021.” (26:54–27:00)
  • Tony expresses naive optimism; Wilbon cautions, points to form.
  • Notable moments:

  “What soccer is, it looks different, it sounds different, and I don’t know how that’s going to play in the knockout round.” (29:26)

• Global migration and eligibility trends; Wilbon notes visible demographic shifts in national teams (“Japan's goalkeeper is black.” (31:33)), and contrasts it with American team continuity.

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5. MLB 2026 Midseason Surprises — With Mark Feinsand

Standings Surprises

• Feinsand: “How could it not be the first place Chicago White Sox, right? ...They lost 122 games two years ago... but... they're still in first place.” (34:17)
  • Murakami’s impact and injury discussed.

The Struggling AL

• “If you took the top 10 [teams], how many would be in the American League? Maybe two.” (35:16)

Mets' Dysfunction & Managerial Carousel

• The Mets’ managerial moves dissected—Feinsand faults front office’s refusal to invest in pitching.

  “He refuses to spend money on free agent pitching. And then every year we sit here and look at the Mets and say, well, they don't have enough pitching. Well, yeah, because they don't pay for it.” (36:51)

• Potential job security for David Stearns discussed.

Midseason Manager Changes: “The Bump” — Coincidence or Skill?

• Feinsand says post-firing surges are mostly luck and timing rather than managerial magic.

Playoff Races & Trade Deadline Preview

• Teams like Nationals and Marlins as surprise playoff contenders.
• Trade deadline insight:

  “I think like 19 of [24 contenders]—it was either rotation or bullpen. So pitching rules the day..." (42:31)

  • Most action will come in final days as teams debate buying/selling.

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6. Tech in Baseball: Automatic Ball-Strike Challenges

• Tony and Mark agree the system enhances accuracy with negligible time cost.
  • Feinsand: “The time that it's taking is minimal... The fans seem to really enjoy it... Anything that helps get things right is good for the game and it doesn't add a lot of time.” (43:57–44:11)
• Players enjoy the gamesmanship of challenges; example of multi-pitch challenge sequence.
• Praises MLB’s broader tech-driven improvements:

  "[MLB has] made some... changes... excellent for the game, for the pace of the game and for getting things right." (45:46)

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7. Listener Mailbag & Life Moments

Blackout Woes and Baseball Market Nonsense

• Multiple listeners (Iowa, Texas, Alaska) lament MLB blackout rules that preclude access for large areas—Tony and crew pile on with agreement and humor.
  • “MLB.com should have some knowledge of that. You want to grow baseball? Don't cut out an entire state.” (54:26)

Heartfelt and Humorous Stories

• Listeners chime in from around the U.S. on local quirks, quirky sports connections, and serendipitous life events (e.g., “Strawberry Moon,” Glens Falls hotel room “511,” Wabash College).
• A standout:

  “We are at a Walgreens... two different people come over, and they start, it's him, it's him, it's him. Can we take a picture?... It's lovely. They tell you their life story, and you pose for a picture...” (15:19-15:35)

Jingles and Music Shout-out

• Promotes listener-submitted music, boosting independent artists like Gus Gustofferson (“it’s very lovely he sends us... you’re playing my music has opened some doors for me here in Canada.” (20:29, 20:39))
• Listener crafts a “mailbag theme” jingle inspired by Arthur Pryor’s “Bluebells of Scotland.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Tony Kornheiser:

  “[On Lido golf] It is, and I mean this in the best possible way. It's a dog track.” (12:42)
  “I'm more interested in what's happening around the block. Cause I don't go through the world anymore.” (31:50)

• Michael Wilbon:

  “We’ve lost 12 straight [to Europe]... The last time we beat somebody was Bosnia, I think, in 2021.” (26:54)
  [On Hallmark movie cameo request:] “No, no, no... I'm not an actor.” (22:13, 18)

• Mark Feinsand:

  “How could it not be the first place Chicago White Sox, right? ...They're still in first place.” (34:17)
  “He refuses to spend money on free agent pitching. And then every year we sit here and look at the Mets and say, well, they don't have enough pitching. Well, yeah, because they don't pay for it.” (36:51)
  “Anything that helps get things right is good for the game and it doesn't add a lot of time.” (44:11)

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Important Timestamps

• 03:26 — Tony breaks down Travelers (Bristol Open) golf drama
• 07:24 — Nats bullpen panic, end-of-game heroics
• 12:42 — Lido Beach course musings & community nostalgia
• 21:06 — Hallmark Bears movie fantasy
• 22:13–22:58 — Wilbon refuses Hallmark movie cameo
• 26:54–27:00 — USMen’s Soccer struggles vs. Europe
• 34:17 — Mark Feinsand on White Sox midseason showing
• 36:51 — Mets’ front office mismanagement
• 42:31 — Playoff picture & trade deadline preview
• 43:57–45:46 — Ball-strike challenge tech analysis
• 54:26 — Listener outrage at MLB blackouts

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Closing Thoughts

This episode encapsulates the best of The Tony Kornheiser Show: tales ping-ponging across sports and real life, sharp wit and banter from Tony and friends, deep dives into baseball and soccer, a touch of show-biz satire, and community-building with “the Littles” (fans). For listeners, it’s a window into how personal history, sporting events, and a bit of old-school storytelling can be stitched together for lively, honest, and unpredictable radio.

Transcript

[Tony Kornheiser]

Hey, it's Tony. On today's show, we will talk with Michael Wilbon about the World cup and whether he would do a cameo in a Hallmark movie about Chicago Bears. And we'll also chat with Mark Feinstein about the big surprises around baseball as we hit the halfway point of the season. But first, commerce 4th of July savings

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[Tony Kornheiser]

previously on the

[Mark Feinstein]

Tony Korneiser show we do this monthly podcast together. We call it Dynastic.

[Michael Wilbon]

Each month we do this deep dive

[Mark Feinstein]

into one one franchise and sort of tell the story.

[Michael Wilbon]

And it's a three hour podcast.

[Mark Feinstein]

Tell the story.

[Gus Gustofferson]

We don't expect.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah, we don't expect you to listen

[Guest/Caller]

to what, once a month?

[Michael Wilbon]

Yes, yes, it's monthly.

[Mark Feinstein]

You know, why don't you do a

[Tony Kornheiser]

half hour more often?

[Windows 11 Advertiser]

Three hours.

[Guest/Caller]

What's your Thursday show?

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's like taking a course.

[Guest/Caller]

What

[Windows 11 Advertiser]

the Tony Kornheiser show is on now.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You would be amazed at how many people have no idea what a podcast

[Guest/Caller]

is or how many people do them or what it's supposed to be.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I was out on a golf course

[Guest/Caller]

on Friday with some fellow that I was playing with. Wanted to know about podcasts.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And we make the assumption that everyone

[Guest/Caller]

knows exactly what they are and it's not true.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And I tried to explain to him a podcast is just anything you want it to be issued as regularly as

[Guest/Caller]

you want it to be issued and listened to by no one outside of your immediate family.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So, you know. So that set him straight. I was away on the weekend, just had some personal things to do. Couldn't get the Gnats couldn't get the Nats on.

[Guest/Caller]

Oh, you couldn't get Mass in where you were?

[Mark Feinstein]

No.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Friday or Saturday. Couldn't get the Gnats. Got home last night and the same thing happened. This happened to me on two events yesterday that I wanted to go to the end with.

[Guest/Caller]

One was the men's golf event at espn. That's where it is. It's five miles from espn. It's called Cromwell, Connecticut or something like that.

But it's the Bristol Open.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, I've played that.

[Guest/Caller]

I've played that course a number of

times with Dan Davis. The Duke, right? With the Dan Davis.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, with the Duke. It's a course where the only scary

[Guest/Caller]

holes are like 15, 16 and 17, you know, and other than that, it's beautiful looking houses.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, it's houses.

