The Thunder Win The NBA Title, Mariners Catcher Cal Raleigh AKA Big Dumper In Studio, Hank Is Back From Vacation And Kevin Durant Is Traded Again

Hey, pardon my take, listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.
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Shop their new holiday outfits in the app, online, or in stores. On today's part in my take, the Oklahoma City Thunder are NBA champs.

We recap game seven, Tyrese Halberton's torn Achilles, which sucked.

Really, really big bummer for the Pacers, but a deserving champ in the Thunder. We throw some flowers on them.

We also have Big Dumper in studio, future MVP Cal Raleigh, who hit four home runs since we recorded this on Thursday. So we'll update his on pace before we get to his interview.

We're going to talk Kevin Durant getting traded. Henry is back.
Yeah. He's back.

We're going to end the show with Hank giving us some gifts from Pebble Beach because we gifted him a trip to Pebble Beach. A whirlwind vacation.
A whirlwind vacation. Great to have him back.

We also have Who's Back of the Week. We're going to recap everything.

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The crown is yours, okay?

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Today is Monday, June 23rd, and the Oklahoma City Thunder are world champions. Congrats to the Thunder.
Congrats to Thunder. Thunder.
Our guy, Alex Caruso. Thunder Princess.
Thunder Princess.

Game Game 7. Let's...
All right. So game seven was a little bit of a bummer because of Tyrese Halberton's Achilles.

Let's save the talk about the Pacers and that, and we'll throw some flowers on the Thunder, much deserving flowers,

even though it was a bummer when Tyrese Halliburton tours Achilles. Yeah, I mean, shout out also to Isaiah Hartenstein's son.
Yeah. I don't know if he's woken up yet, but that was adorable.

Just passed out during the trophy presentation. Listen,

he says, wake me up for the second one. Yeah, when you sleep, you sleep, which, I mean, should we start? We were credit to us.

This is the worst Oklahoma City Thunder team that will win a championship during this dynasty rate. They had to go to seven against the Nuggets.
They had to go to seven against the Pacers.

I don't expect that to happen ever again for them.

We could also do the thing where we say, just right off the bat, you know, I think whoever won that Thunder Nuggets series was going to be the champion. That was going to be the champion.

No matter what. Yeah.

But yeah, the Thunder, incredible season. Second most wins all time for a title team.

The 95-96 Bulls had 87 wins. The Oklahoma City Thunder this year had 84 wins.
The 96, 97 Bulls also had 84 wins. Pretty crazy.
68 regular season wins.

Obviously, you need the 16 playoff wins to complete it.

Pretty awesome season. They had the MVP.
SGA goes down with

an all-time season, all-star scoring title, unanimous first team all-NBA.

MVP, most wins, Western Conference Finals MVP, title, finals, MVP. That's just about the perfect season.
It really is.

If you were to draw him the whole final year at the start of the year, if you were to say, what would I possibly want out of the season? I think he checked off every single box.

Yeah, if he did his little

dream board,

he had an Etsy dream board. And he was like, man, I want to wish on these things.

Maybe he put a little something under his pillow saying, hopefully this year I'm going to become this, you know, like the first day of school, like first grade. Like

when I graduate first grade, I want to be able to read. Yeah.
When I graduate this season, by the way, did you see? I think Lou Dort said it. He's like, game seven is like the last day of school.

Like you just got energy. You got to leave it all out there.
It's like, I don't, that's not what school was like. School and the last day was just hectic.
Yeah, it was just like, I'm not doing shit.

You can't tell me shit. The last day of school, it was like, it was like jail.
It was like, yeah, trying to escape from prison.

Yeah, no, that's the, maybe one of the greatest seasons, definitely one of the greatest seasons of all time that he had.

If you were SGA, which one of those accomplishments would you be most likely to get tattooed on your body?

Wait, did he win?

He didn't win all-star MVP. That's the one.
That's the one that eluded him. That would have been it.
Not the perfect season. That would have been it.

There will always be an asterisk on the season for SGA. Yeah.
He didn't win the all-star MVP, but incredible season. Wire to wire.
The Thunder were the best team wire to wire for the entire season.

And it felt like, you know, it wasn't a pretty game. Game sevens usually aren't.
But they had their future basically all show up for a game seven in Chet, J-Dub, and SGA. Chet was great.
Yeah.

Chet was great. What do you have, five blocks tonight? Yeah, he was all over the place.
The defense that got them there showed up big time in game seven. Insane team.

Anaconda chokehold defense.

They were first in net rating,

first in defensive rating, third in offensive rating, and they're the second youngest championship team in NBA history. So the future is very bright, and that's a hell of a hell of a team.

Also, they have a million picks. So, we should say

Sam Presti. I actually am very happy for Sam Presti.
I'm most happy for Alex Caruso, our friend, but I'm very happy for Sam Presty.

Sam Presty's been with the Thunder organization since they were the Sonics. He was hired in 2007,

or yeah, I think it was 2007. Went on, obviously, an insane draft run with KD, with Russ, with Hardin, with Ibaka.

That team was the second-youngest finals team ever in 2012. Ownership cheaps out.
They have to trade Hardin. That falls apart.
Reconfigures them with Russell Westbrook and Paul George.

That doesn't work. Paul George traded for SGA.
This guy is one of the best GMs in any sport. And it's cool that he finally, like 18 years, I think he's been there.

And he just won with the second youngest team, his way.

pocket full of picks going forward.

And he's doing it in a small market team where it feels like the NBA out of all the sports was like the gap between the big markets and small markets had become profound. So, pretty cool for him.

Yeah, very cool for him. Also, great trade picking up Alex Caruso.
Well, that was

a difference maker. He went on, you know, obviously, he had the run of draft picks where he hit on, you know, the Hardin, Durant, Russ, and Ibaka.

And then he did it again when he got Chet and J-Dub and Giddy, who became Caruso.

You know, I mean,

the way he's been able to ship shape, ship, shape, shift, shape, shift, thank you. Ship shape, shape-shift the Thunder organization

like time and time again. And we were talking about it.
They didn't tank. They had two bad years.
They didn't tank. They rebuilt.
They didn't do a process. They didn't rebuild.
They reloaded. Yeah.

So he's an all-time executive, all-time GM building this team. And yeah, they're going to be good for a really long time.
Yeah.

So if we're going guy for guy, this is the best team in the NBA this year, right? We can say that definitively. I would say that's definitively the case.
Uh-huh. Right? Yeah.

I think you can't make an argument against that. No.
You can't at all. You're right, PFT.
And they did have to battle back tonight. They were down at halftime.
People forget that.

They were down by a point. People are forgetting left and right that the Pacers were up at halftime tonight.
TJ McConnell was like their entire offense in the third quarter for the Pacers.

No, like literally

their entire offense. Yeah, they're in that stretch where they're like, they haven't, in the last six minutes of game time, T.J.
McConnell Jill would have scored.

And that means also the good and the bad because he he also, I think he had seven turnovers tonight. Yeah.

But everybody on the Pacers had at least one turnover except for the guys that got in for the very last minute of the game. Yes.

It was just a clinic, a defensive clinic by the Oklahoma City Thunder. The second half, they just got ahead and just choked him out.
Choked him out. Chokehold.
An condo chokehold. That's what it was.

Do you want to hear a crazy stat?

This is maybe a wow. I don't know if this is a wow.
I have two wows for you, actually. The first one is,

oh, nice, Hank. Adam Silver has just crowned his ninth different champion in his 12 postseasons as NBA commissioner.

In David Stern's 30 postseasons, how many champions did he crown? 12.

10.

Whoa. Yeah.
That's a whoa. So this is the seventh different champion in seven years, which is crazy.
Parody is very much here for the NBA. But isn't that nuts? 30 years for David Stern.

He crowned eight unique champions. 12 years for Adam Silver.
This is is his ninth different champion. That does make you think.
Which is the Warriors and then all new ones?

It's the Warriors, Cavs.

And then, yeah, I mean, the last seven years have been Raptors, Lakers, Bucks, Warriors, Nuggets, Celtics, Thunder.

It does make you think what a great job David Stern did of building up the dynasty franchises, right? Yeah.

Yeah.

He did. He really did it.
But I like this. I like.
new, fun, entertaining styles of basketball, getting to meet up in the postseason teams that you don't normally see.

Like the Pacers, yeah, they didn't get it done in game seven, but they played such a fun style of basketball, and it was a joy to have them in the postseason as long as we did. Yeah.

I really enjoyed watching Pacers basketball. Yeah.
All right. So you looked it up,

Zach. So, yeah, so the Spurs were the first title he crowned.
Seven unique ones in the last seven years, and then you throw in the Cavs, right? That would be nine. Spurs, Cavs.
I counted the Wars

as the same. It's pretty nuts.
Yeah. Seven in seven years.
Do you want to hear the really crazy woe that I saw on Friday that I was hoping would come true for the Pacers?

If Rick Carla had won this game, he would have been the oldest NBA coach to win an NBA title. That is crazy.
He also was the oldest coach to coach an NBA Finals game. How old is he? 65 years old.

He does not look 65. Older than Pop.
Everyone was thrown out. I saw the replies.
It was like Pop? Larry Brown. Larry Brown was 64.
Pop was, you know, whatever, 12 years ago. So he was 64.

Rick Carlo is not 65. No, it also goes to show you that if you look at any coach from like the 90s or the 80s, or God forbid, the 70s, if you're a 45-year-old head coach, you look like you're 70.

Yeah. Back then, like Jim Leland, the baseball manager, looked like he was 90 years old when he was 40.
Yeah, yeah.

That's the oldest coach in NBA history, not the oldest coach to coach a finals game, Zach. So that would be the finals game part.
Yeah. Pretty crazy.
But yeah, the Thunder,

awesome, awesome season. And they're not going anywhere.
They have so many picks. Yeah.
Impossible Impossible amount of picks.

I mean, the fact that they were a lottery ball away from being the third pick this year, or no, they wouldn't have gotten the third.

They would have, would have, what was it if they had kept the Sixers? Six pick would have been, would have been where they keep it, Max. Is that right? Seventh.

We had top six protective. That's right.
That's right. But I mean, it's insane how many picks they have, and they have a super young team.

And like I said, the J-Dub Chet SGA threesome looks like it's going to be here for a long time. Because J-Dub was was great in these finals, too.
He was, yeah. Speaking of the Sixers,

next year, I threw this out there to Max. Is next year the Sixers' year?

I feel like this is their year now, the East being wide open as it is. Yeah.
So for the Pacers,

I think that's got to be one of the all-time gut punch

end of seasons, considering the fact it was a magical ride. They've never won a title as a franchise.
Tyrese Halliburton gets hurt there, and he's going to be out for a year.

I don't really know.

And also, thinking about even how this series went, they were a quarter away from being up 3-1.

I feel so bad for Pacers fans. Magical, magical run, and that's just as bad as bad gets.
It sucks. The moral of the story, if you have any sort of a calf injury, just don't play basketball.

Well, that's, I mean, Tyrese Halliburton, it's the same thing that happened to Kevin Durant in the finals when he came back and snapped his Achilles.

If he doesn't play, he's going to be dubbed as soft and didn't want it for his guys.

And then if he does play, this is exactly what could happen with a strained calf, and it sucks.

He's put in an impossible situation, and I feel really, really bad for him after an incredible run where he just...

I mean, how many clutch shots did he hit? Like you have a billion? If you're Halliburton, you have to play, but it should... It should now make players think.
Yeah.

We've seen this a couple times where the Achilles injury wasn't something that happened as frequently as it does now.

There's going to be a big conversation about the length of the NBA season and are these guys too big, strong, fast? Because we had how many, we had Dame,

Tatum, Hal Burton. All wear the number zero.
Yeah, all wear the number zero. All toward their Achilles in these playoffs.
Season maybe goes too long. That's definitely going to come.
That's coming.

I'm going to take it back even further. I'm going to say all the way back to youth basketball and AAU.
Have these guys played too much basketball? Yeah, maybe. Too much basketball.

And shout out Paul George for getting the Thunder all of these everything. Yeah.
He gave them everything. It was still a...
It actually should be a Paul George ring. He should get a ring.

It was a great postseason for the Pacers. It sucks that this is like the biggest damper that you could ever put on it because you also now kind of have to punt on next year.
It's brutal.

It's absolutely brutal. I feel awful for Pacers fans.
I even said it while we were watching it. Like,

it was, I think it was when it was pretty much a tie game, I was like, would you, if you're a Pacers fan, would you have, would you right now, if you go back in time, lose game six?

So you have a chance to have Halliburton for next year and build on a finals run that was incredible. It just sucks.
I think,

but

the sliding doors of like, if they lose game six, Halliburton does not, he's there for next year. He gets his calf rested.

He's back and ready to go. And it just sucks that you, it's, it's, it's like a double loss.
It's not just a loss.

You lose, you were half away from an NBA title. What, Hank? I'm saying that.
Yeah. You go from, do you think you're going to win the title to.
Yeah. But they were in the finals.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.

When this happened. You know how they feel, though, is what you're saying.
You know exactly how they feel. I was talking about how, yes, I was relating to Indiana Pacers fans.
Yeah.

Not with anything personal, but. Just in general.
Yeah.

