Local Hour: Playoffs For Dummies

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Zaslow's come in here pissed off about ticket prices.

And

what are you waving your hands at me about?

I'm just trying to go have a good time, you know, and like I can't.

For WrestleMania, you're trying to go to WrestleMania.

Mike Ryan, have you, did you say last year was your last WrestleMania trip with the boys, or are you still doing that?

I feel like you retired a few years ago, didn't you?

No, no, I never retired from that.

I won't be making it out to Saudi Arabia in two two years.

And I don't think I'll make it to Vegas this go-round too, because I'm disappointed that they're running it back.

But also, I know what Zaz is upset about, and the price points this year are particularly egregious.

But you got to play the game with them.

They do this crap since TKO took over the company.

They get the suckers for a really high price.

You wait till the day before WrestleMania.

Then they all of a sudden release new tickets.

Yeah, that's what I did for SummerSlam.

It worked out very well.

The worst tickets, 400 level, level, are $900.

The best tickets are $9,000.

Section A on the floor.

That seems steep.

What?

Yeah, I got to tell you, like, straight up.

They treat me very well.

If you pay those prices, you're a sucker.

You're a sucker.

You're a sucker.

Who's fighting in this?

They haven't even announced the card.

You're a sucker if you pay those prices.

They give away a ton of tickets.

The secondary market, check out GameTime promo code Dan is going to be so much kinder to you.

They're going to be trying to get rid of all these tickets moments before, especially now when Las Vegas itself is in a recession.

Don't fall for this.

Imagine

your family.

You just want to get in the door so you're willing to sit in the 400 level.

Egregious, but they told you on a conference call.

Vince McMahon

priced tickets so that families could come out.

They don't care about your family to come out.

They just want to get the influencers out there and whoever and just

help us make our money.

I hope Vince buys them back.

Do you?

$900 for the cheapest of seats uh when you think of what wrestle mania is like those are you can't see anything nothing you there's not that is you are much better off watching on television than you would be being in the 400 level in another galaxy trying to watch like little tiny stick figures man when you're in the 400 level you are watching it on television yep you're literally watching the screen the entire now i've never sat up there but that's definitely what you're doing that's not just wrestling though that's every concert you go to i'm that's why nowadays like I'm either spending to have a good seat or no, but at least concerts about hearing the at least you can hear the music.

Stand-up comedians, like if I'm in the upper deck, I'm looking at the screen.

I'm just watching them on TV.

I just, all these things.

You can't be doing stand-up comedians that way.

That's silly.

One person on a stage with a microphone, you can't be hugely far away from that person.

I kind of get that.

What do you think people do in the upper deck?

People are laughing together.

They're experiencing something together.

And I guess that's the appeal.

But when you're in the 400 level for $900, $900, you better be experiencing an orgasm.

I saw Jerry Seinfeld at a Broward place that is like an old school place that didn't have, like, it had like a theater hall.

So there are seats far away, but they don't have a screen.

So I watched it, and it might not have been Jerry Seinfeld.

I'm not convinced it was Jerry Seinfeld.

The experience that you guys are talking about when you say you want to experience something together, all you'd be experiencing together is complaining to the person next to you that you can't see or hear anything.

Where did Samural get you tickets for the Reality Comedy Festival?

Where did he get you tickets for that?

Is that upper deck or no?

This is the Dan Labatar show with the Stu Gats podcast.

Jeremy was supposed to be off today, but the Marlins have won seventh straight, so he rushed into the office to just compute playoff permutations because the Marlins do have a mathematical chance if they win.

Yes, I know.

Really?

It's stunning, Tony.

Now, it's not a very good mathematical chance.

In fact, I say that this is really challenging to math.

I think it's going to be challenging.

Jeremy, they need a whole bunch of teams to keep losing, and some of them are all playing each other.

So that's going to be problematic.

Like when you need the rest of the teams that are ahead of you to lose all their games and they're playing against each other, I haven't figured out how it is that they can get past those teams.

But last night, they win.

They dragged the Rangers, ruined the Rangers season.

Then they go up last night to Philadelphia.

They're losing 3-0 in the eighth inning, and they win in extra innings against a team that can win the World Series, a team that's good enough to win the World Series, although Bryce Harper didn't play last night because the Phillies are waiting for the postseason to start.

Mike was supposed to be off today, and he rushed in because he was mad about yesterday's first 20 minutes of the show.

