“Iodine”

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Tony Kornheiser Show – Episode “Iodine”

Release Date: July 16, 2025

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Introduction

In the “Iodine” episode of The Tony Kornheiser Show, host Tony Kornheiser delves into a variety of engaging topics ranging from sports coverage of the British Open to personal anecdotes about wound care. The episode features insightful conversations with guests Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press and Buster Olney, alongside spirited discussions about recent events in golf and baseball. Throughout the show, Tony weaves in humor, personal stories, and listener interactions, making for a rich and entertaining listen.

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British Open Coverage with Doug Ferguson

The episode kicks off with Tony welcoming Doug Ferguson, who is currently in Northern Ireland covering the British Open from Royal Port Rush. Their conversation provides listeners with exclusive insights into the tournament's atmosphere and key players.

Doug Ferguson discusses his experience:
“At the Scottish Open, Scotty Scheffler seemed to be struggling with adulthood and work...” [21:30]

Tony and Doug explore Scotty Scheffler’s recent performance, emphasizing his competitive nature and potential longevity in the sport.

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Weather Alerts: Torrential Rains in the NY Metro Area

Shifting gears, Tony addresses the recent severe weather impacting the New York metropolitan and northern New Jersey areas. He contrasts it with the rains in the Washington D.C. region, highlighting the unprecedented intensity.

Tony Kornheiser on flooding:
“…in New York, they had 6 inches of rain in an hour. That's almost incomprehensible.” [03:10]

He expresses frustration over recurring flash flood warnings and the disruption they cause, underscoring the severity of the situation with specific examples like the Beltway closures.

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Golf Tournament Insights with Nigel and Discussion on Scoring Integrity

Tony brings in Nigel to discuss his recent participation in the TPC Avenal tournament out of Potomac, Maryland. The conversation touches on course conditions, scoring methodologies, and the integrity of player scores.

Nigel on tournament scoring:
“So there's great math here. So for me, I'm trying to identify what are the four to six holes that I think are the toughest for a group to score.” [04:39]

They debate the authenticity of exceptionally low scores, considering factors like course difficulty and player honesty, ultimately advocating for fair play.

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Taste Test: Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream Review

A lighthearted segment follows where Tony and Nigel review the new peanut butter and jelly flavor from See’s Candy and McConnell’s Ice Cream. They share their varied opinions on the balance of peanut butter creaminess against the robust jelly chunks.

Tony on the ice cream taste:
“The vanilla ice cream itself was fabulous.” [07:30]

Nigel expresses a preference for the peanut butter aspect, noting that the jelly's strong presence may not appeal to all, especially children.

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Personal Anecdote: Dog Bite and Wound Care

Tony recounts a personal story about being bitten by a neighbor’s dog while retrieving flowers, leading to a discussion on wound care practices. He shares his experience with Neosporin and his doctor's surprising recommendation to switch to iodine.

Tony on wound treatment:
“She said, Neosporin is the devil. I go, what?” [13:22]

This segment delves into traditional versus modern approaches to treating minor injuries, highlighting the generational differences in medical advice.

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Musical Interlude: Mandy Valentine’s “Sugar Baby” and “Run Rabbit Run”

Interspersed with discussions are musical performances by Mandy Valentine. Tony introduces songs like “Sugar Baby” and “Run Rabbit Run,” adding a melodic break to the episode.

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Golf Focus: Scotty Scheffler’s Mindset and Rory McIlroy’s Performance

In an in-depth conversation with Buster Olney, Tony explores Scotty Scheffler’s psychological approach to golf and his remarkable performance streak. They analyze Scheffler’s burnout fears and compare his mentality to legends like Tiger Woods.

Buster Olney on Scotty Scheffler:
“He loves the competition. He loves the work.” [22:05]

The dialogue shifts to Rory McIlroy’s recent struggles and the community’s response, discussing his attempts to embrace expectations and maintain performance.

Tony on Rory McIlroy:
“I think he's learning from the fun that Shane has, and I think he's learned from that.” [32:07]

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JJ Spawn’s US Open Victory and Its Aftermath

Discussion moves to JJ Spawn’s surprising win at the US Open, evaluating the impact of his unexpected triumph on his career and future in majors.

Tony on JJ Spawn:
“The last major we had was the US Open. That was won in fabulously dramatic fashion by JJ Spawn…” [29:18]

Buster Olney reflects on Spawn’s journey from uncertainty to major champion, pondering his ability to sustain success.

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Tommy Fleetwood as a Potential British Open Winner

The conversation continues with a focus on Tommy Fleetwood, highlighting his sportsmanship and potential to win the British Open. Buster praises Fleetwood’s graciousness despite competitive setbacks.

Buster Olney on Tommy Fleetwood:
“He's the best loser in golf. I haven't seen a loser this good player.” [33:13]

Tony encourages listeners to root for Fleetwood, emphasizing his positive traits and influence on the sport.

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All Star Game Breakdown: Shootout Format and Player Reactions

Tony analyzes the recent All Star Game, which concluded with a shootout—a first for baseball exhibitions. He discusses the mixed reactions from purists and the entertainment value of such formats.

Buster Olney on the All Star Game:
“By the way, you mentioned about the game being late, you're right, that's because it started late.” [38:47]

They debate the merits of the shootout compared to traditional game endings, comparing it to similar practices in soccer and hockey.

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Baseball Innovations: Ball Strike Challenges

The episode covers the introduction of ball strike challenges in baseball, discussing player apprehensions and potential impacts on the game’s integrity.

Michael Wilbon on ball strike challenges:
“There's a lot of concern along those lines that I heard from players in spring training.” [44:34]

Tony and Michael express skepticism about the transition to these new rules, reflecting on the balance between innovation and tradition in the sport.

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Listener Mailbag: Diverse Stories and Personal Messages

In the mailbag segment, Tony reads various listener emails that range from personal anecdotes, sports discussions, to humorous stories. Highlights include tales of high school athletics, gardening inspirations, and local sports insights.

Listener message on cross country:
“…with the podcast in my ears, I was able to break my school records in the 800 meters…” [57:00]

Listeners also share funny takes on pronunciations and local sports figures, adding a personal and communal touch to the show.

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Conclusion

The “Iodine” episode of The Tony Kornheiser Show masterfully balances sports commentary, personal stories, and engaging guest interactions. From in-depth discussions on golf and baseball to relatable anecdotes about daily life, Tony ensures a comprehensive and entertaining episode for all listeners. The inclusion of listener mailbags and musical interludes further enriches the content, making it a well-rounded addition to the show's repertoire.

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Notable Quotes

• Tony Kornheiser on severe rain in NY: “They had 6 inches of rain in an hour. That's almost incomprehensible.” [03:10]

• Tony on Neosporin vs Iodine: “She said, Neosporin is the devil. I go, what?” [13:22]

• Buster Olney on Scotty Scheffler: “He loves the competition. He loves the work.” [22:05]

• Buster Olney on Tommy Fleetwood: “He's the best loser in golf. I haven't seen a loser this good player.” [33:13]

• Michael Wilbon on ball strike challenges: “There's a lot of concern along those lines that I heard from players in spring training.” [44:34]

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This comprehensive summary captures the essence of the “Iodine” episode, highlighting key discussions, guest insights, and memorable moments, all while maintaining a structured and engaging narrative for those who haven’t listened to the episode.

Transcript

[Tony Kornheiser]

Hey, it's Tony. On today's show, we'll check in with Doug Ferguson, who's in Ireland covering the British Open. And we'll talk to Buster only about what turned out to be a wild All Star game. But first, let's do some commerce, boys and girls. Oh, hey. Hey.