Also,

yeah, I don't really know what's positive. I mean, Pascal Siakam's awesome.
He was incredible.

Like, I know this game wasn't his best game, but like the entire playoff run, he's an absolute, and people were ready.

How much merch would have been sold with the nickname The Thundertaker with his eyes, the picture of him before game six? So, yeah, about that.

I don't know who he was talking to, which spirit he was summoning.

There's a chance that he was like, I will do anything to win this game six.

And then the finger on the monkey paw curled, and it was like, okay, you got it, but you have to pay with your Achilles dance.

It's brutal. Yep, I don't think that there's no chance that a Pacers fan in the moment would have said, yeah, I wish that we had lost game six.
Now they do. Yeah, now sure.

Well, I was more saying it knowing that like it's going to be a tall task to win this game without Tyrese Halliburton because it look. The Thunder are deserving champions.

You can't put an asterisk on them. If you're a Pacers fan, you will forever say what if, especially how how Tyrese Halliburton was playing in that first quarter.

He finished the game the leader in three-pointers made. Yeah.
And he played for, what, seven minutes? So

you could tell he was kind of feeling it. And this, you know, we know that he is in the, when the lights get really bright, Tyrese Halliburton comes through.

He had that kind of feeling to him in this game, how it started. So you will forever say, what if, what happens if he, if he doesn't tear his Achilles, do we win this game? I think maybe that's.

It's a fair what if if you're a Pacers fan. Yeah, I think this offseason you you might just build around TJ McConnell.

Damn. Free agents are gonna be beating down the door to play with T.J.
McConnell. They didn't need to show TJ McConnell crying after the game.
They didn't need to see that.

They didn't need to show that, but they had to. Yeah, and we also didn't need to see Tyrese Halliburton's ankle snapping like two dozen times.
So I think they're going to play that.

There's going to be a brand new ESPN channel, ESPN Ouch, and it's just going to be Halliburton's ankle just like disintegrating.

Do you know why I think

they kept on showing it, PFT? I think because

we now have seen enough of these Achilles injuries in high-level moments in the NBA that we all sitting and watching can point to it and be like, yep, that's an Achilles and feel like doctors

that the broadcast is like, we're going to show this 17 times

because we know definitively, you know, usually a guy gets injury like, we don't know. We have no idea.
We don't know what it's going to be.

This one, you can see the pop and everyone feels so smart being like,

I know that.

Listen,

I went to medical school. I fucking know that.
It's an Achilles. They give me a great idea.
They should actually do ESP and Ouch. And it's just injuries non-stop.
I'd watch it. Just brutal injuries.

No commercials. Serving sports fans anytime, anywhere.
I'm a sicko for that. The Achilles, though, does make me squirm a little.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to lie.

I would rather a leg break or even like a knee bend versus an Achilles. I don't know something about an Achilles.
When you see the pop,

Zach has just been playing it this whole time. Yeah, no, he's just, he's.
The pop is bad. We're clockwork orange right now.
We've got our eyes open watching this over and over.

Any other thoughts on the end of the NBA season? It was kind of a perfect NBA day where

Kevin Durant getting traded again

kind of took all the headlines when you had a game seven for the first time in almost a decade in the NBA.

Like that sums up the NBA. My big takeaway right now from the NBA season being over is it's football season.
It is. It does feel like whenever that happens, like, all right, and it's Mount Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore Wednesday. We're back.
Wednesday, Mount Rushmore. It's coming.
But yeah, that was crazy how Kevin Durant found out that he was traded on stage at the Fnatics Fest. Hmm.
Hmm.

Interesting. So he's going to the Rockets.

Good fit. A lot of hmms at the Fnatics Fest.
Very big.

Tom Brady winning a million bucks. Hmm.

Trophy's getting broken. Hmm.
Great fit. Rockets are going to be very good.
Great fit.

They needed a go-to score. Kevin Durant is still a go-to scorer.

You also, like, I don't really,

it's not like the Suns got a huge haul.

I think the Suns actually, like, reading this trade, they got Dylan Brooks, Jalen Green, and five second-round picks and this year's first, which was their first. They got it back.
They got it back.

I think Ishbia was like, hey.

I need people who just read Twitter and have the attention span of a goldfish who just keeps scrolling. I need them to think that I did well in this trade.
Make it five second-round picks.

Because I don't know if you guys had the same feeling, but when I scrolled by it, I was like, damn, five picks. When I saw it, and then I read it again, I was like, oh, second-round picks.

Like, that's a lot of assets. Yeah, right.
If you just call them assets, you don't describe where they are, who they're from, then you can't just spend them. It's valuable.
It's something of value.

It's not a terrible strategy, but I'm mad ishmia. If I were an owner, I'd be like, hey, Gibb, you know, I'll trade you my superstar.
How about you give me 27 second round picks? Yeah.

Just so, just so I could see the Shams tweet and be like, look at that, guys. I trade my Silverado for 20 broken down cars that don't work.

Yeah, no,

the Suns are trying to build the whole plane out of shooting guards. Yeah, so they have, I think they've got their entire salary cap space devoted to four guards.
Yeah, it's basically all wings.

It's all wings. Their whole team is wings, like $180 million to wings.

I think they'll probably trade, well, the problem is they can't trade Bradley Bradley Beale, which is the one they want to trade. Bradley Beale, his full name is now Bradley Beal's No Trade Clause.

Yeah. Yes, because he's never getting traded.

I assume the Suns are going to do something. Otherwise, it would be funny if they're like, hey, what if we just.
Wings are very important in the NBA today.

Let's just bring out a bunch of these guys. Yeah, I have no idea what they're doing.

And it was like a year and a half ago that Matt HPS said, like, we're not far away. We're very close.
Yeah. This stuff isn't hard.

Since Kevin Durant left Golden State, he's been traded three times.

One was a sign-in trade, and he has two playoff series wins. What does this mean for Kevin Durant's legacy? Are you saying if he goes to the Rockets and wins? No, I'm just saying.

I just like to end when Kevin Durant is in the news. I like to end every sentence like, hey, what do you want for breakfast? And what does this mean for Kevin Durant's legacy?

I think this means that Kevin Durant is perpetually unhappy

and is made more unhappy in his quest to find happiness. Okay, that feels good.
Hank, what does this mean for Kevin Durant's legacy?

He's got to win now, or else he's just going to go down as all-time.

I mean, he'll go down his all-time guy no matter what, but I got a problem with this meme, by the way. He's got to win.
Zach just pulled it up.

Kevin Durant has officially completed the NBA Rainbow Challenge.

I don't count this because, as you can see, he's got a blue Suns and a Purple Suns. They basically did this because

Shaq was the originator of this. Shaq did complete the Rainbow Challenge naturally.
I think Chris Paul did as well.

And the rainbow challenge, obviously, we're talking about wearing all the colors of the rainbow and all the jerseys and teams you played for. Look, Shaq did it in a natty way.

He actually did it.

He had the Heat, the Suns, the Lakers, the Celtics, the Magic, the Cavs, and the Lakers. Oh, I guess there's two Lakers in there, but I feel like he had another one thrown in there.

I don't count it if you have to use the weird alternate Suns jersey. I also think that him as a Cleveland Cavalier, I don't know if that's indigo.
Yeah, true. The eye for indigo.

We could find some football players that have done that for sure. Yeah, the rainbow challenge.
But yeah, Kevin Durant's legacy. I'm excited to talk about it.
And that was Kevin Durant's legacy.

I think it's worse for his legacy if he wins.

With the Rockets, I think it's good. If he gets a ring.
I think that's a team he can go to. And if he, because it's a young enough team that

he can be like, yeah, they needed Kevin Durant. Because it's almost a perfect setup for him.
They were good this year. They were the two seed.
They got bounced in the first round of the playoffs.

Now, Kevin Durant shows up, shows the Young Bucks how to play basketball, how to play winning basketball. All credit to Kevin Durant.
Let's see. Who else do the Rockets have going into next year?

Shingoon? That's a good piece. Yeah.
No, they're a good team.

I'm in Thompson. You know what? Fred Van Vliet still.

He's going running back home to the comforting arms of Stephen Adams. Yeah.
No, they are a good team, and

with Kevin Durant, they could be a great team. So I think it's a good thing.
They did not have that guy in the playoffs that would step up. But

if the Rockets had gone to, let's say, the Western Conference final, I think it would have been bad for Kevin Durant's legacy.

The fact that they got bounced in the first round by an aging Warriors team, good for Kevin Durant's legacy. One of my favorite topics, Kevin Durant's legacy.
I can't wait.

I hope they run into the Warriors again. That'd be great.
That'd be great. Great theater.
Incredible.

Okay.

Hank, do you want to talk a little golf? Yeah.

Great golf. The fifth major?

I'm very interested to see what you have in that bag of yours. We'll do that after Cal Raleigh.
But

how is it? Well, no, we'll talk about the trip after. You want to talk about the fifth major? Yeah, Travis.
What'd you see?

Great tournament. Specifically, whole 13, 14, and 15.
It was more like 15.

I was, I wouldn't even say asleep.

But I was watching all day. I didn't leave my couch.
It was so fucking hot out. Like, too hot to even want to go outside.

So I was locked in. But yeah,

I was listening. I was actively listening to like whole 16, 17.
What do you mean, actively listening? Like, I was listening. I wasn't necessarily watching.

I wasn't asleep. I don't know that I was 100% conscious.

But yeah, 15, 16, but I was back for 17 to 18. You're browning out.
Tommy Fleetwood. It was, I love the Travelers.
I went.

I mean, we went in 2015 with Barcelona with the Keegan was the People's Golfer. We followed him around for a couple days.
Oh, it was Jim Renner. That was 2014.
Oh.

2015, Jim Renner was no longer on the PGA tour. Keegan was People's Golfer 2.0.

So we followed him around, Travelers. But it's like, you know, only event they have in New England.

It's great that Keegan, like, for whatever reason, he won a couple years ago, set the scoring record there. turns it up for the home crowd

but it was a great like tommy fleetwood great dude great golfer super fun to watch has never won on the pga tour even though he's really good and always you know he's i think he had like what 10 or 13 top 10 finishes without winning one uh 42 top 10 finishes 40 never won a pga tour event never won a pga tour event so it was like uh it's insane that he's never won a pga tour event it was a great like whoever wins this this is going to be good i honestly felt as as you know cool as it was for Keegan,

I felt really bad for Tommy Fleetwood.

I don't really feel bad for Tommy Fleetwood. He choked.
I was rooting. That was bad.

That's a choke.

I was rooting for Keegan Bradley. I don't want to feel ashamed about rooting for Keegan.
I was yelling USA at my TV. Yeah, that's fair.

Okay, I'm sorry Tommy Fleetwood didn't win. I hope he does at some point.

But I'm not going to go as far as to be like, oh, man, I feel so bad. This kind of takes away from the moment.
No, fuck that. I wanted Keegan Bradley to win.

And when he hit that approach to what, like four feet?

And then Tommy Fleetwood hit his a mile away and then putted and then left himself beyond Keegan Bradley's ball to give him a read a perfect read at the putt I was pumped about all that that was good listen everything that happens from this point on in golf is a setup for the rider cup right and now there's a lot there's a lot of talks with the rider cup he's the captain Keegan Bradley he's the captain Right now, he would be a playing captain.

People are saying they might bring in Tiger to be the captain captain?

The captain captain because playing captain might get complicated but he's Keegan's playing so well that those conversations are happening which is awesome yeah I I I

do you think a playing captain is an issue no

why not well I mean every other sport has playing captains

yeah but not necessarily that are like deciding

like is that a problem that Derek Jeter played that's a different

setting the lineup I'm just saying is that

imagine right

different different circumstances no different cast I don't understand what what a captain is.

If he is a playing captain, that means that he can't ride around in a golf court with like a little headset in and a walkie-talkie and talk about God knows what for four hours.

No, he can do that still when his round's over. Yeah, so what's the issue here? I don't have an issue with it either.
I'm just saying that

people, people, no, people in the golf media world are saying it might be an issue. I say put the C on his chest and put him out there.
I do, too. You look at hockey, all the captains play.

Well, the golf media world is also pretty soft at times. For sure.
There was, I saw some people being like, Tommy Fleetwood deserved to win. No, he didn't.
He choked.

I wanted him to win. I was hoping that he would get the monkey off his bat back, but he choked.
And Keegan Bradley was electric going down the stretch. And

Tommy Fleetwood, he did have a good on Saturday, they asked him about it. And they're like,

you're the top player to not win a PGA tour event in the last 40 years.

Because, again, he's had 42 top 10 finishes, 28 top 5 finishes, five third places, six runner-ups. He's made 135 out of 159 cuts.
He's basically in every single tournament.

He was like, well, at least I'm number one in something.

So good for him. If you want to blame somebody for all this, you can blame Rory McElroy.

Did you see what Rory said? Yes. Yes.
So they interviewed Rory after his round was over, and it looked like Tommy Fleetwood was going to win the tournament.

And they asked him, your thoughts on Tommy Fleetwood. It's been a a long time coming for him on the PGA tour.

He said, yeah, Tommy's been a great player for a long time, and he's more than due, or he was more than due. So, yeah, he's got so much talent and so much ability.

