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Hey, it's Tony. We have a packed show for you today. First, we'll preview the Oscars with Jason Fraley. Then we'll chat with Doug Ferguson about what's going on at the Players Championship. And we'll also talk about Buster, only about the World Baseball Classic. And maybe a little bit about potatoes as well. But first, commerce. Okay, quick question. Why should your energy boost taste boring? The new fruity rainbow shots from five Hour Energy are proof that caffeine can actually be a treat. These bring an explosion of fruity flavor with a tasty caffeine kick. Think sweet, colorful candy vibes, but in a tiny bottle that gives you the perfect boost. Caffeine just got a serious flavor upgrade. There are 17 flavors in the full five hour energy lineup. 17. So you've got options depending upon your mood. But this fruity rainbow launch is all about bold, playful candy flavored chaos. And somehow all that big flavor fits into a portable 2 ounce shot. No bulky drinks, no sugar crash. No sticky wrappers. It's a zero sugar treat that's totally sweet tooth approved, which makes it feel indulgent without slowing you down. If you want your pick me up to actually taste fun, this is it. Get candy flavored chaos with fruity rainbow 5 Hour Energy shots available online at 5 Hour Energy.com or on Amazon.
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previously on the Tony Kornheiser Show. Then for the entertainment value, you gotta love the SPO stroke. Just so we're going for it. Yeah, you have to. Is a wonderful coach. He's the Olympic coach. Next time around, everybody respects him. Yes, sure, I don't blame him. I don't blame anybody. But I look at the Washington Wizards and I think, come on, you can stop this guy. Put a couple of guys on him. He's going for 83 for 83. The Tony Kornheiser show is on now. Just as a matter of fact. He did not get 83 again last night. No, he did not. Didn't need to. No. Wasn't playing. The wizards didn't get 83. We are guest loaded today and one of the guests we have is Jason Fraley, who is a D.C. film critic and is a film professor at Hood College and is the host of beyond the Fame podcast. And Jason has joined us a number of times. And we're doing this because the Oscars are Sunday night, right? That's right. And I don't know anything. This is like the fifth or sixth year in a row. My post Covid movie experience is zero. I don't watch the movies. I don't pay attention to the movies. I don't know anything, anything about the movies that are nominated, including the names of the movies. I have heard of one movie all year that was Hamnet. I think it's basically about William Shakespeare, but I don't even know that. So that's why Jason is with us. So let's start with this. I know that there's a bloated list now in the last five or ten years where they nominate, excuse me, eight, nine, ten movies. What are the three to five best movies of the year?
B
Hey, thanks for having me back on, Tony. It's been fun doing this last couple years. I think the best. The biggest chances of winning and actually I think kind of aligned with what I think are some of the best movies of this year are Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle after another starring Leonardo DiCaprio. You might have heard of it. Hope you get to check it out. Tony. Sinners by Ryan Coogler was. Was arguably my favorite of the year and that's been coming on strong lately. Hamnet. I'm glad you mentioned Hamnet. Yes, about sort of the inspiration of what inspired William Shakespeare to write Hamlet. So you're kind of onto that one. Tony. It's a powerful movie by Chloe Zhao who did Nomadland a couple years ago. I think those are probably the three front runners. Most of the awards season, it looked like Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another would win. He memorably, he had never won, sadly. But despite making Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood masterpiece, and the Master
C
I thought was great too.
B
But recently we've seen a surge, especially after the SAG Awards by Ryan Coogler's Sinners. You might remember Coogler made Fruitvale Station, which arrived the week of the Trayvon Martin verdict. So very timely back then. Then he made Creed, you know, the Rocky sequel, Black Panther, the massive Marvel superhero movie All Star starring Michael B. Jordan, by the way. That's sort of his De Niro to his Scorsese and. But Sinners is a tough sell. Tony. I don't know if we can convince you to watch or. I was talking to Arch Campbell about it. He said it's a hard elevator pitch because it starts out like a Jim Crow south drama, like a mud bound or something. And then about a third of the Wind becomes a vampire movie. Also a musical with blues, with buddy guy in the end. So it's kind of a genre bender. But I'm curious if you see it.
A
What you think I wouldn't see that. I mean, that has no particular. Vampires did it for you? Yeah, no particular appeal to me. What is the Leonardo DiCaprio movie? What is the plot of that, again,
B
that went off similarly, a couple movies this year. They start in one direction and kind of pivot the rest of the way. So it kind of starts. Leo DiCaprio and Teyana Taylor are some revolutionaries, political revolutionaries, you know, freeing immigrants from detention centers, et cetera. So a little timeliness, but then it flash forwards a little few years. I'd say about a third of the movie becomes like a road, like a screwball comedy chase movie. And that's where the movie really picks up for me and a lot of viewers. And Sean Penn is pursuing him as the sort of military brass government agent hired to try to catch him. But it gets kind of funny when it goes on the road and Benicio Del Toro shows up. And so there's some real screwball antics as they're running away. So that might be a little more down your alley. I don't know. Tony, did you. Did you like any of Anderson's other stuff, like There Will Be Blood or Boogie Nights?
A
Not much. I mean, okay. They were okay. I didn't know. I'm not an enormous fan. I mean, I tend to be an enormous fan of movies that are interesting to me. If you tell me there's a movie about William Shakespeare's inspiration in his childhood where I know nothing. I know his work. I know nothing about his life, so. I might like that. I might like that.
B
Yeah, it's. It's bring about, you know, five hanky tissues. It is. It is a heartbreaking one because it, you know, it deals with a lot of. And it hits me close to home, too, for various reasons with, you know, there's some real childbirth heavy, heavy scenes where, you know, I don't know, Shakespeare, you know, has lost a child and then had another child and is working through the grief to try to write Hamlet. My wife and I just had our first child a couple months ago, so that one kind of kind of wrecked me. But so. So, yeah. Disclaimer Going in. It's an emotional powerhouse. But I do think that, I do think sinners. If I have to make a prediction, I'm going to go out on a limb with sinners as sort of an upset. I think it will knock off Paul Thomas Anderson in the last stretch here. But it's got a lot of working against and horror movies don't usually win. It would be the first to win since the Silence of the Lambs. It's been a while.
A
That's a long time.
B
Should, yeah, should have been get out. I think I came on with you guys down at Chatter a couple years ago and I remember when I predicted get out and sadly I wasn't right. It lost to the shape of Water. One of you all called it Grinding Nemo. I'll never forget it.
A
What about the three to five best performances? Like who's gonna win? The individual actor.
C
Yeah.
B
So. Well, here's a sports angle for you. So Timothee Chalamet from Marty Supreme, a ping pong wizard who's kind of a hotshot and thinks he's too cocky. The movie for a long time, you know, it looked like it was in the bag for Timothy. You know, she has, he has, he has a big following on social media.
A
He gets nominated every year.
B
He's always, he probably should have won last year for playing Bob Dylan. I remember, we talked last year. But I remember last year he sort of cockily, he was really cocky. Went on one of those award shows I think SAG awards and kind of called his shot. He's like, I want to be one of the goats. I want to be, you know, here's this little kid saying I want to be the next Michael Jordan. Of course he lost Adrian Brody for Brutalist and this year ironically, he's going to lose in a buzzer beater to an actual Michael Jordan. Michael B. Jordan.
A
Okay.
B
I think for Centers I think he's going to, going to upset him here. So I think Michael B. Jordan finally is going to win.
A
What about any of the women roles?