He didn't like the way that we talked about the Miami Hurricanes after Jeremy didn't like the way we talked about the Miami Hurricanes.

So let's begin with Mike Ryan's objections to what was said yesterday about the fact that in retrospect now, the first three games of the Hurricane season have been against opponents who have now lost a combined six times in three games.

Right.

Miami represents over 60% of those losses.

Would you like Miami to lose these games so you can feel better about the teams they're playing?

You said Miami's offense isn't as good.

I would suggest that you need more offensive drives.

drives to look good.

Last year, Miami averaged about 15 offensive drives a game.

This season, they're averaging 11.

I reckon that if Miami has four more drives per game, you get more points.

And I guess it also helps with style points, too.

I don't know.

I mean, Jeremy tied himself into a pretzel yesterday by saying that Miami scored late to make that game look worse.

You know what made that game look bad?

The stats.

The score wasn't.

I agree.

The score wasn't reflective of what that game was.

It should have looked uglier, but instead, you got Miami taking nine minutes to assault the game away on a drive.

That's not stuff that happened last year.

You got tricked by Miami getting more plays into thinking that's what an offense is supposed to look like.

This team is playing complimentary football.

They are forcing out their opponents three and out, top five in the nation type numbers.

Their defense is better in part because they're fresher, because the offense is staying out there longer.

So I do think that yesterday required a little bit more context.

However, you guys did kind of find it at the end, which is we're a month into the season.

And by your metrics, only Ohio State is good?

The thing that I have noticed, because

the metrics don't help me in what it is that I'm about to say, I saw a team that I thought overwhelmed both Notre Dame and Florida.

But I was scared for Miami at the end of both of those games.

Like, we can say all we want about Miami, drag Florida, but Florida was literally inches from being inside your 30-yard line in the middle of the fourth quarter with the ability to take the lead with a touchdown when I didn't see them move the ball at all in the first half.

And the results, those games being close, was legitimately confusing to me because it's not like they were spitting up the ball the entire time, although Carson Beck did have a bad turnover in the last game.

I mean, bad turnovers, all turnovers are bad, right?

But I think Cormanni McClain made an exceptional play there.

I mean, that's a youth thing.

If you're nervous with six minutes left in the third quarter because it's a one-score game against a rival with a really good defense, Thor's probably going to be.

I know they were missing some guys, but that's still going to be the hardest defense that we probably play all season.

That's a you thing.

Miami controlled all those games.

Has Miami trailed at any point?

What do you mean that's a you?

You're saying that's a me thing, not a you thing, the letter you, right?

You're saying that's a me thing.

I think the you thing is Mario Cristobal is going to be in close games all the time with the better team.

What just happened there to your microphone?

It's kind of screwed up.

I didn't want to call in engineering and bother them, but it's kind of screwed up.

I think,

well, I guess you should be encouraged because Miami has been tested there.

I actually think that Notre Dame is a good team.

They played two teams with the top four strength of record.

That's another thing that you guys were talking about.

Miami hasn't played anybody, and they have the number four strength of record in the country.

So I don't know.

You guys didn't make any sense.

So nobody's played anyone by that.

You guys didn't make any sense.

Like, do you think Notre Dame has a good offense?

I don't think Notre Dame has a good defense.

Okay, but that's not the question that I asked.

Do you think they have a good offense?

I think they're fine at offense.

No, no, no, they're scoring a lot of points.

Do you think they're good at offense?

Because you're not going to answer because you know I'm tricking you because Miami averages more yards per game than them.

I don't think that I know if Notre Dame is good or not, and I'm not going to know all season because of what their schedule is.

Their first two games of the season, they played the two opponents that are the toughest, and they lost to both of them because they couldn't stop either one of them.

And they stopped Miami more than I expected them to stop Miami, given what I saw of the physical play in that game, where I thought they were the lesser team physically, and I I thought Miami should have beaten them by more.

I don't think that the Miami or Florida game should have been close late.

I don't think so.

The Florida game wasn't close.

It wasn't.

Florida was within six points in a rivalry game with six minutes left.

It wasn't close.

That game should have been 20-0.

We all acknowledge that.

Even the referees acknowledge that to Mario Cristobal.

If that game goes that way and it's 20 to 0, then what are you talking about?

You can't say the game wasn't close.

You can't tell me that the game was close when I'm looking at the stats and I see that Miami absolutely ditched myself.

