Denver’s a Mess! Plus, Live at the Masters With the Simmons Crew

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Coming up, all hell breaks loose in Denver. I'm at the masters.
This podcast is nuts.

Speaker 2 It's next.

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Speaker 1 If you liked White Lotus, go check out Prestige TV. Go check out The Watch because we covered everything that happened in the season finale.

Speaker 1 I put up a new rewatchables, The Saint, that went up over the weekend because Val Kilmer passed away. So we want to pay homage to him.

Speaker 1 I am at the Masters right now. I have a bunch of people.
We did not expect when we were walking off the course and got our phones back today that Denver had cleaned house.

Speaker 1 So I'm going to talk about that at the top with Joe House. We're going to talk NBA.
We're going to talk Western Finals odds and a whole bunch of stuff with Sal and House.

Speaker 1 And then we did a bunch of master stuff. We created a little draft that you can bet on of FanDuel Sportsbook and a whole bunch of other fun

Speaker 1 props, bets. And then last but not least, James Babydal Dixon.
He comes in. We've talked about him on the podcast a bunch.

Speaker 1 And we talked to him and Chang and Sal about Augusta and smoking and some of the stuff that makes Augusta what it is. So that is all coming up.
First, our friends from Pearl Jab.

Speaker 1 All right, we're recording this on Tuesday, early evening in Augusta, Georgia, East Coast time.

Speaker 1 We're here for the Masters.

Speaker 1 We brought a whole crew, including Nathan Hubbard, your fairway rolling partner, cousin Sal, he's going to be joining us later, David Chang, and baby doll James Dixon, who's still talking.

Speaker 1 You can't hear him.

Speaker 1 But we're going to do a bunch of segments for this pod. We did not expect

Speaker 1 what happened when we left the Masters because when you leave leave the masters, you have to give your phone. You're not allowed to have your phone in the course.

Speaker 1 We didn't have our phone for six hours, so literally anything can happen.

Speaker 1 And we're thinking we leave the course and we're going to find out the market has dropped like 150 points or just to know the day that ends in Y.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 1 some sort of bad tariff news. And instead, all these texts about, oh my God, Nuggets, can you believe Denver? And they fired their coach and their GM.

Speaker 1 And we're going to be one of many podcasts who talks about this tonight. But a true stunner, I don't remember.

Speaker 1 I have a bunch of thoughts on this, but to fire your coach in GM with a week to go in the season when you have a chance to be like a top four playoff seed, this is like the NBA we grew up with.

Speaker 1 The NBA is like going nuts again.

Speaker 2 Well, I mean,

Speaker 2 it is and it isn't.

Speaker 2 Like there is no precedent for teams firing their, like we have it now in 10 days, two playoff teams with legit aspirations for getting to the Western Conference finals firing their head coach.

Speaker 2 And Denver.

Speaker 1 Memphis, Memphis being the other one.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Denver

Speaker 2 went a whole step further.

Speaker 2 They're like, we don't like the internal turmoil of this identity crisis fight that we've been having for what feels like to me 18 months now, at least between Calvin Booth and his instinct to try and build a team with young guys and Mike Malone, who has in front of him most of the pieces of guys that won an NBA championship a couple of years ago right uh and this tension has been affecting this team for two years now well but think back to the 80s though i remember didn't larry brown like he was coaching the nets and he just left for kansas city with or for kansas university with like two weeks ago in the season they fired him it was the kind of thing that would happen all the time with the league we loved and the league even though it still has your sacramentos and these but now i feel like

Speaker 1 here's my theory i'm going to throw this stereo at you i'm listening the league is so deep now, and there's so much talent.

Speaker 1 It ties into something we talked about when we did the over-under pods with Rasillo. It's like, shit, there's going to be some unhappy teams.

Speaker 1 Teams that thought they were going to be really good, teams that have max guys, teams that have this model that used to work of we have three stars, we have two really good stars, and they're going to be like two games under 500 in February, wondering what they'll happen.

Speaker 1 And I'm looking at the West because the West is a way deeper conference than the East.

Speaker 1 The East is more like a traditional, team, you have the really good teams, you have some good playoff teams, some mediocre teams, and then crappy teams, right? That's the motto we're used to.

Speaker 1 The West, like everybody's talented, and everybody thought they were going to be in the mix. So look at all the teams that were unhappy just this season.

Speaker 1 Dallas traded their best player, one of the five best guys in the league. They just said, fuck it.
We don't like where this is going. They trade him.
The Lakers were unhappy too.

Speaker 1 They were trying to do all kinds of stuff mid-season. They make a trade.
Memphis fires their coach. Denver just fired their coach at GM.
Sacramento fired their coach, traded their best player.

Speaker 1 Phoenix tried to trade everybody on their team but Devin Booker for four months.

Speaker 1 They fired their coach last year. They're probably firing him again.
That's six teams in the West House.

Speaker 2 Oh, you left out Golden State.

Speaker 2 Who knew that they needed another piece and went and paid, you know, and paid Jimmy Butler.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's it. But at least that's not like.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 All right. That's not a hail Mary.
This Denver thing is a hail Mary.

Speaker 2 This is it's a what the hell is going on to me.

Speaker 1 This is we're going to the playoffs and we're going to get smoked and everybody wants to play us and we're in a situation where in Saturday, Sunday, teams might be tanking to try to get a matchup against us.

Speaker 1 That's the level Denver was at with the way they were playing lately.

Speaker 2 That's true. So what does firing the coach and GM have to do with the performance on the floor?

Speaker 1 All right, it's a good question. I'm going to try to answer it.
Good.

Speaker 1 I think they thought their season was shot. I think they decided

Speaker 1 this Coach GM situation, they were going to get rid of both of them. Josh Cronky basically said that in the press conference.

Speaker 1 We're going to do something after the season. Why not now? Why not see if we can save it?

Speaker 1 This is a Hail Mary.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 again, let's do it precedent-wise.

Speaker 1 Point to a team that's done this with a week to go. Yeah.

Speaker 2 In the last 30 minutes.

Speaker 1 Point to a team that's had Jokic as their best player during like this half decade he's having. That's one of the great half decades anyone's had offensively in the history of the league.

Speaker 1 So I don't think. And they have one title to show for it.

Speaker 2 I don't begrudge the instinct of wanting to do something to change the trajectory, but the problem is

Speaker 1 it's the players.

Speaker 2 They're not good enough. They don't have a team that's good enough to compete to your observation earlier.
Oh, they have their top 50%.

Speaker 2 They don't play defense. They haven't played defense in two months.
That's why they have a losing record over their last 25, 30 games.

Speaker 2 It's why they have a they're five and nine over their last 14 games. Their last three games.

Speaker 1 They're five in December, though, last 14.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 I saw their 12 and 13 last 25. Yeah.

Speaker 2 They don't play defense.

Speaker 1 19th net rating,

Speaker 1 22nd defensive rating in their last 25 games. And we like looking at the net rating stuff.
It's a nice little snapshot.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, sometimes you can overreact to it one way or the other. Sometimes you have teams that are in the vicinity of where their playoff spot's going to be.
Maybe they cool the Jets a little bit.

Speaker 1 Other times, it's a real sign either something's going really wrong or really right. Like with the Clippers with Kawhi back, all their net rating stuff is really good here for two solid months now.

Speaker 1 And it's like, let's take this team seriously. Detroit, who I think is going to be a sixth seed, I'm not taking them 100% seriously, but the math is the math.

Speaker 1 And the math says they're a pretty good team. Denver, the mass said this team can't guard anybody.

Speaker 1 The on-off stats with Jokic, which I mentioned Sunday with Rosillo,

Speaker 1 and are the case if you're going to talk MVP for him, which I think today probably hurt that cause a little bit.

Speaker 1 But the on-off for him, where they were the best offense in NBA history when he's on the court and they're 30th in the NBA when he's off the court, that's all you need to know.

Speaker 1 And there's never been a disparity like that in the history of basketball.

Speaker 2 That tells you

Speaker 2 all that you need to know about the team building effort. And look, I think this is.

Speaker 1 Well, when you say team building, though, do you blame Mike Malone at all? Because you and I both watch a lot of Denver.

Speaker 2 I don't blame him one bit. No.

Speaker 2 I mean, when you have the best player on earth and you have most of the nucleus of a title-winning team, then the appropriate thing to do is try and, in the first place, defend that title.

Speaker 2 And then in the second place, try and win as many as you can while you have the best player in the world playing at the level that he's playing at. That seems like the right kind of decision.

Speaker 2 And I think that head coach, you know, built a game plan for the season, these last two seasons, around the, that, that thesis, around the idea of we should try really hard when we have this guy to be as good as we can in this moment.

Speaker 2 They just,

Speaker 2 I do think that this new collective bargaining agreement is a real culprit, is a real the apron stuff.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because they were, so they were like 5 million under the second apron, but next year they were going to get killed by the apron. And I think they seem really scared of it.

Speaker 1 And, you know, there's some real money stuff with this team that has to be mentioned.

Speaker 1 I think around the league, if you talk to people who know shit or who have a vested interest in it, they're like, thank God Denver's not spending more money.

Speaker 1 They have this incredible asset and they seem pretty good being middle of the road. It's the same thing people felt about the New England Patriots during the last 10 years of Tom Brady.

Speaker 1 Thank God they're not spending more than they are. Then you look at the Philadelphia Eagles in your division, and they're super aggressive, and they're like trying to maximize the moment.

Speaker 1 I think that's what most fans want. I would not say Denver's doing that.

Speaker 2 I wouldn't call Denver middle of the road. I wouldn't characterize.

Speaker 1 They have the best player in the league, and they're not even a second apron team.

Speaker 2 Well, they're going to be middle of the road this season. They were not middle.

Speaker 2 They went for it last season, and I think they paid the price. I think that they flamed out the way they did because they saw the one seed as a viable viable possibility.

Speaker 2 They played balls to the wall at the end of the regular season, and it took a toll on them because Minnesota ran them out the gym.

Speaker 1 I have a couple other theories in this. The play-in, I think, puts a crazy amount of pressure on these teams.

Speaker 1 Not only do you not want to be in the play-in, you're in a situation where you could just lose two play-in games, and then you're not even in the playoffs, which was a real thing for Denver, right?

Speaker 1 True story. So, this is why

Speaker 1 it's not a panic move, but it's a total panic move where you're like five days left. Everybody wants to play us.
Our defense is in shambles.

Speaker 1 We lost a catastrophic game in overtime to Minnesota that really feels like that tilted their season in all these different ways. Like, does Malone still have a job if they win that game? Maybe.

Speaker 2 Well, they didn't play two of their guys that game, right?

Speaker 1 I mean, I know, but it was just how they lost and how bad Westbrook was.

Speaker 2 It was and how great Jokic was. It was agonizing.

Speaker 1 So you have that piece.

Speaker 1 You know, a lot of times when we're hinting at stuff in in pods and we're talking about stuff and we're talking about scuttlebutt around the league and people go, where's that coming from?

Speaker 1 And shit gets aggregated, but it always seemed hazy. This Booth Malone thing,

Speaker 1 I mean, I talked about it. Everybody who's had a podcast has alluded to it or talked about it.
I almost, and I really regret I didn't do it. I had it.

Speaker 1 You know, you have the tweet lined up and you have the draft.

Speaker 1 There was something Malone got something for, like, he won the most games in Nuggets history.

Speaker 1 There was some sort of ceremony, and it was like a short video, and it was Calvin Booth giving him something.

Speaker 1 And I had this really sarcastic tweet, and it was like rare footage of Calvin Booth and Mike Malone interacting.

Speaker 1 And I was ready to tweet it out, and I was like, you know what? That's not worth it. That's going to become a thing.

Speaker 1 People will be mad.

Speaker 1 And I was just like, I didn't do it. But that's how bad it was.
I had this tweet lined up

Speaker 1 because just that they interacted seemed like it was an amazing event.

Speaker 2 I don't like that whole kind of storyline and that dynamic because at the end of the day, which part?

Speaker 1 The media part of it or the Coach GM part?

Speaker 2 The Coach GM part. The media part of it is perfectly fine, of course.

Speaker 1 Well, you know, we're getting the now they tell us piece TM Brian Curtis. You know, that's coming.

Speaker 2 It was an open secret. Like, you know, Ramona kind of wrote it during the beginning of the season.

Speaker 1 I think Zach, if Zach had been writing for ESPN, I think Zach would have

Speaker 1 had something pretty major.

Speaker 2 Matt Moore at the Action Network, Network, who's a, you know, does a pod on Denver, has been talking about it's not a secret of that.

Speaker 1 No, all the Denver fans.

Speaker 2 Internal tension, they've been observing it, but really it's more than tension. They didn't fucking talk.
I don't like it because that's on Cronky. That's on Josh Cronky.

