“Were you in the Gazebo?”

Summary

The Tony Kornheiser Show – “Were you in the Gazebo?”

September 10, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this lively, meandering episode, Tony Kornheiser and his familiar crew (Michael Wilbon, Chris, Chuck Todd, Buster Olney, and Reginald the Monkey) cover an eclectic mix of topics, beginning with playful banter about new contracts and Hallmark movie cameos, followed by passionate sports discussion—focused on the barren Miami Marlins stadium, the late-season surge of the Washington Nationals, and the state of baseball. The episode features signature segments: Chuck Todd’s and Reginald the Monkey’s NFL picks, Buster Olney on baseball (and gardening!), and mailbag commentary, all wrapped in Tony’s signature blend of crankiness, nostalgia, and wit.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening Banter – Contracts, Hallmark Movies, and Luke Russert

• Tony’s ESPN Contract: Tony briefly acknowledges his new deal with ESPN/PTI, joking about his age and “looking like a Muppet.”

  "I responded to each one saying, do you know how old I am? And I look like a Muppet."
  (02:30)

• Luke Russert’s Hallmark Movie Cameo: Luke has a cameo in an upcoming Hallmark “Christmas” movie about the Buffalo Bills ("Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story"). The crew riffs about the ubiquity of Hallmark holiday films.

  “I just assume every movie Hallmark makes is Christmas...” (02:45)

• Gazebo Gag: Tony teases Luke by asking, “Are you in the gazebo?”—a nod to Hallmark tropes. (04:02)

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2. Washington Nationals and MLB Chatter

• Nationals’ September “Revival”: The Nats are winning frequently but with little consequence, as Tony deflates late-season optimism.

  "Everyone rejoices about what's going on now. What does it mean? They're out of it. They've been out of it for months."
  (04:35–05:27)

• Empty Miami Stadium: Tony and crew express amazement at the empty Marlins stadium, setting up a running theme.

  "There was nobody there. There couldn't have been 5,000 people."
  (05:28)

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3. Buster Olney’s Harvest & Gardening Humor

• A running joke develops around Buster Olney’s gardening exploits—photographs of tomatoes, carrots, canning, and the fate of Tony’s potatoes.

  "I fear for the potatoes. I'll get to that." (06:45)

• Lighthearted, folksy banter about canning and pickling, paralleling autumn themes.

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4. Buffalo Wild Wings (and Food) Tangents

• Tony disparages their commercials and muses on chicken wing authenticity.

  "I don't like their commercials with a big buffalo and he screams." (07:39)

• Debate about whether boneless chicken tenders “count” as wings.

  "A chicken wing by definition would seem to me to have to have a bone." (08:10)

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5. Billy Joel Documentary Review

• Tony raves about the honesty of the new Billy Joel doc, especially interpersonal details and the surprise of Christie Brinkley’s age.

  "It's the most honest documentary I've ever seen in my life ... none of the women involved have rancor."
  (08:56–12:12) "Christie Brinkley is 71 ... It's unbelievable." (12:10)

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6. NFL Quarterback Carousel (and PTI Preview)

• Deep dive into rookie QB J.J. McCarthy's heroics, the surprise and promise for the Vikings, and context for historic rookie comebacks.

  "If he's okay the rest of the year, he's going to be Rookie of the Year. Based on that game." (15:02)

• Reflection on NFL QB moves: Daniel Jones, Sam Darnold, Justin Fields, Russell Wilson.

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7. Chuck Todd’s NFL Picks & Miami Baseball Rant

[Chuck Todd Segment: 20:30–33:45]

Miami Marlins Attendance Crisis (20:30–24:33)

• Chuck, a Miami native, rails against the stadium’s poor location, history of bad management, and MLB’s handling of Florida franchises.

  “You got to have [ballparks] in a part of your city life… Miami Heat play on the water downtown. That’s where this stadium should be.” (22:27)

  “You got to put it where people want to hang out.” (24:11)

  • Notably, the Marlins have won two World Series titles despite misery at the gate and with ownership.

NFL Picks (Game Lines and Analysis)

1. Washington at Green Bay (Thu Night) [Packers -3.5]

   “If I didn’t. It wasn’t a Thursday night, I’d be tempted to take the Commanders, but ... I’ll take the Packers.” (25:10)

2. NY Giants at Dallas [Cowboys -5.5]

   “Give me the Cowboys all day.” (26:32) (Brian Daboll slander: “He’s no good. He’s no good.” (26:40))

3. Bears at Detroit [Lions -5.5]

   “Give me the Bears.” (28:14)

4. Bills at Jets [Bills -6.5]

   “That’s a lot of points. I’ll give you the Jets and 6.5.” (29:21)

5. Denver at Indy [Broncos -1.5]

   “I don’t believe the Colts ... just gonna bet against the Colts.” (30:16)

6. Philadelphia at Kansas City [Eagles -1.5]

   “How often do you get Mahomes and points? ... I’ll take Mahomes and points.” (31:17)

7. Chargers at Las Vegas [Chargers -3.5]

   “I like the Chargers ... this is the reason you hire Jim Harbaugh, because he’s good with quarterbacks.” (32:49, 33:04)

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8. Reginald the Monkey’s NFL Picks (Comic Relief)

• Delivered by Michael Wilbon with zany backstories and “celebrity” adventures (AJ Foyt, Bill Nye, etc.).
• Picks: Washington, Detroit, and Philadelphia—opposite Chuck Todd on all three.
• References to Evel Knievel and 1970s sportsfolk.

  “He was joined by his team, Bill Nye the Science Guy, AJ Foyt ... and Dexter Manley.” (34:49)

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9. Buster Olney Segment – MLB and Gardening Deep Dive

[Buster Segment: 39:04–51:58]

• Gardening Anecdotes: Buster’s partner leaves for China during the harvest; Tony’s comically gigantic squash; concerns about potatoes.

  “It's like Christmas Day. You don't know what you're gonna get under the tree, and that's what's gonna happen…” (41:00)

MLB Topics:

• Empty Miami Stadium Redux: Buster agrees: terrible location, traffic jams, and apathy if the team is mediocre.

  “There's no question that the location of the stadium is a real problem…” (42:09) “[Miami is the] place where if the team's not good, people probably aren't going to come because there's better stuff to do in the sunshine.” (42:56)

• Dodgers’ “Boredom” and Postseason DNA: Dodgers sometimes seem to coast (“get bored”), but “postseason DNA will kick in.”

  “A week ago…all their fans were losing their minds with a panic worthy of Yankee fans…I think what happened with that team was they get bored.” (43:38)

• Mets/Yankees Playoff Hopes: Yankees are safe; Mets might miss playoffs due to pitching woes.

• Tigers’ Tarik Skubal Praised:

  “We’re looking at an all-time great pitcher … he really does play like an 11- or 12-year-old in terms of the fun that he has.” (46:31)

• Hitting Crisis – Only One NL Hitter over .300: Grappling with high-velocity relievers and short starts.

  “There's only one guy in the National League hitting over .300 ... The pitching is getting so much better with all these relievers..." (47:51) “1968 ... Yaz was the only player to hit .301.” (48:31)

  • Tony and Buster suggest MLB may eventually need rules to limit number of relievers to rebalance offense.

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10. Mailbag Highlights & Memorable Moments

• Listener Letters: Stories about ticket scams, the “under” toilet paper hack, Sandy Koufax family tales, the joys and tribulations of gardening (especially potatoes and pumpkins), caddies at fancy courses, and Ken Dryden reminiscences.

  • Example:

    “My wife has taken it to a new level. Because of our overuse of TikTok, she has fallen in love with Highland cows. She keeps trying to talk me into purchasing a Highland cow, which will never happen...” (~59:05)

• Notable Quotes & Callbacks:

  • “Everyone in the family has reminded her that 'moo cows' is redundant. But we all now call them moo cows." (~59:05)

• Bagel Joy: Tony relishes the warmth of fresh Bethesda Bagels, bemoans the too-warm studio, and name-checks Beach Boys, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Biff the Jingle Singer.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “I look like a Muppet.” — Tony, on re-signing with ESPN (02:30)
• "There was nobody there. There couldn't have been 5,000 people." — Tony, on Marlins attendance (05:28)
• "You got to have [stadiums] in a part of your city life." — Chuck Todd (22:27)
• "If he's okay the rest of the year, he's going to be Rookie of the Year. Based on that game." — Tony, on J.J. McCarthy (15:02)
• "How often do you get Mahomes and points?" — Chuck Todd (31:17)
• "A week ago…all [Dodgers] fans were losing their minds with a panic worthy of Yankee fans…I think what happened … they get bored." — Buster Olney (43:38)
• “We’re looking at an all-time great pitcher…” — Buster Olney on Tarik Skubal (46:31)
• "There's only one guy in the National League hitting over .300 ..." — Tony (47:51)

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Segment Timestamps

• Opening banter & contracts – 01:15–04:26
• Baseball & gardening talk – 04:26–07:03
• Billy Joel documentary review – 08:27–12:12
• NFL QBs/rookies chat – 14:00–16:28
• Chuck Todd’s NFL picks & Miami baseball rant – 20:30–33:45
• Reginald the Monkey’s picks – 34:08–36:36
• Buster Olney segment – 39:04–51:58
• Mailbag – 53:07–65:19

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Tone & Style

The show maintains its signature blend of curmudgeonly humor, sports nerdery, and “old friends talking” warmth. Tony’s perspective oscillates between nostalgic crankiness and playful, self-deprecating insight. Interactions are unscripted, filled with inside jokes and affectionate ribbing.

