Tiger’s Tarik Skubal, World Chess Number 1 Magnus Carlsen, Panthers Dominate Game 3, Plus Guys On Chicks

Speaker 1 Hey, pardon my take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.
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Speaker 1 See Mintmobile.com. On today's part of my take, we have a two-for for the people.
We have two geniuses at their craft. Tarek Skubel, AL Cy Young winner, Detroit Tigers,

Speaker 1 in studio. Awesome interview with him.
He's a great dude. And then we have Grandmaster, number one in the world, chess

Speaker 1 genius, Magnus Carlson. The goat.
The goat.

Speaker 1 Great interview with him. We're going to talk some hockey.

Speaker 1 We're getting ready for game three of the NBA Finals. We have some hot seat chill thrown.
And we finish up with listener submitted FA, or sorry, guys on chicks. We did guys on chicks.

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Speaker 1 At participating, McDonald's. Okay, let's go.

Speaker 1 Hey,

Speaker 1 football guy for Dino.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. Don't miss your last shot to win some cash this NBA season.
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Speaker 1 Today is Wednesday, June 11th, and the Florida Panthers are a major, major problem after not only beating the Oilers

Speaker 1 on the ice in terms of goals, but beating the fuck out of them in fights. This feels like the Oilers are on some dangerous, dangerous territory.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 I was happy that the Oilers, in theory, fought against the Panthers at the end of the game.

Speaker 1 As a hockey expert, my plan, whenever you're getting your ass kicked in a series and you want to shift it around, just get into a massive line brawl at the end of that game and just try to change the energy up somehow.

Speaker 1 I'm glad that theoretically they did that, but then they kind of all got their ass beat. They lost all five fights by the Panthers.

Speaker 1 Now, there was one move that they should have done that they did not do.

Speaker 1 Why didn't Skinner fight Bob?

Speaker 1 Would have changed everything. It would have changed everything.

Speaker 1 If you lose five fights, but your goalie beats up their goalie,

Speaker 1 that's a wash. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's even as far as I'm concerned. But both goalies kind of chose to stay out of it at the end.
But on the ice, there was nothing that the Oilers could do. Sam Bennett shifted the year.

Speaker 1 Shift of the year for that one shift where he knocked the fuck out of McDavid and scored a goal. He's insane.

Speaker 1 That might be the best shift I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 I think he has like 10-plus playoff goals right now. He's out of control.
Marshawn still, he started the scoring.

Speaker 1 He's just scored in every single game.

Speaker 1 The Panthers, too,

Speaker 1 they're in some pretty crazy territory.

Speaker 1 Teams in NHL history have four-plus goal victories against four different opponents in a single playoff run. It is the 1981 Islanders.
That was a dynasty.

Speaker 1 The 1983 Islanders, dynasty, they won four in a row. And the 2025 Panthers.
Pretty cool.

Speaker 1 So every single round, they've just been kicking the shit out of their opponent at least once a series, sometimes more. And I don't know.

Speaker 1 Listen,

Speaker 1 I believe Whitney and that this is going to be a long series, but game four, I'm going to say it, must win. Must win for the Oilers.

Speaker 1 But then I was thinking about it because I was like, oh, this is a must-win. The Oilers did come back from down 3-0 last year to force a game seven.

Speaker 1 so there's something in there, but I feel like this is the way that game went. And we said if Bob is going to get locked in, he was locked in.

Speaker 1 It feels like it's going to be a big, tall task for the Oilers if they lose on Thursday night. I'm trying to see what were the scores of the first two games last year.

Speaker 1 First three games. So game one, Panthers three, Oilers, zero.
Game two, four to one, and then four to three in game three.

Speaker 1 Game four is where it all flipped. The series flipped.
It ended up flipping back again, but the Oilers won game four last year, eight to one. Yeah.
So, yeah, I would say it's a must-win.

Speaker 1 It's a must-win. I would agree.
Because you just,

Speaker 1 it will sound stupid, but being down, if the Panthers win, especially like they did on Monday night, if they do the same thing on Thursday night, I would say that it feels different than being down 3-0.

Speaker 1 And I know that's crazy, but 3-0, 3-0 always, you have

Speaker 1 the game after game four where it's like, yeah, the team that's up 3-0 is probably not going to, there's no urgency.

Speaker 1 And then they got into that, like going back to Edmonton, dragging him back, and all that stuff. I don't know.
But you're also going to win this.

Speaker 1 We're also talking about what they did last year after they were down 3-0. They did end up losing that series.
Correct. So that's why you don't want to be down.

Speaker 1 They do have game seven at home this year. That's true.
Which Whitney, I got to say, I love Whitney so much. What a fucking genius move by him.

Speaker 1 Because I opened my eyes on Monday morning, and the first three tweets I saw was Whitney gives you guys so much and you guys won't go to game seven with him and it was just I don't know if he did that on purpose but a genius genius move by there was a lot of a lot of guilt tripping yeah which is all fair this is fair so perfectly this is good this is good stuff I I want to see this go seven I still do and I don't think that the oilers are done and that was a great mathematical breakdown that we did right there which is like you'd rather be down I'd rather 3-0 than 3-1 or would you rather be down 3-1 than 3-0?

Speaker 1 I'd rather be down 3-0 than 3-1. What about you, Hank?

Speaker 5 3-1.

Speaker 1 You'd rather be down 3-1?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 I think statistically, more teams than 3-1. Probably.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're right. You're right.
It does sound stupid, but I just think vibes-wise, 3-0 would you say 3-0, you can kind of sneak up on them. 3-1, you can't.
Again, they did lose the series.

Speaker 1 You're down 3-0,

Speaker 1 you're probably going to, like, game four, that's a gimme. Right.
You're going to win that one. Right.

Speaker 1 And then it's like, all right, now we're just.

Speaker 1 And also, when you're down 3-0, if you can win game four and five, all the pressure flips back. Whereas if you're down 3-1, it's not like it's never happened where

Speaker 1 3-1 lead has been blowed. You know, that balance of pressure where it's like, holy shit, are they going to blow a 3-0 lead? You don't want to be tied 3-3 because you're going to lose that game 7.

Speaker 1 Correct. That's what we've learned.
Correct. Except for last year.
No, no, no. The Oilers lost game seven.

Speaker 5 Oh, I thought I'd talk about the Panthers. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. No, the Panthers are a problem.

Speaker 1 They are really fucking good. So, so good.
And they just, like I said, it's one thing to win by five goals to then win five fights. You can't have a better, you can't annihilate a team more than that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I would have liked to see Skinner chuck some knucks out there. Drop the gloves.
They're not sponsored by Superglue. I agree with you.
I agree with you.

Speaker 1 Goalie fight, something like goalie fight just hits perfectly. All right, so game three of the NBA playoffs is tonight.

Speaker 1 Do we have any thoughts? I have one bad thought for the Pacers.

Speaker 1 The Pacers,

Speaker 1 Indianapolis, they have renamed some of the streets for some of the players on the Pacers. Okay.
That feels like a.

Speaker 1 We just went through this. Why? Why would you do this? What do they name it? Again, I'm not blaming Pacers fans or the Pacers.
I'm blaming the

Speaker 1 politicians who try to get involved in sports. Top and Ave, Turner Lane.
Top and Ave actually sounds like a pretty cool spot. That sounds like an awesome spot.
Halliburton Road.

Speaker 1 I don't know. This

Speaker 1 feels ominous. Halliburton Road doesn't really roll off the tongue.
We tried that in Iraq.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's true. That's true.
Top and Av is. That's a keeper.
Yeah, Top and Ab leave that street sign up no matter what. Yeah, that is absolutely a keeper.

Speaker 5 I'm not changing my take, even though I was thinking this in the middle of game one, which the Pacers came back to win, but

Speaker 5 it just seems like this is going to be a blowout series

Speaker 1 4-1.

Speaker 5 But again, I was thinking that in the first half of the first game, and I was like, the Pacers don't stand a chance.

Speaker 1 They obviously won that game, but after game two, I'm sticking with it what are we thinking the court's gonna look like has silver told us anything about the the indie court I don't know they had time they have time they could easily make a fix I think I'm gonna stay with 4-2 Thunder okay I feel I feel confident in that as well

Speaker 1 I'll piggyback with you do we want to put together a parlay which we haven't been able to hit but we're gonna hit one yeah can we all just Can we all just agree to just hit it?

Speaker 1 Why don't we just take a beat just to make sure that we feel good with our bets? Yes.

Speaker 5 I love my pick.

Speaker 1 All right, let's take a beat. Three, two, one, beat.

Speaker 1 I feel great about my pick.

Speaker 1 I don't feel great about my pick, but that's usually a good thing. Hey, it's PFT here, reminding you that Boarshead makes game day entertaining elevated and effortless.

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Okay, boys, what do we got?

Speaker 5 What do we got? I'm keeping it simple. Thunder minus five and a half.

Speaker 1 Thunder minus five and a half. Okay.

Speaker 1 Should I do an alternate or is that because we just got to win one? We got to see one go in. We got to win one.
All right, throw in,

Speaker 1 but then Jackie Tables always screws us.

Speaker 1 Aaron Neesmith.

Speaker 5 What's your pick you love, PFT?

Speaker 1 Give us your pick you love, PFT.

Speaker 1 Okay, my pick that I love, I'm actually, I've got two that I love, so I got to sort it out. All right, I'm going to do Aaron Niesmith over 20,

Speaker 1 or sorry, over 19 and a half points, rebounds, and assists. Okay.
I haven't done a pacer yet in this series. Time for me to get involved with the pacer.
I love this one. This is also a pacer.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Nimhard,

Speaker 1 12 plus points. Okay.
Let's get Nimhard in here. That's good because when Neesmith and Nimhard, like, you can get them confused on the court.
And you're like, oh, shit.

Speaker 1 At least we get something. Yep.
Yeah. Let's get Nimhard in here.
Which one did you say? How many points, BFD? 12 plus. 12 plus.
Let's keep it. I am doing

Speaker 1 Ludort.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 2 8 plus.

Speaker 1 Wow, Golden Rodge.

Speaker 1 Reverse of what he did. He scored 3 the other night.
Yep.

Speaker 1 I will say this. 6-1.

Speaker 1 Odds aren't great on this one. But you know what? We need to see one go through the hoop.
Exactly. We've got to see one go through the hoop.
Who's screwing up the odds? Mine was minus 125.

Speaker 1 Okay, that's fine. Mine was minus 5.
Yours was minus 165. Oh.
Huh?

Speaker 1 12 plus points versus

Speaker 1 2. I got Nimhard.

Speaker 1 Oh. I said Nee Smith, 20 points, rebounds, and assists.
Hold on, hold on. Come on, Max.
Check that. Zach, this is why we got you back.

Speaker 1 You should be. Well, I'm trying to come up with a pick and do Zach at the same time.
Yeah, because we didn't know we were going to do this. Zach, you should have been controlling

Speaker 1 this.

Speaker 1 I also got to find it. Like, I am learning your guys' picks on the spot, and you have to navigate the DraftKings app.
Zach, does Maximum do it at the same time?

Speaker 1 Max, are you excited for the new.

Speaker 1 What did you pick? Neesmith over points, rebounds, assist, assist, 20. Oh, I keep doing Nee Smith for PFT.

Speaker 1 Neesmith and Nemhard are confusing. You know this.
I do. We just said that.
That it's great that we have both of them. Max.

Speaker 1 13, the one. We're back.
Oh, let's go.

Speaker 1 Love it. Max, are you excited for

Speaker 1 the new Philly stadiums being built by the guy who built the sphere? Maybe he'll build a sphere?

Speaker 1 Did you know that?

Speaker 1 I did not know that. Yeah, pretty cool, right?

Speaker 1 I thought you guys had new stadiums. Yeah, the bank.
No, we're just getting

Speaker 2 new basketball. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Is it basketball hockey? No, I think it's going to be separate.

Speaker 1 Where are the flyers going? I think they're staying. Oh.
So Josh Harris is not a fan of the family. I am on the street.
Is this the New Jersey thing?

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 that was a thing.

Speaker 2 Now that's no longer

Speaker 1 a basketball arena right next to the old basketball arena and keeping the old basketball arena? I don't know. They change literally every 15 minutes.

Speaker 1 First, it was going to center city, like in the middle of center city, Philadelphia. Then it was going to Jersey.
then it was going back to where it originally was. Listen, I agree with you.

Speaker 1 I feel like going forward, every new sports arena that gets built, don't fucking tell us anything until the ground is in the shovel. I'm so sick of it.

Speaker 1 Arlington Heights, Soldier Field, like all this back vote. It's hard to keep up with.
When you put

Speaker 1 a shovel into the ground, I will pay attention. Yes.

Speaker 1 And it's all dates that are just so far out there.

Speaker 1 How long does it take to make a stadium? I think it's like two or three.

Speaker 1 well football i think it's like two or three years two years okay i also don't know it probably i i i got caught right there in a let me just try to say something confidently i i would guess it matters what part of the country it's in too because some parts of the country you can't build you can't you have permits and also you might have to sell the parking rights to uae and then that takes some time to get the deal done okay so fi took four years okay so i think that's also good weather yeah so like if it's up north what maybe long and also they did weird with it yeah they left the roof kind of open.

Speaker 1 They built that like... Go ahead.
2031 is when, like, that. Why do I care about 2031? Agreed.
And it is still going to be shared with the Flyers. Oh, okay.
So you were long.

Speaker 1 How long does it, all right, so how long does it take to build a NBA arena?

Speaker 1 Three years.

Speaker 1 I'm going to say that's probably two. Yeah, 18 to 30 months.
Okay. So

Speaker 1 that's about two years.

Speaker 1 And the Sphere Guy is doing this one. The Sphere Guy is doing it.
That's kind of cool. Of Sphere fame.
Yeah. Yeah.
So that means that Josh Harris has the sphere guy on speed dial.

Speaker 1 So maybe my stadium might get done by the sphere guy, too. You're going to get sphered up.
Fuck yeah. NFL stadiums are usually two to four years.

Speaker 1 U.S. Bank Stadium, I think that's Minnesota, right? Yeah.
That was two and a half years. So SoFi did some weird shit.
Yeah. They definitely tried to make it all L.A.

Speaker 1 Well, Rich Eisen was personally approving each blueprint, so they had to go back and forth.

Speaker 1 And they also were like, let's make sure we build an indoor stadium that could be delayed by thunder and lightning.

Speaker 5 We were at the first game ever at U.S.

Speaker 1 Bank.

Speaker 1 We were. Yeah, that's right.
Holy shit. That was a preseason game, Jeff Fisher.
Yep. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Good call, Hank. Oh, my God.
That Minnesota State Fair was a lot of fun. That was our milk chugging days.
Yeah. We were just chugging milk all the time.
And chaw. And chaw.

Speaker 1 She's like, oh, here's a video, but let us add some chaw and milk.

Speaker 1 We should do that. We should do that again once.

Speaker 1 10-year anniversary. Yeah, just like, yeah, like a throwback.
Like, just one day, do all of our. The milk mile? Get a goldfish for one day, kill it.

Speaker 1 It would probably die on its own because we have a bad history with it.

Speaker 1 All right, do we have other sports stories? We have a CJ Stroud update. Oh.
So C.J.

Speaker 1 Stroud, we're very concerned about his shoulder because he wasn't throwing because he was dealing with general soreness. And he spoke to the media today and he said, I'm fine, man.

Speaker 1 So he's fine, man. Oh, he's fine.
Man. Man.
I'm fine, man. He said, also, I did not have surgery.
Oh. I did not get surgery or anything like that.

Speaker 1 So just to go out there and say, like, it's the my I did not get surgery t-shirt has it has people asking a lot of questions that are already answered by the t-shirt yes yes okay so he did not get surgery and he's fine

Speaker 1 okay um

Speaker 1 also we saw aaron rodgers in a steelers uniform what do you think

Speaker 1 uh helmet's still weird. Yeah.

Speaker 1 He said about playing in 2025,

Speaker 1 I don't need it for my ego. I don't need it to keep playing.
This was a decision that was best for my soul. Okay.

Speaker 1 Huh. That feels like

Speaker 1 he does need it for

Speaker 1 his ego? Maybe not ego,

Speaker 1 but he said, I don't need it to keep playing. That does.

Speaker 1 That feels like you do because your soul needs you to play. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I would say so. Also, J.R.
Alexander got cut and Mark Murphy just probably the meanest quote ever when he said, we're used to not having him. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 Kind of facts. Yeah, very big facts.
And then they asked Miles Garrett about Aaron Rodgers in the division. He said, I think it's a good opportunity to put him in the graveyard.
Oh. So I like this.

Speaker 1 Oh, also, Aaron Rodgers has been married for a couple months. Yeah, apparently.
Apparently, he's got.

Speaker 1 He confirmed it's a wedding ring on his finger. How long has he been married? Been a couple months.
Okay, good for him. Is he married to the game or is he married to another human being? Love is love.

Speaker 1 Love is love.

Speaker 1 I personally go with the no girls aspect for my quarterbacks. The Jared Krabis, married to the game.
Yeah. He wore a ring for a while.

Speaker 1 I also got a little excited because they did announce the first game day. So that was...
It was just like, hey, week one's coming soon. Lee Corso.
It's going to be Ohio State

Speaker 1 in Columbus against Texas. But it was just like, oh, yeah, football is.

Speaker 1 I'm not wishing away the summer. People get mad

Speaker 1 when I do countdowns for football. No, I love it.

Speaker 1 You can appreciate the summer while also being like, I can't wait for football, which is kind of a part of the summer. Right.
I can't wait for football. I'm sorry.
It's okay.

Speaker 1 I've been kind of daydreaming about it. Whenever I tweet, I can't wait for college football, that is literally, that's the only thought in my head at that moment when I tweet it.

Speaker 1 That's what that pops in my head randomly. It's usually like, it's nice outside.
Just driving, like, man, you know, it could be better? Football.

Speaker 1 I'll tell you who looks good in Steelers uniform is DK.

Speaker 1 DK doesn't. DK looks like he was fierce.
Like he was born a Steeler. He looks fierce.
Zach, do you have a college football team?

Speaker 1 So I didn't go to a university big enough that would have a team that would play. I do,

Speaker 1 as a child, we would root for the Miami Hurricanes, but I would like to say any team coming out of the state of Florida, when they progress, I do like to see the state win. Okay.
Root for the state.

Speaker 1 That was a tough year a couple years ago. Remember they lost, like, there was that first weekend ever that all the Florida teams lost?

Speaker 1 There's quite a few of those yeah yeah exactly

Speaker 1 let's do an all-time ranking of florida football teams okay uh one one i'm gonna go with ten tebow gators no i mean just like the schools oh that's good that was good you're ready to go Okay,

Speaker 1 we're stress testing you. All right, so one, I'm just going to go, I like Miami Hurricanes.