B
Well, I think that's where Hamnet comes in. Jessie Buckley, she's been doing a bunch of movies the last couple years. Women talking in a couple indies darlings. But she's, she's going to probably win for Hamnet. She plays Shakespeare's in this Hamnet movie that we're talking about. She's the one that has to do that. The harrowing childbirth scenes and, and you know, and watching the stage performance of Hamlet at the end of the movie. So I think she, I Think she's gonna. Gonna win there and then. And I actually wouldn't be surprised if Hamlet somehow comes in and with a Best Picture upset either. That. That also is in play in terms of the other acting performance. I think Sean Penn, for one battle after another for supporting actor, he's won twice for mystic river and Milk. You probably saw those back in the day.
A
Yes.
B
I think he might actually win the third here. He's really.
A
I thought he disappeared. I thought he just became weird and disappeared and didn't act anymore.
B
It would kind of be a bit of a. Like a Johnny Depp situation. He's kind of. Yeah. Like off screen, you know, personal life stuff kind of kind of disappeared him. But he.
C
He's kind of.
B
I think he's kind of come back with this role. If you see him, he completely transforms his walk and his mannerisms in this. And then for supporting actress, another sports tie in. Remember Amy Madigan from Field of Dreams? Bunch of roles. I think this is gonna be her year to win for Weapons, another horror movie, ironically. But I want to see her run across the stage with her arms out like the kids do in the movie. It's on the poster of the movie and the kids do it in this. I gotta say, it's a horror movie where the kids. One day, an entire classroom of students suddenly goes missing. They all get up in the middle of the night at 2am, 3am something. They all run out of the classroom with their arms out and no one can figure out why. I think it's an allegory for kids that disappeared during all the different school shootings and stuff. There's a scene where Josh Brolin looks and sees a gun up in the sky during a dream sequence. That's my deeper reading of that. Just like Sinners. I think the deeper reading is the vampires are white record executives appropriating black music. Sort of like the Chuck Berry, Elvis kind of conversation. There's like a deeper layer to some of these. It seems superficial horror movies, but there's a deeper layer going on in a lot of these.
A
What is attendance like at movie theaters now? What is it like?
B
It really hasn't recovered from COVID Like you're saying, tony, you kind of bowed out of movie. A lot of people did. I mean, kind of. It was kind of a one, two punch of technology. And Covid. Right. So Covid trained us all to not go out to big crowded spaces. And then also the technology of streaming became available. Similar. Similar to sports. You know, you can. You can see a football Field with high definition, the blades of grass on the turf you can see at home. Better than going to the stadium. So the movie is kind of the same way. It hasn't really recovered from it. 2019, right before COVID it was doing, you know, it was amazing. It was still, you know, Marvel's, you know, the Avengers, Endgame and all that. It was still, you know, blockbusters were reigning. It's really, it really splintered. Our society's really splintered in all the different streaming apps we've had and I think viewership was for the Oscars was really tanking for many years there. Last year was a five year high though. Almost 20 million. I think the highest rated non sports program, non news program of the year as well. You know, NFL dominates everything. But Conan o' Brien maybe had something to do with that last year hosting. He's back again this year. I always love Conan. Curious to see what he does. And it is moving to YouTube in 2029.
A
What does that mean? What does that mean? If it goes off your normal television set, if it goes off your cable, if it goes off your network because it used to be ABC all the time. If it goes off that and it goes to YouTube, are they basically saying everybody over 40, we don't care, we don't care about. Don't have to play the music? Yeah. What does it mean?
B
Kind of, I mean, yeah, I mean like, like you're saying it's always been, it's been ABC and we always think of Billy Crystal hosting like when I was growing up. But you know, even nowadays, I think the younger generation, a lot of probably cut the cord on their cable and even though it's on abc, a lot of them probably watch it on Hulu, which is, you know, the ABC partner, the stream part. YouTube's where the action is. I mean you say over 40, it's funny. Even my father in law who's like in his 70s watches YouTube all the time of you know, this old house, fix it up kind of. It is. So YouTube is sort of where the action is I think. But it is a, you're right, it's a larger conversation like Paramount, Skydance, it looks like it's going to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, it looked like Netflix might buy Warner Brothers, which includes hbo. So there's a lot of political concerns. Understandable. We saw what happened at CBS with 60 Minutes and Colbert on the way out, et cetera. So I understand those concerns. But in terms of movie going, there might be, might be a silver lining in terms of you Know, an actual old Paramount movie studio buying the movie studio as opposed to a streamer like Netflix buying it. So there might be some saving grace in there and maintain a 45 day theatrical window before everything hits streaming. But yeah, I mean, the Oscars on YouTube, it plays into this whole conversation we're all having right now of do we go to the movies or do we stay home and watch where it's more convenient?
A
I'm so out of it. I mean, conversations like this make me understand how stupid I am and how lost I am and why nobody should advertise to me. There's no point. Jason, thank you very much. We will check to make sure you're right. If you're wrong, we won't say anything. But if you're right, you get all the credit. Thanks, Jason.
B
Thanks so much. I appreciate it.
A
Jason Fraley, boys and girls. Well, I wanted to just do a small little open. I'll try and find Hammond for you on streaming. Yeah, I'd like to see Hamnet. Everyone said that's pretty good. And Timothee Chalamet, he gets nominated every year. Yeah, he seems to. He must be a very good actor. It's my guess. So. I watched Duke last night. They survived. Against Florida State. Florida State missed a shot late. Duke's in trouble. Well, they got two guys around, right? Duke's in trouble. Duke's not going to win the tournament. No, I don't care about the ACC tournament. Duke's not going to win the NCAA tournament. Can we clip this to send to my wife? It's just, it's bad for us. Miami of Ohio loss. There's some conversation that they will not be invited to the ncaa. I think that's nonsense. I think they'll be invited. They were 31 and, oh, you know, yes, they're going to lose in the first round. Okay, like we get it, but they deserve to be in. They deserve to be. They deserve to be in. Kyler Murray signed a one year deal at Minnesota. A one year deal? It's like not even a deal. What do you mean, a one year deal? Is that Kyler Murray saying, I'm not sure I want to be there, or is that Minnesota saying, we're not sure we want to have you? A one year deal is absurd to me. Feels. It's just. I don't get it. Is him betting on himself saying, I'll show you in one year. Maybe, but what if he doesn't? So that's weird. But the other story that I wanted to get to Shay Gilgis Alexander passed Wilt Chamberlain in terms of how many consecutive 20 point games he's had. It's 100 plus. Whatever it is, the number doesn't matter. What matters is he passed Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt Chamberlain's the greatest talent who ever played basketball. Shay Gilgeous Alexander is not. This is like we're not going to get in a big debate about this. Nobody in their right mind would say that Shea Gilgeous Alexander is more important to basketball or a better basketball player than Wilt Chamberlain. Anyone who would say that hasn't seen Wilt Chamberlain. So what are we. Why am I even talking about it? But I am curious about this. When Wilt Chamberlain played, there was no three point shot. They probably wouldn't have taken him anyway. He was 7 foot 1 and he played in the middle, so he probably wouldn't have taken him. But it was not available to him. Because if it was available to him, for all I know he would have been like Victor Wembanyama and he would have drifted outside and would have been a good three point shooter. I would like to know, and I don't. I don't know the answer to this. So it is possible that the answer to this is none, Tony. But I would like to know, in this streak of 20 plus point games by Shea Gilgeous Alexander, how many of them were decided by three point shots? In other words, how many 20s, 21s, 22s, 23s, 24s, that if these were two point shots and not three point shots, they might not have been 20 plus. That's. I mean. And he's a great player. He is. He's the current mvp. He's a great player. Great player. But I'm just. But he's not. He's not Will Chamberlain. No. Right.
D
None.
