“Early Squirrel Intelligence”

Summary

The Tony Kornheiser Show

Episode: “Early Squirrel Intelligence”
Date: July 21, 2026

---

Overview

This episode of The Tony Kornheiser Show explores a typical array of “sports and whatever’s-on-Tony’s-mind,” mixing sports analysis, ratings talk, and personal banter. Key topics include the World Cup TV ratings and the rise (or not) of soccer in the US (with John Ourand of Puck), a deep dive into member-guest golf tournaments with club pro George Bushby, Tony’s garden woes and squirrel schemes with Pat Forde, NCAA athletic department drama, and the evolving world of sports streaming. The episode balances humor, personal anecdotes, and insightful takes on media and sports culture.

---

Key Segments and Discussions

1. World Cup Ratings & The State of Soccer in the US

With: John Ourand (Puck News)
[18:48 – 31:10]

• World Cup Ratings Bonanza:

  • The US World Cup Final drew “mid 40 million viewers” in the US, numbers rivaling NFL conference championships.
    • “Fox is going to put out their main numbers on Tuesday afternoon and they're going to be rated sort of in the mid 40 million viewers, which is just... a crazily big number.” (John Ourand, 19:30)
  • When the USMNT played, numbers could have spiked higher—potentially to 70 million. After their elimination, ratings remained “huge” but dropped.
    • “If the United States made the Final Four… you’d have probably seen, you know, up around like 70 million.” (John Ourand, 20:48)
  • The US vs. Belgium knockout game (loss) got 50 million combined on Fox and Telemundo.

• Spanish-Language Viewership:

  • Telemundo and Fox each shared a huge audience, with approximately a 2-to-1 English to Spanish-language split for the Final.
  • Telemundo’s streaming through Peacock helped bump numbers.

• Does It All Mean Soccer’s Now “Mainstream” in America?

  • “I don't think so. Do you? This happens every four years. The one thing about America is we love big events and the World Cup is a big event.” (John Ourand, 23:26)
  • Domestic league (MLS) ratings remain low and opaque—Apple doesn’t release viewership data.
  • Messi’s impact is “Babe Ruth level” for crowds, but he’s “one of one.” To become truly mainstream, MLS needs more stars in their prime.

• Tony’s Take:

  • “We love big events… but you're not going to see these numbers for D.C. United playing anytime soon.” (Tony Kornheiser, 23:38)

• MLS Plans for Post-World Cup Growth:

  • After 2026, MLS is planning schedule alignment with global soccer and a push for bigger talents returning home (e.g., Pulisic).

Memorable Moment:

• “He sells out wherever he goes, puts on that pink shirt. It’s a big deal. It's Babe Ruth.” (Tony on Messi, 24:02)

---

2. Sports Streaming, TV, and the Home Run Derby

[25:49 – 31:10]

• Home Run Derby on Netflix:

  • Tony bewildered that Netflix aired the derby, formerly on ESPN.
  • Numbers dropped 10% compared to ESPN’s broadcast; discovering and marketing sports on Netflix is harder.
  • “If you’re on Netflix watching Suits, do you have an interest in Home Run Derby?” (John Ourand, 27:24)

• Streaming Frustrations:

  • Tony and John bond over the pain of navigating streaming vs. old-fashioned cable.
  • Jumping between games is difficult; lamenting that streaming doesn’t allow channel surfing like cable.
    • “Streaming services, at least for me, make that impossible. Is that a common complaint or is it just me?” (Tony, 29:20)
  • “The solution is three TVs,” jokes Wilbon (30:45).

• RedZone Channel Woes:

  • Tony laments that his cable provider dropped NFL RedZone, asks if this is the “end of days.”
  • John reassures that Xfinity/Comcast will carry RedZone and that these distribution quirks are ongoing as legacy media and streaming jostle for sports rights.

---

3. The Member-Guest Golf Tournament at Rehoboth Beach

With: George Bushby (Club Pro, Rehoboth Beach CC)
[04:31 – 14:26]

• George’s Recap of the Tournament:

  • 168 players (84 teams), five nine-hole matches in flights, complex logistics, and concerns about pace of play.
  • Major challenges: Scheduling, weather, and ensuring fair play (handicap monitoring).
  • Pace of play is managed with visible marshals; first day was slow but improved.
    • “If you got to drive by...there's no golf course in the world that when they see a Marshall drive by, they don't say, is this us?” (Tony, 08:05)
  • New for this year: Using the “low index” handicap from the past year to reduce sandbagging.

• Tees and Age Policies:

  • Tony’s frustration at not being old enough (85+) to play exclusively from forward (green) tees.
  • On George’s advice, he plays more forward tees for fun—and “now that you do, you want to play all green.” (Tony, 12:22)
  • “It'll be more fun.” (George Bushby, 11:27)

• Tony’s Self-Assessment:

  • “I'm a choker... but if I actually get in a match, I’m a gagger. And at this age, there’s nothing I can do about that.” (Tony, 13:13)

• Memorable Golf Tournament Quotes:

  • “[George] is good for an eagle on a par 5. Every time you play with him.” (Tony, 10:29)
  • “Feedback was awesome.” (George, 12:46)

---

4. Sports News & Ratings Quick Hits

[14:27 – 18:02]

• Tony and crew talk MLB (Nats win in Colorado, Phillies-Dodgers slugfest, errors in Red Sox game).
• Ongoing rivalry in National League: Brewers, Dodgers, Phillies seen as best teams; NL considered stronger than AL.
• Casual, rapid-fire sports banter—classic TK show flavor.

---

5. Michigan’s Athletic Department Mess & NCAA Drama

With: Pat Forde (SI.com)
[31:51 – 37:37]

• Ward Manuel Out as Michigan AD:

  • Despite championship wins (football & basketball), “constant mess, turmoil, embarrassments, scandals” led to his ouster.
    • “You’re just running a very sloppy, messy department.” (Pat Forde, 33:25)
  • Harbaugh era scandals, and a $30M potential NCAA sanction plus $12M internal review—a $42M “price for not running itself properly.”
  • Dusty May’s abrupt departure after a championship further tainted the situation.

• Prospects for the Next AD:

  • Despite Michigan’s status as a “top five” job, currently it’s a “poll you wouldn’t touch.” New football coach Kyle Whittingham seen as a stabilizer.

• Sankey’s SEC Threats:

  • Pat Forde doubts the “we could walk out of here” talk is real: “I was in the room when he said that yesterday… it’s saber rattling... It would be complete suicide.”

• Demise of the Pac-12:

  • Unlikely the Pac-12 reforms—money and new conference arrangements too entrenched.

---

6. Human Performance Landmarks: The 3:42 Mile

[40:07 – 45:05]

• Historic New World Record:
  • A runner recently broke the 3:43 mile barrier (3:42), first time in 27 years the world record fell.
    • “That 3:42 just completely blew my mind.” (Pat Forde, 40:36)
  • Tony and Pat reminisce about historic milestones: 4-minute mile (Bannister), 16-foot pole vault, 10-second 100m dash, 60-foot shot put.
    • “Roger Bannister breaking the 4-minute mile is one of the 10 most important milestones in sports.” (Tony, 41:58)
  • In swimming, Pat identifies “4 minute 400IM” as an “unbreakable” mythic number.

---

7. Squirrel Intelligence & Gardening

[32:11 – 33:20]

• Tony laments loss of his tomato crops to extreme heat; Pat’s garden is “booming along,” but “squirrel intelligence is starting to appear.”
  • “Squirrels are on the move.” (Pat Forde, 32:29)
  • “They communicate that you’re gone and then they go after it.” (Tony, 32:38)
• Tony’s trying potatoes, betting the underground location will help them survive sun and squirrels.