Speaker 1 As of recently, they're pretty sure they had the most NFL athletes to the league ever for quite a long time there. Then second, I'm going to go with the Florida Gators.

Speaker 1 No, I'll go second, Florida State. Shout out my brother, graduate, big degree.
Shout out to him.

Speaker 1 Florida Gators, third, and then I'll go

Speaker 1 Florida Golf Coast, fourth.

Speaker 1 FGCU. FGCU.
Dunk City. Wow.

Speaker 1 All right. UCF, Blake Portals.

Speaker 1 UCF, cool campus. Shout out, Blake.
Okay, nice.

Speaker 1 All right, let's do hot seat chilter, and then we got two unbelievable interviews coming up, and we'll finish up with guys on checks.

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Speaker 1 Whether I'm hosting game day at my place or taking my talents to the tailgate, Boarshead is my go-to for a spread that's as exciting as the game itself. Their platters are a hit every time.

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Speaker 1 Hot seat chill throne Henry.

Speaker 5 My hot seat's Terry McLaurin.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 5 I just don't understand. You know,

Speaker 5 the Commanders had such a great year. They got a young quarterback.
You would think they'd be excited to return and go after that Super Bowl.

Speaker 5 And I'm just hearing rumors from everyone, Steelers fans, Jets fans. It seems like they all think they're getting Terry McLaurin, and I can't figure out why.

Speaker 1 Are the Steelers and Jets fans, are they in this room with you right now?

Speaker 5 Well, I spent about five hours with Jersey Jerry yesterday. Okay.
And then today, before we recorded, memes were just like, Terry McLaurin, jet.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 5 why would they even think he, like, how is that even possible?

Speaker 1 Okay, let's have a look at that. Hank, this is, I know it's your first season watching football.
Sometimes receivers they get

Speaker 1 more money because if you play really well, you get paid more money.

Speaker 5 And so Terry. I think the commanders give that to him.

Speaker 1 I think they're going to give him that money. Let me just do, let's do a visualization.
Put yourself in Terry McLaurin's shoes.

Speaker 1 You've been in the NFL

Speaker 1 for a long time. You are Terry McLaurin right now.
Been in the NFL for a long time.

Speaker 1 You just played last season with the only good quarterback you've ever had in your entire life.

Speaker 1 Do you want to leave and then go somewhere else with not so great a quarterback?

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 You don't. No, I don't.
You don't. You don't.
I don't. So Terry wants to stay.
The commanders want to keep him.

Speaker 1 You just want the most money you can get.

Speaker 1 That's what's happening. It's called a holdout

Speaker 1 in sports. He wants money.
So he's coming back.

Speaker 1 He's coming back. He's got to pay him.

Speaker 1 He wants his money. He'll be back.
If Terry McLaurin is not a commander next year,

Speaker 1 I was about to say something dumb. They got to pay him.
Yeah, they got to pay him. That's all.
They got to pay him. They're going to pay him.

Speaker 1 I think the Trey Hendrickson situation is a little bit different.

Speaker 1 Yeah. They got to pay him.

Speaker 5 But they're going to. They'll be a commander.

Speaker 1 They're going to pay him. He's going to be a commander, guaranteed.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we have. Yeah,

Speaker 1 this is just part of, you know, the spring, late spring.

Speaker 5 Do you think he's mad about Debo?

Speaker 1 Or is he excited about Debo? I think he's excited about it. Yeah, he's excited about Debo.
I think he's mad that he wants to get paid more.

Speaker 1 It's nothing. It's nothing personal.
It's business. This is sad you trying to find drama.
It's business. No,

Speaker 5 I've been hearing, like, I made no sense to me when Jerry was saying. It made no sense what memes was saying, so I came to the source to figure it out.
But that makes sense. He'll be a commander.

Speaker 1 He wants more money. No doubt.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Guaranteed. Guaranteed money.
Wait, guarantee.

Speaker 1 I personally guarantee that they're going to pay him more guaranteed money and he's going to be a commander next year, and that's a guarantee. Okay.

Speaker 1 What's your chill throne?

Speaker 5 My chill throne is Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 5 We talked about it a lot on this show, the lawsuits and all that.

Speaker 1 I remember a couple shows. We did it two times in a row.
We talked about it.

Speaker 1 They're okay, right? The two of them?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 The suit got thrown out. A judge threw the suit out.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 5 Threw out the lawsuits,

Speaker 5 dealing a huge blow to the bell doni camp

Speaker 1 okay so the suit is over so they're back they're back lake of the year they're back lake of the year okay get it i still don't fully understand the whole thing um

Speaker 1 i don't know i i'm not a lawyer guy but i feel like they probably just had better lawyers i'm gonna you know what i'm gonna release a statement just uh be be nicer be nicer to each other Yeah, that's just for that's not talking to one side or the other.

Speaker 1 That's just blanket. Hey, guys, cut it out.
Be nicer. Be a nice person.
That's my take on it.

Speaker 5 Be a decent human.

Speaker 1 It costs $0 to be nice.

Speaker 1 That's true. I hope they learned a valuable lesson.
Yeah, be better. Be better.
Be better. We can all be better.
I expected more out of them.

Speaker 1 I'm just going to leave that out there. I expected more out of them.
I just said them. Them.
You don't know who them is. It could be talking about this.

Speaker 1 I just expected more out of them. Same.

Speaker 1 Okay. I'm not taking a side.
I have not.

Speaker 1 No, I'm not. I was going to say, I think I have, but I don't.
I don't have to. Wait, so are Blake and Ryan, are they on the same side? Yeah, they're buried.
Okay. So you'd hope so.

Speaker 1 Otherwise, that would be an awesome betrayal.

Speaker 1 That's what I'm rooting for. Yeah.
I'm rooting for one of them to flip over to the Baldoni camp and then turn on their spouse. Yeah.
That would rock. That would be sick.
Love is dead. On a moment.

Speaker 1 But that would be nice. Kank, did you get your Sidney Sweeney soap yet? I did not.
Oh, this must be in the mail. It's on the way.

Speaker 5 Did you get some?

Speaker 1 Yeah, he did.

Speaker 5 You know he did. First of all, you know he did.

Speaker 1 Love that.

Speaker 1 PFT. I got Napoleon's hair.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's on the way. Sick.
Do you think I could implant Napoleon's hair into my face? Yes. As like a beard strand?

Speaker 1 That would rock.

Speaker 1 My hot seat is golfers. Oh.
Golfers are on the hot seat

Speaker 1 because I saw we're starting to get the content that we predicted would happen from the U.S. Open of like, holy shit, this course is going to be impossible.

Speaker 1 One was just a picture of a 289-yard par three,

Speaker 1 which is awesome. Insane.
Can we bet on the winning golfer to have a score that's over par? Yes.

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, you can, you can, there's going to be, listen, DraftKings, there will be like a winning score.

Speaker 1 I want to bet on winning score over par. I think this U.S.
Open is going to the course officially. I've seen enough of the content where now I fear this course.

Speaker 1 Is it bad that I'm, you know, you don't want root for favorites? Obviously, I would love to see our guy Brooks do well. I'm going to bet on him, but I kind of want to see Scotty just dominate again.

Speaker 1 Like, I'm in this, I'm in Scotty zone where it's like, if he just keeps just kicking the shit out of everyone, that would be awesome. What are you looking at, Hank?

Speaker 1 I don't.

Speaker 5 Any player to be bogey-free through 72 holes, what do you think the odds are for that? I think this is plus $150,000.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I mean, that's

Speaker 5 impossible. $2 to win $3,000.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's an impossible. Bad bet.

Speaker 1 That bet will be done by halfway through Thursday. But I am rooting for Scotty.
Does that make me lame? I don't know.

Speaker 1 I'm kind of in the greatness mode.

Speaker 1 I like rooting for greatness, but I also like rooting to see greatness fail at the last second.

Speaker 1 Who would be your second pick? Because, like, the, I think, the, tell me if I'm wrong, Hank, you're looking at it right now. The odds are Scotty's a favorite, then it's Bryce, and then it's Rory.

Speaker 1 And I don't want to root for Rory or Bryce.

Speaker 5 Rory's given up. He doesn't care anymore.

Speaker 1 Oh, really? Yeah. Is that a fact?

Speaker 5 He said it after the

Speaker 5 when he was doing media last week. He was like, Yeah, I just, it's after I won the Grand Slam, it's harder to, you know, practice as hard.
Oh, man. Which is fair, but also.

Speaker 1 Me? I win the Grand Slam. I'm going even harder.

Speaker 5 Scotty Bryson, John Rahm, Rory Xander.

Speaker 1 Okay. All right, Xander.
Xander would be awesome. Xander would be awesome.

Speaker 1 Brooks would be nice. Brooks would be awesome.
Brooks would be awesome. If Max was in, he would win.
Yeah. But absolutely.
He's ran out of time. Yeah.
If Jake Knapp was in, he'd probably win too.

Speaker 1 That's That's a fact.

Speaker 1 All right, yeah, so I'm excited to watch golf. Yeah, me too.
And also, we get the Father's Day U.S.

Speaker 1 Open, which is great because I'm just going to be like, my Father's Day gift is I want to watch the U.S. Open.
Yep. That's it.

Speaker 1 Then my cool throne is TJs who have a love-hate relationship with Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 So TJ Watt is one of them. I think he's gone.
I'm hearing he's going to be a commander. Oh.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Hank, are you listening? TJ Watt.

Speaker 1 He just reversed it. So check this out.
He just reversed.

Speaker 1 He's been a great player on the Steelers. Haven't really accomplished that much besides making the playoffs recently.

Speaker 1 Every year. He's going to cost a lot of money.
I think he's unhappy, and I think he wants to go.

Speaker 5 Who's going to pay him? I think the Commanders don't have money. I think the Commanders don't money.

Speaker 1 The Commanders have money.

Speaker 5 They're already paying Terry.

Speaker 1 So yeah, TJ Watt, it was TJ Watt, Terry McLaurin, and then there was one other holdout. Trey Hendrickson.
Trey Hedrickson, which that one is, he's been holding out forever.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that one to me seems fractious. I do think that TJ is going to go back to Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 The only other place I could imagine. He's a new Jersey guy.
I could imagine TJ Watt wearing a Green Bay Packers dress. Yeah, we said that a couple weeks ago.

Speaker 1 It feels like that would be the only one that would make sense. Oh, also Jalen Ramsey, who

Speaker 1 he might get traded, too. Yeah.
Yeah. And then the other TJ, TJ Oshi, who has had some ups and downs with Pittsburgh as a Washington capital.

Speaker 1 He retired yesterday. And he retired at the fountain in Georgetown, where he went for a swim after the Stanley Cup.
Now, Captain America.

Speaker 1 Captain America, go back and watch the highlights of him competing against Russia in those Olympics, 2014, I think. The best.
Where

Speaker 1 it was the Penguins coach, and he just brought TJ because he's like, one of these games is going to go into shootouts, and I'm just going to run TJ Oshi out there against Bob.

Speaker 1 And it was just TJ dominating Bob to win that game. Over and over and over again.
Which was good. Yeah, it was great to watch.

Speaker 1 But TJ didn't play this year.

Speaker 1 I thought that he was probably going to retire like two years ago, actually. Yeah.
But he finally made it official. So great player, Captain America.
Thank you for your service, TJ. Okay.

Speaker 1 And then your chill throw. That was my chill throw.
Oh, that was your chill throw. Chill throw.
It was TJ. TJs who have a love-hate relationship

Speaker 1 with Pittsburgh. All right.
My hot seat is the Washington Wizards. Okay.
You ready for this? Oh, wait. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
The Washington Wizards. All right.
You ready for this?

Speaker 1 So this actually is kind of a combo hot seat for the Pacers. So game three is Wednesday night.

Speaker 1 Did you know that a former Wizards player has won each of the last eight championships? And there is one singular ex-wizard in these finals on the Pacers, Thomas Bryant.

Speaker 1 So they are now, the Wizards are on the hot seat. They got to win this to keep the streak alive.
So 2017, Sean Livingston and JaVale McGee. 2018, Livingston and McGee.
2019, Raptors, Jody Meeks.

Speaker 1 2020, Dwight Howard, McGee, and Markeith Morris. 2021, Bobby Portis.
2022, Gary Payton, the second, Otto Porter Jr. and Chris Chiosa.

Speaker 1 And then 2023, the Nuggets had KCP, Jeff Green, Ish Smith, and Thomas Bryant. In 2024, Hank, Chris Dopps.
So now

Speaker 1 you're on the hot championship DNA in Washington. It's like the NBA's farm system.
Yeah. That's where you go to learn how to win.
Yeah. Because first you have to learn how not to lose.
Right.

Speaker 1 And then the Lakers, when they almost beat the Nuggets that one year, and they would have won the championship when they lost 4-1. Except they lost 4-1 in the series.
They had Rui Hachamura.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's true. So these are all the greatest teams of the last, what, six years?

Speaker 1 This is a fun little wrinkle streak that we, you know, the Pacers are, the Pacers and the Wizards are on the hot seat. So, but if the Thunder win, no one.
No dice. No one.
No dice with them.

Speaker 1 And then that means maybe Chris Paul, championship loading for next year.

Speaker 1 Wizards legend. Yeah, well, no, it would break the streak.
It's a Thunder.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
So we'd have to start a new streak. My cool throne is the Detroit Tigers because because they're really good at baseball.

Speaker 1 We're going to have Terek Skubel on in a minute, which was awesome in studio.

Speaker 1 But the Tigers are averaging over 26,000 fans per game, 40% jump from this time last season.

Speaker 1 It's more, it's partially credit, you know, the Tigers fans showing up, but also a reminder that anytime a baseball owner says no one shows up, if you put a good product on the field,

Speaker 1 fans will show up. And I hate that when that happens in sports where an owner will be like, well, we got to move because the fans don't support us.

Speaker 1 No, you've been like gutting the team and gutting the, you know, the city for years and years and years. Yeah, because you can make money as an owner with a bad team.

Speaker 1 And so a lot of owners are just like,

Speaker 1 I want to see my investment increase. I don't really give a shit about the product.
That's always bullshit. Did we talk about it on this show? I can't remember.

Speaker 1 I think they should have a new rule

Speaker 1 in all sports that if,

Speaker 1 call it five years, if you don't make the playoffs in five years, automatic sale. I like that.

Speaker 1 Like whatever the threshold is, that would be awesome because relegation is never going to come to American sports. But if you could relegate owners, that would be sick.

Speaker 1 That's probably, for the same reason, not going to come to American sports. Of course.

Speaker 1 But I'm just talking about dumb rules that I'm going to start.

Speaker 1 Next time we have a commissioner on, I'm going to start saying it to him. But

Speaker 1 maybe not playoffs. Maybe

Speaker 1 you have to be over 500 because obviously playoffs are tough to get to in certain sports. But

Speaker 1 some type of rule that if you don't field a competent team once at least every five years, you automatically have to sell. And maybe, you know what? We say that you have to sell like 15% off.
Or

Speaker 1 you get suspended as an owner. Whatever it may be.
You don't get to

Speaker 1 be a rule.

Speaker 1 You have to pay for it. If you're an owner and your team doesn't make the playoffs in the first five years, you have to sit in the stands.
Right. You're not allowed to sit away from the people.

Speaker 1 Because baseball does the floor, the spending floor now.

Speaker 1 But that still doesn't incentivize them to be good. It just incentivizes them that they have to spend a certain amount of money.
So, I don't know. Just a rule out there.
Gonna throw it out there.

Speaker 1 Gonna pitch it to people. What are you looking up? The celery cap floor.
Yeah. I know baseball has one now.
I can't remember what it is. Zach is.
Are you Googling? I don't know,

Speaker 1 I think they're talking about it. I thought there was one.
No, because in order to have a floor, you have to have a cap. Oh, that's what they're negotiating.
Oh, that's right.

Speaker 1 That's what they're negotiating right now.

Speaker 1 And I do think the celery cap floor has a possibility possibility to pass. I think that there's a good chance it could pass

Speaker 1 because of this problem that we have. So we need the floor.
But right now... It was NBA is the one.
Yes, right now. NBA has a floor.

Speaker 1 Right now in baseball, the owners don't have to spend anything if they don't want to. That's right.
Which is why you get teams like the spending with nothing. The Oakland A's.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 The baseball one that I was thinking of is they have changed it so that you can't tank every year and get the first pick.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 1 They move where you are in the order, but the NBA salary floor does exist.

Speaker 1 How about it should just be owners?

Speaker 1 If your team sucks every single year, you have to sell the team. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And we get to decide the price. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And don't make your money back. Don't make your money back.
Oh, that would be sick.

Speaker 1 Because then you buy a team, and you're just like,

Speaker 1 I have to do it. There's pressure.
If you don't make the playoffs within the first five years of buying a team,

Speaker 1 you have to sell the team. And the max you can get is exactly what you paid for the team.

Speaker 1 And that means that all the money, which is probably not that much if your team sucks, all the money that you've spent in the interim, that's all just lost money. Yeah.
I kind of like that.

Speaker 1 And also, think about how thrilling it would be if you root for like a Colorado Rockies and you're on year five and you haven't been to the playoffs or say be over 500.

Speaker 1 Like that's a now that season becomes very interesting because you might be rooting. You're rooting for your team to maybe win some games, but you're also rooting for the automatic sale to take place.

Speaker 1 And then all of a sudden, some shitty teams will become massive, massive buyers

Speaker 1 at the trade deadline and get like one-year rentals and then they could go back to being shitty yeah but still that but at least they'd be good for a little bit it'd be interesting to watch i think we need this rule we're gonna pitch it to adam silver when he comes when he comes on again uh rob manford just for forget salary cap floor ownership ownership relegation maybe they have to go own like a triple a team i like that would also bump up you just you just relegate the owners i do think making them sit in the stands with the fans would be that would go a long way have them face the music every every single game yep yeah uh okay uh zach you have a hot seat cool throne

Speaker 1 uh yes sir i can do that for you yeah i got one for you let's go hit us and uh so hot seat i do have uh tim cook from apples in the hot seat today oh me uh ios 26 previews are coming out and uh it's it looks atrocious so i don't know if you guys have seen any of the uh no what's going on with it so it looks like uh it looks like finger painting and a little bit of like abstract art everywhere it's uh the themes is like uh

Speaker 1 it's it looks like paint and glass. So you're stacking the notifications up over there.
You can't see anything. Oh, yeah.
All the notifications are clear. That's weird.

Speaker 1 They're stacking clear notifications on clear wallpapers. I'm also in the zone where I'm just my phone is just breaking because the new phone's coming out.
What are they trying to get you?