[Doug Ferguson]

Thanks for meeting me here. It's just you're my only lawyer friend and I need your professional opinion. Do you see that brand new Hyundai Tucson out there? That's all I paid for it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Ah, let me get back to you on that deal. So right it almost feels wrong. At the Hyundai Getaway sales event, get 0% APR for 60 months plus 0 payments for 90 days on all Hyundai Santa Fe models. And check out our other great deals at your Hyundai dealer today. Offer end September 2nd. Call 562-314-4603 for details. This is the Tony Kornheiser Show. This is the Chili Pad. Read Poor sleep equals poor results. But here's the kicker. Quality sleep isn't always about how long you sleep, but how well you sleep. And science tells us temperature plays a massive role in that. Meet Chilipad by Sleep Me. Its mission is to elevate the quality of human life through cool sleep. Whether you're an elite athlete, weekend warrior, or just hate tossing, turning and sweaty sheets, Chilipad can end your nights of sleeping hotter than hell. The Chilipad cooling system was designed with athletes in mind. It lets you customize your sleeping environment to your personal temperature, ensuring you fall asleep faster and wake up recovered. It's like having a personal recovery coach, but for your sleep. Chilipad works with your existing mattress. It's a temperature regulated water based mattress topper that precisely controls your bed temperature from 55 to 115 degrees. The systems are buildable and designed for one or two sleepers, so if your sleep partner likes to sleep at different temperatures or you only need it for one side of the bed, that's okay too. Plus, you can schedule automated temperature changes to trigger deep sleep and reduce Night sweatshirt Would chili pad dominate the day? Recover at night? Visit www.sleep.metony to get your chili pad and save 20% with the code TONY. The special offer is available for Tony Kornheiser show listeners, dozens of you and only for a limited time. Order it today with free shipping and try it out for 30 days. You can return it for free if you don't like it with their sleep trial. Visit www.sleep S L E E P.me Tony and see why Cold sleep is your ultimate ally in performance and Recovery.

[Buster Olney]

Previously on the Tony Kornheiser Show. Best round Charles Barkley's ever played.

[Michael Wilbon]

So we're there for that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He equals number two.

[Michael Wilbon]

Place goes crazy. And of course, you know, when we're meeting everybody, Charles comes up, big smile on his face, you know, introducing himself to me.

[Buster Olney]

Just the nicest guy.

[Michael Wilbon]

And if he wasn't going to be.

[Buster Olney]

The nicest guy anyway, I say the.

[Michael Wilbon]

Words Tony Kornheiser and he loses his mind. You know, he's telling me, that guy.

[Buster Olney]

He'S teaching me how to be Jewish. This is General George Washington, and you're.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show. So between the time that we did that podcast and now, we've had these torrential rains in the Washington, D.C. area, which are nothing compared to the torrential rains in the New York metropolitan area and the northern New Jersey area. I mean, there have been flooding. Like, you get these warnings and they interrupt what you're watching on television. They're annoying because, you know, you say, enough already. And they talk about flash floods. And I think to myself, well, I don't live near a river. I mean, I'm not close enough to a river that I should care about this creeks, tributaries. But then you see the rain fall down and in less than an hour, an inch and a half of rain. And then you find out that in the New York metropolitan and that stuff, the Beltway was closed, among other things. In Chevy Chase, the Beltway was closed, but in New York, they had 6 inches of rain in an hour. That's almost incomprehensible. The volume of that rain and the force of that rain. So that is, that has happened.

[Chris]

When you see statements going out in New York, if you live in a basement or ground floor apartment, be prepared to seek higher ground immediately.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, yeah, sure. So all of that happened. Michael, you played November Guest yesterday. I did that go.

[Nigel]

It was great.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Where'd you play?

[Nigel]

So I was playing at TPC Avenal out of Potomac, Maryland, which we've seen for years when it hosts various tournaments. But it was a lot of fun.

[Tony Kornheiser]

How'd you do?

[Nigel]

You know what? For me, I probably shot around my number. I made a lot of. I made some great up and downs and given the rain that we'd had, it was just awesome to get out on the course, you know, cart path only and you know, lift clean in place pretty much everywhere. But the course held up really well. And I got to tell my Bronson Burgoon story from number two. Oh, yeah, don't forget me, bro.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, so.

[Nigel]

And now that kid is 8 years old, which is even more surprising.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So who won that thing? What was the score on the win?

[Nigel]

I'm not, I'm not going to zoom in too close on the winner. My group finished right where we should have been. You know, this is one of those events where in our group of four, you take 40 balls over the course of the 18 holes and you have to circle the number before you get to the next tee. So there's great math here. So for me, I'm trying to identify what are the four to six holes that I think are the toughest for a group to score. And this is across all handicaps. So you're first looking for water hazards and just other penalty areas that might make it so that you can't get your five or four and get out of there with a clean number. And so I feel like we're doing pretty well. We start on the par three ninth, which is a drop down. Yeah, I'd say one of the signature holes there. And then we, we enter the tough stretch that is the one that often floods and is. Has some really difficult long par fours. And we're taking two or three a hole. Feel like we're in good rhythm and you know, we get in and we are waxed by. We're base. Our score is doubled.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, yeah. People cheat.

[Nigel]

Well, it's impossible because you sit there and going like what happens when you actually have a friend or a guest and they don't play all that often and all of a sudden they're playing with friends and they already see somebody else in with the five or four and then they make a 15 footer that starts to count. You go, that's, that's how this stuff adds up. And it can be totally clean, but.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We don't think it's totally.

[Nigel]

It's often not.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, I mean if it's 72 and somebody's coming in around 50, you go, really?

[Nigel]

Yeah. When you start to get those scramble.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Scores in the upper 40s playing with Kim Jong Un.

[Nigel]

So now there's, there's some great social accounts that start to take, you know, they'll take submissions where people say, I want you to look at this member guest or this scramble. And they start to, they start to look at the golfers, like recently posted numbers to see how it's not possible to stop shooting.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Simply not possible.

[Nigel]

Not possible.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, you'd have to have Rory out there. Four Rorys. And they couldn't do it. They're not going to end up in the 40s.

[Nigel]

It would be a great bit just to have four for relatively unknown pros that are had Korn fairy status, some other limited status, and just see what they post.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, you can't. Anyway, an update on one of the ice creams. One of the See's candy and McConnell's ice cream. We had the peanut butter and jelly. And this was interesting. Cause the boys had it, I had it. Everybody had it at dinner. And the boys had it as well. And the boys really liked the peanut butter part and not so much the jelly part. The jelly was. Was strong.

[Nigel]

The jelly did not incorporate into the ice cream. It was chunks of jelly. It almost felt like, you know, you just took a spoon and spooned out the jelly onto the bread. That does. That turns into the PB and jelly.

[Tony Kornheiser]

The vanilla ice cream itself was fabulous.

[Nigel]

And the peanut butter had a great creaminess to it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes, yes, yes. So we. That we've.

[Nigel]

And then the question is if you were to have a PBJ, which you've not had in 20 years.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't. 20. I was never a PB.

[Nigel]

Did you ever have a PB and.

[Tony Kornheiser]

J. I doubt it. I doubt it. I mean, I never. The jelly was goopy to me. I mean, I sort of like the peanut butter and the jelly.

[Nigel]

So if you were to go to a diner and you reached for one of the jams, as I know you.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I do. And I eat that with my hands.

[Nigel]

Yeah. What gel. What. What jam are you reaching?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Raspberry or strawberry?

[Nigel]

Okay, no apricot.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No raspberry.

[Nigel]

Everyone leaves the apricot. That's why Chatter had so much of it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, I don't want the apricot. Don't want the grape.

[Nigel]

You said that's strong.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Don't want the blueberry. No, don't want that. That was grape, I think. Was it grape? Did it.

[Nigel]

Yeah, that tastes like grape. One it. It had strong, uncrustable vibes to it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. So anyway, so we'll. We'll try the others as well. And I have.

[Nigel]

The hammer was ready, though, with the review. We tried to get it on tape and he shied away.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, but he. He. He liked the peanut butter and not the jelly, so. Okay.

[Chris]

Thumbs up.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We like that. Did I talk about my dog bite the last show? I don't think I. No, I don't believe you have. So let me tell you what happened. My dear friend Tracy Callahan, who runs Bethesda Flores, and who I would say, eight to ten times a year has flowers delivered to my house.