A
Nobody out there today is Wilt Chamberlain. They're not. I mean, LeBron James is not Wilt Chamberlain. It's not. It's great. It's not Wilt Chamberlain. And he's incredibly more accomplished at the moment than Shea Gil. Just Alexander. Which is a function of age. Yeah. And length of career. But I'm curious about that. Anyway, we will take a break. We will come back. Doug Ferguson will join us from the Players Championship in Jacksonville, Florida. Well, they call it Ponte Vedra, so that sounds fancy. Jacksonville.
C
Happy birthday.
A
It's Jacksonville. Yeah. Yeah. To sign. Yeah. Yeah. Happy birthday to everyone ever. Except Tony Cornheiser. Except Tony Kornheiser. Because I said that, though I don't know. There are 10,000 waffles you can find an open seat. Yeah, just waffle houses. All right, we'll be back. I'm Tony Cornehow. Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet
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hamster Nibbles in our yard for me?
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Because I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires, I
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knew I could trust him to bury
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my sweet Nibbles after his untimely end. Huh. Nibbles gone too soon. May he scurry in peace.
D
Hey, sorry about your pet, but I just wire stuff.
A
Nibbles would have loved you like a brother.
D
Connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects@angie.com hey, Sal.
A
Hank.
B
What's going on?
A
We haven't worked a case in years. I just bought my car at Carvana and it was so easy. Too easy. Think something's up? You tell me. They got thousands of options, found a great car at a great price. Uh huh. And it got delivered the next day. It sounds like Carvana just makes it easy to buy your car, Hank. Yeah, you're right. Case closed. Buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show.
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1, 2, 3, 4.
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It's a good day for us. We have songs sent to us by Michael Granberry that are always great. Who writes. It was my great pleasure to have my friend Liz Longley be the first artist whose music I sent to the Tony Kornheiser show in late March of 2018. Liz's career has only ascended since then. Now she opens the door to a new artist whose songs I'm happily sending. Just over 10 years ago, Liz and her friend Corby Lanker co wrote a gorgeous ballad titled if youf Love Somebody. They recorded the song in Corby's front yard in East Nashville, posted it on YouTube where it has garnered more than 64,000 views. Corby is a singer, songwriter, author and podcaster who has released eight albums of Folk Americana 2018. He created Morse Code, a scripted TV series based loosely on his life. And he hosts the weekly Morse Code podcast featuring deep dives with artists, musician and writers. This is the song if youf Love Somebody, Liz Longley and Corby Lenker. Is that. How is it? Corby Lenker? Yes. Yes, I believe so. Yes. It's beautiful.
D
It really is.
A
Plays in Doug Ferguson who's at the Players Championship. I just wanted to start with this I watched for a long time yesterday and there was a bunch of rain. It softens up a course. I don't think players mind rain as long as it's not wind and rain. But what is the weather forecast for the rest of the week?
D
Great today, great tomorrow, and then we come back to Sunday and we'll just. We'll try and finish the tournament. A little bit of rain expected on Sunday, but that's good. I don't think they minded the rain because for the second week in a row, when they got here on Monday and Tuesday, the greens were already a tinge of brown headed like they were at Bay Hill, where they became, you know, basically white by the. By the weekend. So it was hard yesterday morning. I mean, you didn't. You had a few guys get off to a reasonable start, but otherwise it was looking at that two to three under. And this is a course that provides really low scoring, Tony. I mean, I wouldn't say low scoring in general, but there's always somebody who could, you know, rattle off a 64 or something like that because this course allows it if things go your way. But yesterday was just kind of hang on to your britches until the rain came, and then it, and then it got a little bit more gettable, but not much more.
A
Yeah, I mean, it's not like there's a whole bunch of people there. Minus six, minus seven. That's not happening. Are you surprised by anything in particular yesterday?
D
I. Basically, the scoring. I was really surprised by the end of the morning wave to only see 67, 500 was the best anyone didn't. That's where it is now. Austin Smotherland's got a putt in about an hour to see if he can get to 66, which isn't going to stop the presses, but I think Rory felt the same way. You know, he's. He was trying to get it back to par at the back nine. He didn't get there. He shot 72, but he looks up and he still, you know, it's not like 74 took him out of the tournament. He's only seven behind, which is, which is nothing after a Thursday. So I just think it was the scoring and, you know, your dose of excitement. He had five rounds, I think, in the, in the 80s. He had a couple of exciting hole outs, a couple of near misses on 17, a bunch of water, blah, blah, blah. So that part was. Was kind of lived up to reputation, but it was just the scoring.
A
So Colin Morikawa dropped out. He had back problems. Rory, who dropped out last week, has not dropped out yet. I don't know that he will, but those are the two big names who are flirting with injuries. What are your thoughts on that?
D
Collins was strange because he said it's happened to him before. The strange part to me, Tony, was he said he could feel it coming even before it came. He said there was just something weird about standing on the 11th tee and then when he took a practice swing, seizes up and off he goes. Rory was kind of an arching extension. Exercise he was doing in the gym at Bay Hill, and, you know, it was a little back, was a little more stubborn. He hadn't had that happen since 23 at the Tour Championship. And that was a year that by. By Sunday, he was fine. And I think he's expecting the same this week. I actually forgot when he teed off yesterday afternoon, because I didn't think there was any doubt he was playing once. He said his doctors told him he couldn't make it worse. And if you can't make it worse, I hate to say you can chip it around this place because it can be really hard, but this is a place you can play injured. And I don't think there's any doubt he was going to play yesterday or today or the next year. I think he'll be fine.
A
I'm wondering if he even cares. I'm wondering if he cares how he does here, because I think defending the Masters is the most important thing, is it not?
D
It is. It is. I think that's his sole focus right now, is just how many majors you know, when you're looking for the next thing to do. When you've done it all, it's about accumulating as many majors as you can, as well as, you know, picking up a few places you'd like to win. Riviera, you know, a couple weeks ago, is kind of big on his list because it's such a great course. And the next Augusta, I put that in quote marks that you can't see is the Olympics. Yeah, he gets, you know, that's in two years at Riv, and he's only got, you know, probably one. Probably one more shot at that, maybe two. But, yeah, the rest of it is finding what's. What's going to drive you. And, you know, he said the other day, just in passing, that he's still got a lot he wants to accomplish in this game. It's just not as targeted as it is it once was.
A
So this is a tournament that gets a lot of publicity, and everybody toys with the notion as to whether or not it is a major. It's not a major. There are four majors. By definition, it's not one. But is it still a tournament that everyone wants or is. Does everybody go wink, wink, nod, nod? It's just another course.
D
No, no, no, no, no. This is, this is, this is a major without the label. And pretty much, I think everybody or most people who pay attention treat it as such. You know, this is a big week. It doesn't need a label. It's just the players. And it almost, you know, it almost stands on its own. You know exactly what it is. It was about five or six years ago, they had a World Golf hall of Fame ballot and you got certain points for certain things you did. And they put winning the players on equal par is the way. Is winning a major really to yourself? Yeah, that's right. It should, but it's not a major.
A
Right.
D
We're just dealing with a label right now. This is the premier championship of the best tour in the world on a course that everybody knows that delivers excitement year after year. That's enough.
A
That makes sense to me.
D
A lot of money too. I forgot that part. Yeah, I forgot that.
A
So I, you know, the. They have live from on the Golf Channel. These guys are going till 4 in the morning. I mean, they just sit there and talk and talk and talk. It's like 24 hour a day coverage of this particular tournament. So it looks, it always looks to me like a big deal. But you know, I've got that problem being a sports writer. My problem is there are four majors. There are not five majors. And stop, stop with the T's. But, but it is true, is it not, Doug, that this thing tends to be won by people who are top 10 golfers most of the time?