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Memorable Moments

• “Are you in the gazebo?” — Tony’s running Hallmark movie joke.
• Luke Russert in a Hallmark movie cameo.
• Gardening as sporting event: Tony’s anxiety about his potato harvest.
• Billy Joel doc: “The most honest documentary I’ve ever seen.”
• Chuck Todd’s passionate rant on Miami’s doomed baseball stadium.
• Reginald the Monkey’s Evel Knievel Snake River Canyon reference.
• Extended mailbag segment—listeners’ letters are as quirky as the show itself.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Show

This episode delivers everything regular listeners expect: Tony’s world-weary takes, sports wisdom, food snark, irreverent NFL picks, and affectionate nonsense. The sports talk, while covering current events, is always secondary to the chemistry and banter among old friends. If you enjoy baseball, football, gardening mishaps, or just listening to smart, funny people riff, this episode offers plenty to savor.

Transcript

[Tony Kornheiser]

Hey, it's Tony. On today's show, we'll get picks from Chuck Todd and Reginald the monkey. And we'll talk about baseball and potatoes with buster only. But first, commerce. What is it that makes the all new Hyundai palisade hybrid an incredible suv? Is it the spacious interior that's comfy for the whole crew? Or the capability to go off road? Maybe it's up to 600 plus miles of range. What if it's all that and more? What is it then? The all new Hyundai palisade hybrid. Is it the driver behind the wheel? Are you sure? The all new Hyundai palisade hybrid.

[Commercial Announcer]

So much more than just another SUV.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details.

[Carvana Customer]

Buying a car in carvana was so easy. I was able to finance it through them. I just.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Whoa, wait.

[Carvana Customer]

You mean finance? Yeah, finance. Got pre qualified for a carvana auto loan, entered my terms and shot from thousands of great car options all within my budget.

[Buster Olney]

That's cool.

[Carvana Customer]

But financing through carvana was so easy. Financed, done. And I get to pick up my car from their carvana vending machine tomorrow.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Financ. Right.

[Carvana Customer]

That's what I said. You can spend time trying to pronounce financing or you can actually finance and buy your car Today on car finance financing, subject to credit approval, additional terms and conditions may apply.

[Jingle Singer]

Previously on the Tony kornheiser show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Did you get out and play? Oh, what happened? Do you think he just deliberately hung up because he didn't want to answer that question? So call him back. Should I bam for a while or will we make an edit? Some of you will hear some of this and some of you will hear none of this because Nigel has to make sure that it works at the end. All right, we got him. Is he back with us?

[Michael Wilbon]

Yes, I believe Mike is back with us.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It felt like you just didn't want to answer my first question and I didn't know what happened. This is general george washington, and you're listening to the Tony kornheiser show. Some days are slower than others. This is a slow day. This is a day where we're going to have to struggle to find 30 minutes worth of content for the PTI show. Yeah, this is a slow day. These things happen. But I have to do this open. So I got a whole bunch of things out.

[Chris]

First of all, you get to do this open.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I get to do this open. I'm happy. Not have to get to do it. Love to do it. Love to do it. First of all, we have a Luke Russert sighting. Luke Russert, who needs to come on the podcast to talk about this.

[Chris]

Is he off island now?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't know where he is. He could. I don't.

[Chris]

Where in the world is Luke?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't know where Luke is. I don't know. But I had. Luke sent me a text yesterday about the fact that there was a. A release by ESPN that Wilbon and I had signed a new deal. You know, we. We didn't tell anybody, only because it went into effect a week ago, and, you know, it's. Who cares? But anyway. But there was a press release, obviously, that ESPN released, and other people commented on it, and I did get a lot of texts and a lot of emails, and they were all of a congratulatory nature, and I responded to each one saying, do you know how old I am? And I look like a Muppet. And anyway, it goes back and forth, but Luke. Luke sent something, and I wrote him back. And then Luke said, this is Luke's. In a Hallmark movie. A Hallmark movie. Luke has a cameo in an upcoming Christmas Hallmark. When it says upcoming Christmas Hallmark movie, I just assume every movie Hallmark makes is Chris Feels Like Christmas in July movies, the Christmas in August movies, the Christmas in May movies, and then the Christmas movies. This is called Holiday Touchdown. A Bill's Love Story. It's about the Buffalo Bill. It's a romance built around the Buffalo Bills, and Luke has a cameo in it. So we. We need to get Luke on the show. Absolutely. We'll find out if he has dialogue. I had dialogue. I had a line in in the America.

[Chris]

What a shot.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, what a shot. Does he have dialogue?

[Michael Wilbon]

Well, that and, of course, the epic role.

[Chris]

Luke is not one to shy away from a speaking opportunity.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's exactly right. And I wrote him a note, and I said, are you in the gazebo? You know, how does it work?

[Chris]

It's got a great premiere date.

[Tony Kornheiser]

What is, Chris?

[Chris]

1122.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. That is the wedding of your sister. 1122, right? Yeah. Okay, so there we go in 22. Oh, no, it was 1111-1111-1111-1122. Okay, so cannot wait for that. Right? So that's one thing to talk about.

[Chris]

Let's see if the Bills have a home game that weekend.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You want me to, you know, tell you about the Nats? The Nats are a clown show at this point.

[Chris]

They're the best team in September.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. They beat the Miami Marlins every single time. Josh Bell, player of the week. How does Miami Have a better record than the Nats when the Nats Dr. It possible. And yes, Josh Bell and everyone makes a big deal about this. He now it's got four home runs in his last three games. He's hitting like wild. He's got 20 home runs on the year. And by the end of the year, his power numbers will be okay. So what? Where was he until September? I mean, I watch these games and everyone rejoices about what's going on now. What does it mean? They're out of it. They've been out of it for months. He delivered nothing for like other people on the team delivered nothing for a long period of time. Great pitching performance last night. Got out of the first inning without runs.

[Michael Wilbon]

That's always nice.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. Beating the Marlins. And by the way, and this is what I want to talk to Buster only about the crowd size in Miami. There was nobody there. There couldn't have been 5,000 people.

[Chris]

There never is anyone there.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It just couldn't be 5,000 people.

[Michael Wilbon]

They got to move that team.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, no, I mean, you say you.

[Chris]

Don'T think the Nationals are a big national draw.

[Tony Kornheiser]

This is what I'm saying. Nats at Marlins sort of looks like athletics at Rays. Where you go.

[Chris]

Is nobody here particularly last night you said they're going, I'd rather watch the Mets, Phillies, you know, on tv.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. Yeah, it's a better game. Yes. Did you.

[Michael Wilbon]

You mentioned Buster.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right? I said we're gonna have Buster on.

[Michael Wilbon]

He just sent me a photograph. Six photographs of his harvest. Can I show them to you?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, we're not video here. So showing.

[Michael Wilbon]

But for you just.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, no, we're gonna talk about.

[Michael Wilbon]

That's very exciting.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Fear for my pot. Oh, my God. He's got carrots. Carrots. Let's see.

[Michael Wilbon]

He's got lots of good tomatoes, tomatoes and carrots. There we go.

[Chris]

The photos are beautifully framed and lit.

[Michael Wilbon]

These look like peaches.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, they're in jars already.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yep, he's got that.

[Chris]

And he's into canning.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He ought to go sauce.

[Michael Wilbon]

He's got on the sauce day and.

[Chris]

Looks like some dad's writing questions.

[Michael Wilbon]

Cucumbers that he's pickled.

[Jingle Singer]

Wow.

[Michael Wilbon]

And he just texted me, said, how are the potatoes doing?

[Tony Kornheiser]

So. Okay. I fear for the potatoes. I'll get to that.

[Chris]

To finish your thoughts on the Nats. This is all strength of schedule. The Nats have one of the easiest Septembers you could possibly have. They have another one series with the Mets. With the Mets Will need that to try to stay ahead of the. Of the Giants. And they, they've had all these games against the Marlins and they have the White Sox and the Pirates.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Chris]

And they have two series against the Braves.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So people are going to look at those. Yeah. Wait till next year. Well, what are you talking about?

[Chris]

The entire season was trying to protect the young players. So you look late in the inning. I don't know if you were staying within.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Maybe it was the fifth or six house played yesterday. The cruise played yester. Lyle had 12 hits.

[Chris]

Great home run.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, Lyle had 12. Lyle is a hitter.

[Chris]

I feel like Dan Silco in production meetings is just laughing and trying to troll you because they had like. They gave it a full 10 minutes on Josh Bell's September early in the game.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Makes me nuts. Just makes me nuts. Anyway, can I also say other. Say this one thing. Buffalo Wild Wings doesn't sponsor, do they?

[Chris]

Not yet.

[Michael Wilbon]

Don't think they do.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't like their commercials with a big buffalo and they screams.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah, it's not.

[Tony Kornheiser]

They make. They make me, you know, I sort of move away from the television.

[Chris]

It seems like a place to. That exists for football games and then. March Madness.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yes, I was gonna say March Madness. That seems to be.

[Chris]

What are your thoughts on a. On a chicken wing. Can a boneless chicken tender be called a buffalo wing?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't know. I don't know the rules. I mean, we'd have to ask if you order bones.