Speaker 1 What are they trying to condition us to do here?

Speaker 1 Why are they doing this new thing? What is this? I just think it's too far of a reach. They're like, oh, the people are going to love this.
We need to be more innovative.

Speaker 1 And they're just taking away all

Speaker 1 things you you can see. It's just clear.
It's just unusable. It's very frustrating.
Are they trying to make us Tim Cook should go? Are they trying to make us take

Speaker 1 the iPhone so that we'll be more likely to get a chip implanted in our brain?

Speaker 1 An Apple chip in the brain? Yeah. I mean, it's coming, dude.

Speaker 1 You guys now for a chip? I don't want it, but it's coming. It's going to happen.
And I'm going to have to get it.

Speaker 1 And then when I chip up, then when I get it, I'll be like, how did I ever live without this chip? Yeah. Chip to death.
So it's chip or be left behind. No choice.
We just have to chip. Correct.

Speaker 1 Everybody chips in.

Speaker 1 Would you get the chip? I'd have to get the chip, yeah. Well, you'd make it.
I wouldn't want to. Okay, yeah.
We'd probably make you get the chip first to see how it goes.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're getting the chip. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I can do that. That's a good hot seat, though.
I didn't even know they were doing the iOS. So is this automatically updating our phones overnight?

Speaker 1 If you have auto updates on, maybe if you have storage, yes. If you don't have storage, probably not.
If you don't have auto updates on, no.

Speaker 1 You can't opt out.

Speaker 1 What was the reaction like when they unveiled this? Because

Speaker 1 I love watching the Apple conferences where they like unveil, they show a pair of glasses on the screen and then everyone claps and they're like, oh my God.

Speaker 1 They clap for products, like little seals. So you know in the room, they're all going crazy for Tim Cook and Apple, but the response online is just like, we don't know about this, Tim.
Okay.

Speaker 1 We got to bully.

Speaker 1 Listen, we're going to have to bully. It's facts.
All right, what's your chill tron?

Speaker 1 My chill tron for today is DDG, who's a YouTuber,

Speaker 1 former flex rapper, current Twitch streamer? Okay, I know what all those words mean, but I looked at Hank and he was like, what are those? So,

Speaker 1 what's a flex rapper? Yeah, let's start with flex rapper. Flex rapper would be YouTube rapper.
So, the flex position, not always rapping, sometimes rapping. Oh, flexibility.
Play an wide receiver.

Speaker 1 A YouTuber one day might go in a booth, do some crazy.

Speaker 5 Content creator that does rap.

Speaker 1 Slash. Got it.
Yeah. Slash, perfect.
That would have made more sense. Slash, the Cordell Stewart.

Speaker 1 And so

Speaker 1 he reported, gave us a little peek behind his analytics recently. Uh, reporting 12.3 million for the month of May between uh ad ad revenue, ad sense, uh, twitch prime subs, Spotify streams, etc.

Speaker 1 And he's also been spotted quite a few times with uh Instagram sweetheart India Love recently. Oh, okay, which is all time, it is all time.

Speaker 1 That is all that's an all-time dog move by him, all-time, yeah, really certified, stamp it.

Speaker 1 Are we living vicariously through him? A little bit, yeah, yeah, like certainly massive dub, DDG, all caps, W D G. Shout out to India Love.
Yeah. Is India Love on your list?

Speaker 1 She's like first round, second pick, probably. First round, second pick?

Speaker 1 Who's 1-1? Yeah, who's 1-1?

Speaker 1 1-1, probably Tay Money,

Speaker 1 Texas-based rap woman. Oh,

Speaker 1 is this hot rappers or hot women? That's hot women. Hot women.
That was hot women. And what would your third pick be?

Speaker 1 I don't have a theory off the top of my head.

Speaker 1 They'd be interchanging. Who's on your Mount Rushmore of women? All-time.

Speaker 1 In what facet? Just women.

Speaker 1 Just women. Open-ended women.
Top four women. Not open-ended in that sense.
Yeah, no, yeah, I understand.

Speaker 2 Kind of.

Speaker 1 Open-ended.

Speaker 1 Top four women of all time.

Speaker 1 Listen, we're about to give you out Mount Rushmore season, so we got to stress test you.

Speaker 1 Top four women of all time in any capacity. Any capacity.

Speaker 1 There's a lot. Yeah, there's a lot of women.

Speaker 1 We want to pigeonhole this at all. They're just straightforward.
I think there's one that you've got to make. There's one pick you gotta make there's one i have to make yeah

Speaker 1 your own mom you have to pick your own mom can she go on the mount rush yes yes yes mom's one one yeah there you go

Speaker 1 we're getting a little personal there mom's one one yep every every and even if you guys pick mom take a mom as well okay sorry to overstepped

Speaker 1 so we'll do mom 1-1 we'll go uh

Speaker 1 take money

Speaker 1 not on the mount rush row i don't know yeah but you can mix it up like it's open-ended yeah i had too much respect my mother put tay money next to her on the mount rush road Would your mom get along with Tay Money?

Speaker 1 I'm not sure. I'm not really sure.

Speaker 1 Don't know her well enough. Know my mom well enough, not Tay Money.
Okay.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, mom's up top, one, one.

Speaker 1 Other women, we got other women. There's tons of other women, but we put on the Mount Rushmore.

Speaker 1 Are you Catholic?

Speaker 1 No, I don't practice the Catholic religion. Okay.
All right. Okay.
So you were thinking maybe Mary? I was maybe Mary. Trying to save you with God.
I appreciate that. Shout out to Mary.

Speaker 1 I think Mary does great for, I think religion is great for a lot of people. You know what I'm saying? So shout out to Mary.
She's a good guy. So we can throw Mary on there.
So my mom, Mary.

Speaker 1 I think you go, mom, Mary, Tay Money, Susan B. Anthony.
Done. We'll swap that for Michelle Obama, and we're done.
Oh, okay. Which one?

Speaker 1 No, we'll go Susan B. Yeah, yeah, Susan B.
Well, I thought you were going to swap Tay Money for Michelle. We're not swapping anybody.
No, Tay Money's like that. That's a good amount of rush word.

Speaker 1 Your mom, Tay Money, Susan B.

Speaker 1 Mary. And then if one of them does something to get canceled, we could replace them with Michelle.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like if your mom said something, but then Michelle Obama goes on there. We'll take Michelle out of the

Speaker 1 flex bottom. We'll put the Little Debbie woman up there because I love those.
Oh, okay. That's a good pick.
Good pick.

Speaker 1 Okay. Good job.
That fells good. Stress testing Mount Rushmore.
Wendy's going to be upset.

Speaker 1 Let's get to our interviews. We got Tarek Skubel and then the GOAT chess grandmaster Magnus Carlson.
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Speaker 1 Okay, here he is, Tarek Skubel.

Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very special guest.

Speaker 1 Recurring guest, it is AL Sci Young winner, Tarek Skubel, Haas,

Speaker 1 number one pitcher in baseball.

Speaker 2 Can I say that? Right now? Yeah. You can say it.
I won't say it.

Speaker 1 Okay, I'm going to say it. Cy Young winner.
Cy Young winner. So that's like that.
Yeah. And you're also doing it again this year, like crushing it.
So in studio, awesome to see you.

Speaker 1 I actually, let's start with just pitching. Let's just go straight to pitching because we, last time you were on, after you won the Cy Young, you were saying something.

Speaker 1 I think PFT asked a question about like

Speaker 1 getting it like going faster than like 102. And it's like, you're like, I'm kind of topped out at that.
That's kind of what it is.

Speaker 1 You had a game this year where you had a complete game shutout where you went 103 in the ninth. How did that happen?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 2 But I think, you know, when I took the mound for the ninth inning and I'm going back out there, the whole stadium's kind of chanting your name.

Speaker 2 And you don't really think that, like, when you're young,

Speaker 2 you don't think that that's a possibility to have that happen. So I just kind of took a moment and enjoyed it.
And then the adrenaline like spiked big time. And then I got into an O2 count

Speaker 2 and I knew a fastball was coming. And I'm like, this is either going to be the hardest pitch of my life and be nowhere near the zone.
And then I have to make another one or this game's over.

Speaker 2 And it just so happened he swung. I mean, it wasn't really close to the zone, but he swung over it.
And it just kind of, that is what it is.

Speaker 1 It was an awesome moment. Also, did I read correctly? The pitch calm didn't work in the ninth inning because it was so loud.
It was loud, yeah.

Speaker 2 So I had it, I have it on like, so it goes up to like 20 or whatever, and I have it on like 14 for most games.

Speaker 2 And then if you're in a dome, you turn it up a little bit because it's just naturally louder.

Speaker 2 But I had it on 14, couldn't hear a thing with two strikes there, and then I was, you know, putting my glove over, still couldn't hear, turn it up to 20, and then it got quiet when that whole thing happened.

Speaker 2 And now I'm like, dude, I think he can hear what pitch is coming because it's so loud.

Speaker 2 But yeah, I mean, it was, it was going to be a fastball, I think, no doubt. And then you just kind of let it rip, and that's what happens.

Speaker 1 I think everybody knew what pitch was coming. It was like, you're going to reach back, you're going to throw as hard.
That was the last pitch of the game, right? Yeah. You hit 10 103.

Speaker 2 Is that 102.6? Did you round up?

Speaker 1 No, it's 103. Do we count that as 103? Yeah.
I don't, but you guys can't. I count that as 103.
It showed 103 on the broadcast.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it always rounds up for us, which is sweet.

Speaker 1 Don't worry about it. 103.
That's pretty great. You've been throwing less fastballs, though.
Has that been like a conscious...

Speaker 1 I mean, obviously less since when you first came in, I think you were throwing like half your pitches were fastballs. Now it's your change up.
Was that something in the offseason?

Speaker 1 You're like, this is just a way I'm going to get even better?

Speaker 2 Those are good questions for our catchers. Okay.
Because I'm like,

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 2 I don't shake a ton, and we go over game planning stuff, and you have a plan of what you want to do, and then the game tells you what you need to do.

Speaker 2 The lineup tells you the at-bats dictate what pitch is thrown. And

Speaker 2 our catchers do a great job.

Speaker 2 If the change-up's working, and they're swinging and missing, and I'm getting a lot of positive results, I'm going to keep throwing it. And I think that's kind of where the uptick in usage is.

Speaker 2 And I get nine righties a game damn near every time.

Speaker 2 So I need something to go to my arm side so that way they're not just the ball just consistently coming into them. So

Speaker 2 that's kind of the point of it.

Speaker 1 I saw on the last pitch of the game, it looked like the leg kick was just as high as it normally is. Do they have advanced stats to show how high you're getting the leg?

Speaker 2 I bet I could pull some Hawkeye data. It was at home, so I bet I could pull something to see.

Speaker 2 But yeah, I mean, that's as hard as I can throw a baseball no matter.

Speaker 2 You know how I said that last year? I actually think that that's as hard as I can throw a baseball.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and then next year you're gonna come in and we're like, hey, remember when you threw 104 in the playoffs? You're like, oh, yeah, I guess that's the hardest I can throw.

Speaker 2 Well, if I'm in the ninth inning in a playoff game, then that's something different. Yeah, I bet that would actually be harder than that.

Speaker 1 But you were not very

Speaker 1 adrenaline from the crowd. No, you were in the ninth inning, so you just need the crowd to be exactly that loud and you can keep dialing it up.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, you're right.
I mean, there's 36,000. It's an 1135 game.
So, like, the fact that the fans showed up for an 1135 game, I got a ton of, you know, respect for.

Speaker 2 And then, you know, you're doing something like that. And we're, we just lost three to Cleveland in a row, and we're kind of trying to salvage a series.

Speaker 2 And there's a lot of kind of emotions that went into that game that made it special.

Speaker 1 Sounds like you love Detroit.

Speaker 2 I love Detroit, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I do, yeah. Like, for the rest of your life, love Detroit? Sure.
Like, we could sign a contract right now. We'll only take 5%.
I think Scott Boris, we've met him. We've been to his offices.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 PFT to flash.

Speaker 1 I took a big shit in his office. That's awesome.
Not in his activity. I mean, I'm drinking a coffee right now.
I might take a shit here, if I'm being honest. It's about that time.

Speaker 1 No, but that's a sign of dominance. I waltz into his office.
I took a dump.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I feel like now Scott Boris looks up to me as a man. Yeah.
He respects you for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So we could get this done today. Yeah.

Speaker 2 You guys walk in and see all the baseballs and stuff.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. That's it.

Speaker 1 He's like a Darth Vader of baseball. When you walk in, you're just like, holy shit, this office is impressive.
So

Speaker 1 the real question, and then we'll do the negotiation. Is it difficult sometimes to be playing in a season like this being like,

Speaker 1 there's a lot of money coming? Like, it's like,

Speaker 1 you're human. You know what I mean? You can't not think about it at all, but are you able to compartmentalize?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think when our team's doing what we're doing, I mean, we got 40 wins or whatever.

Speaker 2 The whole contract and money stuff kind of goes to the side because we're winning so much, and that's the ultimate goal is to win. You want to be the last team winning with a win in the season.
So

Speaker 2 it makes it easier in that aspect.

Speaker 2 And last year when we traded away guys, it did become a little bit more difficult to pitch because I knew that I was chasing down an award and stuff and then we went on that run and it kind of took all that shit away.

Speaker 2 So winning, I say this a lot, winning cures everything.

Speaker 2 Winning is it's a band-aid that you know, it doesn't matter if it's a bullet hole, whatever, you know, it cures everything and you just kind of go play baseball. So

Speaker 2 that's kind of the,

Speaker 2 yeah, I think winning is, it takes a lot of that stuff off your mind as a player.

Speaker 1 Dumb question, maybe, but when, because the season is so long in baseball, when does losing, when is, what's a losing streak that like, okay, it becomes a bummer?

Speaker 1 Because obviously you can lose two games in a row. You can lose three games in a row.
That's just baseball.

Speaker 1 Is there a number where you're like, well, this fucking sucks?

Speaker 2 I was actually joking around this year when we got swept by the Dodgers to start the season. I was like, I walked to AJ, I go, hey, Skip, are we ever going to win again?

Speaker 1 You know, like,

Speaker 2 three is a a long time, but like, I mean, three happens. You know, we just did it to Cleveland, and then we rattled off five straight wins.

Speaker 2 So the game, the ebbs and flows of baseball are a little bit different.

Speaker 2 But I mean, if you're losing four in a row, if you get swept by a team for four games, that's like, that was a long series, you know, and it's half a week of games playing, you know, four or five.

Speaker 2 I've been on teams that have lost 13 in a row, and that is like.

Speaker 2 That is

Speaker 2 legitimately miserable. You know, you don't even want to go to the yard anymore.
You're like, when's the last bus? When's the first bus out of here?

Speaker 2 Can I get treatment during the game so I don't have to watch us lose again? There's, yeah, there's

Speaker 1 losing sucks. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Is that, is there always some guy that's like trying to lighten the mood in the clubhouse and they try it in different ways if it's a losing streak and at some point you just have to like stop trying to like joke your way out of it?

Speaker 1 What is that like?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think sometimes it's like when you, when you start losing,

Speaker 2 guys tend to try a little bit harder and then you realize like that's probably the wrong thing to do. Maybe Maybe try a little bit less and just play the game of baseball and no stress.

Speaker 2 And I think that we have guys in our clubhouse that keep it light. You know, Jake Rogers is like that guy, you know, where

Speaker 2 our team is funny too. You know, Tork's one of those guys too, where he can have a horrible at-bat, you know, like horrible at-bat and come in and be like, I saw him well.

Speaker 2 You know, like that's like, that's who he is. Like Greeny yesterday in the first inning, I think we hit.
like two homers or whatever, but he's the one who struck out in between the homers.

Speaker 2 And he comes in and he's like as happy as anyone. He's like, yeah, I saw him well too.
But I'm like, dude, you struck out. And he's like, no, but I saw him well.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know, so like, that's like, that's that running joke, you know, or when our team has a horrible swing, you know, we'll scream to the umpires, like, check him.

Speaker 1 No, like, ask for help.

Speaker 2 You know, it's like, no, he's not even close to hitting it. So

Speaker 2 our team does a good job of keeping it pretty light and we enjoy it.

Speaker 1 I feel like that's important in baseball too.

Speaker 1 You play every day. You have a batted bat and you say, like, I saw it well.
Even if you're joking and you're lying about just saying it out loud, like, there's a part of you that might believe it.

Speaker 1 And it's such a mental thing where it's like, okay, I'm still in a positive mindset. So next time I go up, I'm not going to be bummed out thinking about all the negative things that could happen.

Speaker 2 No doubt. No doubt.
I think it's funny as pitchers, you know, we'll throw a pitch that's 40 feet, right? And I bet everyone watching is like, how does a professional athlete do that?

Speaker 2 And then our dugout is probably screaming, like, hey, you can't get beat there. You know, get a pitch.
You can't get beat there. They can't swing.

Speaker 2 Or you throw a fastball to the back of the, you know, off the netting over them. It's like, hey, you can't get beat there, man.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You can't get beat.

Speaker 2 They can't put the bat on it.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 2 whatever. On On to the next pitch.

Speaker 1 I feel like I'd get my ass kicked right away because I just, someone would strike out and be like, that was a great cut. Like, just keep saying that over and over.
No, great cut. No, it's hilarious.

Speaker 2 I mean, there's moments where maybe bigger moments, these things kind of tend to happen earlier in the game, later in the games.

Speaker 2 It's a little bit, you know, you kind of pick and choose when you're going to mess around.

Speaker 2 But, um, and then the score of the game kind of dictates that, you know, if we're getting our ass beat, like, there's, I'm not going to, and when our guy checks swings and it's a bad swing, I'm not going to yell out, like, hey, check, you know, the umpire or whatever.

Speaker 2 But I think that's our, our team's fun in that aspect, too. Right.
We just, we're young, we have fun, we enjoy it. You know, you have a bad swinging bunt that's like goes five feet foul.

Speaker 2 You'll, you know, you'll hear someone from the dugout like, straighten it out. You know, I think that that's that's hilarious to me, and we just kind of keep that same vibe.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I heard a nasty rumor about you. Well, first, I'm going to give you some credit because in your last 10 games, you're 5-0, your ERA is 1.66.

Speaker 2 You've got 0.03 from being really good.

Speaker 1 0.03 from being really, really nice.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 89 strikeouts and three walks in your last 10 games. 89 strikeouts and three walks.
That's crazy. We want to give you all the credit in the world.
Again, we want to build you up.

Speaker 1 We want to see you get this massive contract. Hopefully stay in Detroit for a while.

Speaker 1 But I came across something very concerning about you.

Speaker 2 Oh, no.