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On World Cup Fandom:

  • “America loves big events… but MLS games aren’t there.” (John Ourand, 23:26)

• On Streaming Woes:

  • “Unless you say to me, enter your QR code, I’m gone. I’m out of the house.” (Tony, 27:46)
  • “Streaming services… make that impossible. Is that a common complaint or is it just me?” (Tony, 29:20)

• On Personal Sports Performance:

  • “I'm a choker… if I actually get in a match, I'm a gagger.” (Tony, 13:13)

• On Gardening and Squirrels:

  • “Squirrel intelligence is starting to appear… they’re on the move.” (Pat Forde, 32:29)

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

• World Cup Ratings with John Ourand: 18:48 – 31:10
• Sports Streaming/RedZone/Netflix discussion: 25:49 – 31:10
• Member-Guest Golf Recap with George Bushby: 04:31 – 14:26
• Michigan AD Drama & NCAA (Pat Forde): 31:51 – 37:37
• College Athletics Realignment (SEC/Pac-12): 37:37 – 40:07
• 3:42 Mile and Historic Sports Landmarks: 40:07 – 45:05
• Squirrel/Garden Banter: 32:11 – 33:20
• MLB/NL Races/Quick Hits: 14:27 – 18:02

---

Closing Notes

• Music interludes by “Timmy the Teeth” provided by listener submissions.
• Mailbag includes listener stories about golf streaks, gardening tips, and streaming complaints—always wrapping the show with community flavor.

---

For Listeners Who Haven’t Tuned In

This episode offers insight on how Americans interact with the World Cup (and why it isn’t changing soccer’s status), real-life golf club drama and rituals, NCAA chaos, and the perpetual struggles and humor of aging fans, streaming woes, and marauding squirrels. It’s Tony Kornheiser at his best: cranky, sharp, and endlessly entertaining with a rotating crew of informed guests and co-conspirators.

Transcript

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's Tony. On today's show, we'll talk about the ratings for the World cup with John Ourand of Puck News. And we'll cover a bunch of things with Pat40, including whether the squirrels have destroyed his garden yet. And we will have George, who never speaks, actually speak. But first, commerce.

[John Ourand]

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

[Michael]

The other night I was browsing the vistaprint website. Normally I wait till there's about two outs, two strikes in the Nats game just to be sure. Just thinking about little ways to make our podcast feel even more organized and professional. I can completely lost track of time because there's so many options. We use Vistaprint, order our show's custom notepads. We really do. And what's great is that I have orders from eight, nine years ago that are still saved. So it's as easy as going and logging into my account and they're ready to send out again. So I know Nigel uses some of the notepads, the spiral notepads, which is great. And I use some of the notepads that have our logo sort of in a shadow in the background. We actually send those out every year. Handwritten notes to our winners from the March Madness tournament bracket.

[Wilbon]

That's lovely.

[Michael]

I realized how useful it would be to have show branded notepads for episode prep. Just like Nigel. Interview questions. Tony just uses a legal pad, but we're working to get him into our own show branded one production notes and all those ideas that pop into your head right before you hit record. Instead of scribbling notes on random pieces of paper, everything stays in one place and it looks great too. And you know what, they have recommendations. So once you're part of their system and your logo's in there, they will say, hey, would you like a deck of cards? And you know what you're sitting there considering.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Michael just passed the read to me. This is like a relay in the Olympics. Don't drop the like the 2 by 300 if there was such a thing. That's what we love about vistaprint. They make it easy to turn simple ideas into polished professional products without spending a fortune. Whether you're running a podcast, a small business, or you just want materials that reflect your brand, vistaprint gives you the tools and real human support to help make it happen. Vistaprint print your possible. Right now, new customers can get 20% off with the code [e-mail] remember, that's 20% [e-mail] when you use the code NEW20 so use the code people.

[John Ourand]

You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Whether you're on the go or at the ballpark, T Mobile is built to keep you connected wherever the game takes you. With America's best network, you know your phone is going to work even in a crowded stadium. For instance, if you lose track of your friends after a long seventh inning stretch, one quick message and and a shared location later, you'll find each other without missing the next pitch. And you can upload the video of the game winning hit and share it before you even leave your seat. And on the days you can't make it to the ballpark, streaming the game on the go feels just as electric. No buffering, no interruptions, just every moment as it happens. Find out how baseball hits different with T mobile@t mobile.com MLB fastest based on analysis by Ookla of Speed Test intelligence data of national speed score Results for the second half of 2025 Best based on analysis by Ookla of the Speed Test intelligence Data for the second half of 2025 previously on the Tony Kornhauser Show. They are trying to physically beat you down and to complain about yellow cards. You're lucky you didn't get 10 more of them.

[Pat40]

They should have gotten 10 more of them and this went on all week.

[John Ourand]

Tony, the most thuggish thing they do is when they stand around a player on the ground and want to dare his teammates to push you away. In hockey, this would cause for a stick swinging at hand situation.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. Yes.

[Pat40]

This is General George Washington and you're

[Tony Kornheiser]

listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show. Wilbon's position is don't cry for me, Argentina. He doesn't like Argentina and he's right. And they did behave that way. They were knocking people around, you know, they were knocking people around all over the place.

[Wilbon]

Yeah. Including after the match, not a single

[Tony Kornheiser]

shot on goal in more than 120 minutes. Of soccer. Of soccer. Like it's sport. They know they are the. They were the reigning World cup champions. Not a single shot on goal. You know, if I'm Messi and that's my last World cup game ever, I'm distraught.

[Wilbon]

Yeah. It's a bad decision, you know, because

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm sure, I'm sure a guy as great as Messi and we're not going to talk about the World cup, but I'm sure a guy as great as Messi believes that he can win these games by himself and he just needs A little bit of help.

[Timmy the Teeth]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But as Gisele Bundchen once said, my husband throws the ball, cannot catch the ball as well. Okay, George is here. George, who does not speak. George Bushby, who is the pro at Rehoboth Beach Country Club, Georgia.

[Michael]

Coming off a busy week, coming off

[Tony Kornheiser]

a very busy week at the member guest where I had a lot of issues that I'm not, I'm not going to go into because I really enjoyed myself tremendously. But let's start with when you. How many people actually played. And it's got to be about 150.

[George Bushby]

We had 84 teams, so168.

[Tony Kornheiser]

168 players, two shotguns. The format is you. You are in a flight, which is just a word for the group that you're in. It's called a flight in golf. And there were six teams in each flight. So you have to play nine hole matches. Five different nine hole matches. And then there is a scoring system depending on how you do in these nine hole matches. One of my objections, but it's impossible. There's so many people in it. You can't do this. One of my not objections, but one of the things that I would do is I would try and have a sixth match at least between the two top teams so that they could, you know, formally square off against each other. And then you would know, even though they played each other once already, you would formally know who was the best in the flight. How do you think it went and what were the things that you were most worried about?

[George Bushby]

So, yeah, long four days at the club overall. When.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, but it took off right after. Nobody was there Sunday.

[George Bushby]

You know, nobody was there Sunday. Right. You know, there's a lot of moving parts with this, this event specifically. I mean, most traditional memory guests are three days, you know, Thursday, practice round, 27 holes, Friday, 18 holes, Saturday in a shootout. We do it a little differently where practice round is Wednesday.

[Wilbon]

Yeah.

[George Bushby]

And then you.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I didn't practice.

[George Bushby]

I didn't practice Wednesday, then stag night. And then we have Thursday, Friday and Saturday of competition.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There are other members of the club who are saying, wait, I can't use my course for four days. You want to hear that?