My scoreboard said 13-7 13-7 and Florida had a third and short that ended up being a fourth and short that they missed by inches.

Right, because they didn't actually convert any third downs because that game wasn't actually close.

There was also cheating by the referees.

Keynes had a touchdown.

They just decided, no, this doesn't count.

Was last year's game between Miami and Florida close?

No.

No.

No.

Well, you know what the spread difference between those two games were?

Five points.

Miami

was five points less dominant than they were last year?

No, but there was not a single moment in that game where there was any doubt.

Mike, you cannot.

I think there was in that final.

Actually, no, I remember Florida scoring a touchdown on an interception return, by the way, which is kind of crazy.

It's like nobody remembers that cameboard through picks anymore.

You can't say that the Florida-Miami game wasn't close.

It wasn't.

Look at the stats in the totality of the game.

Look at the scoreboard when Florida had the ball third and short with a touchdown to take the lead.

No, no, yeah, they had to score that touchdown.

They scored one touchdown all game.

That's fine.

If you want to get all scared in the third quarter and doubt that Miami can respond with an answer, that's fine.

Why would I doubt Cristobal in those spots?

Why would I ever?

I don't, look, you know what?

Like, Mario Cristobal isn't going to shut you the hell up until he wins the game.

That is correct.

That is correct.

That's cool.

But I would say that yesterday's college football talk,

as it pertains to the Miami Hurricanes, was just, you know, an embarrassment.

But

I don't go to you or Jeremy for ball.

That's not what I do.

Okay.

I don't.

You embarrass yourself.

because it was terrible.

Yes, but you're.

I got reached out to by a dozen people.

I listened back to it because

all right, there's Mike and West Palm.

There was Philette.

There was.

Hang on, let me get all the Menshe's on X.

All right, it was closer to a half dozen, but I thought it was going to be really bad.

You said we got there at the end.

Yeah, because you realize, like, oh, this is dumb.

Oh, I've seen this.

I mean,

okay.

I don't know.

Like, oh, they had a chance to convert a fourth down, and then DJ Lagway was going to look three yards behind the line of scrimmage for his next target.

They control that game.

They controlled the Notre Dame game, too.

I wasn't very...

That's right.

You know which one they controlled last year, too?

The Georgia Tech game.

Like, they control a lot of games and then lose them late.

They weren't.

They were trailing.

No, they didn't, actually.

Forgive me.

Two years ago when they were kneeling at the end or not kneeling at the end is a terrible memory.

Yeah, again, another reason why Mario Cristobal isn't going to shut you up.

There is a narrative and people have decided that what will get in Miami's way is Mario Cristobal's game management, and that may very well be true.

But over the last two seasons now, well, one and a half, last season, he was in a bunch of one-score games, a bunch of one-score games, and every NFL...

time analytics person that I talked to said he made the right calls.

You have time analytic friends?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, I have friends that have friends.

Yeah.

He made the right calls in all those situations.

He's not going to, people have made up their mind.

College football is a hard sport to follow in all the games.

He's earned it.

It's not like we're just saying that as if it's not something we've seen throughout his career.

He's got to erase it.

He's got to erase it just the same way that a lot of people have had to erase the narratives around them like Ed Orgeron, like Les Miles, like Dabo had to, like Clemson had to.

And then when they do it, like Kirby had to.

I remember the narrative around Kirby.

Like, then they shut you up and you don't remember all the crap that you said and you just move on accepting it.

And that's the only way that Mario Cristobal is going to shut people up.

And I concede that.

He's got to win a 690 for this program and that's what he's working to do.

Shouldn't it make you feel better though, Dan?

Because, yeah, those games, Georgia Tech, you know, whoever in the last couple years, the games would be close and the Kanes would blow it.

These games have been close so far, and the Kanes either held on or they would then extend the lead like this week.

Shouldn't that make you feel better then?

Here's the reason it doesn't, okay?

Those teams, when I was watching them, I wasn't saying they're appreciably better than the other team that I'm watching.

They have played two games that should be close by rivalry, but when I watch what I'm watching,

I'm finding it inexplicable that the games are close.

That Notre Dame game, I don't understand how it was close late.

That Florida game, I don't understand how it was close late because I'm watching a better Miami team than the one that I have seen for four years.

Well, thank you for admitting that Miami is dominant in these games and controlling these games and putting them away.