[Chris]

Buffalo wings, I thought that was.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But I think a chick. A chicken wing by definition would seem to me to have to have a bone. Yeah, it has to be a bone. There's got to be a bone in a chicken wing. I would think. I would think. What else did I want to say? Oh, what about?

[Michael Wilbon]

What do you think?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't think.

[Chris]

I mean, it's a chicken tender.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Marketing purposes.

[Chris]

You want to call it a boneless wing tender because you want the flavor and you want it. It's all about the sauce.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, yeah. When I. I don't eat them. I mean, I eat them when they're around and they're fine, but I crave them. I don't. I don't crave them. I know that I spoke. I spoke to Michael earlier this morning that I knew that I had mentioned the Billy Joel documentary, but I didn't know if I had mentioned having watched the concluding episode, which. Two and a half hours. I told you how much I like the first part, second parts better.

[Michael Wilbon]

Is it?

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's even better. Yeah. It's the most honest documentary I've ever seen in my Life. All of his wives he now has. He's on his fourth wife. Three of them. Three of the marriages ended in divorce. All of the women speak, and they're fascinating to listen to. His first wife, who managed him for a while. That's right. Is just great, smart, accurate. Her recollections are wonderful. And, you know, it's not. They don't go after him. They just say, look, this is why it didn't work. Christie Brinkley is. I don't know anything about Christie Brinkley other than she was a huge modeling success. There's this one moment where they met. I mean, I didn't know this. Billy Joel tells the story that his friend Paul Simon. That Paul Simon said, you. You got to go on a vacation. You ought to go to St. Bart's I've been to St. Bart. St. Bart's is great. So Billy Joel goes down to St. Bart's and he's one of these guys. And I've noticed this. When you. Not in this documentary. When Bruce Springsteen is interviewed in this documentary, this is not the case. But every other time I've seen Bruce Springsteen in an interview situation, he has a guitar on his lap. That is his comfort zone. It's not sitting at the piano. Yeah, he's not gonna play it. But music is his comfort zone, and he feels obviously better.

[Chris]

It's like the former QB on camera with the. With the ball, right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You hold the ball. Hold the ball right. It makes you feel better. Well, Billy Joel has to be near a piano. Like, he's just gotta be near a piano. So he goes to a bar in St. Bart's and starts playing the piano. At that moment in time, there are three women in the bar who coincidentally are there on a modeling shoot. Christie Brinkley, Elle McPherson, and another young woman who sits down with Billy Joel and says, do you mind if I sing? And Billy Joel's thinking to himself, what are we talking about here? Who is this? You know, who she turns out to be? Hello, Whitney Houston. Do you think she can sing? Just a little. So that. And that is the meat. That's the cute meat, as they say in television. The cute meat where he meets Christopher.

[Michael Wilbon]

Meet cute.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's not cute meat.

[Michael Wilbon]

I've always thought it was meet cute.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Cute.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh, okay. But we know I had it the other way around. The words are the same. Yes. I just reversed them. And then they, you know, he romances Christie Brinkley. They. They fall in love, they get married. They have their daughter Alexa. And Christie Brinkley talks about all of these Things and why it didn't work at the end and, you know, why she got away. But without rancor. You know, none of the women involved have rancor. They just sort of say, well, this is what happened, and it's really good to see. And, and Christie Brinkley is still, you know, remarkably beautiful. I have, I did not know how old Christie Brinkley was. Right. I thought, I just assumed that was one of those romances where Billy Joel was like 20 or 30 years older than Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel is my age. So I figured Christie Brinkley was in like her early 50s, mid-50s or something like that. You want to tell us how old she is?

[Chris]

71.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's unbelievable.

[Michael Wilbon]

She's 71.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable.

[Chuck Todd]

Wow.

[Tony Kornheiser]

She's 71 years.

[Chuck Todd]

Wow.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, I would have been off by 20. Anyway, I, I, I think you'll find it. You gotta like Billy Joel. I do. He's a Long island boy. But if you like it, if you like him, it's really.

[Chris]

What is your favorite Billy Joel song?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh, I don't, I mean, I don't.

[Chris]

Have era then.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Sort of middle, sort of when he, you know, when he got away from the big rock and roll sounds and started writing songs that I thought were kind of thoughtful and I was interested in them and did more with the piano than just sort of bang it. He's it show. Well, this was in the first part of the documentary. You can just, he can just hear something. He can immediately play it. He can immediately play. And it's classically trained. I mean, the sadness, the sadness in the documentary is his father left when he was 7. Just didn't just leave. Like Bruce Springsteen's father left and went to California. This guy left and went to Europe with no contact whatsoever with Billy Joel, who tracked him down and found him. And that's that song, Vienna. That's which is a beautiful song. Oh, wow. That's about his dad, about seeing his dad for the first time. And, and they never really clicked. I mean, they had something to do with each other, but they never really clicked. But he, Billy's classically trained and, you know, can tell you the difference between Rachmaninoff, Bach and Mozart and can play it like just sitting there. Here you go. So it's, he has remarkable talent, obviously, so I recommend that. And the other thing I wanted to talk about just briefly was something we talked about yesterday on, actually on the SportsCenter segment. We did a segment on what new quarterback at which new team was most impressive. And There were a bunch of guys. J.J. mcCarthy, new team. Daniel Jones, new team. Well, not J.J. mcCarthy, not new team. New quarterback. Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

New quarterback.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Geno Smith, new team followed Pete Carroll, Cam Ward, first draft pick. New team Tennessee. That's right. Aaron Rodgers, clearly new team.

[Michael Wilbon]

Did he switch teams?

[Tony Kornheiser]

He did. Russell Wilson, circling that game. Russell Wilson on the. On the treadmill of new teams. New teams with the Giants. Justin Fields, new team with. With the Jets. And Sam Darnold, new team with Seattle, which had the most impact. And Wilbond talked about. And Wilbourne was completely right. The answer. You want the answer to be Daniel Jones because it's so surprising, but the answer is J.J. mcCarthy because he wins a division game on the road with a fourth quarter reminiscent of Josh Allen's from three days before.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

With passing. Touchdown. Passing. Touchdown. Rushing. Touchdown. In his debut, the first game he ever played. And he wasn't very good until the fourth quarter. Now, when he was great.

[Michael Wilbon]

It's terrific.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So, like, if he. Now he could collapse within the next few weeks. He could collapse. He could end up like Bryce Young in his rookie year with Carolina, where they had to bench him. Yeah, that could happen. I'm not saying it wouldn't happen, but right now, he did something in his debut game, coming back from 10 or more points down in the fourth quarter to win in his first game ever in the league as a quarterback. The last time that was done was Steve Young in 1985, 40 years ago. So if he. If he's okay the rest of the year, he's going to be Rookie of the Year. Based on that game. Yeah, based on that game. Like right now, Josh Allen's MVP again, based on that game. Got 16 games to go. Unlikely to play out this way, but if it does that, that's how you win. Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

Especially if he leads the Vikings back to the playoffs.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

I mean, but yeah, that performance, they.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Must think he's pretty good because they let the other guy go. Let him walk. Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

And they were.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Let him walk into two last year. Sam Darnold got a lot of MVP votes until the last two weeks.

[Michael Wilbon]

Well, yeah. Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Anyway. All right, so we have Buster only on. I'll talk to Buster about crops. The harvest crops. And we have Chuck Todd on to pick games. And I will talk to Chuck about the crowds in Miami for the baseball. Awful. Awful. They listed it as 7,800 on Monday night. They would take that. It's not possible. It's like. It's not possible.

[Michael Wilbon]

50 people.

[Tony Kornheiser]

All right. I'm Tony Kornheiser. You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser show. Let's talk about your home security for a minute. People used to think that home security was just an alarm that goes off after a break in. Scaring the intruder off and maybe getting a neighbor's attention if you're lucky. But that's a reactive approach. And by the time an intruder is in your home, it's too late. Your feeling of safety is already shattered. Real security should stop a crime before it even starts. That's why you should trust Simplisafe. Their system is designed to be proactive, not reactive. Just ask Nigel. He's been using Simplisafe for years. He loves the peace of mind it gives him.

[Buster Olney]

He.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He knows that even when he's not home, it's working around the clock to keep his home protected.

[Michael Wilbon]

That's right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

Peace of mind. It's worth everything.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Here's how it works. They use smart AI powered cameras to spot potential threats outside your home and instantly alert. Simply saves professional monitoring agents. These agents step in before the break in begins, using two way audio to confront the person, triggering sirens and spotlights to scare them off and calling for rapid police dispatch if needed. It's security that works while the intruder is still outside. Join the more than 4 million Americans who trust SimpliSafe every day. With a 60 day money back guarantee and no long term contracts, they earn your trust by keeping you safe. Visit SimpliSafe.com Tony to claim 50% off a new system. That's SimpliSafe.com Tony. There's no safe like Simplisafe. Use the code people. You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser show. This show is sponsored by Liquid iv. I love when fall arrives, mostly because that means football's back. But that shift from summer's easygoing pace to the high gear of fall can hit you like a ton of bricks. After months of a relaxed schedule, suddenly it's back to back work days and packed weekends. It can definitely wear you down. And when you feel your energy dip, you need something to help push through that. And that's where Liquid IV's new energy multiplier, sugar free hydrating energy comes in. It's hydrating energy made with electrolytes, vitamins and natural caffeine. Zero sugar, zero crash. Just one stick and 16 ounces of water hydrates better than water alone. It's powered by Liv Hydra Science, which is an optimized ratio of electrolytes, essential vitamins and clinically tested nutrients that turn ordinary water into extraordinary hydration. Plus it's got a 2 to 1 ratio of L theanine to caffeine, which gives balanced energy without the jitters. Liquid IV has so many great flavors like strawberry, kiwi and BlackBerry lemonade, just to name a couple of Liquid IV keeps it easy. Just tear, pour, shake and you're good to go. Perfect for workouts, afternoon slumps, or anytime you need to feel focused and ready. Don't let the grind drain you. Ditch the glitch with zero sugar and zero crash from Liquid IV. Tear, pour live more. Go to LiquidIV.com and get 20% off your first order with the code Tony K at checkout. That's 20% off your first order with THE CODE [e-mail] Use the code, people.