[Nigel]

You're on the list.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, he just likes me. And I go, tracy, you don't have to. He says, no, no, no. I want.

[Nigel]

It gets you out of some trouble, right?

[Tony Kornheiser]

And it also certain holidays and they all anniversaries. If they all say sicara, love Tony, they all say that. And Tracy does it. So. So the other day was my birthday, as people know, and Tracy sent flowers over. I was not here when the flowers arrived. Nobody was here when the flowers arrived. So the flowers were delivered across the street to someone else's house. I get home and someone knocks on the door, rings the bell on the door and is holding a bouquet of flowers. And I go right to my pocket to take out a five dollar bill to tip this person for delivering the flowers. And she goes, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not. No. I work across the street. And these flowers, three different flowers were sent to you. I said, okay, great. So I took those flowers and I said, yeah. I said, you. You go ahead and you keep the other flowers. You keep the other flowers, right? And she said, no, no. So I go across the street to pick up. I insist that she keeps one, but I go across the street to pick up one. And I'm out, you know, and the neighbors are outside and everybody's outside. And I go to walk in the gate to go and get the flowers. It seems like a harmless act. And their little bitty dog bites me, Bites me. A little bitty dog protecting their house, bites me, draws blood, draws blood, bites. Let me repeat this for people who didn't hear the first time. Bites me, draws blood. Huh. You know. Okay, so we're not happy about that. Okay. Okay. These things happen.

[Nigel]

You go to the ground.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I have a dog too. No, but I mean, I'm looking at my left leg and it's got blood. And I am assured right away, don't worry. The dog has rabies shots. And I go, okay.

[Nigel]

That's the first response.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, the. How are you? I'm so sorry that. How are you? I'm so sorry. No, the responses were correct. Don't worry about the dog has rabies shots. Well, that's fine and good if it's true, but every once in a while it gets rabies anyway. And I don't know this. So I put on, you know, I put on the first thing I do whenever anything happens to me, I put Neosporin on it. Yep. I mean, we have Neosporin in every room in the house.

[Listener]

You.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Because Neosporin is God's gift to injury. Neosporin everybody knows this. That night, Liz. I say to Liz, we should change this bandage. And she wants to look at it and see if it's terrible and all of that, because the blood is seeping through the bandage, which sometimes happens. And I say some Neosporin. And she gives me some more Neosporin, although she's not crazy about doing that. But, you know, she says, you really think? I said, yeah, Neosporin. It's great. And then we put a big band aid on it. So yesterday, I go to see Dr. Kaguchi because my right ankle is again, very much swollen. Looks like a basketball. And I am given an ultrasound treatment. Have you ever had ultrasound? I have not. No. Michael, have you ever had ultrasound? Chris, have you ever had on. Never had ultrasound. Okay, ultrasound. They apply a sort of a hot gel to your leg, and they use this to, in essence, X ray inside your leg to see if your blood is flowing correctly or if you have blood. The worry is blood clots, right? The wembanyama worry.

[Chris]

Yes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Blood clots. I've had these done a few times. I haven't had blood clots, and in fact, I didn't have blood clots now. So two things happen. One is they put my leg at what now turns out to have been a very awkward position for 40 minutes to do this procedure. Didn't feel awkward at the time, but as of last night, I'm in enormous pain. And it's pain on my upper right side, groin area because of the way that I put my leg down for a long period of time. So, you know, so I'm really now in a lot of pain. I'm assuming it's directly related to that as opposed to something else in my body. Sure. So. And I am assuming that at some point it's going to go away. But I wrote a note to the doctor anyway. The doctor looks at my leg, the other leg, the left leg, and says, what's that? I tell her the dog bite story. I tell her the Neosporin story. And she says to me, neosporin is the devil. I go, what?

[Michael Wilbon]

What?

[Tony Kornheiser]

What? Neosporin is the devil. I thought it was the angel of mercy. No, no, Neosporin is wet Neosporin. You need to dry these things out. When something happens that you put a bandage on, you want a scab to form, and dryness is what makes that happen. No Neosporin. No. And I go, I've spent thousands on Neosporin. It's all over the house. I would eat it if I had.

[Nigel]

Yeah, maybe not at Every room, you know.

[Tony Kornheiser]

She said, no, no. And she said, and this was an amazing thing. Chris is too young to have heard of this word ever. I suspect Michael is too young to have heard of this as a. As a tool of getting better. Nigel is old enough. She said, you need to use iodine.

[Nigel]

Iodine, like the water drops.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I hadn't heard the word iodine in 70 years. Iodine. Iodine was that stuff, that sort of dark red stuff that you put on cuts. And I assumed, as anyone would, that Neosporin proved that iodine was nonsense. And Neosporin was the best thing ever created in the world. And she said, here are iodine sticks. And she opened one of the packages and put iodine on. I O D I N E. Iodine. Never heard of it, did you?

[Michael Wilbon]

Nope.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You never heard.

[Nigel]

I've heard. You've heard before.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. She put the stick down and she said, don't use the stick again. Just throw the stick out once. You use it once. Just throw it out. Don't save it. And she looked at me like, I know you would say. I know who you are. I know you would say, save it. So I said, okay. And she gave me five or six iodine sticks. It was like going back in time. Iodine. It's like iodine. You would know that anybody had a rash or a cut or something when they were kids, 4 and 5 and 6 years old, and their entire chest area, their arms, every part of their body would have these red marks. And the red marks would be iodine, of course. And then I just assumed iodine was no longer in use.

[Chris]

Yeah, they'd sort of like, oh, we figured this out. We got the next thing. This is so much better.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Like I said to her, iodine, that's like the polio vaccine. That's so long ago. And she looked at me like, stop. This is what's good. So did you know that about Neosporin?

[Nigel]

I don't agree with all of that about Neosporin. I think it is very useful at the start of the healing process. But you probably. If you were to.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I just.

[Nigel]

If you were to put this in terms of tablespoons, what are you working with a full tablespoon of D Sport.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh, yeah, sure.

[Nigel]

Oh, that has no chance to ever scab over and dry.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right? Well, that. That was her point. Her point is you're. You're. You're stopping at level one. You're not.

[Nigel]

Before you get to level one, are you even cleaning the cut, or are you going straight to Neosporin?

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, I take a towel, although it could have been someone else's towel, it doesn't really matter to me. And I wet it and I pat it on the area that.

[Nigel]

Make sure there's nothing in there, you.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Know, So I pat it down, and then I put on the Neosporin. Oh. So I may have. I may. I may have learned something in my old age. So that was good.

[Nigel]

Well, I think the tough thing for you is because as you get older, I think it's harder for cuts to fully heal. They tend to reopen. And so I think at that point, you're sitting there, you think you have to go back to the Neosporin, and you don't, because it's. It is clean at that point.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So Neosporin is, I guess, just a cleansing agent. It's not a healing agent. It's cleansing agent.

[Nigel]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's what I'm interpreting here. I mean, I don't know that, but that. Because I. I am a doctor, but I'm not that kind of doctor. I'm a doctor of Humane Letters. I can't.

[Nigel]

I think for most of these things, you can just slap some Aquaphor on.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It'll be fine. Well, isn't Aquaphor is the same as Neosporin? I've used Aquaphor before.

[Nigel]

Yes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, so.

[Nigel]

But you're saying sort of jelly.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. But you're saying. Well, maybe put on grape jelly. But you're saying not to. My mistake is to continually.

[Nigel]

I think. I think that's in the first 12.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Hours, the healing process, apparently. Just stuff I didn't know. I'm just saying this out loud because it sounds like I think I know what I'm talking about, but of course I don't.

[Nigel]

Well, my experience in this is that Liz takes. Clearly takes care of all the minor wounds in our house.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right, right. So, anyway, so that was.

[Chris]

Can I read you a quote, a lyric from a song that I know you've never heard of?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Iodine. Well, it's.