Speaker 1 You cheat at crossword puzzles. Oh, dude, they're fucking hard.
We got a guy here who just got exposed for cheating at crossword puzzles. A big deal.
It's a big deal, yeah.

Speaker 1 But do you feel accomplished? Do you feel like you did something if if you cheat at the crossword puzzle?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I try my best to do it by myself every day, right? I try my best to do it.

Speaker 1 How fast do you cheat? Like what

Speaker 1 point are you going to cheating?

Speaker 2 Okay, yeah. So if I, you know, I'll go through every single clue, right? And then, you know, you go through the crossword.

Speaker 2 Sometimes they flow, you know, like you'll have the top left and it'll flow to the middle and you get some letters and it'll flow to the bottom right.

Speaker 2 And then you kind of got to start taking some shots in the dark on the bottom left or top right. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And once I get to a point where I literally don't know how to do anything, I've read every clue twice. I've done it all twice.
That's when I usually call Jake Rogers.

Speaker 2 I'm like, hey, Jake, like, can you change one of these clues? Look at what I have.

Speaker 2 What's the most important word for me to go forward? You know, what's going to give me the most.

Speaker 2 Usually it's like a, it'll be like something down because it'll give you the start for like five other words. Yeah.
And he'll just like change the clue for me.

Speaker 1 And then I'm like, oh yeah, way better clue for me.

Speaker 2 And I'll write it in, you know, and then I'll go. And if I get stuck again, then, you know, I'll ask again.
But that's kind of the.

Speaker 1 Oh, so you don't Google it. You just ask him.

Speaker 2 Well, some, yeah, I mean, sometimes I have to if he's not around. If he's not around, I have to.
Like, if I can't find him.

Speaker 1 And is he the best?

Speaker 1 It's crosswords?

Speaker 2 On our team, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So he's the worst, Torklson.

Speaker 2 I don't even think Torque could start it. No, right.

Speaker 1 That's what I'm saying. Yeah, Jackson Jove.
Jackson Jove couldn't do it either.

Speaker 1 Torkelson would look at it and just be like, what is this? What is this witchcraft? He's like, is this algebra?

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. I think there's a lot of guys that

Speaker 1 couldn't do it because

Speaker 2 you got to know the lingo and the jargon. There's a lot of words that repeat every day.

Speaker 2 If they ever talk about a cookie, it's an Oreo. If they ever have a lake in there, it's eerie just because there's vowels and stuff in there.

Speaker 1 Wait, are we talking about the full crossword or are we talking about the mini?

Speaker 2 Well, the crossword mini is pretty easy. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 I just want to make sure that we're not changing. So we're talking about

Speaker 1 New York Times. Yeah.
Yeah, is it USA Today or New York Times?

Speaker 2 The New York one, I think, is really hard, and the LA one is like, that one is fucking impossible. Okay.

Speaker 1 Like, you can't do it. You can't do it.
Yeah. Well, I can't do any of them.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but I think it's USA Today.

Speaker 1 I think that's the one that. That one I think has pictures in it.
Yeah, it's pretty easy.

Speaker 1 It's like an IHOP menu.

Speaker 1 What is this? I have it on my phone.

Speaker 2 It's a picture of Pancake. So that way on off days I can do it.

Speaker 1 You got to get a newspaper and just. No, it's USA Today.
There's no pictures. Yeah, no, there's pictures.
Oh, we're looking at it right now. This is not pictures.

Speaker 1 What is this? And it's a picture of Snoopy. Yeah.
Look, this is USA Today. It's like this color

Speaker 1 word.

Speaker 1 Three letter word for Snoopy. We need to print it out, and I want to see how far you guys can get it.

Speaker 1 You're literally just coloring a Cheesecake Factory menu every day and being like, wow, Jake Rogers, I need your help.

Speaker 1 We got to get a newspaper in Detroit on game, like days that you're starting to make the world's easiest crossword puzzle and put it out just so that you can get in, get out.

Speaker 1 Do you do it just on days that you're starting or do you do it every day?

Speaker 2 I try to do it every day. Sometimes schedule dictates if I can do it before my day starts versus versus after my day starts.
But I usually try to carve out, you know, 20 or 30 minutes to do it.

Speaker 2 But that's,

Speaker 2 you know, sometimes if I can't get it in 20 minutes, I'm, I mean, you're pissed off too.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's like, this isn't even worth it anymore.

Speaker 1 But probably sharpens your mind. Probably kind of wakes you up a little.

Speaker 2 I don't, I don't, you'd think I'd have a sharper mind, but I don't think that there's much

Speaker 2 going on for me.

Speaker 1 You should actually, all right, so let's talk about the contract.

Speaker 1 Maybe start doing the LA crossword and then throw that in that big Boris Boris binder being like, this guy's actually the smartest pitcher that's ever been created.

Speaker 1 Look at how many times he's done the crossword puzzle.

Speaker 2 We could get four guys that do the crossword every day, the USA Today one, and we could all sit at a table and try to do the LA one and we won't get it.

Speaker 1 Okay, so what you're saying is the bright lights of LA and New York are too bright for me. Or too big for me.
No, okay.

Speaker 1 More yeah. That's exactly what that was.
Okay.

Speaker 1 10 years, 425.

Speaker 1 That sounds good, doesn't it? That sounds good. That sounds good.
I feel like if you get anything over that, you should probably kick a little piece to us.

Speaker 2 If you guys have

Speaker 1 your contracts up, we'll tweet about you non-stop being like, this guy, we could just say he needs $1,200.

Speaker 1 We anchor the negotiation there. Yeah,

Speaker 2 we could negotiate some stuff. You'd have to talk to Boris about it.

Speaker 1 Let's be honest, what we can do is, after every single good pitch you throw, after every single quality start you have,

Speaker 1 we will be your propaganda department and just raise awareness of how incredible the season that you're having truly is. And then I think

Speaker 1 you already said 10 years for 40. 425? 425 would make you happy.

Speaker 1 So anything beyond that, you're just being greedy. Yeah, you are.
So you got to give it back. It's all expendable that you can cut to the bus.

Speaker 2 If I get above 425, then you guys can have the. Yeah.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Deal. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think we need to go to Boris's office and just like sit down with him and be like, listen, Scott,

Speaker 1 we've taken a shit in your office somewhere and we didn't flush. We're not going to tell you until you get to the ship.

Speaker 2 Next time, upper deck.

Speaker 1 I will upper deck him if he doesn't cut me out.

Speaker 1 There are multiple shits in your office right now, and none of them didn't flush.

Speaker 1 If you want us to leave,

Speaker 1 get us in on this deal. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So back to your complete game.

Speaker 1 It's been a story this year. You haven't, you've been pulled a bunch before 100 pitches.
You did, I should, I did a bad job of saying the complete game.

Speaker 1 It was technically a Maddox, which is one of the coolest things when you pitch a complete game under 100 pitches. I think that's like the height of efficiency.
Maybe cooler than a no-hitter.

Speaker 1 Just going to throw that out there. So you did it under 100 pitch.
No? No. I mean, no hitter.
Everyone throws a no-hitter. No, no, that's not true.
There's so many no-hitters.

Speaker 1 Yes, there are. There was a no-hitter in the World Series a couple years ago.
Remember that? Non-stop. Wasn't that Roy Holiday? It was a.
Max, you remember that game? Yeah, Max.

Speaker 1 Who threw the no-hitter in the Wider Series? Wasn't there a no-hitter in the World Series a few years ago?

Speaker 2 I think Roy Holiday did it in the post-game.

Speaker 1 This was, I forget who's playing.

Speaker 1 Your mic's not on.

Speaker 1 Max knows. That didn't count.
No, well, did you get any hits? Did the Phillies get any hits? That didn't count. Did the Phillies get a hit? Combined no-hitters do not count.

Speaker 1 Does a combined no-hitter count?

Speaker 2 Those aren't as cool as doing it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's fine.

Speaker 1 It's no hitter, right? But ask Max a separate question.

Speaker 1 Ask Max if the Phillies got any hits in the game.

Speaker 2 The Phillies got no hit in a World Series game.

Speaker 1 It didn't count.

Speaker 1 Combined no hitters don't count. It didn't count.
He just said combined no hitters don't count. He's saying combined no hitters don't count.
But ask him again: did they get a hit in the game?

Speaker 1 When was this?

Speaker 1 In the World Series.

Speaker 1 What year?

Speaker 1 What year was it, Max? It was the year against the Astros. I don't know.
The Astros, yeah. Let's see.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they had no hits in the game. Well, that's because it was a combined no-hitter and no one cares about combined no-hitters.

Speaker 2 Yeah, combined no hitters aren't as cool.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but still,

Speaker 1 instead, did they get a hit? This is like a perfect example of why it doesn't count. But is it a no-hitter?

Speaker 1 It's a no-hitter.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, I I guess it's a no-hitter because they got no hits.

Speaker 1 No, yeah. I mean, you're right.

Speaker 1 Right. It's pretty sad.

Speaker 2 It's not as cool as a starter doing it in the second. That's fine.

Speaker 1 We never disagreed with that. Yeah, but the fact is, no hits.
Max calls it a zero hitter, which is just insane levels of cope. Yeah.
All right. I think that makes sense.

Speaker 1 Either way, the Maddox was awesome. So did you talk to A.J.
Hinch after when you pitched your complete game? Did he say, like, hey, if you had gone over 100, we would have had to pull you?

Speaker 2 No, I mean, sometimes

Speaker 2 when you're walking off and his thing's the handshake, right? When you get the handshake, you're done.

Speaker 1 What if you ever just not done, like, what if you just don't shake his hand?

Speaker 2 I've never done that. You should try that.

Speaker 1 He can't pull you.

Speaker 2 It doesn't really go over well. I've shook his hand and then argued it a little bit.

Speaker 1 And then that's straight to the tunnel. Well, that's straight to the tunnel.

Speaker 2 And then you hash it out down there.

Speaker 1 Give him a little of this next time.

Speaker 2 It's not going to go over well.

Speaker 1 He makes a good point, though, because if you do the handshake, that's sealing the deal. Yeah, he's like, there's no conversation after after the handshake.

Speaker 1 You're agreeing with a man, you're giving him your word. But if you don't shake the hand, then no agreement has been made, and it's all up for negotiation.
Yeah,

Speaker 2 I probably won't.

Speaker 2 He's so smart. AJ's, I mean, he's the best manager in the game.

Speaker 2 So wherever he wants to take the game or whatever he wants to do, the matchups that he wants to create from the bullpen coming in, I'm never going to doubt that. Like,

Speaker 2 I'm never going to doubt that.

Speaker 2 During that game where it was a complete game, I didn't think I gave him a reason to take me out of the game.

Speaker 2 And most times you can give him a reason to take like if you watch the last couple innings maybe you're spraying a little bit you're not getting as much weak contact it's getting a little loud okay we're going to the bullpen right so um he's very smart about that and he does a ton of research you know you walk by his office he's got his laptop up and if you just walk in to just talk about whatever he'll be going over matchups of of pockets he wants to create for relievers that come in to face this certain part of the lineup and then they're going to pinch it for these guys and then i i want actually want this guy to get the pinch hit for.

Speaker 2 It's like, it's insane. He's really good at his

Speaker 1 thinking plays ahead. No doubt.

Speaker 1 No doubt.

Speaker 2 It feels like we're always, it feels like every move that is made during the game, pinch hit, bullpin move, whatever happens, it feels like it's always in our advantage, which I love. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And at the end of the day, I'm trying to win. So if he's giving me the handshake, it's like,

Speaker 2 one, I probably gave him a reason to take me out of the game. Maybe I'm walking, guys, or my velocity is starting to decline, or

Speaker 2 it's getting a little loud.

Speaker 2 You know, maybe the quality of contact, it went from being, you know, pretty low exit V lows to now they're getting to the hundreds or 104 and there's maybe a play at the at the fence.

Speaker 2 And he always protects his guys too. He always protects his starters.
He doesn't ever want his starter, like if his starter is pitching really well,

Speaker 2 he doesn't ever want the starter to kind of pitch himself into a loss after a really good day just because it puts a sour taste in your mouth. So I trust him a ton in that.

Speaker 2 Going back to the complete game thing,

Speaker 2 they hadn't hit the ball really hard at all. I felt like I was in complete control of the game.
I had 11 strikeouts at the time through eight. I was at 80-something pitches.

Speaker 2 I knew who was coming up in the lineup.

Speaker 2 I think Jose Ramirez was, I just, or he had just like hit 109 to left field single. And I'm like, thank God, great, great at-bat for me.
Like, he's one of the best hitters ever.

Speaker 2 And I knew I was kind of in control of the game. So if there was going to be a handshake there, I,

Speaker 2 That would have been maybe one of the few times I would have strongly disagreed with it.

Speaker 1 Don't give him the handshake.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but I don't think there was a doubt in anybody's mind. It didn't even cross my mind that I was coming out of the game.
I kind of knew I was at least going to go out there.

Speaker 2 And then I didn't, at no point was there ever a reliever warming up. So I knew I was in control of that game.

Speaker 1 I got a really dumb question. I don't know why this is the first time in 40 years of my life that I've had this pop in my head, but you're a lefty.
Is it weird shaking hands with your right hand?

Speaker 1 No. No.
Yeah, that's kind of dumb question. We've just beaten you to suspicion in the middle.
Dumb question. Yeah, it's just.
Yeah, we just have forced all of you lefties to do this.

Speaker 2 That's society. Yeah, you just kind of, it's always right-handed.
If I were to walk up to you today and been like, I'd be like, what the hell is this guy doing up?

Speaker 1 I would think you're injured or something with your right hand. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Yeah, I go with that.

Speaker 2 You know, the biggest thing being left-handed is growing up, the scissors are for right-handed people to cut scissors.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And they don't fit the same for lefties. Like, they're not like ambidextrous scissors.

Speaker 1 My son's a lefty, so he's going to have to.

Speaker 2 Buy him left-handed scissors. Seriously, he'll thank you for that.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Wait, let me try a left-handed handshake with you.

Speaker 1 It's going to mess you up. Okay, you can stay sitting.
It's going to mess you up.

Speaker 1 If Scoobel shakes my hand, then he's going to give us 10% of his new contract.

Speaker 1 Oh! You hate that. It's dealing.
That's good. That's a deal.
You hate that. Oh, that is weird.
Are left-handed handshakes enforceable in court? Yeah. I don't know.
I think they're more enforceable.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Like, because you had to go out of your head.
Sound mind and body. Like, no one would ever do this with their left-hand hand.
That's not an auto-pin. That's a left-handed.

Speaker 1 Like, I have the intent behind this right now.

Speaker 1 I got a question about you had a very funny interaction with Alex Bregman earlier this year where he was beating you up. Someone in here loved it.
Yeah, Hank loved it.

Speaker 1 He was beating you up this year.

Speaker 1 I think he had three hits off you, and you just told him in between innings, take the first pitch.

Speaker 1 And he actually did. Yes.
And then he got a hit. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So he went first pitch

Speaker 2 107

Speaker 2 to the center fielder. It may have been a double or something, a single.
And I was like, oh, okay, swing up the first pitch. That's nothing new to me.
Everybody swings up the first pitch.

Speaker 2 So he does it. Second pitch, homer.

Speaker 2 And I get back in the dugout. And like, I have fun when I'm playing.
You know, you're competing, but like, I also enjoy just the game. And

Speaker 2 I like Bregman. I like the way he plays the game.
I love everything about him. He's a grinder.
I've heard great things in the clubhouse about him.

Speaker 2 And so I go down to the other side of the dugout and I'm like, hey, take one. Can you please take one? You're next at bat.

Speaker 2 And then he steps in the box for his third at bat and I kind of give him the hands like, hey, just take one. Yeah.
And I threw a strike and he took it and I go, I started laughing because he did it.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And then the next pitch single. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, I go, and then he gets the first.

Speaker 2 I go, maybe take two next at bat.

Speaker 1 Yeah, right. You just take, maybe I'll just walk you.

Speaker 2 How about that?

Speaker 1 Do you think you maybe, I actually talked to Bregman about this because I wanted to get it, like figure out what you were throwing. He said that the splitter.

Speaker 1 That was what that's what he can hit off you.

Speaker 2 So splitter. Yeah.
I don't even throw it.

Speaker 1 Or what is it? No,

Speaker 1 shit, maybe it wasn't the splitter. what did he say hank

Speaker 1 well that yeah i mean if this what did you throw what did you throw there it wasn't the four seam maybe it was two seam

Speaker 1 maybe it was sinker yeah said he hit one off the wall in the playoffs last year off you and he he feels like that gave him a little confidence so well if you watch the rest of that game i don't think there was go you should there you go you should not have said that you don't throw a splitter because now everybody's gonna be like well i used to throw a splitter i used to throw a splitter and it was horrible so i had to stop throwing it maybe just ought to have sent back to toledo if i kept throwing that pitch.

Speaker 1 Just tell people that you're bringing it back, then that's one more pitch they get to look for.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I got it in my back pocket, though. Yeah, you do.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I throw a sweeper, gyro, ephes.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'll throw an ephis. Have you ever thought about throwing an ephis? You should do it once, just for us.

Speaker 2 I've thought about it, but

Speaker 2 in the reason I don't think I'll ever do it is the slim chance that it gets just destroyed.

Speaker 1 And I would be

Speaker 1 funny, though.

Speaker 2 I would have no answer to anybody if I give up a homer on a 65-mile-an-hour pitch.

Speaker 1 Granky, I think, threw one. Yeah, but Granky's weird.
Yeah, he is weird. I think he threw it a couple times.
It's just always weird.

Speaker 2 But it's like, that's part of his game, though. Yeah.
You know, the Ephesus is not part of my game.

Speaker 1 Have you ever thought about the gyro ball?

Speaker 2 The gyro ball? Yeah. Like slider?

Speaker 1 I don't know. The gyro ball.
That's when Dice K came over, everyone was like, it's a pitch that no one's ever seen.

Speaker 2 Yeah, they just all call, I mean, it's the fork ball now. It's like, it's a different splitter.
You know, that's kind of what it is. But,

Speaker 2 you know, gyro now is called those are called sliders so that's like the gyro slider you're looking for bullet spin that's what gyro means is is bullet spin which bullet spin so like the ball is literally you know the axis is through the baseball this way and it's sideways spinning yeah

Speaker 2 like a bullet yeah so a right-handed gyro is going to spin this way a left-handed gyro is going to spin that way and you're basically just trying to kill vert and kill horizontal it's gonna like gravity is gonna pull this ball down yeah in the nose will get pulled down and then it'll I mean there's a whole I could get about as nerded out about it as if you want.

Speaker 1 We were talking to Paul Skeens a couple months ago, and he still carries around a baseball with him.