C
Oh yeah.
D
And there was a stretch early on. I mean, I'm going back to the, probably the mid-80s through 2000 where there was only like two players, two champions who had not won a major. And it was Jody Mudd and Mark McCumber off the top of my head. And since then you've had, you know, you've had Fred Funk, but just like the majors, they get some surprises in there. Todd Hamilton, Ben Curtis and the players has had your, your Fred Funks and Craig Perks.
A
Yeah, so it happens. But I mean, most of the time it's somebody you've heard of. By the way, there was a new commissioner in golf. I didn't know this till yesterday when I saw him interviewed. Is he saying anything unexpected? Have you talked with him. Is golf going in a different direction with this guy?
D
It is. He's pretty sharp. He was, I think, probably, I don't know if he was the exact number two at the NFL, but I think a lot of people looked at him as Goodell's successor at one point. He's got a very general North Star of how do we make this better? And that guides him everywhere. And so think where golf is going is basically two tracks. There's going to be a, probably two dozen tournaments, a 24 tournament schedule roughly of nothing but big tournaments, signature events, basically the ones that are worth 20 million now there's eight of them now he wants to at least double that. Then you throw in the four majors, the players, the postseason, and that's, that's what the, that's what the elite are going to play. The news that. And they're still working on it too, by the way. But the, but the new thing that came out this week was that these fields are going to be 120 and not 72. And that, that's good. That takes care of the people who are complaining about we're getting shut out. There's also going to be a cut.
A
Good.
D
And that's important. Should be a cut, yourself included, obviously. And I feel the same way.
A
Yeah, should be a cut.
D
And so that's, that's, that's where they're going to take it. It's just a matter now of figuring out which of the tournaments are going to be added into that, into that big boy list. And then the rest of them, I think, are going to be on what they would call track two, which is the other tournaments, and they'll run just like, I think, just like they do now. But the difference is, like, if you took someone like Scheffler, he's still going to play Dallas, whether that's a big tournament or not, because that's, that's his tournament. That's his hometown tournament. I don't think he would get any points by playing that, but he could still play it. And then you got the guys who are on that secondary track who are basically trying to finish high enough to get to the big track next year. So it sounds a little confusing. I think it actually might be pretty simple. But the whole idea is to try and come up with a very clean, flowing schedule where, you know you're going to get the best guys, you know, two dozen times a year. Which, by the way, is not to say these guys are going to play every week, like, even when they do this I don't see Rory playing Hilton Head because they don't like playing Hilton Head. And I don't see Scotty Scheffler playing in Charlotte because he'd rather be in Texas where he lives. Does that make sense?
A
This is all fine. I mean, if you tell me that you're going to pick a commissioner from any sport that's out there and then you say, we're going to get him from the NFL, I'm going to say to you, then you have a better chance of succeeding because the NFL is. Everything they do is better than what other people do. You know, the NBA struggles. The NHL struggles. Baseball has. You know, until the last couple of years, when they've made it quicker, baseball has struggled. The NFL does not struggle. I would also ask this because I don't hear about it at all. The Saudi tour, the live tour, I don't hear about it. It's being played now in Asia most of the time. It doesn't.
D
Country. This is a quiz, Tony, what country?
A
Thailand, maybe. I don't know.
D
Singapore. You lost it.
A
Okay, but I'm saying your point is that still something or. It doesn't seem to be something anymore. Even with Rom and DeChambeau, it doesn't seem to be something.
D
Yeah, it really is. I think we're now at a stage where it's just running on its own in a way. Certain, on track. They're running parallel, but. But people aren't really paying attention to it. And it doesn't help that they've been in Asia for two weeks. They're going to South Africa next week. And frankly, Tony, they've had a pretty good start to the year. I mean, they've got Rahm winning and a lot of drama around that about the European Tour and membership and fines and all that stuff that Anthony Kim winning, which is the best they can ask for now. Bryson's, you know, leading going in, but no one's paying attention, I don't think. And they won't. I mean, they'll. They'll wait to see what these guys do four times a year. That's all they can do.
A
Yes, majors, majors. And if they win them, fine. But I don't. Yeah, I agree with that. Oh, I have a couple of questions here. I don't know if you even do this, and this is a vanity project for me, I guess, because I do watch it. I'm not saying it's great. It's not live golf. They're hitting balls into bed sheets. I understand that, but do you have any Sense of TGL having any traction. Do you like it at all?
D
I kind of think of it as a bowling league.
A
Okay.
D
I don't know why I would tell you as the ap we struggle a little bit and how to cover it. Yeah, I'm not going to cover whether the drive beats the Bay Club.
A
Yeah.
D
I thought from the get go it does not hurt anything. It is truly additive. It's something to see on TV on Monday between some basketball games.
A
Yes. In the winter. It's in the winter. No one is telling you that what's going to replace the Masters? It's stuff on TV in the winter.
D
Yeah, it's, it's, it's fine. And frankly there's a couple of weeks ago, I wouldn't say traction, Tony, but, but there was one on Sunday night and I was trying to get some work done, but I found myself watching a lot of it. It was just, it was just kind of fun. It was harmless. I think that's the word I keep going back to. It's just good fun. And then when you get to the end and it's elimination time and you still got good players and they are hitting into a, you know, into a big movie screen. But, but yeah, but they've got, you know, they've got whole ones and, and some drama and some reaction. You get more reaction from these guys, you know, when they make a bunker shot or a putt in TGL than sometimes you do on the golf course.
A
Absolutely fine. Yeah, yeah, I. Harmless is a good word. I mean, I've found some small enjoyment watching it. What makes me laugh is when they do the ads you can dress up in, in the hats from your favorite team, you go, nobody can name any teams. It's not. What are you talking about? You know. All right, I got one other question. You mentioned Scotty Scheffler being from Texas. There's another golfer who was a bigger deal than Scottie Scheffler 10 years ago from Texas, Jordan Spieth. What happened to this guy?
D
It feels like he's lost. I mean, he had the injury that he didn't take care of soon enough and it cost him two or three years and regressed quite a bit. I think it's hard when you regress to when you've been at the top to begin with. I mean, at age 21, for crying out loud. To get back to that level. What I see from him is potential, which sounds like a stupid thing to say for a three time major champion, but it feels like he's just lost that magic that he had that he brought out in 2015 and 16 and 17 when he was doing, you know, just absurd things. You can never count him out. Unbelievable pars and all that good stuff. And he's just. He's just middling right now, just meddling. And I go back to something, you know, I was talking to Andy north and Jimmy Roberts one year, just chit chat. And they say when you have a year like he did when he started in 15, where he came really close to the Grand Slam. And that stuff only happens historically to a golfer once in his lifetime. Unless you're Tiger or Jack. How do you convince yourself that your best is yet to come when your best has probably already happened? Yeah, I think that's the hardest part. We talked about that. Jordan and I did it after the Masters last year and he said it's crossed his mind from time to time. You set such an incredible standard early and it's really hard to match up to it. And he's smart enough to know it, but you don't stop trying, obviously.
A
No. And he seems like a likable fellow. He does. And his family seems like a likable family and all of that. But he also seems lost out there now. He's just another guy. That's bad.
D
No, it is. And being another guy when you were the guy or one guy you couldn't take your eyes off is a hard thing to swallow.
A
Yeah. Doug, as always, thank you so much for being on. I appreciate it.
D
Always a pleasure. Tony. Feel better.
A
Thank you.
B
Sound great, by the way.
D
I don't feel what they say.
