The Big Suey: We Love You, David

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Welcome to the Big Sue,

presented by DraftKings.

Why are you listening to this show?

It's a podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Lebetard podcast.

I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that.

In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging.

I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries that if they're just there.

That hasn't happened to you guys.

I've done it.

And now, here's the marching man to nowhere, fat face, and the habitual liar.

This episode of the Dan Levittard Show is presented by DraftKings.

DraftKings, the crown is yours.

We have missed David Sampson around here.

We have been sending much love David Sampson's way the last couple of weeks.

David, I don't know what you want to tell our audience.

I know you have shared some of the personal turmoil with your audience on nothing personal, but welcome back.

It is nice to see you.

And I'm sorry that uh the last few weeks have been as rough as uh as they have been thank you it's uh i'm trying to do shows again and uh yeah i just got a phone call on september 12th and my my daughter is very very sick out of nowhere and uh

there is no

There's no going back.

So I don't know.

I want to do stuff with you.

I enjoy it.

I used to enjoy it.

I started doing nothing personal again, and I hope the audience is enjoying it.

I don't know that I am, to tell you the truth, Dan, because I just don't know how to be myself anymore because my self is gone.

I can't even find it anymore.

But I'm going to try.

So I appreciate the opportunity.

There's so much sports going on.

I don't want to be a downer.

I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me, but I am

just trying to handle.

as best I can things that have to be handled that sometimes I can't be where I'm supposed to be because where I'm supposed to be is somewhere totally different.

I was in the middle of yesterday's show and a doctor called and I was live and I'm not going to not take the call because I have to.

And I did.

And my audience has been great.

Your audience has been great.

All the people in Metal Arc and DraftKings.

So thank you.

And

again, I don't want to be a downer.

There's such great sports stuff going on and it matters.

And I'm trying to have it matter to me again.

Well, I imagine that it's just hard to make any of it matter.

In sports, we're talking about silly things.

Like, I love the Padres' chances this season, but I don't know that you can find the importance in talking about the Padres' chances.

You know what I mean?

Like, I don't know how much you've been changed by the last couple of weeks, and I also don't know how much you're faking it on the air now.

Your texts are funny to me when you transition from love and concern to, hey, what about those Padres?

They're bullpen.

Dave, they're bullpen.

They could also be done tonight, though.

That's right.

How about that preview for the expos, doc?

Like you sitting down with your hands like that?

I was just waiting for David Sampson to show up in that trailer.

And then 37 seconds in, I was not disappointed.

Hands rubbing.

I will say I was encouraged, though.

It seems as though you're going to escape being the 100% villain.

They lay out three villain candidates.

You're not one of them.

You are adjacent to one of them, pretty closely adjacent.

So you still still may end up villain adjacent.

But it looks like, at least for the moment in the trailer, you've escaped.

So I would say that I saw the trailer when you did.

And this is a movie called Who Killed the Montreal Expos.

I was actually invited to the premiere in Montreal

coming up the first

ninth day of October.

I can't go anymore.

And so the director and the producer, that see, I don't remember doing that.

Rubbing your hands together.

Look at the HAI.

Look at the size of that ring.

It's so when you put a trailer together, it's not the director or the producer.

I don't know what that was in relation to.

That could have been me excited about the lunch they were serving.

That could have me being totally excited.

It's like when they edit you on Survivor.

It's not exactly how it goes.

So yes, I must have done that.

And this was filmed back when I was just different.

But it's going to be interesting how they put it all together.

And I picture they will try to figure out who killed the Montreal Expos because they are dead.

There is no doubt about it.

Will they ever be reborn?

And Dan, if you're about to ask me, what is the most unbelievable phone call that I've gotten since September 12th after those two unbelievable phone calls I got?

It was Ariel Helwani.

who called because he had watched the trailer and he had heard through our mutual agent friend about some things that were going on and he would now I can't say that Billy or Mike or Chris would be able to but Arielle was willing to separate the nightmare that was his relationship with me vis-a-vis the expos to the reality of wow there's some real world stuff going on however I'm worried that once the movie actually comes out and he sees 90 minutes of it, that maybe all those feelings will get brought back up again.

If you were ranking it in the history of Montreal sports, how high are you on the list of most hated figures in the history of Montreal sports?

Because when you said you were going to go back for the movie in the red carpet, you weren't going to go back to a hero's welcome.

Well, no, I was going to potentially have security, which was offered, but I wouldn't need it because it's long enough ago that people know me through your universe and through nothing personal now.

But I think that when the history of Montreal Sports is written, the number one thing I think you'd agree is the success of the Canadiens franchise.

I think that the expos are there for sure.

And my role in the expos, I would say, you know, top three is all, not number one for sure, but I'd say top three to five, which is pretty low on the list in terms of totally hated people.

Put it on the poll at Lebatard Show.