[George Bushby]

Four days of closure. Yeah.

[Michael]

So it's not the middle of the summer.

[George Bushby]

Yeah, exactly. So again with that, our biggest, one of our biggest worries each year is weather. Right. So sure. And this year it was weird, right? I mean, the weather, very, very hot.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And the fires, the smoke from the fires, but just hot, just hot, humid.

[George Bushby]

But like Michael said, It's the middle of summer, so kind of as to be expected, but, you know, we kind of dodged a bullet there. No storms. No. No rain delays. No. We had to move the shootout up Saturday.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. For fear of rain.

[George Bushby]

For the fear of rain, which was a good call because that storm did come in. But other than that, no great event. And great champions came out of it with David Ward and Jimmy Crowley.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh, Jimmy Crilley, the best guy on earth. So happy for him. Here's what I would worry about. I mean, if. If I were in your shoes. Pace of play, which was good. It was. Well, the first day wasn't good. The second day was, you know, it got better pace of play. But you worry about that, Right. You send people out to make sure people are moving along.

[George Bushby]

Yeah. I mean, we can't have a team holding up the entire front nine because you're. You're switching nine, you know, so you come in. So we did have a couple groups that were a little. Little behind, but they did a great job picking it up. So it's just about being out there monitoring it and making them see you.

[Wilbon]

That.

[Michael]

That does.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. If you got to drive by. Because when you. And there's no golf course in the world that when they see a Marshall drive by, they don't say, is this us?

[Wilbon]

Is this us?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Are we? And they do. And everybody.

[Michael]

The right person, too.

[Pat40]

Yeah.

[George Bushby]

Yeah, exactly. Michael.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[George Bushby]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. This is the question, the overall question, protecting the integrity of the game. And what I mean by that is you have a lot of people, the people who are members at Rehoboth beach, you understand how they play. You understand their handicaps. Some of them are sandbaggers, obviously, but every club has that. Every club has that. But you're also bringing people in who. You cannot monitor their handicaps at all. So do you worry ever that, yeah, this guy says he's a 6 and he's really a 1, or this guy says he's a 24 and he's really an 18 or something like that.

[George Bushby]

Yeah. I mean, there's always that, you know, that concern as we get the field finalized. But the nice thing about it is with the gin handicap system, we're able to, one, go into everyone's handicap account and see scores posted. And two, what we did over for this event for the first time was take the low index from the past year. So trying to eliminate people, maybe trying to pad their handicap, you know, three weeks before, a month before. Really.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Putting in scores like 105 when you normally shoot. 87.

[Michael]

Exactly.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I had a couple hundred plus.

[George Bushby]

Exactly. So.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Because people want to win.

[George Bushby]

Oh, yeah. There's no doubt about it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. So I thought it was great. I thought the golf was great. I thought the food was great. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

[Michael]

George, you'd appreciate this. I tried to explain to Tony the. The importance of Yip Strickler from social media. The. The unofficial official.

[George Bushby]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Explain who that is. Who is that? Yip Strickler, Michael?

[Michael]

Oh, this is just, you know, an online vigilante who goes on. Who goes and checks the.

[George Bushby]

The.

[Michael]

The honesty of handicaps when they go into these member tournaments. Remember, guest tournaments?

[George Bushby]

Yeah, He's. He's called out quite a few people in. In the state of Delaware.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Really?

[George Bushby]

Yeah.

[Michael]

Really?

[George Bushby]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Is he considered accurate?

[George Bushby]

I.

[Timmy the Teeth]

Yes.

[George Bushby]

And there's some. Some members at the club that will agree.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Wow.

[George Bushby]

That will. Will agree with what he's saying. Okay, so no one at Rehoboth yet. Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

This is my personal gripe. This is a small personal gripe. The last time you and I played. George is a very good player. George is good for an eagle on a par 5. Every time you play with him. George good player. Jordan not afraid of going over the water. Most of us go in the water submarine. But afterwards you said to me, now there is a series of teas. Every club has a series of tees at the back tees, the member tees, the forward tees, and the really forward tees. Okay? Everybody's got this. And the Tony tees, the really forward tees at Rehoboth are the green tees. I had been playing a green white combination, and I am now very old, and I'm not very good, and I can't get to a lot of greens and regulation, even when I hit a couple of good shots. So George said to me, play green from now on. Play green. And I said, is this because I stink? And George very diplomatically said, it'll be more fun.

[Pat40]

Right?

[Tony Kornheiser]

You said, more fun from the green. So I started playing all green with the guys I play with on weekends, like Rick Burl.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Plays all green. You know, Bob Gal does not. He plays. He plays white. John Gnar plays green. A lot of guys. Dr. Bagden plays Green.

[George Bushby]

Well, your high school friends all play green.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'll tell them to play green. But at this tournament, I had to play green white. And I said to George, George called me, said, you have to play green. I said, what do you mean?

[Michael]

You told me holes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Could you explain that?

[George Bushby]

So we just. We have t. Stipulations for the event. And to play the green tees, you have to be 85 years or older, and you just not quite.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm not quite 85.

[George Bushby]

Not quite meeting that requirement. So. So it's. It is age and handicap index. We combine those. They have to meet a certain number, and that will. Could qualify you to move up a set of tees.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It wasn't as much fun not playing the green. Not as much fun. Now that you do play green, you would think that if it's a white green combination, it'd be 9 white and 9 green. It's not. I think it's 10 or 11 white and 7 or 8 green. There's more. You want to be on the green.

[Timmy the Teeth]

Sure.

[Tony Kornheiser]

The green. Even with bad eyesight, you can see the hole, right?

[Wilbon]

Oh, there. It's right up there.

[John Ourand]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But I. I had. I think everybody probably had a very good time.

[George Bushby]

Yeah. Feedback was.

[Michael]

Was awesome.

[Tony Kornheiser]

All good. Right. Is there any. And I'm gonna play. There's a member. Member in a week or so.

[George Bushby]

Are you playing?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm gonna play in that with Rick Burrell.

[Pat40]

But I'm.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Look, here's what I know about.

[George Bushby]

Not gonna be there.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Why not?

[George Bushby]

I'm not gonna be there. I'm going to Ireland. Oh, yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh, that's nice. Good for you.

[George Bushby]

Thanks.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Here's what I know about myself. I don't know you. You play golf.

[George Bushby]

You can play the green tees.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I can. You played golf in high school. Did you play golf in college as well?

[George Bushby]

Did not in college.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. I'm a choker. I mean, if it's a. I choke. Like, I make the shots on the practice range, and if we're not. If we're just fooling around, I make that shot. But if I actually get in a match, I. I'm a gagger. And there's nothing. At this age, there's nothing I can do about that. I've watched this enough with real athletes to know how it works.

[George Bushby]

You just got to put yourself in that position more. You know, just getting out there and being in that, you know.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So I should play golf seven days a week? Because I don't think so. I mean, you already had four. Yeah, yeah.

[Wilbon]

I'm trying to think of the Stevie Miller song. I'm a choker. I'm a joker.

[Michael]

I'm a. Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm Midnight Token. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I won't even mention that. I'm not mentioning other things at the tournament, but I loved. I did love tournament and I played because you told Me to play.

[George Bushby]

I did. Yeah, I did. Thank you for playing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh, no, it was. It was very nice. We were in. As I've said, we were in the last group.

[George Bushby]

Crushed.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We finished next to last in the last group.

[George Bushby]

Got out of the cellar.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, I got out of the cellar.

[Wilbon]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Didn't have that.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And as I was told. Did you. Did you. Did you finish last? No. So shut up and move on. So, you know, I did that. That's when. Last night.