[Chris]

It's got iodine in it from my favorite band, the Grateful Dead. Oh, the line is from a song called Tennessee Jed. I dropped four flights and cracked my spine Honey, come quick. With the iodine.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. So the iodine. The who. Who's the group? The funny group. I'm gonna. We're gonna need an ocean of calamine lotion. I've been scratching like a hound the minute you start to mess around with poison ivy I think that. Poison ivy.

[Nigel]

The coasters.

[Tony Kornheiser]

The coasters. Oh, yeah, yeah. They did Yakety Yak. I think Iodine is in one of their songs, it occurs to me. But again, that song was written literally 70 years ago. Honestly, I mean, I'm not. I've not heard the word. I can't tell you how many years since I've actually heard the word iodine. Anyway, we'll take a break. Doug Ferguson is in Northern Ireland. He is at Royal Port Rush. The British Open starts tomorrow. We will talk to him just when we get on the other side of this break. I'm Tony Kornheiser. T Mobile is more than the best network in the game. They're now the best network in America according to the experts at Ooka Speed Test. So MLB fans are connected from home to home plate with the most advanced 5G, the most towers and a signal that goes farther than ever. You can keep up with your teams on the road, overseas, even off the grid. For baseball fans, it's better over here.

[Nigel]

Based on analysis by Ooklift Speed test.

[Tony Kornheiser]

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[Nigel]

All the time.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. You love this right now.

[Nigel]

Water is not enough.

[Chris]

It really isn't. Liquid IV is and it is deadly outside. Oh with the hue. I mean already it's viciously humid already that you've got to have this stuff.

[Tony Kornheiser]

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[Nigel]

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[Tony Kornheiser]

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[Nigel]

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[Tony Kornheiser]

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[Doug Ferguson]

You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

This is a band named Mandy Valentine. This is a song called Sugar Baby. It's sent to us by Jay Johnson and all the Mandys says, hope this finds you well or as well as anyone could be found in 2025. Hope your summer's off to a great start. Well, it was until I got bitten. I meant to write separately to say I really enjoyed Tony's thoughts on Brian Wilson after his sad passing. His music, like that of the Beatles, Kinks and Velvet Underground, has brought me so much joy and inspired so much music. I've written a genius, to say the least, and a true master of harmony. I've been doing a deep dive of Pet Sounds and Smile Sessions, which is some of my favorites. Couldn't recommend enough back in the day when I used to play baseball. In another life, I used to sing Help Me Rhonda to myself when going up to bat as a good luck charm. All to say, I enjoyed the tribute. On a lighter note, wanted to share two more new updated tunes from the Mandy's new record with you. And as I said, the first one that we're playing is Sugar Baby and it plays in Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press, who is in Northern Ireland at Royal Port Rush and I I Yesterday, for the SportsCenter segment that Wilbon and I do, we were requested to comment on Scottie Scheffler's relatively extraordinary monologue yesterday, which I'm sure you were present for, in which Scotty Scheffler seemed to be struggling with adulthood and work and the notion that not everything one does at work, though one loves it, is satisfying beyond that moment. And one of the things he said was, you know, you're happy for a couple of minutes and then you say, what's for dinner? I don't know if you were there. You can talk about this. What was it like when Scheffler, who never has, seemed to me, Doug, to be a reflective public person the way Rory McIlroy is when he launched into.

[Buster Olney]

This, you know, he said, it's hard to explain. And I walked out of that room saying, well, if you can't explain it, what the hell am I supposed to write about this? Some kind of different. It was, you know, it was kind of par with Scotty, believe it or not. He spent a fair bit of time around him and I kind of Understood. I think what he's getting at, that there's, you know, he said for years, ever since he started winning, that golf doesn't really define him. And I think what Scotty enjoys is beating people. He loves the competition. He loves the work. I mean, there's loads of stories from him back in Dallas when he was a kid of just sitting on a small bag of balls and just watching all the pros and trying to figure out what they're doing. He would just soak that stuff up. He loves everything about golf, but every focus about him right now is why he wins so much. And I think that's what he was getting at was the winning isn't. You know, he's never a guy that says, I want to win the Grand Slam, I want to win X amount. It's. It's always, you know, the next round, the next tournament. And what he's doing right now, that's the best I could come up with. I think he's fine. I was. I was impressed with it just because he was, you know, I don't know what in the world caused him to open the vein, but it was fascinating.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It felt like a real world moment by a guy in his late 20s. You know, he wouldn't have thought of these things at 14 and 16 and 18 and 20 and 22. Now he's married, now he's got a child. He talks about that. I mean, I think everybody sort of faces this in their late twenties. Wilbon looked at me, and Wilbon was, I think, upset by this because Wilbon talked about Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan and said they burned to win. That's all they wanted to do was win. And I didn't hear Scheffler say he didn't want to win. I heard him say after the winning, it wasn't as fulfilling afterwards as it was in the moment of winning. That's what I heard. What did you hear?

[Buster Olney]

I think you heard correctly. I think it's all about the moment with him. This guy, you can't believe how much he hates losing. And his level of competition is. We're still trying to figure out where that came from in your. In your childhood, what. What sparked you to be as competitive as you are. So. So last week, I was talking to his caddy, Ted Scott, and I said, he's a good player. I said, have you ever beat Scotty? He said, he won't let me. He said they went to Cyprus, and this is. This is Scotty's fourth time swinging a club since the. Since the Ravioli injury. I can't believe I just said that. Fourth time, swing in a club, and Scotty says, I'm going to give you 10 shots today. They're playing Cypress Point, and he says, on the second hole, Scotty makes birdie, and he says to him, nine. And Ted ignores him. He said, he walks to the next hole. Scotty wins the next hole with a par, and he's walking off the green. He says even louder. He says, eight. And Teddy said, he said he gave him his hundred bucks at the turn. Said Scotty was 600 through 6. Fourth day, swing in a club, and said, here's your hundred. Leave me alone the rest of the day. I want to enjoy this. That's what you get from Scotty. I mean, I think, too, Tony, you saw it at the President's cup last year when Tom Kim was getting all excited about a put he made. And that was another reaction we'd seen from Scottie that we hadn't seen before. He makes a putt on top of it and screams at him, what about that, then? I mean, he's really into the moment. So I think you're spot on with that. I really do.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So then you, unlike Wilbon, you like me. You do not fear for him losing. You do not fear for him going right down the drain because he's suddenly a mature man. Right. You don't feel that way.

[Buster Olney]

Not at all. Not at all. I think the only question I have for Scottie with a lot of people do, how long can he possibly keep this up? Because that's the one thing we've seen post Tiger, we've seen some unbelievable players come through, whether it's Rory, whether it's Justin Johnson. You know, Koepka was on a heater.

[Michael Wilbon]

Rahm.

[Buster Olney]

Scotty's been on one for three years now. And this is what we have not seen since Tiger. How much longer can he keep going? Because it's. It's not from a lack of ability out here from other players. Competition stronger than ever, and he keeps beating everybody.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Buster Olney]

Finished out of the top 10 since March, really. He's playing some big tournaments. So even when he's not playing great, his name is still just there. I mean, even at the US Open, which he was never going to win, you didn't know that for sure until about an hour to go. He's always around somewhere.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. I've got to ask you about Rory. The last time this was in Northern Ireland, where Rory was born and raised. He choked like a dog. He missed the cut. I saw his press conference where he said, I'm going to take a different approach this time. What do you make of all of that? And what is. Is there a commotion around Rory like there was the last time?

[Buster Olney]

It's funny you think there would be, just because, you know, he went to the association of Golf Riders dinner last night just because he was the local boy and he was wearing his green jacket. He's embracing the whole thing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay.