Speaker 2 They're like, somebody needs to be the boss.

Speaker 1 Well, at least he owned it to me.

Speaker 2 The boss is the boss, right?

Speaker 2 You see guys not getting along.

Speaker 2 You need to sit in a room and reconcile whatever the differences are because, again, you have the best effing player on the planet on your team playing at his absolute best.

Speaker 2 So the thing to do is try and capitalize on that. That would be my instinct.

Speaker 1 So you don't have to be Zeke Najee extension,

Speaker 2 Reggie Jackson, Peyton Watson, who could be something eventually, maybe someday.

Speaker 1 There's some really bad team building. We knew there might be signs of trouble.

Speaker 1 Kevin O'Connor, when he was writing for the Ringer, did that big piece about the Nuggets and their team building. And Calvin Booth gave all these secrets in the piece,

Speaker 1 which is like GM 101, don't do that. If you're doing stuff that's working, don't talk about it.
What is the upside? What's the upside of

Speaker 1 here? Let me tell this reporter all of these things we're doing that we think are cutting edge. How are you winning with that? Now you're just giving your secrets to the other 29 teams in the league.

Speaker 1 Again. And he does this whole link thing.
And it was just weird because it felt credit grabby.

Speaker 1 And anytime something's credit grabby,

Speaker 1 you you know, like, well, why is this guy doing? Obviously, he had a thing with Malone, and it was already there jacking. Where's the moment on?

Speaker 2 When that story came out on the ringer, which is what, 18 months ago, 16 months ago?

Speaker 1 Remember, he tried to disown it after. He was like, I don't know.
I thought I was off the record.

Speaker 2 Oh, right. Yeah, he's ludicrous.

Speaker 1 And it was fucking bullshit because KFC did a good job with that story.

Speaker 1 Anyway, so that this thing was a problem all year. I think it affected the team and then they finally acted.
I'm going to throw this at you.

Speaker 1 the great NBA asset wastes.

Speaker 2 Oh, no.

Speaker 1 So, remember when we were kids and Kareem was just on shitty teams for like seven years? Yes, he was on the Bucs forever. They had nobody, like basically, Bobby Dandridge, and that was it.

Speaker 1 Oscar was washed up, um, and they were he was still great, and then finally, he's like, I'm going to LA, goes to the Lakers, but they trade a lot to get him.

Speaker 1 Then the Kermit Washten fight happens, and it's just, it felt like there's seven years there where it's like, Jesus, is Kareem? He's the best player in the league.

Speaker 1 Is he going to be on a really good team? And then Magic shows up and

Speaker 1 the rest is history. But there's been some good ones over the years, like even LeBron in the mid-2000s on those Cleveland teams.
I was like, oh, man, they're traded for Ben Wallace now.

Speaker 1 Oh, they're paying that much for Anton Jameson. Kobe, mid-2000s, partly his fault because he's just shackout.
T-Mac for basically the entire 2000s.

Speaker 2 Oh, that makes me sad. That was a good one.

Speaker 1 Moses, when we were kids on the Rockets.

Speaker 2 T-Mac could have, but Yal broke down on him. Yeah, yeah, broke down.
But T-Mac for all that Orlando run when Grant Hill was hurt.

Speaker 1 Makes me sad.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I don't think this Jokic thing is as bad because Gordon's obviously really good. Christian Brown's been good.
Murray when he's healthy.

Speaker 2 Christian Brown turned out to be good.

Speaker 1 Porter's a good three-point shooter. It's not that bad, but at the same time, their entire does hurt.

Speaker 2 Their entire fate is tied to Jamal Murray's health. And we said this at the outset of the season.

Speaker 2 I know, I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but I went under on them getting the 51 wins this season because you went over on the Sixers. No, I'm just saying we're talking about the Denver Nights.

Speaker 1 I didn't want you to applaud yourself because you did go. No, by the way, I went under on the Clippers and under on the Lakers.

Speaker 2 Why are we going through this? Nobody cares.

Speaker 2 The observation I'm making is that the concern at the outset of the season for me was Jamal Murray.

Speaker 2 Do you trust that he's going to be able to play at the level that this team requires through the balance of a season for them to get into like the mid-50s and wins.

Speaker 2 And I didn't trust it at any time that he's not, he has been excellent, Jamal Murray, for a good stretch. And they were, they won eight games going into the all-star.

Speaker 1 He's like, welcome to the season, Jamal Murray.

Speaker 2 Yeah, like the season. You know, it was like, okay, so Denver is legit.

Speaker 2 So we love Denver at this level playing at that, that, you know, and then Gordon went out with some injuries, and Michael Porter Jr. has been doing Michael Porter Jr.
stuff.

Speaker 2 And we have too much time and too many high-leverage moments where the basketball finds its way into Russell Westbrook's hands.

Speaker 1 Well, he just shouldn't play in crunch time. I almost don't blame Russell Westbrook.
I don't either. I don't blame him.
When my son leaves the pantry open and

Speaker 1 my beloved dog Murph is just like, cool, I'm going to eat all the potato chips.

Speaker 2 Is that Murph's fault or is that Ben's fault? That's right.

Speaker 1 That's right. Russ, sometimes in crunch time, he's just going to eat all the potato chips.
And it's like, you left the pantry open.

Speaker 2 He has to be on the floor doing that, though, because they are trying to do this rotating rest thing. I get it.
With their guys, I get it too. They're just good enough.

Speaker 1 Here's Russ's value. We're giving everyone the night off.
Russ, can you do everything and try to keep us close for this game against Charlotte, who's tanking anyway? Sure.

Speaker 1 Can we bring a conspiracy bill for a second?

Speaker 2 Oh, I'm here. I'm listening.

Speaker 2 He turned his hat backwards.

Speaker 1 It's like an over-the-top slice alone. Conspiracy bill.

Speaker 1 I wonder if Jamal Murray is healthy.

Speaker 2 Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 And if they feel like the team's going the wrong way in the playoffs and Jamal Murray is not 100% healthy and they lose, and then that becomes the excuse for why they fell apart down the stretch.

Speaker 1 And then it becomes harder to clean house and fire everybody.

Speaker 1 And now you just do it now, so there's no excuse. You've 50-50, maybe he's going to be where he was in December for the playoffs, maybe not.
But either way,

Speaker 1 it's a reset reset button either way. It's just, listen, I'm not saying conspiracy bill.

Speaker 1 I'm still conspiracy bill.

Speaker 2 I'm back. I'm out.
Good.

Speaker 1 Listen, conspiracy Bill just came in. I'm not saying he's always right.
Sometimes he's crazy, but something doesn't pass the sniff test about the timing with this.

Speaker 2 I don't,

Speaker 2 because it's ludicrous. The timing is ludicrous.
The timing is ludicrous. There's nothing.
I mean, Josh Crockie said four times, we're going to see what we can squeeze the juice.

Speaker 2 We're going to see if we can squeeze some juice out of it. There ain't no juice, buddy.
Your Your team ain't good enough.

Speaker 2 He doesn't squeeze the PED juice out of it. He should be squeezing the juice.

Speaker 2 He needs to be squeezing the leadership juice. He should have squeezed before the season started and sat down.

Speaker 2 It needed to be squeezed before the season started. They needed to come up with a game plan and not have this internal turmoil.
They got a best case scenario out of Christian Brown this season.

Speaker 2 They did. A very good scenario.
Dodging the KCP bullet.

Speaker 2 bullet they got a very good scenario out of jamal murray honestly yeah i mean considering um his injury history they pay they have three max contract guys they can't keep all three they can't keep aaron gordon and michael porter jr and jamal murray and stay you know where they want junior wizards

Speaker 2 flag no star no no porter no no no flag star porter no the new big three no no i still wonder why would didn't we hear more about them and with miami why Why was Miami not interested?

Speaker 1 Miami wanted any part of Michael Porter Jr.

Speaker 2 It must be. It must be right.
Would you have traded for Michael Porter Jr.?

Speaker 1 Would you want to pay him $40 million?

Speaker 2 He's redundant for that team anyway. He doesn't help them.

Speaker 1 We're going to take a break and bring in cousin Sal, and we're going to do the West

Speaker 1 where Denver fits in and whether we think there's any chance.

Speaker 2 Where Denver fits out.

Speaker 1 Or where Denver fits out. Let's go.
Let's take a break and then Sal's going to come in.

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All right, Cousin Sal is here. Our friend.

Speaker 2 We walked the course today.

Speaker 1 We're going to talk about that later. The Masters.
Your agent, James Babydal Dixon, is here.

Speaker 2 What a day. So much fun.

Speaker 1 We'll talk about that next segment. We're going to talk about the Deborah Dungetts and the West and basketball and the NBA playoffs.

Speaker 2 Can I just first thank you guys for giving me some winning futures in the beginning of the year? I heard you talk about how you bet your own futures and lost.

Speaker 2 Maybe you should come to me after your podcast so I could tell you who to bet. Houston makes the playoffs, yes.
Pelicans, no playoffs, yes. Denver, underwins, yes.
Spurs, underwins, yes.

Speaker 2 Suns overs, a loss. Wizards, under, yes.

Speaker 1 We did above average on our locks. I'm really upset about how we handled the Pacific.

Speaker 1 The LA teams, Sacramento, and Phoenix.

Speaker 1 Phoenix and the two L.A. teams ruined my over-unders.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Anyway.
The dude just went over. Those two went to crazy transformations.
So it's not really. Anyway.

Speaker 1 So the Denver Nuggets.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 We have FanDuel. I introduced these to you.

Speaker 1 Kind of buried on the Fanduel Sportsbook NBA page where they have to advance each round.

Speaker 1 And I don't remember seeing those last year. I was incredibly fascinated by them.
So round two, to make round two, that means you're winning in round one.

Speaker 1 And we're taping this before a couple of the Tuesday night games. There's going to be some standing shenanigans.
We have five teams that have 32 losses.

Speaker 1 Denver's one of them who just fired their coach GM.

Speaker 2 Is Denver in a post-Malone time period right now? This is good. Come on.

Speaker 1 Where's the drummer?

Speaker 1 OKC is minus 1,300 to make round two house. And that jumped out to me immediately because

Speaker 1 what if they played Minnesota or the the Clippers?

Speaker 1 I think OKC would beat either of those teams, but I don't think they're 13 to 1 favorites to beat the Clippers if that was the series or Golden State.

Speaker 2 What do you think the price is? Because those guys, both the Clippers and Minnesota, super short prices as dogs.

Speaker 2 It must be that they think Memphis is going to be the eight because Memphis is plus 350. Right.
And honestly, that does make sense.

Speaker 1 I should have actually, I should have mentioned that too. So Clippers are plus 130 to make round two.
Minnesota is plus 154 to make round two. Memphis is plus 350.
But OKC is minus 1,300.

Speaker 2 That doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense.
If Memphis is even the eighth at plus 350, Vandal screwed up. Thanks for sending us out here, but they screwed up.

Speaker 2 You're not smart.

Speaker 1 We let you fandle, but you added something wrong here.

Speaker 1 And then the Lakers are minus 172. Gold State's minus 152.
Denver is plus 106.

Speaker 1 And Houston is plus 114,

Speaker 1 which is another one that jumped out to me because they're going to have, we know they had, we know they're the two seed. They're playing as well as they played all season.
And it's 2-7.

Speaker 1 And I just think they're going to be favored. So if I get them at plus 114, that's great.
But I think that whole list, what shocked you the most out of those eight teams?

Speaker 2 So, I mean, that's weird now that you bring it up. If Houston is going to be a two-seed as an underdog, right? If you're guaranteed, they're not guaranteed, but looking good.
Two-seed.

Speaker 2 Has that happened in a while where a two-seed's an underdog?

Speaker 1 I mean, that jumped out. Every once in a while, they're like Memphis had that year where they were the two seed, but nobody believed in it and there was good value in the year.

Speaker 2 Let's price it, cuz, because let's

Speaker 2 say Houston against Minnesota, right?

Speaker 2 They won't be an underdog to Minnesota, it'll be like very close to Even Aunts, don't you think? Right, they'll be a tiny favorite because they're home, they'll have home,

Speaker 1 yeah. So, right now, Minnesota's seven and Memphis is eight,

Speaker 1 and Houston's two.

Speaker 1 Arguably playing one of those Golden State has two easy games the next two. It's bizarre.
Denver just fired their coach. They've lost four in a row, and they're going to be playing the Kings,

Speaker 1 the Grizzlies at home, and then at Houston in the last game of the season, which Houston might not care about because they'll have the two-seed locked up.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 I don't know. I think Minnesota versus Houston, just fundamentally, if that's a 2-7 series house.

Speaker 1 Where would your money be in that series?