[Wilbon]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Nats win last night. I sit down in Colorado. They're the worst team in baseball. First place to play. Yeah. Well, unless you got real power. And then it goes out of the stadium. First inning, James Wood gets on base, and Mead, you know, see you later. Might. He gets on base and then she puts for. Hits it.

[Pat40]

I don't know.

[Tony Kornheiser]

450ft, hits it out. It's three nothing. Top one.

[Wilbon]

Love that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And then there was just, you know, quickly, though, right? No, Alvarez, too. I don't know. 75 pitches in the bottom and. And on the text chain with Michael and Chuck Todd and Crystal Lizard.

[Pat40]

We're going.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He's gonna give them all back.

[Pat40]

It's gonna.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But no, he didn't. And they actually. I didn't stay up for the rest of the game.

[Wilbon]

It's a late tip.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, but. Yeah, but they won. They won the game. Continuing. Continuing their record of being very good on the road.

[Wilbon]

Outstanding on the road, not good at home.

[Michael]

Brought in the rookie, Cornelia, who got the win. And I think he was from Colorado, I heard.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Is that right?

[Wilbon]

Oh, that's a nice moment for him. Yeah. Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So it was. You know, I watched and I didn't watch anything else.

[Wilbon]

And apparently the Red Sox went against

[Michael]

a few errors or. Right.

[Wilbon]

Yeah, I think three or four. Yeah. Kicked it around a lot.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But in the feature game was the Phillies and the Dodgers against the Dodgers. And that must have been a good game because that ended 10, seven.

[Pat40]

Yeah.

[Wilbon]

Philly.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Philly won that.

[Michael]

Right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Philadelphia's. Philadelphia is good.

[Wilbon]

Yes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And they have good pitching. The Dodgers are good, and they have everything.

[Michael]

Sort of felt like you of the fall.

[Wilbon]

Yeah, I was gonna say that's easy to think of that as the nlcs.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, the three best teams seem to be the brewers, the Dodgers, and the Phillies in the National League. And the National League seems to be significantly better than the American League.

[Michael]

I picked it up in, like, maybe the sixth or seventh. I saw bets on it that the talk already is just like, is he just holding his legs until we get to the postseason? Because that's where they are.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Is that is. Do you think that I don't know

[Michael]

just where he is with age and everything and how many extra games they're going to end up playing?

[Wilbon]

Yeah, I think I saw that Trey Turner had two home runs in that win.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did. All right, we will get out of here. We have a packed show. John Orand will be next and he will talk about the ratings of the of the World cup, which interests me. I'm Tony Cornheiser.

[John Ourand]

This is the Tony Korniser show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Certain flavors instantly transport you back in time, like those classic refreshing freezer pops everyone lived on as kids. That's why you want to try the new firework freeze five hour energy shot. It will completely blow you away. They have officially taken a beloved freezer pop classic and reimagined it into a delicious, convenient energy shot. It's a serious flavor explosion from the very first sip, perfectly blending juicy cherry, citrusy lime, and that sweet candy like blue raspberry. Honestly, it tastes exactly like the real thing, but with a major upgrade. You get that iconic freezer pop flavor you crave with absolutely none of the sugar. It's the ultimate zero sugar portable summer companion that sparks a tasty flavor sensation and keeps you moving. Whether you're headed to the beach, working late, or traveling, you need to stock up on this flavor immediately. Ignite your taste buds with a firework freeze flavored 5 hour energy shot. Now available online at 5hourenergy.com or find it on Amazon.

[John Ourand]

Best thing that's ever happened to you financially.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Go easy. Sold by car on Carvana. Amazing offer, really.

[John Ourand]

I hit 200 on the scratcher.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Did the scratcher come to your house and hand you a check?

[Pat40]

No.

[Wilbon]

How many scratchers did you hit to get that?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I hit a button on Carvana.com once.

[John Ourand]

Okay, that's fair.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's like the lottery, except you always win.

[John Ourand]

Not like the lottery at all, actually.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Exactly. Inexplicably good offers worth bragging about. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up fees may apply.

[John Ourand]

You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

This is very pleasant.

[John Ourand]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Wait till I tell you the name of the band. It's Timmy the Teeth. That's great, Timmy the Teeth. Our note from Rich Roberts in Provo, Utah. For over a decade, Timmy the Teeth has added his unique groove to Utah's growing old country and Americana music scene. Nicknamed Cowboy from the Crypt, Timmy offers songs rooted in optimism but tinged with mud on your favorite boots, holes in your Pockets and no sugar for your lemonade. This is called Ain't that Bad. It's really pretty good.

[Wilbon]

It's very good.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. I might go with a different name, but that's just me. And he plays in our friend John Orand, who knows more about the money of sports and the ratings of sports than anybody in the world. And he works for Puck and he occasionally is on the show and it's always a pleasure and I wanted him to be on because. Let's just start with the large picture here. How were the ratings, the television ratings in the United States, and I don't care how they were outside the United States, go and live outside the United States. How were the ratings for the World cup in the United States?

[John Ourand]

If you want to comp, Tony, the comp is probably the NFL championship games, which outside the super bowl is the biggest that. That there is.

[Michael]

Wow.

[John Ourand]

Fox is going to put out their main numbers on Tuesday afternoon and they're going to be rate sort of in the mid 40 million viewers, which is just, and I was going to say an astonishing number, but I think, I think a lot of people expected this. The, the. It's just a really crazily big number. And the thing that I've been looking at too is, is, you know, it's coming in the summer months and there's not a lot of competition. And I get. Nielsen sends me every week, hey, here are the top 25 sports shows that are on television. All 25 every week is World Cup. And it doesn't matter if it's, you know, Brazil and Spain and some of these big names or, or, or, you know, Cape Verde and some of these smaller games people sat and watched. And, you know, throughout the month, it was such a boon for both Fox and Telemundo, which had the Spanish language rights.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. So I want to get to those. That distinction in a little bit. But I would ask you first, how much of a difference in the United States. How much of a difference in the rating when the United States was playing and then they were eliminated and then you had the better teams after that, but they were not the United States. How much of a difference in the ratings?

[John Ourand]

Oh, huge. I mean, if, if the United States made the Final Four a really big if, you know, you would have probably seen, you know, up around like 70 million. But the, the game with, what was it? Belgium, that, that the U.S. lost trucked.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, we lost like four one. Yeah.

[John Ourand]

And if you watch that game, you kind of knew within the fifth minute that, you know, the United States weren't going to fare well. That got. If you combined Fox and TELEMUNDO, that got 50 million viewers, that's, that's beating a lot of the NFC, AFC championship games that are out there. It was just a crazy big number. And as that continued to go, you would see that number grow. So I threw out a kind of a fantasy number. Could it get up to 100? Who knows? I don't know. I mean, there's the super bowl and then there's everything else. And this is the top of the everything else.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Wait, there's not the NBA championships. Wilburn thinks it's that. Okay, let me go back to a question. Because Telemundo exists, it is a Spanish language station that everyone can access in the United States. What were the difference, like how many millions were watching and listening in Spanish in the United States as opposed to watching and listening in English in the United States? I would have assumed that was like a 2 to 1, 3 to 1,

[John Ourand]

4 to 1 that, you know, for, for the World Cup Final, it was pretty much 2 to 1 for that. And there's a lot of Spanish speaking people. There are a lot of people that just didn't like the Fox announcers.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[John Ourand]

And. And frankly, there are a lot of people that, you know, it's hard to get broadcast television these days. You don't put up rabbit ears anymore. And so there are people that were able to watch the Telemundo through Peacock and it was just sort of easier to watch it than, than to, to try to find Fox in some markets. So you had a lot of those people as well, and that kind of goose the numbers a little bit.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, so now I'm looking for an interpretation. Is there any sense that soccer is a rocket ship even without the United States team? Or are we where we always seem to be that, yeah, these are really good numbers. But if the United States isn't in it, there's not going to be that audience all the time. Like Wilbourne said yesterday, I'm sick of watching the wraparound shows before the NFL. I'm just going to watch soccer every Sunday morning. And I said, God bless. Have a good Sunday morning. Enjoy yourself.