And obviously, it's great to see him get over the line before the tournament's over. Yeah.
Not great. Bad guy.
Not great. This is why he doesn't talk to the media.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was trying me hardest. I just tried me hard.
Tommy lad. I just tried me hardest out there.
It's a very difficult poll.

I had a question for you guys.

Do you guys think it's a little weird that the Panthers are like mocking the Oilers to such a crazy extent?

I say go for it. I say you got him twice.
You beat him twice. I'm just asking you if it's, yeah, but that's the thing.
They beat him twice. Like,

it does feel like they're

going a little extra hard.

Maybe there was more bad blood. What?

I think when you've won a cup before.

It's kind of just, you just, everything's a blur for

a week and a half out of it. I'm not saying bad or wrong.
I'm saying weird. I'm asking, is it weird? Like,

it feels like maybe something happened that we don't know about. I think they don't like each other.

The Panthers don't like any team that they play, but I'll agree with you on this one, Big Cat, that when you win a Stanley Cup, at least in my personal experience winning a Stanley Cup,

I felt more animosity and more like double bird, fuck you, to all the other teams in my conference. Right.

Like the natural rivals that you go through, and then you win the Stanley Cup, and it's like you're not that fixated on the team that you just beat. It's great.
And they beat him twice.

Like, it would be one thing if it was like the Oilers had beaten him twice, then the Panthers beat him.

Again,

I don't care. I think it's fun to start rivalries and all that stuff.
I was just saying more weird that, like, why are they so obsessed with the Oilers? Did I miss something?

I was almost like curious, did I miss some story about shit talking or like one of the Oilers players said something that's unforgivable to the Panthers?

So when you think about like having more of that animosity and the fuck you energy towards the guys in your conference, they did start a rivalry with Edmonton over the last two since they played them twice.

Yeah. They've got that history.
So now they're like beat them twice. I know, but that's what I'm saying.
They've got that history with them.

So now they're more focused on being like, hey, fuck you, Edmonton. It's not a rivalry, though.
It's not. And they're letting them know.
Beat him. Yeah.
Beat him twice. I just, I saw, did you guys see

Goalie Bob had a great quote. I like that.
He's the humble king. He said, when asked about how he celebrates, it's definitely a fun time, but I don't know.
I'm a little different.

I celebrate a little different. I'm not overexcited about the things.
As I said, I feel humble and appreciative for the opportunity. Yeah.
That's such a classic quote. Yeah.
It's great.

Rank all the champions from this year. Okay.
All the major. So the Dodgers, the Eagles, the Panthers, Duke, the Thunder, Duke Bassett.
Duke did not win. They did it? It was Florida that won.

Duke didn't win? Yeah. Oh,

what, Max?

Zach is Googling. Zach is Googling, and just like, look up Bob Brosky.
He's first named Brodsky, last name. And it's just an 87-year-old pushing a sled.

Bob Brosky. Brosky.
Bob Brodsky. Okay.

Yeah. Sorry, sorry.
I thought I just wanted you guys to see that. That sounds like my neighbor's name.
Are we doing 2025 or are we doing

just this calendar year? So

let's do this officially because we want to do Dodgers. Put it on a card so we can get people pissed.
Dodgers, Eagles, Panthers, Thunder,

Florida basketball, Ohio State football. Okay.
Rory McElroy.

Okay.

I'm going to go

Dodgers number one.

I'm going to go. I'm going to go.
I might go Panthers number one. Okay.
So let's go Dodgers or

Dodge. I'm going to go Dodgers.
You go then Panthers two. Yeah, Panthers two.
Panthers two. So Dodgers one, Panthers two.

Let's see. Florida basketball is pretty awesome.

I might put Florida basketball two.

No, you know what? I think the Eagles should be number two. No, I was hoping they would be lower than that.
I mean, they beat like a Hurt Chiefs team. Chris Jones didn't play half the fucking soccer.

All right.

I would go Dodgers, Panthers, Florida basketball, Ohio State football, Thunder. LSU baseball.
LSU baseball,

Eagles. Rory McElroy.
Rory Rory. All right, make that on a quote and let people get pissed about it.
Best champions. Best champions of the year.
That feels good.

I think if the Dodgers played any of those teams,

Dodgers in five. Oh, ahead of the Eagles, you also have Alcaraz.
Yep. He was awesome.
Great list. That's a great list.

That's a great list. Hey, wait, you never answered.
Is it the Sixers year?

I don't know. I mean, think about it.
East is wide open. Yeah, wide open.
Maybe

if Embiid is healthy. Celtics don't have Tatum.
Pacers don't have Halliburton. Knicks don't have a head coach.
You guys are good.

I don't know if Embiid is walking.

What does that mean?

I haven't seen a picture of him. Are you reporting something? We don't know?

I don't know. That's what I'm saying.
I don't know.

Joel Embiid has not been cleared to walk.

Joel Embiid,

it's like a two-year-old. Joe Embiid is taking his first step.
Yeah.

We need the AI of baby Joel Embiid taking his first step. He's ready to play.
Zach's spelling back here is just incredible. He just spelled Embiid I-M-B-E-E-D.

Hell yeah.

Hell yeah.

Oh, man.

Zach. This football season.
Shout out to LSU baseball, though, champions. Ah, crazy last game.
Great shot by the umpire.

Coastal's manager gets kicked out, and then their bench coach gets kicked out in the first inning. Arguing balls and strikes.
Yeah, the ump, the ump falls. He flopped.

He flopped, but he should have, he was embarrassed. If you get embarrassed like that as an ump, it should be like retroactive.
Everyone gets to stay in the game because that was a loser move by him.

I got to say, great job next ump up because that ump came in and he was trying to like stand in between the manager and the home plate umpire.

That's always like somebody's job is to like intercept the argument.

He immediately falls over and then the next guy was in great position to back him up and stepped in to handle that duty and keep him away from the home plate umpire. So great job by the umps.

That's what we came to see today. We absolutely wanted to make sure that we saw them.
It was the ump show. But yeah, LSU did feel like they were a team of destiny.

Also, crazy they played this game in the middle of the afternoon. Yeah, that was wild.
I know there was game seven.

There was Sunday night baseball, but you got to have a championship game can't be played in the middle of the afternoon. I agree.

I was hoping that Coastal was going to win this one so we could get a meaningful game tomorrow. Just meaningful sports today.
It would have been nice to have one game. Yeah.
One game.

By the way, we should update real quick because we're going to get to our Cal Raleigh interview.

He had a pretty big weekend at Wrigley.

Also, Sammy Sosa was back for the first time in a long time on Friday, which I don't know. The Cubs did it like secretively and then it word got out, which was kind of weird.

But he's getting inducted into the Cubs Hall of Fame later this year. That's scared.
But this was like a trial run of the Cubs. Did they have him come back sprinting in? No,

they had him just walk in and made sure that there was a video of Ricketts giving him a hug, getting out of the SUV.

So nice moment. But yeah, Cal Raleigh hit four home runs this weekend.
Crazy. So when we get to our interview with him, which was great,

I think we did all of our on-pace stuff for his 27 home runs as of Thursday. He had four more.
So he's got 31 home runs. He is now on pace for 67 home runs, which is pretty fucking insane.

That's pretty good. Pretty insane.
Yep. We think Otani, face of Major League Baseball, Cal Rowley.
Cal Rowley's the ass. Yeah.
He's the ass of the MLB. Listen, I went to the game today.

His dumper is like seeing it in baseball pants, it's a dumper. I was showing it to my buddy over the weekend.
I was like, yeah, we interviewed this guy, Kyle Rowley.

They call him Big Dumper because he's got a giant butt. My friend was like, his ass isn't that big.

I was like, dude, let me put you on his ass real quick. Yeah, no,

when he's got his baseball pants on, he's got a fucking dump. An absolute dump.
Okay, should we do Who's Back the Week?

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Head to Chevy.com to learn more and build your own Chevy Silverado. Hank, who's back of the week? Yeah, we went over a lot of them.
USA is back. Keegan Bradley, Calvin.
Sammy. America.

Sammy Sosa back. Back in the friendly confines.
Mount Rushmore season. Yes.
Back on Wednesday. Very excited.
Very excited. So we have the teams.
Should we announce them? Yeah. All right.
Let's do it.

Let's do it. So it's going to be the Booth Boys, Max and Memes.

John Wilkes.

Hank and PFT. My good friend Hank.
Yep. PFT Enterprises.
And me and Zach. And so it's going to be three teams, which we feel like that's a good because when we do like, if we did five solos,

it would be tough to pick Mount Rush. You know what? Lesser men than me and Hank would complain about being teamed up with the other one because we did finish last and second to last last season.

But this is just a great, great comeback story for it. What a great opportunity we have, Hank.
Yeah, and PFT and I, we're in locks up. We're kind of all eyes focused on the Internet Invitational.

So this is just another way for us to get closer. Yeah.
Work together. No bickering.
No bickering. No bickering.

Yeah, this is going to bring us closer than anything.

Like, the thing about me and Hank is that when people say that we get into fights, it's all a bit, and we're never actually in fights with each other. Yeah.
You guys just don't get it. Yeah.

We don't even have to like debate. We'll just know.
It's kind of like, let's read each other's minds. You know, we should debate a little bit.
It's going to be awesome. So we're going to do it.

Please submit. No, we shouldn't debate.
Why not? You should absolutely debate. Please submit.
Hank's already beat a piece of shit about this. Mount Rushmore ideas.

Mount Rushmore ideas,

what you want to hear. We've done a lot of them.
It's our ninth Mount Rushmore season.

Covered a lot of them.

But

I can't wait for Mount Rushmore season. Water.

I can't wait for a color. Mount Rushmore of yellow things.
I can't wait for a color. I think we're going to have to lead with the color.

Color and color ones are the best. Colors are great.
Zach, are you ready for this? Zach, on Friday, we had him do. Were you here for his pistachio ice cream? No.

Yeah, we asked him to, like, on the spot, Mount Rushmore of ice creams, and he

was the fourth with pistachio. So that's a problem.

You listened to to the whole show yeah the the boys driving back from pebble we listened oh oh because i heard i also i might have fallen asleep during that time i i

i heard a rumor hank that that you were wondering when we're going to be interviewing cal raley well that was that was the that was the pmt that maybe it was today that we were going to be well the text was the

but the episode came out what memes memes memes memes is on my memes is on the pip what is crazy memes texting the crew text what are we running who are we running tomorrow i said cal raley and then you text him on the side saying when are we interviewing Kyle Raleigh?

Memes tweeted about Kyle Raleigh like a hundred times. What's the game plan for interviews today?

Just Kyle Raleigh for Monday's show. Yeah.
So interviews today, I thought that, and you said Kyle Raleigh for Monday. Yeah.
I thought that meant you're interviewing Kyle Raleigh today for Monday.

We interviewed him last Thursday. He was here.

You guys blessed me with the vacation.

True, true, true, true, true, true, true, true. True.
And maybe he came in and then he was going to do the interview. Like the way that was worded, what's the gameplay for interviews today? Yeah.

And you answered, Kyle Raleigh. So is that your only who's back? It's just a show announcement? Sammy Sosa, Keegan Bradley.
Karen Reed's back. Karen Reed.
Yeah, so what happened with Karen Reed?

She's innocent. She got ruled innocent.
She got off. She's free, yeah.

Good for her. Good for her.
Good for her. Karen Reed's back.
A lot of women never get off, yeah.

I can't wait to watch another Netflix documentary about it. I do think there will be another one, and I'm excited to watch it.
So So, was it a hung jury or was it a hung jury the first time?

And this time, not was innocent. Yeah, not guilty.
She got charged for

operating a vehicle under influence, but not charged for murder. So, now Brad Marshon, I mean, Brad, watching Brad Marshawn.
Are the cops going to get charged? I don't think so.

So, who's going to be no one else is going to be charged with this guy's death? Yeah, find the dog.

Brad Marshawn back, Brad Marshon. Find the dog, find the dog.
Find the dog, find the dog. The dog, Yeah.
The dog leads you to everything. Yeah.
That just makes no sense. They just gave away the dog.

Yeah, no. Zero.
Instantly.

And they can't find it.

Wait, they've looked for the dog? Yes. Oh, I didn't know they looked for the dog.
Yes. So they killed the dog.
Yes. Okay.
That's fucked up. I know.

Just Brad Marshawn is just putting on a clinic, celebrating the cup.

He celebrates well. Celebrates so well.
Trolling, like, he's like, you know, not a big social media guy, then he wins a cup and he's just like trolling Instagram stories, parties.

Yeah, he was doing the posting random people at the bar.

And doing the around the, he went around the table and just said thanks. Like he would just post a picture of like, you know, a player and be like, thanks, Sabers.
Here's Seth Jones.

Thanks, Blackhawks. Just going around.
Yeah. And I do not think he posts very often, if at all.
No, yeah. No, I followed him on Instagram.
I didn't even realize I did.

And then all of a sudden, he's just been the most active guy. Oh, man.
Yeah. Crowdsurfing with the Stanley Cup at 11.

If you've been to 11, it is quite something. That might be the number one place to celebrate a championship.

I don't even understand how 11 exists. It's a club that's also a strip club, but not a strip club.

But if you're sitting in 11 for more than five minutes, like a super hot stripper will come up and be like, hey, you want to lap dance? But also, it's still not a strip club.