Speaker 2 I'm definitely betting on Minnesota. There's no way that it's not.
I think that's how I feel about it.

Speaker 2 I guarantee you. Because they've screwed us enough.
We have this big parlay that needs Minnesota to run the table losing-wise to pay off.

Speaker 2 And it actually might be over by now because it's probably over. Tuesday night.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. So we just want to figure out how much we want our teeth kicked in by Minnesota this year.

Speaker 1 What would you set that line at?

Speaker 2 Minnesota. I think House is right.
Like Houston, only because they're home would home.

Speaker 2 But it'd be tiny. Minus 125 or something.

Speaker 1 So maybe that explains these prices. I guess the problem for Fando Fando and just trying to set these prices in general is if you have one upset,

Speaker 1 one anything happening.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Now all of a sudden I have Denver plus 106, but all of a sudden they're in the seventh spot playing Houston. And maybe they'd be favored in that series because of Jokic.

Speaker 2 That's a great question.

Speaker 2 Who would you have favored in Denver-Houston? Yeah, so now you're talking.

Speaker 1 I think Houston's good.

Speaker 1 I'd be a little...

Speaker 1 I'd bet Minnesota, but I don't think I'd put a lot of money on that.

Speaker 2 I saw too many games with Houston where from the eight-minute mark in the fourth quarter to the end of the game, they turn flaccid.

Speaker 1 Did you see anything?

Speaker 1 They turned limp. Did you see anything of what Ahmed Thompson did to Curry in that game, though? It was awesome.

Speaker 2 Absolutely. I thought that was

Speaker 1 impressive.

Speaker 1 Now, Curry, the problem with Golden State and why they're going to be so hard to figure out is they're an older team.

Speaker 1 Their best three guys are either old or getting old.

Speaker 1 And they have a situation like they play two really hard Thursday, Friday games, and then they play Sunday against that young, big, powerful Rockets team, and they just looked old.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 But at the same time, I thought the Rockets, they beat OKC and Golden State in the same weekend.

Speaker 2 That's not nothing. They're good.
With nothing to play for.

Speaker 1 And they talk a bunch of shit. They're good.

Speaker 2 I like it.

Speaker 1 And they was talking shit to Steph.

Speaker 2 I mean, this just shows me that FanDole hates Houston. To make them a plus number as a

Speaker 2 two-seed, most likely. And then we don't have to go on to the next next round, but to make the West finals at plus 470,

Speaker 2 playing the four or five seed, right? So

Speaker 1 the 360.

Speaker 1 And I should have flagged this for you. Houston was plus 790 like five days ago to make the Western Finals.
Really? Two seed. They were basically getting eight to one odds.

Speaker 1 And if you just price that out, they're going to be the favorites or close in both series, right?

Speaker 1 Houston's plus 470 now.

Speaker 2 I think

Speaker 1 looking at the odds, the

Speaker 1 shocking thing to me is how much respect they give the Lakers

Speaker 1 and how afraid. And I'm not saying it's right or wrong.
I'm just saying the Lakers are being treated almost like they're a defending champ type situation. They're minus 172 to win a round.

Speaker 1 They're plus 168 to win two rounds. And there's a chance they might, you know, maybe they don't even have home court in round two,

Speaker 2 right? Potentially they couldn't, but it's to me that's like a lot of people. That might be respect.
That might be different from Houston. There just might be a lot of tickets on the Lakers.

Speaker 2 Like right after that Luca trade, everyone must have just dialed into them and bet them to win. So we're not so scared of that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so there's a lot of liability there.

Speaker 2 But I do think for the West finals, all right, OKC minus 290, throw that out of there.

Speaker 2 If you think Denver's done, you got a nice opportunity to make some money here, picking either the Lakers or Golden State or the Clippers.

Speaker 1 Well, the problem is if Denver drops to seven out of nowhere and it's Houston versus Denver in a 2-7.

Speaker 1 I think looking at the odds, the best odds to me seem to be Minnesota to make the West finals.

Speaker 1 I think the odds have adjusted correctly, but Minnesota basically seven to one to make the West finals to win two rounds.

Speaker 2 I'm going to, we need to take a break for this podcast so I can go.

Speaker 2 I'll be right back. Oh, to make a thing.
I got to go make a bet. I thought it was a bathroom thing.
It could be both. I could do it in the bathroom.
We did eat a lot of pizza today, Cos.

Speaker 1 I really wanted the Clips to have better odds because I thought maybe they would be the sleeper pick. But plus 420 to win two rounds isn't, there's no value in it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, no, no value.

Speaker 1 And there might be underdogs both rounds. That doesn't make sense.
And if you really wanted to get nuts, do Memphis plus 1550 to win two rounds. That's insane.

Speaker 2 He's just throwing them.

Speaker 1 But there's a chance they could get the seven seed and be in the 2-7,

Speaker 2 right? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Memphis-Houston would be awesome. That would be an awesome series.

Speaker 2 That's two series at plus 450 and plus 300. Would that be what they are in the first two series? So that's basically what 1550 is.

Speaker 1 So, House, for that first round, the advance to round two,

Speaker 1 if somehow the Clippers are the eight seed

Speaker 1 and OKC is the one seed

Speaker 1 and you have OKC at minus 1300 to advance to round two, I would be fucking nervous with that one.

Speaker 1 I don't think the Clips can beat OKC, but I think they can make you nervous if you have a lot of OKC money,

Speaker 2 Absolutely, positively.

Speaker 1 I want no part of that.

Speaker 2 If Kawhi, it seems like we're going to, I want to knock on wood.

Speaker 2 There's some wood in this house, some fine marble, I see, but I'm going to knock on some wood because we want Kawhi healthy for the first round. I don't think they're going to drop, though.

Speaker 2 The Clippers are playing too well, and their last three games are reasonable for them.

Speaker 1 So here's the real value, so

Speaker 1 to make the finals. So this is three rounds.
OKC is minus 145.

Speaker 1 Lakers plus 650. I just don't think that's

Speaker 2 two of those.

Speaker 1 You have to win three.

Speaker 2 So, this is to win the Western Conference. This is the bet.

Speaker 1 Lakers plus 650, Golden State 7-1, Denver 10-1, Clip, 16-1, Minnesota, 21-1.

Speaker 1 Houston, 24-1,

Speaker 1 and Memphis, 70-1.

Speaker 1 So, the case for Golden State or the Lakers is this, other than that they have famous players and a good infrastructure and all that stuff.

Speaker 1 What does your record have to be? What's the worst possible record you could have to make the Western Finals? A little math question for you guys.

Speaker 2 I mean, including the playoff, like all that?

Speaker 1 First three rounds, what's the worst record you could have and still make the finals?

Speaker 2 4-3, 4-10-5,

Speaker 2 12-9. 12-9, 12 and 8.
12-9. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 So if you think of it that way, it's like, could a team with Luca and LeBron go 12 and 9 over 21 games? It's like, yeah, that seems realistic.

Speaker 1 Could Golden State go 12 and 9 for three rounds? And it's like, yeah, they're going to have a game like they had Sunday where they look old. Steph has three points.

Speaker 1 You know, even think of like when they played Memphis a couple years ago in 22.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And they got blown out in game five and they just won in game six. When you think about 12 and nine, it's just not that hard.

Speaker 2 I like the way you're going. It's one of the things.
Because we usually look at this at this point of year, like, all right, who's the toughest out? Who's the toughest to beat four times?

Speaker 2 If you do it that way, 12 and 9 is doable.

Speaker 2 Well, think about the Lakers, like 12 and 9.

Speaker 1 Let's say there's three incredible Luca games. There's three.

Speaker 1 Let's give LeBron two incredible LeBron games.

Speaker 2 All right, now I have five.

Speaker 1 Let's give Reeves

Speaker 1 one awesome game where they win just because Reeves is great. Now I have six of the 12.
All right, now let's have a LeBron and Luca are awesome in the same game game. There's two more.

Speaker 1 You can get to 12 pretty easily. I think you're right.

Speaker 2 I think those odds are inflicted.

Speaker 2 It's weird because we just said a lot of people might have Lakers tickets, but when we talk about the toughest out, Oklahoma City is the toughest to beat four times, probably, but not six times as tough as the Lakers to beat four times.

Speaker 1 Well, so here's the case for OKC.

Speaker 1 They're going to finish the season 68 and 14, 67 and 15, and then it becomes math.

Speaker 2 Right. So.

Speaker 1 Over six months, they lost 14 times. Right.
And now we're going to get to the playoffs, and they're going to lose nine times in 21 games.

Speaker 1 That's where it gets stupid. This was the case for the Celtics last year.
At some point, the math takes over.

Speaker 1 But OKC did get their ass kicked the other night against the other day against the Lakers.

Speaker 1 And it's like, why did they get their ass kicked? Were they showing anything? Are they just, did they call off the dogs? Or did this actually mean something?

Speaker 2 I don't know.

Speaker 1 Houston seems to be, I would say, most disrespected.

Speaker 2 Yeah. in the West.
I think it's appropriate.

Speaker 1 But they're going to be the two seed. Yeah.
And they're going to have home court in the first two rounds. True story.

Speaker 1 24 to 1 is a good price.

Speaker 2 The two seed getting the seventh best seat

Speaker 2 odds is remarkable. It doesn't make any sense.
24 to 1. Yeah.
Yeah. For all three of those categories, Houston's getting ripped.

Speaker 1 All right, Sal, a couple other things for you. Yeah.
Who do you want Dallas to take with the 12th pick in the draft?

Speaker 2 Yeah. I want a lineman.
I know there's like two. It's just crazy.
I know we're going to screw this up. You're doing football now.
I know. I kind of love it.
Fuck. We're trying to play.

Speaker 2 They're talking about the Arizona receiver or talking about like this is a team that needs everything in my head. Like everybody who roots for their team, like, oh, we need like eight positions.

Speaker 2 Not you, House. You free agented everywhere.
You're waiting on it. No, we need the playoffs again.
Eight defensive positions. Give us a lineman.

Speaker 2 I don't know exactly which one is going to drop to us because, you know, we lost one of the best in the game.

Speaker 1 So I was looking at the draft odds.

Speaker 1 Sadly, it seems like the draft has shook out in a way that's not great for the New England Patriots. Cam Ward's one.

Speaker 1 It seems like Hunter is going to be two. He's minus 280 now to go to Cleveland.

Speaker 1 And then Carter is now minus 170 on FanDuel to be the third pick.

Speaker 2 Oh, you were really hoping for Shador to sneak in there.

Speaker 1 And I don't think it's happening. And Sanders, he's 4-1 to go third.
He's 17-1 to go second. And I think the odds are probably better that he's going to fall.

Speaker 1 There's a team to draft Shador Sanders.

Speaker 1 Odds that I thought was pretty fun because you can

Speaker 1 really take it.

Speaker 1 I mean, Dallas is 26 to 1, Sal.

Speaker 2 You could take a couple of these. This is like a nice roulette thing, right? We put money on a few numbers.
I never get it right, though.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 3 if people are right,

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 1 I think it feels like as somebody who's watched a lot of this draft stuff, and a couple of people have kind of like, I'm not sure. He might be closer to Andy Dalton than people realize,

Speaker 1 but nobody really wants to come out and say, I don't think he's the top five pick. Yeah, he's not good enough.
Nobody has come out strongly, but I think that's coming.

Speaker 1 And if he does the Aaron Rodgers slide into the late part of round one, right?

Speaker 1 And we start going into like,

Speaker 1 I don't know,

Speaker 1 Miami range 27 to 1.

Speaker 2 Sure. Maybe even something before that.

Speaker 1 Colts, 22 to 1.

Speaker 2 Seattle, Colts, yeah.

Speaker 1 Seattle, 22 to 1.

Speaker 1 Rams, 11 to 1.

Speaker 2 That makes a lot of sense to me, honestly.

Speaker 1 Steelers, plus 450.

Speaker 1 But it seems like there's some sort of value there that we're not seeing.

Speaker 1 The other thing I was looking at was that the Pats

Speaker 1 trade back.

Speaker 1 I think Genti is

Speaker 1 seems like he's going to have some real juice as the draft gets closer. Raiders are minus 145 for him.

Speaker 2 They're picking sixth.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 if they get scared, somebody's going to leapfrog them. Maybe they just move up two spots with the Pats if the Pats want to take a left tackle.

Speaker 1 But him going to the Raiders is minus 145. Saints is 9-1.

Speaker 1 And then your team south, 15-1.

Speaker 2 It's so funny because I would even look further down because to me, it's still like, all right, if these GMs wisen up, a running back that early, just even in the first round, but that early, should only go to a team that's one piece away from making the playoffs or making a deep run in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry. That's not your team.
That's not the Raiders. Probably not the Bears.
The only case for my team. It's not my team for sure.