[John Ourand]

How long is that going to last for Michael? That's great.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But is there, is there some sense that it is a rocket ship, Soccer is a rocket ship in the United States?

[John Ourand]

I don't think so. Do you? This happens every four years. The one thing about America is we love big events and the World cup is a big event. And.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[John Ourand]

And, and and so you're not going to see these numbers for D.C. united playing anytime soon or.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So this is, this is what I wanted to ask. We have the MLS here and we have Messi's in it. Messi is America's favorite soccer player. No question about that. I mean, he sells out wherever he goes, puts on that pink shirt. It's big. It's a big deal. It's Babe Ruth. I mean, I get that, but what are the ratings like for the MLS if you have a game again between. And then there's like 80 teams, you have a game between Columbus FC, if there is such a thing, and D.C. united and you put that on TV, I would think they're not getting 3 million people.

[John Ourand]

You actually asked me a question that I can't answer because Apple has these games and Apple refuses to put out its viewer numbers. So nobody really actually knows. I think, really the number. I think the numbers are. Okay. Here's the thing about. Here's the thing though. If I'm going to be optimistic about soccer in the. In the States, the last time the World cup was in the United States was 1994. That gave birth to a league. They actually created MLS coming out of that. So MLS is now 30 years ago. And so the whole league has been taking a look at this World cup and they've been calling it internally MLS 3.0. And they want to take the next step from this. So what MLS wants to do is that they're changing the schedule so it mirrors the international schedule because it used to be a very Americanized schedule. And the expectation is that these teams are going to open up their checkbooks and you're going to see big name stars like Christian Pulisic perhaps coming from Italy back. Back to the States and play for a New York team or. And it'll be more than. The problem with Messi, who's great, and Miami is undoubtedly the most popular of the MLS teams right now, is that it's like Pele in the Cosmos. He's one of one right there.

[Wilbon]

That's right.

[John Ourand]

And so the MLS wants to get the quality of the league up and they think that they can then build soccer through that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And this is whole deal. This is what he was telling me yesterday that he wants to see if in fact the MLS teams go after good players in their prime and if they can get them. Let me switch subjects completely and start ranting. Why was the Home Run Derby on Netflix? Well, why was that? What happened to television? What happened to television?

[John Ourand]

Netflix paid them more money for it. Were you able to watch it? Because I'm not a big fan.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I did. I was able to watch it. My wife.

[John Ourand]

Wasn't it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm sorry.

[John Ourand]

It was exciting, right?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. Oh, it was very exciting. With Schwarber and Jordan Walker. Yeah, it was very exciting. I mean, but I was able to get it. I would imagine people are shut out. Do you have numbers on that? How many millions of people watch that?

[John Ourand]

I don't know. Off the top of my head, I do know that it was on ESPN last year, and the numbers on Netflix were down about 10% from. From ESPN, which is really tough because the numbers are up. Everything else that we talk about, numbers are up across the board for. For just about every sport. So that's. That. That raised an eyebrow. I think it's hard for Netflix because they had the opening game of baseball, and then the next baseball game they had was a Home Run Derby. So it's hard to. It's hard to market that, you know, like when it was on espn, ESPN could market the Home Run Derby across all its sports because they're reaching sports fans, and sports fans know what that is. But if you are on Netflix watching suits, do you have an interest in Home Run Derby? Does it even.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't associate. I don't associate it with the 53.5.3 million viewers for the Home Run Derby.

[Wilbon]

That's right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Nigel tells me. I don't associate Netflix with sports. I mean, it's like. And then on Sunday, a lot of Sundays, I can't get the Gnats. They're on Peacock. And I think I subscribe to Peacock. But once you say to me, enter your QR code, I'm gone. I'm out of the house.

[John Ourand]

I'm not.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't understand any of that. Why does baseball do that?

[John Ourand]

I mean, you know, it comes down to money, as I like, I think that's going to be my answer to everything on this, is that they're. They're testing all of these things and they have 162 games so that they. I think they figure that they can, you know, give Peacock, you know, a Nats game that's. Are probably on Peacock, what, twice. Twice a season on Sunday?

[Tony Kornheiser]

They've been on three or four times already on a Sunday, only on Sunday. So I mean that. This is. None of this matters until this question. This is the only question that matters. Where is Red Zone going to be? Because when I go to the Red Zone channel, I don't get it. It says, we no longer broadcast the red zone. It's like there's the NFL channel is 860 on my. On my cable system, and then 861 is the red zone. And they say we don't. We can't provide the red. Where's. Where do I get the red zone? Do I have to change, you know, change out of Comcast to get the red.

[John Ourand]

You're an Xfinity subscriber, I'm assuming, Right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Is that Comcast? Yeah. Yes,

[John Ourand]

the red zone is going to be on Comcast. It's. They're not. They're not selling that to anybody else. You should. As far as I know, I haven't heard anything about this, but as far as I know that you should be fine. NFL Network. The NFL sold all their media stakes to espn. Espn, Exactly. So in. ESPN is tied, tethered to cable, as you well know.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, well, I mean, I know that. I know that I am in a diminishing group of older people who don't know what's going on, but I think I can speak for almost everyone when I say this. What's wrong with streaming? Unless there is a cure to this. If you get. If you finally get to the streaming place and now you watching the game, there's not a sports fan alive that in the middle of an inning or during a timeout, doesn't want to jump back to another game on another channel. And streaming services, at least for me, make that impossible. Is that a common complaint or is it. Is it just me?

[John Ourand]

You know, this is. I bring this up all the time. And you're old enough like me to remember this. Remember TV before remote controls where you had to get up and change the channel so you watch the same channel.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There was only seven channels, so one. That hard?

[Michael]

Yeah.

[John Ourand]

Well, if you look at Amazon when they had the Amazon prime has Thursday Night Football and they boast all the time about their post game show gets, you know, more viewers than anything else. Because I'm like stuck in my chair watching this postgame show. I can't. I'm too lazy to change the channel to do anything. Of course the ratings are up for the. For those post game shows.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Takes so long. It takes so long to change the channel.

[Pat40]

Surf.

[George Bushby]

Yeah.

[John Ourand]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I hate that. I can't be the only one. No, I mean everybody.

[John Ourand]

No, that's a solution.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Is three TVs.

[Wilbon]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Has multiple TVs.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I have one TV. He says you have. No, she should have at least two TVs.

[George Bushby]

I don't know.

[John Ourand]

You know what Wilbur's Advantage is he still has a teenager in the house, so he, you know, that's, that's what the kids do. So he knows how to handle this.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, but that kid's going to college in the fall. John, thanks so much for being on. Thanks so much.

[John Ourand]

Anytime, Tony. Thanks for calling.

[Tony Kornheiser]

John Arend. Boys and girls, we will take a break. Pat40 will join us when we return. I'm Tony Kornheiser.

[John Ourand]

You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Once again, this is the oddly named Timmy the Teeth. Timmy the Teeth, but he's good. This is called Dollar Days. Timmy will be playing Salt Lake's Slack Water on August 16th, and you can check out his albums on your favorite streaming platforms. Michael, if people like Timmy the Teeth want to send in their original music for us to play it on the podcast, how do they do?

