Hour 2: Whatever Happened To The Alleys?

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Speaker 20 This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stew Gots Podcast.

Speaker 15 This episode of the Dan Levatar Show with Stugats Gotts is presented by DraftKings.

Speaker 22 DraftKings, the crown is yours.

Speaker 21 Yo, Dan, you know about cruises?

Speaker 24 I like cruises. My brother was somebody who was always traveling the world on cruises.
He had one of the greatest gigs there can be and that he was always working and traveling the world that way.

Speaker 21 Cruise are great. The Zaslow family, we cruise.
We go at least once a year.

Speaker 10 You know about Royal Caribbean?

Speaker 28 Yes.

Speaker 29 Why are you asking me questions this way?

Speaker 21 I want to make sure that I'm not talking about a story.

Speaker 31 And you're like, well, what are all these things?

Speaker 21 Never heard of them. All right.
So you know the basics. All right.
That's good.

Speaker 32 You'll keep up.

Speaker 21 So there are casinos on a lot of these cruises. And sometimes you could lose money in the casino.
You don't always win in the casino. Sometimes you could lose money.
Well, there was a gentleman

Speaker 21 called Jay Gonzalez-Diaz, which turns out it's not even his real name, but that's what he was registered as on the cruise ship.

Speaker 21 Well, apparently, he racked up over $16,000 in casino debt on this Royal Caribbean cruise ship. And in order to get out of paying it, would you like to guess what happened?

Speaker 34 Out of, how do you get out of paying a $60?

Speaker 2 Glad you asked.

Speaker 37 You say, please forgive me.

Speaker 21 Or you jump off the Rhapsody of the Seas. You jump off.
You bail.

Speaker 21 He jumped off into the seas near Puerto Rico and because he didn't want to pay the rest of his debt.

Speaker 13 The boat was docked.

Speaker 18 They were disembarking and he just, you know what, I'm out of here.

Speaker 39 Okay, but that the way you guys described it made me think that that man jumped into an open ocean that wasn't docked.

Speaker 21 Okay, it gets better because now you may be saying, well, all right, what's he gonna do?

Speaker 1 I hope it gets better. Right now, I fear for the person.

Speaker 21 Well, what he's going to do is

Speaker 31 there was a jet ski apparently waiting for him. Oh, that's a getaway jet ski.

Speaker 15 Anti-job, wow, boss move.

Speaker 21 Getaway jet ski, which was also pulling an inflate, someone on an inflatable boat.

Speaker 21 And he jumped on the jet ski, and

Speaker 15 away they go.

Speaker 39 It's a good plan if you're losing. I think that's a good move.

Speaker 21 Now he did get caught.

Speaker 12 Well, yeah, I imagine that the authorities might be able to get catch up to a jet ski.

Speaker 18 Because usually when you gamble, you got to put the money up front. On cruise ships, they give you this room key that turns into like a little credit card.

Speaker 18 And all of a sudden, I've like, you know, I'm chasing the whole week.

Speaker 18 I'm not going to say I've come close to jumping off the boat, but I've gotten to the end of a cruise before where I'm worried about the total that I'm looking at.

Speaker 21 Now, he told them one name. He gave them his passport after he was captured, you know, and they asked him what, the investigators, they asked him what his real name is.

Speaker 21 And his response, Dan, was, quote, if you guys were good at your job, you would know that.

Speaker 1 It's not wrong. He's right about that.

Speaker 29 This story that you were telling me as you went through the very remedial basics of what cruise ship gambling is.

Speaker 40 Well, you may not have been able to follow along of it and confirm what you know.

Speaker 13 Yeah.

Speaker 24 Reminds me of the story of when it is one time that I felt really dumb leaving a show because I was talking about that wonderful plot of land where the Miami Herald had a building a long time ago.

Speaker 24 The Miami Herald sold that building and kept the business afloat because of how valuable that land was Bayside.

Speaker 27 And we were talking on air here.

Speaker 25 And I was saying how a Chinese ownership group that wanted gambling to come to Florida had bought that land and they wanted to build a casino on that land.

Speaker 35 And I was explaining why I thought Mickey Arison objected to that casino being on that land because he had ships nearby where he had gambling and he wanted to have that to himself, I said.

Speaker 39 And I got a call afterward from Mickey Arrison himself after I had done that show saying,

Speaker 12 Do you know how little money that is compared to the rest of what we do, that you would suggest that I wouldn't want gambling because of our little seven blackjack tables or whatever it is that we have.

Speaker 26 A couple of slot machines.

Speaker 41 Like, do you realize how ignorant you sounded saying that I would want that block because I wouldn't want gambling in town?

Speaker 24 So I know what a cruise ship is.

Speaker 37 What do you think the game was that he was playing? You think it was like the claw machine that you go and you pick up all the bills?

Speaker 21 Can I tell you something? You know what? You know what's the underrated machine now in these cruise casinos?