Speaker 1 Well, the only case for my team is if they're like, this is a Peyton Manning, Edge James situation.

Speaker 1 We'll have our two guys. We won't be able to block for either of them.

Speaker 2 But we have,

Speaker 1 this is an Emmett Smith, Troy Aikman. Like there's, there's a model here for this.
I'm like, I'm pretty consistent this.

Speaker 1 Like, if you're picking that high, I need to get somebody that in free agency in four to five years is going to be like a $30 million a year guy. And running backs don't make that much, you know? Yep.

Speaker 1 Tackles do, cornerbacks do, pass rushers do.

Speaker 1 And I just feel like if you're picking that high, even if they took Mason Graham, it's like that's a guy that will, if he's good, will be like a 25 to 30 million dollar a year player.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 A running back will not. But once you're in the range you're in,

Speaker 1 it starts to get more interesting. Then you're in that Jameer Gibbs range.

Speaker 2 Right. Yeah.
I don't think, you know, I think you got your player that everyone needs to be excited about. And that's a coach.
Yeah, yeah. That's your coach.

Speaker 2 So now you don't have to, you know, kowtow to the fans. You could draft smart and go back to drafting smart like you do.

Speaker 2 I mean, I think like Denver, it's 75 to 1, like kind of one-ish piece away from doing that, you know? At running back. Well, when they did running back by committee, and it was not very successful.

Speaker 2 Right, exactly. So that makes it, I like that price a lot.

Speaker 1 The Dallas Cowboys are seven to one to take a running back.

Speaker 2 To take a running back first.

Speaker 1 Plus to take a running back first, plus 230 to take a receiver.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you can do that. Fando has all these positions.

Speaker 2 It's a lot of fun. The kid from North Carolina has been getting a ton of hearts, and they're starting to do this thing about, you know, is this a Bijan Robinson, Jameer Gibbs kind of year?

Speaker 1 What position do you think Washington will take?

Speaker 2 I pray Edge. I pray one of the guys will like

Speaker 1 That's plus 170 on Fandle.

Speaker 2 Makes perfect sense, right? Yeah. That's the lowest odds for the position.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 The one that they don't have yet that I think they should have is who's going to be the second quarterback drafted.

Speaker 2 Yeah, they usually do. Because

Speaker 1 Dart versus Sanders is a really fun one.

Speaker 1 Because couldn't you see the Saints just taking Dart ninth out of nowhere?

Speaker 2 Like one of those. Yeah, for sure.
And Dart, like, it's so funny because now we see how many people show up. Everybody reports on how many Giants showed up for Shador Sanders Pro Day.

Speaker 2 You know, it's like 37 Giants over 14 players and three front office guys. It ends up being like ratings for this.
And that affects the odds. Like how many, you know, so that's why people think.

Speaker 2 But yeah, the same thing for what you're saying here. I could see it.

Speaker 1 Well, speaking of affecting the odds, you know, Fando,

Speaker 1 they've been an awesome partner to us. They're the reason we're here at the Masters right now.
And occasionally I'll text them and badger them and make them do props and that sort of stuff,

Speaker 1 including some golf ones that we're going to talk about in one second.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 1 I made them do an exact order bet. This is my dream scenario for the Pats, which was Cam Ward, Sanders, Hunter.
We get Abdul Carter fourth. So they put that up.
They priced it. They had

Speaker 1 their trading desk priced it.

Speaker 1 And it was plus $7.50 for that Foresome. This was two weeks ago.
It's now 17 to 1.

Speaker 2 Did that make them change it?

Speaker 1 No, they're just dropping.

Speaker 2 They're increasing the odds.

Speaker 2 What happened? Did they send in some tariffs? No buyers. There was their

Speaker 2 Sanders tariff.

Speaker 2 Did not turn out. Dropped them, killed the market.
Wow.

Speaker 1 What happened that made that go up aside from no one? I think what happened is Sanders, it became clear he wasn't going to go two or three. Okay.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 for the top five pick bet was the other one I was looking at. Yeah.
And Mason Graham is minus 140.

Speaker 1 And I just don't see how he falls past Jacksonville at five.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 Either somebody, either the Pats take him, which I'd be fine with, because then they would have an awesome D line with hopefully Barmore's healthy.

Speaker 1 Guy they signed from Philly, they spent a lot of money on.

Speaker 1 And Graham, that sounds great. Let's have an awesome D line.
Or Jacksonville takes him, but that's minus 140.

Speaker 1 Seems like good odds. It gets a little scarier after that.
Like Will Campbell, the left tackle, everyone everyone thinks the Pats are going to take.

Speaker 1 I just don't think they take him as well.

Speaker 1 I think they trade back a couple spots if they're taking him because nobody else is going to take him.

Speaker 2 Is the NFL draft, the mock draft, the biggest? All right, we're full of shit, but you have no choice but to follow us.

Speaker 1 No, I honestly, I think it's like the Denver, the Malone

Speaker 1 booth thing. I think there's so much scuttlebutt, and I think they talk to so many people, and I think these guys get real info.
They end up six out of 32, and if there's one trade, it screws up.

Speaker 1 No, but I'm saying info about who's kind of

Speaker 1 looking for what. By now, we know if Sanders is going to be a top four pick or not, and he's just not.

Speaker 2 It's not happening. Right.
All right. So maybe if you know stuff like that.
You could outline the top three or four, but after that, like we know Cam Ward, like Tennessee's taking him.

Speaker 2 Like we've done that for a little while. Yeah, no.
I'm just saying, Joe Lenardi goes 67 to 68 and gets death threats. And then everybody else, like

Speaker 2 Kuiper, goes seven for 32. It's like, yeah, great job.
All right. Well,

Speaker 2 see you next year. The NFL has teams like Atlanta who draft Michael Pennix Jr.
at number nine. Right, right.

Speaker 2 That's like no one like out of the way.

Speaker 1 Hey, I'm Zagon. Pretty good pick.

Speaker 2 No, but that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 Michael Pennix might be the first pick in this draft.

Speaker 2 It's a great pick if you

Speaker 2 just care about

Speaker 2 90 million on her cousin. If you just don't care about money, I'm just saying, don't bet minus 170 on anything.
Just like

Speaker 2 because I think that's great advice.

Speaker 2 Absolutely.

Speaker 1 With that said,

Speaker 1 Genti plus 850, I think, is a really interesting guy.

Speaker 2 For where?

Speaker 1 For top five pick.

Speaker 2 Nah, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it.
You can't have a double trip. I think so.

Speaker 1 If he's Bijan Barkley that level and everybody thinks that,

Speaker 1 and people think the Raiders are going to take him at six and they want to leapfrog him and get to four or five to take him,

Speaker 2 that's the path.

Speaker 1 That plus 850 seems like pretty good odds for that.

Speaker 2 That is a Raiders move. That would be fun.

Speaker 2 Get the hell out of there.

Speaker 1 You saw you like that.

Speaker 2 Tom Diddy permit that? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Did any of the since we did the NFO over under pod?

Speaker 1 And we, so we did the uh, Sal and I did that.

Speaker 2 I listened.

Speaker 1 And we told

Speaker 1 we told House, yeah, here's the Niners' price. And you would have thought I told House Trump's about to do tariffs.

Speaker 1 Assume all these short positions.

Speaker 1 I haven't heard House that excited about a win total.

Speaker 2 Probably my legs. Did you stay the same? No.

Speaker 1 It's down. Oh, it's still 10 and a half, but there's minus 135 juice now.

Speaker 2 That's still not a bad price.

Speaker 1 I caught my breath and I thought about it.

Speaker 2 And I don't think they're very good. And I think they're going to have with this huge overhaul.
It's not going to be the same thing we're looking at and everything. But

Speaker 2 I thought about it and I was like, I still don't think they should be favorite to win the division.

Speaker 2 But I said, boy, if you had your choice of being in any division with any schedule, you would want to play a fourth-place schedule and against the AFC South and the NFC South.

Speaker 1 And that's what the

Speaker 2 easiest schedule, as we see here today. We haven't seen what the rest situation and all that is and how it will affect it.
But

Speaker 2 I don't know who's on that team. I don't know what the skill position is.
You took everybody from their team.

Speaker 2 It's Brock Purdy and it's Trent Williams and it's McCaffrey on how many on half a leg, on one leg. I mean,

Speaker 1 one leg? Yeah. Does he even have one leg anymore?

Speaker 2 As Fred Warner plays defense, you know, that's it.

Speaker 1 We're going to do some master stuff.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Before we do the draft, we're going to do.

Speaker 1 We have a bunch of ringer specials that are on the FanDuel Sportsbook right now, including House's Frog Frenzy Region Parlay,

Speaker 1 which is Matt Matt Suyama top Asian and McElroy top UK plus 460.

Speaker 2 Why is it the Frog Frenzy house? Because those guys are teammates. They're teammates on the Boston Common

Speaker 2 TGL team. They're ball frogs.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 1 you might be the only person that knows this.

Speaker 2 Hideki, I think, played in like half a match. I don't remember seeing him.
So they weren't very good at the explanation. I played on so many different ways.
Frog Frenzy.

Speaker 2 That's it.

Speaker 1 I thought you were going to get canceled for a second.

Speaker 2 I thought something horrible. No, no, no.
He's like, why did he frog? I explained it when I put it in there.

Speaker 2 Anytime you have the ball frogs as a potential parlay, you got to do it.

Speaker 1 So, House, you have Justin Thomas winning the Masters. I do.

Speaker 1 What's the case?

Speaker 2 In the first place. By the way,

Speaker 1 22 to 1.

Speaker 2 So that's the most important aspect of this. I think it's a great price for where he is in terms of his success this year.

Speaker 2 His biggest problem over this drought, this winning drought that he's in, he hasn't won in over two years, has been putting.

Speaker 2 He putted very poorly last season and his putting has greatly improved and his numbers, he's been competitive. I mean, he choked down the stretch two weeks ago in Tampa, Florida.

Speaker 2 He had a three-stroke lead. going into the final five holes and lost to Victor Holland, who birdie two of the last three.

Speaker 2 So I mean, it was a sensible loss, but I love where JT is in terms of his off-the-T numbers. I love where he is in terms of approach.

Speaker 2 And the key thing for me is the price, because I don't think you're getting any return on Scotty Scheffler or Rory McElroy.

Speaker 2 And I will pivot immediately if one of those guys comes out and shoots 66 on Thursday. But JT at 22 to 1.
doesn't match up with the caliber and quality of his play thus far this season.

Speaker 2 So that's why I did it.

Speaker 1 And then, Sal, you jumped on Morakawa, a bandwagon.

Speaker 2 Why is that? He's a bandwagon. I haven't heard anyone a bandwagon pick.

Speaker 1 Oh, so many people. Really?

Speaker 2 I love him.

Speaker 1 16 to 1 on Fandu. What was your case? Fourth in the world.

Speaker 2 Came in third last year.

Speaker 2 Came in 10th the year before. Came in fifth in 2022.
He's never missed a master's cut. So you know you're going to see him Saturday, Sunday.
He's going to be on the board.

Speaker 2 I think people are down on him because of that outburst with House. You say that's not even an outburst when he blew a three-stroke lead lead with five left and the Arnold Palmer

Speaker 1 last month, and he wouldn't talk to the press.

Speaker 2 He gives a crap. Don't talk to me.
I'll

Speaker 2 talk to the press because he was waiting for the winner to finish, and he was waiting, and he was waiting, and he was waiting.

Speaker 2 And the tour never got him and said, Come, you know, here's how we're going to sequence this. He just left

Speaker 2 all these. Tor apologists, Joe House.

Speaker 2 I'm a Morakawa state. He finished entire in the top 20 in all four majors last year.
I think he's a great bet. I have some Morakawa exposure.
I just love the price for JT.

Speaker 2 That's the reason that I went with JT.

Speaker 1 We did hit one bet already at the Masters that we'd run into Scott Van Pelt and he would take us to the Butler Cabin and we would get a group photo, which I put on my Instagram.

Speaker 2 That was

Speaker 1 like the Butler Cabin. I haven't seen house that excited.

Speaker 2 Probably

Speaker 1 I'm trying to think of a scenario where you would have the look on your face that you had. And I think it involves the word free massage.

Speaker 2 I won't go there. It was stunning.
I'm not, not, I can't overstate how

Speaker 2 like the set of the sequence of events. First of all, it happened in eight seconds.
We walked all the way up 10 to get to the top of the hill to where all the social scene is happening.

Speaker 2 The media people, all that happens at the putting green, where one and 10 come together. It's a big scene.

Speaker 1 Kudos to Nathan Hubbard, who's asleep right now because he had 14 pieces of pizza.