[Jingle Singer]

A lot of grass.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, you go past a bunch of

[Guest/Caller]

people's houses and maybe they come out and steal the ball, you know, it's okay.

Did you see some of the rain that was happening in the middle of the back nine?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I heard the rain because you could hear it on the audio banging against the umbrellas. It seemed to be bad rain, like in a red cell. They had to stop. So what I'm getting to is I'm invested in this. I'm not invested in the women's tournament because Nelly Korda hits 11 and 12 and she's sticking it in the water so she's not going to win. So that storyline is gone and I don't know the other players, you know. So I go over to the men's tournament where. Where the leaderboard at one point is Scheffler Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark and Colin Morikawa. It's like it's one of the great leaderboards you're ever going to see.

[Guest/Caller]

Well, that's why it's a signature event.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, well, it's a signature event for another reason. A signature event is something where they

[Guest/Caller]

give away a lot more prize money than regular events. And it's a signature event because it

[Tony Kornheiser]

follows the US Open and everybody would take off if it wasn't such a pricey thing for you to win. Everybody would take off like Rory did. Roy bagged it, said, I don't want

[Guest/Caller]

any part of this anyway.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So all these players are in place.

[Guest/Caller]

His own tour now.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. There's the Rory McElroy tour.

[Guest/Caller]

Then he just does what he wants to do.

[Michael Wilbon]

So the.

[Tony Kornheiser]

All of these players are in it and they're within two shots of each other. All of them are within Two shots going down the back nine.

[Guest/Caller]

We have company that comes over. My cousin Shelley, her younger son Seth, his wife and their younger daughter were here.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I hadn't seen them in years.

[Guest/Caller]

He's involved at the University of Chicago. He's running one of their schools. This is one of the.

Princeton man.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, Princeton and Yale Law School. This is one of their. One of the best school. This is the top 10 school in America's University of Chicago. Nobody would say anything different. Just because it doesn't play football doesn't mean it isn't that good a school. Okay. And she's a tenured professor at Northwestern. Hadn't seen him. Lovely.

[Guest/Caller]

Child is lovely. You had to stretch before the meeting. You had to stretch, keep up with him.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I couldn't keep up. I would say what I had to say and then wait for him to be done, not understanding a word he said, even though he was joyful. Joyful in his answer and brilliant in his answer. But when we sat down to chat, that was when they were coming back

[Guest/Caller]

from the rain delay in Cromwell and

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't know what happened. And then later at night I saw there's a playoff.

[Guest/Caller]

In.

[Tony Kornheiser]

In all honesty, while we were recording

[Guest/Caller]

this, it is not even 8 o'

[Tony Kornheiser]

clock in the morning.

[Guest/Caller]

There's a playoff at 9. We will be done recording by 9.

[Tony Kornheiser]

A playoff starting at 18 between Scheffler and Hovland. Scheffler had to make down the stretch three or four different holes. Had to make par putts of five to eight feet.

[Guest/Caller]

And did.

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And did.

[Guest/Caller]

So they are.

[Jagermeister Advertiser]

Who do you.

[Mark Feinstein]

I.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Who do you think is going to win?

[Guest/Caller]

I think Scheffler won. You know, the coolest thing that happens

[Tony Kornheiser]

got all those Norwegian guys.

[Guest/Caller]

We had the Norwegian fans show up.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Guest/Caller]

So I just think this would have been a great example just to, you know, say everyone wants to get out of here. Volunteers. The tournament, we're just going to call it a draw.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I often don't understand why, if soccer is such a big deal, why can't other sports end in ties? Football can theoretically end in a tie.

[Guest/Caller]

Yes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Baseball cannot end in a tie.

[Michael Wilbon]

No.

[Guest/Caller]

I think the only time that's happened is in an.

[Tony Kornheiser]

All basketball cannot end in a tie. Small hockey can end in a.

[Mark Feinstein]

You would not have seen this.

[Guest/Caller]

Just great camera work. I love when you see players who are sort of in the scoring area, who are watching players still on the golf course. Colin Morikawa was Colin Morikawa doing, you know, phantom golf swings with a club, working on a couple of fields as he's watching Scheffler putt out.

[Tony Kornheiser]

How bad was the rain?

[Guest/Caller]

It looked horrendous.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh yeah. So they had to stop again.

[Guest/Caller]

If you get to a short. If you get to the short, par four, and you sit there going, this is probably a half of a shot swing by. Not letting me take a break here. I'm waiting for you to call and you're not doing it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But they had to call it. I guess they had to call it. So I missed that. Then I missed the end of the Nats game. Like, what is my panic about the Nats? Well, any reasonable fans panic? Ninth inning.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, specifically Richard Lovelady and the final strike, you know. Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

And.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But it's the ninth inning because you

[Guest/Caller]

just watched it with the Phillies.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You watched a good team beat a not as good team team, and you watch them beat them three days in a row in the top of the ninth. What is the difference when they play in Baltimore? It's the bottom of the ninth, it's still. You have to get through the ninth. So I didn't. I was unaware of what was going on and I just clicked on it and I got. I got the fact that the Gnats are up by one run and Andy Pooley is. Is out there on the mound and he does the thing that drives me crazy. He walks somebody, relievers, anybody. It's free. You don't give the free pass. You don't do it. So now I'm afraid they're going to lose, cuz now the tying run is on and now the winning run is at the plate. And then I get a text from Ciz. It says we win cuz he's 20 seconds ahead of me. And it's a 463 double.

[Guest/Caller]

Just trying to set up the double play.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's a 463 double play again, I'm

[Guest/Caller]

following on Gamecast because I had to excuse myself to do bubbles with the

[Tony Kornheiser]

captain outside just so I missed it. So the two things I wanted to see over the weekend, I think the.

[Guest/Caller]

From the Orioles side, it comes down to the Pete Alonso in the first, which was just telegraphed immediately as you saw the count get to where it was, and he hit a home run, Holiday home run. But it's all about Luis Garcia Jr. What he's done over the last week and the entire month of June. So I think this is maybe five consecutive games with home runs. I think he's at nine for the

[Tony Kornheiser]

month of June, which Schwarber did years back. And now Schwaber has his 30th home run.

[Guest/Caller]

Garcia home runs have a little bit of that Schwarber quality. They're going out low, quick.

[Tony Kornheiser]

They go out low and quick, but his swing is a lot slower.

[Guest/Caller]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Because the other guy's a coiled snake.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There's no question about that. So my feeling is Garcia should play every day. The baby manager doesn't do that. He should play every day, and he should play second every day. That's his position. Shouldn't be on first. They should make Mead into the first basement or somebody else into the first baseman. And they should bag, you know, these other guys that are floating around at second and third and first all the time. Get rid of them. They're not major league hitters. Well, Nunez is a major league.

[Guest/Caller]

Yeah. And thinking about positioning. Thank you to the Orioles who decided to give Alonzo the DH because they put someone at first who sort of helped us get that lead.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, yeah. They don't. They don't really play defense as well as you'd like them to play defense.

[Guest/Caller]

So could you hear Jason scream all the way from Baltimore? Two out of three.

I was watching with the big boys.

We're looking at.

We're like, we got to get the boys to a summer baseball game at Camden Yards.

Oh, yeah.

Lemonade. Yeah.

[Mark Feinstein]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's really nice.

[Guest/Caller]

It's really nice.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So what else? So I, as I say, I was away. I played golf.

[Guest/Caller]

I have to talk about this briefly.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Our friends live in Lido Beach.

[Guest/Caller]

If you don't know the geography of the south shore of Long island, close in. Close into the Queens border in the New York City.

So this is Suffolk County.

[Tony Kornheiser]

This is Nassau County.

[Guest/Caller]

Nassau County.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Nassau county, close in.