Speaker 21 I like playing the game where you gotta, you gotta line up the key on, you know, it has to fit in like the hole.

Speaker 15 And I've seen seen that.

Speaker 21 Yeah, you get great prizes.

Speaker 1 There's like an iPad in there sometimes. Yes.

Speaker 21 It'd be like a stack of $1,000. Cash.

Speaker 40 I want that stack.

Speaker 37 Have you seen the game that it's just a hole cut into plexiglass and you stick your hand and you have to take out a gold bar?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 31 Yes.

Speaker 15 Very heavy, those gold bars.

Speaker 21 I have not figured out how to win that one yet, though.

Speaker 2 Be strong.

Speaker 10 How did it go with Mickey when you hung up?

Speaker 11 You're like, 17 years from now, I'm going to take it incredibly easy on you in an interview. That'll leave no one, especially our audience, satisfied.

Speaker 29 Jane Levy is with us now. She's the award-winning former sports writer and feature writer for the Washington Post.

Speaker 8 She's the best-selling author of multiple books.

Speaker 6 She's got a new one here, Make Me Commissioner.

Speaker 27 I know what's wrong with baseball and how to fix it.

Speaker 29 She's been following baseball all of her life.

Speaker 49 And I thought baseball got some things fixed here recently after many people objected to them making any kind of changes at all.

Speaker 49 So I'm looking forward to talking to her about what changes she would make. I know Bob Costas and others, Jane, thank you for joining us.
Appreciate the time.

Speaker 52 Absolutely.

Speaker 29 I know that Bob Costas and others were very reluctant to change, for example, the wild card, which has been a big hit because there are so many purists that didn't want baseball to change.

Speaker 29 But I feel like over the objection of others, baseball has gotten a whole lot fixed.

Speaker 53 So you are in disagreement?

Speaker 52 Oh, no, no, they fixed a lot of stuff. It took them a long time to get to it.
I mean, the pitch clock was inevitable. And, you know, they used to have a pitch clock and it was called the sun.

Speaker 52 And when the sun went down, that's when games ended. And umpires would hurry you along.
But when lights came in, they forgot that they had to hasten things along.

Speaker 52 And the problem with baseball is that it basically decided how to do things in the 1880s and never changed. And so the changes they made absolutely necessary.
The pitch clock, thank you.

Speaker 52 Thank you, Rob Madford. Thank you, Theo Epstein.

Speaker 52 The idea that timelessness was something that integral to baseball as opposed to sonnets was just a mistake. I don't like the ghost runner.
I hate the ghost runner.

Speaker 52 I think as some of the old-time managers will tell you, if people were taught how to steal a bass the right way, they wouldn't have needed to change the geometry that Red Smith, my hero, said was, you know, the closest thing to godliness.

Speaker 52 It's not, you know, the extra four inches changes that 90 feet thing.

Speaker 52 But I think there's more that they have to do.

Speaker 52 I assume I can quote people directly here. I mean, what

Speaker 52 Bill Lee said to me, Spaceman, you know, is, you know, why it's so fing boring?

Speaker 23 How f ⁇ ing?

Speaker 40 Why was it boring?

Speaker 52 It was so boring because everybody knows what's going to happen. Somebody's going to hit a home run

Speaker 52 and somebody's going to strike out the side in the ninth inning. It's become far too homogenized and predictable.
And so while, yes, the pace is better, the games are shorter, thank you, it's still

Speaker 54 flat.

Speaker 52 Because

Speaker 52 three true outcomes, the walk, the strikeout, the home run, still decide decide a third of all games. And because for the last seven years, strikeouts have outnumbered hits.

Speaker 52 So they have some fundamental things that they need to change still, none of which is going to be easy. That's why you need me.

Speaker 24 Put it on the poll, please, at Lebatard Show.

Speaker 7 Did you like it better when the pitch clock was the sun?

Speaker 12 Because

Speaker 15 that is something.

Speaker 51 The timelessness of baseball, it's funny to think in the modern age, baseball's actually been better at changing than the other sports recently.

Speaker 47 They were ahead of

Speaker 35 the whole media game in terms of owning their stuff in a way that was progressive.

Speaker 53 You stand where, Jane, on the worst of all the changes.

Speaker 49 You think the Ghost Runner is the worst, or is there something else that makes you angrier than that?

Speaker 52 Now, the Ghost Runner really gets me. Really, really gets me.

Speaker 52 Look, I know looking at your screen and listening to the last

Speaker 52 bit and knowing that my grandfather was a bookie and a rum runner who serviced the polo grounds.

Speaker 52 I'm not exactly moralistic about gambling, but you can't say for a hundred years we're the team, we're the sport, we're the hall of fame that's not going to tolerate gambling and then turn on a dime and not expect there to be trouble.

Speaker 52 I mean, the fact that the, you know, the top closer at the, at the um, at for the Guardians has been suspended, the fact that players are getting death threats because

Speaker 52 they struck out five people and not the four that whatever better wanted them to strike out. I mean, it's courting danger in baseball.
And so

Speaker 52 I have a plan. Isn't that what politicians say? I have a plan.