[Michael]

So send us your music by emailing it to [e-mail] okay.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He plays in Pat 40. We're gonna go all over the board with Pat 40 today, which I like to do. Let's start with your garden, because my tomatoes went down. They went down. All of my plants went down. We had over 100 degrees of heat for like three or four days. There's not enough water in the world, and they just collapsed. How's your garden?

[Pat40]

I'm terribly sorry to hear that. We're faring better than that. Things are booming along pretty well with the tomatoes. Got the peppers going early. Squirrel intelligence starting to appear. They're on the move.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right. Right.

[Pat40]

So we're starting to set up defenses for that. I'm not home right now. I'm in Tampa. And I'm a little bit concerned that this is when they're going to strike.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So. Yeah, well, they know. They communicate that you're gone.

[Timmy the Teeth]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And then they go after it. We have started. We have planted potatoes. Potatoes. So I'll let you know how we do. Potatoes, I feel, will continue to grow even in terrible heat because they're under the ground to begin with. So I think be shielded, but I don't know. We'll see. Anyway. All right, let's get to some sports. The AD at Michigan, Ward Manual, is out. And I think people should know that during his tenure, Michigan won the national championship in football and basketball. There aren't a lot of guys. There aren't a lot of guys who can point to their time at a school and say, I got them both, and I got them both within a couple of years. And yet he's out and Like Wilbourne said yesterday, this has been assumed for a long time. Why is Ward manual out?

[Pat40]

Yeah, just too much constant mess, turmoil, embarrassments, scandals, you know, things that he's had to try to explain away that eventually become inexplicable. It's like you're just running a very sloppy, messy department. And you're right. I mean, like, you get both those championships. You're one of very few ads that could say that. But obviously the Jim Harbaugh era was pockmarked with various scandals. And then the replacement, Sharon Moore, turned out to be a train wreck off the field.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yep.

[Pat40]

And you know, he, he signed off on Chiron. He was, he was fully supportive there. It came out in this 12 million dollar internal review of the athletic department that there were certainly warning signs, if not outright knowledge that Sharon Moore was having an improper relationship with his staffer. And that didn't really get acted on. And so that was kind of the last straw after many other straws had fallen. The other thing there, Tony, like you said, you win those two championships, you could probably be AD for life. Except for this. The NCAA sanctions from the Harbaugh era could total as much as $30 million. And the internal review I mentioned was 12 million. That's $42 million that your department has given away due to not running itself properly. That's a pretty big number. So you got to go.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Ward, is there any sense? Because Dusty May comes up from Florida Atlantic, nobody's ever heard of the guy, and he goes to Michigan, it's a big time program, and he wins a national championship, and then he beats it out of there as soon as he can. Like, like within days that guy was gone. Was that also bad for the AD because it looked like he wanted to coach anywhere but there?

[Pat40]

Yeah, I think the, the bad thing there was Manuel came out and said, we've locked him up. Basically, he's agreed to a new contract and he hadn't. I don't know, that was wishful thinking or what, but you know, whether, whether he looked around and said, this is chaos, get me out of here, or I've always wanted to coach in the NBA and here's Cooper flag to build around and said, sure, that sounds good.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pat40]

I don't get the sense that there was anything internal there, that Dusty was like, I don't want to be here anymore is more just, I want to coach this, I want this NBA opportunity.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. I mean, but I would look at the University of Michigan, which is a very fine academic school and a great Athletic school and in a big time conference. And I would say there can't possibly be 10 better athletic director jobs in the country than the University of Michigan. Except right now. Except right now. I wouldn't touch that with a poll. Right.

[Pat40]

Yeah, no, definitely, I would say probably a top five 80 job and certainly I think I counted out maybe seven would be one of the seven best jobs in the country. And right now, yeah, you're, you've got a lot to deal with now. Again, this is part of the power of Michigan and somewhat the luck of Michigan. You end up with Kyle Whittingham as your football coach. Might be really good.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Pat40]

He's, you know, a super stable guy which at least will end some of the chaos in the football program and he's been successful and you're going to put him in a position where he might have far greater resources than he did at Utah. So I, you know, that's a pretty good thing to come into. Mike Boynton is your basketball coach for one year at least. They gave him a two year contract, but that's the kind of thing like that was just to give him a buyout. If you decide after one year, you know what, it's not working. Here's another million dollars. Go away, we're going to hire somebody else. So, you know, if you're the AD there, I, I still think it would be pretty attractive position.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, let me stay with colleges for a second. The head Sankey, Greg Sankey, I think his name is the head of the SEC continues to say we could walk out of here. Is this something that should be taken seriously?

[Pat40]

I don't think so. I was in the room when he said that yesterday and to me this does seem more like a leverage play and a saber rattling than anything else. I have a hard time foreseeing the SEC or any conference being able to. It would be complete suicide. You would, you would ruin your own conference. You would ruin the entire fabric of college sports. If either the SEC or the Big Ten said now we're out of here on our own, even if they go together, it would be ruinous. Everything that people like about college sports you would take wad up and throw away. And I think Greg Sankey, while there's no shortage of ego there, I think he cares deeply about how people think about him as somebody who cares about college sports. Tony Petiti may be less so, but I think Greg Sankey has put in enough sweat equity and trying to fix all the problems, not always very successfully, but he's tried for his entire career. And I don't think he wants to be known as the guy that blew it all up because my league just got fed up and decided to go play by itself.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, speaking of leagues, there are now four leagues. There's a Big Ten, there's the SEC, there's a Big 12, and there's the ACC. I missed the Pac 12, I missed the Pack 8, the Pac 10, and the Pac 12. Will that ever reform with the, with the good teams?

[Pat40]

I would be surprised. You know, you can't, you can't say never. If the whole thing's going to detonate in like five years, which is possible, then possibly there will be a reforming or at least a, like a division, a pacific division of something.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right?

[Pat40]

But otherwise, if that doesn't, I think it would take something as drastic as that. I don't think you can move usc, ucla, Washington and Oregon out of a super lucrative Big Ten at this point unless they suddenly just decide, you know what, all this travel is ridiculous. Why are we doing it? But the money is so immense that I think they're being paid to put up with the ridiculous travel.

[Tony Kornheiser]

All right, I'm getting out of colleges now. I'm getting to something that I know you care about because you cover Olympics. You have Olympians in your family, medal winning Olympians. A kid ran a 342mile the other day. A 342mile. What do you think of that? And, and I guess the second question, the follow up question is, has the 1500, because of its prominence in the Olympics, has it downgraded the mileage?

[Pat40]

Great question. You know, I still think people say mile and it means something. It means probably more than 1500, but you're right, that is the Olympic distance. But the 342 just completely blew my mind. And you know, I remember certainly you remember in like the 70s when all of a sudden people, you know, had gone under four and they started going way under four, the four minute mile was this kind of impossible barrier. But then 70s and then Sebastian Cohen, Steve Ovett and Steve Cran, these three British guys just kept trading the world record and at one point they like swapped it in eight days time. You know, one guy would break it over here in Norway and the other guy would break it here in England or whatever. And it just seemed like, holy cow, this record's never going to stop falling. And then in the 90s, it dropped. There were two big drops, and then it never happened again. And you think it's almost like horse racing where we're like this is as fast as humans can go. It's 344, 343, which still seemed outrageous. And all of a sudden now we've got a new barrier. And so that to me that, that really stood out. 27 years, the record had stood. And to see somebody do that, you know, you watch it and it's just, it's electrifying the way he kicks away at the end and you know, I just didn't think we would ever see a mile record broken again.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I said this on television yesterday that I believe that Roger Bannister Breaking the 4 minute mile is one of the 10 most important milestones in the history of sports. I wrote a few things down from when I was a kid. I'm older than you, but maybe you have the same sort of memories. There was the 16 foot pole vault. Nobody was going to do that. A guy named John Uelsis, I believe did the 16 foot pole vault. I don't know what it is now, but it's not going to surprise me if it's 18ft. There was the 10 second hundred and there was a 60 foot shot. Do you remember those as being barriers like along? Not as important as the four minute mile, but we see these things broken and then they come down a lot sometimes or go up a lot. In the case of the pole vault.