Is top three or top five pretty low on the list of totally hated people?

Yes or no?

David, I thought you were really good on nothing personal talking about Kathy Engelbert and what it is that is engulfing her in the NBA, in the WNBA.

I'm used to commissioners being disliked.

Gary Bettman, Bud Selig, Roger Goodell.

Those have all been disliked commissioners.

I'm not used to the players in the league, especially the very best players in the league, piling on, saying that the leadership is as bad as they're presently saying it, led by Nafisa Collier.

Yeah, what Collier did is something that I'd never seen in my career.

She did a four-minute monologue where she basically impugned Kathy's leadership as commissioner of the WNBA.

She may have released what could have been a private conversation, though we don't know whether it was actually said, where Kathy said that Caitlin Clark and the rest of the players ought to be on their knees thanking the Heavenly Father for the opportunities they have to make money off the court, et cetera, because it's just a bad look.

But you have to keep in mind, and I'm not going to carry Kathy's water, not even close, but there's a collective bargaining negotiation going on.

And anytime a player or a commissioner or owner speaks to the press, there is a reason.

And it has to do with collective bargaining and leverage and negotiation.

So I was not shocked by the timing of this monologue by Collier, where she questioned the referees, she questioned Kathy, the leadership, et cetera.

What was interesting is what does she think think she's getting from it?

Do you think Kathy is going to resign, Engelbert, the commissioner of the WMBA?

It's not going to happen right now in the middle of a negotiation.

Do you think that Adam Silver is going to feel badly enough about the players and the referees and the lack of leadership, quote unquote, to all of a sudden give in during these negotiations in a way that he will not give in?

That's not going to happen.

So was the object to gain public favor?

All of a sudden, everybody hates management and owners.

Well, that already happens.

So that doesn't change the tenor of the negotiation.

So I didn't understand what the purpose was.

And the pylon, while it makes it worse for the media and for the fans, inside the room where it happens, it will have zero impact.

I promise you.

What it means for Kathy's future, it doesn't matter.

I'm talking about this agreement right now where a work stoppage is going to happen because there there is such a gulf between what the players think they deserve versus what the WA, NBA, and NBA are going to be willing to give them.

That gulf is so large that a work stoppage is going to happen.

But when you say, though, the pylon, look at what Elena De La Don does here on Instagram where she's complaining that Kathy didn't call her.

when she retired.

Like the pylon is complete and it's so complete that Elena Deladon thinks she deserves a a call from the commissioner because everyone right now is really piling on leadership, taking their shots while Kathy Engelbert is down.

Yeah, I'm not aware of the commissioner calling players.

Players retire and disappear from the Major League Baseball every year.

The Commissioner doesn't call them.

Now, for the top of the top, would the Commissioner maybe send a representative to a final game?

Would they send a little note that just says, hey, great job, great career.

You know, see you later.

Join our players committee so we can piss off the union.

You know, those types of things happen.

But again, what's the object of the game?

That sort of Instagram post is going to move the needle.

And she spelled Kathy wrong, but that is going to in any way change anything.

It just won't.

You're right.

Pylon is a great word for it.

The thing about a pylon is it doesn't change the result of what happened at the bottom of the pile.

David, good to see you.

First of all, tomorrow night, Kathy Engelbert is going to address the media.

How do you think she's going to handle this?

If she's smart, she's got a very simple message.

And she started with her statement, Zaz.

She started after Kalier had her four-plus-minute monologue and said, I'm here for the players, I'm here for the league, I'm here for the fans, and we will press forward, doing everything in my power to continue to grow our league and make it the league that everyone can be proud of.

You have to speak in grand platitudes, you don't make any promises, you don't address the piling on, the hatred, the Caitlin Clark comments.

You don't address any of that.

When you're talking to the media, always bridge to what your message is, which is I've got a job to do and my focus is on getting that job done.

You are good at crisis management.

You have a lot of experience with crisis management.

The Clippers seemed with weeks to prepare, dare I say months to prepare for Media Day, the Clippers seemed wildly unprepared on how to talk about what Pablo Torre is reporting.

One of the reasons that I think they're unprepared, David, is because I don't believe a reporter has very often had a story locked down exclusively this way in a way that hits an organization in the face with a fish again and again.

So here's Lawrence Frank who needs, like, I get Kawhi Leonard not being equipped necessarily to answer some of these questions.

But Lawrence Frank has to do better than this.

Which was, has Dennis Robertson, Kawhi's uncle, ever asked for any extra benefits that wouldn't be allowable under the NEA settler cap directly to you?

There's been a lot coming out of his asks.

Yeah, look, Dennis knows the rules.

Kawhi knows the rules.

Mitch Frankl knows the rules, and we know the rules.

Is that a yes or a no, though?

Yes, we all know the rules.

Like, what is that, David?

How can they handle it as poorly as they how can they handle this this poorly?