Is that a good way to explain it? Two C everywhere. But it is a strip club.
But it is not. Yeah, no, I know, I know.

When you think of strip club, you think of like, all right, you go there and all that's happening is strippers. 11 is a club.
Yeah.

But it just happens that strippers do come up to you every five minutes being like, do you want a lap dance? It's because it's Miami. Yeah.
It's like kind of classy because it's Miami.

And it also doesn't really like,

I think I went to 11 once at like,

I think I was calling to try to get a table and I was like, we're going to roll in at like 1 a.m. And the guy like laughed at me.
He's like, oh, okay. Like, we're barely open at 1.

Like, we're just starting. It's like Europe.
Like, then you leave at like 5 a.m. and it's around the block line.
Hank and I went to 11 together one time. Hell yeah.
Hell yeah.

You know, open 24 hours a day. It's fucking, it's quite something.

I would say probably number one place to celebrate a Stanley Cup. Yeah, I mean, PFT got to celebrate in Vegas.
I feel like that's probably two, but

11 is definitely up there. Yeah.
Yeah. Hakassan was cool.
No strippers. That's the one thing I'll say.
Again, they might not even be strippers at 11.

They might just like you so much that they want to give you a lap dance. It could have been over the top if there were boobs.

It basically is, yeah, it's basically a strip club, but you don't feel like it's a strip club, so then you think, like, oh man, these really hot chicks like me.

The one time I went to 11, I got so drunk that I left with my girlfriend and I told her that I can't leave with her because I have a girlfriend.

That's awesome. That's such a good guy move.

Oh, man.

I'm not supposed to be doing this stuff.

Oh, okay. Good who's back? Thank you.
Great who's back. Thank you.

My who's back of the week is the USA. Yeah.

Because we vanquished our foes, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, and Tobago, and Haiti, our big rivals in soccer. Nice.
So all three, these were teams that don't like each other very much. No love lost.

Beat Saudi Arabia on Thursday 1-0, and then beat Haiti 2-1. So now we advance to the Gold Cup.
I don't know, whatever the fuck the next round is, maybe against Mexico. Okay.
So big stuff for U.S.

soccer. That's huge.
I really don't give a shit, but I do care when the U.S. does play Mexico.
Then I will care. Yeah.
Because I just, that's the one time I tap into U.S.

soccer and really give a fuck about it. I just want to see the team playing good because it's the last tournament that we have before the whole World Cup tune-ups and the World Cup next year.
Got it.

So yeah, suck it, Haiti. Suck it, Saudi Arabia.
Never had a chance. Never had a chance.

Listen, beating a heated rival like Saudi Arabia 1-0 in a tournament that means everything, like we're on the right foot. Yeah.
Poke's got the boys rolling. Absolutely.

Poke in. Poke in.
Yeah, well, I think we're Poke in right now.

But if he loses to Costa Rica or Mexico. Is it Poch? I don't know.
I think it's Poch. Pocatino.

Poach? Pocatino. Poke? It doesn't rhyme with Coach Poach.
I don't know.

Listen, I'm not.

I watched the World Cup.

I'm not tuned into the CONCACAF Gold Cup unless we lose, and then I'll be like, ha ha. I also like that we played against Saudi Arabia in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Yeah. Makes a lot of sense.

Our neighbors. Yeah.

Okay, my. Where's CONCACAF?

CONCACAF? It's the biggest tournament in the world. Federative.

It's the most prestigious soccer organization in FIFA with teams such as Haiti, Saudi Arabia,

and Trinidad and Tobago. We beat two teams 5-0 when we beat Trinidad and Tobago.
Confederation of North Central America and Caribbean Association Football. Like Saudi Arabia.

Don't worry about it. Saudi Arabia was just like, hey, can we get in? Yeah, no problem.

All right, my who's back of the week is World War III. We're doing it again, boys.
I think this is the fifth World War III that's happened in the last four years. Getting the gang back together, yeah.

Yeah.

the strategy of just not saying anything online has really worked out for all the previous World War IIIs.

Uh, because when everyone freaks out and says, oh, World War III is happening, and then in two weeks, there's not a World War III, and you look like an idiot. It's not jinx anything here.
I'm not.

This is COVID all over again. No, it's because it is.

This ain't going to be World War III, buddy.

We've all thought the same thing, which is World War III has been, it started like six different times. I just don't want to say that

it's not starting now. World War III has been overrated.
There's been like a hundred. We're on World War IX now.
Ten. We're on World War I.
What did you say if they canceled the NCAA tournament?

I inject myself in COVID. I did end up getting COVID like five different times.
So that was a mistake. That was a big mistake.
It's not World War III yet. It's just.

I just, I'm so sick of everyone saying World War III just started. It's just running back to Middle East war that we do every 11 years.
Yeah, dude. World War III.
Oh, it's going to be World War III.

What are we going to do? What should we do on Monday? Should we go to work? Yeah.

I got to say, I've been doing a lot of reading about the operation with the B-2 bombers. Dude, those guys flying there and back without stopping is badass.
Yeah.

We had the refueling planes up in the air.

And the guy and the guy tweeting about it before in Missouri being like, yo, I just saw some B-2 bombers outside my house. Yeah.

He had the...

He broke World War III before anyone else. Shout out to B-2 Bomber because we've had that for forever and it's still untouchable.
They didn't see it on radar. And then they didn't even see the other.

By the way, this is what we did was quite literally the plot of Top Gun 2. Yeah.
Which goes to show you that we didn't need F-18s and Top Gun 2. Like, I love that movie.

But if most people are watching that, you're like, why the fuck are they using fourth-generation fighters instead of a fifth-generation F-35 or some B-2 bombers?

Isn't that what they had in the very beginning? What do you mean? Like the first scene in the movie? No, that was an experimental plane that hasn't been cleared yet. Got it.

yeah where he went like mock 11 and then ejected then walked into a bar he's like can i get some milk

yeah those those bomb those those planes are sick they are all right but yeah that i just i just always know world war three is happening when i tweet something about sports and and in my replies people would be like dude how could you do this world war three is about to happen yeah um and then also uh my who's back is jonathan tates he's back he signed with the winnipeg jets his hometown team what's been going on with him so kind of a mystery people People thought it was long COVID and then it was kind of like some type of autoimmune, like always being tired.

I think I have that. Something he couldn't figure out.

But I'm happy he's able to now play again, hopefully end his career the right way because it really sucked that he was, you know, it didn't, it just sucked the way it ended in Chicago after so many good years.

So yeah, he's back and I'm rooting for him. Same.
It'd be awesome. He's the fucking man.
Yeah, he is the man. You played golf with him.
I didn't play golf with him. He was in the group behind us.

You played golf at the same time, is that Poland won, and then he came out with us after. Oh, that's playing golf.
He's a fucking man, yeah. Yeah, no, he is the man.
He's the absolute man.

So I'm hoping he

does well and stays healthy.

Okay, Zach, you got a who's back? I do a who's back of the week for you. Okay.

Real quick, my who's back of the week would have to be out there in Houston, Texas over the weekend.

I don't know if you guys are familiar with Morgan Wallen, the country singer. I'm familiar with him.
So Morgan Wallen started. He's got this this I'm the problem tour going on right now.

He does these tunnel walks before every show. You know, different celebrities, different guests travel with him into the stadium,

onto the stage. In Houston, he went with

Roger Clemens, Drake, and

I just feel like that was a fantastic star-studded way to start your weekend. Tour sold out.
It's at the arena where the Texans play.

I think he's so back. You know, he's had some controversies, you know, throwing a chair over the ledge, the taking back to God's country with SNL.
And And I just was curious. What other ones?

I just got those ones.

No other?

I think those are. Oh, we went out to a bar during COVID.
Yeah. Yeah, that one.
Yeah, there's a C-word one. Yeah, the COVID one was bad.

There was a C-word?

I didn't know if we could say that one. Yeah, yeah.

You can say the C-word. Yeah.
Okay. And do you guys...

Do you guys have a two-man you'd like to enter a stadium with? Do you have like a a

1A, 1B you'd like to travel into a stage with? Yeah. Hank.
Hank FSTR.

Shit.

Damn it. So he had Roger Clemens and Drake with him.
He did.

I think Stone Cold and Dog the Bounty Hunter. I'd go Tom Brady and Lil Wayne.

I think I'd go Paul Bissinette and Bonnie Blue.

That'd be nice.

Max, you got a pair?

Shane Victorino. Yeah.

He doesn't even like Shane Victorino that much. I saw Shane Victorino in the airport last week.
That's awesome. Oh, that's so sick.
I didn't say hi to him. I was too scared.

Oh, that's a good story, though.

Yeah, what else?

Maybe Jason Kelsey

and

Brian Dawkins. Brian Dawkins, for sure.
That'd be sick. Yeah.
Hype the people up. That'd be real sick.

All right, Goodwood's back. Morgan Mullen's back.
Did you guys see, by the way. Is that Drake's first public appearance since the beef? No.
I feel like I haven't seen him anywhere.

He's been around.

He's been

kind of active. I mean, he does his weird gambling stuff.
I feel like I've seen those clips. Yeah, he does some streams.
Yeah, he's been streaming. He does gambling streams? Yeah.
What a loser.

No, but

I don't even know what.

What is this? It's offshore. Yeah, it's like an offshore, like...
Yeah.

But he's around. Offshore, like

little St. James Island? Not that offshore.
Okay.

Closer inland. Got it.

Also, is Shohei back or no?

He's pitching one inning? He's opening. I don't like this.
He's opening.

And James Wood took him yard vertically today. Vertically? Yeah, he had the highest pop fly I've ever seen in my entire life.
That's sick. See, it was so high, Mookie Betts lost it.

It went into the sun.

PFT was telling us about this, and he was like, you got to find this.

You got to see this pop fly. This is the highest infield pop fly I've ever seen in my life.
Shockingly, there was no replay of this high

anywhere on the internet. You remember Jaden Daniels' handoff in week two? Yes, this is exactly.

This is James Woods version of the handoff. But yeah, no, Shohei, he looked pretty good.
He was throwing some good pitches out there. I want to see him pitch more than one inning.
Yeah, I would too.

Cal Rowley, AL MVP. Shohei's probably going to win the NL MVP, right?

Cal Rowley, let's see. What is the...

We're going to get to his. Look at Schwarber.
Well, I want Schwerber to win because I've been on it, but I don't. and that's also NL.

Also, how about Shohei breaking up a fight that he was in, that his teammates got into to fend him? Yeah. So that was a pretty cool game.

I like having the Padres and the Dodgers hate each other because I'm just looking forward to the postseason with those two.

But yeah, they plunked Shohei, and then Shohei tried to be the one that broke up the entire fight that got started on his behalf. Yeah.
Good guy.

Plus 550 still.

So

for Cal Raleigh, big dumper. We're going to be talking about it.
He's going to hit 67 67 home runs. He's a catcher.
It's crazy. Yeah, I put that bet in the second he left the studio.

I love to watch him leave. And I was like, that ass is going to be.
That's an MVP ass. That's an MVP ass.
All right.

Let's get to the interview with Cal Rowley in studio. Man, I'll tell you what.

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Okay, we now welcome on a very very very very very special guest. He is the best catcher in baseball.
Also should be AL MVP this year is Cal Raleigh from the Seattle Mariners Cal.

Oh, I mean Big Dumper.

Do people just yell Big Dumper? I would imagine it's gotten a little out of hand where people are just yelling Big Dumper at you all the time.

Yeah, it's, I mean, it's more Big Dumper, Dumper, Dumpy, you know, than it is anything else. So it's Cal's kind of, you know, thing of the past.
I would imagine, like, too,

the nickname Big Dumper, it's one of those things, like, you get it given to you. There's really nothing you can do about it.

But I'll say this, like, it's a little bit of a weird nickname, but it's hard in sports to have like a unique new nickname. And that one's as unique as it gets.

Yeah, I mean, it's not the one you draw up, the one you think you would ever get.

But it's kind of like you said, you know, not a lot of people get actual real nicknames like that so you know you take what you can get yeah and then we get the the big dumper goes poo-poo whenever you hit uh hit a home run which i fucking love yeah that that tweet yeah yeah as soon as that guy that mariners fan sent me that tweet i sent it to you i was just like every time he hits a home run i'm just gonna think about this in my head big dumper goes poo-poo oh i saw that one and then there was another one somebody said it's like when he hits two home runs it's a taking a deuce or a double dumper deuce or something double deuce you can upper deck him too there you go get a moonshot there you go

I mean, yeah, it's probably not the nickname you would have liked. Did you have another nickname before that one got forced upon you?

Not one like that. I mean, you know, people always kind of, you know, they've always said, talked about, you know, how big my butt is and everything.
But it was never really anything like that. So,

and the funny thing was, the guy who, Jared Kelnick, he's the one who came up with it. He had never even called me that or said that to me before.

I mean, he always made fun of me, but like, he said that in a tweet or something, and then just it blew up, kind of took off. When did you, when in your career, were you like, oh, I do have a fat ass?

Oh, I've known for it's it's been a long time, like ever since like high school. It's just been something that's like, it's like an eyesore, just completely sticks out.

No, it's good, though, it's yeah, it generates a lot of power, whatever works, it's an asset, it's really good for you.