[Buster Olney]

You know, they were. They were wanting so badly for him last year, and they are this year as well. But he also had gone, let's see, 19. He had gone five years without winning a major. So first one back in Northern Ireland in 68 years. And there was a lot of attention on him. Now we're back in six years. He's the Masters champion, the Grand Slam winner. It's more of a. It's more of a celebration for him than a hope. And someone had asked him, too, about, you know, do you try to isolate yourself from all the expectation and attention? And he said, this time he goes, I'm going to embrace it. I'm here. It's happening. There's no hiding from it. Let's just enjoy it. And I would expect him to hit the ball somewhere near the fairway on the first hole instead of beyond the out of bound stakes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. I mean, sometimes it seems to me with Rory that he's sort of trying to convince himself of something, that if he says it out loud, maybe he'll actually believe it.

[Buster Olney]

He's done that before. That's a good point. I mean, if you think back during his drought in the majors, there were some times that he would play, you know, a lot going into the Master. Sometimes he would take two weeks off. He was always trying to say, you know what? It just doesn't matter as much to me anymore. Thinking expectations would help better, but he knows better.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, yeah.

[Buster Olney]

You cannot hide from these things. You just have to take them on and go play.

[Tony Kornheiser]

All you had to see was him sinking to his knees. You know, the tennis players do this. Golfers don't do this. When he won the Masters and you said to yourself, my God, I mean, this had been stuck in his system for so many years. And this is the great relief. By the way, speaking of Rory, who is. Gotta rip. Who is this guy who just won the Scottish Open? Who's he?

[Buster Olney]

I'm telling you, the first time I saw him, I said, this is the Mike Trout of baseball. That's what he looks like to me. May not look like him in the face. But he always reminds me of Trout. This guy is just a beast of an athlete from New Jersey. Unfortunately, I'm playing baseball. He's a lacrosse guy. And he said last week at the Scottish, before he won, he said in lacrosse, when you shoot it, you just rip it as hard as you can. And that's why I play golf. He just steps up and mashes it and, you know, when he figures out where it's going, he's a nice little player. To me, Tony, he's a guy who's really powerful and knows how to play golf. He just doesn't know how to play golf yet. Like, he doesn't know how to control scoring position. So all this stuff, the little nuances, he hasn't figured out yet. But. But that was a nice win for him last week.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh, yeah. Is he longer than Rory?

[Buster Olney]

It's hard to tell because everybody's long these days, Right. That the big South African kid, pot guider. He's. He's a. He's a beast as well. But he's up there with Rory. He's not going to lose any yards with Rory.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Wow.

[Buster Olney]

I was talking to someone was played. Tom Hoagie played with him the first two days. He said he was hitting at places at the Scottish Open that I didn't know you were supposed to be hitting. So he's probably longer. He's probably in that. A list of guys who really bomb it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

The last major we had was the US Open. That was won in fabulously dramatic fashion by JJ Spawn, the least likely guy to win it four days before. Nobody would have said JJ Spawn would win it. Are people talking about him here, or is that moment gone?

[Buster Olney]

That moment is gone.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Buster Olney]

That's not a nice thing to say, but it's true. I mean, I'd be surprised if JJ won another major, but that was one to celebrate and God bless him and good for him. It was good stuff. He's a. I mean, he was saying that it wasn't two years ago that he was trying to get into majors, not necessarily just win them, and now he's got it and he earned it. And, you know, usually guys, when they win their first major and you hadn't. Not that you hadn't heard of them, you just didn't see it coming. They tend to do okay the rest of the year, but at some point falls off again. I mean, Tony, a year ago, this. Less than a year ago, this guy was worried about losing his card.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Buster Olney]

So now he's got a US Open trophy and he's got a five year exemption and he's. And he's happy and he's a good kid.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Good for him. Good for him. The last time it was played in Northern Ireland on this course, I believe Shane Lowry was the winner. That made everybody happy, I assume. What do you. What are you seeing from him? He always, to me, he's another guy who, it always seems to me is in contention. That doesn't mean he wins everything, but he's in contention and he seems happy. He seems like a joyful person. Am I wrong on that?

[Buster Olney]

Oh, sometimes. Sometimes you're. You say you're wrong or right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I said, am I wrong on that? Because he seems joyful. I don't know.

[Buster Olney]

I would say wrong only from the standpoint that he's got himself quite a temper at times.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh.

[Buster Olney]

And it shows up when he doesn't play well and. Or doesn't hit the right shot, which is like every day. Yeah. With any golfer. But.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah. I think.

[Buster Olney]

You know what's interesting about Shane, it's a good point. The fact that he's been seeing his name a lot more is probably why he's improved so much, because he's. He's not like, having a great week and disappearing for three months. He's. He's getting himself there and not winning as much as he wants. I think going back to Rory, I think Shane has been a huge influence on Rory. I mean, Rory sees how he's able to, you know, separate golf from real life. And he is an absolute blast to be around, as most Irish are. And Rory sees the fun that Shane has, and I think he's learned from that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, all right. This is the moment of truth time. Give me some names that you might throw a couple of bucks on some people you think could win this thing.

[Buster Olney]

I think, well, I never go too far away from Scotty or from Rory that matter, just because Rory seems to be in a happy place. So it's been a big grind from, like, the Players Championship all the way through the US Open. And it's amazing listening to a number of players who feel a complete reset just from being in cooler weather. Lynx Golf, just a complete change of the environment and scenery. They feel a lot more refreshed. And that's why I'm kind of a little more bullish on Rory this year. And Scotty just because he's. He's Scotty Scheffler. I'm not real bullish on Xander because I think he's still searching. I'm thinking, thinking Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton, two of the English guys who have sneakily been playing some pretty good golf and have been around. And as much as people want to see Rory here because we're in Fort Rush, I think Tommy would be probably as popular a winner as you could possibly find. Especially the way he had the tables turned on him in Hartford.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes, I agree with that. I mean, I think people would be just delighted if he won. Delighted.

[Buster Olney]

He's the best loser in golf. I haven't seen a loser this good player. Used to say that about Jack Nicklaus, but it's true. It's hard to find someone who is a good, genuine loser in a sport where you lose all the time. He was, he was, you know, just shook to the core by what happened in Hartford. But I remember when, when Nick Taylor made that 80 footer for Eagle to win in Canadian.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Canadian.

[Buster Olney]

Huge moment. You look at how, you go back and look at that video and you look at Tommy and he is so genuinely happy for Nick. You just don't see that very often. This guy is a really gracious loser and I think it's his greatest trait. I'd like to see him win one for a change.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, let's root for him. Thanks, Doug. Thanks very much.

[Buster Olney]

You got it, Tony. Have a good week.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press is at every golf tournament in the world. We will take a break. Buster only will join us when we return. Talk about the All Star Game, other things. I'm Tony Kornheiser. You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show. What does feeling safe at home really mean to you? For the longest time, the conventional wisdom was that a good deadbolt and maybe a basic alarm are enough. But it actually isn't enough. Security shouldn't just react to danger, it should prevent it. That's why you should trust Simplisafe to protect your home and family. It's not just about alarms. It's about peace of mind before anything ever goes wrong. Just ask Nigel. He's been using Simplisafe for a while now. He's really happy with it, especially about how proactive the system is.

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[Doug Ferguson]

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[Tony Kornheiser]

You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser show once again. This is Mandy Valentine. This is their song called Run Rabbit Run. And the Mandy's will be in New York City on Friday, July 18. That's in a couple of days at the Windjammer in Queens, joined by Friendly company and the Victory Seeds. The Mandy's will play cones remembrance rodeo fundraiser the following day, Saturday, July 19th at the Yard Pub in Havertown or Havertown, Pennsylvania. 100% of the rodeo proceeds will go towards purchasing medical equipment and resources to directly support families experience child loss. So, you know, go to these things if you get a chance. And Mandy Valentine, by the way, I need to mention this before I get to Buster. I'm looking at the McConnell's and the See's candy and the jam is raspberry. Okay. Homemade raspberry jam, which I usually like. And in fact, I liked it. It's maybe a little bit too strong for the kids. All right. He plays in Buster Only. We need to talk about, about the All Star game. And I'm not going to lie to people I didn't make the ending was after midnight in the East. I wasn't, I was long gone before that. But it ended with a shootout. I mean, that's really what it is. It's a shootout. They do it in soccer, they do it in hockey. Now they're doing it in baseball. I can defend this because it's an exhibition game. It doesn't mean anything. But in anticipation of Wilbond saying it's stupid and it's the worst thing that ever happened. I could just say I can defend it, but I'm not enthusiastic about it. Buster, you're more of a base baseball purist than I am. What were your thoughts about the way the game ended?