A
Sure, I sound lousy. Doug Ferguson. Boys and girls, we will take a break. We will come back with Buster Olney. We'll talk about the World Baseball Classic. I'm Tony Kornheiser. Pancetta mushroom tortellini. You can eat smart. Still fit in your bikini. Hot order. Blue apron. I've been happy ever since they sent pre portioned meals. I don't make no measurement. Saute the pancetta, then I add the mushrooms. Large skillet cause you can't have too much room. Garlic pesto, tomato paste, Calabrian chili. Season to taste.
B
Order Blue apron.
A
Today
B
shot clocks, big shots, upsets, aces. TGL playoffs are here. First Atlanta Drive starts their repeat run against Los Angeles Golf Club. Then Rory's Boston Common golf and Tigers Jupiter Lynx face off in their playoff debuts. Who will advance? Keep up its playoffs. Tune in Tuesday, March 17 at 6:30pm and 9pm only on ESPN and the ESPN app. You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show.
A
Once again we have music sent to us by Michael Granberry. This is Corby Lenker. He is singing this one alone. I believe that's correct. Yes, it's Corby Lanker. This is Meet Me at the End of the World. And if great independent artists like Liz Longley and Corby Lanker want their music played on this show, Michael, how do they go about it? Send us music by emailing it to Jingles Tony Corner. You can listen to these songs in their entirety rather than listen to us at the end of the show if you'd like. They play in Buster Only and I want to talk about the World Baseball Classic. I mean I've talked to, you know, so many people. We've talked to Buster on PTI about this. We talked to Kirkjin, talked to Justice. I am smitten with it. I like it a lot. I didn't think I would. I also wasn't aware until Shohei Ohtani pitched to Mike Trout that it even existed. And it existed for 20 years. What do you think about the growth of it and what do you think about it as a spectacle?
C
It is something that has resonated with players and you can see this with how they're approaching these games. Look, I. And there's going to be a time, I think, you know, in the next three or four years when this effectively replaces the All Star Game in mid season. Because the All Star Game, you know, baseball's had increasingly an issue with the All Star Game much as the NBA did with their All Star Game. And so to now, you know, see players in this sort of event being invested as they are. You could foresee a situation where baseball takes a break in the middle of the season and breaks off into these World Baseball Classic teams, you know, play the semifinals, play the finals because everyone loves it. Everyone loves the, the buy in from, you know, the players are excited about it to the point that they're scaring their major league teams with how much they care about it and how intense these games are.
A
It's going to be an instant thing like the Four nations cup in hockey which, which replaced the All Star Game. And it's obviously going to be that. I am curious, I mean obviously we're curious about them getting into the quarterfinals and how lucky they got the thanks to Vinnie Pasquantino. But how is the team picked? Who picks our team?
C
Well, Mark DeRosa I think did a phenomenal job of recruiting players and pulling them together. And he with Michael Hill who of Course works with Major League Baseball. You know, he's the de facto general manager of that team. And so they go through rosters and pick different guys. You know, it was interesting this spring. Trey Turner had a really great year with the Philadelphia Phillies last season. He's asked by reporters, you know, are you going to be on the roster? Because, no, I haven't been asked yet. So it's a. It's a selection process that played out last summer, as we saw, you know, when Mark would bring in the newest, you know, newest star to commit to playing with this group.
A
How did he get this job? He's a TV guy. How did he get this job?
C
Well, he's a TV guy now, but of course, he played for years. He was known as being a great clubhouse guy. And, you know, he managed this team back in, you know, the last round as well, managed the US Team. And there's always been a thought that at some point Mark had aspirations to become a major league manager. And, you know, and it's going to be interesting going forward because this has not been a glorious event for him.
A
No, no, He. He made that mistake of saying they were in when they weren't in. He also said something earlier. I think he said, honestly, I think we have the best 30 guys in the world in that clubhouse. And I mean, I mentioned this on PTI the other day. I said, you don't think Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto are in the top 30? You don't think that?
C
I mean, Tony, there are so many things that he said and done during this, during this WBC that if he ever did interview for a major league managerial job, he would be asked about them by teams. And I know this because I'm getting text messages along the lines of, what is he doing? You know, for example, the Tarek Scubal situation, when Scubal, you know, has an emotional inning, you know, a couple innings pitching against Great Britain, and he's talking, well, maybe I'll stay, maybe I won't, rather than simply after the game, say, boy, Terry Scoble did a great job for us. We love his support of this event. He's going back to Lakeland now. Good luck. Thank you. Instead, it came into this, you know, 48 hours of questions about whether or not Tarek was going to pitch again and hand wringing. And by the end of it, Tarek Scoville's getting criticized because he doesn't have patriotism. I can tell you, this annoyed a lot of people that he didn't handle that differently. And then to Suggest the other day, and he didn't use the words drinking, but he was suggesting, you know, players are kind of in rough shape after last night. People with other teams are like, why would he say anything like that? And then to have the, you know, in what he said, you know, the day after, where he suggested that they already punched their ticket to the next round when they hadn't. This is getting great commentary within the industry, you know. And he didn't back down yesterday. Yeah. Essentially that he misspoke. And I think a lot of people have questions about that.
A
Yeah, I mean, he misspoke in the sense that he was wrong. I mean, I've done this. I've written things that are wrong. And you have to say, I was wrong. I didn't. Don't say I miswrote. No, I was wrong. Right.
C
That's exactly right. You know, in the years that I covered baseball players, David Cohn, for example, would always tell me, just say you screwed up. And then what else are they gonna say? You just own it and then you move forward. And so this sort of word salad we're getting now, just say you made a mistake, you just blew it.
A
I would think it'd be difficult if he doesn't win. If he doesn't win, it would be difficult to do this job again the next time we have this.
C
Yeah, I don't know the answer to that because I'm not familiar with Exactly. Okay, who picked him and what were the reasons and what are his relationships with Rob Manfred, the baseball commissioner? I mean, Mark did a phenomenal job of pulling this group of players together. He clearly gets excited about this. And I think part of the reason why there's excitement about this USA team is because of all the work that he did last year. But as I said, if he gets managerial opportunities in the future, whether it's the WBC or a major league team, he's going to have to answer questions about this.
A
Sure. You know, by the way, again, I think he's really good on tv. I do. Really good on tv. We're a good team. We got all major leaguers. This is sort of, we are to baseball what our Olympic basketball team is to basketball. We got really good players. We probably have the best players. Maybe not, but we probably do. Do you feel we were lucky to get into the quarterfinals?
C
Not necessarily lucky, but given how everything was handled the other night, there was that sliver of time when they were vulnerable to possibly getting knocked out. And maybe, you know, moving forward, they will be hyper focused because of that. Because they know that they were, they were somewhat forward fortunate, you know, going to even to move forward now. I would push back on the idea that, yeah, they have the best players. I was around the Dominican team last weekend in Miami. Good Lord, it was, I mean, you've got the, you know, the guy who's going to be inducted hall of Fame managing, he's standing behind the batting cage in Albert Pujols. You've got Adrian Beltre and David Ortiz walking around. And then the first hitting group is Juan Soto, future Hall of Famer, and Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. That team is stacked and man, do they play with some swag.
A
They're really good. I assume that almost, excuse me for coughing. Assume that almost all the teams have a bunch of major league players on them for one reason or another. They can trace their ancestry and play.
C
Right? That's exactly right. And that's, you know, they, when they need replacements, of course they have a list of, okay, this player is, you know, grandmother is from Great Britain or wherever. And then if you establish that, then you could play on these teams.
A
What did you think of Vinnie Pasquintino? What did you think of what he said? You're welcome. Usa I loved it. I just wondered how you thought about it.