Speaker 1 But he was like, let's go up there. We'll run into someone.
He says, Good call.

Speaker 2 Right. We'll run into somebody.
But we had to stop halfway up because the cousin Sal has never walked up 10. Yeah,

Speaker 2 it's hard. It's a real walk.

Speaker 1 Forgot it was like the Denver Nuggets bench with all the rookies. We forgot that Sal was a rookie and didn't realize we're just going uphill for an hour.

Speaker 2 Ridiculous walker by eating pizza and oysters. That's how I dream.
But we went, the sequence of events went from that moment.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and then we're up there and they're like, hey, but you know, there's SB Baby Doll takes charge and goes right. Oh, he knows me.
He knows me. I'm going to fucking love this.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 SVP. Good job.

Speaker 1 Baby Doll only got scolded three times for smoking.

Speaker 2 For smoking. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Anyway, we ran an SVP, saw the butler cabin, which was about the size of the room we're in now almost.

Speaker 2 It's weird.

Speaker 2 But cool brick fireplace. Amazing.
It's a really, it's a TV studio.

Speaker 2 It is completely like, you know, floor to ceiling outfit for perfect TV, you know, for video audio. It's like walking into,

Speaker 2 a proper studio where you guys know how to do TV shows.

Speaker 2 I was surprised by that aspect. Yeah, it's like there'd be a Ringer studio right outside

Speaker 2 Small World ride in Disneyland. It's like, what the, why is this here?

Speaker 1 You know, it's also always fun to run in Van Pelt because he's gigantic.

Speaker 2 He's so tall.

Speaker 1 6'6'5. You always forget how tall he is.
Yeah. And just famous.

Speaker 2 What a homie. Great guy.

Speaker 1 My master's winner is Rory McElroy at plus 650. It's, it's, I always make fun of of you for being sentimental about Rory.

Speaker 2 You do. Um,

Speaker 1 what uh, somebody that uh drove us around a little bit the last two days, Matt, who we've been fortunate enough to get to know a little bit.

Speaker 1 And he had some Rory intel about Rory was kind of popping back here to play the course and um just making a couple extra trips.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Gusta Native Matt, yeah, keeping his eye on things for us.

Speaker 1 Just that Rory seemed especially focused this year, and I just like the moment. Hey, I mean, he's running out of time,

Speaker 1 you know, from a, from a,

Speaker 1 he's in an ex his extended prime now, I would say. I don't think there's a lot more years where he's in the mix like this as a favorite.

Speaker 1 And it just feels like, to me, like, if it's going to happen, it's going to be like, got to be like this year or next year.

Speaker 2 So that's interesting because.

Speaker 2 We are in this era where we see athletes, you know, extend their careers. And he has been very fortunate in terms of avoiding injury.

Speaker 2 He does seem like with his swing, he's been able to get more out of it. He hits the ball even further than ever in his 30s, and he doesn't have these injuries that pop up that much.

Speaker 2 So I think there's a window of time that I would say it's at least like five years. But your point is right.
There is not a long history of masters winners, you know, once you hit age 35.

Speaker 2 If he could avoid injury like he avoided Baby Doll today, so 35, four years left? I would give him like six or seven. I mean, remember, we get into our 40s.

Speaker 1 Are we still in your prime at this point in golf?

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 1 so basically, he's got

Speaker 2 15.

Speaker 2 He's got some time. I'm not ready.

Speaker 1 This is the moment, though.

Speaker 2 This is a crucial moment. It's not going to be any better because he's never come into a master's, having won twice on American soil.

Speaker 2 And his numbers are through the roof in terms of the quality of his look. In our defense, House and I bet golf every weekend, and we've had money on Rory blowing round four a lot, right?

Speaker 2 I mean, I just that's the hesitation.

Speaker 1 36 years old, Rory. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 So, I don't know.

Speaker 1 We're around when it should happen again pretty soon.

Speaker 2 It would be great. I'm rooting for it.
I just didn't, I'll live bet it. If he, if he comes out, his biggest problem has been Thursday.
He has he

Speaker 2 scored well on Thursday.

Speaker 1 Is he the number one player or a team you've live bet the most?

Speaker 2 Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 That's then I'll ask Sal.

Speaker 2 I think for sal it's the chiefs uh it might be alex pereira but it's funny we discussed this on against all odds like if you had to assign a point value from one to a hundred on guys and teams that you've you've bet on the most so pereira mcelroy chestnut was my three i think mine are the brady pats oh that's a good like halftim bet stuff like that yeah she's like we're fucking yes we're coming back man i missed those days yeah all right we're gonna uh take a break and come back and do a little master's draft This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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Terms apply. All right, for this last segment, I always make fun of NFL pregame shows when they have too many people on.

Speaker 1 And we're about to have a six-person segment, but we only have four mics, so I think it's going to work well. Dave Chang joined us.
Hello, hello. Nathan Hubbard joined us.
Hello.

Speaker 1 And James Baby Doll Dixon is here.

Speaker 3 Hello, Baby Doll. So glad to be here with you.

Speaker 1 We have never been at the Masters together.

Speaker 2 We have not.

Speaker 1 Never been in the Masters with Sal. I've been with Chang.

Speaker 1 I've been with nathan i've been with house obviously who no longer has a mic maybe maybe that's a good thing um you guys don't need to share the mic we're gonna bring chang in but i want to share the mic chang has a bum shoulder like a separated show like they

Speaker 2 they surge surgically removed his shoulder now he's leaning on his left side here go ahead i just want to make you as uncomfortable as possible okay and he's also like cooking like a wild man with this really bad shoulder it's impressive yeah he's playing hurt uh he's an inspiration to all of us and to everybody except Tiger Woods, who's not here.

Speaker 1 But there's a lot of good golfers here. Nathan, we didn't talk about, we both picked Rory to win this Masters.
Yeah, we did. What was your case quickly?

Speaker 2 He 10 years ago got 60% of his shots gained from off the T. Last year, 51%.

Speaker 2 This year, only 37%.

Speaker 2 And he is still first in driving, which is to say the rest of his game has gotten way, way better.

Speaker 1 See, that was much better and much smarter and more stat-driven than my take, which is like more Rory's now hitting his time. It's mid-late 30s.

Speaker 2 It's time.

Speaker 1 If it's ever going to happen, it's happening right now. And Matt, our guy, told us that he's been here a couple of times.
That was my case.

Speaker 2 Plus 650. We're going to do a draft.
You didn't trust Matt with your phone, but you do with the master's pick, huh?

Speaker 1 No, I wanted to put my phone. I like getting my phone stolen.

Speaker 2 We all left our phones with Matt, but Simmons.

Speaker 1 I don't know where Matt's going to go. What if his car gets stolen?

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 We're doing this draft, and FanDuel is going to put odds on it. And we are going to do a Thursday-Friday draft, the 48-hour frenzy, I think we're calling this.
Each of us are going to be two golfers.

Speaker 1 Lowest score wins, and people can bet on this on FanDuel Sportsbook. So if you like my pair more than everyone else's pair, put some odds on it.

Speaker 1 Hussy, you don't have a mic. You can't talk.

Speaker 1 You talk when I talk to you.

Speaker 2 You sound like Alex Baldwin's wife.

Speaker 1 You're sharing baby's mic.

Speaker 1 You have something to say?

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 2 We did the Justin Tipperlick Barry Gift Show. Hold on, can I just say we haven't figured out what the booby fries is, but whoever comes in last has to do something stupid.

Speaker 1 Something humiliating.

Speaker 2 Yeah, of course.

Speaker 1 I think you have to mix all of the sandwiches on the course together. Oh, that's pretty good.

Speaker 2 And then eat them.

Speaker 1 Egg salad, pork.

Speaker 3 Great idea.

Speaker 2 I think I might have done that anyway today, but that's fine.

Speaker 2 You guys are on trouble with that.

Speaker 1 All right, let's do the draft and then we're going to interrogate baby on some stuff. Chang, I'm going to give you the first pick

Speaker 1 of anyone for Thursday, Friday. So it's not to win the tournament, just who do you think is going to be the leader Thursday and Friday or have a really good score?

Speaker 2 Well, I know you guys are choosing Rory,

Speaker 2 but I'm going to go with Scotty Schaffler, number one pick.

Speaker 2 I don't think he's going to win, but for the first

Speaker 2 two days, yes. That's my pick.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 Make a case for Shaffle. I don't see.

Speaker 2 Where's this guy coming from?

Speaker 2 All right. That's good.
And it's the lowest combined score, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Sal, you have second pick.

Speaker 2 All right. Well, I did, you know, the last half hour, I said Colin Moore Cow.
I have not wavered from that pick. I like him.
What are his numbers?

Speaker 2 Third last year, 10th the year before, fifth in 2022. Never misses a master's cut.
We had a buddy who said he had lunch with him yesterday. Delightful fella.
Dead set on winning this thing.

Speaker 2 Welcome to Team Sal, Columbo. Moller.

Speaker 1 Is that like a name drop, but it was like a mystery name drop?

Speaker 2 It's a mystery name drop.

Speaker 1 All right, Nathan, you go third.

Speaker 2 Give me Rory McElroy.

Speaker 2 It's his time.

Speaker 1 It's his time. That was my terrible take.

Speaker 2 It's a bad take because Rory has struggled on Thursday. Yeah, that's the one.
And that's really the narrative of this tournament. If he plays Thursday well, he's going to win this golf

Speaker 2 Thursday and Friday. Fair enough.

Speaker 1 Baby, you get to go fourth. Who's your pick?

Speaker 3 I'm doing doing the Swede. Oh, yeah.
Aberg. Ludwig? Ludwig Aberg.

Speaker 2 It's kind of Oberg, isn't it? It's Oberg, but it looks like whatever. I don't think if he wins, you shouldn't get credit for that.

Speaker 2 Wait, it's freaking Swedish. Olberg, A-berg, potato, potato.

Speaker 3 Who gives a shit?

Speaker 2 It starts with an A with that little dot over.

Speaker 2 I'm supposed to follow this.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 1 I'm going fifth, and I'm taking Beefy Bryson, Bryson DeShamba.

Speaker 2 Oh, nice. With my fifth pick.

Speaker 1 All right, House, you get to hold the mic down. You get two straight picks.

Speaker 2 Great. I'll take John Rahm.
Oh.

Speaker 2 And I'll take Justin Thomas.

Speaker 2 Jesus.

Speaker 2 You got the best spot in a draft.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 John Rahm is a complete wild card because he plays on the live tour. Now, he hasn't finished worse than sixth on any of his live events for the most part.

Speaker 1 But I like him this year as opposed to last year.

Speaker 2 He had a tied for 45th last year. He was the defending champion, and he was in disarray.
His game was in disarray. His life was in disarray.
He's calm now.

Speaker 2 Nathan gave me a very fine report of how he conducted himself at the press conference. He is poised.
He's ready. He's locked in.
I like that he played Durow last week. Tough golf course.
Played well.

Speaker 2 You know, ready for a major.

Speaker 2 And then Justin Thomas might pick to win this golf tournament because I love the odds of 22 to 1, but Thomas has been gaining strokes on approach for about nine months now.

Speaker 2 And the key with Justin Thomas is that his putting has greatly improved. Now, he is playing with a new caddy for the Masters.

Speaker 2 I hope it's the guy that Ben Crenshaw used. We're on the 30th anniversary of Ben Crenshaw winning a 95.
If he has that guy,

Speaker 2 you might have a chance, but I don't love the idea of a new caddy. Why is that? Why do people not like a new caddy? Everybody gets the sours on a player who has a new caddy.

Speaker 2 I think that's a good thing. Like, he changed doctors

Speaker 3 dead, but

Speaker 2 Crenshaw's caddy? Yeah. All right.
R.I.P. Oh.
Well, then he had to change Caddy. All right.
I'm up.

Speaker 1 I'm taking Xander.

Speaker 2 God.

Speaker 2 Steady pick.

Speaker 1 Best guy on the board.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 1 Big year last year for him. Maybe it'll continue at the Masters.
So, House has Rahman Thomas. I have Beefy Bryson and Xander as my two.

Speaker 2 Baby, you're up.

Speaker 3 I'm going with

Speaker 3 the

Speaker 3 always.

Speaker 3 This one's easy. I'm going with Kepka as my second pick.

Speaker 3 Aberg played so Oberg played so impressively last year.

Speaker 2 Aberg or Oberg?

Speaker 3 Both of them played so impressively.

Speaker 2 Berge.

Speaker 1 Just call him Bergie. Berge.

Speaker 3 Ludwig,

Speaker 3 he hits the ball a country mile, number one.

Speaker 3 He's got the short game. He finished, I believe, second last year, if I'm not mistaken.
And I think he's one of the absolute future stars of the tour and will win many majors in his career.