I also think contextually there's been a monsoon at Hard Rock Stadium for a month straight.

And that also plays into these rivalry games that are also naturally tighter.

Miami has played Notre Dame and Florida in these conditions.

Very slick.

That first half against Florida was extremely wet.

They've had one turnover combined in both of those games.

Look, I was fighting through the weather conditions throughout that entire game.

If I'm fighting through those conditions, you can imagine what the Hurricanes offense had to do to get through.

That's where you sit now.

That's where I sit for games now.

I

think that the way that the Hurricanes are built should help them be better.

in bad weather because they're physically, they look fit.

Do you know how rare it is for a team in college football?

For me to watch a college football team play against an SEC team and say, that team is physically overwhelming an SEC team.

That team is physically overwhelming overwhelming a Notre Dame team that I'm assuming is going to have good offensive line play and had a good pass rush last year.

I think you're just espousing the virtues of what this team is.

Notre Dame is not appreciably less talented than Miami.

And by the way, last year, you were probably saying in September Notre Dame is no good because they lost to Northern Illinois, and then they did what they did.

I'm not going to know whether Notre Dame's any good until the playoffs come and they throw them in there because they've only lost the first two games of the season and then the rest of the schedule was easy.

Okay, so you've already established the narrative.

I just think that we should probably have some pause, apply the appropriate context to this game, and actually compliment Miami for salting games away that they struggled to salt away previously.

They don't have this huge talent disparity against the teams.

Florida recruits at the same level that Miami does.

Notre Dame is a national runner-up last year.

They're playing their style of football.

They're keeping their defense fresh.

And this is how you win late in the season.

Look, I didn't like Notre Dame being ranked at 0-2.

I don't give a shit about these quality losses when you have zero wins.

But Notre Dame now being 1-2

and ranked 22nd,

they're telling us that Notre Dame is good.

They're clearly saying Notre Dame is good if they could be 1-2 and they're ranked.

You know who else is telling us Notre Dame is good every week, despite when on Saturday they were actually 0-2 entering that game against Purdue?

Nick Saban.

who is still pounding the table saying that that's going to be a playoff team.

And Nick Saban knows ball.

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According to ESPN Analytics, which might not know ball, the Gators have roughly the same chance to lose out and finish 1-11 as they do to become bowl eligible.

Oh, yeah.

No, the one thing that Jeremy said was right was that that Florida record is not going to look good.

Oh, my God.

They have every reason to quit.

I think that that was their last stand, and they got a really impossible schedule.

But if Florida was playing a different schedule,

they could be 3-0 with the talent that they have on defense.

It's that South Florida lost that was the kill.

If Grammatica misses, I can't believe we're still doing Grammatica.

If Grammatica misses that kick,

you feel so different.

That was a really bad training.

If you watch that, the Gators choke that away.

But here's one thing that I will tell you: knowing how Dan has

espoused the virtues of these two programs down here that aren't part of the big three, UCF and USF.

If USF beat Miami, Dan and many other people would be rightfully claiming that USF is the best team in the nation for what they have put together.

And then everyone just forgets that Miami beat that team so bad, they knocked them from 18 to others receiving votes.

What's your deal with Grammatica?

Oh, it's just, how many generations are we going to do this for?

Every generation needs a kicker.

Well,

how many are we going to do this for?

We got one more after this.

If this guy has a kid and that kicker starts going up, you're going to be 65 years old, seven years old.

He's going to be kicking.

And every single one of them has to play for USF?

That's right.

Hey, go to another school.

No, legacy.

What do you know about legacy?

I know plenty about legacy.

Where are your kids going to school?

We'll see.

I don't even want them to go to a certain school.

You want them to to go to Santa Fe?

I would like them to go to the University of Florida.

Okay.

What?

So

I'm done with

Zazzlo Legacy of Florida.

Legacy over here.

Do what I couldn't.

I think that he'd like them to go to the University of Florida, at least in part, because radio doesn't allow you to afford the University of Miami.

Bingo.

That's true.

University of Miami.

Kid could get better grades, too, and get actually paid for this.

Nico Grammatica, put it on the poll at Lebatard Show.

Is there going to be Grammatica kicking footballs until the world ends

in fire?

You mentioned Ed Orgeron earlier.

I want to ask the group here before we go to Jeremy and play off baseball permutations.

I just want to ask the groups, if since we're speaking of Gators,

if alligators could actually speak, would they sound like Ed Orgeron?