[Guest/Caller]

So there are a bunch of beaches starting in Brooklyn, going through Queens at

[Tony Kornheiser]

Far Rockaway and coming around to Nassau County. There is Atlantic Beach.

[Guest/Caller]

There is Long Beach. There's Lido Beach.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There is Point Lookout. Point Lookout probably has or is the famous concert venue.

[Guest/Caller]

That's Jones Beach. Jones beach is further out, further east. Further east. So Lido beach is.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And this gets sort of complicated. Lido beach and Point Lookout and Atlantic beach are part of the town of Hempstead, under the purview of a town, Hempstead. Long beach is its own separate city.

[Guest/Caller]

So it is not under the purview of the town of Hempstead. The Lido Beach Golf Course, which is owned and run by the town of

[Tony Kornheiser]

Hempstead, gives fabulous discounts if you are a citizen of the town of Hempstead, as does, say, Beth Page. You can pay Beth. You can play Beth page black for 40 bucks if you are a resident of Nassau county, you know, and if you're not, it's.

[Guest/Caller]

I don't know, it's 100 or whatever it is they.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So the town of Hempstead makes available

[Guest/Caller]

the Lido Beach Golf Course for a very small amount of money.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But if you, you know, if you live in Long beach, which is like

[Guest/Caller]

a block away, it's double the price.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Anyway, it gets complicated. This guy Barry played with me, and I took him out. We played as a two. We started out as a three, but

[Guest/Caller]

the three who we played with, John, who was about 40 years younger than us, and hit it where a 40 year younger guy ought to hit it left us at hole number four to join the twosome in front of us better players, younger players. Fine, Totally fine. No problem.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I had played Lido Beach Golf Club

[Guest/Caller]

40 years ago, 50 years ago, when

[Tony Kornheiser]

I was living there and I didn't

[Guest/Caller]

know how to play golf. I don't know how to play golf now.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But I mean, I played once in a while.

[Guest/Caller]

I said, this might be fun. Let's go out and try and do it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There are homes that border it.

[Guest/Caller]

It's bordered.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's about half a mile from the Atlantic Ocean.

[Guest/Caller]

And then there is the inlet, the channel that's, you know, on the other side. So there's water and houses and all of that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And it is.

[Guest/Caller]

And I mean this in the best possible way. It's a dog track. I mean, come on, you know, it's.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's totally flat.

[Guest/Caller]

I walked the entire course. I had a pull cart and walked the whole course. I was proud of myself for that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And it's wide open and, you know,

[Guest/Caller]

there's water, but you can avoid the water.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And I probably shot if I kept

[Guest/Caller]

score, kept score, my head a little bit.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I probably shot in the mid to high 80s. I mean, I had a good day feeling it. Yeah, I had a good day because

[Guest/Caller]

it wasn't the hardest track.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And, and the front tees, everyone knows your game travels. The front tees are the red tees,

[Guest/Caller]

which are normally the women's tees. But Barry and I played them and,

[Tony Kornheiser]

and they made, you know, the reason

[Guest/Caller]

they have a variety of sets of tees on a golf course is to accommodate your ability. Right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

As you get older, you move up

[Guest/Caller]

because of ability and pace of play.

[Tony Kornheiser]

If you're out there hitting three, three

[Guest/Caller]

woods on every single hole after a driver, you're slowing down the group, you're slowing down. Everybody behind you. And that's why people should play at appropriate tees. And our appropriate tees now are the furthest up.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And it was lovely. You know, I had a good time.

[Guest/Caller]

It was about 70 degrees, 75 degrees. It was breezy, not windy. And. And I really. I mean, I really enjoyed myself. I was so happy to do it. I didn't keep an official score or anything like that. So one guy. I'm going. I'm about to walk to the range. Mats on the range. You know, balls that are retrieved from the sea, that are 600 years old,

[Tony Kornheiser]

that are misshapen and horrible to look at.

[Guest/Caller]

You just. You're just going to hit 20 of them.

Nathaniel Hawthorne once hit this.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, you're going to hit just 20

[Guest/Caller]

shots with irons because, you know, you can't hit woods on these greens. It's. It. It's not big enough.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I mean, I can, because I can't

[Guest/Caller]

get it more than 130 yards, but normal people can.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And one guy says to me, oh,

[Guest/Caller]

well, what are you doing here? And I go, well, I. You know, I'm visiting some friends in Lido. I used to live here, so.

He recognized you from Newsday?

Not exactly, no. Because he was about 22 years old, and Newsday was way further back in the rear view. He said, what are you doing? And I told him that. And he goes, no, no. What I mean is, why are you playing this place?

[Tony Kornheiser]

So, what do you want me to do? You want me to play Shinnecock? I'm here. This is what I want to play. I'm not that good, you know, and so. And then we had that. We had that other. You know, and this happens occasionally. Carol hadn't seen this. We are at a Walgreens. We are waiting to be picked up

[Guest/Caller]

at a Walgreens in Long beach after Carol had to buy something, and two

[Tony Kornheiser]

different people come over, and they start. They start, it's him, it's him, it's him. You know, can we take a picture? You know, and they're different people. And she had not seen that.

[Guest/Caller]

And she said, does this happen often?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I said, yeah, sure, it's okay. Because, I mean, her first reaction is,

[Guest/Caller]

well, you're bothering us.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, you're not.

[Guest/Caller]

It's lovely. It's completely lovely. It's fine. They tell you their life story, and you pose for a picture, and it's lovely. But I enjoyed.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I enjoyed playing Lido.

[Guest/Caller]

I hadn't played it in so many years, and I enjoyed it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And it's, you know, three of the

[Guest/Caller]

Greens were temporary greens. So they're trying to fix the course up. It's hard. It's because it is buffeted by, you know, weather all the time. But it was, you know what I mean? It was really nice to play. It was a muni.

It's back. But it's back to your origins. What's interesting for me is there is a famous Lido golf club from, you know, 100 some odd years ago.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I learned all about it when that

[Guest/Caller]

course was originally built and it was not on the site where it is now. It was more in town. It was considered the best course in America.

[Michael Wilbon]

Wow.

[Guest/Caller]

And they tried to recreate it historically. They tried. I was told to recreate it in Minnesota, but it doesn't have the wind, you know, it does. It's not quite the same.

[Tony Kornheiser]

They brought.

[Guest/Caller]

Who they brought it bring in to do the course on one of the redos.

Was that a doke?

[Michael Wilbon]

No, no.

[Guest/Caller]

Way earlier than that. More famous.

Oh, you're thinking about Rayner.

Yes, Seth Rayner. You know, so I mean it, you know, there's.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There is this place. It's the end of.

[Guest/Caller]

It is the southernmost part of Long Island. Now the southernmost part of long island stretches 100 miles. But you can't get any further south than pretty much on the ocean.

Right.

It doesn't work that way, you know,

[Tony Kornheiser]

next stop is Portugal. That's how it works.

[Guest/Caller]

But it was great fun.

Do you swing through a dairy barn?

There was no Dariborne. There was a marvel though. Okay, so the Marvell. And you're gonna say Marvel, you mean Carvell. And I go, no, I mean Marvell. Marvell was opened in Long beach. Actually. It's technically in Lido. It's gotta be 75, 80 years ago. And they named it Marvell because Carvel was so popular.

Is it an ice cream place as well?

Yes, it's a custard place. It's still there. It still looks exactly the way it looked then. Made me so happy to think it was still there. A lot of things were still there. I went by my old house, the first house I ever bought at 537 East Harrison street in Long Beach. And these were one floor houses. When, when I bought this house, I bought this house for $29,500. You cannot get a car for that now. 29,500.

Still working off that mortgage.