Speaker 2 Kepka,

Speaker 1 listen, I love on this podcast when people suck up to the Swedes.

Speaker 3 Yeah, right? In general?

Speaker 2 No, but I think he's always a threat in the majors.

Speaker 3 He's had a very good recent history, Kepka, in the masters. I am not sure where his game is because I don't watch live,

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 3 he's always

Speaker 3 blooming and

Speaker 3 could be a threat this week.

Speaker 2 All right. We got a lot of live guys already.
I have two.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Nathan, you're up. You have Rory and who?

Speaker 2 God, this is a tough one because the money says you should take Joaquin Neiman here, but I just don't trust him based on the way that he played at Live last week.

Speaker 2 So I'm going to go totally off reservation and go Shane Lowry.

Speaker 2 There's a small select group of guys who can actually win this golf tournament, and it's people who come in with great ball striking.

Speaker 2 And Shane Lowry is coming in with great ball striking, and he generally starts these tournaments decently well. So let's see how he does.

Speaker 1 All right. Speaking of great ball striking, cousins.

Speaker 2 I'm going with the shaggy dog, Cam Smith.

Speaker 2 Taking him right there. Ninth last year.
Top 10. Top 10 in five of the last seven masters and never missed a masters cut, which means he's going to have a nice score on Friday by Friday.
And

Speaker 2 he shaved the mullet. He shaved the mullet.
That worries me. Mullet or not, here we come.
Welcome to Team Sal, Cam Smith.

Speaker 1 dave chang

Speaker 1 you have the last pick um

Speaker 2 i asked our good friend chat gpt

Speaker 2 to help me on this and i asked

Speaker 2 what if you were cousin sal but successful oh

Speaker 2 at betting at betting especially when it comes to the masters and what would be the best long shot i sort of did and it also helped me with uh alliteration so we got scotty schoffler and we're going to sep stracha Oh, nice.

Speaker 2 Who finished 16th last year? We saw him today. Great approach shots.
He looked good. And I'm trying to make cousin Sal look good.
Okay, good. Good luck with that.

Speaker 2 I mean, that might be tougher than actually winning.

Speaker 2 All right. So here's who we have: Chang has Scotty and Straka.

Speaker 1 Sal has Mora Cow and Cam Smith. Nathan has Rory and Lowry.

Speaker 1 Baby has Bergie and Kepka. Yes.
I have Bryson and Xander, and House has Rahm and Thomas. FanDuel, at some point tomorrow, will have odds on all of these pairings with our names.
Yes.

Speaker 1 And people can bet on this for Thursday, Friday.

Speaker 1 And I'm getting all the info from them. Who got bet on the most? All that's.
I really want to have the most bets.

Speaker 2 You do? Yeah. You're going to get that.
You'll get that. People like you, I think.
No,

Speaker 1 looking at this, I think House is going to have the most bets. Rahm and Thomas.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 I think House will have the most action, which makes House public, which means he's not going to win.

Speaker 2 They're public.

Speaker 1 So there we go. That's it for our big draft.
Check it out. The, I think we're calling it Ringer 48 Hour Frenzy.

Speaker 2 What do you want to call it? I think that's good.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And then we might do, we were talking about maybe something with the 16th pole, number of people that

Speaker 2 hit the water. Oh, the Ring of Rinse.

Speaker 1 Ring of Rinse, Thursday, Friday, something like that. Sometimes that's what we go.
All right, we're going to take one more break and then come back with some more master stories.

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Speaker 1 And now for a special part of today's show, Forward Thinkers of the Game, brought to you by Workday, in which we discuss the players who brought something fresh to the court.

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Speaker 1 when his career really starts taking off with the Warriors in 2013 and 14, and it changed the geometry of basketball.

Speaker 1 So, that's one example. Anyway,

Speaker 1 you can learn more about how Workday is changing everything at workday.com. All right, now it's just the four of us.
Nathan and House have Fairway Rolling. They're taping tomorrow.

Speaker 1 They're doing their big masters preview. So, I want people to listen to that.
What you can't get on Fairway Rolling is what it was like to walk the course with Baby today.

Speaker 2 What a day.

Speaker 2 What a day. Sales?

Speaker 2 It was a lot of fun. It really was.

Speaker 3 I had a great time with you guys. I really did.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because you wouldn't shut up. You talked about your shot and your shoulder and your strokes and how you were as a 25-year-old golfer.

Speaker 3 I really was. You're right.

Speaker 2 I was. The walking would have been easier if he was.
But, you know, I do like talking golf with house. Yes.

Speaker 3 I think we have a very similar handicap and also a somewhat similar passion for the games.

Speaker 2 He was listening, wasn't he?

Speaker 3 He was very intently listening.

Speaker 2 No, No, no, I don't think he was intently. Listen, this was a real highlight of my day because I didn't know that you were such a golf lunatic.
Oh, I'm a lunatic.

Speaker 2 And number two,

Speaker 2 I kept on walking in front of you guys with Sally here, and I kept on telling Sally, like, this is insane. Yeah.
Because you spoke non-stop, relentlessly.

Speaker 2 This is not a conflict. This is my entire golf history of how far you would hit every club in your bag at different ages of your life.

Speaker 3 I did. It was like the evolution, you know, the evolution of my game from age 12 to

Speaker 3 60.

Speaker 1 It was like a sports documentary narrative series that nobody signed up for.

Speaker 3 I don't want to annoy you guys with it. I just get so excited when I get upset now.
No, I'm not upset. I just, when I walk those hollowed grounds,

Speaker 3 I just, I get like this, this like energy about it. I just, I can't help myself.
I'm like obsessed.

Speaker 2 How do you know that House was enjoying listening to this? I think House was.

Speaker 1 I think House really loves listening to anyone talk about golf.

Speaker 2 You got to give him a break tomorrow. All right, tomorrow.
Maybe you didn't want to see you guys tomorrow. Well, here's the thing.

Speaker 2 It's hard to keep up with Simmons. You can't keep up with Simmons, so it's going to have to be someone else.

Speaker 3 Chase is very brisk.

Speaker 2 But he's talking about his golf game and everything. And this would go for 40 minutes, and then we'd get a break from Baby.
Like, oh, thank God. We don't have to listen to the golf talk.

Speaker 1 He'd go to the bathroom where you go to smoke somewhere, or he'd go to the fucking pro shop for the fourth time of the day.

Speaker 1 and then keep us waiting for four like so half our day was spent waiting for baby right well i only dropped what 4k today that wasn't bad it's it's right around the over-under yeah so sal yeah baby does this thing where he's convinced everybody who's ever met him oh yeah knows who he is most famously when he accosted oprah winfrey in jimmy's dressing room right and did oprah oprah you remember me you remember me and she didn't and then he was like no oprah you remember me right and it's a famous story so we were wondering if he would do that today in the golf course and you take it from here um there were a couple right it was cam smith who's on my team yes and uh because it was a wake forest connection your daughter went to daughters

Speaker 2 my daughters did yes and uh he was eating a banana after his tea shot and what'd you do what

Speaker 1 well so can i can i try background so 17 and he's like i'm gonna

Speaker 1 i'm gonna get cam smith's attention yes yeah with the Wake Forest thing. Yes, I do.
And we're like, baby, definitely don't do that. He's doing a practice round.
He's trying to figure out distances.

Speaker 1 He's not going to acknowledge you. He's like, no, no, no.
I think I can get him.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 1 So he's walking by, eating a banana. And what happens?

Speaker 3 Cam, Cam,

Speaker 3 Wake Forest.

Speaker 3 Wait, oh, I said, first I said, Cam,

Speaker 2 we're rooting for you. We're rooting for you.

Speaker 3 Best of luck this week.

Speaker 3 Didn't look up from peeling.

Speaker 2 Working on the banana. Right.

Speaker 3 And as I said, uh, as I said, Wake Forest guy, Wake Forest connection. He continued to peel the banana and stick it in his mouth and look the other way.

Speaker 2 He seemed like he paused for a split second, yeah, yeah, but he at least might have paused, and then there was a follow-up.

Speaker 1 Well, so then there was another one that I thought was a better one. So there, Rory McElroy, Chang, how dubious were you of

Speaker 2 this

Speaker 1 when baby said I can get Rory to come over

Speaker 2 on the 18th.

Speaker 2 I can't express how I felt truly because I didn't know I'd feel embarrassment on that hole because you said you were going to do it and I didn't think you were going to do it with Cam, but you did.

Speaker 2 And it was embarrassing, quite frankly, for you.

Speaker 2 And us, because we were there. I thought you weren't

Speaker 2 embarrassed at all.

Speaker 3 He'd be lucky to know me.

Speaker 2 Now I knew you weren't joking that you were really going to talk to Rory because you have had interactions with him.

Speaker 3 I have had multiple interactions with him not today I don't want to say we're neighbors at the Bears Club but we're neighbors at the Bears Club

Speaker 1 so and he's you position he's been a wonderful guy to me and and very kind he's a gentleman can we can we all that can we unwind that for a second yes I don't want to say I'm neighbors with him at the Bears Club but I'm neighbors with him at the Bears Club

Speaker 3 sounds so ridiculous his house is so incredible but does that mean you're neighbors with him at the bears club i mean he's around the corner yeah there's only 80 houses.

Speaker 1 Sounds like a neighbor.

Speaker 2 That doesn't mean he knows you.

Speaker 3 No, I didn't say he knows me well, but he knows he knows he

Speaker 3 doesn't know me well, but when he sees me, he knows who I am. How's that?

Speaker 1 So that Bears Club house, that was like the fourth Colbert extension.

Speaker 2 Like when you try to

Speaker 2 sign the feast of the houses,

Speaker 2 my den is the Simmons wing. What are you complaining about?

Speaker 2 Cousin Sal is my outdoor grill. Come on.

Speaker 2 How dare you.

Speaker 2 That just means you're a shitty agent. That's what I mean.

Speaker 2 So go ahead.

Speaker 2 Who is he playing with? I can't remember. Oh, amateur, I believe.
Yeah, yeah. And he hits a bomb of a drive on 18.

Speaker 2 And, you know, to Bill's credit, he got us to look at how narrow and how stressful it is to actually play 18. Yeah.
He doesn't really do it justice.

Speaker 1 There's like five things you kind of have to see at the masters. And one of them is you have to stand behind the 18th T to see

Speaker 1 how hard that is to just thread the needle with the amount of pressure that you might be facing on 18.

Speaker 2 it's like it's easy there's no other

Speaker 1 dead uphill giant giant trap only really one spot to hit it and 19 things can go wrong

Speaker 2 not to mention all the people lined up that you feel like and it's 18 yeah yeah and rory bombs his drive right down the middle 300 plus

Speaker 2 and um

Speaker 2 you know

Speaker 2 you say you're gonna talk to rory and you have like this prime spot as he's going to walk past. Yes.
And I had to turn my back to you. We backed off and gave him

Speaker 2 a yellow. Let me give you some space, baby.

Speaker 2 I just couldn't see

Speaker 2 this car crash that was going to happen.

Speaker 1 Do you want to reenact what Baby said?

Speaker 3 Imagine if he came over how great that fucking moment would have been, right?

Speaker 2 Wouldn't that have been cool? What did you say?

Speaker 2 You said, Rory, Rory,

Speaker 2 Baby Doll. Yes, I did.
That was it. It was just three three words.

Speaker 2 That was exactly what happened.

Speaker 2 And he heard real.

Speaker 2 Not only didn't he stop, I think he sped up when he heard Baby Doll. He cracked a little smile.
I don't know. Maybe I'm imagining.
Like, oh, this is my prison cellmate from 715. So you're helping me.

Speaker 3 I had just, in my defense,

Speaker 3 he wins the players two weeks ago or three, how many weeks ago was that? Three weeks ago now.

Speaker 1 And you guys are neighbors.

Speaker 3 And I saw him in the men's grill.

Speaker 3 And I, of course, congratulated him profusely.

Speaker 2 And like a thousand people.

Speaker 3 He was sitting with Shane Lowry at the table. And I talked to him for a minute.
And,

Speaker 3 you know, did the baby doll thing.

Speaker 2 And what is the baby doll thing? I think we saw him today.

Speaker 2 He calls someone's name and they don't respond.

Speaker 3 I thought maybe it was semi-fresh in his mind.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 So that's why I had a modicum of confidence that he was going to like go, oh, baby doll. Okay, I'll look, whatever.
Didn't work out that way.

Speaker 1 Well, as it turns out, these guys are practice rounding and trying to figure out their shots and the distances on every drive.

Speaker 2 You picked Rory.

Speaker 1 Baby Doll didn't really trigger him at all.