C
So I think the great hitting star who's going to emerge in this WBC is Junior Caminero of the Dominican Republic, who had 45 home runs last year. He's been dynamic in this tournament, but I think Vinnie has lifted himself so much where, I mean, casual baseball fans know what a great personality he has and what a leader he can be. But after, you know, Italy advance forward, you've got Francisco Cervelli, who played for years in the major leagues, basically saying, hey, Vinnie Pascantino is the guy who pulled all this together. And I loved, I loved the line, you know, thank you. You can thank me. Usa, the way that he couched that. And I'm sure, I mean, there was response yesterday in the, in the US clubhouse to that. And I can't remember who wrote this, but apparently a couple of the other US players are planning on sending him some nice bottles of wine, like as a thank you for saving the US from some ignominy.
A
Here is what I would have done. And if the United States wins this, I would get the greatest espresso making machine in the world and have it hand delivered to his house because I love when they drink the espresso. I love that. When did that happen?
C
Yeah, I, I, you know, all these teams now they have their things that the players decide to do. For example, Dominican rep, they pull, they put the jacket on. The guy who has a big moment, hits a home run. I mean, that stems from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Doing that with, with the Toronto Blue Jays. I don't know when Vinnie, you know, came up with this idea, but, man, I agree with you. It was a great idea.
A
It's just totally, totally wonderful.
C
It's so funny. And that's Vinnie's personality too.
A
Just coming through, I guess. I wondered about this again. It feels like the United States team was selected by two people and two people only, or maybe even one person but Vinnie. 32 home runs and 113 RBI. Now you've got Bryce Harper and you've got Goldschmidt, so you can't argue. But I wonder if he got any consideration at all.
C
I tell you this, I mean, first base is one of those positions that it's absolutely loaded. When we did a top 10 first basemen just a couple weeks ago, I. I was struggling to get Vinnie in the top 10. I put him in number 10. He seems like a player this year that's going to take a big step forward because Kansas City's upgraded its offense with Bobby Witt hit Jr hit in front of him. I do think we're going to enter a period here of three or four years when he's going to be talked about among the top four or five first basemen.
A
Good. Because the manager of that team listens to this podcast and we root for Kansas City, Matt Cattrala. We work for him. We root for him. You're at the Braves camp. Is there. What's the deal with Profile? Is there any talk about this? How do the Braves feel about this? This is not just a one time thing. This is twice now.
C
It's twice now for a player that they invested before last year, three years and $42 million in a contract. And they got word of this second suspension five minutes before it was announced. And so they were completely blindsided. The interesting thing was during the wintertime, they were in negotiations with Mikey Stremsky, the outfielder, who's of course the grandson of Karl Yastremski. And they knew that it would impact Profar's time playing in the field. And so Alex Anthopoulos, their general manager, called Profar and said, look, what do you think about this move? And Profar said, yeah, that guy's a good player. Go get him. Well, my goodness. I mean, that has turned out to be incredibly fortuitous because they have a Ready made replacement when Profar basically runs out the door. Hasn't communicated with anybody with the Braves, no apologies, nothing like that. And I do think there are a lot of people in that clubhouse. If the rules allowed the contract to be voided in that situation, I think there'd be a lot of people in that Braves camp that would support that.
A
Yeah, I would ask this. I'm not going to suggest that Profar will never play in the major leagues, but I don't know that he'll ever play for the Braves. What do you think?
C
I, you know, look, you know, Anthopoulos is careful. I don't think he's necessarily just going to throw away an asset. But at the same time, I think there is a lot of frustration with Profor in that camp and I think that's going to be considered as he comes back. You know, the crime of it really is that he's guaranteed $15 million for 2027 when he comes back next spring.
A
You've got the, the Dominican Republic winning this, right? Or do you have Japan winning it? Which one do you have?
C
At the beginning I would have said Japan. But after being around the doctor Team, I just don't know how anybody slows down all those bats. That is a crazy. You know, I didn't mention Julio Rodriguez, you know, with him being the best center fielder in baseball. They are so stacked and they were embarrassed in the last WBC Finals.
A
They didn't get to the Finals.
C
Right, right, exactly. And I think the same energy that maybe fuels us today after they were nearly embarrassed the other day, that's what the Dr. Team is, is riding right now.
A
It has come. I mean, I'm not going to say it's must watch tv, but it has been for me, the United States games anyway. I mean, I've just thought, wow, this is, it's really cool when you see that lineup, you know, name after name after name after name. And it doesn't. It's not an All Star Game. It's not. It's a real game. It's different. It's not an exhibition. To me, it really is cool to watch. Don't you feel that way?
C
It's really cool, 100%. And it's what the All Star Game used to be when you and I were growing up.
A
Yeah.
C
Where I mean, the players were fully invested and you have the president of the league walking into the National League clubhouse and talking about the tradition of the National League dominating the American League. And you know, guys who started sometimes are still in the game in the 10th inning or 11th inning, there wasn't this, you know, participation trophy thing going on like there is at the All Star Game now. You know, I have mourned the loss of that type of intensity in the All Star Game and now we have that sort of dynamic going on with the wbc, which is why it makes it so great.
A
It's really good. It's really good. Buster, thank you as always. Thank you, Tony.
C
Thanks for playing hurt. Hang in there.
A
Yeah, I'll try. Buster only boys and girls, we will take a break. We will come back with email and jingle. I'm Tony Kornheiser. This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing company.
B
No matter how you do game day, on the couch, in the crowd, or manning the snack table, Athletic Brewing fits right in with a full lineup of non alcoholic beer styles you can enjoy. Bold flavors all game long. No hangovers, no buzz, no subbing out for water in the second half. Stock the fridge for tip off with a variety of non alcoholic craft styles. Available at your local grocery store or online at athleticbrewing.com near Beer Fit for all times.
A
This is the Tony Kornheiser show. Tony Cornheiser show. Oh, here comes Tony's mail bag. Got your emails, faxes and your notes.
E
Here comes Tony's mailbag.
A
Gonna read some for all of you fools. Gonna read some for all you folks if. God, I like that one. I've always liked that one. It's a great one. You want to do the Bethesda bagel ad for us? Yes, Bethesda Bagels. We love them. You will as well. Just go to Bethesda Bagels.com for the location in the DC area nearest you. Then pop on in and you'll be thrilled. And before we get to the mailbag, let me just say I want to jump but I'm afraid I'll fall. I want to holler, but the joint's too small. Young man's got a hold on me too. I got the rock and pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu. Thanks to our guest today, Jason Fraley, Doug Ferguson. Buster only thanks as well to today's sponsors. Remember, you can listen to us on Apple, Apple podcast, Spotify and Odyssey. Get the show through Apple. Please leave us. Tried to break out the harmonies with the kids last night after the first half of the Duke game with Duke of Earl. Oh, how'd you do with that? Well, the baby took the, you know, Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke. Yeah, the hammer with the. The high. And we'll walk through my Dukedom and you'll be my duchess. My duchess. I'm spacing. Who is Duke of Earl? Gene Chandler. Yes. From Rick Davins, then led to Dion. Mr. Tony Survivor update. I'm still in the game. My tribe won live chickens, a reward I also won in my original season and all I could think of was every time it's the bleep in live chickens. Oh God almighty. Is it possible just once we could win a reward around here that's not the bleep bleep and live chickens. It's brilliant.
D
Keep it going, Rick.