[Pat40]

Yeah, like, or yes. All of a sudden whether you're in again, whether it's better polls, I don't know. Or just better technique or stronger guys. But yeah, the pole vault record I think, shoot, that thing might be over 19 or 20 at this point. This is our, our world record holder. Yeah. And he's phenomenal. But yeah, I remember that the 10 second hundred was a really big deal, you know, when people could do that. And if you think about it, I mean, like Usain Bolt I believe is still the record holder there, but he's not very far under under 10 seconds. So you know, the ability to break 10, that was a huge one.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Nobody's doing it in eight. Nobody's doing it in eight seconds.

[Wilbon]

Can I just say, we don't really know how fast.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We don't know how fast he is because he stops. He's just waving to the crowd. Yeah, he's 10 meters from the. Then he stops and he still wins. He still wins in a record. Is there, I mean, with your knowledge of swimming, are there these barriers in swimming, is there some number that a swim person would say that's never going to be broken or if it is, that's remarkable.

[Pat40]

The one for me is a 4 minute 400 IM.400. I'm so, you know, 100 of each stroke, the hardest event. And Michael Phelps had the world record for a long time, set it in Beijing when he was winning eight gold medals. And Leon Marchand came in and broke it a couple of years ago. I try to remember. He didn't put at the Olympics. I don't think he did it later or maybe even earlier. And he brought it down to 402. And I remember asking Bob Bowman, who's coached them both, can he break four? He's like, yeah, I think you can. And if that happened that way, that would just completely blow my mind because Phelps, his record stood for like 16 years at least at 403. Now it's 402. Can, can you get to four?

[Timmy the Teeth]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I mean, I just think these are mythic numbers in sports, like 60 home runs, you know, they're batting.400. You know, things that have been done and when they get passed, I mean, whether, look, nobody's going to refute that. Barry Bonds took steroids. He hit 73 home runs. The factor over 60 when you hit 73 is simply remarkable. I mean, nobody counts it, but it's, it's amazing. I plug your podcast for us as. Thank you for being on the show. Plug it.

[Pat40]

Of course. We covered the wide world of sports today in the Garden podcast. Others receiving votes. Sports Illustrated, SI.com will be taping later today.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Good. That's wonderful. Thanks as always, Pat. Thank you.

[Pat40]

My pleasure, Tony. Thank you, Pat.

[Tony Kornheiser]

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

[John Ourand]

This is the Tony Kornheiser Show. Tony Kornheiser Show.

[Timmy the Teeth]

Here comes Tony's mailbag. Got your email fax and your nose. Here comes Tony's mailbag. Gonna read some for all of you folks.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Thank you, kj. Thank you for that. Always love that one. Did the Bethesda bagel ad for us.

[Wilbon]

Yes, Bethesda bagels, we love them. You will as well. Just go to BethesdaBaggles.com for the location in the D.C. area near Sue. Then pop on in and you'll be thrilled. And I want to give a quick word to Steve Sycophant. Under the aegis of the City of Fairfax Band association, the Main Street Community Band presents its final summer concert 7:30 this Thursday. That's July 23rd at the Sherwood Community center in Fairfax. Going to be a lot of stuff including people paying, playing a rubber chicken, which apparently is great fun. Yeah, a bunch of Beach Boys stuff. So yeah, admission is free and it's got air conditioned at the Sherwood community center. So 7:30 Thursday and before we get

[Tony Kornheiser]

to the mailbag, let me just say everybody was kung fu foo fighting. Those cats were fast as lightning. In fact it was a little bit frightening but they fought with expert timing. It's a terrible song but we commemorate the fact that Elvis Presley received a first degree black belt on this day in 1960. Thanks to our guests today, Pat40 and John Ouran. Thanks as well to today's sponsors. Remember you can listen to us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Odyssey get show through Apple. Please leave us a review we got a very nice note from Tim Raedersdorf in Columbus, Ohio said I wanted to share an article from your old friend, Boxing hall of Fame writer Tom Archdeacon, about my dad Rex and his longtime friend Woody oaks, who celebrated 300 consecutive months of playing at least one round of golf together at the same course Community Golf Club in Dayton, Ohio on July 8th. While this may be one of the most unbreakable streaks in golf, it has never been about the numbers on a scorecard. There are very few words that can capture what their brotherhood has meant to so many of us, which is why we felt incredibly fortunate to have to Tom tell their story. It's an incredible experience. Walking nine holes with Tom. We heard stories about Muhammad Ali, inviting him to the circus with his daughters and covering the Lilly Hammer Olympics with a slightly orange bald man in a legendary jacket. I smiled when I saw that both you and the podcast were mentioned in the article. Connective tissue indeed. And as if the script had already been written, our favorite moment came on the final green when my dad handed Thomas Putter Archdeacon, who was a caddy in his childhood, stepped over a 25 foot birdie boy putt and buried it. If you have a few moments, I think you'll enjoy seeing one of the great remaining newspaper storytellers at work. Tom Archdeacon's really good. Really good. And by the way, Tim says to tell Rex and Woody to eat it. Tom I knew Tom. I'm pretty sure he worked at the Miami News when I first met him, so I'm glad to know he's still writing. Appreciate that. From Jim Neal in Fort Worth, Texas, hello again. Finally our long nightmares over the 20236 World cup is done. May we please get back to being a pickleball nation? Pickleball so it's so loud and awful. From Elliot Olshansky in Del Mar, New York. Every time Steve Sands says it's Soccer blows. I smile as I remember Tony Kleinman using that exact phrase and singing his distate for distaste for soccer on the pilot episode of Listen Up. Perhaps when you have Perhaps when you have Sansi on to discuss the British Open, you can ask him if he can sing his anti soccer diatribe to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Best regards from Albany county, where I'm eagerly awaiting to hear about your use of your Netflix account now that you've accessed it for the Home Run Derby. To watch Will Ferrell in the Hawk, go to Sands. The appearance before what is the Hawk? Is Sands in the Hawk? Somebody wrote me a note about this yesterday. The Hawk that Will Ferrell is in this. This is.

[Wilbon]

Oh, it's a new show. Yeah, I've not seen it yet, so

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm not sure possible Steve Sands is in it.

[Wilbon]

It could be.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, I'll reach out to that from Reese in London. Dear Dr. Hofwaff, did Wilbourne really say that he didn't think the Argentina attack was awful? The attack that didn't even take a shot at goal until the 11th minute of the final and generated expected goal value of 0.22 across 120 minutes? That means they would have had to play 10 hours of soccer just to score a single goal against Spain. I don't want to see an attack that Wilbourne thinks is awful because it was awful.