Yeah, when they, when they unveiled the new see-through pants last year, we were like, oh shit, oh, geez, that was trouble, that was a disaster.

Yeah, um, so we were talking about this the other day on the show but the baseballs are apparently different this year the seams are a little bit higher the drag they've been talking about yeah there's a lot of drag on the ball did you notice that as a catcher i i i mean it's such a small difference if there is one so um obviously as a hitter you want a little less you'd rather see balls going a little further so yeah um

I haven't noticed anything quite yet, but I mean, you have 27 home runs, right? Whatever, whatever they're doing with them right now is fine. Yeah, it's working for you.
Is it? I mean, it is crazy.

27 home runs leads major league base. We're taping this on Thursday

on June 19th. So we don't know what's going to happen in the weekend because we're going to run this next week.
But like catchers don't hit that many home runs.

You're just an anomaly where is it most of the time catchers are just because of the toll of catching, they just don't have the power? Or like, how are you able to do it?

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of factors, right? I mean, obviously, catching your first priorities, taking care of the pitcher, defense, it's always usually glove first and then the bat second.

You don't get to play as often because

a lot of guys, you know, you need that extra day off or, you know,

maybe your bats not getting the lineup as often. So it's just a very taxing position, too, on the body and the mind.
So getting in every day is tough.

And a lot of guys, you know, like I said, it's a glove first position.

Anything up the middle, you know, those guys usually have to focus a little more on defense. So

it can be tough sometimes. Yeah, how much extra prep do you have to put in as a catcher that you look at, you see your teammates like a first baseman, right fielder?

They, you know, they show up, they know what their job is.

They do, you know, some advanced scouting, know where they need to play in position, but their job is to show up, do pretty much the same thing that they normally do, step up to play and mash.

And then you, you have to put in, I would imagine, a lot more time than them where you're going over, you know, any sort of scouting for all the batters, all that stuff.

Like, how much more time do you spend as a catcher than an average player?

Yeah, I mean, you know, at least half my time's, you know, you know, put in to, you know, worrying about, you know, game calling, worrying about the pitchers, things like that, meetings.

So a lot of things that don't, you know, directly involve me. So, but that's just kind of how it is.
And,

you know, you've learned to you've learned to kind of deal with it and kind of set your routine that way.

So, um, yeah, usually the first day of series, they're they're a lot longer just because we got meetings, we got

scouting reports, stuff like that we got to go over. So

it can be a little time-consuming at times. Yeah, can I bring up a sore subject? Yeah.
All right. So the playoff loss to the Houston Astros a few years ago, the 18-inning game.

How bad did that suck as a catcher? In the marathon. Yeah.
I know. I think that was one of the first years they did the guy in second rule.
Yeah.

With guys starting second in extra innings. But in in the playoffs they don't do that so um and that was pre-pitch clock too so it was um

that was such a long game it was it was two games and one it was a marathon you know started at like one and then it went all the way to eight or something it was like six and six and some change so it was it was a really long game but with the adrenaline how high it was you really at the time weren't we didn't have any you know afterwards i felt it but yeah um with all the adrenaline being a playoff game and everything didn't really feel it at the time so yeah

i would imagine the next day, the morning after you wake up, just legs killing.

It was a long day. Yeah, do you just always feel like you just did your first squat

exercise for the first time in a month? Because

are your legs just always sore?

I mean, it's just one of those things. It's like, you know, when you build up all that tolerance, it's just, you know, after a while, it just becomes normal.
Yeah. You definitely notice, though, like.

After some day games, they can be a little more tired just because you're not getting as much rest. And sometimes you got the heat and the sun and things like that.

Playing in certain places, you can feel a little more just because, you know, emotionally, you know, it'll

take a toll on you a little bit mentally as well. Like those games, I always say like games in Houston,

Boston, New York, playing in the places like that where you feel like the teams, you know, the pressure is constantly on and the fans are on top of you and it's hot, those take a little more out of you.

Yeah. More so than some other places.
How does it work with pitchers?

Is it just like pitcher to pitcher there's some pitchers that you know that they're gonna want to pitch their way and you're not really gonna call the game much and then there's some that like hey he's giving me the keys here like i'm calling it for him yeah i mean everybody's different you know there's some guys that they they're really involved and you know what they want to call and how they want to attack hitters and their plan and there's some guys that are just like i don't care i'm telling whatever you put down like

you you got it take it and um you know it is funny how how different guys are so they um you know like i I said, a lot of the guys do, you know, put a lot of trust in me, which, you know, I

so I try to take a lot of pride in calling the game and doing the scouting. So

we also have a lot of young guys, too. So kind of help them along and, you know, learn the ropes.
And some guys have done a really good job and kind of take ownership in that. So what about an ephis?

Are you going to call an ephis? George Kirby threw a knuckleball. Okay.
A couple years ago.

Was it just impossible to catch? It was disgusting. He, well, it was Tim Wakefield that just passed away away that morning or the night before.

And

it was the last game of the season. And we had just gotten,

you know, eliminated from contention the day before. So he's like, I'm going to throw a knuckleball, try to find a way to mix it in today.
And he threw it Corey Seeger.

And it was, I mean, if you find the video, it's disgusting. It's unlike pitching to Ninja, all that stuff.

It was...

Why doesn't he throw it more? I don't know. I mean, he was on the shelf earlier this year.
I mean, it might be a real pitch. Yeah.
I don't know. Yeah.
I mean, he got a whiff out of it.

He swung a miss. That was huge.

I almost missed it myself.

Is it like way harder to catch for a knuckleballer?

I don't. I don't even know if I've ever...
That's the only real one I think I've ever caught in the game. So you're one for one.
You're perfect. One for one.
Yeah, just one for one.

We had a guy in the minor leagues.

He maybe threw a couple. He was a big dude, like six, eight, like three balls.
That's a funny thing.

Let's get that guy in major teams. Yeah.
JT Salter was his name. Okay.

Let's get him called up. I remember the Red Sox when they had Wakefield pitching.
They used to have Doug Mirabilly as his specific catcher. And one time, did they sign him?

He was like a, he may be retired or something, but they signed him. And then he had a police escort from Logan Airport to the game to get him there for first pitching time.
It's like a different.

Maybe you can tell me what's different about catching a knuckleball. I mean, you just don't know what the ball is going to do, right? I mean, it's kind of the same way with like a fork ball.

You know, there's no consistent spin. There's no rhyme or reason of what the ball is going to do.
So you just have no idea.

So, you know, at least on curveballs, sliders, you know what the ball's generally going to do in that direction. But with that, the pitcher doesn't even really know what it's going to do.

It could take off right, left, up, down. Like you're really just playing goalie.
You know, you're not really even like Logan Gilbert, one of our pitchers, he throws a splitter.

It's more fork ball type, but he calls it a splitter. And

I just, you just don't know. I can't.
I'm more, just like I said, trying to keep it in front than I am trying to catch it.

Yeah, have you ever forgotten what pitch a pitcher's about to throw as he's delivering it? Oh, good question.

No, sometimes in warm-ups, I'm not paying attention because, and they'll like give their little sign, like, you know, with their glove, a little action. Yeah.

And sometimes I get a little, a little nervous and I'll kind of like bail out of the way. But that's, it's been pretty rare.
So that would happen happen to me all the time.

I think this is a slider. Yeah.
It's a little easier now with the pitch calm because they got, you know, they're yelling in your ear. So you can at least hear it.
So I got a couple dumb questions.

One of them is about pitch calm. Do you still paint your nails? No, I don't do that anymore.
Do you miss that?

I mean, I don't miss the painting of them because it would make a mess everywhere. But I did start making some like stickies, stickers.
Okay.

So that was a little easier on the nails rather than having to do white out on your

nails.

Do you miss, though, like calling the game with the fingers and stuff kind of badass yeah i mean when you throw the one down for a fastball and it's just like here it comes it was a lot simpler i i don't miss the

because you obviously have to change up signs with runner and second because guys are stealing signs it's part of the game i don't miss doing that because it got really complicated and guys now with all the cameras in the league guys i mean guys would

all their scouts would have everybody sign so they would know all right this guy comes in he does second sign shake the first or this guy does you know, last sign, first sign.

So guys would already know. So you'd be constantly having to change them, and it would be taking too long between the games.

So I don't miss that part with the pitch calm, but with nobody on base, you don't really need the pitch calm.

Nobody's out there, so it's obviously quicker to do it with the fingers than I think the pitch calm. All right, another dumb question.
Are there any umps that get like a little too close?

Where you're like, oh, I got this guy tonight. He's going to be like literally riding my back.
Some, I mean, yeah, they want to get as close as they can. It's kind of like catchers.

They want to get close so they can try to steal strikes. Same thing for umpires.
They want to try to get as close as they can to see every pitch.

And some guys, you know, a lot of the older guys, you know, they'll give you that kind of like pushback. So, like, you know, especially if a ball, they like, it's coming their way.

I'm set up a little bit this way and they're kind of exposed. They'll give me that like push in the back.

You got it. You got to remind them, like, hey, you're pushing me.

You're not trying to do it on purpose, but they get flinchy back there. Right.
And then a little nervous. And then last question about umps.

You ever fart on an ump?

I mean, yeah.

I've logged too many innings to not. Has an ump ever noticed? So let one of them.
Be like, dude, what was that? Nobody's ever said anything. And I know.

You know that you know when they're thinking it. Yeah, you know, it's like when you walk in a room.

Yeah, it's the same thing. I mean, I try not to make it a habit.
Yeah. But you're in that position all the time.
You're compressing your body a lot. Sometimes some just squeaks out.
Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, you're squatted down for that long. Yeah.

Bad pregame mill, you know.

Yeah, and you were telling me that you have a soft serve machine in the clubhouse in Seattle, and the nutritionist tried to take it away a couple years ago, and you guys had like a mutiny. Yes.

I think this is in 21. This was my rookie year.
So obviously, like, I come up and think it's the coolest thing ever.

Soft-serve machine, just the whole room in general has got all the snacks you can think of. And

yeah, it was right after, it was post-all-star break. They tried to like sneak it out during the break.
That way people wouldn't know. And like I said, you would have thought the world was ending.

Wait, so everyone showed up and it just wasn't there. It wasn't there and people were pissed.
Oh, man. And they made it a point.
And

it didn't even take, I think it took three days to get it back to that house. And

that's the one thing that'll never be taken out of there. Yeah.
Yeah.

I think that's what happened with the Braves back when, you remember when the Mets had that late season collapse and the Braves kind of gradually overtook them in September? Yeah.

I think they put the ice cream machine back in before that whole thing started. It's just good vibes having an ice cream machine around.
Everyone's happier at work.

Nobody, you know, nobody wants a fruit bar around. They want the

ice cream machine. They don't want.

Yeah. I mean, keep people happy, you know.
Yeah.

I have a personal request on behalf of this podcast. Are you going to be in the home run derby?

If they asked me, I think that'd be pretty fun. Okay.
I think you should be in the home run derby. You got a guy you got to take down.
Who is it? Christian Gillish. So you got to be in it?

He's flirting with us. We cannot let him go poo-poo.
Yeah.

That's no-go for us. No.
If he wins the home run derby we have to eat each other's ass that's that was the rule yeah it was it's like a it's like a seven-year bet now

yeah it was a long time

no he's never been in it he got there was the one year where he was like geared up to do it and he hurt his back so if you if listen we were simple we could do the easy way you could just beat him in the home run derby or we could do the hard way and you could just beat him with a baseball bat before the home run derby whichever one you want to do i think i think it'd be more fun to at least make you guys a little nervous okay i'll beat him in derby derby.

Yeah. I mean, you will.
You're a much better home run header than Christian Yelich is. So, yeah.
Don't give him bolts and board material. I'm just saying, I'm trying to gas my man up.
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you are.
He's a good player, though. Yeah, he's okay.
He's right. He's fine.
He's kind of skinny, though. He's fine.
Are you okay with us saying that you should be the MVP?

Because he's obviously going up against Judge, but I think the catching part of it is insane. Like,

you're catching so much. I mean, I know you DH a little, but it's nuts.
Your glove and your.

What are you top? Are you top two in throwing guys out? Maybe. Let me look that up.
I think you are. I think you're pretty elite at that.
You're like the Shohei Otani of baseball. Yeah.
It's crazy.

Yeah.

You are.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.
No, leads catchers in stealing eights. Or, yeah, so you've only given up eight stolen bases.

There might be more than that. Really? It feels like more.
Okay. My pitchers would probably argue with me.

When you give up

a stolen base, is that demoralizing? You're like, fuck. No, no.
I mean, a lot of that's, you know, that's the pitcher's fault. Yeah, they don't, you know, they're not quick to the play, you know.

And that seems to be a tale as old as time, you know, pitchers not, you know, remembering that somebody else is on the base and they just let them take off. Yeah.

You can't, you can't really do much about it back there. So we try to, we try to limit them, but you know, some guys take their time.
Okay. How many stolen bases do you have this season? I got eight.

That's pretty good. I know.
I think as long as you can steal more bases than guys steal on you, that's that's a plus season, right? I just,

I took, our manager had the record for a catcher in the season for the Mariners. Yeah.
And I just, I just broke it the other day. Oh, hell yeah.
So we're on.