Do you imagine that

if you heard an alligator yelling at you angrily or exhorting you, for example, at the golf course, trying to summon patriotism for you.

Would it sound like this?

Loud and clear now.

Loud and proud, baby, here we go.

USA.

Lead us Ed.

What is this?

What is he doing?

This is at the Ryder Cup, and this is getting the juices flowing.

That's what it's doing.

The best job in sports, the fired college football coach, just doing side quests.

Like, where's Ed Orgeron today?

Oh, he's at the Ryder Cup.

And that's a practice round, firing people up.

That's a practice round that he's like, all right, now, here we go.

That's pretty good.

Thank you.

Why did there need to be coordination for USA chance?

Only three letters.

Yeah, there was quite the foreplay there.

All right, three to one, right?

All right, here we go now.

Does everybody have the right letters?

Chris is good at this.

It is funny.

First the you, then the S, then they.

Don't tread on me.

When I recruited Joe Burrow,

Ed Orgeron, anybody who watched Ed Orgeron's career ascent from graduate assistant at the University of Miami, who once got into a bar fight on Bourbon Street before a Sugar Bowl game, because of...

Everybody did.

Because of course he did.

That's right.

Everybody did.

To see Ed Orgeron's ascent and then watch at the end at LSU when he had the greatest college football team there has ever been.

And he won with it.

And then there are reports of boosters getting angry because Wild Man Ed Orgeron is hitting on wives at the gas station.

And there are reports about a whole lot of malfeasance, including sexual misconduct, throughout the program.

And he just gets sort of quietly bought out and says, yeah, thank you.

I'll take my money and go.

I'm out of here.

I'll just roam the earth partying and sounding like an athlete.

He made a plan.

Famously, he tells the story off.

And which door would you like me to walk out of?

How many, what was the buyout on Orgeron?

Because as punctuation, he's not going to do better than wait a minute, I get to coach the greatest college football team there's ever been and then I could just leave and I'm always seeing Ed Orgeron jogging shirtless through South Beach like he's just running out there red

solid

thick so solid so it's solid very solid at he told us he drinks how many energy drinks a day was it 11 11 monster energy drinks drinks a day?

So $17 million was his buyout, but he's had some issues with his marriage, and now he owes his wife half of the buyout.

So a little bit more.

It's still

still nice.

You know what they love.

And in a divorce?

Oh,

then they really love it.

Okay, everybody loves money.

Everyone does.

Specifically.

No, yeah, humans.

But in a divorce, specifically humans love money.

That's right.

When they're scorned, though, they really love it.

Humans?

I don't know about them, but Jeremy is in the other room and let's check in on some playoff permutations here.

Oh my God.

Dear God.

So we've got a situation where the Marlins have indeed won seven in a row.

Jeremy, how many games under 500 are they?

The Marlins currently sit three games under 500.

The Marlins are looking to go 5-0 the rest of the way to get to 82 and 80 overall, which is how you can end up with some of these different permutations in a two-team tie.

I'm still working out the math over here for three-team ties, but if you're interested, Dan, I can walk you through what it would take for the Marlins to ultimately clinch in a two-team tie scenario.

Who do they have the tiebreakers against?

What am I rooting for here?

I am thrilled that I'm going to be able to do it.

You're rooting for everybody to lose, Dan.

The Marlins are playing.

Well, they play each other, though.

Some of these teams play each other.

Everyone can't lose.

The only teams that play each other at this point are the Cardinals and the Giants, and we're already in good shape there.

Where now, if the Marlins go 5-0, they control their own destiny against the Giants.

They have a half-game lead against the Giants, so you don't have to worry about them.

What you need from the Cardinals the rest of the way, if you're looking for a Marlins head-to-head victory, is at least one loss, either at the Giants tonight or in their three-game series against the Cubs, because that would get them to 81 losses.

They're currently 78 and 80, and ultimately, the Marlins and the Cardinals split their head-to-head 3-3,

as we all know.

Hold on, tiebreakers, intra-division records.

Stop for a second.

No, no.

Yes, I'm going to interrupt you because this is going to go fast, and there's going to be a lot of information here.

Do the Marlins have any chance if they don't go 5-0?

Any chance?

Ultimately, yes.

They can go 4-1 here, but it will take a lot more help and losses all across the board.

So you'll need a couple of losses from the Cardinals.