Speaker 2 Wouldn't you have been a little weirded out? You picked Rory. If he was so unfocused that he did come over, I would have been concerned.

Speaker 3 I feel like they're actually.

Speaker 3 I know they're, but like, he's played this tournament, you know, 20 times, 15 times.

Speaker 2 It's loose out there in these practice rounds all right so he just doesn't like you yeah i guess so 0 for 2 is the legacy i was 0 for 2 sab can you tell the original he's tomorrow can you tell the origin of the baby doll story because you named him baby doll i don't think there's much to it other than he says baby doll he calls everyone baby doll and and i thought this was funny and then so i started calling him baby doll that's right that's exactly right i mean it's not fair that he gets to call everyone baby doll and we don't call him baby doll back you That was really it.

Speaker 2 There's not much to do.

Speaker 3 You are the guy who

Speaker 2 don't know why no one did this.

Speaker 2 I met him 25 years ago. Someone should have done this 40 years ago.

Speaker 2 This is like wheels on luggage.

Speaker 2 Luggage always should have had wheels, right? Not 1978, 81. I like that.
I like that metaphor. Well, that's it.
You should have been baby doll.

Speaker 1 So you were hoping because everyone calls you baby doll and you call everybody baby doll. Correct.

Speaker 1 Somewhere in Rory's head, as he's figuring out the course, how his swing is, the distances, that the baby doll would trigger like a Pavlovian response. Yes, I did.

Speaker 1 And be like, oh, that guy I really like.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 3 Yeah, totally. Isn't that insane of me? But yes, that was what was going on.

Speaker 2 Baby doll fucked up mine. I have to say, upon reflection, it's your performance today was inspirational.
Oh, that's why I love you, Chang. Thank you.

Speaker 2 You have to try. Failure is not enough.

Speaker 2 You just got to try. You don't know what you're going to get.
And that's

Speaker 2 baby doll magic is just not being afraid. That's it.

Speaker 1 Is that the Wayne Gretzky quote?

Speaker 1 You miss 100%

Speaker 1 of the shots you don't take.

Speaker 3 That's exactly it.

Speaker 3 And I know he's a...

Speaker 3 He's a really decent guy when you talk to him. He's a gentleman beyond belief.

Speaker 2 Why should we believe you?

Speaker 3 No, because he just is.

Speaker 3 And he's not some

Speaker 3 disengaged guy. And

Speaker 3 he's always very polite and engaged. And so I thought maybe, and it was relatively recent that we bullshitted.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 2 0 for 2. What can I say?

Speaker 2 But that wasn't really the highlight. Sort of the highlight for me was we were talking to a member of Augusta National.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 2 somehow you just let it be known that you were a board member of Wake Forest right off the bat. Absolutely.
Which had nothing to do with the conversation at all. You were so proud of that.

Speaker 3 Why did I bring it up?

Speaker 2 Well, because you brought it up, you said I'm bringing that up.

Speaker 3 No, I'm like, you're right. I did bring it up.

Speaker 2 I hate to add context to this, but we were talking about the LPGA and Wake Forest.

Speaker 2 Yes, thank you for the refresher. Yes.
And

Speaker 3 he was talking about the ladies' amateur being held at Augusta.

Speaker 2 Which is picking up steam here.

Speaker 1 One of the things I learned today is Baby's very proud to be on the board of Wake Forest.

Speaker 3 I am. It's an honor.

Speaker 2 It really is.

Speaker 3 It's an amazing

Speaker 1 thing. You told the person who made us a pimento cheese sandwich about it.

Speaker 2 Pretty much everybody.

Speaker 2 What is it? Your grandkids, your family, Wake Forest, Board,

Speaker 2 Jon Stewart, and then way, way lower, all of those other clients. Okay.

Speaker 2 Chicken was like not way down. Oh, yeah.
Jimmy's like under John Stewart.

Speaker 3 Of course.

Speaker 2 But this Wake Forest thing shot to the top. I mean, you were.

Speaker 1 Remember when the bachelor Matt James was in there for like

Speaker 2 a year?

Speaker 1 No, and he was like right there with Stewart. Right.
It's like neck and neck. He was dropping his name everywhere.

Speaker 3 Absolutely. Well, hey, you're only the bachelor once.
Right.

Speaker 2 There was one more baby. There are actually so many baby dolls stories.
It's been a true joy getting to it's only been one day every day. It just is amazing.

Speaker 2 It feels like James, what's this going to be?

Speaker 2 So you disappeared quite often. You got in trouble for smoking cigarettes.

Speaker 2 that's what was also a highlight okay fair enough yeah yeah but the real highlight was uh you disappeared and i think amongst the five of us were like where what's what's going on here why are you not here right and you come back and we all had to sort of eat crow because you bought us all hats yes i did

Speaker 2 and then it was worth the wait but a funny can you describe what happened because one of the funny things we had we waited like a half hour for him right and i'm like what the hell we had to do

Speaker 1 because the sun sun was hot. For some reason, he was scared about skin cancer for once.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Interesting.
And decided to get a hat. He actually wanted this exactly.
Is that what it was? Yeah.

Speaker 3 Because they didn't have it at the.

Speaker 2 This was, he was in the pro shop for like an hour and a half. And then 40 minutes later, has to shop even more.
Yeah. So

Speaker 2 worse than my wife. And then, yeah.
So then he comes out and, like Chang says, he starts throwing, he like gives us all hats. He's like, yeah, take a hat.
He spent like $250 on it.

Speaker 2 And we're talking to some fans of Bill's Happening Bills. A guy smoking comes up, talks to Bill, says hi, and baby goes.

Speaker 2 And I don't know how you said it, but you had an extra hat because so many of us had bought hats already 20 minutes before.

Speaker 2 And you throw it at the guy, and you're like, Here, you're smoking, take a hat.

Speaker 2 I can't have a hat.

Speaker 1 You almost knocked the cigarette out of his mouth.

Speaker 2 And he's like, You almost hit me in the head. And you're like, Well, you got a fucking free hat.
Yeah, what are you complaining about?

Speaker 3 I mean, come on, dude.

Speaker 2 Fucking hat hurt your neck. What happened?

Speaker 1 You know, I think one of the the, the masters is so polite.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And when people would get mad at baby for smoking in areas that you weren't supposed to smoke in, it wasn't like a,

Speaker 1 sir, you're going to have to put that out.

Speaker 1 It was more like a disappointed,

Speaker 1 sir, can you please?

Speaker 2 There are smoking areas we could lead to.

Speaker 3 Yes, there's, there's a designated smoking area over here. I can escort you.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 It's like, I just put it out already, okay? You don't need to escort me. I'll be lighting one in about five minutes anyway.
So

Speaker 1 baby, what's the worst, most depressing, designated smoking area you've ever smoked in?

Speaker 2 Have you smoked in those airport ones where it's like almost your in Europe, where they used to have the like it's you're almost in like Andy Ukraine, like solitary

Speaker 2 a smoke chamber.

Speaker 3 Yes, I have smoked in there, of course.

Speaker 3 I used to go like, say to myself, why don't they have this in America? You know, I love that they have this in one.

Speaker 1 smoke chambers?

Speaker 3 Yeah, smoke chambers.

Speaker 2 It's like they all have

Speaker 2 pet walking relief areas.

Speaker 3 Why not have smoking areas?

Speaker 1 Did you used to smoke like on airplanes, trains, everything?

Speaker 2 I was just going to ask. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 Really? And did people, did you ever like get in an argument with anybody?

Speaker 3 You know, not really, no, because it was.

Speaker 2 It was legal. Legal.
Can you imagine someone lighting up next to you on a plane?

Speaker 1 Imagine sitting next to baby on a train.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 You're taking like the Axela from New York to Boston.

Speaker 2 He's just like lighting up.

Speaker 2 You're like, oh, this cologne.

Speaker 1 I can't take this for a while.

Speaker 2 Oh, and what the fuck? What is this? A cigarette? What is he doing to me?

Speaker 3 Those were designated smoking sections. So if you were, oh, the planes.

Speaker 2 Not even on the stairs. Not the planes, but the trains.

Speaker 2 If you were in a smoking car, you know, not my problem at that point, right?

Speaker 1 I mean, that was an amazing era where, because I would take the train back and forth between my mom and my dad.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And you're going to walk to the cafe car and you just walk through the smoking car and it's just like lung cancer for well the 10 seconds were the planes where one row behind was not smoking right you could smoke pipes cigars cigarettes and if you one row behind it's like this is insane

Speaker 2 the actual ashtray in the armroom absolutely i love that freaking

Speaker 3 i love that ashtray

Speaker 3 i really did they had them on the old cars too remember but um

Speaker 1 no wait you were asking me about most depressing smoking places depressing yeah

Speaker 1 because sometimes the smokers get relegated to the kids' table of life.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's not fair.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I'll tell you,

Speaker 3 the idea that I could smoke in the office

Speaker 3 up until like

Speaker 3 wasn't even that long by nine by two in 2000,

Speaker 3 you could smoke in the office. So 25 years ago, you could, even as an assistant, sitting in a cubicle in common areas.
And I used to run like a fan under my desk to just

Speaker 1 like spread the

Speaker 3 smoke. But

Speaker 3 yeah, that was insane to think that you could do that. Now, in New York City, it's 25 feet away from the building.
So if you smoke near a building, you often get reprimanded.

Speaker 2 You've paid a smoking fee in a rental car like 50 times.

Speaker 2 Of course, they have. And hotels.
Good for you, man.

Speaker 1 Baby gets offended if there's some sort of penalty for smoking in a rental car. He just decides.

Speaker 3 For the percentage of how many rental cars I've had had that I've smoked in and the times I've been nailed, I've done very, very well.

Speaker 1 Tang, what was it like to have a cigarette that your wife probably shouldn't know about with Baby Doll?

Speaker 2 You know, every time I see Baby Doll, Baby gives me a cigarette, and it's just a joyous occasion. I sucked that thing down, and it was awesome.

Speaker 3 Thank you. And you love that I have Marlboro Reds.

Speaker 2 I mean, listen. The only way you'd be cooler is if you smoke filterless cigarettes.
Yeah, what are you doing? Oh, like the Italians? Yeah. Step it up.

Speaker 3 They get your fingers yellow. That's that's the problem with them.

Speaker 2 Otherwise, I kind of baby's enough colors

Speaker 2 to have yellow fingers. What is it?

Speaker 1 You have enough colors going on.

Speaker 2 My orange fingers yellow. They're pretty good fresh.
Let my fingers be orange. No, like another thing that happened, it's been total joy.
By the way,

Speaker 2 is he going to come on Thursday night, too? We'll probably have a thousand married dolls to come up with.

Speaker 2 That's going to be the whole podcast. I mean, The Ringer has a great

Speaker 2 podcast about TV shows and white lotus. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I think last night I almost pissed my pants because before we all went to bed, we were watching the last episode of season three, White Lotus, all over again.

Speaker 2 I just couldn't stop laughing because I think that we need to have an alt cast of you. The manning casting, the baby cast,

Speaker 2 not Seeker Works.

Speaker 1 Like a rewatchables, but

Speaker 3 live.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. Because you were the only one.
I was saying it live.

Speaker 2 That's right. I hadn't seen that episode.

Speaker 1 I'm not sure live would be the best idea, but

Speaker 2 maybe just it would need about 16 or 17 hours. Yeah, so we watched it, but I think it would be good.

Speaker 1 We watched last night. We'd all seen it, but baby hadn't seen it.
So we watched White Lotus with you.

Speaker 2 There was a couple of wild.

Speaker 1 I liked what he told the guy to jump at the end.

Speaker 2 Tim Ratliff is looking out. He's like, Joe! Well, he's going to make them drink that shit.
What the fuck are you trying to kill your kids for? It's like you forgot.

Speaker 3 You've been trying to kill yourself for nine episodes. Just fucking jump.

Speaker 2 Get it over with. It's like you forgot that we were in the room with you watching.
Yes, I did. You were so

Speaker 2 I had a few glasses of wine. I was tired from the day.

Speaker 1 And yeah, there's a lot of strays on the white lotus cast.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Guy talk,

Speaker 1 you put some chest hair in him during the show. Guy talk.
You told him to grow up here.

Speaker 2 Pussy.

Speaker 2 I mean, I've never seen a bigger pussy hold a gun.

Speaker 3 You know, it's like, come on.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 man.

Speaker 1 What other TV are you watching, baby, before we go?

Speaker 2 Any other favorites? He watches from the couch.

Speaker 3 I watched the first two episodes of Mob Land. I thought it was amazing.
Have you seen the Mobland?

Speaker 2 I haven't seen it yet.

Speaker 1 How about 1923?

Speaker 3 Nah, I haven't seen that.

Speaker 2 A lot of smoking in there.