It was. That mortgage is paid off. The others have not been. That is, it was one floor. It had four or five rooms and one bathroom. That's all. That's all it was when the Hurricane Sandy went through about eight or 10 years ago and destroyed much of Long beach and Atlantic beach and Point Lookout and Lido beach. People built up. My old house now has three floors. I did not recognize it. It's a different color. It's straight up and down. If I hadn't seen the number, I wouldn't have known it. But the house next door where Harvey and Jeannie Pace lived is still that same one floor, four or five room, one bathroom house, which made me very happy, very happy to be there 14 years ago. Sandy oh yeah, it was before COVID And so everybody built, you know, everything had to be built.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We'll take a break. Michael Wilbon when we return.

[Guest/Caller]

I'm Tony Kornheiser.

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[Michael Wilbon]

York

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this episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it, ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses. Setup required. Compatibility and availability varies. 18 this is the Tony Kornheiser Show

[Mark Feinstein]

Tony Kornheiser show

[Tony Kornheiser]

this is and we have played him before, Gus Gustofferson. It is not Kris Kristofferson. It's Gus Gustofferson who said I wanted to send along two songs from my corner of the world here in St. John's Newfoundland in Canada. This is my first new single, Love. The song came out on June 18th. The song is about the different ways

[Guest/Caller]

we've shared music over the years, from

[Tony Kornheiser]

records to to burn CDs to Spotify

[Guest/Caller]

playlists and how despite all the changes in technology, people still fall in love

[Tony Kornheiser]

with songs because someone they care about shared them.

[Guest/Caller]

It's also my little tribute to punk rock, since those were the songs that got passed along to me.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I've recently had it played on radio

[Guest/Caller]

at a few different spots across Canada and DJs that spun it said good things.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's very lovely that he sends us.

[Guest/Caller]

You know, he says thank you for playing my music. You're playing my music has opened some

[Tony Kornheiser]

doors for me here in Canada.

[Guest/Caller]

How cool is that your jingle segment and it's truly a gift to independent artists.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Happy to do that. Plays in Michael Wilbon and I have to read this email from John B.

[Guest/Caller]

In Chantilly, Virginia.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Wilbon will love this. I just read a short article that

[Guest/Caller]

Hallmark Movies will be making a Chicago Bears Christmas movie.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I predict the movie to follow a

[Guest/Caller]

woman who just recently gave up on

[Tony Kornheiser]

love and had to move back home to run her dad's Italian beef restaurant

[Guest/Caller]

stand, which also sells Christmas trees in downtown Chicago. She isn't looking for love, but finds

[Tony Kornheiser]

it when a man, down on his

[Guest/Caller]

luck and hungry for a beef sandwich while needing a Christmas tree, stumbles on the stand. It's love at first bite.

[Tony Kornheiser]

They bond over the success of the Chicago Bears iceman of a quarterback with a bet that if the Bears win the Packers Bears games, she must go on a date. She reluctantly agrees to the bet that

[Guest/Caller]

following Sunday, the Bears pull off another miraculous victory against their heated rivals.

[Tony Kornheiser]

The woman and man go on a date at Mike Ditka's Steakhouse, then go

[Guest/Caller]

to a gazebo at Navy Pier overlooking

[Tony Kornheiser]

the great, wonderful Lake Michigan.

[Guest/Caller]

They have their first kiss, where love rings abound.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Then her dad has a heart attack, his 10th one, after eating a Polish sausage.

[Guest/Caller]

He's in the hospital, but luckily the

[Tony Kornheiser]

man she met is a cardiologist who heals her dad to perfect health. They fall madly in love, and the rest, as they say, is history. The ending shows them all at a Bears game against the Lions where you see Wilbon with Richard Dent, Michael Jordan and Dick Butkus.

[Mark Feinstein]

Well, not.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Not Dick Butkus, all cheering for the Bears victory. Do you think Wilbon will agree to be in the movie or will he say no? I am not surprised about this movie. Not shocked at all. I expected her to fall in love

[Guest/Caller]

with the man and for him to

[Tony Kornheiser]

save her father's life. I will hang up and listen. John B. From Chantilly, Virginia, Luke Russert. They did this last year with the Buffalo Bills and Russert was in it. Would you be in it if they asked you?

[Michael Wilbon]

No, no, no.

[Windows 11 Advertiser]

Why?

[Michael Wilbon]

I'm not an actor.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Neither is Luke.

[Michael Wilbon]

I know you and Stephen A. Like to, you know, be showman. That's not what I did.

[Guest/Caller]

Excuse Me? I've seen you in Mr. 3000.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes, you're in Mr. 3000.

[Gus Gustofferson]

You're in.

[Michael Wilbon]

That was different.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, you're in the Michael B. Jordan movie.

[Guest/Caller]

Oh, yeah, Creed.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah, but pti. PTI was in that. Not me in some cameo. Not the same.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You would not.

[Michael Wilbon]

Gazebo. There's no gazebo at Davey Pierre, so you wouldn't.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Was a gazebo in all the Hallmark movies, all of which are filmed in Toronto. They're all feeling. So you would. If they asked you. Mike, would you please just be in. We'll give you one line. Would you do it?

[Michael Wilbon]

Really? No. No, you can't do that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I would.

[Michael Wilbon]

You know Italian beef, right? No, he's making that 100 yards from me.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He's making that up.

[Michael Wilbon]

That was pretty good. That was better than the gazebo at Navy Tier.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, so you would not be in it.

[Guest/Caller]

What if it was Perry Mason?

[Tony Kornheiser]

What if Raymond Burr was brought back?

[Michael Wilbon]

Perry. I told you guys, I get my shirts done. I get my dress shirts made in the very shop that Perry Mason had suits made when he was. When Raymond Burr. Raymond Burr had suits made when he was Perry Mason. And I was like, it looked similar. It looked familiar to me on television. And I say to one of the proprietors, I just said, you know, this is crazy, but this looks like the street or the facade where Perry Mason. And he goes, yeah, because he is so great. So great, so awesome.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Let me stay with this. What if Dent agreed and Waddle agreed and they said, mike, you gotta just stand with us. You just have to stand with us.

[Michael Wilbon]

Those guys are. Those guys are Bears, man. I'm not a Bear. I'm not a Bear. I'm a Bear fanatic. But those guys actually wore the jerseys.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I understand. Luke didn't wear the jersey when he was in the Buffalo one.

[Michael Wilbon]

Tell me what numbers you can, and I'll do it. If you tell me what numbers Denton

[Tony Kornheiser]

Waddle wore without help, I don't have any. I don't Waddle. I would have no chance. I know that.

[Guest/Caller]

Butkus were 51.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I know that.

[Michael Wilbon]

No, no, no. Dent. Only Super Bowl MVP the Bears ever had. You don't know.

[Tony Kornheiser]

86.

[Michael Wilbon]

Actually, I'm a little surpr.

[Guest/Caller]

85.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Not close.

[Michael Wilbon]

And Waddle were 87.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I would never know Waddle. I mean, he's a white out.

[Guest/Caller]

I would not have.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I mean, the last important. You know, the least important thing on the Chicago Bears was the whiteout. Like, you could have been the wideout.

[Michael Wilbon]

Well, that's not exactly.

[Tony Kornheiser]

They didn't I don't want.

[Michael Wilbon]

I don't want Waddle to hear this, but. Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, it's.

[Guest/Caller]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay.

[Home Depot Advertiser]

I watched.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I was away. I watched no soccer over the weekend. None. You watched how much?

[Michael Wilbon]

A lot. A lot. Yeah. Now that's. That's. That's, you know, what's relevant in the world right now? I watch no golf. Not a swing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh, no, you missed. It was good. Wait, you didn't even watch Nelly Corda sort of blow up on the back nine.

[Michael Wilbon]

I did watch some of that. I watched the lpga.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right.