You'll need the Reds presently would have to go 2-3 and three for the Marlins to win the head-to-head.

Obviously, that would turn into one and four.

Diamondbacks, same deal.

They need to go two and three.

That would have to turn into one and four.

And the Mets, most importantly, would need to lose the next two nights against the Cubs, who have completely and utterly fallen apart in terms of winning as of late.

They hold the wildcard spot.

There's not a ton of motivation for them.

But if the Cubs can beat the Mets just once and then the Marlins go in and sweep the Mets, the Marlins will end up with a better head-to-head record against the Mets.

And ultimately, if they finish at 82 and 82, as the Marlins do, the Marlins would clinch a postseason berth.

But what could end up happening in a three-team tie are several different scenarios.

Over here, you could see all of the different head-to-head records.

And ultimately, I'm doing the math here.

If the Marlins end up in a three-team tie with the New York Mets and one of these other ball clubs at an 82 and 82 record, the Marlins will make the postseason, period.

If it's the Mets and another team, the Marlins will make the postseason so long as they go 5-0.

If they lose tonight against the Philadelphia Phillies, I can come back in tomorrow and we can go through the record if they go 4-0 the rest of the way.

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Don Lebatard.

It sounds to me like everybody could use a hug because a hug is always the right size.

Stugats.

All I have put in my body today

is three cups of coffee and an entire cup of honey.

Don't let him fool you.

He said in the break that he's jittery.

This is the Don Lebatar show with the Stugats.

Chris Cody just said in my ear, he's actually doing a good job, which is condescending, dismissive,

and sort of insult to you.

And then he said the thing, though, that is actual compliment.

I understand this.

And if you've reached this with, if you've reached Chris Cody with playoff for dummies,

you have done something, Jeremy, in your communication skills.

He does not enjoy his mathematics.

And you have games.

You got the last week of the season.

You've got games that matter.

None of that.

None of us had that.

Nobody thought that the Marlins would beat three games under 500.

I thought they'd be done by July.

With the team that that they put together clipping.

There'd be so many games back to be done in July.

Marlins are 80 back.

In terms of just feeling like there's just no shot.

I know technically they would be alive then.

Come on, Saz.

The last week of the season, if I told anybody that we would have games of any kind that would matter, you would think all the teams in the league somehow, even though this is a mathematical impossibility, all of them were 80 games under 500.

Have the Marlins had a top 10 season this season?

No, not for like of all the teams in in baseball.

Oh, you don't mean like in the history of the majors?

No.

It could be the Marlins' top 10.

As a surprise, yes, they're one of the biggest surprises in the sport that they've they've been look man in the middle of the season.

They gave me hope before it collapsed because they were beating good teams.

That Texas team had expectations.

That Texas team was very good offensively and started the season poorly for a lot of different reasons.

But

they just ruined Texas's season.

I can't get any of you interested in this except for Jimmy.

I am curious if this is like

on MLB Network.

Are they talking about this or is this just in South Africa?

No, they did.

No, when the Marlins were winning games in the middle of the season against the teams that they were playing, yes, they were getting attention from national people who haven't paid attention to the Marlins since they were in the playoffs.

What are you shaking your head about, Tony?

What do you think?

I just know about it.

I just don't find it believable that national people.

We are a national show.

We are talking about the Marlins nationally all the time.

There is no way that any other national show has spent any time on the Marlins saying, you know what, Marlins, top 10 season.

Pardon my take was talking about

the Marlins.

Yes, they were talking about Marlin.

They're friends with some of their players.

They had a few of them on.

And they were just talking about that stretch that I'm talking about where they gave us brief hope.

But honestly, it's been sort of sleepy for the last month.

And the reason they're back in it is because they've won seven in a row.

But I wanted to talk collapses with you guys because what is happening right now to the Detroit Tigers

is one of these memorable for all time collapses.

They were 10 and a half games up at the start of September, and it can't be memorable for all time anymore because you have the wild card and people can't actually get knocked out of the playoffs when they've been as good for two seasons as the Detroit Tigers.

I mean, they're only one up in the wild card right now, the Tigers.

They may miss the whole thing.

They may miss the whole thing,

but they were 10 and a half games up on the Guardians at the start of September.

And they've now lost, is it seven in a row or is it eight in a row that they've lost?

And that means they've lost two Scoobel starts.