[Carvana Customer]

This is the Tony Korniser Show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We have played Levi Petrie before.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yes, I believe we have.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I hope I have his name right. I hope it's pronounced Petri and not Petri. But it's Levi is the first.

[Michael Wilbon]

It was Laura Petrie, right?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Laura Petrie was Mary Tyler Moore. Absolutely. And Rob Petrick. Rob Petrick. And he writes. Hey guys, have appreciated your support in airtime in the past. Had a couple of new songs. Hope you'd consider playing. And When I Get out is a new single inspired by some wonderful people I've met working prisoner rehabilitation and substance abuse recovery program. Song about everyone deserving and putting in the work for a second chance. We're really proud of this when we encourage your listeners to crank it to 11. That's what he is playing now. When I get out and it plays in Chuck Todd. And Chuck was 3, 4 last week. It's hard. The first week is hard. The hardest week. Usually I should say this. This week's picks with Chuck Todd and Reginald the monkey are brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. Chuck is three and four. We're going to get to picks. Okay. Reginald was one and two. I think Carva was the only winner. Was four and two.

[Michael Wilbon]

Four. Two. Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Jeff Ma was two and two. First week's hard, but before we get to the picks, Chuck is from South Florida. Miami, Florida. I'm watching the Nats games. The Nats at the Marlins. There's nobody there. They listed in the paper on Tuesday for the Monday game. They said there was 7, 700 people there. That's not possible. Last night there didn't. When they. They didn't even want to show crowd shots. They're probably using the video from the Miami feed. They didn't want to show them because there's nobody there. I don't think there were 2,000 people there. What is going on with that?

[Chuck Todd]

Well, you know, this is. This has been a cursed franchise ever since. The garbage man, may he rest in peace.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Wayne Heitz.

[Chuck Todd]

Angel refused to call the team Miami for a decade, stubbornly wanted to call it the Florida Marlins. Did not want to market it as a Miami team. Then he, you know, kept it out west in Miami Gardens at the football stadium. And it's not a destination. So then they finally get their own stadium, and instead. No. Build in a place where people want to go. They built it on the old Orange bowl grounds. Okay. And, you know, you've been there. I've been there at the old Orange Bowl.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

You remember that neighborhood? It's a residential neighborhood.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

Okay. There is nothing around it. Nice people. I used to have a person, but we, our family parked at the same house whenever we went to Miami games. And, you know, it was Almost like for 30 years, you knew them like they were family. However, you don't go, there was nothing to do when you left. There's nothing to do before. And you know how baseball stadiums are. You got to have them in a. In a part of your city life. Right. Why. Why do the Gnats not sit at a thousand fans, but at least get in the five figures these days? And they've held up better than I thought they would because it's a destination. It's a place to hang out. You can go have happy hour and all the ball games on.

[Buster Olney]

Right.

[Chuck Todd]

They've actually marketed really well. I think you can get a $5 standing room ticket. Right. And just walk around, grab a beer, go get your, you know, whatever. You know, if you like, Shake Shack, whatever. Right. They didn't do this. The Miami Heat play on the water in downtown. That's where this stadium should be. It should be where people want to go. So, look, I. You know, this has never been. The league has treated the team like crap. Remember what owner. Remember they just gave the team to the bad owner from the Expos because they didn't want him to own the team in Washington. They're like, all right, we'll compensate you. We'll just give you the Marlins. The jeweler guy. I don't know if you remember that guy.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't remember that, but I know that I'm pretty sure the Marlins have won two world championships.

[Chuck Todd]

And they have. Yeah, they've had really good GMs, and they're still really Good at running their team. I mean, trust me, I wish the Nats front office had half the talent at the Marlins front office. I mean, every time they unload their team, they just find more guys.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, yeah, right.

[Chuck Todd]

You know, they always scout well.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes, they do, but it is.

[Chuck Todd]

You know what I hate is there's this conventional wisdom that Florida doesn't want baseball.

[Buster Olney]

You literally built that.

[Chuck Todd]

Put the two teams in the worst parts of town in those two communities. Nobody wants to go to St. Petersburg to do anything. Sorry. Saint Pete. You know, you might want to live there and retire there. But it isn't. You know, it isn't, you know, downtown Tampa, where you want to hang out. Okay. And then with Miami, the same thing. So it's just these are poor locations. I mean, location matters. With your baseball stadium, you could put your football stadium, you know, in Bristol, Tennessee, and people will show up. They're not going to do that for baseball on a Tuesday night. You got to put it where people want to hang out.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's.

[Chuck Todd]

And that's. And that's the issue.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's remarkably empty. It's remarkably empty. Someone hits a home run, it could take an hour to find the ball because there's nobody there.

[Chuck Todd]

It did. I think somebody was. Did you read that in the Post? Right up on Monday.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No.

[Buster Olney]

They're like.

[Chuck Todd]

It took like somebody hit their first ever home run, I think, and it took, like, three minutes for somebody to find Nobody.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There's nobody in the bleachers. There's just nobody there. There's nobody there. All right, let's get to the games. Let's start with what now looks like a great game. It looked like a good game last week. It looks like a great game now. Washington at Green Bay. 2, 10 teams. Green Bay getting a lot of buzz as a Super bowl team. Wilbond's got Green Bay in the Super Bowl. Washington, which won their game comfortably against the Giants. Washington is on the road Thursday night, getting three and a half in Lambeau. Who you got, man?

[Chuck Todd]

Thursday, Thursday night. So would they get one day of practice before they travel?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Pretty much, yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

It's a tough. It's a tough one. The packers might be down one of their starting offensive linemen, which is. Which is not great. You know, if I didn't. It wasn't a Thursday night. I'd be tempted to take the Commanders, but I just think the short trip, short prep. I would assume they did some prep for this game beforehand since they had a little bit of time knowing this weird opening Thursday schedule. But I'll take the Packers. Half points. Half points. A little worrisome to me, but I'll take the Packers.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. The New York Giants, who lost to Washington, had nothing. They are going to start Russell Wilson again, but if he bombs again, Jackson Dart will be there. By the third game, the Giants are at Dallas. This is a division game. Dallas looked a little bit better than we thought they would. And Dallas has had a lot of time off because Dallas opened on a Thursday and the Giants played on the road on a Sunday. And now go on the road a second time. If you like the Giants, you get five and a half. You can hear from my voice that I would go the other way. But what are you going to do?

[Buster Olney]

Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

If you're starting Russell Wilson, I'm, I'm intrigued by Dart. Yeah, he ain't starting yet.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Not yet.

[Chuck Todd]

And, and, well, I think the Cowboys could become like the NFC's Bengals where they'll, they're going to score, you know, unless they're playing, you know, great defense like the Eagles, they'll score 30 points. And the Giants, are they scoring 30 points, 20 points?

[Tony Kornheiser]

No.

[Chuck Todd]

Give me the Cowboys all day.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, that's how I feel about that. You know, Russell Wilson showed nothing. And by the way, you know who's no good at all? Brian Dabel is no good at all. He's like 9 and 26 in the last two plus years. Now. He's no good. He's no good.

[Chuck Todd]

Some guys are great at coordinating.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. And doesn't mean.

[Chuck Todd]

Look at that, Vic Fangio.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, doesn't mean a couple of times.

[Chuck Todd]

Well, I'll give you the defensive coordinator or the guy Spagnola. Right. He's another one.

[Tony Kornheiser]

The greatest example in the local Washington area is Richie Pettibone is the greatest defensive coordinator of all time. They never scored in the second half. And then as a head coach. No, that's right. Babe didn't. Yeah, it didn't work. Sorry, Babe.

[Chuck Todd]

I know. Not. I know. Nigel was a Pettibone's frequent. Guess that had to be one of your early hawks.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Love, love, love him. All right. The Chicago Bears, Wilbones Bears, whose quarterback look bad in the second half after looking good in the first half. This is a tough game. They're at Detroit. The Bears are at Detroit. Detroit got beat. Detroit had nothing 0 against Green Bay and they're still missing their coordinators from last year. Does Chicago get healthy? Will you take the five and a half?

[Chuck Todd]

By the way, I pulled a Cornheiser.

[Tony Kornheiser]

What?

[Chuck Todd]

I fell asleep. I missed the entire JJ McCarthy experience. I fell asleep thinking, oh, this guy's a bum. And I wake up, he's a hero. Oh, man, the Michigan fans are going to be so annoying this morning.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

I like what you forgot the other part of the fun part of this Bears Lions matchup. Does Ben Johnson know all the stories of Jared Goff?

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's right. That's right. He can defend them. Sure, sure.

[Chuck Todd]

Yeah, I'm intrigued by that. Give me the Bears.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Take the Bears. Okay. Five and a half. Buffalo, which, I mean, Josh Allen essentially won the MVP in the fourth quarter of that game against Baltimore that I.