Speaker 52 My plan would be, yeah, they really didn't have any choice once the Supreme Court legalized gambling in 2018 to go along with it.

Speaker 52 But why can't they take some of that money that that they're making off selling their data and disseminating it to sports books and buying a piece of sports radar?

Speaker 52 Why can't they use some of that to fund

Speaker 52 what is desperately needed here? The same kind of inner city training centers that

Speaker 52 they've all built in the DR? Why can't they give American black kids or Hispanic kids or even disadvantaged white kids a chance to learn the game the way those kids get.

Speaker 45 Don't they still do John Young's RBI program?

Speaker 29 Is that not something they do, or is that just eyewash?

Speaker 52 I think that's minimal.

Speaker 39 Make me commissioner.

Speaker 29 I know what's wrong with baseball and how to fix it. What would you say is your best idea in here, the one that would really wow people?

Speaker 52 Well, somebody said to me not long ago, no offense, Mint, but you're not going to live that much longer.

Speaker 52 We need a new generation of fans. My best idea, the one that everybody likes, is let all kids age 10 and under in free.
Fill up those swaths of empty seats in the upper deck.

Speaker 34 That's a good idea.

Speaker 33 Great idea.

Speaker 33 That's good.

Speaker 33 That's a good idea.

Speaker 23 That's a great one.

Speaker 46 That's great.

Speaker 37 Jane, can I run an idea by you?

Speaker 52 Sure, please.

Speaker 37 What would you say is a third or fourth most exciting play in baseball?

Speaker 52 Third or fourth? Yeah.

Speaker 1 He's an asshole.

Speaker 15 Well, no, hold on a second.

Speaker 2 Hold on a second. I'm just trying to get yeah, I'm not gonna say that.

Speaker 54 Okay, squeeze play, spilling home, a triple.

Speaker 52 And somebody who with an actual outfield arm who could throw said runner out at third base before he achieves a triple.

Speaker 40 The triple is not better than the robbing of a home run.

Speaker 20 That's what I was getting to.

Speaker 37 So let's say the fifth is robbing a home run, right?

Speaker 37 So what if we increase the odds of robbed home runs by doing something, you know, some people might think is a bit extreme, like replacing the warning tracks with trampolines so that you can run, jump onto the warning track, and rob more home runs.

Speaker 37 That would be a more fun game, wouldn't you agree?

Speaker 18 But Jane, there will be a ball pit on the other side of the wall for a safe landing.

Speaker 17 For safety purposes.

Speaker 52 So you're going to hate this one because it's antithetical. Yes, I know fans like to see guys bringing the ball back over the over the fence.
However, it's becoming as ubiquitous as home runs. It is.

Speaker 54 I don't even look up.

Speaker 52 I don't look up anymore when somebody hits a home run. Big schmear, as my grandmother would have said.

Speaker 52 My idea is to put plexiglass walls 18 feet high along the outfield walls so that think of this seating there. Think of what you could get for a seat to be on the other side.

Speaker 52 It's got like, you know, like a hockey rig. Yeah.
On the other side of that glass when Aaron Judge goes barreling into it. Okay.
It eliminates cheap home runs.

Speaker 52 It increases doubles and triples, which is what fans say they want to see most.

Speaker 52 And it makes them develop players with actual skills in the outfield, which no one has right now, to wit my Yankees last year.

Speaker 37 So should we put clear padding just so that you could still see through it, but there's safety involved?

Speaker 54 Yeah.

Speaker 17 Okay, great.

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Speaker 44 Don Lebatard.

Speaker 50 Punctuate this segment with what is your strike three call.

Speaker 44 Strike one would be strike.

Speaker 59 And then you stand up and you give a good point to the right. Stugats.
That's the same for strike two. But strike three, you get down low.
You got your hands behind the catcher.

Speaker 37 All right. The right arm goes up into the air.
Yeah.

Speaker 59 And then you finished it with the punch.

Speaker 59 The right arm flings way up into the air.

Speaker 15 And you finished the pressure. I wish I could see that.

Speaker 15 The audio's great.

Speaker 32 This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

Speaker 45 What would you say is your most controversial opinion in here, Jane?

Speaker 12 The one that's got people yelling at you?

Speaker 52 Well, nobody's yelled at me yet, but okay.

Speaker 52 I want to reconfigure the pitching staff. I think that watching

Speaker 52 a starter go 5.2 innings, which is what the average is now,

Speaker 52 is incredibly boring. And watching a parade of guys come in to throw 100 miles an hour and tear their UCLs as quickly as possible is also boring.
I want to see matchups between aces.

Speaker 52 I want to see whether Clayton Kershaw was going to beat Bumgartner in their 12th encounter. There were only 11

Speaker 52 before Baumgartner retired. So what I would do is make the pitching staff 15 guys and have a healthy scratch list as in hockey.