[Michael Wilbon]

It was super fun. It was fantastic. And this might be a classic case of falling into a good idea like baseball. As teams have used pitchers more, we've seen more pitcher injuries. They've been trying to figure out the way to truncate games. So they came up with a ghost runner at second base in extra innings. Well, you know what? This was a great way to finish to see the excitement level of the players. You know, Tarik Skubal, the American League Cy Young Award winner coming out onto the field in his street clothes to watch the big showdown with the sluggers finishing up. It was really fun. And you do kind of wonder after what we saw last night if, you know, folks in Major League Baseball Central office are going to say, huh, you know what? We've got the contrived ending with a ghost runner. Maybe we should have the little mini Home Run Derby at the end and have a show up. Because I think the fans would be really into it. I think the players would be into it last night it was absolutely fantastic.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So it's a very satisfying conclusion from you. At 5:30 today, Michael Wilbon will look into the camera and he'll say it's stupid, it's junk. It's just junk. And this is why I don't watch. You don't have a winning pitcher, you don't have a losing pitcher. And you do have, well, you have Kyle Schwaber who's just a beast. But did you ever, did you ever think we'd get to this?

[Michael Wilbon]

No. And look, I mean, in my heart I'm an old schooler who wishes that they would play the game to win the game, right? That we would go back to a time when, you know, Henry Aaron and Willie Mays were playing eight and nine innings and get four and five plate appearances. I think there's a real argument to be made for baseball to go to a, you know, go back to a culture where the manager is going to keep Shohei Ohtani and Aaron judge in the game eight or nine innings because baseball with the dynamic of pitcher versus batter is so well suited to actually have a serious All Star game. But those days are gone. Like that horse is out the barn door and now it's gone to the Little League participation trophy thing where everyone gets to play. The managers use all their pitchers because they want to get everyone the game. And within that context, this was a really fun ending. And by the way, you mentioned about the game being late, you're right, that's because it started late. But to me, what we saw last night was also an ode to the pitch clock. Okay. You have all kinds of mid inning pitching changes. You get Freddie Freeman being taken off the field in the middle of an inning. Stand up to cancer. Yeah, stand up to cancer moments that they have. The tribute to Henry Aaron. You had a swing off with interviews. Batter to batter with slow slowed everything down. 3 hours and 20 minutes. Okay. And I'm thinking to myself, where did, how did we ever get to that place when we're, you know, games are taking three and a half, four, four and a half hours. Thank God for the pitch clock.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I understand that. I guess one of the things, and it was pointed out to me by my friend Lowell Singer in a, in a text late last night, if you're going to have this home run derby, wouldn't you want to have Ohtani and Judge in it and Raleigh in it and that the names have to be submitted in advance and I guess that's because the manager knew you're going to take these guys out, you're not going to put them back on the field. Right.

[Michael Wilbon]

Well, and also a lot of them leave during the game. I don't know exactly who was gone, but there are a lot of all stars gone by the time that went on. And again that goes back to the old school culture, which I wish they had, but they don't anymore. And so when the managers, when Aaron Boone and Dave Roberts picked those three hitters, it was based on, okay, who's going to be around still around, you know, three. Yeah. Three hours after the start of the game.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, I got another question too. And I love, I love when people are wired up and you get to hear them. I love that Pete Crow Armstrong did it last night. He's totally delightful. At the beginning of the game, Scubal and Raleigh were wired up. This is the second, you know, the bottom half of the inning. Skeens strikes out to gets a ground out. Skeens looks great. That's. I just want to watch Skeens and school more than anything else. Scuba gives up two hits right away and I'm just wondering, do youth and ultimately two runs. Do you think that, that the conversations that being wired up affected his pitching?

[Michael Wilbon]

I don't. First off, the two, the first two hits he gave up were, were, you know. Yeah, so yeah, they, they weren't. They weren't hard hits and you know, the, the RBI RBI hit by Cattell Marte which drove in the first two runs of the game. I mean that was just a nice piece hitting right handed hitter takes the ball inside the first bay or down the right field line. So I don't think it affected him. But I am going to be curious. We have school on Sunday night baseball this weekend. It was actually I'm going to see him on Saturday. It's one of the questions that I had form because we've seen pitchers, Alec Manoa a couple years ago with the Blue Jays who absolutely loved the by play and he's going back and forth with the boots and what do you want me to throw? The way Kershaw was in the second inning last night, but you could tell school was trying to work.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, that was my sense that. And Raleigh was dominant, you know, and they stopped trying to talk to Scuba. You could tell that it wasn't going the way they wanted it to. Okay, that happens. You mentioned Kershaw. The tribute to Kershaw was lovely, wasn't it? It was lovely to take him out. His manager taking him out like that was lovely.

[Michael Wilbon]

It was really cool. And his response was such a, you know, a reflection of how Clayton has the place he's gotten to at this stage in his career. I have always loved talking with him, but there were times when, you know, back in 2013, 14, 15, he could be kind of a grump.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

Like there, you know, after a game. And what has become clear in recent years is he is loving this. Like he got to a point where it's like, you know what? This is a lot of fun being a major league player. And that was absolutely apparent in everything that he was saying last night. I asked Dave Roberts that about a month ago. I said, does it seem like Kershaw is having so much more fun than he did, you know, years ago? And Dave was like 100%. And it was neat that Clayton got that moment because he deserves it. He's one of the greatest regular season pitchers that we've ever seen.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, there's no question about that. Okay, I got two questions here. First, the first one is the ball strike challenges, which was implemented yesterday. And the first one that happened was a strike. It was reversed. What are your thoughts of the ball strike challenges and why do you think so many players are nervous about them?

[Michael Wilbon]

And it's interesting because I saw Rob Manfred do an interview, I think it was on Monday, which he's basically said, you know, everyone's excited about this. That's not true in sprint training. Just talking with a lot of folks, whether it's players, pitchers, umpires, there's a lot of reservations at a lot of levels about this. I think they like the challenge system a lot better than simple robot umpire strike zone, where everything is called electronically. But there it is. Definitely some wariness about, okay, if you're a hitter and you have an umpire, and let's use, you know, Angel Hernandez an example, who could get grumpy at times.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Michael Wilbon]

Or Joe West. If you challenge in the first inning and you happen to be wrong, does that mean he's going to stick it to you the rest of the game? There's a lot of concern along those lines that I heard from players in spring training. So as much as I'm sure baseball is going to want to, you know, tell us that everyone's excited about this, not everybody is. And I'm going to be really curious about the transition when they put it in play next year.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Totally agree. And then the other big story coming out of the All Star Game in anticipation of it, with Jacob Misarowski being added to the squad and some of the Phillies being upset, Nick Castellanos, who's always funny and I like what he said, said it was the Savannah Bananas. You could make a case either way. But my feeling, of course, was, look, he's thrown at 103 and he wants to do it and it's a television show. Let him do it.

[Michael Wilbon]

What was your feeling 100% with you on all of it? Like, I love the fact that the Phillies really, what those players are doing were, you know, sticking up for their guys.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah. Ranger Suarez, Christopher Sanchez, who've been really good. I do think the handling of Suarez, if in fact what I think it was. J.T. realmuto said that MLB went to Suarez and said, hey, can you pitch on. On. On Tuesday, will you be available? And swear said no. And then they just moved on.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

Why don't you just put him on the team and then ask him, do you? Because he's earned it. And then ask him, can you pitch on Tuesday? He says no, and then you move on to Mizarowski. Okay. And I think that was part of the reason why the Phillies were upset. But I agree with you. Like when Castellano said it's turning into a popularity contest or something in marketing and I was laughing, I'm like, yeah, dude. Yeah, that's right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's right.