Speaker 1 And he just, you know, does like different grips on it, always trying to figure out what a new pitch that he could throw is. Do we have a new pitch that's coming out of the Arsenal soon?

Speaker 2 I try to throw a sweeper.

Speaker 2 Once in between every start, I try to get a sweeper grip that I like, and it doesn't work.

Speaker 2 I can't throw it, but I keep trying because it's like, oh, well, maybe if I put my finger here, or maybe if I put this finger here, you know you constantly are tinkering with things but what about what about a knuckleball

Speaker 2 I I have a tough time spiking my uh I don't have the most mobile fingers okay for a knuckleball you kind of I can't really spike anything like guys will throw like spiked curveballs where they're knuckles like this and it hurts my knuckles to like do that I don't have very mobile fingers I don't think so I don't know if that'll ever come how many change-ups do you have one just one just one grip and then counts dictate if i want to throw it a little bit harder a little bit slower um

Speaker 1 at bats dictate that too but the changeup is awesome i feel like greg maddo thrown it more i think it's your most thrown pitch right now yeah yeah i think greg maddox had like five different kinds of change-ups that he would throw and at some point you're like dude it's just pick like maybe one maybe two if you're feeling frisky well yeah i mean if you if you want to throw change-ups like that like he did i mean he's throwing like cut changeups on purpose he's throwing like straight changeups he's throwing changeups that sink.

Speaker 2 He's throwing change-ups that go straight down.

Speaker 2 I mean, Hendrix kind of does this too. Yeah.
He'll throw like cut change-ups, cut, change-up, cut change-up, and then like he throws cut change-ups to righties.

Speaker 2 And then later into counts, he'll throw like the backdoor sinking change-up, and you think it's going to cut off, so you take it, and then it runs back on.

Speaker 2 So I think you got to have a ton of feel to do that,

Speaker 2 to really do that with change-ups.

Speaker 1 You just talked about a 109-mile-per-hour hit that you gave up, a single, and you're like, I was okay with that. That's fine.
He's a great batter. I can live with that one.
He wasn't a homer.

Speaker 1 Do you have a favorite hit that you've given up? Like an at-bat that you worked really hard on?

Speaker 1 We've asked quarterbacks this, like, do you have a favorite interception that you've ever thrown?

Speaker 1 But do you have a favorite hit that you've given up where you feel like, okay, that was a massive win after that at-bat?

Speaker 2 I mean, anytime you keep

Speaker 2 the best players in the yard, you know, like Aaron Judge, Jose Ramirez, Otani, Mookie, Freddie, like,

Speaker 2 anytime you just give up a single to those guys, you're like, you can live with it.

Speaker 1 Great, great at-bat. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Great at bat.

Speaker 2 You know, even if, I mean, with runners and scoring position, maybe a little bit different, but like, I gave up a single to Aaron Judge, I think maybe in Williamsport last year, and he hit it like 114 on the ground.

Speaker 2 And he got to first base, and I was like, hey, nice job, man. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Thank you.

Speaker 2 It wasn't a homer, so thank you. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But yeah, you try to keep, you know, really good players, just if you keep them in the yard, and if, especially if they're not like, you know, trying to steal bags like that, where they're not running a ton,

Speaker 2 it's kind of a advantage for the pitcher because you know you can get a ground ball and get a double play and um you know get two outs for the price of one especially when those guys are so good yeah what about a favorite strikeout favorite strikeout um

Speaker 2 i mean that one to end the complete game is probably the best one i mean it's the hardest fastball i've ever thrown there was one in that game in the seventh inning to uh manzardo that was a sinker like down and away kind of off to back on and that was a hundred and two and that one felt good out of the hand too

Speaker 1 was the Was you swearing, walking off the field, and your mom getting mad? Was that off of a strikeout in the playoffs?

Speaker 2 That was off of double play.

Speaker 1 Okay, I was like, first and third, double play. That was maybe the best double play.

Speaker 2 It was a big moment, you know, and then,

Speaker 2 I mean, I don't know what happened that day. I think, I mean, the Cleveland fans were great, too.
I like going there. It's fun.
And then the playoff series was, that's like, that's playoff baseball.

Speaker 1 You actually have a big-time hater in this office that I think. I know.
I was wondering if I was going to see him. You'll see him.
Yeah. Yeah.
Tate is a big Guardians fan, and he

Speaker 1 just writes blogs constantly. Like, he had an entire campaign that Clause should have won the Cy Young last year.

Speaker 2 I can't keep my name out of his mouth.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and then he does. That's a good idea.
And then he's writing like the Tigers should trade you right now because you're not going to re-sign.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, you'll get to meet him.

Speaker 1 Here's a question. This might be insider trading, but we're just going to do it anyway because

Speaker 1 we're basically part of your agent team now. I think that was clear.

Speaker 1 Do you have like a very good friend starting pitcher on another team? Like, who's your closest friend?

Speaker 2 On another team?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 See,

Speaker 2 I've had a cool opportunity to just play on one team my whole career.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Like, no trade.

Speaker 2 I've been drafted by the Tigers, play with the Tigers. So like on the team is

Speaker 2 Casey Myers. Okay.
Me and him have come up together. But on another team, it's probably

Speaker 2 Matt Boyd.

Speaker 1 Okay. Yeah.
So he's a pitcher, and he can, so here's what we need to do. We need to figure out whenever you play him,

Speaker 1 you need to be like, hey, Skip, I'm ready to bat today.

Speaker 1 And you go up, he throws you a meatball, you hit a home run, and then when we get that big binder from Scott Boris, we're like, Tarek Skubel, if you actually did the math, he would have 450 home runs if you gave him the show, hey, you know, full treatment of the bats.

Speaker 2 I always say, yeah, I like that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's a good idea, right?

Speaker 2 There's no chance I could hit, first off.

Speaker 1 What do you mean?

Speaker 2 Dude, I can't hit. Go pull up the table.
We're going to cut this part.

Speaker 1 Not with that at it. We're going to cut this part.

Speaker 2 At the end of his career, I mean, great player, right? But he was throwing 84, 86, and I thought it was like 102. Like, I can't see the ball.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 2 I do say this, though. I do say I'm the best bunner in Major League History.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 2 I work with Bryce Wilson. I faced him in Pittsburgh, and I went 0-0, got my sack bunt down, and I have one bun attempt, got it down.
So

Speaker 2 in any big situations, I always say I'm the best bunner in Major League history.

Speaker 1 You can't take that away from me.

Speaker 2 I'm one for one. Never.

Speaker 1 How were you at base running?

Speaker 2 Well, I was out.

Speaker 2 I sacrificed myself because I'm a team guy. Yeah.
So I got my bunt down. I'm a big team guy.
I ran to first base. I was out by 10 steps.
Did you run it out? Yeah, I run it out.

Speaker 1 So you're slow.

Speaker 2 No, I was pitching. So, you know, you kind of, it's a courtesy.

Speaker 2 Once I knew he fielded it, I was like, well, the only way I'm safe is if he

Speaker 2 yips it up the line. But

Speaker 2 so I got out of the box all right, made him think that I maybe could be fast and then shut it down.

Speaker 1 But are you fast?

Speaker 2 I wouldn't claim that I'm fast, but I'm not, I don't think I'm slow.

Speaker 1 You should either. I mean, you're a hoss.
Hosses can't be fast. Yeah.
Like, if you wanted to be fast, you'd have to give up hoss. I'd rather be a hoss than fast.

Speaker 2 No doubt. No doubt.
But I'm not slow. I don't think I'm slow.

Speaker 2 I think I can run. I don't think I could run the bases, but I think like

Speaker 1 it takes me a little bit to get going.

Speaker 1 It takes me a little bit to get going.

Speaker 2 But once I get to my, you know, my stride kind of opens up, I think I run decent.

Speaker 1 You run for power. Yeah.
Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm not built for the 100-meter dash, but I'm not built for the 400 or the 1600 or any of those other ones, but maybe like a 250-meter, maybe if you only counted from 75 to the rest of the race.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the finish.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
How fun is Javi bias? I'm pumped for Javi. I love Javi forever.
Him having kind of a resurgence this year and also like playing center field. Has that, like

Speaker 2 your defense obviously very important like is javi just a guy he seems like a very fun guy in the locker room yeah i love him i love him he's always taking care of us you know no matter what the results are on the field he's the same guy in the clubhouse and um he's taken care of us ever since he came over you know he was the first i mean he's he's great too but you know what goes under you know

Speaker 2 overlooked not under overlooked was he's playing center field for parker when parker gets hurt right in spring training parker comes back he plays his first game at shortstop last night for the first time.

Speaker 2 It felt like in, I don't know when was the last time he played shortstop. And he makes an insane play up the middle to save two runs.

Speaker 2 You know, one run scores, but he picks the ball, throws it from his knees. We get an out, and then we get the next out.
So he saves two runs in that aspect, too.

Speaker 2 And that's like such an underappreciated aspect of his game is he'll go from center to third to short to second. We move him all around and he doesn't complain about anything.

Speaker 2 You know, he just wants to play baseball. And I love that about him.

Speaker 1 Yeah, back in 2016, when when we started this podcast, Big Cat took me to a Cubs game, and he was like, watch Javi Baez. Watch how he tags.
Yeah. It's on.

Speaker 1 And I was like, this guy's the best tagger in the history of Major League Baseball. I didn't know that was a skill.
Tags and slides.

Speaker 2 Tagging. No, tagging's like a legit thing.
Yeah. If you're really good at tagging guys out, it makes a huge difference for your catcher, for games.

Speaker 1 Like, he's so good at that. Yeah, and his slides are also like he'll.

Speaker 1 you know, over a course of a, you know, there's some times where Javi will have some weird things happen on the base path, but he will have like, you know, I would say, call it once a month, where it's like, that slide, there's no one else can make that slide.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he looks really cool when he slides. Really, yes,

Speaker 1 he looks.

Speaker 2 He slid into home. There wasn't even a play at the plate, but he slid in the home yesterday.

Speaker 1 Well, it wasn't, I mean, it kind of was.

Speaker 2 The throw was like, you know, 15 feet up the line. So there wasn't a play at the plate, but he slid and just like, as he's sliding, just kind of smacks his hand on home.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, dude, you're really cool. Yeah, I think him and Trey Turner have the best slides in baseball.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Trey, Trey. I mean, he just like, he does, there's no slide.

Speaker 1 He just like glides on the ground. He glides and then stands up in one motion.
It's like a Michael Jackson music video. I don't know how he does that.
It's crazy.

Speaker 1 And also, I love Javi's tattoo, the MLB tattoo. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Have you thought about getting an MLB tattoo maybe on your neck, like the front of your neck? It would show that you love the game.

Speaker 1 This might be something we could.

Speaker 2 It looks great on him. Yeah.
I don't know if it'd look good on me.

Speaker 1 I went to a Cubs game on Saturday, and they employed an interesting strategy with their starting pitcher.

Speaker 1 So they had their starter for a one inning, and then they brought in the other guy, Ben Brown, who historically doesn't pitch that well in the first innings. Then he pitches after that.

Speaker 1 Do you think that baseball managers are ever going to get into a phase where they have some of their best pitchers pitching every single, or as much as possible?

Speaker 1 What do you mean?

Speaker 2 That's like an opener situation. Yeah, an opener.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 if you're the best pitcher, by far. You're not having an opener.
You're not going to have an opener, but wouldn't it be nice to have you go out there every single game for a few innings?

Speaker 1 He's saying, like, if you, like, you're off-day throwing when you're ramping it up, like, instead of off-day throwing in the bullpen, you just are an opener one day.

Speaker 2 I don't know. I mean, I would love to, right? Like, I have a bullpen today at the field.
I would love to just throw it in the eighth in a penny.

Speaker 1 Yeah, opener.

Speaker 2 That's like college ball. Yeah.
You know, where it's like, oh, you're starting Friday. Okay, well, if we're winning on Tuesday,

Speaker 2 this is small, a mid-major guy was where I went to school. But if we were like playing U-W or something on a Tuesday, our coach would be like, hey, don't throw your bullpen today yet.

Speaker 2 If we're winning in the eighth inning, you're going to throw it in the ninth.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, well, that's not really a bullpen.

Speaker 2 This is the game.

Speaker 1 It's high leverage.

Speaker 1 I'm letting it rip.

Speaker 2 But yeah,

Speaker 2 I don't think that'll ever happen just with like arm injuries and the risk of all that stuff. But I get your point.
I think it would be fun to throw a lot. But then you're just a reliever.

Speaker 2 And I'm pretty sure everyone wants to be the starting coach.

Speaker 1 Everybody does want to be the starter. Yeah, but you're right.

Speaker 1 I think if there was one injury that happened, then whoever that manager was, you're staking your career on that decision if you got your best guy going out there.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and like, I think historically, you know, you see it in the postseason where guys will jump back on short rest or whatever.

Speaker 2 I think, I mean, I'd be curious to see the numbers, but I don't think it's like as

Speaker 2 good as you'd think. Like, you want your best pitcher out there, but you want your best pitcher out there on five days' rest.
But on four days' rest or three days' rest, like.

Speaker 2 I think the numbers would probably say that your best pitcher isn't your best pitcher on three days' rest. Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know what i mean yeah so i think the numbers kind of back that too but everyone wants you know like the bum garner thing in the world series where it's like this guy threw one three you know seven like all these games right yeah i mean he's one of the best he's probably the best postseason pitcher of all time maybe if you looked at the numbers but like that is such a rare case because there's also guys that have bounced back on short rests that haven't been very good so can you feel a difference in your arm like what's the difference between four days rest and five days rest just waking up in the morning it's a big difference it's a big difference just having that extra day.

Speaker 2 You know, I think even from five days to six days, you know, seven days, I think, is always too much. Like, if you're throwing once a week, I think you almost feel too good.

Speaker 2 So, you don't want to feel that because then your arm, you just don't even know where the ball is coming out. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But even from five to six is a difference, you know, I think, and just the stuff that comes out of your hand. And then if you go backwards the other way, like

Speaker 2 Last year, my last start was, you know, before the all-star break was whatever. And then the game was on four days rest.

Speaker 2 And I was trying to i mean i'm pitching my first all-star game i'm thinking it's going to come out hot my first heater was like 94 seven and i'm like what the hell like i don't throw 94

Speaker 2 and uh yeah i just didn't have much with me that day and that game was a little bit unique too like nothing matters so your adrenaline doesn't flow the same you know you're like i don't care if i get rocked or if i you know this game doesn't really matter i mean there's a little bit of incentive but um so maybe that's why the adrenaline was suppressed but even then i think i would have fed off the crowd a little bit better and i was letting it rip and it was like 95 and i'm like oh this isn't this isn't normal for me yeah when does the adrenaline start to like when can you feel it like where it's like game day is it 20 minutes before is it right before because that's got to be like the best drug to be like holy shit i'm just ready to go yeah it's insane um you get addicted to it yeah like you get addicted to it um

Speaker 2 It's probably, you know, on days I go, on days I'm pitching, I'm pretty, you know, relaxed and I like to enjoy it and have fun.

Speaker 2 And then once I start my routine and I've had you know coffee probably my you know I drink three shots of espresso like three hours before the game that's kind of my dosage to where I know I'm awake you know for the game and then I'm ready to go

Speaker 2 probably

Speaker 2 an hour and 15 minutes before the game that's kind of when I'm like okay you start to feel it you get the nerves you're not you don't get like shaky but you get like you're ready to go and then you get out there and you start playing catch and then it starts to kind of like go down and then you hear the anthem, and then that's for me.

Speaker 2 Once I hear the anthem, then it's like, okay, okay, it's ready to go.

Speaker 2 My next four or five pitches in the bullpen, or I, you know, I do a batter, and whether I walk and I don't really care what happens, but I just like go through some sequencing.

Speaker 2 And then, you know, once you throw that last pitch, you know, you're ready to go.

Speaker 1 Did you have to tinker with that caffeine regimen? Was there a time when you were like, I'm going to try five, six shots?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I didn't drink caffeine

Speaker 2 until 23. I didn't ever really have caffeine.
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 And then

Speaker 2 it's like one of the best drugs for performance enhancing, like to make you better. There's a lot of research about it, you know, to make you like your brain, stimulus, all that stuff better.
And

Speaker 2 yeah, I didn't start drinking caffeine until I went on rehab assignment.

Speaker 2 And I started tinkering it with it on days I pitched. And I figured four is too much three hours before the game, but three is good and two is not enough.
So it's always like three.

Speaker 1 I'm just going to slap a stellar blue logo on that entire speech right there.

Speaker 2 Yeah, four is too much, two is not enough, three is kind of perfect for me. Yeah, it's it's like martinez, and now I'm like, now I'm addicted to coffee.

Speaker 1 That's how we're gonna do it. We're gonna do it.

Speaker 1 I'm gonna get like paid Instagram ads of school saying all that stuff, and we're gonna cat, we're gonna basically reel in Boris where he's gonna try to sue me.

Speaker 1 And I'd be like, hey, listen, buddy, let's talk. Now that we're at the table together, let's talk about it.

Speaker 2 I need to get some beans.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'll give you some on the way out and I'll send you some. All right, I got a couple last questions.
First is, I need you to address something.

Speaker 1 I was looking at your name on Twitter and just seeing seeing what the buzz is, and I found this one. This is from at Detroit vs.
Everyone29.

Speaker 1 He said, hey, Tigers, I'd love to watch my favorite team play with my kids, but I won't let them watch when Tarek Skubble starts because his pants are too tight. Can this be addressed?

Speaker 1 That's a bad take. That's a bad take.
You do wear tight pants. Do you think that you maybe are too tight for the kids? I don't think so.
Okay, I made that tweet up, by the way.

Speaker 1 I like tight pants.

Speaker 2 I like my pants tight.

Speaker 1 I don't like...

Speaker 2 I've never been like a baggy pant guy. I mean, I'm wearing joggers right now, and this is kind of how I like my pants to fit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, I won't let my son Chris watch you pitch anymore after you told the Guardians to shut the fuck up.

Speaker 1 That was bad. Your mom was right about that.
Yeah, she was. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. But I was impressed this season you apologized for pimping a strikeout.

Speaker 1 Which which what are you talking about? Wasn't that against Netta? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that was,

Speaker 2 there was some stuff going on there, and, you know, you kind of handle it on the line. I'm never going to hit anybody for anything.
Like, I just don't think that's in the game anymore. And,

Speaker 2 yeah, there was some stuff. And I just didn't want, I didn't want retaliation against our guys, too, you know, for me acting like that on the mound.

Speaker 2 So that was kind of like, hey,

Speaker 2 the moment happened. We're all good.
You know, I don't need anybody getting hit on our side either. Great teammate.

Speaker 1 Great teammates.

Speaker 2 Yeah, great teammates.