[Chuck Todd]

Stayed up so that I woke up for. Yeah, I Woke up at 4025 and. And then watched an amazing ending.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Go ahead. It's. Buffalo is on the road. They're giving six and a half at the Jets. Let's just understand one thing about. Yes, the jets aren't a very good team, but it took a 60 yard field goal to beat them. And Justin Fields is better, I think, than people think. I think he's better than people think. It's a division game. Six and a half is a lot coming out of that win. Will you give six and a half and take Buffalo?

[Chuck Todd]

Yeah, I am.

[Buster Olney]

My.

[Chuck Todd]

The sort of situational spot here.

[Buster Olney]

All right.

[Chuck Todd]

Builds off a big game. Yeah, all of that, you know, I. That's a lot of points. I give you the jets in the six and a half.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, okay.

[Chuck Todd]

Denver see the bill sort of sleepwalking.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And go, oh, no, I feel that way.

[Chuck Todd]

And then they go win it.

[Buster Olney]

Right.

[Chuck Todd]

It'll be like 31, 28, you know.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Denver is at Indianapolis. Indianapolis featured Daniel Jones, another example of why Brian Daboll may not know what he's doing since Daniel Jones in his first game in Indianapolis was tremendous. Denver, though, has a very good defense and Denver is a good team. And if you like Denver, the line went down. You only have to give one and a half. That sort of surprised me. But who do you like?

[Chuck Todd]

I watched a lot. A little bit of that Denver game because I wanted to see how my man Kim Ordinary was gonna do. You know, Nick didn't look so good.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right? That's right. That's right. There not a lot of points in that game. Nope.

[Buster Olney]

No, no.

[Chuck Todd]

And I don't know if I buy Indianapolis. This one of those. Could Miami just be terrible?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, it's possible.

[Chuck Todd]

Right? They could be just totally terrible. I'm just gonna bet against the Colts because I don't believe the Colts. I don't know if I believe in Denver, but I don't believe in that. I don't believe that they do it too soon. If they do, God bless them.

[Tony Kornheiser]

All right, here's what I think is the best game on the board. And that's saying something because the couple of these games, you know, the Washington, Green Bay's game is a big deal. Philadelphia is at Kansas City. And Kansas City may have to win in their own minds. Kansas City lost to the Chargers in Brazil. Now they're on their home. I think this is one of the two Monday night games because we're on ESPN2 next Monday because of these games. And Philadelphia is really good. And Philadelphia opened and, and they won a game. They didn't play great, but they played well enough at Kansas City. Philadelphia, I'm a little surprised. Is a one and. Well, but they beat him in, you know. Okay. They beat him in the Super Bowl.

[Chuck Todd]

Right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

One and a half point favorite. If you like Philadelphia on the road.

[Chuck Todd]

How often do you get Mahomes in points?

[Tony Kornheiser]

You got to go, right?

[Chuck Todd]

Yeah, I mean, I, I get it. I'm, I've, I'm done doubting Philadelphia. I get that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

But my home's in points. Kansas City's own two. I mean, that might be a really good ESPN storyline if that happens.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Chuck Todd]

Right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Chuck Todd]

But it's hard to imagine that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Chuck Todd]

Although they did have a pretty tough start of a schedule, their schedule actually isn't easy. Like if this is the year Kansas City limps, you know, 10 and 7, you know, at some point, these first place schedules take a toll. But I'll take Mahomes in points. I don't want to be the guy that didn't do that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And the next game is the Conquerors of Mahomes. Last week, the Chargers, which Wilbon and I consider, you know, still in San Diego, even though they're not. The Chargers are at Las Vegas. That's, you know, that's interesting in the sense that it's Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll, both of whom had great success in college and I think screamed at each other once. Wasn't that the thing was. What's your deal? What's your deal? Not years ago or am I making that up? I don't know.

[Chuck Todd]

I don't know. But it sounds like it could have happened.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

AI might tell me it happened.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Yeah. The Chargers, if you want them in Las Vegas, you give three and a half. Vegas won its first game.

[Chuck Todd]

This might be the best game on the board.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. I mean, it could turn out to be.

[Chuck Todd]

Yes, I love. I. You Know, I think they're both going to be pretty good teams, and they're both going to be potentially playoff contenders. Boy, the Chargers, two division games in a row.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

Bang, bang. I like the chart. I'm, you know, I'm a believer in Harbor. I'm a believer in Carroll, too. But I'm a believer in year two, Harbaugh and. And that boy, Justin Herbert. That is the best tech I looked in three years.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So this is, this is the reason you hire Jim Harbaugh, because he's good with quarterbacks. And he took one year to see what he had and one year in which Justin Herbert wasn't very good. And then Justin Herbert came out, you know, like. Like a Mack truck. I mean, he really did. I mean, if Harbaugh unlocks that, that's a big deal, right, Chuck? That's a big deal.

[Chuck Todd]

I. I think so. And look, wherever Harbaugh goes, he wins.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

Didn't he start at, like, San Diego State?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. He wins everywhere.

[Chuck Todd]

Right?

[Tony Kornheiser]

He can be annoying.

[Chuck Todd]

Nobody's won at Stanford since.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, he can be annoying, but he's really good.

[Buster Olney]

Carol's weird too, by the way.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Chuck. Good luck on these.

[Buster Olney]

Bye, guys.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Chuck Todd, boys and girls. And if we just. I'm not going to make this mistake again. If we just gave you Chuck Todd, that would probably be enough. But we give you more than Chuck Todd. We give you a monkey. See the monkey, he's scritch, scritch scratching Watching his iPad Smoking and laughing Hanging with Bud Grant Tap, tap, tap Sing along, everybody. Nigel's going to zoo, zoo, zoo Reginald's.

[Chuck Todd]

Got the fight Sometimes he throws his.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Poo, poo poo when he's had too.

[Buster Olney]

Much Johnny Walker Blue.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He was one and two last week.

[Commercial Announcer]

Yeah.

[Michael Wilbon]

Not a great start for the monkey. No, but he's. But he gets so excited around this time of the year. He's so very happy. When I went down to his flat at the zoo, he was very excited to see me, but he was in the middle of all this training and preparation for his long awaited attempt to jump Snake River Canyon.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Fantastic.

[Michael Wilbon]

Just like his childhood idol, Knievel. Evel Knievel. Yes. With him.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No. Evil Knievel pulled the cord before he actually left the dock.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yes. Didn't quite make it open.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No.

[Michael Wilbon]

Was it like 1972 or something?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I have no idea.

[Michael Wilbon]

He was joined by his team, Bill Nye the Science Guy. Makes sense. AJ Foyt. And for reasons not entirely clear to me, Dexter Manley.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Dexter Manley. I Wouldn't have had that. I would have thought Elon Musk, but not Dexter.

[Michael Wilbon]

So they were all having a lovely time. Oh, and I should say at this point that of course, Reginald's picks are brought to us by Buffalo Wild Wings. Make sure you try our boneless.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Don't stop.

[Michael Wilbon]

The first game we gave him was the Washington football team on the road on Thursday night at Green Bay, getting three and a half. And Reginald showed me a very lovely photo of him on a river cruise through Europe. I think it was through Bruges in Holland. Joining him on that trip was Richie Pettibone, the aforementioned Richard Pettibone, Dave Butz and Clint Didier. So that tells me he will take the Washington football team.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Is Bruges not in Belgium? Is it Belgium? Belgium.

[Michael Wilbon]

Is it Belgium? I should know this since I'm technically from that area.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, well, you're from England. You're separated by a water mass a little bit. Belgium, Belgium. Yeah, the old man had that.

[Michael Wilbon]

Believe you had that. Yes. Second match we gave him was. This is a great one. This is the Bear. Is this the Bears? Lionsgate. Yes. Bears getting five and a half at the Lions. Reynolds showed me a photograph of him in studio at Motown Records with Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Diana Rusk with Barry Gordy running everything.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So he's going Detroit.

[Michael Wilbon]

He's got ties with him.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He wants to. He wants.

[Michael Wilbon]

And the last match we gave him was Philly getting one and a half at Kansas City. And this is a great little video clip he showed me on his phone of Reginald just jogging through Philadelphia's giving.

[Tony Kornheiser]

One and a half. Did you say getting?

[Michael Wilbon]

No, giving. I said giving.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah. Showed him jogging through Philadelphia up to the rocky stairs alongside Greg Laszinski, Harold Carmichael. And Ron Hextall tells me he likes the city of Brotherly Love.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So he's gonna go against Chuck Todd on all three, which he doesn't often.

[Michael Wilbon]

Do, doesn't always do yet.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's great. That's good to know. All right, this week's picks with Chuck Todd and Reginald the Monkey have been brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. We will come back with Buster only. And I'm Tony Kornheiser.

[Carvana Customer]

You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You've heard me talk about collars and company, makers of the amazing dress collar polo. Well, now they've taken things to the next level with their brand new maverick performance blazer. And you have to check this out. These blazers are sharp, perfect for travel. Why? Because they're wrinkle resistant. Just throw it in your bag. When you get to your destination, slip it back on. No wrinkles, no stress. Finally, no more figuring out how to travel with a blazer. And it's not just about convenience. The Mavic Performance Blazer is made with stretch fabric so you can move comfortably all day long. Plus it's packed with smart features, inside security zip pockets, a built in optional pocket square and even a sunglasses loop. While you're at it, pair the blazer with The Collars & Co. Famous Dress Collar Polos. They've already sold over a million of these comfortable polos with the signature dress collar on top. So visit collars and co.com use the promo code Tony for 20% off today. Use the code people that should send me one of these. Yeah, I'd like to see this. A non wrinkle blazer. Yeah, because then I don't have to carry a steamer around with me all the time.