I told him I was going to take the bag and hold up like Ricky Anderson. Yeah, Ricky Anderson.
Wait, do you have, do you have the green light?

Sometimes. So that's not, you do not have the green light.

It's more like a yellow light. It's like.
Yeah.

How many times have you been caught? Two. Okay.
Eight for ten right now. And that's got to be that that's a bummer when you come back to the dugout.

Yeah, because it's like, you know, yeah, you shouldn't have been been stealing there. Yeah.

Slow guy.

If it's like, you know, somebody fast, like Julia or something, it's like, ah, you know, yeah, it happens. Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah. Maybe it's like, you might need to shut it down for a while.
Yeah.

You know, I'd like to see you run more. Do you pay attention to the on-pace stats? I don't think so.
Like, if

you hit, obviously, you're at 27 right now. Do you ever look that up online and be like, what am I on pace for this season? Oh, I would be interested in

my stolen bases for sure. That'd probably be, I would imagine,

right around like 15, right? Yeah. 16.

Those are good numbers. That's really good.
We're halfway through, yeah. We're close to halfway through.
I don't know if we're all the way halfway through.

But do you look at your home run stats and you're like, you know, after if you homer on opening day, you're like, man, I'm on pace for

162 home runs. Yeah, we're a little less than halfway.
So you are on pace for 50 home runs.

That'd be pretty sick. What's better, that or the stolen bases? I'd say the home run.
I'd say so.

How sweet.

How sweet is it to hit a home run? It's got to be the best feeling ever. It feels good.
Yeah.

I mean, rounding the bases, you know,

there's probably nothing better in sports. Yeah.

I mean, for like an actual, like, you know, individual thing, you know, football, you know, you throw a touchdown, you know, there's two people on the end of the play.

Great catch, I guess that's fun, but, you know, not a lot of people get to circle the bases like that. Especially in a big moment, too.
Yeah. Walk off homers, you know, things like that.

What's your favorite home run you ever hit?

I mean, the one, the one in 22 when I walked it off. Against the A's? Yeah, send us to the postseason.
Yeah. That one was pretty.
That one's badass. Yeah, I mean, that one was...

That's the one you dream about.

Like in the backyard, you're playing with the wiffle ball bat. Yeah.
That's the one. Yeah, by the way, the record for catcher home runs is Javi Lopez.
And you're ahead of pace on that. So let's do it.

Let's get it. He had 42 in 2003.
See what we can do. Or actually, no, wait.

Oh, no. Salvador Perez had 48 in 2021, but he didn't play.
I don't think he played as many.

I don't think he caught as many games as you're going to end up catching. Yeah,

he DH'd a lot then. Yeah, listen, we'll DH a little bit.
Whatever the stats go out, we're going to make sure that you have number one.

We'll fine-tune it. We can really kind of massage the stats for you.
Fnag a little bit. Yeah, yeah, we got you.
We do a fantasy league every year. It's called Dingers Only.

So only home runs count in our fantasy league. I think that you might go in the top 10.
I had you two years ago, kind of before you were like a big name, and it saved my season.

Do you put it by by position?

It's the simplest fantasy league you could ever create. It's just everyone has nine players, and it's just the only status home runs.
It's pretty easy.

Yeah, and we also started halfway through the season, which that doesn't really make sense.

So you haven't even started yet. No, no, we haven't drafted yet.
So actually, are you okay with whoever drafts you?

Like, I'll call you and like, we'll do it like an NFL draft being like, hey, you ready to join my Dingers-only team? Yeah.

We'll get a jersey or something. Yeah, yeah, you'll be like, I'm ready to go, coach.
Yeah, I'm ready to hit some home runs. I mean, value-wise, you might be number one.
Yeah. Right?

Because, like, if you're in that many home runs as a catcher, that's huge. Positional value, you might be number one in Dinger's home.
Yeah, catcher. Yeah.

It's not, it's not a home run position. So, yeah.
Yeah. I have a question about the art of catching and framing pitches.
Okay.

Is there like a limit to how far out of the strike zone a pitch will be that you'll try to frame, or will you try to frame everything?

There's a limit, right? I mean, something ridiculous, you know, you can't.

but I mean, I don't know, you're trying to

steal strikes, so like, you know, borderline, you know, pitches that look somewhat good to your eye, like, yeah, you're gonna frame it.

And then, I mean, there are some, you know, where it's just like, all right, you know, no need for that.

You can't make this one look. Yeah, you gotta, you gotta respect the game a little bit.

Is there a frame job that you're most proud of?

I don't know.

One off the top of my head?

I don't think so. I mean,

it it's gotten a lot smaller. I mean, even though you guys read that article that came out about the buffer zone with the umpires,

you know, they basically basically there was a two-inch buffer zone that shrunk down to like 0.75 inches of a buffer zone.

So umpires this year have been calling a lot more balls just because they're going to get docked, basically, because they're getting, you know, just like we are as players, they're getting graded out and see how well they do on their performance.

And so they've been a lot more tighter this year with that being introduced. So that's kind of been the thing this year.
How do we feel about the robot umps? I'm out. Yeah.
I'm out on robot umps.

We agree. Yeah, I mean, podcasts.
I mean, don't like, don't you want to keep a little bit of the baseball in it, you know? Yeah.

Like a little bit of like, you want to see managers and, you know, guys getting ejected. Like, that's part of the game.
So they've taken away with replay.

There's no more, you know, it's not a lot of arguing going on besides at home plate. And if you take that away, it's like

there's not, you know, you need a little bit of excitement in the game. You want to see guys throwing throwing rosin bags and yeah, yeah,

the slow little trot that the manager does when he goes out, you know, like the short little steps, but he's moving his arms like he's running, and then he's like collecting his thoughts, and he gets to home plate and just explodes on the ump.

That's that's part of the beauty of the game of baseball.

And it also, like, we, we've, our, our take is simple: that if you took away all refs and umps from all sports, you're basically eliminating like 50% of conversations guys can have with each other.

Like, yeah, like if your team loses, you have to be able to blame a human being, you know? Yeah, you want to, you want to, you know,

be like, oh, that robot. Get pissed to that, that umpire.
You want to at least blame somebody. Yeah, right.

So, I mean, there's the human element of it. So, I mean, you know, it's not a bunch of robots out there playing.
You know, you don't want a bunch of robots umpiring. Yeah.

You know, I don't even know where the system's at yet. I mean,

you know, if it's off by a little bit, if it's not, if it's perfect, you know, and like, two is like, you're going to get everybody's size right. Like, is this only gonna change?

Yeah, Aaron Judge versus Jose Altuve. Like, it's a lot.
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Have you ever had to stop a guy from charging the mound?

No, I mean, I've had to step step in between. Do you have a move? Are you like in your head, like, kind of like,

I think, like, oh man, if someone's going to hijack this plane, I'm going to be such a badass. Do you have that going through your head?

Like, man, if this guy steps towards my pitcher, I'm going to be such a badass here. I've always said that I want to try to tackle him from behind.
Yeah.

Just because, like, obviously he's going to be going, but I don't know if I'll be able to make it in time.

Dude, honestly, what you should do, and I don't know why catchers don't do this, like, just let him kind of run and just trip him.

That would be so like, how embarrassing is that if you get, yeah, if you just throw your foot and like the guy can't get he can't you can't get up from a trip and still be as mad because you're now just embarrassed about falling on your face.

Yeah, I don't know what his next move would be. Would he continue to go? Do I

have your pitcher ready to trip him back? Do I just tackle him? Do I sit on him? Yeah, sit on him. I don't know.
I've always imagined in my head I would just try to tackle him before he gets there.

Think about the trip. What you do is, yeah, you wait for him to run.
And then when the, you know, the back leg goes out, you just kick that leg aside, and then it hits their other leg.

That's as embarrassing as embarrassing gets they might even just laugh they might even realize how silly this whole thing is and be like yeah it's pretty funny i don't know if they'd be laughing yeah do you talk double embarrassed yeah do you talk to the guys in the batter's box uh yeah some guys some guys are real chatty in there really like pitch to pitch or just just when they oh really pitch to pitch yeah what are they talking about

depending on the day you know some guys like i said real chirpy real you know real funny in the box like to you know either make fun of themselves or, you know, talk about something, what pitch they think is coming next.

And some guys, you know, it's, it's, once they say, hey, they don't, they don't say anything else again. It's focused, kind of locked in.

You know, Nathaniel Lowe for the Nationals, he's one. He loves, loves to chirp, loves the chat.
And every single time it comes up, he's like, all right, you know where I like it.

I say, all right, here it comes right in the middle. Yeah, are you allowed to talk when they're about to swing? Oh, yeah.
It's

a game. Yeah, I mean, some people, like, some people will be talking as the guy's coming in his windup and everything.
And I'm just like, all right, if you want to chat, we'll chat.

Do you have the in your head? Is it like game respect game when another catcher steps up? You guys share professional courtesy? Yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty much across the league now.

You know, everybody, it's just known you, you say hey to both the ump and

the catcher now. Yeah.
So I think some younger guys don't just because they don't know when they come up.

Rookies, they're just like quiet and they keep their head down and they don't want to, which is a good thing. But

yeah, it's it's pretty much common courtesy now. A lot of a lot of guys will like tap the

little love. Yeah, I remember Brandon Phillips did that the other day and they got in the fight.
Yeah. So

yeah, some guys, it just depends on the guys. So you're growing up, your dad was a coach.

Did he coach you throughout like all your literally, because he was a real coach, like he coached college. Yeah, he's college coach.
So did he coach you any of your teams or no?

No, he didn't. He was always coaching college.
Yeah.

He was not my coach.

There's one or two years in high school when he finished up.

He did some stuff. But yeah, no, I was always with him at the field.
Yeah.

That's the perfect coach's son because he's not coaching your actual team. So people can't be like, this guy's just getting preferential treatment, but he also is coaching you all the other times.

Not the shortstop hitting third. Yeah, right, exactly.
Yeah. Like, is this guy good or is he just the coach's son? So you had a bait.
There's a lot of those. Yeah.

Especially nowadays, there's like five, there's like five coaches in the team. And

all their kids are hitting first five in the order. It's like, come on now.
All playing Enfield. Yeah.
So you won the Platinum Glove Award. That's pretty cool.
And that's when you got your gold.

Did you get the gold glove first or the platinum glove? Gold and then platinum. Did you think that there was a chance you could get platinum last year?

I mean,

no, no, I mean, you I was just happy to win the gold, right? And then, you know, they announced that at the at the award

at the banquet so I didn't think I was gonna win that and wasn't in my mind and it

was kind of a cool little thing I didn't didn't know I could do yeah, do you keep them in the same place in your house?

They are in my locker right now. Oh, yeah, they were presented to me this year.
So they presented to me at like one of the first games of the year. So right now they're in the top of my locker.

I gotta gotta find out where we're at. That's kind of a flex.
I kind of like that. Yeah.
So when the reporters come in, in, they see it.

Well, this is on top. It's not.
Well, you gotta get it visible. Just let them know, like, this is who you're talking about.

I think it's even, it's a little bit cooler that you have them where nobody can see him. It's like, yeah.
They're just in a box up there. Yeah.

Wait, so they're not even displayed. They're just not even displayed.
They're in a box. They're sitting in a box right now.
Yeah, I would put the platinum in my foyer to my house.

Like, the first thing that somebody sees when they walk in. In like the plastic case? Yeah, that's the platinum glove.
I'm the best in the world. Yeah.
Where would you put the gold?

Probably in the bathroom.

Yeah. Like, if you got the platinum, no, you don't want anybody to see the gold because it's a major downgrade.
It's like disappointing to see the gold.

You can't live up to it anymore. Yeah,

when you played at Florida State, you guys went to Omaha. Did Jameis Winston ever give you guys a pump-up speech? No, I wish.
Oh,

yeah. How awesome.
Omaha is like every year the College World Series is like it kind of sneaks up on me, and then I get I tune into the games like this is the best.

And like, was it just an awesome experience being in Omaha? Yeah, it was awesome. Yeah.
Yeah. It was, I mean,

for college baseball, you know, and the, you know, the kids, like, that's, that's all they want to do is to go to Omaha. So it's like, it's the thing.
Yeah.

And getting to go, you know, it's kind of like a bucket list thing. It's like, check that box.
Like, that's one of the cooler things. Yeah.

I'd say, you know, and then obviously getting to the biggerly is pretty cool, too. But,

you know, that's kind of like the peak for when you're in college. It's like the one thing you want to do.
Was it hard going from metal to wood? Like, was there an adjustment? Not really. Really? No.

I mean, I actually kind of liked it better because when you got Pro Ball, you got to pick.

There were so many different things you could do to your bat. You could modify it.
You could pick top heavy like versus like college. You know, it's basically like, here's the metal bat that you get.

There's no, there's no changing it. You get what you get.
So I thought it was kind of cool. Yeah.
What's your bat like now?

I'm actually a I'm a torpedo guy. Oh, you are? Oh, you are? I'm a torpedo guy.
So what's the difference? So you've been cheating. Yeah, what's the difference?

The first time he swung it, could you immediately tell? Like, yeah, this is going to be my baby. No, it was, I mean,

really, for anybody, any baseball guy,

they pick it up one time, they use it, and it works, and they're like, oh, this is what I'm going to use.