[Michael Wilbon]

That's why they started it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's. Yes. I mean, to. Yes. I Mean, you want to create a television show that people want to see, you know, and again, it's Wilbon. Wilbourne hates everything. Wilbourne hates the Home Run Derby. He says it's the dunk contest. I said, no, Mike, it's not the dunk contest. The dunk contest has people who are not even in the league. Yeah, the Home Run Derby has a couple of guys. One guy is leading the league. What are your thoughts on the Home Run Derby?

[Michael Wilbon]

I personally love it. And I'm biased because I've, you know, been part of the coverage for a lot of years. But I also think that, you know, every year there are three, four, five guys who emerge from that. Clearly, you know, Cal Raleigh this year, junior Cameron Arrow, the Tampa Bay Rays. And again, the players response to it. I. I just love it. And I agree with. Thank you for fighting the good fight with Wilbon on this because I think it's so much better than the dunk contest. You know, I just think between the different ballparks every year, the different parts of the park that we focus on some of the strategy, the fact that they've changed some rules to make it smoother, to make it faster. I think it's the premier event. When you're talking about these all Stars, all star events, I'd rather have the derby than the All Star game.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, he's just a grump. He's a grump all right. How's the. How's the garden? How's the garden? Is it good?

[Michael Wilbon]

It is thriving. Like, we are super proud of where we are right now. The onions are going crazy. The tomatoes are coming in nicely. The cucumbers are going well. And of course, the potatoes. I mean, we just know that there's magic happening underneath that ground.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So great to hear. Thank you, Buster. We'll talk soon. See you coming, Buster. Only boys and girls. We will take a break. We will come back with email and jingle. I am Tony Kornheiser.

[Doug Ferguson]

Thanks for selling your car to Carvana. Here's your check.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Whoa. When did I get here?

[Doug Ferguson]

What do you mean?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I swear it was just moments ago that I accepted a great offer from Carvana online. I must have time traveled to the future.

[Doug Ferguson]

It was just moments ago. We do same day pickup. Here's your check for that great offer.

[Nigel]

It is the future.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's.

[Doug Ferguson]

It's the present. And just the convenience of Carvana. Sorry to blow your mind.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's all good.

[Buster Olney]

Happens all the time.

[Doug Ferguson]

Sell your car the convenient way to Carvana. Pickup times may vary and fees may apply.

[Tony Kornheiser]

This is the Tony Kornizer show. Oh, here comes Tony's mailbag. Gotcha.

[Michael Wilbon]

Emails, faxes, and your notes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Here comes Tony's mailbag. Gonna read some for all of you folks.

[Michael Wilbon]

Gonna read some for all of you folks.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Biff. God, we like that very much. You want to do the Bethesda bagel ad?

[Chris]

Yes, Bethesda bagels. We love them. You will as well. Just go to bethesdabeagels.com for the location in the DC area nearest you. Then pop on in and you'll be thrilled.

[Tony Kornheiser]

All right, before we get to the mailbag, let me just say, but the band's on the bus and they're ready to go. We got to drive all night and do a show in Chicago or Detroit. I don't know. We do so many shows in a row and all these towns all look the same. We just pass the time in the hotel rooms and wander around backstage so those lights come up and we hear the crowd and we remember why we came. That is the Loadout by Jackson Brown. That's a fabulous song.

[Chris]

Yes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That is a long, fabulous song that ends with a tremendous falsetto by one of the guys. Yes. Yes. Thanks to our guests today, Doug Ferguson and Buster Olney. Thanks as well to today's sponsors. Remember, you can listen to us on Apple podcasts, Spotify and ought to see if get showed through Apple. Please leave us a review, a couple of vegetable notes before we get to the mailbag. 1. Michael took a zucchini today. Look at that. And he will.

[Nigel]

Some debate if it was ready to be, you know, said Michael.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Are they ready? I don't know. And he. He said, I don't know, I don't know. And then he just took it because he was tired of me annoying him.

[Nigel]

But you discovered the secret zucchini plant that I planted.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Just like there's one coming up out of nowhere in the middle of a bunch of flowers. And it's a zucchini plant from the seeds. Wow. And we sent Chris out today for the usual interning, which is to go pick the current tomatoes. C U R R A N T A N T. The current tomatoes that are ripe, which will regenerate and replace them themselves. And so he did that.

[Chris]

It's been a good harvest year.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. I mean, he's. He's a good intern for the things that we need. I don't know if he's a good intern. He's good. In terms of things.

[Nigel]

Zucchini count is at one from.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. From Jeff Barger in Hillsborough North Carolina. While we don't know who made the egg salad sandwiches because that's the thing you play all the time, they weren't making them for Joey Chestnut. He holds the grilled cheese sandwich record at 47 in 10 minutes. Come on, come on. But there's no record for egg salad sandwiches. I recently ate two sandwiches in 10 minutes. Can I have the record? 47 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes.

[Nigel]

Gotta be with the mayo.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Wow. From Claire Natola. Brother Guy Consolamagno, your recent correspondent from the Vatican Observatory was just featured on CBS Sunday Morning two weeks ago. I didn't know that. Please have Nigel show you the segment by clicking the link below. Fellow Lynn can find it online by typing the segments title into their Google machine Scanning the heavens at the Vatican Observatory. And please ask Michael to tell us specific instructions, cooking times, etc. For his new egg boiling recipe. I swear by his old one. So I must follow him into this brave new world of steaming yours in eggy goodness. Claire Natola, Delaware, Ohio have you heard there's a Delaware, Ohio Gil Bill Gilbert Gammerdinger, the official solar eclipse observer of the show in Liberty Hill, Texas. The letter you read on Friday show from Brother Guy Consolamagno from the Vatican Observatory had an important omission. Brother Guy, along with Dan Davis, is the author of the introductory astronomy guidebook. Turn left at Orion or Orion. I think it's Orion. It's a very readable and outstanding guide to the night sky. Whether you're just using your eyes, binoculars or a small telescope, I recommend it most highly. Also, do you think that Brother Guy, through his Jesuit brothers, can access Wilbon's disciplinary record at St. Ignatius? That would be interesting. Wilbon always talks about one of the brothers there who was a boxer. Really? Yeah. And would take guys after school and just punch them if they were bad in school. Yeah, Wilbon talks about that a lot. Elaine Caffrey, Duluth, Georgia. Chuck and Roxy, number 374. My Braves are having a challenging season. Lots of injuries and we seem unable to win two games. However, I'm not sure that our newest pitching edition Wanders Suero is the solution to our problems. He pitched on Sunday. No hits, no walks, three strikeouts and two innings. Not a bad outing. But I don't have much faith. I keep hearing the frustration in your voice every time you said his name. I enjoyed the PTI commentary on Georgia sporting history. 100% agree on the Hank Aaron choice my parents made us watch because it was history. It was history. Yes. And anybody who says that it's that the most important thing that ever happened in Georgia has to do with the Georgia Bulldogs. Anyone who says is wrong. Yeah, I'm not going to say stupid like Wilbourne would. Wilbourne is just attacking people almost constantly for being stupid and screaming. But I'm just saying you're simply wrong. It's me, Paul Simon. Yeah, that Paul Simon, the show's unofficial divorce attorney for the greater Atlanta area. I'm compelled to clarify for you that the emphasis is on the second syllable in Gwinnett. I trust this won't be an issue for you giving you nautical experience. I asked nothing of you except to live long and be occasionally inconsistent convenience. But I make one request of you for your Georgia listeners. That request is that you pronounce the following Georgia counties Foresight, Katusa, Kawita, Talafaro, Scriven. Thank you in advance for your anticipated compliance. Please tell Baker Finley to eat it. I probably got at least three of them wrong, probably from Larry Tarr, who sends a picture of me and my friend Norman Berkowitz from high school. He said, I went to Camp Eckhart, which was across Independent Lake. It was Lake Independence. It was not Independent Lake from camp Kiuma. I'm 76, so I don't remember a lot, but I remember when our counselors played each other in basketball. It wasn't much of a contest because you had Larry Brown and we had Gary Cypress. Here's a picture of my fraternity brother, Norman Berkowitz posted. And this is a picture of me and Norman. Best wishes, Larry Tarr. I know all about Camp Echo Arc as well because my aunt and uncle were camp directors there after they sold Cuma for a year or two, then went across the the across the water from Brett Boyle in St. Louis, Missouri, Greg Garcia missed the chance of a lifetime at the buffet line with Aaron Rodgers. Instead of bragging on a song about his mission to Berkeley, he should have simply said, aaron, you've got to try the bar. Steve gilmore San Angelo, Texas Dear Dr. Agriculturalist, I've been inspired by you and your team to do some gardening, and I'm going with cantaloupe and pumpkins. If you become unburdened by memory of your disdain of pumpkins, I will be happy to send you a box of of that full of pumpkins. Feel free to give them to your enemies or use them in a catapult to defend your garden against the deer, rabbits, chupacabras and salizas. Enclosed is a photo of my progress along with the closest thing I Have to Interns My mail. Golden receivers Crash and Cutter. They know nothing about farming, but they're excellent hold diggers and so far I've kept the squirrels at bay. Yeah, and he sends his stuff. That's really nice. Good for him. Sivan fishermen from Padres land, which you hate. Padres land, which is San Diego. Hope your last voyage was a smashing success. Through the magic of AI created a couple of stickers to capture the magic of hocus pocus junk. Don't worry, Michael can explain the intricacies to you. If you like them, I'd be happy to send some your way and or customize to your preference. Just let me know what you'd like and where to ship it. If the role is still open, I'd like to apply to be the official AI ML. What is ML Not Software engineering manager that works at a fruit company?