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[Michael Wilbon]

You'Re listening to the Tony Kornheiser show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Once again, we gave you a song by Levi Petrie or Levi Petrie. I'm guessing it's Petrie. I'm not certain about this. This is called country at Heart he writes. It's a song he released last year about trying to make it in the big city while staying true to my small town Cajun roots in South Louisiana. Who dad Hoping some transplants out there can relate. He's really good. Very good, Michael. If independent artists like Levi Petrie want to send us their original music to be played here, how do they do it?

[Chris]

Send us some music by emailing it to jinglesonycornizershow.com you can listen to this.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Music after we're done babbling. It's usually better than us. He plays in Buster only and Buster has sent us pictures of the yield of his crops in Montana. And there's tomatoes and there's carrots, fabulous carrots. And then there are things in jars which lead me to wonder if Buster knows something I don't and has become a survivalist. Like.

[Buster Olney]

So you got pictures of pickled beets and pickles and What I'm realizing is, you know, we didn't have Sunday night baseball this past weekend because the first weekend of the NFL, somebody figured out that we would probably be in trouble, ratings wise, if we had a game on Sunday night. So I devoted, you know, last week and this week to pulling in the garden. And I have real questions about my partner, Liz, who's a professor at Montana State. This is the time she chose to go to China.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay.

[Buster Olney]

When the harvest needed to come in. Because every day, the whole kitchen's a mess as I process all this stuff.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So it looks fabulous. We, by accident here, Michael and others, planted squash seeds that have yielded squash that are not even squash. They're 30 pounds. They're the largest things I've ever seen. They're obviously inedible, but some of the yellow ones are enormous, like £10. I've had luck with that by. But I fear for my potatoes. I fear because it looks like some of more than half the plants have dried up. I don't see the stalks on top of the ground anymore. I fear for them. What should I fear?

[Buster Olney]

Yes. Yeah, yeah. You should fear if some of the stalks have dried up. And I don't know how close those are to the squash, which sounds like you've got squash from the steroid era in the 90s.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. Barry Bond squash. The cream in the clear. Yes.

[Buster Olney]

So, yeah, the potatoes, the leaves on top. Absolutely. Give a clue as to what's going on underneath. But as I told you when you started, the great thing about potatoes is it is, like, open. It's like Christmas Day. You don't know what you're gonna get under the tree, and that's what's gonna happen that day that you decide, you know what, we're gonna dig them out.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I think. I think this coming weekend would be. You know, they've been in for a while. That's the middle of September. Right. That we might take a shot at digging and see what happens. So we'll do that.

[Buster Olney]

You can think about that. Yeah, I think that, you know, I mean, now's about the time, so I'm not doing it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm doing it. I'm doing it.

[Buster Olney]

All right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We got baseball questions, but my first question. And we. We did this with Chuck Todd earlier, who from Miami, and thinks that baseball has hosed Miami for a long time and thinks that the ballpark there is in a terrible spot. I'm watching the Nats at the Marlins Buster. I don't care what they report. Their attendance is. There could not be more than 2500 people at the games Monday night and Tuesday night. What is that? You know, is, is for the rest of us who are not from Miami. Is Florida with those two teams? Is it, does it just not work and should baseball move on or is it location of stadiums as Chuck says?

[Buster Olney]

There's no, there's no question that the location of the stadium is a, is a real problem. I remember the year that they had the Home Run Derby in the All Star Game and we finished the broadcast and we sat in the car for three hours before we got back to the hotel because the traffic was so bad, you know, and this was just one of those for the Marlins, for the ballpark. It was one of those few times when actually a bunch of people were there and it was clear that it was really difficult to get out of there. And Eduardo Perez, my colleague on Sunday night baseball, he lives in Miami and he just has hammered on that since I've known him where he's like this terrible area, awful area. You do not want to put a ballpark in that spot because people can't get in and out.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's too inconvenient.

[Buster Olney]

And they deal as always, you know. And I think San Diego through the years has dealt with this. You know, Miami is going to be a place where if the team's not good, people probably aren't going to come because there's better stuff to do in the sunshine.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, I mean that's, that's Chuck's position. I mean when you watch these games, there's like really, honestly nobody there. Let me move on, Let me move on to the incredible run the Dodgers are on. Not necessarily winning games as we know, because they lost no hitter in the ninth and they were up three nothing the other day and lost the game four three. Then they had another one two games later last night. Did they have a perfect game for six innings? What is going on with the Dodgers pitching?

[Buster Olney]

So here's, here's what I think is going on with the Dodgers in general because a week ago, like Dodger Nation, all their fans were losing their minds with a panic that was worthy of New York Yankee fans. And I think what happened with that team was they get bored. You know, when I covered the last team that won back to back championships, 98 to 2000 Yankees. And I can tell you that, you know, after winning 125 games in 1998, when they got to 99 in 2000 and 2001, the regular season got really hard for those guys to get up for it. You know, the series against Pittsburgh in early September, a bad team, you know, didn't get the Dodgers interest this year. That happened with the Yankees teams and players acknowledged this to me after the fact where it's just, you know, if you played so many meaningful games, it's almost like you wait for those games to turn it on. And so what I think happened was is that brutal loss on Saturday night in Camden Yards got their attention, you know, because then the next day Clayton Kirk shock came out. He threw great. Tyler Glasnow threw great. She threw great last night. And I think that they will roll from here is one general manager said to me at some point the Dodgers postseason DNA will kick in.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So I said this on PTI last night. I said we, we all know they can hit their second in the National League in runs, they're first in ops, they're first in home runs if they can pitch. And I said to Wilbond they're going to win the World Series again. I mean, because I, I think they will. I think that they are that good. But I have fears for, you know, another two large teams, Mets and Yankees. Could they actually miss the playoffs?

[Chuck Todd]

No.

[Buster Olney]

Or the Yankees are definitely not going to miss the playoffs. The Mets are. The Mets are starting to flirt with falling out. You know, their issue of course has been with their starting pitching. For the last three months they've called up these young pitchers have done a great job. But the idea that this team with A, you know, $350 million plus payroll is now relying on three guys in their first month in the big league in the rotation is remarkable. The Yankees are getting in. In fact, I think there's a chance, even though he had a terrible game last night against the Tigers, that they wind up with the number one seed in the American League. Because Tony, after they finished this series against the Tigers and they missed Tarik School bowl in this series, they played the Red Sox and after that they finish with Minnesota, Baltimore, White Sox, Baltimore again. And they bludgeon bad teams.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, so they'll definitely be in. Thank you for mentioning Tarek Skubal. I know we didn't pitch in this series, but how great is this guy over the last two years? What are we looking at here?

[Buster Olney]

Yeah, we're looking at an all time great pitcher in terms of his level of dominance. Oh, I mean he absolutely. With a change up fastball combination that he has. And here's the other part about him that's really great is man, he likes to have fun on the mound in terms of you can see him during the course of the game. We had a game on Sunday night once this year where he was pitching to Corey Seager. And Corey seager was like 8 for 11 against him. And he gave up a ringing double at the beginning. And Tarik Scubal is talking out loud the mound, like, what do I need to do? And later in the game, Seeger got another hit and school just looked at him and put his arms out to his side like, really, dude? You're gonna keep doing that? And we've seen him have exchanges like that, fun exchanges with Aaron Judge and Salvador Perez. I mean, he, you know, he's gonna be a free agent after next year. He's represented by Scott Borch. He's gonna make a boatload of money. But you know what I mean, he really does play like an 1112 year old in terms of the fun that he has.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Do you think he would stay in Detroit?

[Buster Olney]

Do I. I think maybe the better question is, do I think Detroit is ever going to pay 225 to 300 million, 350 million for a starting pitcher? No chance.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. No, I agree with that. So everyone loves the baseball games being shorter. I love the baseball games being shorter. I love. No shifting out to the outfield. I love the bigger bases. I love the running. I love all of this stuff. But I'm, I'm. I gotta ask this question. There's only one guy in the national league hitting over.300. Yeah, I, I don't recall this in my life. That the number two hitter in the league is batting.298 and then.295. How did. Have they tried to fix this and what do you make of this?

[Buster Olney]

Yeah, that last round of changes was absolutely aimed at augmenting offense and quite. It just, you know, it hasn't. It had an initial effect, but the pitching is getting so much better with all these relievers coming out to face three or four batters that throw 98 mph. Like the hitters are struggling to keep up. The only other time, of course, that anything like this has happened, it was 1968. Guy that believed Carly Strempsky was the only player to hit.301.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He had 301. And then they changed the mound. They lowered the mound.

[Buster Olney]

Yep. And that's. I really think the only hope for baseball has to go back to where offense has more consistently, you know, or there's more, more runs, more offense would be if they change the rules with starting pitchers. Because right now with most teams you get the starting pitcher go Four innings, you know, four and a third, four and two thirds, five innings. And then you get that parade of relievers who are just absolutely overpowering. You know, that's why the numbers have come down.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's. It's amazing to me to think that. That you could actually win a batting title. It's possible to win a batting title at under.300 because I see these guys, Jack pitches out 450ft all the time. But I do think if you want to completely overhaul the game, which you have done largely, you have to give some relative advantage back to hitters. I wonder, do you agree with that? I think you have to.