Speaker 52 So you take your starter from the day before who's not going to throw the next day and you put three other guys there and you say, take care of your arms for a couple of days.

Speaker 52 These relievers are.

Speaker 52 They're fried by July. And then everybody's busy

Speaker 52 scouring the waiver wire to see who can throw

Speaker 52 who's been just released from some other team whose relievers are shot. It's boring.
It's absolutely boring. Let's give baseball a chance to have the parts of it that were so good

Speaker 52 be relevant again. I mean, why was Clayton Kershaw taken out by Davey Roberts after throwing seven innings at a perfect game? Because they had to worry about his arm.
But there's no, what A.J.

Speaker 52 Ellis, his catcher, always called for years at the Dodgers called situational dexterity. You don't, there's no exceptions made.

Speaker 52 It's by the book, it's by the odds, it's by the analytics, and it has ruined, it has broken all the narratives that baseball used to tell, which were the best part of it.

Speaker 52 And if you, if you rule every, make every decision based on probabilities, what will happen, what has happened, nine times out of ten, what you do is you prevent the improbabilities.

Speaker 52 And if there was ever a guy who wasn't going to do the improbable, it was Clayton Kershaw in Minnesota at his first start back in 2022 because he hadn't pitched for God knows how long.

Speaker 52 He'd been injured.

Speaker 52 You know, that headline the next day would have been a reason to come out to the ballpark as opposed to Clayton Kershaw taken out after seven perfect innings, which says to people, why bother?

Speaker 52 You know, that whole thing, you might see something that you've never seen before. They've eliminated so many of those things.
And that's my fiercest objection.

Speaker 48 The name of her book is Make Me Commissioner.

Speaker 25 I know what's wrong with baseball and how to fix it.

Speaker 42 She's been covering baseball all her life.

Speaker 25 And I love talking to baseball people who really get into the minutiae of the numbers and asking them some form of the following question that will give you plenty of time here to filibuster in your thoughts because it's a difficult question.

Speaker 29 I'll give you some music too in order to give you time to think about what I'm about to ask you.

Speaker 29 Which is your favorite baseball stat. And the reason I say this is to give you time to think.

Speaker 29 My favorite recently has been that if you take away all seven of Barry Bonds' MVPs, all of the stats from those seven seasons,

Speaker 25 all of them, he'd still have 400 home runs and 400 stolen bases, which no other player has ever been able to do.

Speaker 29 If I take away all his MVP seasons, give me the stat of the day music so that somebody who's a real expert on baseball can give me her favorite stat of all the stats.

Speaker 31 Start of the day,

Speaker 7 You don't like the new music, Mike? You don't like the new music?

Speaker 61 We've been thinking about it. Me and Mike, every time we hear it, we're like, do you like it? Do you like Chris? Keeps telling me to keep my opinion to myself, which I feel like that's not

Speaker 15 in the name of good discourse.

Speaker 26 That doesn't sound right.

Speaker 7 Uh, Jane, you didn't seem like you were too pressurized by this. You shrugged your shoulders at me.
This wasn't even a challenge for you.

Speaker 52 You know why? You stole my answer.

Speaker 1 Second best stat, you dick.

Speaker 52 I thought you were asking what's my favorite metric, you know, all those fun names, UZR, DZR, all that stuff.

Speaker 52 I actually was going to answer FIP, which was created by Tom Tango, the senior architect of data for MLB.

Speaker 52 It's fielding independent pitching. And it's a perfect example of how brilliant these guys are and how

Speaker 52 screwed the game is because of it. So

Speaker 52 Granky, it was his favorite stat because what did it do? What does it do? It takes away.

Speaker 52 from a pitcher all the things that they're not in control of, like a bad bounce, like a pebble in the infield dirt, like a left fielder who's a moron.

Speaker 52 All sorts of stuff is gone, and it distills just what the pitcher did and is responsible for. Great thing for agents and free agency.

Speaker 52 But what it does is it completely subverts the idea of what it means to be a teammate and to pick each other up after you fall down.

Speaker 52 And so I have great, I have long conversations with Tom Tango about this.

Speaker 52 I understand that the human mind has a relentless desire to put itself out of business. But

Speaker 52 if we lose completely the human element, which is what players now refer to as what's missing in baseball,

Speaker 52 you know, it's just going to be not worth watching, even for me.

Speaker 21 Jane, what is the most overrated feat? in baseball these days? Something that happens that is not impressive.

Speaker 26 She didn't come close to answering my question, by the way.

Speaker 7 She said my stat was the best and then talked about FIP.

Speaker 42 Like, didn't even come close to answering my question.

Speaker 29 That was, that was, uh, that was, she was, she was dancing.

Speaker 27 Well, you stole her stat, Dave.

Speaker 54 Tap dance, babe.

Speaker 52 I was tap dancing. I got you.

Speaker 52 You got me.

Speaker 28 You got me.