[Nigel]

Milliliter Machine learning.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Machine learning. Well done. We're all gonna be I'm so happy I'm old. I'm not gonna make it because like, we're gonna be overrun by this stuff. Exactly. Patrick Sitters who Falls, South Dakota I'm one of the lucky folks who has to undergo a colonoscopy every year. My next annual anal is coming up in a couple of weeks. Instead of prepping for the procedure by drinking the solution from hell, I was thinking of asking my desco interrupt if I could go on the deer poop diet. If it cleaned Jessie out, maybe he could do the same for me. A haiku from she had for the big Dumper, slimmest of margins and hefty dose of bat speed. Big Dumper Derby Donnie Shamsky. I hope I pronounced that correctly. I wanted to email to say thank you. Since I was a young kid, I watched PTI with my dad. This helped create my love for sports and memories with my dad. Fast forward to my junior year in high school. My AP U.S. history class had an assignment to write a summary for any podcast. So I searched on my Spotify sports podcast and your show popped up. Since then, I've been a listener. It was especially useful on my on my runs to give me a distraction from the pain. And with the podcast in my ears, I was able to break my school records in the 800 meters 154. How about that? And the 1600 meters 424. And I'm now going to attend Edinburgh University in Pennsylvania and compete in D2 cross country and track. So if you ever need the scoop on D2Track, let me know. But seriously, thank you for everything. P.S. if you ever find yourself in Geneva, Ohio? My friend's dad owns a fishing charter, so you could teach him a thing or two that never, never stops. Steve Lenowitz, Bonita Springs, Florida. As a lover of all things Long island and as a Nats fan, I thought you would like to know that James woods is a son of Kenny Woods, a graduate of East Hampton High School and one of the all time leading scorers in New York State high school basketball. I think it's James Wood, not James Woods. So maybe it's a different person.

[Chris]

Yeah, James Woods.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And then your favorite reliever, Kyle Finnegan, and is the son of one of the Finnegan triplets who graduated from West Islip high school in 1976. Wow. I don't want to hate him as much anymore, but I hate him. Consider me your Sid for Long Island High School athletics. Wow. The Finnegan Triplets. West Islip. There's a West Islip and an East Islip and a Central Islip, by the way. So like West Egg 3. Well, sort of, I guess from Kenny Ray, who talks to us all the time on Monday show you quoted from the Glen Campbell hit Wichita Lineman. Did you remember that Campbell got his start in Los Angeles as a session musician? A member of the legendary group of studio musicians called the Wrecking Crew. He played guitar on recordings by the Beach Boys. He toured with the Beach Boys when Brian Wilson stopped, Bobby Darren, Frank Sinatra, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, the Monkees, Nancy Sinatra, Merle Haggard, Janet Dean, Bing Crosby, Phil Spector, Sammy Davis Jr. Doris Day, Bobby V, the Everly Brothers, Shelley Fabre, the Cascades, Poirier and the Raiders, Wayne Newton, the First Edition, the Kingston Trio, Roger Miller, Gene Clark, Lou Rawls, Claude King, Lorne Greene, Ronnie Dove and Elvis Presley. He befriended Presley when he helped record the soundtrack for Viva Las Vegas in 1964. He later said elvis and I were brought up the same humble way, picking cotton and looking at the south end of a northbound mule. From December 1964 to early 1965, yes, Campbell was a touring member of the Beach Boys, filling in for Brian Wilson, playing bass guitar and singing falsetto harmonies. Campbell continued as a session musician playing guitar on the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds. Perhaps you've heard of it. Fellow Wrecking Crew member Leon Russell said Campbell, quote, was the best guitar player I'd heard before or since. Occasion we played with 50 or 60 piece orchestras. His deal was he didn't read music, so they would play it one time for him and he had it. How about that? That's great. To know from Mark Hughes in Ashton, Maryland. This past Saturday, I attended a wedding at Rehoboth Beach Country Club. Arriving early, I figured on performing a little community service and looked around for your missing cup. I am sad to say that I failed to spot the missing cup. Not wanting to be too pushy, I did not ask those teeing off on number one if they'd seen Mr. Toney's personal hydration assistant. I did give a couple of cards the visual once over. No such luck. On a side note, the service took place next to the par three on the bay, number 19, and it was a beautiful setting. Congratulations to Sam on my niece Lauren. Do you want to comment on that?

[Nigel]

For some reason, married there myself.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, just so great. It's so beautiful. It's the most beautiful spot in North America. And you can say there are others and they could be tied, but I'm saying there's nothing more beautiful than that view. And from Rob Lowe. Not that Rob Lowe in North Royalton, Ohio. I thought I'd give Tim in the Midwest an update on traffic and construction up in Northeast Ohio. It's bad planning, packing your rage and disgusting. You're welcome. If you're out on your bike tonight, everybody do wear white.

[Michael Wilbon]

All right, that's it. Let's roll.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Hey, let's be careful.

[Michael Wilbon]

Honest.

[Listener]

You better run, rabbit, run if you don't wanna be my baby. Oh, rev, you're on my mind and I hate it. I gotta make you mine. You don't know what it is is you done me and following you is misery. But I'll be loving you and asleep when I'm not playing. On making machine.

[Buster Olney]

Run.

[Listener]

You better run, you better run, run. If you don't want to be my baby. You better run, run, run if you don't want to be my baby. Oh, baby, you're oh so fun. God damn it, I gotta make you mine. You don't know what it is you've done to me. And find the way you is misery. But I keep loving you and asleep my hands are playing on making machine. You better run, you better run. You better run, rabbit, run run if you don't want to be my baby. Rather run, rather run. You better run better. Sam. I'm a little shoot, baby. L shoot baby. This shoot, baby. I'm a little shoot, baby. I'm sweet on you. Give a little shoot, baby. L shoot baby. L shoot baby. Yeah. Give a little shoot, baby. If you love me too. If you love me too. If you love me too. If you love me too. If you love me too if you love me too if you love me too Me too if you love me too if you love me too if you love me too if you love me too if you love me too if you love me too Give that sugar if you love me too.