So, Rawling sent me a couple of torpedoes, and I picked it up one game against the Rangers, like third at bat.

I think I struck out or something, the first two at bats, picked it up in a home run, never went back. So,

it just looks funky. You know, you see the

how it tapers off.

But no, I mean, it feels kind of normal. You don't really feel the difference, but just looking at it, you're like, that's kind of weird.
It's weird. Yeah.

Is there a certain player as a catcher where their

ball on bat just sounds totally different than everyone else?

Yeah, there's some guys with the bass speed. I mean, Otani.

It just sounds like just a completely different swing. Yeah, it's like when he swings, it sounds like an airplane's taking off.
jesus yeah with the bass speed um

there's a few guys jorge soler uh he hit that big home run a couple years ago with the uh braves yeah in the world series yeah he swings the bat extremely hard you're actually a little nervous back there with how hard he's swinging yeah because it's just like i mean if he connects it's there's no No getting the ball back.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's

scary. You know, I'd say Bryce Harper had that as well, that kind of different sound, different swing.
Judge is just so big and so strong that he can mishit it and still

goes out. Yeah,

he's a different animal. It actually is like, it's actually cheating how tall he is.
He should not be eligible for MVP. He's a beast.
Yeah, but I mean, you're the MVP. He's, I mean,

he's different. And just so we're clear, if Aaron Judge ever comes on this show, we will tell him he's the MVP and Cal Raleigh is actually cheating because he's DHing.
No, I'm not using MVP.

Yeah, I'm going to say that Aaron Judge, by being on the Yankees, they use torpedo bats, so he's technically a cheater. He gets better pitches to hit where Cal Rowley guys.
Yeah.

That was nice when the torpedo bat story broke because everybody was like, the Yankees are all cheating. And you just like, oh, I hope nobody mentions me.
And then everyone forgot about it. Yeah.

Yeah. Nobody, nobody cares about Seattle.
They're, you know, it is far away. It's a good sports town, though, right? I love it.
Yeah. It's awesome.

The only thing I would say is like, it would be nice if you played in a more of a hitters' ballpark. Yeah.
Yeah. Not a great hitters' ballpark.

Yeah, that and the East Coast, you know, you just don't get as much love out in Seattle. So it's nice when people notice, you know, the West Coast tables.
And the stadium's awesome. Yeah.

Oh, it's great.

I mean, the fans are awesome. It's a great sports city, like we were talking about.
You know, all the teams, they show up really well.

Like I said,

pretty much, you know. When they're there, it's a packed house.
So it's fun, fun, fun to play in.

This might be a dumb question, but one thing that I love about Seattle and the the ballpark, especially, great food in the ballpark out there. As a player, do you ever get to eat the ballpark food?

No, not really. I mean, you get, I guess you can have people bring you stuff, like clubbies and stuff, if you really want to try something.
Yeah. Like,

they had a Calzone a couple of years ago.

Like,

play on play on. So they brought me a few.
I tried them. Oh, hell yeah.
They got a bunch of different food, though. I mean, they got crickets out there, too.
Yeah, they do. They got crickets.
And

they're always introducing. They got, what is it, the little

dumpers? Little dumplings.

Look at that. They got

little dumplings this year or something. They should make a big dumper Sunday.
Just a giant chocolate Sunday.

I could get behind that. Yeah.

The big dumper is such a great nickname. It's fucking awesome.
It is.

I read that your parents don't exactly love it.

I mean, you know. Yeah.
I don't think your mom

would like

a a big dumper.

It's your genes.

You gave me the big dumper. I know.
You know, so I don't think, like I said, I don't think that's what comes to mind when mom's thinking of little boy Cal. He's the big dumper.

My little baby. Big dumper.
He poo-pooed all over that ball. He's poo-pooed twice tonight.

He's 28 years old.

Do you pay a lot of attention to, like, you were talking about bat speed earlier. As a catcher, do you pay a lot of attention to like all the metrics from all the players? Or are you just like,

I I can't analyze things that much? No.

Yeah,

you don't want to get too deep in the weeds.

You can really get in-depth now with all the analytics and all the stats and everything that's out there. But at the end of the day, you're still playing baseball and

you got to keep it simple like that sometimes. What about as a hitter? Do you pay attention to how far in front of the ball you're hitting? angle, bat speed, all that stuff?

Not really. Not unless something is really glaring and, like,

you know, something has changed just because it's such a long season and you know, your body can change your stance, you know, like, oh, hey, like, this is, you know, you were this far open early in the year, and now you've closed yourself off, or vice versa, like things like that.

Like, and usually that'll be a gradual thing over time. And, so, like, some people will, it's more of like a coach's job to bring that to you.
Be like, hey, like, this is where you're at. Yeah.

You know, you've fallen off a little bit. Let's get you back to this, to what you were doing.
So, how, how fast can you throw?

Because catchers don't get enough credit for being able to throw really fucking fast. I was, I don't think,

I don't think my arm's ever been my calling card. I mean, you're throwing guys out.

Is that that's just your pop? Yeah, I'd say my transfers are decently quick. I got pretty good footwork, so it kind of makes up for my arm.
Um,

I was always, I was a submarine guy. I was like a, oh, really? Yeah, in high school, I was throwing sidearm.
How fast were you throwing? Oh, like 70 poo.

Yeah, I was just throwing strikes in there.

So, yeah, I was like just doing that and then catching Kim Calling. So, yeah.
Have you ever called a really embarrassing pitch out and the guy's not stealing at all? Yeah, but

I wouldn't say it's too embarrassing. It's not one of those things.
There's definitely a lot more embarrassing things that can happen. What's the most embarrassing thing that could happen?

One time I threw,

well, I guess there was one time the guy didn't steal, and I still threw it a second. I thought he he took off.
It was like a fake steal, and I was kind of blocked by the lefty.

And I threw it, and nobody was there. So I just went into the outfield.
No, but he didn't advance, luckily.

And then another time in college, I threw down, kind of slipped a little bit, my front foot, and then hit the pitcher right in the ass. Oh, yeah.

And he was squatted down, too, so it wasn't even close. I was like, I didn't hit him in the head.
You saw the other day. Yeah, that's crazy.

Hit him in the head, but yeah, it hit this guy right in the butt. So that was

kind of embarrassing. What about if you're throwing a third base? It's a right-handed batter.
You ever come close to hitting a guy?

Yeah.

Sometimes it looks like it gets pretty close. Yeah, I've hit the bat.
No, I actually

hit the helmet of somebody, and the guy scored one time. Oh,

yeah, it ricocheted, and it hit him in the helmet, and it went all the way to the dugout, and the guy scored from second. So that was embarrassing.
It was in college, though. Yeah.

A lot of embarrassing things in college, actually.

I mean, you guys were good, though. You got to learn.
Yeah. Got to learn somewhere.
Yeah, yeah. All right, I got one last question.
This has been awesome, Cal. You are our MVP.

We're going to keep pumping up your numbers all year. Appreciate it.

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I'll finish with another dumb question because, like, I think you might be the first catcher we've had on. We had Johnny Bench on like nine years ago.
Did we?

I don't know if we've had a catcher since. So there's a lot of dumb catcher questions.
So I apologize for that. Johnny Bench.
But

dumb catcher question.

I know that, like, if you are, if you're in the dugout and you're putting on your gear and then you have to take it off, it means that obviously there's been some hits that you didn't expect.

But is there a small part of you like, this is bullshit? I got to take it all off again?

Yeah.

I mean, you, you kind of like learn like when to take it off and when to put it on. Yeah.

Um do you have someone who puts it on for you? No. No.
Oh, you should get someone to do the just

do the legs at least. Like a NASCAR like the crew pit.
Yeah. But I would imagine it would suck if you took, put it all on, take it all off, and then end the inning in the on-deck circle.
Yeah.

Well, sometimes you keep on the legs in the on-deck circle? No, so that's not a pro ball thing. I learned that real quick.
Oh.

it's one of those like things that nobody tells you before and then you go do it and then they yell at you or they're like you look stupid out there with your shin guards on and then it's just one of those things that you do it all through your whole life right right catchers you're like on deck and then you take them off and then you get the pro ball and you do that and everybody's like you look like an idiot take those off no you got to get ready to hit so yeah sometimes i'll look stupid and dug out though like i'll put well i'll take one off be like i'm like halfway in halfway out, just in case, because you don't want to take it all off.

Just being lazy.

But

you can never just relax in the dugout, huh? Yeah, you're constantly doing something. Yeah.
Talking to the pitcher, pitching coach, getting ready to hit, especially now with the pitch.

The pitch clock has made everything so fast. Yeah, is that, do you like it as a catcher?

It's nice for the in-game stuff because like things are going and like, you know, those four or five-hour games are not happening. Yeah, they don't exist.

Yeah, people are, you know, it was getting really long with all the pitching changes and now with all the, you know, advanced stuff with that people have.

So it was getting a little long, but there's not a lot of time in the dugout. It's like, I don't got time to, you know, go grab water, just delay around.
It's like, you got,

you got to get ready. Right.
Right. So it's almost too quick sometimes, especially if you're leading off.
I got to take it off, get ready, put everything on.

You know, you got to have all the Ego shields now.

Oh, do you? This one just popped in my head, too.

Do you, when, when the manager comes out to pull a pitcher, do you ever play like good cop being like, ah, we shouldn't, knowing that he's going to get pulled anyway, just trying to have your pitchers back?

Sometimes

I shake my head, you know. Yeah, just let him know, like, hey, it's not me that's doing this.
Hey, man, I'm there for you. Yeah, right.
You would have gotten this guy out. Yeah, you got kept in.

I could do back cop, back up, though. Yeah.
Yeah.

Could go out there and get into him, too. Yeah, just be like, dude, you suck.
Get out of here. No.

Sometimes, you know, you got to give him that little affirmation. Hey, man, I wouldn't have done that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I do like the idea, though, you have an NASCAR team, not just one guy, but like four guys that just roll up behind you, put all your shit on in like five seconds.

It should be the starters that aren't. So you have five starters in rotation, so it should be the other four.
Yeah. Strap me up, boys.
Yeah. Let's go.

How awesome is DHing, though, when you have a day where you can just chill and just hit?

It's almost too chill sometimes. Really? Yeah.
It's like, well, as a catcher, you're in every single play.

You're doing the most.

Yeah, the ball. Yeah, you're touching the ball every single play.
You're always involved. Your mind's always going.

And then you get to DH and you're like, I don't know what to do with myself. Right.

And like, you're talking to guys that you normally wouldn't talk to in the dugout, like, during the game, or you're doing,

you're eating snacks. You know, you don't know what to really do with yourself.
So you're just sitting there and kind of just twiddling your thumb sometimes.

So almost, almost in a reverse way, it could be. Some guys have trouble DHing because they don't know what to do themselves.
They get bored. Yeah.
I mean, some guys, it's been a thing in the past.

They're like, I need to play the field. But being a catcher, you have to have a few DH.

I got one last, maybe dumb question. I know that catchers don't always catch the first pitches that get thrown out, but I imagine that you've caught a lot of them.

Is there one guy that has the best first pitch?

I mean, Ichiro, right? He threw like, I think he hit like 91 a couple years ago. That's awesome.
Right down the middle. I mean, his first pitch is elite.
I mean, that's a good one. Yeah.

Did he tell you, like, hey, I'm going to throw this one? Yeah.

No, I think he kind of keeps it, plays it close to the chest. Yeah.
Yeah. He doesn't, you know, he's pretty, he likes, you know, staying a little quiet.

You know, would you be down for our dumb baseball rule where the first pitch should count?

You want to get a batter in there? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
So it's like, all right, you want to bring out 50 cent to throw a first pitch? It's going to count.

What about a, you're going to need an L screen out there for somebody, though? No, no, no.

Throw a first pitch. You can get hit right back to you.

Oh, boy. It sounds like you're not ready for that.
This it would be sick.

Like, imagine if, like, in the playoffs, they're like, yeah, we're bringing out this guy for a first pitch, like a legend, and he can still throw it. Nolan Ryan.
Yeah, right, right.

That'd be kind of cool. Yeah, right.
Just suit him up. Right.

Yeah, he threw out a really good one a couple years ago. Yeah.
50 Cent would actually be not the worst option. No.
Because he's going to throw a ball. Right.
And who cares?

You wouldn't want somebody throwing a meatball in the middle. Yeah.
Yeah. Think about it.
Pretty fun. Randy Johnson.
Get it back out of here.

Who would the Mets have? Grimis? Yeah. Grimis out there.
Yeah, Grimis throwing the first pitch. That would be sick.
Oh, I just thought one more question about catching.

Is there a baseball field that is actually like a ballpark that is the easiest and then the hardest to catch in based on what's beyond the pitcher, what's out in center field?

Yeah, there's some tough ones with shadows. It's a.

And also the foul. I mean, the A's, obviously, when they were still in Oakland, the foul ball territory was insane.
Yeah. Sneaky, though, I think people miss miss that stadium, though.
Really?

I love playing there. I mean, obviously, you had no fans, but you almost felt like you were, you know, back in high school or playing child ball again.
Like, yeah, it was kind of a cool experience.

Like, nobody's there. Dugouts are wide open.