Speaker 13 Put it on the poll, please.

Speaker 39 Does the human mind

Speaker 42 have a relentless drive to put itself out of the body?

Speaker 15 That was a bar, by the way. That was a bar.

Speaker 8 Answer. I'm sorry.

Speaker 24 Answer his question, please, Jane.

Speaker 52 What's the most overrated stat?

Speaker 33 Feet.

Speaker 35 feet um frankly at this point home runs wow shocking take by jane right there's a bum is schwarber a bum she's not gonna say schwarber's a bum

Speaker 52 well come on guys i mean

Speaker 52 that you can hit four home runs in a real game great the fact that people went nuts over doing it off slop batting practice slop at the at the at the home run derby made me nuts i mean really?

Speaker 52 Is that what it's come to? I understand why they do it.

Speaker 52 It's one of their most valuable properties. People love it.
That's great. But come on.
You know, it's just like

Speaker 52 two-thirds of the game are missing. Whatever happened to the alleys?

Speaker 23 Ah, the alleys.

Speaker 54 Ah, the alleys, right?

Speaker 24 Billy was in one of those on the phone when the police pulled him up.

Speaker 23 He was in accident.

Speaker 1 Jane, just say it.

Speaker 37 That Otani 50-50 game, overrated, right? That 50-50 game, ridiculous. End of the game, I mean, geez.
The 50-50 game would be impressive.

Speaker 37 No, the game that he got the 50-50 in where he had the 10 RBI, he had the four home run. I mean, the last couple pitches, ridiculous.

Speaker 52 Let me ask you a question, okay?

Speaker 54 I turned answer. Ask away.

Speaker 52 So I saw him pitch for

Speaker 52 the last now.

Speaker 52 I saw him at the last, did the 3.2 innings in Baltimore the other night.

Speaker 52 You know, here was a guy who basically said the old-fashioned thing, you know, send me in, coach, right? Put the ball in my my shoe, which Dave Roberts did not actually do.

Speaker 52 But he stepped forward and he and he said, he's old-fashioned in that way, which I love about him.

Speaker 52 And I was sitting right, you know, in the press box, which is no longer going to be the press box in Baltimore because they're making a party space, which tells you what the priorities are.

Speaker 52 But I watched him throw 11 100-mile-an-hour pitches in 3.2 innings, and they look effortless for him, right? I mean,

Speaker 52 it's a thing to behold. But I actually asked Dave Roberts, you know, should anybody want to pitch for the Dodgers right now? Look at

Speaker 52 what their rate of attrition has been in pitching this year. It's not just them, mind you, but they've had,

Speaker 52 the Yankees have had more money sitting on the IL for pitchers.

Speaker 52 The Dodgers have had more people sitting on the IL who are pitchers. It is, you know, you're taking your life in your hands.
And if I were Otani, I would say, you know what? I've done it.

Speaker 52 I've shown I can do it. He's had two Tommy John surgeries already.
Tommy John, excuse me, and an internal brace.

Speaker 52 I understand Dave said he wants to be the guy that shows that he can throw a World Series game and hit in a World Series game. Yes, that is legendary.
But wouldn't it be okay?

Speaker 52 to say one side of that is enough after doing that. I'd rather have him around to see for the next god knows how many years,

Speaker 52 you know, running the bases and hitting the way he does than have him do both.

Speaker 43 Uh, Jane, we appreciate your time, appreciate the book. Make me commissioner.

Speaker 29 I know what's wrong with baseball and how to fix it.

Speaker 7 Clearly, he knows a ton about baseball.

Speaker 18 Please join us more. Yeah, can you see that?

Speaker 8 We love this Jeremy, but it's also a bit of a fraud.

Speaker 52 I'm game. I'm here.
Hey, did you see my call, by the way?

Speaker 16 No, let me see it.

Speaker 54 Oops. Yeah, you got it.

Speaker 52 Spatial relations. You know what my orthopedists said? My

Speaker 52 soul of an athlete and a heart of an athlete in the worst possible body for an athlete.

Speaker 23 No,

Speaker 23 I don't know.

Speaker 1 Pablo Sandoval.

Speaker 33 Way worse.

Speaker 56 Yeah.

Speaker 52 You know what Terry Pendleton said? What?

Speaker 54 Go on.

Speaker 52 This is where, you know, we have a conga line of shit,

Speaker 23 body. Louisa.

Speaker 10 Stop stepping on the.

Speaker 56 What is that about?

Speaker 23 We're talking about Terry Pendleton.

Speaker 23 You were name dropping.

Speaker 48 Your name dropping. Stop.

Speaker 33 Let her answer. Terry Pendleton.

Speaker 52 She's a guest.

Speaker 37 The hot corner Houdini.

Speaker 52 The hot corner. He said, We were better off fat.
You can't tear fat.

Speaker 22 Yeah.

Speaker 47 that

Speaker 40 thank you. That's what I live by.

Speaker 32 That was good stuff.