And

in losing the Scoobel start yesterday, because your ace has to go out there and shut them down.

When you see the details on last night where the Guardians are bunting three times, and the result is Scoobel balks,

Scoobel wild pitch, Scoobel hits on one of the bunts, hits Fry in the face,

and the best of all of them, Scoobel flips the ball over first base with his back to first base on a bunt through his legs as they collapse.

Detroit Tiger fans, who finally have expectations, are now worried that they're not going to be good enough to beat the Yankees.

And as of 10 days ago, or as of eight, seven games ago, the Tigers looked like they were good enough to beat the Yankees this year, and now they no longer look that way.

I remember people talking about the Padres choking it up a few years ago, and I went back and looked at that.

There were 17 games over 500 at one point.

And just my mind goes to all the times that the Marlins, both Miami and Florida, have ruined the Mets seasons.

And they had back-to-back years in the early 2000s where they blew late season playoff spots.

Well, that's the one I think of in 2007, right, where the Marlins closed Shea Stadium, right?

They closed Shea Stadium by, and Glavin gave up like eight runs in the first inning, and the Marlins knocked the Mets out of the playoffs when in mid-September, the Mets had the best record in baseball.

Do you guys think of all-time collapses outside of baseball?

Because when I think of all-time collapses, and the Red Sox have been in a couple of them, do you think of collapses outside of baseball?

I know we have the December collapses in football around here with the Dolphins.

Yes, the 9-3 Dolphins, 93 Dolphins, I think they went 9-3.

They were 9-2.

Oh, no, 9-2.

And was it Scott Mitchell was the quarterback?

Yeah, and they lost their last five games.

They missed the playoffs entirely.

Yeah.

But that's regionally.

When you think all-time historic collapses where you associate with a franchise something that is just end-of-season choking, and you've got a representative sample, obviously, you got 162 games in baseball.

So it allows the room for, it's ridiculous in a month for a team as good as the Tigers to blow a 10 and a half game lead.

No,

I think it's only a baseball thing because since it's every day, it's a slow death for like the final two weeks of the season.

It's only a baseball thing.

But when you say slow death.

It's a soccer thing too.

When you say slow death,

you're looking last night at, it's not merely losing.

It's the way you lose.

You got your Cy Young winner, someone who's been unhittable for two seasons.

As soon as I saw Schubel at the beginning of last season, when I discovered him, I said to you and everybody else here, I said,

that's as unhittable a left-handed person as ever, has ever thrown a baseball.

Like, I don't understand how anybody hits him, and very few people do.

For your ace twice to lose, like, when that's the ace's job, the ace's job is you always stop that.

Like, everyone, to lose that way, it's not just losing with your ace, but you're not, they're bunting on you, and you're, you're sitting there doing shit like flipping it between your legs with your back to first base and flipping it over the first base bag in a way mark burley yeah i mean but but what no mark burley did it successfully famously successfully school did it and everyone's like slapping their head in the tigers dugout and saying oh my god our best player the player who is meant to stop this just made go ahead and give me a more ridiculous mistake that can be made than flipping the ball through your legs in a panic over first base go ahead give me i'll give you the rest of time to give me a more ridiculous decision that someone can make on a baseball field then i'm gonna have my back to first base and I'm going to show you I'm going to long snap the ball in the right field.

I just like the visual of everyone in the Tigers dugout given one of these

all at the same time.

Well, both David Cohn, when he was a Met and Chuck Knobloch, when he was a Yankee, both argued calls with the first base umpire and allowed base runners to just swipe bases and then go home.

That's pretty good.

That's a pretty good example.

Jeremy is still there working very hard on this ridiculous board.

Jeremy, do you have an update for us?

Has anything changed since we checked in with you four minutes and 12 seconds ago?

Yes, the biggest update is that ultimately, if there is a three-team tie at 82 and 80 for the Miami Marlins, they win five of those six scenarios.

So every single time that they tie with the New York Mets, whether that's the Diamondbacks, the Reds, or the Cardinals at 82 and 80, the Marlins would ultimately come out the victor.

Thanks to their head-to-head record against Cincinnati,

ultimately going 4-3 against Cincinnati, they would also come out the victor in the Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds scenario because even though they would have the same head-to-head record against all three opponents at seven and six, it ultimately flips back to the head-to-head record against one another amongst those two best teams.

The Marlins taking four out of seven against Cincinnati would get the victory there.