[Buster Olney]

I do. I absolutely agree with you. And the way to do that is to restrict the number of relievers that are used during the course of a game. And let me tell you, and I've had this conversation with a lot of players and a lot of managers, and, you know, they'll. They. Everyone agrees you got to restore the preeminence of starting pitching. You want to get back to the, to the place where those guys are. The Hulk Hogan's versus Andre, the Giants. And people are excited about that matchup as opposed to seeing this, all these relievers. And then you start to bring up ideas like, well, what about restricting each team to four relievers during a game with obvious exceptions for either injuries or blowouts? And you get a lot of people go, oh, I don't know. Now, there are really smart people in the sport who support this idea, but I think they have so many other big issues on the table, especially the cba.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Buster Olney]

Collective bargaining agreement coming up at the end of 2026. They will not take this on for a few more years.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I do like that. I do like the idea of restrictions. And one of the exceptions I would make is, you know, if a guy got, a guy's out there for an inning and he gives up five, you know, it's okay to take him out or something like that. And, you know, you'd almost have to have exceptions, case by case. But you. You want to restore hitting, and I don't mean home run hitting. You want to restore hitting and people going around the bases. Right. I think. I don't know.

[Buster Olney]

I can. I agree with you completely. And I do think that they just have to get away from this. The, the dynamic that it really developed over the last seven, eight years where, you know, hitters are just overwhelmed.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Buster Olney]

By all these relievers. Fresh relievers come out of the bullpen.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, I did. You can see it. You can say. And they're. They're touching 100 all the time. All of these guys, they're touching 100. Okay, I will let you know about the potatoes. I fear for the potatoes, but we will talk soon. Thank you, Buster.

[Buster Olney]

All right, Tony. Always fun.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Buster Olney, boys and girls. We'll take a break. We will come back with email and jingle. I'm Tony Kornheiser.

[Commercial Announcer]

As a scientist, I can tell you that Sundays are only 24 hours long. But with NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get every game, every Sunday all in one place. That's upwards of 30 hours of NFL in one day. How can there be 30 hours in 24 hours, you ask? I have a theory, Magic. New users get NFL Sunday Ticket for eight payments of 3,450 per month. Sign up at NFLSundayTicket.com local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday Ticket for auto market games excludes digital only games and commercial use terms and embargoes apply. Availability varies.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser shows.

[Jingle Singer]

And here comes Tony's mailbag. Gonories. Some for all of you folks gonna read. Some for all you folks.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Biff got. We like Biff. We like anyone named Biff. And we like Biffs who sing. It's very lovely. Thank you. Bethesda Bagel.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yes, Bethesda Bagels. We love them. You will as well just go to Bethesda Bagels.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Bagels were warm today. Yeah, it felt good.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah. Fresh bagels.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Very excited about that.

[Chris]

Almost as warm as the studio.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, the studio is way too hot. I think Carol has put the heat on. I don't really understand it.

[Michael Wilbon]

It's a bit warm.

[Chris]

September's a little early for that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Just come on now.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yes. Bethesda Bagels. Just pop on in and you'll be thrilled.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Before we get to the mailbag, let me just say I knew man Bojangles and he danced for you in worn out shoes, silver hair, ragged shirt and baggy pants. The old soft shoe. He jumps so high. He jumps so high and he'd lightly. Touchdown, Mr. Bojangles. That's Jerry Jeff Walker, who I believe was born in Endicott, N.Y. not certain about that. Thanks to our guest today, Chuck Todd. Buster only thanks as well to today's sponsors. Remember, you can listen to us on Apple podcasts Spotify and Odyssey. Get the show through Apple. Please leave us a review. Thank you to John Silke in Silver Spring for reminding me of this. One of the people who works at the Brookville Pharmacy who I See all the time. Great baseball fan Scott Wilson had an injury in Ocean City. I think it was surfing. I think he was actually doing some surfing. And so we wish Scott a full recovery and a quick recovery and his wife Sandy. We send them good vibrations, as the Beach Boys would say. So thank you for that. Also, an old Camp Kiyuma guy, Steve Wiener, writes, it's been a long time since we last touched base. I miss our reunions. Just a quick note to congratulate you and Mike on your new contract extension. Yeah, a lot of people have done this. As I said, it's very, very nice. I've heard from a lot of people and I appreciate it. And I remember Steve Winter. I remember his sister. I remember his parents from Camp Keon.

[Michael Wilbon]

By the way, I have Jerry Jeff Walker, born in Oneonta.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oneonta, okay. Did he grow up in Endicott?

[Michael Wilbon]

It doesn't say. It just says he grew up.

[Tony Kornheiser]

For reasons that are unclear to me, when I was in college, there was a sense that Jerry Jeff Walker was from the area. Maybe not, but Oneonta's close. Okay. From Adam Pearlman in Boston. Your mention of Davy Johnson's passing gave me chills. I met Mr. Johnson than once. I know you like the story because it involves baseball, the telling of half truths and outright lies to get into places I otherwise had no business being. In 1996, I was a student at the University of Buffalo. A group of friends and I found the Blue Jays, Tigers and Indians at home games on the same weekend. We decided to drive around Lake Erie to the great Midwest city of Toronto and the actual Midwest cities of Detroit and Cleveland. We decided to ask each team for tickets. We said we were there from the student newspaper, which was somewhat true. We said we were from the student video club, which was less true. We told the student activities office that we needed to use a van for a school sponsored student activity. That was entirely untrue. I sent a fax off to the Blue Jays from the school newspaper office. You know this will never work, A smarmy student reporter told me. Minutes later they called back. Not only did we have tickets, we had press passes. Eventually we got tickets and press passes from all three organizations. I told that guy to eat it. Fast forward to our final stop, Jacobs Field, where the Orioles were visiting would then manager Davey Johnson. It was 1996 and being a New York kid, I had to ask him about the 10th anniversary of the 86 Mets. He patiently waited while I blathered out a few incoherent, awestruck questions, then graciously shared a few thoughts before heading back into the dugout. He couldn't have been nicer to us at the time. Ten years seemed like an eternity. That was 30 years ago and it seems like yesterday. Rest in peace Davey. And he attaches pictures and one of the pictures has Davy Johnson being interviewed by Buster Olney Bly Buster only. How great is that? From Steve Rowinski in Forest Hills in Queens, where the bagels are still the best in the world, he writes. I wanted to share a brief story of how this stinking show has had a positive impact on the life of some Littles. I have a 4 year old daughter and as you can imagine, us parents get into some chatter around the playground. One of the other kids has a bad habit of playing with the toilet paper roll in the bathroom and his father was complaining to me that they're blowing through toilet paper at an incredible rate. I mentioned to him the story that I heard many years ago on this very podcast from Chuck Todd. I said to him now, despite knowing better, I'm firmly in the over camp. But the only good reason I've ever heard to go under is difficult for me to refute. It's the fact that if you have a cat or small children and they keep spinning the toilet paper roll and it's set up under, you're not gonna lose any toilet paper. Two days later I got a text message with a video of the parent and the child with the child spinning the toilet paper roll around and around and around. It's going nowhere because he flipped it under. The caption underneath the video said, I guess political pundits are good for something after all.

[Chris]

Take the under.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So besides helping out with my gambling picks each week, I want to send a quick thank you to the podcast and the Chuck Todd. And if this email gets read on the air, I would also say a quick Eat it to Nick Canon. That would be number three. Yet another example of Biggs helping out Littles, which is very nice. Steve Carmody, the official Michigan Public Radio reporter the Tony cornheish I understand you're planning to start harvesting. Harvesting this year's potato crop. Yeah. Don't dig up all your spuds at once. Only harvest what you want. Leave the rest for later. I started harvesting spuds in August and expect to continue into October. My yield is usually five times what I plant. Well, you've heard, You've heard what I said to Buster, and we'll see how it works out. From Steve Gilmore in San Angelo, Texas, just Another quick update on my pumpkin patch. Still dead. Maybe you were right about your pumpkin hot take after all. Yeah, maybe. Joe Rizzo, given the background noise, was Dan Graziano calling in while helping Bob Ryan do the dishes? Yeah, there was a lot of noise on that.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah, I think he was at a.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Diner or something like that. Chris Fitzpatrick, Springboro 84 now that the Walker cup is over, it brings back a couple of memories of my playing day there. A pro shop that is no bigger than a small trailer, making sure you get that first tee shot over the four foot hedge 10 yards away at 7am with no warm up. Looking from the 16th tee into a cove and seeing hundreds of golf balls in the water that had a dream to reach land. But the best part of Cyprus is that the caddies are allowed to play the course for free at any time as long as they do not interfere with member play. Unlike Columbia, that only allows the caddies to use the pool on Monday from 1pm 1. So yeah, if that's great for caddies, that's great. I mean the caddies can play on Monday. It's not just 1 to 150.