Speaker 55 I know, but

Speaker 47 in the middle of all of that, though, you're saying, stop interrupting her.

Speaker 1 I called her a fraud in the middle of that.

Speaker 49 None of you heard it because everybody was.

Speaker 46 You're talking baseball.

Speaker 1 Did you expect me to pay attention the whole time?

Speaker 29 I called her a fraud because instead of three and two-thirds, she says 3.2 innings.

Speaker 23 Oh, no one pitches 3.2.

Speaker 1 That's how she goes up on the stat sheet.

Speaker 1 Are you trying to explain

Speaker 54 something to Jane?

Speaker 37 Yeah, how dare you, sir?

Speaker 27 Dan's Splainin. He's right.

Speaker 1 You said

Speaker 52 man's blainin'.

Speaker 55 Dan's plainin'.

Speaker 52 Dan's blainin'.

Speaker 45 Thank you for the time, Jane.

Speaker 49 Appreciate it. We'll tell everybody again, make me commissioner.

Speaker 24 I know what's wrong with baseball and how to fix it.

Speaker 40 Thank you.

Speaker 52 It's Lovie Jane.

Speaker 52 And I want your designer to come redo my dining room.

Speaker 1 No, it's perfect.

Speaker 23 Homely.

Speaker 55 Jane, thank you.

Speaker 29 Appreciate you being on with us.

Speaker 12 Appreciate it.

Speaker 54 Thanks, guys.

Speaker 27 Mike, I believe homely is an insult.

Speaker 15 I don't think you meant it.

Speaker 55 I don't think you meant it. What does homely mean?

Speaker 53 I don't think you meant it.

Speaker 55 No, wait, no, I'm sorry. Like plain.

Speaker 40 No, I think homely is plain.

Speaker 15 Like God, crazy.

Speaker 54 No. Yeah, homely is horsey.
It was like homely.

Speaker 23 Homely is home. Home me, homely.

Speaker 46 I mean,

Speaker 47 it's both those things, no?

Speaker 30 No, homely, I think it's negative.

Speaker 50 Well, Jane's a writer.

Speaker 49 Jane, you can get, if he says your home.

Speaker 54 Homely homely.

Speaker 30 No, you're home. He said your home was homely.

Speaker 48 Did I offend you when I had your back more than anybody? Don't make me unfollow.

Speaker 40 He meant it as a conversation.

Speaker 52 What I said was, I

Speaker 52 want your designer to come back, to come up here and redo my dining room in the expressive colors of your set. I love it.

Speaker 15 Thank you. Are those hummingbirds?

Speaker 37 Can I just say your glasses are dope?

Speaker 52 Thank you. And you know what? They were made by LA iWorks, and they quit making them.
So I had to have somebody go to Barcelona and buy me this set.

Speaker 54 Bartholomew.

Speaker 13 I love you. You're the best.

Speaker 23 She needs to replace

Speaker 7 Jeremy on this show talking baseball.

Speaker 39 Jeremy's segregated again.

Speaker 45 He's at the back of the show.

Speaker 29 Baseball's over there.

Speaker 8 But Jane's welcome on the show.

Speaker 1 I'm adding you to close friends.

Speaker 40 Jane, thank you for being on with us.

Speaker 43 Love you guys.

Speaker 40 Do you like pictures of dogs?

Speaker 52 Oh, wait a minute. My dog.

Speaker 23 I got one in the back of the book.

Speaker 33 Better dog. Go get your dog.

Speaker 22 Bet the dog. Go get your dog.

Speaker 50 Infielder, bet the dog.

Speaker 33 We would love to see your dog.

Speaker 1 Go ahead. We'll wait for you.
I'm going to see the dog.

Speaker 56 Betty, where are you?

Speaker 23 Oh, Betty.

Speaker 6 It's not Bet the dog. It's Betty.

Speaker 52 Well, I pronounce it Betty, but she's got Betty Davis eyes. She's got Betty Betty.

Speaker 23 Kim Corns.

Speaker 46 I was listening to that last night.

Speaker 23 Wait a minute. Betty.

Speaker 50 Yesterday on Sirius XM.

Speaker 32 Yeah. Hey, boo.

Speaker 54 Come. I did.
Oh, she actually did something.

Speaker 1 Come here. Come on.

Speaker 13 Who's a good doggy?

Speaker 23 Who's a good doggy?

Speaker 15 Who's a good doggy? Yes.

Speaker 54 Here she is.

Speaker 46 Who's your good girl?

Speaker 52 I should have known

Speaker 15 Yeah,

Speaker 15 wow. She's not.
I said.

Speaker 52 She was playing with a, she's the mascot for the Cape Cod League Orleans Firebirds.

Speaker 40 No, she's not.

Speaker 54 It's an infielder. She is.
She's an infielder.

Speaker 9 Wow, nothing gets past her.

Speaker 2 Like Yadi Molina.