Speaker 1 We saved lives that day. Self-protending, great teammates.

Speaker 2 Those are the best guys. Everyone knows that.
Great teammate.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think that

Speaker 2 that moment was, you know, I think, I mean, he's a great player, too.

Speaker 2 He's doing a hell of a job this year. But

Speaker 1 yeah, you kind of.

Speaker 1 Other Twitter question. Scoobel is God.
You actually responded to him. That's the guy who gave me the kid who gave me the envelopes.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay.
So have you, we got to get him out to a game. He loves you so much.

Speaker 1 And he sent you a bunch of, he sent you a DM, and I think you responded to it a couple months later being like, yeah, we're friends now. Very cool story.
It's like, you don't have to do that.

Speaker 1 You're the Cy Young winner, and you're responding to a random guy on Twitter. I love that.

Speaker 2 Well, I said I would, I said I would to you guys.

Speaker 2 Um, and he's messaged me a couple different times, and I've kind of got back to him a couple of times, but I haven't gone over the whole ticket situation.

Speaker 1 Okay, we got to get into a game.

Speaker 2 Yeah, let's get him out there.

Speaker 1 Yeah, why not? Because he's your number one. I mean, the fact that you gave me that envelope is still, it will go down as one of the best bets I've ever made just because of the story behind it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that is cool. Yeah, that is unique.

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Speaker 1 This isn't even a question. This is just Hank has a story he wants to tell you because Hank's a huge fan of yours.
We're all huge fans of yours.

Speaker 1 You are a Haas, but Hank, he told us his story a couple days ago. Go ahead, Hank.

Speaker 5 Yeah, huge fan. Obviously, I was a lefty pitcher.
They're a little bit slower, but

Speaker 1 same, same.

Speaker 5 Love watching you play. And I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan last weekend.
I was in an absolute dive bar. I think it's called Anchor Bar.
Carpeted floors, dim lights.

Speaker 5 The TVs were the size of this TV that's above us, like just tiny little monitors. It was like midnight, 1 a.m.

Speaker 5 And they just had Tarek Schubal highlights on a loop.

Speaker 5 I was like, that's what you want in a hometown bar.

Speaker 1 And that's what you're doing. Grand Rapids is sticky a really cool city, by the way.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 I had a great time. That's where High A team is.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 That's where West Michigan White Caps are. And I played there for a little bit.

Speaker 1 I loved it there.

Speaker 2 I think that's our best city for any affiliate we have in the minor leagues.

Speaker 1 It was awesome.

Speaker 5 And that's a great sign of like, you know,

Speaker 5 the city loves you. Yeah, they love you.

Speaker 5 We're just going to throw on, like, what should we put on this TV? Like, just throw on Scoobel highlights.

Speaker 1 Yeah, just have it. Yeah.
it's a 15-minute YouTube. Just have it play all night.

Speaker 1 You know how nasty you have to be as a pitcher to have, like, a long highlight mix that people want to watch at a bar while they're drunk? You have to be really fucking good for that. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 Anchor bar? Yeah.

Speaker 2 I got some buddies that live in Grand Rapids. I'll have them go check it out.

Speaker 1 Yeah. That's a great bar.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 What do you plan on doing against the Cubs on Friday?

Speaker 1 Just tearing them apart.

Speaker 2 I mean, ideally, yeah.

Speaker 1 Got some lefties. Yeah.
So, wait, you said earlier you hardly ever pitch against lefties. Is that an anomaly for for your division?

Speaker 2 Well, it's just

Speaker 2 no one likes the left-on-left matchup, really.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 if they can stack a bunch of righties, they will. And then the lefties you get are dogs, you know, like Kyle Tucker, Schwarber, Harper, Otani.

Speaker 2 Like, you're getting those lefties that are like superstars. All right.

Speaker 1 That are in there.

Speaker 2 Or Don Alvarez.

Speaker 1 Didn't say PCA. That's bullets important material.

Speaker 1 Not a dog.

Speaker 1 Yeah, PCA. He's going to go yard on you.
He says a kitty cat.

Speaker 2 No, but I mean, they're a good team. It'll be a fun, you know, it'll be a fun weekend.

Speaker 2 And, you know, our crowd, I think we've already, I've seen some stuff about how it's going to be a sellout pretty much all three games. So it'll be fun.
It'll be fun.

Speaker 2 And, you know, you look forward to throwing at home in front of your own crowd and going out there and competing.

Speaker 2 It'll be a good game for sure.

Speaker 1 Who's starting?

Speaker 1 I don't know. I mean,

Speaker 1 we might have an opener again. Let's see.

Speaker 2 Not Boydo?

Speaker 1 Tyone pitched on Sunday. So maybe he can.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 1 or or Ben Brown, if they did the opener, he pitched on Saturday. Okay, wait, Max.
We're also going to run this the next week, so

Speaker 1 how'd it go on? How'd that game go? Yeah, how'd the game go? We're going to run this on like

Speaker 1 that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I went seven shut.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's what happened.

Speaker 1 Seven shut. I love it.
Max, have you been doing the crossword in there? Or is that memes?

Speaker 1 That would be

Speaker 1 no. Wait,

Speaker 1 because I wasn't doing that. So entirely disrespectful.
I'm like, that's actually the most disrespectful thing. Terrence, this is bad for you that Hank's doing this.
Hank didn't go to college.

Speaker 1 We bar schools and answers. Yeah, that's why Hank got it.
The question is, I gotta stop looking. What community do you work for? No, yeah.

Speaker 1 See a pub.

Speaker 1 I was just like, you know, we pulled it up when we were talking about it. And I'm actually pretty proud of my progress.
I don't know. You can't look at that.

Speaker 1 Is that today's? Is that today's? Today's. Okay, yeah, don't look.
Just get him one clue. Give him one clue that you haven't gotten.

Speaker 5 Jerry O'Connell is obsessed with Tiffany Gomez's

Speaker 1 feet.

Speaker 5 And he calls him this.

Speaker 1 Child's word for foot. Yeah, give him which one across.
You guys haven't gotten one across yet. No.
Do one across.

Speaker 5 Vicinity. Close?

Speaker 2 How many letters?

Speaker 1 Four. Area, probably.
Ooh. That's what I would guess.
This is bad, though, if Hank can do this crossword. You might have to go to New York Times or L.A.
Oh, yeah, there we go.

Speaker 2 All right, now you go one down. What's one down?

Speaker 5 One down.

Speaker 5 Seek permission, ask.

Speaker 5 There we go.

Speaker 1 Two down starts with an R.

Speaker 5 Two down, R, insecure, actress, Issa Ray.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I don't know. I don't know who that is.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, you got it. Oh.

Speaker 2 Three down starts with an E.

Speaker 5 Lamb's mother.

Speaker 1 You.

Speaker 1 E-W-E. E-W-E.
Yep. Nope.
Four down.

Speaker 1 W-W-E.

Speaker 1 What's four down? Starts with a starts with A.

Speaker 1 Characteristic.

Speaker 2 Attribute, how many letters?

Speaker 1 No, it ends with C T. And it's.
Well, as long as you've got that right. Oh, yeah.
Aspect?

Speaker 1 Characteristic.

Speaker 1 Yeah, maybe try to get two across or three across.

Speaker 5 I got aspect. That's right.
Okay.

Speaker 5 Five down, bad. It's a 2021 Edgerene song.

Speaker 1 Edgereen.

Speaker 1 I don't think that's how you say his name.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't know that. I just love that, Hank, you said E-W-E, and Hank put E-U-E, and he goes, nope.

Speaker 1 All right, Tarek, you're the man.

Speaker 1 Keep crushing it, and we're big fans, and let us know when you need us to negotiate. We're ready to go.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 2 A year and some change. Okay.

Speaker 1 All right. Just put us in.
Put the ball in your hand. I appreciate it.
Yeah. Thank you, guys.

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And now here he is, the goat of the chess world, Magnus Carlson. And now for something completely different.

Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very special guest.

Speaker 1 First ever Grandmaster chess player on this show. I believe so.

Speaker 1 It is Magnus Carlson, the greatest chess player of all time. And I'll start with that, Magnus.
Am I allowed to say you're the greatest chess player of all time?

Speaker 1 Or can we, is it the goat debate is settled? You are the goat?

Speaker 7 I'm not sure I'm the right person to ask, really, but

Speaker 7 I don't mind.

Speaker 7 That's completely fine by me.

Speaker 1 I am the right person to ask. So I'll just say you are the goat.

Speaker 1 Undisputed goat. Who else would be in that conversation?

Speaker 7 Well, there's Garrett Kasparov, who has a very good

Speaker 7 pace, um, I think. And then there's uh Fisher as well, who Bobby Fisher kind of had, I would say, the highest peak in terms of the difference between

Speaker 7 him and his competitors, at least in recent times. The problem with Fisher is that he kind of stopped playing right after he became world champion.
He had like that three-year peak from 70 to 72.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 7 it's hard to say, but I feel like I'm getting there.

Speaker 1 That's all I can ask for. Let's make the case for you because that is what we want to come out of this interview being like Magnus is our goat.
We'll fight anyone who goes after him.

Speaker 1 The case I would make for you is, so you have been world number one for what, 14, 15 years? Is that correct?

Speaker 7 Yeah, I think continuously now

Speaker 7 since 2011.

Speaker 1 Love that. 15 years.
You also are playing in the most difficult era of chess. I would assume you can correct me

Speaker 1 because the computer assist, the computer analysis has gotten so smart that I think I heard a quote that you said in the past, you know, 20 years ago, to learn an opening in chess would take you a month.

Speaker 1 Now people are able to learn it in five hours because they have the computers helping them.

Speaker 1 So I would say that you're playing in the most difficult era because people are able to get up to a top level faster than they were 20, 30 years years ago.

Speaker 7 I agree to some extent that it's kind of harder to set yourself apart

Speaker 7 these days.

Speaker 7 Preparation has kind of become less important because everybody kind of agrees these days that the engine sort of know everything.

Speaker 7 your phone can pretty much come up with the same result as somebody could come up with with days and days of of research. So

Speaker 7 yeah, that part has become a lot easier uh as you said it's so much easier to attain information and to get to a certain level uh so i think

Speaker 7 i think yeah in in many ways it's it's harder to set yourself apart in in these days and honestly if you're talking about normal chess as well the best openings are kind of unplayable these days and if you look at just Gary's area, he was way ahead of his competitors when it came to opening analysis, analysis, and he would win a lot of games purely based on that.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 you just cannot really do that anymore. Go confirm.

Speaker 1 But Gary was playing against plumbers. Yeah, it was a different era.
And also, I think more people are playing these days, right? He was playing against plumbers.

Speaker 1 He was playing against construction workers. Yeah, the rules have changed, too.
It's harder to succeed in this era.

Speaker 1 But when you were talking about the opening, I'm always interested to hear chess players talk about it because the opening, for me, would be like if I learned four moves.

Speaker 1 It's like, okay, I know this opening. At what point does the opening stop and the middle of the game commence?

Speaker 7 Yeah, the openings are very different, of course, because the openings that we play, the openings that we're worried about are not necessarily the same as that we would be on amateur level, right?

Speaker 7 On most recreational level, people learn like a certain setup and they don't necessarily want to play the most sterile lines where you're just going for

Speaker 7 a draw with

Speaker 7 the black pieces.

Speaker 7 I would say the opening these days

Speaker 7 often ends a little bit earlier

Speaker 7 than it used to because we're going out of

Speaker 7 kind of the

Speaker 7 most charted territory a bit earlier. So I would say these days, maybe on

Speaker 7 after

Speaker 7 12, 13 moves on average,

Speaker 7 we can say that the opening is over and the middle game starts.

Speaker 7 I will say, though, that this is one of the reasons why

Speaker 7 I've been pushing to play a different form of chess, call it Fisher Random or Freestyle or whatever, where you actually sort of eliminate the opening completely and

Speaker 7 start from the

Speaker 7 middle game. But

Speaker 7 yeah, we'll see what the future holds on that.

Speaker 1 So that style of chess, that's where you randomize the the back row, right?

Speaker 7 Yeah, you randomize the back row. There are a couple of rules: like the king has to be in between the rooks, so you can castle on both sides, and the bishops still are in opposite colors.

Speaker 7 But the idea is basically that you use the same skill set that

Speaker 7 you have in chess

Speaker 7 to a large degree. But it's supposed to be kind of harder to mask your weaknesses because you cannot count on a certain amount of setups uh that you use because uh it's it's more

Speaker 7 um it's more complicated than than that if the the major pieces start on on different um different squares but for now that is more of a game for for professionals than

Speaker 7 than uh than amateurs really because for at most levels like i i i when people ask for advice for openings and so on i said like,

Speaker 7 play whatever you want, right? And

Speaker 7 anything works as long as you've,

Speaker 7 as, as long as it suits you and you got practice there. Yeah.

Speaker 1 A little bit about your history. At what age were you like, I can do this.
I'm, I have a mind for this that is different than everyone else. Was there an aha moment?

Speaker 1 Uh, and when did you start playing chess?

Speaker 7 I've never looked at myself that way that I, that am necessarily that much different.

Speaker 7 Like I've understood at some point that yes, I can understand the game better than others, but I don't really know why. I don't feel like I'm like I've necessarily got

Speaker 7 a better mind, better memory, and so on. So I started relatively late in chess terms, I would say.
I played my first tournament when I was eight and a half.

Speaker 7 And at that point, I would say I had had roughly half a year of quite significant chess training on my own.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 I would say, so I played the Norwegian championship under 11. I finished in the middle of the field, which, you know, I didn't have any expectations.
I thought that was good.

Speaker 7 And then the next year, I won it.

Speaker 7 I thought, well, I've now beaten a lot of the kids that started a few years earlier than I did, who are a couple of years older, and I've sort of gotten there in one year.

Speaker 7 Then I started thinking, well, maybe

Speaker 7 at least I was doing it in a different way than the others. Like, you know, how we go to soccer practice or

Speaker 7 whatever other

Speaker 7 sport you're doing. Like most kids, if they do that, they do it.
once or twice a week. And then maybe you have a match at the weekends or something.
And this is what kids would do with chess as well.

Speaker 7 There were very often this kids' tournaments in the Oslo area. I wasn't doing that.
I was studying on my own a lot apart from that. Like I was, I wasn't merely playing chess.

Speaker 7 Like I was already living chess to a large degree back

Speaker 7 then.

Speaker 7 And so it was in that sense, it wasn't a surprise that I surpassed the others. But that's when I felt like, yeah, I could actually be quite good at this.

Speaker 1 And what was the moment what how old were you when uh the world started noticing like oh man this guy what when did you go world number one that were you still a teenager

Speaker 7 the first time i was uh world number one was only for i was for about a week uh but that was late 2008 so it was a little before my 18th birthday okay um

Speaker 7 And that was pretty cool. Like that was

Speaker 7 about nine years after I played my first tournament. So

Speaker 7 the progress until then have been

Speaker 7 pretty good. Yeah, that's insane.

Speaker 1 So yeah, you were talking about how you live it, how it's part of your life more so than it is like an activity or a recreation. When you're playing,

Speaker 1 do you

Speaker 1 get the same joy out of winning as you used to, or is it more about the process for you?

Speaker 7 Unfortunately, the like the sad thing about chess as in life is that negative feelings are kind of

Speaker 7 they're enhanced a bit. So,

Speaker 7 like a really painful loss, as people may have seen from my last tournament, like it hits a lot harder.

Speaker 1 You hate losing.

Speaker 7 Yeah, it hits a lot harder than

Speaker 7 the wins. So, I'll have like

Speaker 7 I'll be very satisfied often when I, when I win, I may not always show it,

Speaker 7 but it like the reaction to losing is unfortunately stronger still.

Speaker 1 But I saw how you lost, and I said that I like that because you show me a good loser, I'll show you a loser. Like, you're going to get back in the lab and you're going to be stronger.

Speaker 7 Yeah,

Speaker 7 but

Speaker 7 I don't know.

Speaker 7 Part of me, honestly, when I had that loss recently, just felt

Speaker 7 it was so dumb and so unnecessary.

Speaker 7 And it just made me feel so kind of

Speaker 7 washed and useless that my, my thought for a few days was just,

Speaker 7 I'm not sure, like, why, why am I doing this?

Speaker 7 When I win,

Speaker 7 it's good, but it feels kind of normal. And then when I lose, it's just,

Speaker 7 you know, for a moment,

Speaker 7 the world just falls apart.

Speaker 1 It was so funny when people were like, yeah, he's the bad boy of chess.

Speaker 1 I love that nickname.

Speaker 1 Like, you just get mad after a loss and you're like wow what a bad boy look at this rebel well you also wear jeans yeah true yeah the jeans it's a good boy yeah so you are the bad boy are you the bad boy of chess

Speaker 7 i don't aspire to i sorry i don't aspire to be

Speaker 7 to be uh to be a bad boy i just sometimes

Speaker 7 sometimes i think i'm in a position compared to some of my my my peers i'm in a position where i can afford not to take shit yeah so i I think that's when,

Speaker 7 but honestly, like those moments I had like banging the table.

Speaker 7 Like, I'm generally not going to apologize for outbursts in the moment, as long as you kind of, you realize afterwards, well, you show your opponent the proper respect and

Speaker 7 so on.

Speaker 7 I obviously like, I wish I could have avoided that by winning the game, but I honestly think that there should be room for

Speaker 7 that

Speaker 7 in chess as well. It's a little bit like smashing your racket

Speaker 7 in tennis. It is such an uptight sport to begin with that I think it's okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah, human emotion is good for the game. It's growing the game.
Now, you said something there that you had moments afterwards where you're like, am I washed? I want to come clean.

Speaker 1 I'm not a big chess fan. I saw two clips that week and both of them were your losses.
So I was like, I think I made the comment on this podcast. I was like, all this dude does is lose.

Speaker 1 And so, and then everyone corrected me. It was like, he is literally the best chess player of all time.
He's been world number one for a decade and a half. So I'm going to come clean on that.

Speaker 1 That's on me. You're now my goat.

Speaker 1 But like,

Speaker 1 when you lose a game, do you have those thoughts of like, hey, chess is a young, young, young guy's game. It's a young kid's game.
You see the child prodigies.

Speaker 1 Are you worried about, you know, how much longer you can go

Speaker 7 it has to be said though the way that i lose it depends that particular loss felt so bad and so unnecessary and i guess part of it was well this guy is is young and he's he's uh he's the official world champion and i know that you know this is going to be a big thing but there was another game in the last round where I was losing for parts of the game, but it was a very interesting game and I still had chances to come back.

Speaker 7 And in that game, I was very comfortable with the thought that I might lose because,

Speaker 7 you know,

Speaker 7 it's a good fight.