A
Rick Devins from Jeff Ditter in Catonsville, Maryland. As a relative late comer to the Jenny's Ice Cream fan club, you may not yet be aware that every year they release a limited edition flash flavor only for that summer. Though I know you eschew schmutz in your ice cream. Perhaps you can use your biggest or the big status to encourage them to bring back my all time favorite flavor, Atlantic beach pie, which is described as sweet cream ice cream with house made lemon custard and a saltine cracker gravel modeled after the North Carolina coastal dessert of the same name. I'll be waiting by the kitchen sink, spoon in hand. From Sean Cudahy in Carrie, North Carolina. Carolina. First time long time. Amazingly, it took the subject of crackers to get me to write in after nine years of listening. Personally, I'm partial to any cracker that's slathered with enough charcuterie to make the rest unrecognizable. Probably because I'm a millennial who grew up in the age of lunchables. By the way, given all that's happening in the world of aviation, flight delays, TSA lines, ears that won't pop. It seems like a good time to submit my cover letter for the role of aviation correspondent of the show. My credentials are threefold. I'm currently the aviation reporter at a well known national outlet. I studied journalism at David Aldridge's esteemed alma mater on Massachusetts Avenue, American University. And I was once the youngest member of the bandwagon, a label you bestowed upon me shortly after my birth in November 1991, along with a size XL T shirt that remains somewhere in my parents basement. Isn't that nice? It is. From Sean Cutahay. That's really nice. From Mary Faye Randolph, the official librarian of the show. Can you. How can you leave out Triscuits? I didn't leave out Triscuits. No, we talked back in the day. You spent days talking about finding just the right flavor Triscuits at The Refugee Safeway. Every regular guest host has her his or her favorite. Every trip to my local supermarket saw me trying a different flavor. I settled on rosemary and olive oil as my favorite. I like those Triscuits, Cheez Its and Wheat Thins all beat out Saltines in my ranking. And basically saltines and other oyster crackers are the same ingredient in different shapes. Similar to the satchel page signed baseball that the emailer messed up. I have a friend whose brother gave her a baseball glove that he had signed by Sam Musial to use in a grade school baseball or softball game. She had no idea who Stan Musial was, thinking it was someone who had owned the glove before her brother. She marked out the autograph with permanent marker and wrote her name above it. Wow. Till Matt Williams and Dan killed eight. Eat it. From Delton Vereen in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Well, the saltine is a solid cracker. I'm surprised that a well traveled captain like yourself would not choose the Captain Captain's Wafer as your favorite cracker. This fabulous cracker, which is manufactured by Lance Cracker Co. Is a favorite of salad bar operators and seafood restaurants. Not only are they great with soup and salad, but Southern women love to dip them in tubs of chicken salad, tuna salad, egg salad and pimento cheese too. My dad likes to eat them with shrimp salad, a bowl of chili. Be sure to be on the lookout.
B
That's a strong cracker.
A
The next time you visit a seafood restaurant near your beach house in Delaware or Jason's Deli near you, you won't be disappointed. Okay, the Captain's Wafer. I think we have to try that slightly different shape. I don't. I'm unfamiliar with it. Kyle from San Francisco, the woman to whom I'm related by marriage, has mandated that we are a townhouse cracker family, by far the least draconian of or edicts. The townhouse is okay. Yeah, it's fine. It's okay. Mike Turner what is the appropriate ratio of saltine holes to Swiss cheese holes to reach Valhalla? Michael DeRose in Arlington Dear Dr. Hofwaffe, are we still playing the cracker game? As a big fan of Ritz crackers as well as a pretzel fanatic, I give you the townhouse flip side. That's it. That's the list. I guess we should try those. The townhouse flip side. I guess. Yeah, we'll give it a shot. Try them. David LOMBARDO Saratoga Springs, N.Y. on a shopping trip, I once brought home generic, unsalted saltines because they were the cheaper option unsalted compared to the salted Nabisco brand option. My wife was scandalized and is still weary of my shopping habits, although I have assured her I've learned my lesson. Was this really a bad offense? I'll hang up and listen. Yes. Yeah, I mean, that's what makes Saltine Saltine. It's in the name, right? Brandon Borzelli Lebanon, New Jersey Bam Adebayo's 83 points sounds incredible, unless you're accustomed to one. James Carville taking obscure games with ridiculous spreads on a weekly basis. Bowling Green plus 63 against SMU Air Force Colorado over 74 LSU's Kaden Brown over 110 yards rushing in the first half. We haven't even touched on some of his triple plays. You haven't hit a large number until you picked a winner and covered in the Montana State Northern North Dakota State game. Greg in Liverpool. Liverpool, I guess In England, should Bam Adebayo be now known as Ban Bombo Adebayo or Ban Bombo Abideo? There seems to be a real connection here. It's all things revolve around Mr. Tony not even going to discuss Uranus. Here's something from Lamont Lewis. Lamont Lewis is Wilt Chamberlain's nephew. Let me start by saying I'm a huge fan of your podcast and pti. I watch his show regularly, and before my father passed away, former Harlem Globetrotter Elzie Lewis, he and I shared many hours watching PTI together. Both you and Michael Wilbon have always stood out to me for your insight and your willingness to compare today's athletes with the greats from the past in an honest, thoughtful way. I'm one of Wilt Chamberlain's nephews and I knew him well. My mother was very close to him and my father was one of his best friends. In fact, excuse me, I'm probably the only person who can honestly say that if it weren't for Wilt, I wouldn't be here. He was instrumental in introducing his sister to my father. I spent countless hours talking basketball with Uncle Dip, listening to his thoughts on the game. That sounds right, because he liked to be called the Big Dipper, not Wilt Distilt. Uncle Dip sounds right. It's evolution and its players. Knowing him as I did, I'm certain he would have a lot to say about today's NBA. I don't believe he would hold any animosity towards modern players who break or surpass his records. He was far too secure and proud for for that but he was fearlessly competitive. While he surely would have congratulated Bam on his recent scoring achievement, I have no doubt he also would have had plain to say about how the Wizards defended him or attempted to. I want to thank you for consistently taking the time to mention or defend my uncle when others who may not have had the chance to see him play tried to diminish what he accomplished. On behalf of the Chamberlain family, congratulations to Shea, Bam, Nikola Jokic on their successes and adding their names to the NBA record books. The league appears to be in good hands. I'm curiously curious about your thoughts on Wilt's legacy and why you think so many people try to minimize his accomplishments. Is he simply too larger than life for newer fans to fully understand what he meant to league into the game itself? Honestly, it seems to me, it pains me to see him ranked below other great centers. To me, Wilt Chamberlain will always be the greatest of all time. So let me just say this. I do think that probably he was larger by far than everyone else, but not larger by far than Wembanyama is. And to everybody else right now, not at all. He's the greatest player of all time. He's one of the greatest athletes of all time. There's just no question about that. It's just, it's a long time ago and basketball looked different and was played differently than it is now. And there's a recency bias that happens in everything, everything, not just sports. But Wilbon and I are going to maintain the Wilt Chamberlain thing, which is why I said earlier in the day, how many of these games did Che Gilgeous Alexander have where his three point shots put him over the edge, put him over 20? Yeah. Ben Sandler is a dentist in Columbia, Maryland. Went to the Ironwood Cafe tonight based on your recommendation with my group of eight. All gave it rave reviews. I had the pork chop like you suggested. See the attached photo for News Channel 8. Great recommendation. Thank you. One of our group is a longtime friend, former Marylander who moved to Southern Pines several years ago. I found out tonight he's a loyal little because he told me about hearing my email asking you for the name of the Pinehurst restaurant. Connective Tissue Eat at Brian Stevens. That's really nice. It's a wonderful restaurant. Yeah. Ironwood Cafe. Great setting. But no update on the golf. No, he didn't. He didn't include how he did. He didn't. He didn't say, you know, that he saw anybody that I knew or anything like that. No wine tastings down there. No, he didn't talk about that. That was how we had cake splash the pino, you know. Didn't go to the PR office obviously and see our friend from Jonathan dosik in Superior, Colorado by way of Bethesda and College Park. Dear Dr. Commodore Ron, listening to last Friday's pod and imagine my surprise to hear you read an email that mentions Appalachicola, Florida. My dad and stepmom lived in Bethesda for more than 30 years. Unlike most Bethesdans who retired to Florida, they didn't land in Boca, Fort Lauderdale, Palm beach or even South Beach. They ended up in Apalachicola, sleepy fishing village on the Panhandle, roughly halfway between Panama City and Tallahassee, famous for its oysters, fresh local fishing, seafood industry, Victorian homes, and John Gorey, the inventor of refrigeration. Located in Franklin County, a one stoplight county that no longer needs a stoplight and close to St. George's Island, a barrier island with very wide beautiful beaches. See the attached pictures with not much development. I recommend it as a quiet vacation spot, but unfortunately for you and Michael, no golf course courses. P.S. in Nebraska People put chili over cinnamon rolls.