Speaker 52 Yeah, nothing gets past her. So the coach is a cool guy named Kelly Nicholson.
He's been doing it since 2005.

Speaker 52 The players decided they would play with her during infield and practice. So they started throwing balls to the outfield.
She chased every single one down. She does over the shoulder.

Speaker 52 I can send you, she's got tape. Send it.

Speaker 33 Talking about showing balls.

Speaker 52 Yeah, she can, she goes, she gets everything. So Kelly looks at these guys who were like, you know, they're playing shallow.
And he goes, oh, no, you got to go deep for this dog.

Speaker 52 Betty can get anything. Where are you, Betty?

Speaker 37 Throw your ball. Throw your ball for Betty.

Speaker 37 Throw the ball. Throw the ball, Betty.

Speaker 52 If I throw this one in the house,

Speaker 52 they're kind of cheap baseball, so you don't play balls.

Speaker 52 But I can do it. I can send you a take.

Speaker 54 Please do.

Speaker 45 Jane, thank you for being on with us.

Speaker 24 We appreciate it. What's for lunch, Jane?

Speaker 15 Put it on IG.

Speaker 8 Billy, that's it.

Speaker 24 That's enough of you.

Speaker 8 Okay, I've had enough of you.

Speaker 51 That's too strong.

Speaker 53 Everything you've been doing, I've been trying to end this segment for about 10 minutes, and you won't let me end it.

Speaker 2 So I'm going to find the Dan, find it. There it is.

Speaker 47 Billy's got a major punch.

Speaker 46 I'll leave five minutes for it being Billy.

Speaker 60 Me?

Speaker 5 I thought Dan was going to pick himself out for Dan Splam.

Speaker 5 I support you.

Speaker 44 I'm going with.

Speaker 31 Thank you, Jane. You can go with him.

Speaker 43 That's fine.

Speaker 54 Get the answer to him.

Speaker 52 Where do I send Betty's take?

Speaker 50 Okay, well, Billy, you can connect with Billy who

Speaker 39 keeps doing this even though he doesn't want it and he's pretending like he wants it and he's an asshole.

Speaker 47 So he's getting out of here.

Speaker 50 Both of you, get out of here.

Speaker 50 Get out of here. And get that bit.
Now, get that video from it. And we're going to play it during Ray Hudson's sound every day during the World Cup.

Speaker 50 Every day until the World Cup, we're going to play both the video of her dog chasing balls and Ray Hudson sound.

Speaker 13 Must be confusing to her. Tony.

Speaker 55 Perfect.

Speaker 31 Perfect. See, she understands.
She gets it.

Speaker 23 I get it.

Speaker 33 Thank you.

Speaker 23 That's fine.

Speaker 39 We will connect with you and we will get you the information so you can send us your dog, the infielder.

Speaker 10 Hey, listeners, it's Mike. Hey, Billy Gill.

Speaker 32 Hey.

Speaker 10 Hey, Billy, as a proud member of your inner circle, remember when we were hanging out last weekend?

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, fishtail palms.

Speaker 10 Fishtail palms, the great memories we made, kids playing in the pool, and in our hands, a nice ice-cold can of Miller Light.

Speaker 1 It was so hot out.

Speaker 10 I know, but it was so cold in my hand.

Speaker 9 We took that first sip. It was crisp.
It was refreshing.

Speaker 10 Oh, man, there is nothing like cracking open a Miller Light with your crew and your inner circle bones. Hell yeah.
We fist bumped.

Speaker 32 Whether it's, we actually really did. Whether it's that touchdown.

Speaker 2 It didn't make a sound, but it just thought.

Speaker 1 Bam!

Speaker 46 Boom.

Speaker 10 Whether it's that touchdown you didn't see coming or just arguing about fantasy lineups, you and I did plenty of that. Miller Light has been the taste that you can depend on for 50 years.

Speaker 17 Brewed for flavor with simple ingredients, rich toffee notes, and that iconic golden color.

Speaker 10 And here's a kicker, Billy.

Speaker 1 What? It's just 96 calories. What?

Speaker 10 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. The original light beer since 1975 and still hitting different five decades later.
Miller Light, great taste, 96 calories.

Speaker 10 Go to millerlight.com/slash dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time.
Celebrate responsibly.

Speaker 10 Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Speaker 17 You know what nobody tells you about being a new dad? It's not just the diapers and the wipes, that's obvious. It's the hidden stuff.

Speaker 17 The baby swing after we already purchased the other baby swing, the bouncer, the pack and play, the 20 different bottles, because apparently my kid hates every single one, except the most expensive one, which is the glass, by the way.

Speaker 17 Don't get me started on late food delivery orders with my wife, and me too tired to even look or cook or think about food. I'm staring at my bank account like, where did it all go?

Speaker 2 That's where monarch money comes in.

Speaker 17 It's like a financial tool belt for everyone, not just dads.

Speaker 17 You link all your accounts, your credit cards, investments, even the old stuff from jobs you forgot about, and it lays out in a way that even a sleep-deprived parent like me can actually understand.