They also would have the best win percentage in a scenario where it's the Cardinals and the Reds in a three-team tie.

The only scenario in a three-team tie where they do not come out on top would be if it's a three-team tie at 82 and 80 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and the St.

Louis Cardinals.

Despite the fact that all three went six and six against each other, Arizona would have the best record against their own division and would ultimately advance.

So when you're looking finally at two team ties or three team ties, the only scenarios if the Marlins went out in which they do not clinch the final wildcard spot would be if the only other 82 and 80 team is the Diamondbacks, the only other 82 and 80 team is the Cardinals.

Or if both the Cardinals and the Diamondbacks are 82 and 80 with them.

In every other scenario, the Marlins would actually clinch the final wildcard spot.

You lost me.

In the other sports stand, it's hard to remember regular season collapses.

The Dolphins and the Vikings had one, but in the NFL, a collapse is kind of determined by what you do in the postseason.

For example, the Titans have had home field in the AFC three times.

Every time they have the home field as the number one seed, they lose in the divisional round.

Yeah, and there's no collapse in the NBA regular season because the division just means nothing.

But playoffs, there is.

Warriors went 73 and

lost 3-1.

We're up 3-1.

Mavericks lost to the Baron Davis Warriors.

Oh, we believe.

The last five years in South Florida during the playoffs, we have come dangerously close to

what would have been sort of legacy eternal pain through generations.

The Heat almost blowing.

Actually, they blew the 3-0 lead and then won the series against the Celtics, and the Panthers blowing a 3-0 lead against Edmonton.

That is what I'm talking about beyond the regular season when I say you only remember a team's collapse.

Like that,

that Golden State team, I was saying all season because of how they revolutionized the sport, that's the best basketball team I've ever seen.

Hell, I could claim the undefeated Patriots collapsed at the end in a way that's memorable memorable because I remember the failure more than I remember the success, even though their offense.

Go look at Tom Brady's numbers as soon as he got Randy Moss and how everything changed statistically for him in terms of quarterback rating.

He had 50 touchdowns that year, right?

And he had,

was it indeed 50?

I thought it was 48.

It was something absurd like that.

But he had a quarterback rating.

Tom Brady's quarterback rating for his career was like high 80s or low 90s.

And that season it was about 130.

Tony, look that up.

That That was 117.

But he had 50 touchdowns, eight picks, and threw for 4,800 yards, the highest of his career until 2011, where he threw for 5,200.

Well, I wanted to ask you guys something that I was thinking about football related as I saw the stat that Jordan Love.

I don't know if you guys saw this.

You want to take a guess, Jordan Love, average depth of target against Cleveland.

Do you want to take a guess, anybody?

Average depth of target.

They usually stretch the field pretty well there in Green Bay.

I saw it, and it's pathetic.

Really?

1.9 yards on average depth of targets.

I told you that Jaden Reed injury is a big one.

He was their go-to guy every time they needed a play.

And Christian Watson's another guy that stretches the field.

They have a lot of those guys that stretch the field over there.

Golden, and in terms of the battle.

The guys that aren't great.

That's the issue.

They have a lot of B-plus players, they have no A players.

Well, that's why everybody thought that they were deep, but then you take Reed and Watson out of the equation, a lot less deep.

Like B-plus is putting it nicely.

B-plus is nice.

I was B.

The thing that I wanted to to ask you guys, though, is with the changes in football that are obvious and overt,

have we basically eliminated the 400-yard passer?

I know Russell Wilson had that game against Dallas, but unless you're trailing and just hurling the ball all over the place, have we become so restricted about the turnover that basically you're not going to get a 300-yard game.

Never mind a 400-yard game.

You're not going to get a 300-yard game from your passer because everyone's being so conservative about turning the ball over, unless you're just slinging it at the end of the game because you're down multiple touchdowns.

Has this quietly gone away, right?

Cam Newton's career opened with a 400-yard game.

Is that going to be something that we even see anymore in that sport, given how they're playing football?

And that that stat I just gave you on Jordan Love, I could do it to a lot of quarterbacks.

They're not throwing the ball down the field the way that they used to, and they're not completing it when they do yeah i don't think it has as much i understand that there there is more of a premium on not turning the ball over i think nfl defenses have gotten better and have adjusted to the new rules Oh, I feel hydrated from all this football talk.

Did somebody say hydration?

Oh, dude, talk to me.

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