I was like, I love this. This is a lot of fun.
It's COVID back right now. Yeah.
I know, right?

But the Sacramento was tough to see. And

that because it's new.

Tampa Bay, obviously, they're not there. They had the hurricane, but they had a white roof.
So, like, any pop flies that go up, I'm like,

who designed this? Why would this ever be a thing? Yeah. So,

I never really understood that.

But, yeah, any place with like shadows, when you get those, like, four o'clock games, and now all the stadiums, you know, they're really tall and they got shadows that go through.

Guys hate four o'clock games. Yeah.
And, like, with TV, sometimes, you know. TV takes precedent and it kind of runs everything.
So you get those.

They're going to be tough days to hit and tough days to see as a catcher. Yeah.

All right. Well, Cal, thank you.
Big dumper. Appreciate you stopping by, man.
This was a lot of fun. And we're rooting for you the rest of the year.
Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
MVP.

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Okay, we're wrapping up the show. Hank,

we missed the fuck out of you guys. I miss you guys, too.

I miss you so much. For people who didn't see, PFT and I, we didn't really want to announce this, but we ended up having to announce it because everyone's going to be like, where's Hank?

We paid for him, his dad, his brother, and his brother-in-law all-expense trip to Pebble Beach.

And Spyglass. Spyglass played, what, three rounds? Two rounds.
Two rounds. Pebble Beach and Spyglass.
Played a whole weekend in Carmel. told them tip 60

on the tabs we got it uh how was it it was even better than going into it i had my expectations were through the roof uh it it really was a magical experience the we stayed at the inn at spanish bay beautiful beautiful hotel resort you know spa right on the spanish bay golf course why'd you tell us where you stayed when we booked it phenomenal restaurants i'm telling the viewers oh okay yeah um

spanish bay unbelievable golf course hit two berries in a row i don't think i've ever done that in my life oh yep shot a 42 on the front that i was going to break my pr completely imploded on the back you guys would have enjoyed it um yeah not me still broke 90 which was which is you know huge huge and then pebble beach was you know obviously no

six seven eighteen but

The course it truly was like the entire time you're just looking around like this is not a real place like I cannot believe that we're playing golf in this setting. You mentioned the spa.

Did you go to the spa?

Yeah, there's like a little gym. Like, we went in, you know,

it's part of the hotel. Yeah.

Just went in the gym, went in the steam room, hot tub, pool.

But yeah, Pebble Beach was, was, it was, and obviously getting to spend the time with my dad, brother, brother-in-law was, it was, it was incredible. Probably two of the best days of my life.
Really?

Yeah. And how many times when you were out there were you like, god damn it, thanks so much, PF.

I mean, the craziest part, like, uh, shout out to Tarp AWL, works at Pebble Beach, and he met us on the first tee and he told us, because I'm guessing that's who you're communicating with.

Timeout, did someone fart in there? Who farted? They just Max, why do you?

It was Zach, he gas masked you

and like absolutely horrendous fart back in the middle of his fucking Pebble Beach talk me.

It's so bad. Was it me? It's so bad, yes.

Oh, Zach looks like he's a bad guy. I mean, this this booth is just like a dungeon of yeah yeah

all right so it was it was it was i i got off i started the the first round at spanish bay double bogey second hole triple bogey

third hole uh and and and my t-shot in the second hole was just a complete dumb it went away it wasn't even close Third hole, stepped up, hit a par, and then the fourth hole, I hit another

mini driver, 54-degree wedge, hit an eight-footer, and then on a par three, I hit like a 30-foot footer. Can we go back to Max? Exactly.

It was phenomenal. All right, I bought some time.
All right, okay. So, what were you saying about Tarp? Tarp, yeah.
So, he's AWL. He works at Pebble.
That's your guy. That's your guy.

We asked him to hook you up. And he came out and he was like, yeah, BitCat and PFT, like, they enjoy doing this so much.
Like, it's going to be an annual trip. And I almost cried.

I was ready to cry. Tarp said that? Tarp said that?

I think Tarp is so much. And

I'm going to be I'm able to do this all the time.

You guys have started. And I just, I cannot thank you enough.

I think Tarp is trying to make some money.

I was just reporting what he said to me. Annual trip.
That's what he said. On us.
That's what he said. I actually said

I can't argue with that. So I'm reading my DMs.
And we did do that. We're fucking awesome like that.

I'm so sick.

I'm reading my DMs with Tarp right now, where I did say we would like to make this an annual trip if Hank can break 90.

And I did it. Spanish Bat.
Would you shoot at Pebble Beach? I shot at 95. Oh.

So he said that to you before you teed off. I also skulled my two shot over seventh green.

Cool. Let me hear more about your golf round.

All right, you brought back gifts? I did. Why'd you bring gifts? We gave you the gift.
I know, but I. Well, that was part of the budget.
I even mentioned that.

And that's kind of like, it's a fun new tradition on on the podcast, Shane, Max.

So, Big Cat, I know, you know. Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Did you give me a Pope?

I felt bad about the Pope, and Max got you the Aloha. They did not have a Pope, but they did have this little Pebble Beach golf cart figurine.
That's so cool. It's going nice right on the shelf.

That's exactly what I wanted. Right next to my broken Pope.

Where's my Pope? Where the fuck did my Pope go?

Every time I get a gift, I forget I don't have my Pope anymore. I took it out.
I found it.

I thought I'd put it back on this desk. Shane stole it.
It's on his desk. Oh, Shane.
Shane's getting back. Get the Pope back.
Go get the Pope. Get the Pope.
Yeah, go get the Pope.

I got a little figurine. He's a thief.
People are going to be like, holy shit, have you traveled everywhere? You'd be like, yeah. Is that the Pope?

Shane went to Italy?

We paid for Shane's Italy trip, too, and Max's Hawaii trip.

PFT.

Again,

we're boys now.

We're in lockstep. And I know, I think it was the last time or a couple times ago when we were golfing, I was giving you a lot of shit for your belt.
Yeah.

You were wearing like a formal belt on the golf course. Yeah, I didn't have a golf belt, and so Hank was like, dude, what is this guy doing going on to the course with?

Oh, yeah, and they cost like $70.

I'm not wearing a golf belt. Oh, a golf belt.
I got PFT, a Pebble Beach golf belt. Maybe that might be what's been holding me back, though.
Wait, but is not having a golf belt.

But PFT's never been to Pebble Beach. But you did send someone.
I did send someone.

You can tell everyone. Yeah, it's not Stolen Valor.
I'm like, yeah, it wasn't for me. It's kind of like, you know, when you

pay for somebody else, you get to take some honor in that. Let's see, Hank, this feels like it might be a little bit big.
Let me see. I kind of had to guess.

I tried it on myself and it was going to fit me, so I figured it would fit you.

Look at this. Oh, the clubs come out.
Wow.

Of the golf card. Yeah, you can kind of pick them up a little.
All right, so it's going right next to my Hawaiian chick and my broken poke. Like this? That's a pretty good fit, Hank.

So, this is for tying all my clubs together, right? Yeah, I can use that. All right.

Look at all the places I've been, guys. Oh, shit.
I just broke the Hawaii girl.

Memes for memes. Oh, did you get him a boob mug? Coffee guy.
No boob mug, but I got him a nice Spyglass Hill coffee mug. Love it.
Added to his collection. Nice.

Pug is not here, but he's presidential. He's always.
Congrats to Pug. Got married.
Signing things. Documents.
i got him a nice pebble beach pen ballpoint pen wow

very smooth uh shane i know shane's always here hooping playing games doing stuff with balls i got him this pebble beach inflatable golf ball thing well it's not inflated i couldn't find a pump here there's there's a pump in this office somewhere Shane will find it.

He loves playing with balls, too. He

loves playing with balls. That's like those tennis balls that they have at the majors, except I like that.
I like anytime you can get a giant novelty ball. I'm in.

Jack, I don't know if he's in there. No.

He's a wild card. We don't know what's coming next with him, so I got him a nice Pebble Beach deck of cards.

That's good.

Nice.

Max.

Wait, where's Max? Max, I know sometimes you struggle with your breath. So I got you some nice Pebble Beach breathless

breathless. I do struggle with my breath.
I do struggle with your breath. I thought you meant like catching it.
Oh, wow.

Thank you.

You got my Pebble Beach inhaler? Don't worry. I'm not calling you fat.
I'm just saying your breath smells. Yeah, thank you.

And then, Zach, cream team, you know, you're dealing with ice cream, cold, so I went ahead and I got you a nice Pebble Beach winter jacket. Seriously?

Yeah. Let's see it.
That's nice. Holy shit, that's nice.

That's really nice. I got fucking mints.

Zach, come put this jacket on. That's awesome, man.
Thank you so much for the gift tank. Yeah, let's see.
There was a clear

hierarchy of these gifts here. No.
What are you talking about? What do you mean? I just went for what felt like it fit

from

winter coat. Did you see my little $75 belt? No, did you see my golf cart? It's probably more than that.
Did you see my golf cart? It's sick, dude. I got mints.

I got a golf cart, a little figurine golf cart. You know what? You know what? You're right, Max.

I got you also this Zippo lighter with no fat or fluid in it. Oh, that's honestly weight.
That's nice. You wanted to keep that? That was for yourself.

Is that so he could do flamethrowers with his breath?

Yeah. Wow, Zach.
That's great. It looks really good.
What a great handshake from Zach right there. Thank you very much.
I know Hank didn't take his hat off.

Bad golf etiquette. I love my mints, honestly.
Do you? Yeah.

I was meaning to go get myself a nice pair of mints. Yeah.
Covered up. You needed that.
All the controversial topics. Morgan Wallen, mint.

That was a good way to bring up his brats because we've been meeting to do that.

We needed to do that at some point. I felt that.
That was perfect. I was looking around the, you know, I was looking for the knickknacks and I was like, oh, no.
Max is just a little bit more.

That was good. Max is rather than a girl.

My favorite part about it is that Hank put a lot of thought into all these gifts. He really tailored him to the person that he's getting, which is really nice.

It shows that he's a thoughtful gift giver. If I had to guess,

so hank bought a coat for zach bought a belt for pft and then when checking out got all of the other

like right next to the register were all register gifts they had great knickknacks though yeah yeah zach you look official in that coat i feel official yeah i think i think we all

i was just like i'm gonna get zach the most expensive

i think we all got to get zach jackets from every vacation we go on yeah

we can set up like we could share this one. We could set it like Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
Okay.

I'd like to wear it tomorrow.

If anyone's got like a golf thing going on, we just

if anyone wants a Spanish Bay

keychain? Head cover keychain. That's you.
I didn't play there, though.

Yeah, but you need to let everyone know that you like golf because God forbid someone doesn't want to talk about the skull that you had on seven or

the birdie you had on six. Back-to-back birdie,

the mini driver you hit. Mini driver, 54-degree wedge.
Wow. Eight-footer up there.
Incredible. Isn't that the name of the chick that was in Goodwill Hunting? Mini Driver.
Mini Cooper. Mini.

I think your name was Mini Dooper. Mini Driver.
Yeah. Yeah.
Smoke.

Hank, did you win?

Yeah.

You were better than your brother, brother-in-law, and dad? Yeah, I mean, we weren't really playing all that competitive. So you didn't.
We were having a good time. I scored the best.
You did?

That would be a win. Every single time? Yeah.
Wow.

They

all have my dad.

My dad's only, my dad doesn't really golf. He's like, I've played Pebble Beach like 10 times in the last 10 years.
That's the most, he's like, it's my home course. What a flex.

And my brother and brother-in-law both have young kids, so they don't get to golf as much. Yeah.
But you. But me, I'm

resenting. Yeah.

What a trip. What a trip.

I truly cannot thank you guys enough. You're welcome.
And yeah, I mean, I can't wait for next year. Yeah.
Well, he shot 94.

I just was going off what Tarp told me. Yeah.
I mean, that's our boy. Tarp.

We got it all together with Tarp.

Okay.

Good show, boys. Mount Rushmore season starts on Wednesday.

I think we're going to do some draft stuff with Rasillo. Got some good interviews coming.
And we are, I've seen some people ask. We will be having Ryan Whitney on in person, hopefully for Friday.

Because I was going to go to Edmonton. Yeah.
And we'd like to talk to him about everything

because he's a broken man.

Okay.

Numbers. 399.

Oh, who got three first? I think I did. 50 got it.
Okay. You know what, Hank? You can have it.
No, you take it.

No, you take it. You still doing the 99 thing, memes? We'll take 50.
Okay, I'll take it.

50 got it.

Yeah, 99 memes.

I'll take five, Birdie on five. Oh, yeah.
Who could forget?

When Pug comes back, are you still going to try and take 99?

Yeah, it'll be a wedding gift for him for me to have it. There'll be riots if we do that.
What did you take, Max?

Six. I'll take...

I just got to get a win.

75. Zach, what are you? I'll go 27.

Wait, do we have a first lady of the pod now that the Crozien got married?

21. It's crazy.

Come on, three.

Come on, 27.

13. Oh, I didn't see the one.
13. I thought that was a three so bad.
I thought it was a three, too. Oh, 13.

That would be awesome if it was three, me. 379 days till I catch Hank.

That's crazy.

That is crazy.

Love you guys.

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