[Michael Wilbon]

There's no golf until the British Open. That's just the deal. There's no golf.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Your girl shot 73, was over on the day and was over on the back and rinsed it.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yep, Yep. She didn't have a good turn. Look, even the greatest. Even the number one player can't beat, as we know, with Scotty Scheffler. Scotty Scheffler would, if he can win this playoff, will just be getting the second win of the year.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, let me go over this.

[Guest/Caller]

You.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There was a leaderboard yesterday. Everyone within two shots of Scheffler, Hovland, Morikawa Clark and Matty Fitz. And you didn't watch it?

[Michael Wilbon]

No, no, I was available to watch it. I don't. I wasn't available. I was doing something much more important in Washington, D.C. downtown with some people. You know, I was sort of the subject of participant in a fireside chat at, you know, a new club in D.C. fabulous club, Ned.

[Guest/Caller]

I've been there.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I went there with Sally. We had dinner.

[Mark Feinstein]

Was.

[Michael Wilbon]

Okay.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

So I was there yesterday. That went on from like 2 to 6 and then a little dinner at Joe's. And that went on till about 8:30. So. No. No golf. No golf.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. We are apparently playing. We, the United States are apparently playing Bosnia.

[Michael Wilbon]

Her.

[Guest/Caller]

Slovenia.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm gonna guess we should beat them. Yes.

[Michael Wilbon]

No, we've won. We've lost 12 straight times to Europe.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Really?

[Michael Wilbon]

European countries, 12 straight. The last time we beat somebody was Bosnia, I think, in 2021. Right. So. No, I. No, I'm not going to say we should beat them. No. I realize in the rankings they're probably similar, but at this point you got to throw that out. And I don't know. I mean, the US Is playing so well.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Michael Wilbon]

And if Pulisic looks like he did in that cameo. More than cameo. 25 or so minutes in the third game, the final group game, then. Okay. I mean, you know, maybe, but I don't know what the betting odds are. I don't care. I just.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't. I don't either. I just assume that the. That the form we're in, that we should win, because I don't. I don't think of Bosnia Herzegovina as Spain or Germany or France.

[Michael Wilbon]

Do you know. Do you know the form Bosnias in.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, I do not.

[Guest/Caller]

I do know.

[Michael Wilbon]

You're just. You're doing Hairy America and you're doing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Michael Wilbon]

You know, we're playing well, so we gotta win.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, I wouldn't say that. Against Spain.

[Michael Wilbon]

I wouldn't say it again. When I said just now we've lost 12 straight games. I didn't say to Spain or France or Spain, France and Germany. I said anybody from Europe.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right.

[Michael Wilbon]

Which informs. That's going to inform my leading until I see otherwise. And then, great, you know, maybe we beat Bosnia and then we got to go against, you know, somebody from Europe that's, you know, England or something, you know. You know. But until then, I'm not going to get. I'm not going to get crazy with.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Is there any team that you watch that is playing either far better or far worse than you thought?

[Michael Wilbon]

I don't think Spain's playing particularly well. They've come on lately. Germany hasn't. You know, I know they had a couple of big wins, but it's like, nobody don't know that they're playing that well. You heard me ask Taylor Twelman that sort of. On the side last week, Brazil. Not, not, not, you know, not burning it up, not looking like Brazil, you know, of, you know, recent. Of usual vintage.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right.

[Michael Wilbon]

So, you know, it's just, it's. But the African nations are like, wow. Like, are you kidding? Where'd this come from? Not to mention every country out there. I mean, you look at, like, Norway and the Netherlands, and half the players are of African descent.

[Mark Feinstein]

Yep.

[Michael Wilbon]

I don't mean. I don't mean five generations ago. I mean, like now. And it's like, man, what soccer is, it looks different, it sounds different, and I don't know how that's going to play in the knockout round.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, I mean, I can't speak with any authority whatsoever on this, but I think that soccer has traditionally been a sport in which someone claims ancestral right to play for a certain team, even though they, A, don't speak the language and B, haven't ever lived there. And it's okay. Soccer makes. Soccer says it's okay, right?

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah, but that's not what this is. And that's one of the reasons I actually watch World cup to get a finger on the pulse of what is going on worldwide. What you have, and I know this from visiting Ireland a few years ago, is you have a situation maybe where it could be. It wasn't the case. It isn't the case of island refugees who migrated across the world to 18, 20 years ago. And now when I go to Dublin, I'm walking through the streets of Dublin and it looks like walking through the streets of New York City. And I'm like, wait a minute. When did this happen?

[Mark Feinstein]

Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

And you can have people, tour guides, smart people say, well, here's what happened. People came across the country 20 years ago and were here. And now I walked in the University of Dublin and the students, it looked like a Benetton ad from the 80s.

[Guest/Caller]

Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

And so no. So no, that is, they do. They do speak the language. They live there. But not people who. In Norway and the Netherlands.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But half the people on the United States team have not never been here.

[Michael Wilbon]

I don't think. I don't think that's true.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh, I.

[Michael Wilbon]

Not at all.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I do.

[Michael Wilbon]

I think.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I think they're citizens somewhere else.

[Michael Wilbon]

Listen to the, listen to the interviews. No, they sound like basketball and NFL players. And no, they know. And so when you, you hear the native talk, Japan's goalkeeper is black.

[Mark Feinstein]

Japan.

[Michael Wilbon]

I'm not guessing. I'm telling you because I watch. I'm not watching golf, watching World cup because I want to see what is happening in the world. Golf ain't gonna tell me that. Cause golf ain't got that many people. Even after Tiger who look like me,

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm more interested in what's happening around the block. Cause I don't go through the world anymore.

[Mark Feinstein]

I don't.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm too old to go anywhere.

[Michael Wilbon]

We're not gonna be the same on that. All right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, I'll see you later.

[Michael Wilbon]

All right.

[Guest/Caller]

Tom Michael Wilbon, boys and girls.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We'll take a break. Mark Feinsand will join us when we return.

[Guest/Caller]

I'm Tony Kornheiser.

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[Tony Kornheiser]

You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show. The Tony Kornheiser Show.

[Gus Gustofferson]

When the going gets weird, do we, do we?

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's the name of the song Weird Turn Pro. This is once again Gus Gustofferson who listens to the show and is our friend in Newfoundland in Canada. Michael, if people like Gus Christopherson who make original music want to have that music played on the show, how do they go about it?

[Guest/Caller]

Send us your music by emailing it to Jingles at Tony Konizer show plays

[Tony Kornheiser]

in Mark Feinstein I was a little bit surprised to read the other day it had to do with the Nationals. That The Nationals were one game over.500. That wasn't the weird part for me, but that the season was already half over. In my mind, the season had just started. I mean, I realize we're at the end of June, beginning of July, but in my mind they had played 50 games. They hadn't played 81 games. And so I would ask you, as someone who covers baseball, what is to you the biggest surprise at the halfway mark, which we have just passed? The single biggest surprise?

[Mark Feinstein]

I mean, how could it not be the first place Chicago White Sox, right? I mean, this is a team that lost 122 games two years ago and was terrible again last year. And Chris Gets, the general manager, has done a really nice job of bringing in some pieces and developing some players. And you know, they signed Murakami, who's been hurt right now, but was just a revelation, killing it first, killing it when he first hit the majors. And this was a guy who got a two year, $34 million contract and it seemed like everybody in the league said, well, he's going to strike out too much and I'm not sure the power is going to translate from Japan to the majors, but it certainly did. And when he got hurt then people said, well, it was a nice run for the White Sox, but now they just lost their best hitter and yet they're still in first place. So if you have to think about surprises, I think you Start right there on the. On the south side of Chicago.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Why is the American League so bad?