[Michael]

Steve Sands on IMDb Playing Steve Sands

[Tony Kornheiser]

yes oh, this is what I've been told in something called Fantastic from Daniel Kilday. There's a reason why the official survivor of the Tony Kornheiser Show, Rick Devins, has been silent during his new adventure on Big Brother. Unlike Survivor, which is filmed well in advance of the broadcast, Big Brother is shown concurrently with the happenings inside the house. None of the contestants are allowed to use their phones, get on social media, or have access to to the outside world until they're eliminated from the competition. I've never watched Big Brother before. Rick was announced as one of the house guests, but tried really hard to give it a chance to cheer him on. However, in the first episode, after the cast was transported back in time via TV magic and one of the contestants was pushed into a volcano by a dinosaur. I said, what the hell am I doing with my life? And I turned it off. I wish Rick the best. I hope he wins. I can't. I. I just can't. I can tell you from what I've read online that Rick is doing very well so far. And was named head of household. What does this mean? I have no earthly idea, but I'll try to keep you posted. Here's another one from Josh Merkel. In week two of Big Brother 28, Rick Devins has managed to win HOH Head of Household and the power of veto, making him the only person ever to win individual immunity Survivor hoh Big Brother and POV Big Brother. That's it. That's the list. And yeah, so very nice. We're rooting for Rick.

[Wilbon]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Tony Kornheiser]

From Mike Fenner. Bacon and pocket scattered in cart. Keep on keeping on Satch, Mike and only that's the new bipsych dipstick, which I tried to explain to people. Yeah, ball and pocket. Yeah, ball in pocket. Sitting in court. Jeff Merrill. Dear Captain Kornheiser, the NATs played the A's in Sacramento last week and not Vegas. Oh, so I had that wrong. Okay, jerseys. Oh, I'm sorry. Hot, yes, but thin air, not so much. I live 90 minutes north of Sacramento, so I bought tickets for Saturday's game months ago. My Nats will never be closer. When the pitches were announced, my heart sank. I had the littel. Is it Littel is how it's pronounced. Not little, right? It's littel.

[Wilbon]

Thanks.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I had the littel game. I knew the Nats were going to lose. Little did I know how bad it was going to be when the Tell's first pitch sailed over the left field fence. I knew was going to be a long night. 13 hits, 7 walks, 15 runs, and a Jorbit Vivas relief performance later, it was blissfully over. Was enough to make me contemplate life as a charter boat captain. Yeah, they didn't have to go to it. From Tony T in Brooklyn in D.C. so I usually do a happy hour shift Thursday, then cross down and do a closing shift. Last week was my birthday, so I thought I should grab a bite to eat between shifts, you know, to ease the impending birthday shots. Open seat at the bar. I grab it next to a fellow I feel like I recognize for school or something. Oh, wait, it's Frank Isola. I play it cool. I don't want to fanboy too much. Instead of cheese. Re I tell him great soccer chat with Tony the other day. I don't ask if he's covering PTI for you because of the member guest playing it cool. See, we talked about what a great writer you were at the Post. We bemoaned the demise of the Post and how bad streaming is. I bought him a glass of wine. Apologize for invading. He could not have been much cooler. Hopefully he finds my dive bar on your next PTI break made my birthday that much better. Isn't that nice? That's really not Frank. From Brian Kelly in Everett, Washington. About three months ago, I emailed you that I too had taken up potato farming. Having been inspired by your show, I left my plants full and green to go to Montana on vacation. Came back to find them all brown and withered. I tried to revive them, but to no avail. Today I decided to dig and see what had come from my work and was delighted to find a few pounds of tiny red potatoes. Several more still attached to plants and no bigger than a peanut remain in the soil. I'm told these may grow into plants next year if I leave them alone. I guess we shall see. I hope your harvest yields better than my roughly $8 per pound crop. But I can say it was a learning experience and fun. And then closes with best to you in farming and sailing and shows pictures of the red potato.

[Wilbon]

That's a great. We got half of that. We'd be thrilled.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh yeah. Matt from Sheridan, Oregon. While I know you'll chat about Ryan Fox winning the Open, it's worth noting that Ryan's father, Grant, was not only a member of the very first Rugby World cup champions while playing for the New Zealand All Blacks, he was a very, very accomplished rugby player in New Zealand. Also, I know you were impressed by the exploits of the Mexican soccer team at the Azteca Stadium. The aforementioned All Blacks have a better streak on Saturday. They've extended their undefeated streak at eden park to 53 test matches, 51 wins, 2 draws. Last loss was 1994 to France. Wow. I sent an email that didn't get read concerning the lack of red zone on Comcast and that's the reason it's not available. It's a contract dispute between the two parties. The All Blacks were so named because that was their color of their uniforms.

[Wilbon]

Yes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And they were a great rugby team.

[Wilbon]

Yeah. Phenomenal.

[Tony Kornheiser]

From Chris Bancell's in Forest Hill, Maryland. Last week you read an email from a teacher talking about losing a teacher student game. Clearly, no one explained to our staff that the teachers are supposed to cheat. When I was a high school teacher, I played in those things and all we did was foul the students relentlessly. The ref, a teacher, of course, was so corrupt it would make FIFA blush. The scores were always an absolute travesty, but was the only time we could get one over on the kids. I'm happy to deliver professional development in this area should further explanation be required. And from Tim Others From Tim Cree in Fort Collins, Colorado, I just saw the best injury report. An Australian Rules Football player missed two games for hamstring awareness. Awareness. I'm aware of my hamstring every time I try to run more than 20ft. From Jack Ashcraft in Vista, California I'm a man now. I'm also about 40 episodes behind on the pot and only catch up by a couple most weeks, so I can't wait to hear my July email read sometime in September from Brandon Borzelli in Lebanon, New Jersey. To add a little spice to the All Star game, maybe the eighth and ninth innings should exclusively feature Nats bullpen pitch shouldn't matter if they make the team or not, the pitches are just rolled out of the pen and pitch for whatever team is in the field. Viewers will surely stick around to watch the lead get blown again and again as both teams rack up endless amount of runs. Of course x Nats such as Wando SUO are eligible. The All Star would be classic again. And one more this certainly was a great weekend for sports and I came away from it with two thoughts. I'm probably not watching soccer for another four years and I'm never playing Royal Burgdale DG if you're out on your bike tight everyone is always do wear white but I still need a bit

[Pat40]

of milk full fat I've warmed in the micro huave.

[Timmy the Teeth]

Have you ever bought something just to wear it then return it? I have, I have you ever made the same mistake twice maybe even three times? Have you ever been down a road not known how to get back home? I have, I have you know I ain't that bad but a shirt could be better have you ever passed someone in need on the street even with your pockets full of pennies? Have you ever regret something you said right as it was leaving out your lips? I have, yeah I have and no it ain't that bad but it sure could be better. Have you ever been down on your luck and said the words God damn what the don't you hate it when things don't go your way? No Sugar bowl eliminate all I do yeah I do and no it ain't that bad but it sure could be better. Oh yeah it could, yes you could. You want me to cut? I can't, I can't keep a straight face no I can't, I can't even keep my shoes laced I'm having troubles, troubles walking these days But I'm trying, I'm trying to keep my head on straight I be lying if I said that I can catch a break I scratched the seven took it to the bank Small bill, no change Tell her what's your name. I'm trying, trying to make the words do fit California, Cincinnati, far gone Miss it sit Keep the cow Tell the secretary that I quit yes, sir.

[John Ourand]

It's wonked out I don't think he's

[Timmy the Teeth]

coming back the carpet's dirty it's time for a new change Paint color I must have got the wrong shade Eggshell flatter, satin shoe means nothing Me small bill don't change, don't paint and tell her what's your name this free coffee's got me in a dollar days I'm spending money that I never had anyway. I'm putting pennies in my piggy I'm saving up for something kind of pretty I hope they still sell fire on the 4th of July small bill, no chain big flame Teller, what's your name? It's free copies got me in dollar days I'm spending money that I never had anyway.