That one made me laugh at a time that i was not able to laugh at all and i'm still laughing looking at him because when you are meeting the media you get q a training so you sit with your pr people you get a list of questions here's what i think could be asked the number one question that's going to be asked of lawrence frank is was there salary cap circumvention and the answer has to be very simply the nba is investigating and we welcome this investigation and i'm not going to have any further comment until the investigation is over.

It's dry.

It stinks.

There's nothing the media can do with it.

There's nothing I can do with it on nothing personal.

But that's the point.

You don't want to say an answer because you can't lie because you're being investigated.

And Lawrence Frank just answered the question by saying, everybody knows the rules.

It's like saying, hey,

did you steal that?

Oh, I know stealing is against the law.

Well, objection, non-responsive.

That didn't answer the question.

And if you're not going to answer a question in front of the media, then you bridge to a general answer that is what you're willing to say, not something like we all know the rules.

Of course, we know the rules and you broke them, didn't you?

And Lawrence Frake just looked like a deer in the headlights.

And whoever Balmer's PR people are or the Clippers PR people, they ought to be replaced immediately.

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Don Lebatard.

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Which was worse, Lawrence Frank, or this back and forth between Ramona and Kawhi Leonard.

What is your understanding of the endorsement deal that you had with the company?

That's been talked to Aspiration, and did you perform any services for them

when you say understanding what do you mean like the of the contract you signed and how much money you were to receive what you were supposed to perform for those services I understand that full contract and the services that I had to do like I said I don't do deal with the conspiracies or the clickbait

analyst or journalism that's going on.

So

that's what it is.

I think the allegation was that you didn't perform any services for them.

Do you do is that accurate or or did you have to?

I don't think it's accurate, but it's old.

This is all new to you guys.

The company went bankrupt a while ago, so we already knew this was going to happen.

You were named as like the largest creditor in that in the bankruptcy filing, right?

Did you actually get the money that was owed to you in the contract?

No.

But the company went belly up.

It was frauded, as everybody knows.

If you want any more questions or more details about that company, you need to ask the owner or whoever else is involved in the fraud that went on.

Right, I think they said they owed you $7 million or something, right?

I'm not sure.

I gotta look back at the books, but no, it's more than that for sure.

Do you have any idea of how much you actually made on that?

No,

it was like two, three, four years ago.

But he knows the contract, though.

He knows the contract.

Which was worse, David?

Well, again, you're trying to, you introduce this segment by saying that you have to assume that Lawrence Frank is going to be better in front of the media than Kawhi, but I'm not going to give Kawhi that sort of grace because

his job, he's a public figure, he's in front of the media, he has to have been prepped by somebody, even someone as incompetent as Uncle Dennis.

Someone's got to talk to him.

And do I believe that it's possible that he doesn't know how much he got paid of the $28 million?

Let's give him the benefit of the rich player's doubt, where he just knows that he can buy whatever he wants and his credit card never gets declined and everything's good.

That's fine.

However, they all know exactly what they're owed.

I promise you that.

Every player I've ever dealt with for 18 freaking years, if you short them by a penny, You get a call that day.

They know exactly what the contract is.

Kawhi knows that he had a $28 million contract.

That's number one.

Number two, he knows what he was owed because Uncle Dennis wants that money and would say to Aspiration, where's the money?

He'd say to Balmer, where's the money?

Dennis Wong, where's the money?

And the legal bankruptcy filing said that he's owed $7 million.

That is not a filing that's done by Kawhi or Uncle Dennis.

That's done as part of a bankruptcy filing where you look at the contracts that a company has, you look at the amount of money out the door, you look at the amount of money that hasn't been paid, and that's the amount of the insecured creditor amount.

That's the 7 million.

If Kawhi had been owed 10, then that number in the filing would have been 10 million.

But that number was 7, which means that's the amount he wasn't paid from aspiration.

Query, Pablo, did he get that money elsewhere?

Because you can bet that Kawhi was not going to take $7 million

under what he expected to get paid, regardless of the company going bankrupt or being a fraud or con or any of that.

Kawhi could care less about that.

When he's in front of the media, it blew my mind.

He didn't just say, hey, I can't really talk about it.

Sorry, Ramona, nothing to say.

Investigation.

I'll be back to you.

Instead, he just sounded like a fool.

And that's just fodder for Wachtell Lipton, the firm doing the investigation he seemed the least concerned out of anyone that they were talking to like the rest of them seemed somewhat defensive he was just like i don't know that was a couple years ago this is old news to me who cares new to you guys yeah like he yes it is kawaii he didn't seem like he thought he was guilty of anything or he was worried about being found out of anything he just seemed kind of like ah why do we have to talk about this Yeah, Billy, I'll tell you that I don't see a scenario here where Kawhi Leonard gets any sort of punishment.