[Mark Feinstein]

It's terrible. I don't know. I don't know. And it's sort of fascinating to look at the standings, and we're halfway through the season, and all these teams that are under.500 by several games are three games out of a wild card. Yes, four games, four and a half. There are only three teams in each league right now that are more than four and a half games out of a playoff spot. And when you consider that one of the teams in a playoff spot in the American League is under.500, it's terrible. I don't really have an answer for it. A lot of mediocrity, you know, fewer powerhouses. But I don't know. We've got a couple of really bad teams that are losing a lot of games. But there's no real explanation, as far as I can tell, as to why the National League has so many more teams over.500. I mean, obviously they're. They must be pounding them in injury league. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but yeah, the American League right now is just in sort of a weird bad spot. And if you looked at ranking the best teams in baseball, if you took the top 10, how many would be in the American League? Maybe two. I mean, the National League is clearly, you know, the superior league to this point in the season.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I agree with you on the White Sox because they were historically bad at one point and it was very, very recent. But I also thought you could have said the Mets, because I will ask you, the Mets were never supposed to fire their manager, but he said, we're not firing the manager. Then they fired the manager. What do you make of the Mets?

[Mark Feinstein]

Yeah, I think the Mets are a bit of a disaster. This season has gone terribly for them. You know, I think the worst thing that happened to David Stearns and the Mets was making that NLCS run in 2024, because he took over that year with the idea of sort of getting a feel for the team and starting to build something there. And instead they had this late season run and they got to the nlcs. And now all of a sudden it was up. They better win the World Series next year. And they signed Soto and then they had. Obviously this was a very eventful winter for the Mets. Stearns got rid of some of the fan favorites. They let Alonzo walk. That hasn't looked like a very good move. You know, Brandon Nimmo, Edwin Diaz, who ended up getting Hurt, but would he have gotten hurt if he was still with the Mets, etc. David Stearns has had a rough go as the president of baseball operations for the Mets. And you know, some people think that he believes he's too smart for his own good or at least he thinks he's too smart for his own good. He refuses to spend money on free agent pitching. And then every year we sit here and look at the Mets and say, well, they don't have enough pitching. Well, yeah, because they don't pay for it. And that's what you have to do in this league. And when you look at the teams that are, you know, the World Series contenders and the ones who you really expect to be there, you know, the Dodgers pay for pitching, the Yankees pay for pitching, you know, the Phillies pay for pitching. So I just think, you know, bringing in Freddie Peralta, spurs had Freddie Peralta in Milwaukee, really good pitcher, but he's a five inning guy. He's not going to be a grinding ace who gives you seven or eight innings. You're not bringing in Jarrett Cole here, you're not bringing in, you know, Yamamoto and the Mets just haven't had enough pitching. I think firing Mendoza was probably the first step in Stearns trying to just do something to save his job and to save the Met season because he's hoping for the Philadelphia effect of, well, wasn't really Rob Thompson's fault, but we fired him. Don Mattingly came in and we got a bump from that. So they're hoping that they get a similar bump by making a managerial change. But anybody who has watched the Mets this year, if you're blaming Carlos Mendoza for what's been going on there, between the injuries and the underperformance, you know, you're just looking for a scapegoat.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You think Stearns will be fired?

[Mark Feinstein]

I think if they miss the playoffs, which certainly it appears that unless they have a big second half bounce back, they're going to, there's a good chance, I mean, Steve Cohen spending upwards of $400 million a year on this team's payroll and to miss the playoffs in back to back years would be a colossal failure. That said, Stearns was the, you know, the guy that Cohen wanted and firing Stearns after three seasons would be admitting failure on Cohen's part. And Steve Cohen hasn't failed in very many things in his business life. So you know, maybe he's convinced that there's another way to force Earns to do it. But again, missing the playoffs two years in a row while spending, you know, nearly $800 million and in payroll seems like something that could certainly cost David his job.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You mentioned Don Mattingly in the bump the Phillies got. It really is. It's right there. It's the same thing that happened with John Tortorella, you know, in hockey with Las Vegas. Is this coincidental or does Mattingly bring something that's different?

[Mark Feinstein]

I think it's coincidental. You know, it was good timing for Mattingly that they got Zach Wheeler back

[Michael Wilbon]

when he took over.

[Mark Feinstein]

He's been outstanding. The Phillies were underperforming. And if you look at, you know, if you believe in the old back of the baseball card theory of these guys will regress to the mean or, you know, or rise to the mean one way or another. They were having a bad season. And again, I don't think it's Rob Thompson's fault. Just three or four years ago they got the same bump when they fired Joe Girardi and gave Rob Thompson's job.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And that's right.

[Mark Feinstein]

So, you know, I think sometimes these things are. I'm not sure that Mattingly brings something, but when a manager gets fired midseason, sometimes it sends a message to the team to say, all right, that was the first move. If this doesn't get any better, there are more moves to come and they're going to involve some of you. You know, Dave Dombrowski is not a shy executive when it comes to making trades. So, you know, maybe it served as a bit of a wake up call, but I think getting Wheeler back, getting some guys healthy, their outfield is still a train wreck. And now Adoles Garcia is out for the year, although he was having a terrible year to begin with. So maybe him being out will only make them better in the long run. But the Phillies have certainly played well and I think, you know, the fact that they're only three games behind the Braves now, we're going to be in for a fun race this summer. And, you know, we talked about the surprises earlier with the White Sox. I think you have to look at your Nets and the Marlins in that same vein of nobody, and I mean nobody expected the Nationals and the Marlins to be in the playoff race halfway through the season. And yet here we are and they both are. So, you know, I think seeing how some of these teams react on August 3rd trade deadline will be really fascinating. Does Paul Taboni go out and buy or does he say this is a great learning experience and however this plays out, it plays out, but I'm not going to Mortgage any of the future to try to win a wild card spot with a team that probably isn't ready to advance deep into October?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, not if they have to play the Phillies in the the actual ninth inning.

[Michael Wilbon]

No, they're not.

[Mark Feinstein]

Not if they have again, maybe they go out and get somebody who can pitch that ninth inning. That would probably help them. But I was working on a story that's coming out this week about what each contending team needs. And I swear of the 2014 was 24 teams are still contenders at this point. I think like 19 of them, it was either rotation or bullpen. So pitching rules the day. And you know, it's going to be a lot of arms moved, but I don't think we're going to see a whole lot of action until those last two or three days because these executives are going to give their teams as much time as they can to decide if they are contenders or sellers. And with this sort of jumbled picture in the standings, we're not going to know that until the last 48 hours before the deadline.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Let me shift gears completely. It has tangentially to do with pitching, but I'd like. We have now gone half a season with the automatic ball strike challenges. I have enjoyed them. I know they add a little bit more time to the games, but I enjoy watching everyone. The catcher at the Gnats, Kubert, Ruiz is probably over 6,000 now. They lose their challenges in the first inning. Like, what does baseball, what do you think think of the challenges? What does baseball think of the challenges? Is it helping?

[Mark Feinstein]

I think it is. I think the time that it's taking is minimal. You know, when a hitter or pitcher or the catcher challenge that pitch and that that graphics up on the scoreboard within five, six seconds.

[Guest/Caller]

Yep.

[Mark Feinstein]

And you get the call. Right. The fans seem to really enjoy it. You know, watching that graphic and seeing that ball come in and is there a little bit of red or not? You know, certainly when you get somebody who challenged the pitch and it's one of those just like no doubt or oh, the ball was right down the middle and somehow the pitcher challenged it or, you know, the catcher challenged it. Those are fun. But I think anything that helps get things right is good for the game and it doesn't add a lot of time. It's not like the replay situation where you're going, you know, the umpire's got to throw the headset on and then talk people back in New York and you've got a two minute delay where everybody just sort of, you know, they're, they're playing music to try to divert the fans attention from the fact that, no, nothing's happening. This is pretty instantaneous. And, you know, the catchers are certainly having some fun with itself. Or as you can tell, he gets such a kick out of sort of challenging a pitch, getting it right. There was one at bat a few weeks ago where he challenged, I think three pitches in a row and I think Latin Diaz was the home plate umpire. He won all three challenges. And then, and then on the fourth pitch, it was way out of the zone and Laz called it a ball and looked down and saw Perez say, you're going to challenge that one too there, buddy. So they're having some fun with it. But I think when you look at the pitch clock and you look at the ABS system, MLB has really, you know, made some, some changes here that have been excellent for the game, for the pace of the game and for getting things right. And I think, you know, they've got to be really happy with the way it's gone so far.