Speaker 17 Normally, money talks are stressful, but with Monarch, we can track everything together, set goals, and actually feel like we're on the same team.

Speaker 17 Less stress, more clarity, and finally, a plan for our daughter's future. Don't let financial opportunity slip through the cracks.

Speaker 17 Use code Dan at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with code DAN.

Speaker 62 This show is brought to you by BetterHelp. We've all done this, gone to the wrong people for advice.

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Speaker 44 Don Lebatard.

Speaker 6 You don't remember the idea?

Speaker 47 I was probably like, that kind of thing. Something.

Speaker 38 Okay, no. The home run call was that kind of swing, that kind of thing.

Speaker 32 Stugats.

Speaker 37 Oh, it's a good call. Thank you.

Speaker 63 And plus, it doesn't matter who's hitting it. Like, you're not tailoring it to a particular name.
You know, all that jazz. You know, you don't got to do that.

Speaker 15 You just have to do that. Oh, that would be a great call.

Speaker 46 Oh, that would be a good call.

Speaker 1 That kind of swing, that kind of thing.

Speaker 20 This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

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Speaker 18 I really enjoyed that.

Speaker 1 That was delightful.

Speaker 18 I read, thank you. No, I meant the the interview.

Speaker 17 Oh, I tried hard.

Speaker 26 I did not think out of nowhere we were going to have a how-do-you-fix baseball segment from someone who loves baseball, but it was delightful.

Speaker 12 We will have more baseball with Jeremy Tashay and Pitch Clock, which has been segregated, which will be after Juju Gatti.

Speaker 26 I don't know if you guys have seen the last couple of nights.

Speaker 27 In the late innings, the Yankees...

Speaker 26 have been outscored by the Detroit Tigers in the last two games in the seven, eighth, and ninth inning, 17 to 1.

Speaker 12 That's bad, right?

Speaker 24 Well, the Tigers, the Tigers are exceptional without the payroll that the Yankees have.

Speaker 26 The Dodgers are hanging on at the top of their division, but the Padres could have beaten them in a series last year and could beat them again in a series this year because the Dodgers, I remember, I'm going to say,

Speaker 12 whenever we were at 30 games from the end of the season, the Dodger over-under for the season, I've never seen anything like this before because of where their payroll was, because they won the championship, because they've got all the players, because Mookie Betts has five RBI last night, and they don't need Mookie Betts.

Speaker 29 The Dodgers over-under on the season was 104 and a half.

Speaker 45 And with 30 games left in the season, they would have had to win all 30 of them to get to 105.

Speaker 41 The Dodgers don't look like what you thought they were going to look like this season, but I can't get anybody around here to talk about baseball.

Speaker 31 And another thing I can't get anyone around here to talk about, we've been talking about these, about Jake Paul in boxing. We've got a monster fight this weekend, okay?

Speaker 26 Canelo,

Speaker 27 Terrence Crawford and Canelo.

Speaker 6 Crawford coming up undefeated, three weight classes to fight Canelo.

Speaker 27 In boxing in my lifetime, there's really been only one time that it's not about the heavyweights, and it's when Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns were just great fighters.

Speaker 29 Floyd Mayweather is in an argument here recently with Mike Tyson over the greatest ever.

Speaker 24 Floyd can't be the greatest ever, even though he wins all the time, because it was all about defense and nobody watches these fights to not see people get hit.

Speaker 24 The heavyweights and the big boys are always the ones that dominate the conversation.

Speaker 55 However, this fight, if you care about combat sports, Canelo not having to come down at all and making Crawford come up three weight classes to fight him

Speaker 26 is super interesting.

Speaker 45 And a lot of people who love boxing are going to be watching this on Netflix as Netflix gets into the live sports game.

Speaker 29 And you essentially get this fight for free.

Speaker 34 And you never get Canelo.

Speaker 8 Canelo doesn't fight for free.

Speaker 15 That's not how that one works.

Speaker 50 But Canelo specifically,

Speaker 26 when you get the race wars that boxing are, you know, trafficked in, black guys against Mexicans is the one that is the most trafficked.

Speaker 34 in and this one's going to be a monster this week.

Speaker 64 It's going to be an incredible fight, Dan. Like this is a fight that you look at and there's been a lot of fights in boxing where outside of like these big fights with

Speaker 64 Usik and with

Speaker 64 Fury, like there's guys that are in their prime, and there's guys that are legends. And like, Bud Crawford versus Canelo is going to be a monster, monster fight.

Speaker 2 Canelo, I would say, back end of his prime, right?

Speaker 64 I don't think you can call him his prime right now.

Speaker 1 No, but still an excellent fight.

Speaker 50 But what you can say, though, the thing that you can say, though, now that Floyd and Pacquiao are done, is these are the two fighters of this era like these are the these are the two guys you're talking about dominating an air I can't wait for this fight

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