Speaker 7 It can happen.

Speaker 7 And yeah, you know, I managed to pull through, but if I'd lost, well,

Speaker 7 that would have sucked, but it wouldn't have been.

Speaker 7 wouldn't have been the end of the world.

Speaker 7 You know,

Speaker 7 the time when the kids surpass me, it's gonna come for sure.

Speaker 7 But it's not there yet.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I love that. Wait, so you're saying it was the way you lost.
And also, by the way, you won the tournament. You ended up winning the tournament.
So, like, that should be

Speaker 1 stated.

Speaker 7 As you said, the cliffs that you see,

Speaker 7 I said it before as well. That if people stop caring when I lose, then that's not a good thing.
That's true.

Speaker 1 Don't boo nobodies. That's a famous saying in American sports, Reggie Jackson.
So, wait, so it was how you lost that you were more mad about than losing because losing happens in chess.

Speaker 1 How, how did you lose? Like, what did you, is it a specific tactical error that you made that you're like, how did I miss that? Or was it overthinking?

Speaker 7 Yeah, it was, it was a combination of uh,

Speaker 7 it was a combination of a few things. Basically, I dominated that game most of the game.
I had, I was basically just choosing between the most comfortable ways to win.

Speaker 7 And then he started like digging in, really fighting back.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 it's one of those where my time starts ticking down and I could feel that, you know, my blood sugar was dropping a bit as well. So that that didn't help either.
I got short of time and

Speaker 7 by the end, I had completely,

Speaker 7 completely lost my mind, which is... which is why I felt so

Speaker 7 so washed because I felt that that kind of thing wouldn't have happened to me five, six years ago. But I can definitely

Speaker 7 accept it if

Speaker 7 somebody plays a great game and beats me. Like, that's

Speaker 7 that, that, that, that's fine. Like, it's still gonna suck, um, but I'm fine with it.
If somebody likes in that game just kind of gets outplayed with the white pieces, and then I just like

Speaker 7 implodes

Speaker 7 implode in that way. That was,

Speaker 7 yeah,

Speaker 1 pretty bad.

Speaker 1 It's fascinating to read about what chess players go through during a tournament because I feel like a lot of people that don't follow chess don't realize how much stress these guys are under over the course of a tournament.

Speaker 1 I read, I think it was in the New York Times, it said that you can lose like 15 pounds over the course of a tournament just from anxiety and sweating. Do you go through that at all?

Speaker 1 Or are you able to kind of like keep a level mindset?

Speaker 7 I don't know. It depends on the tournament.

Speaker 7 But what I will say is that

Speaker 7 I got to

Speaker 7 where I am now, which is at my in-laws summer house with my wife. I got here a couple of days ago.
And like my appetite since I've been here has just, I've just been eating non-stop. So I probably

Speaker 7 had some energy to recover after that tournament.

Speaker 1 Can you get a snack if your blood sugar drops? What are the rules about that?

Speaker 7 No, you can definitely get snacks. And

Speaker 7 I usually am quite good at regulating that during games.

Speaker 7 And

Speaker 7 I mean, that particular day, I mean, okay, the excuse train starts.

Speaker 7 But that particular day,

Speaker 7 I had walked to the city, which is about a 45-minute walk because a lot of roads were closed because of a bike ride, and then because of that, well, also, I'd be golfing earlier in the day with my coach.

Speaker 1 You got to golf, you got to golf, yeah, you got to golf.

Speaker 7 We started five o'clock, so yeah, why not?

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 7 and then uh, there, yeah, I was everything was delayed, so

Speaker 7 I only had time to um

Speaker 7 uh to get some Chinese takeout.

Speaker 7 That was right by the playing hall. I brought it into the playing hall and started eating it during the game.
So

Speaker 7 I was kind of fine, but my body was like a little bit more stressed than usual. And so I felt that I needed to be a bit more vigilant.
And the thing is,

Speaker 7 as I said, I'm usually very

Speaker 7 conscious about those things. If I know that I have a winning position, but it might go on for another

Speaker 7 half an hour, I will regulate based on that, get an extra snack or something. But, you know, sometimes when the brain just malfunctions, you forget about it.
You forget about those things.

Speaker 7 And then it is just a good old-fashioned meltdown.

Speaker 1 It sounds like you beat yourself. And also,

Speaker 1 you got to have a snack coach. You got to have a guy that's at your side with a suitcase filled with pretzels, ice cream.

Speaker 1 We can learn. We can improve from this.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's my go-tho. You beat yourself and we get to get you started.
I know.

Speaker 7 I mean, usually I have to give my opponent credit. Like, it doesn't come out of nowhere.
If he doesn't start fighting like a lion in a lost position, then we don't, then we don't, don't get there.

Speaker 7 Like, he could have laid down, but he, he didn't. But yeah, of course, I

Speaker 7 large. That's the game I win.
98% of the time. Yeah.

Speaker 7 It is what it is.

Speaker 1 I've got a couple of dumb questions for you.

Speaker 1 Is there such a thing as like a fantasy chess league where

Speaker 1 I can draft, I guess not players, but you know how like if you play, I know you play fantasy soccer or fantasy football,

Speaker 1 but you know how you can get the team and you can get like certain players on the team. What if I were able to draft like your knights on my fantasy chess team?

Speaker 7 The funny thing is we're actually we're actually working on that.

Speaker 7 There's a company called Take, Take, Take, which does like a little bit of chess app.

Speaker 7 It was like a watchstone for chess. And we do a lot of YouTube stuff as well.

Speaker 7 And we are working on exactly that thing you're talking about in that if you think about it as a normal fantasy team that the chess players are sort of the teams and then the pieces are the players that you draft.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 7 So

Speaker 7 yeah,

Speaker 7 we're definitely working on that and other kind of like simpler fantasy games as well that are more based on

Speaker 7 predictions. But

Speaker 7 yeah,

Speaker 7 there definitely is

Speaker 7 something

Speaker 7 to be said for that in chess.

Speaker 7 We want to give people an extra incentive to watch, let's say, you got my H pawn and there's some kind of end game where you know, like, if that pawn

Speaker 7 becomes a queen, you win your, you win your mini league, and so on.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. So, like, what would be, what would be the big board if you were to look across the chess landscape? Would it be your pawns, Magnus's pawns, rank number one?

Speaker 1 Would it be, what's his name, uh, Hikaru, his, his queen, or would it be like Neiman's anal beads? Which one would be 1-1?

Speaker 7 That's a good question. Uh, there's a guy, we're done a few tests, and there's a guy called Alariza firousa from france his queen does

Speaker 7 he just plays like wild complicated games so his queen should be the um

Speaker 1 you know the number one draft pick in any his queen work is insane the best queen in a league yes

Speaker 1 yeah what's your what's your number one piece

Speaker 7 um honestly probably

Speaker 7 probably my queen queen as well although i do feel like my flank pawns like if you want to get in cheap on something

Speaker 1 um that's those are those often live very long and important lives yeah in my games the pawns are the offensive linemen of of chess they are what would be what would be your worst piece

Speaker 7 somehow my

Speaker 7 light squared bishop does worse than my dark sword bishop and i don't understand it's just something about the way that i play it was known about bobby fisher that he like much preferred his light sword bishop to his dark sword bishop, uh, with playing with the white, white pieces.

Speaker 7 But um,

Speaker 7 I don't know, from from me, it's for some reason the opposite.

Speaker 1 Yeah, uh, you, you, you solved a uh 50-piece puzzle when you were two years old. Um, what do you remember what that puzzle was?

Speaker 7 No, no, I don't remember it. But what I do know is that my, my four-year-old nephew,

Speaker 7 he's better than I am.

Speaker 7 He's been better than I am for a couple of years already. So

Speaker 7 we definitely got some

Speaker 7 talent in our in our bloods. Do you know how long it comes to that?

Speaker 1 Yeah, do you know how long that puzzle took you when you were two years old?

Speaker 7 I don't know.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 7 I have very few memories. All right.

Speaker 1 I'm just trying to figure out because I did a 50. uh a 50 piece puzzle with my son like maybe a few weeks ago and it took me a about like 35 minutes.

Speaker 1 So I'm thinking you were smarter than you, as a two-year-old are smarter than me as a 40-year-old.

Speaker 7 I don't know. Honestly, I think the last time I did, I did a 200

Speaker 7 puzzle piece with my nephew. I think that took a couple of hours.
That was embarrassing. Okay.

Speaker 7 I probably think that I was better at two or three than I am now.

Speaker 1 That's crazy.

Speaker 1 Is your nephew, he's playing chess?

Speaker 7 No,

Speaker 7 I don't think he started with uh, with that yet.

Speaker 1 What's the youngest you can be to actually learn the game and to get good?

Speaker 7 So, there, there's uh, there's an Indian kid who's three years old and who's rated 1600.

Speaker 1 What does that mean? What does that mean for us? Because we have no idea what that means.

Speaker 7 Yeah, that means you're a very decent amateur player.

Speaker 1 Um, you beat

Speaker 1 three,

Speaker 7 you're you're you're like a

Speaker 7 middle-of-the-pike player in like a normal chess club anywhere.

Speaker 1 That's crazy.

Speaker 7 And I've seen him play.

Speaker 7 He can definitely move the pieces around.

Speaker 1 Let's say, and I think you're the goat. You're our goat.
You're going to be the goat for a long time. But let's say 10 years from now,

Speaker 1 you get passed up. Would you rather get passed up by

Speaker 1 a five-year-old or maybe someone who's in his 20s?

Speaker 1 I think you'd want to get passed up by a five-year-old in the most hilarious fashion.

Speaker 7 I don't think it's possible to get to that level at five. That's why you're the goat.

Speaker 1 But, you know,

Speaker 7 I want to see somebody. I want to see somebody among the kids really stand out

Speaker 7 and be.

Speaker 7 a serious threat to be that new number one guy who can actually dominate. Because that has been the norm

Speaker 7 in chess, that there's always kind of been that one guy who's who's been better than the others and with the kids right now i don't i don't see it like there are a lot of them are really talented but it's not obvious that some one of them is gonna is gonna dominate so yeah uh i would i would love for that to happen and then i'd probably you know

Speaker 7 try my very best to to hang on for another few years.

Speaker 1 That would be so funny. If Mir Big Cat were playing against this three-year-old, there's a good chance he would just absolutely destroy us.

Speaker 1 He would, 100%.

Speaker 1 And then he'd have to get his diaper change. Like, that's a possibility that that could happen.

Speaker 1 He's peeing himself and just ruining us mentally.

Speaker 1 So for you,

Speaker 1 I know that being number one for so long,

Speaker 1 the longest. The longest of anyone in chess history ever born in the history of the world.

Speaker 7 Actually, Kasparov was about 20 years and I'm 15 years. I don't want to be hurting my case here.

Speaker 1 Okay, all right. All right, fine, but that was also, listen, that's let's just throw this in the middle.
That's the plumber area. Yes, the plumber and also

Speaker 1 USSR geopolitical shit. I don't know.
Yeah, they were cheating.

Speaker 1 They were doping. That's why they're not in the Olympics.
Yeah, actually, oh, no, here's what we'll go with. Kasparov had two different times.

Speaker 1 He wasn't number one for 20 years because he was Kasparov of USSR, Kasparov of Russia. Different guy.
Two different guys. Different guy.
Yeah, the flag changed. The flag didn't change.

Speaker 1 I'm looking right now. The flag had changed.
Head to head. Yeah.
You versus him. Who won?

Speaker 7 I only played him a couple of times.

Speaker 7 You know, 21 years ago, I managed one draw.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 7 we were actually working together back in 2009, which was extremely... after he'd retired uh so he was my coach for a bit which is extremely helpful for me but then we played a few training games.

Speaker 7 We didn't play too many, many because it got too competitive.

Speaker 2 And, you know, I love that.

Speaker 1 It would kind of ruin the whole vibe.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 7 But I think then it was barely even like I had slight edge, but it wasn't,

Speaker 7 there wasn't a huge, huge difference.

Speaker 1 So, so as you've been so good, he's really good. Yeah.
As you've been so good for so long, do you have to find new ways to keep yourself engaged?

Speaker 1 Or are you ever like, I've played all the chess, I've thought about every possible combination of moves? Like, how do you how do you stay at the top if you've been that dominant for that long?

Speaker 7 Easy answer is that I love

Speaker 7 I love playing, and to me, the the next the next tournament is the most important, right?

Speaker 7 Uh, the next game is what I'm what I'm concerned with. So, I there is nothing particular that I would

Speaker 7 that I would love to to win except for

Speaker 7 except for the next game. So

Speaker 7 I'm, you know, I'm still living and breathing when I'm at tournaments, but honestly, I've, I don't have a lot yet to to achieve. So I just, yeah, I just love playing.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Have you thought about maybe trying checkers?

Speaker 7 Honestly, I don't

Speaker 7 even know the rules of checkers.

Speaker 1 So I could

Speaker 1 beat you at checkers. You're a bum.

Speaker 1 I didn't mean that. You're the goat.

Speaker 1 That's very funny. I mean, and also, we definitely couldn't.
Yeah, you wouldn't. You would sit down at the board and immediately you'd say, okay.

Speaker 1 Two seconds to figure it out.

Speaker 1 Can you explain the jeans thing? The fact that you got fined?

Speaker 1 Most ridiculous thing ever. Is that just the chess has to figure out a way to kind of get with the times? Because you actually got fined for wearing jeans to a tournament.

Speaker 7 Yeah,

Speaker 7 the thing was that there was

Speaker 7 a dress code and general dress code was,

Speaker 7 I don't know, business casual or smart casual, something like that. But the thing is,

Speaker 7 I was

Speaker 7 in a lunch that ran a little bit late.

Speaker 7 And I went back to the hotel, got changed. I just forgot to change my jeans.
It was an honest mistake. These were decent jeans.
Like I had a nice shirt. I had a jacket.
I definitely

Speaker 7 met the general criteria for the vibe that you wanted for that tournament. And the most ridiculous part was that

Speaker 7 Chinos were allowed, jeans were not. And players were checked for

Speaker 7 pants that, well, these

Speaker 7 look like like jeans, but they're actually Chinos.

Speaker 1 So it's okay.

Speaker 1 So it was about the material. Somebody came up and had to think about it.

Speaker 7 It's like a 200-player tournament

Speaker 7 in a big hall. And most people,

Speaker 7 they don't make a ton of money from chess. They cannot necessarily afford to have

Speaker 7 nice suits and so on. But in my case, it was an honest mistake.
And

Speaker 7 I was told that I was going to get fined. And if I don't change for the next game, then I will be forfeited, which I thought

Speaker 7 was so insane that I thought there was no way they were going to enforce that, seeing as

Speaker 7 I looked perfectly presentable.

Speaker 7 And, well, then it turns out they did. And then I was like, yeah, fine, whatever.
Yeah.

Speaker 7 I don't like,

Speaker 7 I didn't.

Speaker 7 I understand that, you know, they have certain rules and they want to want to enforce them. But I think

Speaker 7 the,

Speaker 7 you know,

Speaker 7 I still think it was absolutely ridiculous, but yeah.

Speaker 1 Bad boy.

Speaker 7 I'm not sure if I'm the best ambassador for

Speaker 7 the whole jeans thing because I like wearing jeans, but as I said,

Speaker 7 it was an honest mistake, but

Speaker 7 it's become a thing now. So now I'm obviously wearing jeans for everything.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I like that. Can you wear shorts?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 7 One player was actually forfeited for

Speaker 7 wearing shorts at a tournament.

Speaker 1 That's crazy.

Speaker 7 And his explanation was that, well, this is a knockout tournament and honestly i expected to get knocked out in the first couple of rounds i did i don't have any more more clothes to to to use this is all i this is all i got you you see like this is the level we're at yeah at uh at chess tournaments but i that's why i i loved playing from home uh online tournaments during the pandemic like you can be sure that i was rocking shorts under the table

Speaker 7 in a lot of those online events would you play better if you're wearing shorts yeah so i was i was living like by by the sea so a lot of times i would use the breaks in between games to like go for a little swim i would come back with you know my hair all wet uh

Speaker 7 and with my bathing shorts dripping and just sitting down on the towel and playing the games Love that.

Speaker 1 Love that. Do you think that your hair gives you an edge? Like, can you tell that your opponent gets mesmerized sometimes? Yeah.

Speaker 7 I don't know.

Speaker 7 I'm too lazy to do anything about it, unfortunately. Um, but that also has also become a thing now.
So, whenever I actually make my hair, people just get freaked out.

Speaker 1 Well, you're a heartthrob as well, your bad boy heartthrob goats. Do you

Speaker 1 one last thing about the goat, and I have one last question after that because I know you're going to run, but um,

Speaker 1 you're being humble by saying, you know, kasparov and and everyone else there's no one who can touch you right now though right like no one in a in a in a full tournament setting uh can touch you right now

Speaker 7 um no i i mean i will lose a game here and there and a tournament here and there but at the moment i would say that i i'm definitely the best at every at every format that we we play and honestly my closest competitors are still the uh the old guys guys around my age.

Speaker 7 So, yeah, the kids, they're good, but they're not

Speaker 7 quite there yet. I love that.

Speaker 1 Talk that shit, shit. I love that.
We got to start talking more shit. Can we talk shit on your behalf?

Speaker 1 You did post

Speaker 1 Omar from the Wire

Speaker 1 post.

Speaker 1 That was kind of talking some shit. I like that.

Speaker 7 Is it wrong if I admit that that was not me and that was my social media guy?

Speaker 7 And I probably wouldn't have done that myself.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Are we allowed to post clips from the wire on your behalf?

Speaker 7 Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 Like, you make a great move with your light-squared bishop, and then we do the weebay where he's like looking around, like, holy shit. Yeah.
That one? This one? Sure. Sure.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Are we allowed to tell people that you'd fuck a bitch up with your light-squared bishop any day of the week?

Speaker 7 Dark squared.

Speaker 1 Dark squared bishop. I knew that.
Fuck. All right.
I got to tighten that up. I got to tighten that up.
But we're working on the light squared. Yeah, we're working on it.

Speaker 1 No, that's actually, no, I said it right. It's your, you'd fuck them up with your off-bishop, even the one you're not even good at.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 That's true. You'll beat their ass, you know, left-handed.
I don't know what, what dominant hand you are, but yeah, that's how you dump it.

Speaker 1 Yes, I'm left-footed, though. Oh, that's okay.

Speaker 1 All right, Magnus, I got one last question. We really appreciate it, man.
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Speaker 1 So my last question is,

Speaker 1 so in the future of chess and where you're going,

Speaker 1 how, oh, no, actually, I have a different question because I heard this about you, and I find it very interesting. There's a timer for chess, right?