[Guest/Caller]

Good.

[Tony Kornheiser]

This makes me happy because I enjoy looking at it. I do. Thank you, Mark. We will talk soon.

[Mark Feinstein]

Thanks, Tony.

[Michael Wilbon]

Have a good one.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Mark Feinstein, boys and girls. We will come back with email and jingle. I'm Tony Kornheiser.

[Jingle Singer]

You thought this was your run club era. Turns out it was more of a thinking about run club era. The good news? Someone's marathon training is about to start. Sell your workout gear on Depop. Just snap a few photos and we'll take care of the rest. They get their race day fit and you get a payout for trying. Someone on Depop wants what you've got. Start selling now. Depop, where taste recognizes taste.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show SA. This is from Phil Coleman in Tucson, Arizona, who writes, after hearing the beautiful yet horrifyingly realistic AI versions of the mailbag theme, I felt inspired again to write another version of the mailbag jingle. With the help of the woman to whom I'm related by marriage. I would like to believe every musician has a particular piece of music that inspired them to work hard and get good. As my wife and I say for me, Arthur Pryor's Bluebells of Scotland was that piece I dreamt of playing as a kid. It has everything I love about music. Flashy and technical sections with unaccompanied cadenza as cadenzas as well as slow and beautiful sections. I submit a flashy version of the mailbag theme in the style of that beautiful piece of music. And through the power of music editing software, I'm accompanying myself on the piano, even though I am the official euphonium mist of this stinking show. You once read an email from retired Colonel Michael Colburn and let's just say that my behind clenched up. You see, Colonel Colburn may be more known as the 27th Director of the United States Marine Band, but his recordings playing the euphonium were my inspiration for sound and style of playing. While I don't have the chops I did when I finished my masters in 2009, I hope this and other recordings I perform makes him and fellow brass players proud. That's just lovely. From Phil Coleman. You want to do the Bethesda Bagel ad for us?

[Guest/Caller]

Yes. And before I get to that, speaking of Colonel Michael Colburn, we got a note from him. He's now living up in Northernmont, but he's the director of the Orchestra of Northern New York and they have a few shows going on for the 250 celebration of your country in on July 1st in Watertown, July 2nd in Potsdam, and July.

[Tony Kornheiser]

These are upstate New York.

[Guest/Caller]

Upstate New York, yes, in July 3rd in Ogdensburg.

[Home Depot Advertiser]

So.

[Guest/Caller]

Oh sure, yeah, you will want to make sure you go to these. These are going to be free.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Sometimes they're free.

[Guest/Caller]

I think these are free.

[Tony Kornheiser]

If not, just pay a nominal amount. Yeah, yeah. Well look at the praise that he just received.

[Guest/Caller]

Yeah, no, this is any. And this is all former professional orchestra people. So this is really great. And Bethesda Bagels, we love them. Got the bagel sandwich and say just go to Bethesda Bagels.com for the location in the DC area near you. Then pop on in and you'll be thrilled.

[Tony Kornheiser]

From Todd from Crawfordsville, Indiana, longtime listener, second time emailer. On a recent episode, you shared a note from musical artist Norwegian Soft Kitten who recounted a performance at Wabash College, a school of 900 men in Crawfordsville, Indiana. I thought, wait, I've heard of Wabash College. In fact, I'm the dean of the

[Mark Feinstein]

the college at Wabash.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Prior to being dean, I was professor of rhetoric and taught classes like Freshman seminar on Baseball and the Rhetoric of Sport. I'm guessing Norwegian Soft Kittens visit may have predated my 28 years at the school. I am fond of saying Wabash is everywhere despite its small size. This includes being an athletic conference rival of Nigel's Denison University, whom we beat 36 nothing in football this past year. Admittedly, Denison won the D3 baseball championship this year. So I guess they have bragged bragging rights for now. Each fall I introduce new faculty the Board of Trustees. A couple of years ago when we had a political new political scientist who earned her PhD from Binghamton, I noted it as Tony Kornhouse's alma mater. I expected that reference bewildered most of the attendees. But one of the trustees who has been mentioned at least once on his high quality podcast, responded with a hearty lecheserie. Mr. Tony also is indeed everywhere.

[Guest/Caller]

Yeah, where's the salute?

[Tony Kornheiser]

If the role is not already taken, I humbly request to be the unofficial dean of the college at the Tony Kornizer Show. Sure, you got it. That's very, very lovely. Double secret John Goldblum, who we talk to all the time.

[Guest/Caller]

Yes, we love. We love talking.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes, gang, I just wanted to update you that the Hindu wedding ceremonies from my daughter Genavi and the person to whom she is now married, Zach, occurred this past weekend in Cleveland. Ceremonies were perfect, as was the food, music and dancing. Although I typically tried to hide in the bathroom during the horror, I have an unnatural loathing of the tradition. My wife threatened me with divorce or even worse, no Indian food if I ditched my own daughter's horror dance. I survived to write this email, but more importantly, I lasted to sing the traditional last song at the bar Mitzvahs and weddings. Born to Run. Sure, everybody uses that. Screamed every word you know with everybody was left standing and attached pictures.

[Guest/Caller]

That's wonderful.

[Tony Kornheiser]

From Josh Harpool. Does this count as my first David Aldridge? While listening to the POD and hearing that Chuck Todd was vacationing in Florida, I assumed he was in Miami. Maybe Tampa. Hell, I would have even guessed Jacksonville. But never in a million years would I have guessed Pensacola, Florida. Yeah, as it is a town that I happen to live in and practice medicine. Now don't get me wrong, Pensacola has some of the most beautiful beaches in the country, great seafood, and is one of Florida's best kept secrets. But it's definitely more Roll Tide than Go Cane's. And if Chuck is still in town, tell him oysters and a cold one at the Grand Marlin are on me. Isn't that nice? Kenny Ray Fort Walton Beach, Florida Chuck Todd Goes to Pensacola Blue Wahoos games. I've had the Saturday night season ticket package since their inaugural season in 2012. I'll be at the next Saturday game on July 11th. Tell Chuck to come look for me in section 108 on the first base side. First rounds on me. Chuck Todd is really we got all these Michael Granberry Kudos to Chuck Todd for calling out the ridiculous restrictions placed on a television package by mlb.com but I have one that will even top the blackout rule that prohibits Chuck from watching the Nationals should they play in the Tampa market, which, as he noted is more than 400 miles from Pensacola, where he was staying when it happened to him. Let's say Chuck and his family wanted to visit Alaska, which of course a lot of people do. If Chuck were staying in Anchorage, he could watch the Nationals via his MLB package unless they were playing the Mariners in Seattle or in Washington, DC. It turns out that MLB.com views the entire state of Alaska as part of the Mariners home market. Google tells me that Alaska spans a total area of 665,384 square miles. Wow, that is some home market Mariners. So both the home and road games and the Mariners are blacked out on the MLB package in Alaska. Unless I suppose you're forced to fork over even more for the Mariners broadcast package. But hey guys, let's get real here. Anchorage, the biggest city in Alaska, is also, According to Google, 2,289 miles from Seattle, which hardly seems, at least to me, like a home market infringement. Just for comparison, Seattle is roughly halfway between Anchorage and Dallas, and I haven't read anywhere that Dallas is now threatening Fort Worth as the city that, you know, Seattle is now threatening Fort Worth as the city closest to Dallas. I actually lived in Anchorage from 1975 to 1970, six months after graduating from college, and made the best friends of my life there. So I'll go out on a limb here. I'll bet that you can count the number of die hard Mariners fans in

[Guest/Caller]

Anchorage on the pause of any dog

[Tony Kornheiser]

sled racing in next year's iditarod. Mush on MLB. Jacob Ironside in Dubuque, Iowa listening to Chuck Todd bemoan the MLB's draconian blackout

[Guest/Caller]

rules, I could feel his pain.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I live in Iowa, a state, believe it or not, has no Major League Baseball teams. One would think that would spare us from blackout rules, but it's the opposite. Baseball fans in Iowa get blacked out for the Cubs, White Sox, Twins, Royals, brewers and Cardinals.