D
Chili cinnamon rolls?
A
Cinnamon rolls? No thank you. Elliot Olshansky, Del Mar, New York Clearly, Mike Holliday from Ocean City, if that is his name and hometown, since you are unburdened by memory, was wrong when he told you that Uranus was discovered in 1977. But he wasn't that far off when he called for you to shout out to Uranus this week. In fact, it was March 13, 1781, when William Herschel discovered what eventually was determined to be the seventh planet in our solar system, which, as you know, came to be known as Uranus. And yes, Michael, I did hear you try to correct your dad with the academic pronunciation Uranus. How is it pronounced? Sure, Uranus. Uranus. Really? But as a fellow father of masculine children, I must ask you whether a pronunciation that includes urine is really that much of an improvement. In a happy coincidence if you read this, on Friday it will be the 245th anniversary of Herschel's discovery. So I would like to encourage you, the crew and all my fellow Littles, except Claire Natola, who shares Wilbond's lack of enthusiasm. Take a moment today to celebrate Uranus. Best regards from Albany county, where Siena has qualified for the NCAA Men's basketball tournament for the first time since 2010. For some Littles that will conjure up thoughts of former Saints coach and friend of the show Jimmy Patsos for others, it will bring to mind current head coach Jerry McNamara, Edith Salizza. For us, though, it brings to mind Balu, The Saints lovable St Bernard mascot. Picture enclosed for viewers on News Channel. It's a beautiful dog. I don't know how long you're going to keep Jerry McNamara if the Syracuse job is open. That's right. That's right. He seems like a reasonable person to hire Andrew in LA. Captain. My captain. In 1974, I had an evening flight back to LA from New York. It was opening day for Young Frankenstein. I went to an afternoon showing. The theater was mostly empty, but Gene Shallet sat two seats away from me. During the movie, he was almost in constant hysterics. Several times he was laughing so hard that he missed a line. What did he say? He asked. I repeated the line. He broke up again. I left for the airport, but he stayed to see the movie again the next day. Shallots review said, I laughed so hard I missed half the movie. He was not exaggerating much. He was a movie reviewer who really enjoyed movies. And still with us, going to be 100 years old in a week or two. Yeah. Adam Lally, Seattle, Washington. Where do I need to send my address to get on your catalog list? I need to order some shoes before summer. From Craig Dunaway. Dear Mr. Kornheiser, I'm a longtime fan of PTI. You and Mr. Wilbon do a great job of entertaining me. But then I can be easily amused. Nevertheless, thank you for what you do. In the spirit of Sidney Harris. Remember things I learned while looking up. Other things I wanted to share something I came across while working on a project for a client. The client is Carl's Goffland. You might see their orange TV ads during golf broadcasts. Yes. Yes, Carl's Golfland. Yes, Carl's Golfland. I had an issue with them. You did what? Yeah, just fulfillment of an order. Okay. Anyway, well, let's. Let's get Craig Dunaway to make sure he's the VP of Client Services. Let's get him to get to you. Anyway, the other thing I was looking up was the precise color of the master tournament green jacket. Turns out it's Pantone 342. The thing I learned is that Pantone 342 is also Binghamton Bearcat green. Yeah, of course, perhaps you already knew that. Either way, there you go. I didn't know that.
B
Yeah, tradition unlike any other.
A
I didn't know that. So if I get a Binghamton jacket, I can wear it to the Masters till they Throw me out. Because they don't like you to wear green jackets if you're not a member. They say. Could you take that off? Really? Oh, this happened to Mark Tuohy. Mark Tuohy went to dinner at the Masters and had a green jacket. And they said he showed up at a green jacket. Yes, they. What are you doing? Mark Tuohy who brought baseball to Washington D.C. yes. People should never forget that. Ryan from Cincinnati, who includes two pictures of dogs this past spring. The woman to whom I'm related by marriage and my dog Zoe turned 12. Being on the same side of the street as you. We did the responsible thing. Had a bark mitzvah for the dog. If you would like. I'll send you the decorations. It's from the book of Woof. It's funny. That's funny. Tonight everybody, as always, to wear white.
C
Look, Mother, I want to go to work in one hour. We are the pros from Dover. And we figured to crack this kid's chest and get out to the golf course before it gets dark.
E
1, 2, 3, 4. I can hear you. I don't know what you haven't said. It's nights like this it seems obvious when we're sharing the same damn bed. Oh, the way the moonlight hits your face Almost takes my breath away. As I watch you sleep in these tangled sheets. I wonder what it's going to take. If you love somebody, if you love somebody. If you love somebody. Let them know. The words I want. Are they all on the tip of your tongue when you try to speak? Are they buried so deep that they're never gonna come? Oh, you told me with your eyes before why do I want something more? If you love somebody, if you love somebody. If you, you love somebody. Let them know. Let them know. I didn't say I love you Just to hear you say about. I just wanted you to know. I just wanted you to know. If you love somebody. If you love somebody. If you love somebody. Let them know. If you love somebody. If you love somebody. If you love somebody. Let them know. Let me know.
D
Love.
E
If you love somebody. If you love somebody. If you love somebody. Was on an afternoon There was an asteroid. We all watched the simulation. It fell from the sky and a trail of fire. I hid my eyes from the explosion. But I, I saw you smiling. You were laughing quietly when you leaned in close. I wasn't sure I heard he said meet me at the end of the world. I gotta love like a pop. I gotta love like an amatross. You gotta love like an unknown destination, but I'm a pretty good guess. I found you on the manifest all dressed up for the occasion. They say it's a. I hold you and the earthquake shudder. I kiss you the ocean swim I feel you next to me in the sky I see. An afternoon There was an asteroid. Yeah. Watch the simulation.
Episode: “Wilt”
Release Date: March 13, 2026
This episode of The Tony Kornheiser Show touches on a rich mix of sports, entertainment, and pop culture. Tony is joined by several expert guests to preview the upcoming Oscars, discuss The Players Championship in golf, and break down developments in the World Baseball Classic. As always, Tony’s candid, self-deprecating humor, nostalgic perspective, and eclectic taste shine as he navigates topics from film industry changes to the contemporary state of global sporting events.
[03:21 – 14:20]
[17:16 – 17:46]
[20:12 – 34:37]
[35:48 – 51:03]
This episode is quintessential Tony Kornheiser—balancing the world of sports with sharp cultural observation, humor, and a sense of tradition running up against the relentless pace of change. The Oscars segment illustrates both the evolution and fragmentation of entertainment, while the discussions on golf and baseball reflect shifts in fan engagement and global context. Nostalgia, personal anecdotes, and deadpan wit combine to deliver the distinctive charm that keeps longtime listeners loyal.