Speaker 1 So what is the timer in a tournament setting, or is it varied tournament to tournament?

Speaker 7 It varies tournament to tournament, but you can say that classical chess is usually about two hours per game. And then you have rapid chess, which is like 15, 20 minutes.

Speaker 7 And you have blitz chess, which is five minutes or less.

Speaker 1 Okay, so I was listening to an interview, and it was really interesting to me that you said that basically

Speaker 1 there are times when like someone who you're playing, they will take forever to make a decision.

Speaker 1 And you know, in your heart of hearts, like if you go past about 10, 15 minutes, you're you're not going to find something that wasn't there.

Speaker 1 And I feel like that's, that's a good way to live life where it's like people overthink everything now.

Speaker 1 And you're like, in chess, I will have, I will know, like, I will go through through my list of what strategies I want within the first 10 minutes. If it's not there, you got to just make a move.

Speaker 7 No,

Speaker 7 that's true for

Speaker 7 sure. And that is something that chess teaches you as well.
Exactly, that you have to make decisions constantly, and they're not going to be based on perfect information.

Speaker 7 But

Speaker 7 how much better is it going to get if

Speaker 7 you procrastinate? that's uh

Speaker 7 that's uh uncertain before we go one last thing that i will say uh because i'm gonna get in trouble after otherwise

Speaker 1 what's that

Speaker 7 uh it's uh that my wife loves the pizza reviews oh okay okay love that one bite we gotta get you listen are do you come to to america for tournaments i'm coming to vegas for a freestyle tournament in

Speaker 7 July.

Speaker 1 Oh, July. What is a free does a freestyle tournament get crazy? Freestyle, is that the Bobby Fisher one with the randomized?

Speaker 7 Yeah, that's where you randomize

Speaker 7 the starting position, yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay, well, we'll, we'll, we'll exchange contact information. Maybe we get you on a pizza review.
That would be fun.

Speaker 7 Yeah, that would be fun.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 7 She'd love that for sure. Okay.

Speaker 1 Awesome. Well, awesome.
Thank you so much, Magnus. You are our goat.
We will defend you now.

Speaker 1 Who's your biggest rival? Like, who should me and Big Cat set our sights on and make sure that they know that they're not the GOAT?

Speaker 7 I would say

Speaker 7 it's yet to come. There's no way.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you know, actually, the real answer to who your biggest rival is is you not eating Chinese food during a game after playing 18 holes of golf. That's the problem.

Speaker 1 That's the only way you're going to lose.

Speaker 7 Yeah, sadly. Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right. Thank you so much, Magnus.
We appreciate it.

Speaker 7 Thanks.

Speaker 1 Give it up for Chicago. Sebastian Maniscalco's new stand-up special, It Ain't Right, is now streaming on Hulu.
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Speaker 1 Okay, let's wrap up. We got guys on chicks.

Speaker 1 Hank, yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 5 My boyfriend cannot stop golfing. I bought him new clubs for his birthday, assuming he would want to play golf with me, but he has an addiction.

Speaker 5 He has played seven days in a row, only watches YouTube golf videos, and claimed he's going to break 90 this year.

Speaker 5 What is a way to get him away from the course or to be able to get me involved in golfing with him?

Speaker 5 He takes practice swings constantly at home and claims if he did it full-time, he could become pro or make a cool YouTube channel.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 So you bought him the clubs, though. Yeah, so this is you bought him the clubs with an understanding that he would golf with you.
Do you have clubs? Does this lady have clubs?

Speaker 1 Probably not. I honestly think if she just said, hey, can we golf together? He'd probably be like, okay.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And this is also, we've talked about this lesson a million times, but before you start dating, you have to have all your hobbies set because you can't just add golf.

Speaker 1 You can add golf, but you can't add golf addict. No.
There's a difference.

Speaker 1 You could be a golfer, but if this guy's playing seven days a week and YouTube tutorials and practicing a swing in the living room, that's going to, you're going to need to ease into that one. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Hank, are you addicted like that? No, you're not even... You're actually, I wouldn't say you're a golf addict like that.

Speaker 5 No,

Speaker 5 that described me pretty well. Oh, okay.

Speaker 5 I just watch golf. Like, I'll put it on a TV show and watch an episode and then just throw on YouTube golf.

Speaker 1 Do you practice your swing?

Speaker 5 Not really. I mean, I mess around here.
I had some putts, like a little putting green. Oh, nice.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 5 But yeah, I mean,

Speaker 5 every guy just wants to be Ryan Whitney after he's stopped playing hockey. Yeah.
That was like the greatest statement I've ever heard in my life. Yeah.

Speaker 1 My problem with golf is it's not four hours.

Speaker 1 No, no, if you're playing around a golf in most urban locations, if you have to go for a drive to get to the course, you're looking at probably, I'd say, six and a half to eight hour investment.

Speaker 1 That's my thing: 12 holes. Make 12-hole golf courses.
12-hole golf courses would be perfect. You'd be in and out in

Speaker 1 215.

Speaker 1 Done.

Speaker 5 Yeah, or yeah, like you said, it really is, though. You can't pick it up after the fact because

Speaker 5 all the free time, they want to be golfing. You want to be doing whatever else it is.
It's just going to come to a head.

Speaker 1 You can't even substitute a golf addiction for a former addiction that you had. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like you have to, you have to start the relationship being like, just so you know, I've got really 19 holes in my life, and I spend a lot more time with the first 18 than the last one.

Speaker 1 Or, and that's where it's like, it's also, it's, it's, no,

Speaker 1 I was talking about the butt. Oh.
Exclusively butt.

Speaker 5 It's not really feasible because, like, it's an, it's actually insane, like, how expensive country club memberships are.

Speaker 5 But, like, if you are at a country club that has a pool and like a restaurant and stuff, like, oh, yeah, like, you know, just let's hang out at the club.

Speaker 1 But I'm thinking about it now. The move, now that we're talking it out, is for any single guys out there and you're not addicted to golf, pretend you're addicted to golf.

Speaker 1 And then you can slowly ease it back and look like a hero. Ahead ahead of time.
Yeah. Yeah, because you think one day you might get a golf addiction.
Right.

Speaker 1 Or even if you don't get a golf addiction, being like, Yeah, I play golf seven days a week, but for you, I'm going to do five. I'm going to quit.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then just use that time to go to the bar and watch games.

Speaker 5 My fiancé is starting a new job and now is telling me he can't take a day on, day or two off for a trip we had pre-planned for my birthday, which is in his third week.

Speaker 5 I've told him the trip was pre-planned and his job will understand, but he's insisting he can't go because it's a bad luck for his new job, which has turned into a big fight.

Speaker 5 Am I crazy or is he right?

Speaker 1 You got to try. No,

Speaker 1 he's a pussy. Yeah, you got to try.
He should have said. They tell him no.
He should have said when he was applying for the job, hey, I have a vacation in three weeks. Yeah.
Like, is that cool? Yeah.

Speaker 1 He just was a pussy about it. And now.
I also think that's one of those things that's smart.

Speaker 5 And I guess I haven't really ever started a new job, but when you start a new job.

Speaker 1 That's a great statement to have. I've never started a new job.

Speaker 1 You're a one Jersey guy.

Speaker 5 One Jersey guy.

Speaker 5 Just go in and say, I have a pre-planned vacation in two weeks or three weeks in. Because that's always yes.
As an employer,

Speaker 5 you have to be such an asshole to be like, yeah, no.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it happens all the time. They're not going to say, we're not going to hire you because you're taking a Friday office.
Right. Right.

Speaker 1 But as you're going through the application process, you might think that in the back of your head, you got to make sure that they want you more than you need them. Yeah.

Speaker 1 This guy, yeah, to this woman you got to just tell you tell your boyfriend to nut up. What do you say Max?

Speaker 1 My first week at Barstool, my brother was getting married that weekend, and I missed the rehearsal dinner because I was too scared to tell Dave

Speaker 1 early on Friday.

Speaker 1 Well, it's rehearsal. I know, but my brother was mad.
How'd you do? Huh? How'd you do at the wedding?

Speaker 2 I was good.

Speaker 1 You see how you practice? Oh.

Speaker 1 Rehearsal dinner isn't like an actual drink. No, it's not a rehearsal.

Speaker 1 No, that's where the game plan, that's where the install goes in. But it was also around the same time of like the,

Speaker 1 this is,

Speaker 1 this will be real, real ones will remember this, like

Speaker 1 the golf guy that was missing work for golfing, and then Dave fired him. Yeah.
So it was at the... You remember that, Hank? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, this is why whenever you apply for a job, you tell the gambling intern. You tell the employer, like, I have a golf addiction, even if you don't.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And you can just be like, I'm leaving for a golf trip. But I feel like Real Jobs is.

Speaker 5 No, no, no. Real jobs is different.
I didn't, I mean, I didn't do any. I was scared to do anything for like five years with Dave.
That's a little different, but I feel like now we're a real company.

Speaker 5 When we interview people, they say that. It's like, yeah, no problem.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I've had that happen like multiple times in the last year where someone says, oh, yeah, by the way, like four weeks, I have a vacation. Okay, great.

Speaker 1 Happened with Pug when you first started. Yeah.
Happened with Dom, my assistant. He was like, hey, I have a wedding.

Speaker 1 He's like, yeah, no problem.

Speaker 5 Just say that no more, even if you don't. Yeah.

Speaker 1 We're just teaching everyone how to just kind of skirt around.

Speaker 1 You take your first two weeks weeks the second you start. Yeah.
That's how you really get

Speaker 1 system. Yeah.
Honeymoon.

Speaker 5 Sup, Big Cat PFT and Hank. I've been dating my boyfriend for six months now.
We both love to travel and we go into Italy at the end of the month.

Speaker 5 My boyfriend handled booking the flights for us and I just logged on to Delta to confirm everything was put in correctly.

Speaker 1 Uh-oh.

Speaker 5 I was shocked to discover he booked himself in business class and me in economy.

Speaker 5 I'm a teacher and he does very well at his job and I feel like this is 100% a slight what do I tell him that is

Speaker 1 insane you know what it is diabolical insane he sounds like a good guy sounds like this will work out dude why he basically is just setting up for a fight in Italy he might he's he's basically going to a boxing match in Italy I'm going to read this the best possible way and say

Speaker 1 he's going to say when you get to the airport that he's in business you're in economy and then at the last second switch and let you go in business no and if that doesn't happen you need to just not get on that flight.

Speaker 1 Wow. You need to say, like, something's off about this flight.
I don't feel good. I'm going home.

Speaker 1 That motherfucker's not real. Yeah.
Something like that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 There's one thing that I

Speaker 1 oh.

Speaker 1 If he has, what if he has like points? This status, like a certain status that he can sit anywhere on the flight for free. You got to let her know, though.
Yeah. Because

Speaker 2 I've had this fight.

Speaker 1 Wait, you've done this? You both not. No, it's both economy, but I get...

Speaker 1 I can sit like

Speaker 1 six aisle

Speaker 1 and then my girlfriend's like 30 aisle or 30 window. And then I have to go back to 30 aisle.
And I'm like,

Speaker 1 I had six aisle

Speaker 1 with more legroom

Speaker 1 and first off the plane. But it's because

Speaker 1 I can sit wherever I want on the plane. Right.

Speaker 1 All right. So, oh, man.
This is a brutal one.

Speaker 1 If the guy's listening, here's what you got to do. You got to be like, hey,

Speaker 1 I thought that at least one of us should have some sleep on this flight. I'll handle everything when I get there.

Speaker 1 But you're screwed.

Speaker 1 Or he also

Speaker 1 could play the, well, I thought that we could split it. When one of us is sleeping, we can go up to business.

Speaker 1 And the other person can go back. Or maybe it's like, I'll take business on the way there.
You get business on the way back. Here's guys of moron.

Speaker 1 Here's what not to do.

Speaker 1 The second you book those flights. Yeah.

Speaker 5 You know what's coming.

Speaker 1 You know it. Here's what's not to do, and because I've tried this in varying points in my life, where I'm like,

Speaker 1 I'm taller,

Speaker 1 I need this, you don't. That's a bad idea.
Tried that. Doesn't work.

Speaker 5 I've done the reverse because I don't really care that much, and it's a great idea. He just passed out.

Speaker 1 What a crazy move, though.

Speaker 1 He basically just

Speaker 1 signed and sealed his vacation to be a knockdown drag up fight for at least two days.

Speaker 1 It's such a weird move to do that. He can't possibly be like, I'm going to sit in first, you sit back there.
But he would be

Speaker 1 comfortable. He's going to move.
He's going to let her.

Speaker 1 You lose the fight every time. You got to lose that.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, there's no way to win the fight. There's no way to win the fight.

Speaker 1 Even if you get to stay in your seat, like, you're going to lose. She should leave him.
He had to have gotten that seat. They'd been date for how long? He had to have gotten that six months.

Speaker 1 If he doesn't give you the seat, you break up with him. If he spent extra, like, if he spent five grand out of his own pocket to move on to that scene, he said he does well.

Speaker 1 And not also move, then this is the worst guy in the world. You know what? I'm like choosing to believe that this guy isn't that much of an actor.
You know what? Pig Cat makes a good point. The guy,

Speaker 1 he works hard. He does well.

Speaker 1 She's a teacher. He does very well financially.
She should not get to it. Get your cash up.
She probably wouldn't even like it.

Speaker 1 No, this guy's the one. She'd probably be like, what is this bubbly water? Yeah.
That's champagne. Come on.

Speaker 1 Yeah, maybe what you should do is go back in the middle of the flight and give her like an eighth of a piece of pizza and a little sip of like a diapsi. I'll give you the here you go pizza party.

Speaker 1 I'll give you the crackers that they give me.

Speaker 1 You get all my snacks.

Speaker 1 Is that it, Hank?

Speaker 5 One more snack. One more?

Speaker 2 What happened?

Speaker 1 Lost it. Wait, is he a troop? He might be a troop.
If he's a troop,

Speaker 1 that's his seat. Yeah, respect.

Speaker 5 Could Big Cat eat an entire machine of ice cream? Genuine question after seeing him down numerous cups of milkshakes during the Doug Doug challenge.

Speaker 1 What would be the amount of time?

Speaker 1 I mean, mean, that's what? That's gallons. How much ice cream? There's Zach.
What does it go? What goes in there? Don't take off your headphones, Zach.

Speaker 1 Zach, how many gallons hold in there in the machine?

Speaker 1 So it's 20 quarts each side, 40 quarts total, 4 quarts in a gallon, 40 divided by 10 gallons. 10 gallons? No.
Four. Right.
Four gallons. How many gallons in the whole thing?

Speaker 1 One second. Super calculator.
My bad. Super calculator.
He's got the calculator out. 40 quarts.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so there's so 10 gallons of mix, but each gallon of mix makes 1.5 gallons of soft serve. Oh, my God.
So it's even more. Fuck it.

Speaker 1 15 to 15. 15 gallons of soft serve ice cream would be our max if we filled it all the way up.
There's no way. No chance.

Speaker 1 It would take me a month.

Speaker 1 So much ice cream. Yeah, drowned in ice cream.

Speaker 1 All right. Let's wrap up the show.
Zach, I have a question for you. Yes, sir.
I drove you home on Sunday night.

Speaker 2 I had a great time.

Speaker 1 I appreciate the ride very much. Yeah.
What floor do you live on in your

Speaker 1 14th floor? Oh, 14th. Okay.
14th.

Speaker 1 How long, PFT and Hank, how long do you think... 14th floor.
He lives on the 14th floor. How long did you avoid standing next to the windows? Roughly between one and a half to two weeks.
Okay.

Speaker 1 You just didn't go even close. I didn't want to go through them.
Yeah. What do you mean? Like, I didn't want to get close enough.

Speaker 1 Like, I didn't want to get close enough to the the window like say god forbid i asked the leasing lady she said this double pane thick glass but like if you were to go through a window at the 14th floor you're you're finito you're done right so i just stayed a little bit back are these are these like floor to ceiling windows yeah they start at the ground so you can kind of like peek and see like oh you know like oh shit like if i go down there yeah it's over but you have you live in a studio yes so you

Speaker 1 You you took like a quarter of your apartment away.

Speaker 1 I did avoid like a decent amount of the square footage because the window's right there. But I'm more comfortable with it now.
I've got reassurance. And then

Speaker 1 most people let me know I was an idiot and I should just get to the window. How much room would you give yourself between where the window was and where you had to stand? Just like a good foot.

Speaker 1 And then I made sure I wasn't like putting pants on or anything close to it getting dressed in the morning. So I would avoid things that I would have to balance for near the windows too.

Speaker 1 Are you a fall risk? Not a fall risk, no.

Speaker 1 But a window avoider that high sometimes. Window avoider.
I think those windows are built that they could take you.

Speaker 1 They say,

Speaker 1 it's always until I just like the idea of you being in what, how many square feet is your apartment? I think it's like $399. And you were just, you just cut off.
Just say $400. Yeah.

Speaker 1 $3.99. Yeah, you just...
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 You just cut off a portion of your apartment because you're like, I can't get near these windows. But it's on the wall, so you just, it's not like it was.

Speaker 1 It was easily avoidable. Yeah.
Very easily avoidable. We're comfortable near the windows now, pretty much, for the most part.
Pretty much. Now, are you afraid of heights?

Speaker 1 It's the fear of falling that gets me. So, I guess, yes,

Speaker 1 heights, a little iffy on. Yeah, I hear you.
Yeah, people

Speaker 1 are terrified of heights. Terrified.
Although, I went down the brewer's slide last night and they warned me.

Speaker 1 They said, Bernie's slide, if you're afraid of heights, it's a very tough, tough thing to do. No problem.
I've been working on myself. I love that.
I've been working on myself. Oh, it's impressive.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you can do it too. You can use yourself at the playground.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 5 slides are scary. Good job.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 I mean, no, they're good. There was a moment where the kids love slots.
The lady that worked for the brewer was just like, you were so brave. Oh, I was like, thank you.
I was. I was a brave boy today.

Speaker 1 All right. Good show.
Number. Three.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow, memes. God.

Speaker 1 Sick.

Speaker 1 Today's the day, memes?

Speaker 5 60.

Speaker 1 Could be. What's your backup number? Six?

Speaker 1 Backup number 92. 92.
I'll go 92.

Speaker 1 I'll go six. Okay.

Speaker 5 I'm 60.

Speaker 1 I'll go 55.

Speaker 1 99. Poo.
You go 14.

Speaker 2 63.

Speaker 1 21.

Speaker 1 Good luck, Zach.

Speaker 2 You as well.

Speaker 1 What was your number, Zach?

Speaker 2 14.

Speaker 1 Oh, 94. Oh, that would have been so good if it was 92.

Speaker 1 Love you guys.