[Chris]

Still carry the carry the bags the the backwards way for us. Yeah, over the back.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, over the shoulder from Bill Burns in case anyone is on the fence about going to TK Night in Syracuse, just go. Last year, my two time TK Knight partner and fellow show emailist Dave Thompson was out of commission. I DM Dan Byrne to find out. He won't be in attendance, but he wished me a hearty Lecheserie. Undeterred, I left the comfy confines of the Adirondack park and made my way to NBT Stadium. Upon arrival, I grabbed a Utica Club UC for me, as we used to say, and went on a mission to find Chuck and Roxy. Unfortunately, they weren't in attendance. Wondering if this event had run its course, I headed off to my seat. In a few minutes. I met Keith, your first emailer on the next day showed. We hit it off instantly. Soon the Littles flowed in and the fun began. The Littles are a friendly bunch and Dan Byrne's songs were played often. Jason came by to see everyone as he had done the previous years. A wonderful time was had by all. See you tomorrow night. Can Billy's Italian Restaurant be the official Adirondack Park Italian Restaurant on the Tony Kornizer Show? Yeah, and there's pictures of everybody. Look at these. These are great. Pass these around the room. Isn't this lovely? Jeff Rickson, Fairfax, Virginia On Monday's podcast, you discussed the death of Ken Dryden and cited his brilliance and brief NFL career. I know you don't usually cover hockey until the third hour of the show, but I have a few anecdotes with some accompanying statistics about Dryden that I hope you might share. During Dryden's collegiate career, Cornell he started in 81 games. He won 76 of them. When he joined the Canadiens in the spring of 1971, he won his first six regular season starts. Once the playoffs got underway, he stayed in net and backstopped the Canadiens to a Stanley cup championship, upsetting defending champion Boston Bruins in the first round before ultimately beating the Chicago Blackhawks in the final. Dryden won the Conn Smythe trophy as playoff MVP in 1971, then won the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the year in 1972. In just eight seasons as a pro, Dryden won six Stanley Cups, including four in a row from 1976 through 1979. In 1973-74 season, Dryden set out for the entire year to clerk at a Toronto law firm while he earned his law degree from McGill University. To me, Dryden is the quintessential scholar athlete and the game of hockey will miss him dearly. Thanks as always for the laughs. Tell Patrick Smith I'm ready for our girls hockey season at Bishop o' Connell High School. He can set up a Chuck and Roxy episode. Let him know I'm ready. Yeah, I mean, so the comparable guy in the United States is Bill Bradley. Oh yeah, who left, you know, a basketball career for a couple of years out of Princeton to go be a Rhodes Scholar. You know, I've always respected Bill Bradley, Gary Sims and Chevy Chase, Maryland. I guess this is a David Aldrich moment, but one which is many melancholy. I was chair of the Cornell Hockey Fans Association, a position I earned by getting in line for three days before tickets were made available to students. I got to pick the first seats for the season at Liner Rink. I sat behind the visiting penalty box so I could give the opposition choice words. I was there this season when Ken Dryden led us to the NCAA Championship. I'll never forget him standing in the net upright, his hands resting on a stick, his head on top of his hands as he watched the Big Red keep the opposition mostly at the other end. I was inspired by him to try my hand as a goalie and in the intramural league after watching the greatest goalie ever, we won the championship. As you have said, he was the greatest and a wonderfully accomplished man. Thanks for Bringing back fond memories from Daniel in South Orange, New Jersey. Monday's mailbag made me laugh when a letter referred to how every contemporary of Sandy Koufax in Brooklyn had some story of playing against him being two generations removed. I do not personally have a similar story, but my brothers and I grew up hearing stories about Sandy Koufax from our grandfather who was born in 1931. Our grandpa's stories went one step further. Not only did he know Sandy growing up, but Sandy was in the family my father fought. My grandpa would see Sandy at family gatherings, and although Sandy was a few years junior than him, Sandy always wanted to win and usually did. The family's connection to Koufax was, let's say, extended, as I understand that Sandy's biological father was Jack Braun, and apparently Braun had a half brother on his mother's side named Harry. My grandpa's aunt Claire was married to Harry. As folks probably know, when Sandy was young, his mother remarried Mr. Koufax, which may have been the end of the connection to our side of the family, but at least for us, it's always been a great fun source of family pride. Imagine that. Having Sandy Koufax. Absolutely. Wow. Wow. It's just. That's just great. Thank you, Daniel. Kevin Disher Bay City, Michigan On Monday's podcast you said the following to explain the current success of the Nats bullpen. They got rid of bums confidence stats since leaving the Nats and joining the Tigers. 14 and 3rd innings ERA.000 walks, 3 strikeouts, 19 maybe all Finnegan needed was to be released from the weight of a balding orange albatross verbally draped him from himself from his neck every day. Finally. We love K. Finn and Motown. And you should, and you should, you should and you should. But if you lived here it was frustrating biting your hands off George McGough. I hope it's McGough or McGough I don't know. From Waxhaw, still southeast of Charlotte. Excuse me. A good while back I sent you a message that had the woman I'm related to by marriage calls the cows we pass when we're driving moo cows. Everyone in the family has reminded her that Monica is redundant. But we all now call them moo cows. Well, my wife has taken it to a new level. Because of our overuse of TikTok, she has fallen in love with Highland cows. She keeps trying to talk me into purchasing a Highland cow, which will never happen. She just turned 60 about a month ago and my daughter arranged for her to visit a nearby farm that raises these highland cows. Of course I had to go with my wife, my daughter, my son in law and two of my grandkids on this adventure. My wife was more excited about this gift than any birthday gift she's ever received, including the new car I bought her for her birthday. My thoughts on this visit is ho hum. The cows were friendly and they let you pet them but that was not something high on my things to do. My wife was over the moon and now has ramped up her desire to own one of these cows. Aside from the obvious reasons for CPA and a nurse should not own farm animals like all the dogs we've had over the years, the daily care of this cow will fall on me. My wife is like a five year old. She tells me she'll do everything for the cow but I will end up being responsible for 99.9% of the care. Hopefully also like a five year old, something else will catch our eye and this will pass One of the great emails we've ever had from our friend Jeff Barger in Hillsborough, North Carolina. I was teaching spelling today and the word sprung came up from one of my students. Immediately my brain went out to sprung from cages on Highway 9, chrome wheel fuel injected and stepping out over the line. Seeing that maybe nine year olds are not the demographic for Springsteen. I hummed for five seconds and I moved on. You're out on your bike Tyler. Everyone as always do wear what today.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

For the podcast we only recording about baseball.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's fabulous.

[Jingle Singer]

Visitation on a Sunday.

[Buster Olney]

But.

[Jingle Singer]

Nobody'S around.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

Sit alone in the kitchen.

[Jingle Singer]

Left my covers turned down Been on.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

My best behavior.

[Jingle Singer]

Got a hearing next.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Week.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

People tell me that things are.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Looking good Never sure what that means.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

When I get out this time I'll be different Light up your world like.

[Tony Kornheiser]

A flame.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

Through those doors and I never look back Promise you this time of change Got no one left to.

[Jingle Singer]

Blame but I'm done causing pain say my share of the rosary but I run out of steam.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

Make my phone.

[Jingle Singer]

Calls to all of my folks Nobody wants to talk to me.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Sat me.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

Down from the panel and they took off the cuffs Tell us sir, have you evolved beyond these walls?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Do you think it's enough When I.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

Get out this time I'll be different Light up your world like a flame I bust through those doors and I never look back Promise you this time I change.

[Jingle Singer]

Got no one left to.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

Play.

[Jingle Singer]

Let me restore my name.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

Let.

[Jingle Singer]

Me restore my name.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

Sam.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Got a.

[Jingle Singer]

Job, bus and tables Worked my way to the cook one night Some things Went missing Mine was the first way they look.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

Keep my mouth shut, I.

[Jingle Singer]

Keep my head down, you'll get no trouble for me.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

First thing I learned when they told me I could go Never meant I was free but if I give up this time I'll be nothing A waste of a hope and a prayer if you look me in the eyes, Lord, you'll see where I'm going Trust me, be halfway there When I get up this time I'll be different Light up your world like a flame Bust through those doors and I nail a look back Promise you this time will change but when I get up this time I'll be different get out. This time I'll be different get out. This time I'll be different yeah, this time I'll be different Sam.

[Jingle Singer]

Don'T need the cowboy boots My feet hurt, my foot's too flat Cowboy hats always looked a little off Never drove a tractor truck or a combine in the rice fields of Elton well, that's the way my mama grew up.

[Levi Petrie (Singer)]

Still I love.

[Jingle Singer]

Those three courses songs 1, 4, 5, let's get it on Summers that were told by Garth A six disc changer in daddy's car no fences on repeat till we were home and though I never quite fit in When I'd see how many of the them sport wranglers in their trucks While I rode in daddy's car Still I knew I was country at heart Nashville sound or Austin bound a tennis shoes Just wander around some LA town that's never felt like home. Cleo told me long ago the greatest country country bands play rock and roll for less than now at least a decade old and on these days where I don't fit in When I feel like I rope in the wind.

[Chuck Todd]

I.

[Jingle Singer]

Might not live in the right town or have the right look Still I know well I'm worth someone's bucks for the days where it's most tempting to cash what's left and throw the towel in Save the stadiums for bars Come down from the stars I'm still a kid whose country at heart that is Here the crane rises to the top Though I might slow down oh, I'll never stop. Cause on those days where I don't fit in I'll get up and I'll do it again. Might be someone in the crowd who needs to hear it loud Some truth well, I might be singing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

On the.

[Jingle Singer]

Chance I get it right Find myself beneath the big stage lights you can tell the small town bars folks singing in their cars I'm still a kid whose country at heart yes, rock and roll Save my soul and I may not look the part Still I'm the kid whose country at heart.