[Guest/Caller]

That's brilliant.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That stinks.

[Guest/Caller]

That's terrible.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's 1/5th of the league. I have the MLB package and none of those teams are available to watch for me. As I've gotten older, my old man rage has only grown over this ridiculous issue. You can get some teams local broadcasts with a cable package, but are usually at the whims of the cable company on which team they'll give you. And in no instance will you get all six teams. That's terrible.

[Guest/Caller]

Yeah, I got it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

MLB.com should have some knowledge of that. You want to grow baseball? Don't cut out an entire state.

[Guest/Caller]

Yeah, make it available to people.

[Mark Feinstein]

Come on.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I mean, that's why they all watch Caitlin Clark. Because they couldn't watch baseball.

[Windows 11 Advertiser]

Exactly.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Blaine from Atlanta, Texas. Not Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta, Texas. Recently, I emailed noting that I am from Atlanta, Texas, and you asked where that is. After hearing Chuck Todd detail his MLB blackout scenario in Florida, I feel compelled to tell you my story. Atlanta, Texas is in the northeast corner of the state, 30 minutes each from Arkansas and Louisiana. For television purposes, I am in the Shreveport, Louisiana market. 153 miles to my west is Dallas, 263 miles is Houston. So explain why I can't watch the Yankees, my team of choice, when they are playing the Rangers or Astros. It's outrageous to me. Blackouts. Hocus pocus junk. Yes, from Steve the Sycophant, my Google machine just let me know that. Monday, June 29th. That's tonight. That's is strawberry moon night. Yes, the first full moon of the summer received the name of Strawberry from many Native American tribes such as Algonquin, Ojibwe, Dakota and Chippewa, as the wild strawberries were at their peak as the moon filled. So when the moon is officially full at 7:56 tonight Eastern Time, look up and enjoy. Oh, and the moon's color will be more of a golden peach color than

[Guest/Caller]

strawberry, but still looks great.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Is it supposed to be a clear night in Washington?

[Guest/Caller]

It's a little cloudy. Yeah, I'll take the kids out.

[Tony Kornheiser]

From Lisa T. On the road again. On a quickly thrown together long weekend in upstate New York, I had to find somewhere for us to stay en route the first night because our destination was available all the nights except one. Online. I saw a hotel in Glens Falls. Yeah. And I thought, well, there's a little from there who gets emails read on TK's pod.

[Guest/Caller]

So that's good enough for me.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes, David Carpenter's daughter gets emails read. Never been there before. But the hotel looked fine, so I booked it. We arrived, checked in, got the keys, and glanced at the envelope to see the room number 5. 11. To no one in particular, I said, of course, 5 and 11. You can't make this stuff up.

[Guest/Caller]

The universe loves the littles.

[Tony Kornheiser]

From Mark Spoor, the official bowling coach of the Tony Kornheiser show, Clifton Park, New York is between Albany and Saratoga Springs. That's it. That's email. I must have asked, where's Clifton Park, New York? From Nicole Dear Farmer Tony, Just thought you'd like to know that it is illegal in Massachusetts for businesses to refuse cash as payment. And on Cape Cod you'll find a plethora of cash only spots who even in the year of AI 2026, are holding on to the one true legal tender. Thanks for all the years of laughs and nuanced sports debate. Thank you from Lee in Vienna, Virginia. With all this rum talk, I'm disappointed that no one has mentioned two great rum quotes from the Godfather Part 2. Fredo entertaining the group in Havana on New Year's Eve, suggests that they try one of the local drinks like Cuba Libre or Pina Colada. The best, though, is when Fredo asks, how do you say banana daiquiri? And Michael replies, deadpan, Banana daiquiri. Pure gold.

[Guest/Caller]

Thanks for all the laughs.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Chip Robinson, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina he's much too humble to say it, but when you ask Chuck Culpepper, he follows soccer and he mentioned moving to the UK in 2006. What he didn't mention was he wrote

[Guest/Caller]

a book about the sport.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's called Bloody Confused and all the littles should check it out. He is a brilliant writer.

[Guest/Caller]

Yes, he is.

[Tony Kornheiser]

From Barry Sentner in dayton On Sunday, July 5, Peacock is carrying all baseball games, including Nationals, Hosting Pirates at 4pm Bone up on your Spanish. No, you just yell in when it says, what do you want? You say NBC Sports, NBC Sports. NBC Sports. That's what helps you. And from Sean Griffin in Leesburg, Virginia, Chuck Culpepper mentioned a whaling museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts. As a fourth grade student in the Sachem School District in Suffolk County, New York, home of Jeff Ruland, Sachem High School, I went on a field trip to a whaling museum in Cold Spring Harbor. I remember nothing from the trip. Incidentally, the population of Suffolk county is three times the size of the population of Cape Verde. When does eastern Long island get a World cup too? If you're out on your bike tonight, everyone, as always, do wear white.

[Windows 11 Advertiser]

I'm pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have in fact caught and killed a large predator.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh good.

[Windows 11 Advertiser]

That supposedly injured some bathers. But as you see, it's a beautiful day, the beaches are open and the people are having a wonderful time. Amity, as you know, means friendship.

[Musician]

You put the needle down on a record that Saturday. I lied so I would look dumb in front of You. So I said I knew who the Sandinistas were. It might have been the best that I ever heard. Was it the song that made me fall in love with you? Oh, was it you that made me love the song? You pulled out a burn CD and put it in in your disc, man. There was a wire that attached it to the tape deck in your car. You said the bassist was a guy they called Fat Mike. It might have been the best song that I ever heard.

[Gus Gustofferson]

See that punk rock song one more time.

[Musician]

Tells more truth than anyone I know.

[Gus Gustofferson]

Play that my dark song some more. I wanna hear it again. Love.

[Musician]

You made me a playlist on Spotify. We listen to it while we got high. I don't think I have ever connected to lyrics as much as words.

[Gus Gustofferson]

You are spotless lever roll. Play that Funko song one more time.

[Musician]

Tells more truth than anyone I.

[Gus Gustofferson]

That Funko song some more. I wanna hear it again. Play that punk rock song. Play that punk rock song. I wanna hear it again. Am Play that.

[Musician]

Was it the song that made me fall in love with you? Or was it you that made me love the song?

[Gus Gustofferson]

When the going gets weird

[Michael Wilbon]

the.

[Gus Gustofferson]

When the going gets weird, The weird turn fro. I hate to advocate for drugs, alcohol,

[Musician]

violence or insanity, anyone, but they have

[Gus Gustofferson]

always worked for me. Fuck Richard Nixon. I think the 49ers lost again. We can't stop here. This is bad country. When the going gets weirder, the weird the weird, bro. When the going gets weird, the weird the weird, bro. Sam. When the going gets weird, the weird the weird turn pro. When the going gets weird, the weird the weird turn, bro. I hate to advocate for drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they have always worked for me. Fuck Richard Nixon. I think the 49ers lost again. We can't stop Stop here. This is back a TR when the going gets weird, Who we turn, bro? When the going gets weird,

[Michael Wilbon]

The wind,

[Gus Gustofferson]

Sam.