Speaker 3 I loved Mob Land.

Speaker 2 Mobland, okay. Yes.

Speaker 3 Second episode, you know, a lot of setup in episode one, gets,

Speaker 3 and it's good. Second episode, you see where it's going.
It's awesome. Tom Hardy is incredible.

Speaker 2 Who, for your money, is the best smoker in movies or TV?

Speaker 2 As an actual smoker, yeah.

Speaker 3 Do you mean like in real life? No, no,

Speaker 2 who pulls out smoking the best?

Speaker 3 I'll tell you,

Speaker 3 Brad Pitt's pretty good at it.

Speaker 3 Doesn't he smoke in like in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?

Speaker 3 I like the way he smokes.

Speaker 1 Damon, we just did Goodwill Hunting for Rewatchables, and Damon is really good at that.

Speaker 2 Is he?

Speaker 1 Okay. And Cole Hauser in that movie, Chris Ryan, did a whole thing about

Speaker 1 how he gets rid of a cigarette, grabs him in the air, and waves them for the car all in one motion.

Speaker 2 It's really good. That's very good.
I got that. That's really good.
But De Niro is.

Speaker 2 And De Niro to me is the goat.

Speaker 1 De Niro, Goodfellas, that's the best ever.

Speaker 3 Okay, fair enough. I'll go with that.

Speaker 1 Remember the scene when he's sizing up Maury when he decides to kill Maury?

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's just kind of staring him down, taking a slow drag.

Speaker 1 There's been some bad smokers, too.

Speaker 3 All right. Who would be an example?

Speaker 2 Well, who would be an example?

Speaker 1 At the movies we've done in Rewatchables, like there's a really tough Kiana Reeves hardball scene. Oh, really? He's trying to smoke.
He's like a degenerate, but it's

Speaker 3 right, though.

Speaker 1 But Tom Cruise is the worst.

Speaker 2 You can tell who

Speaker 3 the real non-smokers are who have never really smoked in their life, who are just smoking because the character.

Speaker 2 I think Kiana's a real smoker, though. You think? Yeah,

Speaker 1 he screwed up the hardball thing.

Speaker 2 thing.

Speaker 2 I don't know. In constant team, he smokes a lot.

Speaker 1 The people, like the cruise type of people, are always my favorites.

Speaker 2 Could you be brought on as a consultant? You know who's a great smoker? I'm a smoking consultant. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. You should.
I'd love to. Like, they have doctors.
Is that a VR?

Speaker 2 I think it kind of is. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Leo, Leonardo, in

Speaker 3 Django Unchained.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Playing

Speaker 3 Candy. Candy was his last name, but but I can't remember.

Speaker 2 Not a great character.

Speaker 3 But he smoked with that cigarette holder.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And man, he was good at it.

Speaker 2 He was really good at it. You ever had a cigarette holder?

Speaker 3 I have tried them when I was a kid. They're fucking ridiculous.
I mean, I don't even know what that is.

Speaker 2 It's like, hey, baby, did you ever go through a phase where you rolled your own cigarettes?

Speaker 3 No.

Speaker 2 Never did. No.
Uh-uh.

Speaker 3 How could you recreate a Marlborough, a work of fucking art? You know, you know, my old joke.

Speaker 2 You're tearing it up there. No.

Speaker 3 you know you know what a joke is it offensive no not at all okay not at all

Speaker 3 no you baby doll how much you smoke i smoke a lot no seriously how much you smoke i smoke a lot no like seriously how much do you smoke well let me put it let me put it to you this way i go through two lighters a day there you go that was a bill hicks line that i adopted oh you just said that's your joke and no well i adopted it may he rest in peace but it does get people off off when you do that joke.

Speaker 3 They stop asking how much you smoke. It just diffuses the smell.

Speaker 2 Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 We asked you yesterday

Speaker 1 what celebrity did you have the most cigarettes with over the last 35 years? And Dennis Lurry's name came up. Bill Hicks was up there.

Speaker 3 Hicks was up there.

Speaker 1 And who's the one we decided?

Speaker 2 Chappelle. Chappelle.

Speaker 3 Oh, tons of cigarettes with Chappelle.

Speaker 1 I mean, Chappelle is like the author.

Speaker 3 The greatest smoker of this generation.

Speaker 2 Better smoker or comedian?

Speaker 2 Oh, wow.

Speaker 3 Right? I mean,

Speaker 3 I'm going to go with comedian because that's a real talent, and he's.

Speaker 2 Oh, don't sell yourself, sure. But

Speaker 3 what I love about Chappelle is he smokes everywhere he goes. It doesn't matter

Speaker 3 hotel rooms, wherever, lobbies of hotels, studio 8H on SNL.

Speaker 2 It doesn't matter if it's a fire. Oh, it's cigarettes.

Speaker 3 He's always smoking. Comedy clubs, you're not supposed to smoke in there anymore.
He's got a cigarette going everywhere.

Speaker 3 And may God have mercy on the soul of anybody who tells him, put that cigarette in there.

Speaker 1 And you've actually spent real time with Ship House. So if you did the Ship, Dave, Dave, it's baby dog.
He would actually stop and come over.

Speaker 3 Oh, come on. Yo, he'd come over.

Speaker 3 Yeah, no, Dave, I've known sincerely.

Speaker 2 I think you should have thrown a hat at Rory like you did that other guy.

Speaker 2 Maybe he would have gotten his attention that way.

Speaker 3 Don't give me ideas tomorrow.

Speaker 2 There's always tomorrow.

Speaker 1 Davy, before we go, what is your single favorite thing about Augusta? And try to to turn toward these guys. So you're on the camera at least a little bit.

Speaker 1 I'm just getting the side of baby's head for 20 minutes.

Speaker 2 I have no idea. But I don't know how to tell it.
Hold on.

Speaker 3 Let me think for a second because I love so much of it.

Speaker 1 Well, I'll talk to Chang about it.

Speaker 1 As you, for some reason, think of your answer for two minutes. Chang, what's your favorite thing about Augusta? Because you're like a naturally...
kind of pessimistic guy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 We've been friends for a long time.

Speaker 2 This place

Speaker 2 really where I'm like happy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, this place

Speaker 3 You said a whole thing in the car on the way to the course

Speaker 3 about how incredible Augusta and the operation and the whole thing you've kind of been inside the gates.

Speaker 2 I, I, I'm one of the, maybe the only person that's ever had behind-the-scenes access because I filmed some stuff in 2019 when Tiger won.

Speaker 2 And I think that it's number one, the best sporting event you can go to in America. Yes,

Speaker 2 it's the best run operation

Speaker 2 business or anything otherwise

Speaker 2 maybe out there.

Speaker 1 It's flawless.

Speaker 2 Everything is done with intention and it's executed at a high level. Yes.
And I think it's just, I'm happy here. I just am.
And I'm not normally, as Bill knows. I'm right with you.

Speaker 3 I mean, it's golf heaven when you step on that course. It's like no other.

Speaker 2 But you don't even have to like golf.

Speaker 3 You don't. You don't.

Speaker 3 But if you love golf, like we do,

Speaker 3 it's just, it's so unique. it's such a different

Speaker 3 everything about it is so

Speaker 3 it's like if you died and went to heaven and that was that was like field of dreams cornfield it really it is that and uh

Speaker 3 and also like i just love being around anything golf and that is kind of the this is the the the cradle and apex of golf and golf fans and it's just my whole vibe you know uh i love i was i was thinking because i was thinking about today because i'd been to uh i went to the u.s open

Speaker 1 bet i went to a couple golf tournaments in the last couple years sure and all these other courses like basically every other course that has a tournament they're also they the tournament comes in and out it's the course isn't built for the tournament it's built for 52 weeks a year of having members

Speaker 1 and then they kind of shoehorn the tournament into it And there'll be port-a-potties and weird cart pass and the parking's weird and things are disjointed.

Speaker 1 All this place cares about is this week, right? I mean, they have other stuff. They have the members and all that stuff, but it's all like a long game for this one week.

Speaker 1 And every single thing has to be perfect from the moment you show up to when you walk toward the thing and you go through the gates. Every single thing you see, they've really put thought into.

Speaker 1 And I just, I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 I think it was like a combination. It has an immaculate feel of Disneyland.
and like Central Park. And there's, like you said, and I think it's because they're not different events moving in and out.

Speaker 2 There's no wasted space. Forget about the greens.
You turn a corner and you're going to see a shade of green you've never seen before. That's great too.

Speaker 2 But even the pathways and everything, like you're talking about, like it doesn't seem like there's any wasted space. It's all beautiful.

Speaker 1 Well, and then we talk about this every time we've come, but the no-phone thing is actually a real advantage. Even Sal, we were worried about Sal.

Speaker 2 I think I did okay.

Speaker 3 Yeah, Sal had withdrawal for the first like you did.

Speaker 2 Well, I went to my pocket like seven times

Speaker 2 before like jonesing for that.

Speaker 1 And then I felt like,

Speaker 1 you know, it was a little like a little white lotus-y when Saxon starts reading about halfway through the season.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 1 And it's like, maybe there's more.

Speaker 2 Interesting. Maybe that, maybe,

Speaker 1 maybe I can test myself.

Speaker 2 That's hilarious.

Speaker 1 And it's like, you were like, maybe I don't have to try to figure out how to bet on this practice right now.

Speaker 3 You have to like just kind of like acclimate yourself to where you were. And like accept it and then go, okay, I'm, I'm, I don't know.

Speaker 2 It helped that we were all talking to each other and making each other laugh.

Speaker 2 It's like when someone's sick and they're going to vomit, you're like, all right, right, if you talk to this person enough, they're never going to get them out of it. I don't have to focus on it.

Speaker 1 Chang, were you disappointed Sal didn't eat more?

Speaker 2 What are you talking about? What?

Speaker 2 Number one, jump on the side. On the course.
I mean, on the course. But for those that don't know, Sal is not a big drinker.
Right.

Speaker 2 And the fact that he started the day with the bloody mare, I was like, this is an auspicious sign.

Speaker 2 It's going to be a good week. Number one.
Two, he ate a lot of food. Thank you.
It was disgusting. Thank you.
And then when he hit the course,

Speaker 2 you ate a a pimento cheese sandwich, and I knew you were full. I knew you were disgustingly full, but you still waltzed it down.
And I was like, this guy's

Speaker 2 bringing

Speaker 2 you your A-game. Yeah.

Speaker 3 For a $1.50, he's not wasting that.

Speaker 2 People need to know the food here is amazing. It's affordable.
You could buy 12 beers for $12. Where can you do that anywhere else?

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's only $3,000 to get in, but then they give, you know, for cheese and wonder bread, they charge us.

Speaker 3 So different, touch on what you said, Bill, which is, you know, it's the only, obviously the only major that's always in the same location, right?

Speaker 3 So that alone sets it apart from all the other majors. And like, everyone's just so fucking happy to be there.
Yeah. Because it is expensive and you have to, you know, get to it.

Speaker 3 And like, it's, it's a bucket list place that

Speaker 3 at least half those people, at least half are there for the first time.

Speaker 1 And everybody's just like, holy shit, pinch me.

Speaker 3 I did it.

Speaker 2 Well, listen, I, all I'll have to say is, as the great Terry Koon said in White Lotus, I'm happy to have a seat at the table, but I am going to make a mess at that seat with bread and rice and cheese and everything else when I get up.

Speaker 2 Thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 Hope Sal finishes last in the pick

Speaker 3 so that we can load down a

Speaker 2 mento, pulled pork,

Speaker 2 egg salad, egg salad,

Speaker 1 chicken biscuit, what else?

Speaker 2 BLT. It's the Masters Club, which is like a BLT.
I mean, that sounds great.

Speaker 2 I hope I finish last too now.

Speaker 2 You put it that way.

Speaker 1 We're going to be back Thursday for more stuff.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Chang, you have a beautiful face.

Speaker 2 Sal,

Speaker 1 you have a beautiful life.

Speaker 2 What about you?

Speaker 1 Baby, you're just beautiful in general.

Speaker 1 So are you, baby.

Speaker 1 Thank you. Thank you to you three.
Thanks to House and Nathan as well. Thanks to Gahal and Kyle.

Speaker 1 And Eduardo for helping us out today on the pod. And we're going to be back on Thursday.
Don't forget to check out the Prestige TV podcast and the Rewatchables as well.

Speaker 1 If you missed White Lotus, if you missed our Rewatchables, we did on the Saint with Val Kilmer. And I hope you're checking out Celtic City on Max as well.
We will see you on Thursday.

Speaker 1 I don't have

Speaker 1 a feeling

Speaker 1 him

Speaker 1 on the wayside,

Speaker 1 on the bruising liberal.

Speaker 1 I don't have

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