It would be Adam Silver would love to find a way to get to Uncle Dennis because he would like and the agents would like, including Mitch Frankel, they'd all like the Uncle Dennis's of the world to disappear because a lot of players have an Uncle Dennis and the agents don't like dealing with them.

The executives don't like dealing with them.

We'd rather deal with professional agents.

Even me, except for Boris, I'd like to deal with all the agents.

And so is it possible that Uncle Dennis gets some shrapnel?

Yeah, but not Kawhi.

I think that he will skate here unless Pablo finds out some other stuff, but I think it'll be hard for the NBA and the union to agree on a punishment for Kawhi.

It'll be easy for them to agree on a punishment for Balmer Wong and potentially Uncle Dennis.

How do you punish Uncle Dennis who does not work for your league or break any rule?

Like he broke their rules, but no actual like laws.

Uncle Dennis is just asking for more things and these people are like, oh, if Uncle Dennis wants it, it, sure, we can give it to them.

Like, he's not an NBA employee or a Clipper's employee, so how do you even punish him?

So it's funny you asked, the only way to do it with people is to ban them.

They can't be around practice facilities.

They can't be in the arenas.

It's sort of like Tyrese's dad.

The big punishment is you can't sit courtside and then you can reappear in a box.

But that's all they can do.

Now, for the agents, they can do more.

They can decertify, et cetera.

But for just a family representative, your hands are tied.

And you're right.

There are no criminal issues here against Ballmer.

That's not what Pablo's alleging against Uncle Dennis, against the Clippers.

It's all the NBA rules of salary cap circumvention.

So there's no legal issues here, but certainly the NBA could punish Uncle Dennis just by taking away his access, his credentials, etc.

I think you're right, David, that nothing's going to happen to Kawhi because Adam Silver's solved as commissioner.

But isn't the way to get rid of the Uncle Dennis's is by punishing Kawhi?

But Kawhi doesn't want to be at the games either.

So why is Uncle Dennis going to to want to be at the games?

I think that Kawhi, I just heard he's the best player at training camp, and the Clippers are looking great.

I think that's the fun way and the right way to spin it.

You know, the world is burning, and you go ahead and say, Look, there's a dandelion or an apple tree.

So, it is true whether Kawhi looks good or not, you know, the proof will be in the pudding for the Clippers when the season starts, which is soon.

But at the end of the day, this investigation is going to take a long time.

The all-star game game is in the Intuit Dome this year.

The NBA is not going to have a ruling on this until after the All-Star game.

They are, if they're smart, they're going to wait.

This isn't one of those things where they can be quick like they were with Donald Sterling and just try to tourniquet the issue and move on.

It's way too complicated, way too important.

So you want to get through the all-star game and then figure it out.

But what I think is likely happening is a negotiation between the NBA and the Clippers as they figure out how they can exit this as gracefully as possible in terms of a punishment, in terms of an acknowledgement.

Because Mark Cuban be damned, there is no denying the reality of salary cap circumvention here.

The circumstantial evidence that Pablo has is way too strong, and it's not that I'm close to it.

It's that I've read it.

And any independent person with any modicum of intelligence would look at this and say, well, this doesn't make sense, but for circumvention.

So we'll see.

I kind of want an Uncle Dennis.

I'm going to be honest with you.

Like, I think we're trying to paint him out as a villain.

This guy's a hero.

He just has all these rich guys that can't control them.

So it's like, hey, you want to break the rules that only affect you and not me and give me some extra money and my nephew?

Let's do that.

I just have an Uncle Dick

who's nice.

And then another uncle whose name was Richard, who was a dick.

Yeah.

And he's like, Billy, you do have an Uncle Dennis.

One eye.

Billy, remember, we all have an Uncle Dennis.

We all have people who are advocating for us.

It's just a matter of how you employ them.

It's a matter of who you choose to be your sort of spokesperson, to be your representative, because it does reflect on you.

The things that are asked for, the way in which they're asked, the way that, you know, who you surround yourself with.

So we all have an Uncle Dennis.

It's just a matter of who we choose to put out there as that Uncle Dennis.

I have an Uncle George, nurse practitioner.

Premature babies, yeah.

Because he is one of those.

Or Jorge.

George or Jorge.

Jorge, but he goes as George.

Yeah.

Can you tell me, because the idea that they would throw the book at Uncle Dennis, do you have any idea, David, where throwing the book comes from?

What is the book?

Is it in court you're holding up the Bible and then you throw the book at somebody?

Like, what is the throwing of the book?

Where does that expression come from?

Do you know?

I don't know.

I didn't think of the Bible.

I thought of the legal code.

It's like a rule book.

The criminal code, the rule book.

So I have the answer, Dan.

In old times, the judges literally had a law book with all the laws, which punishments and sentencing guidelines were drawn.

To throw the book at someone meant the judge was applying every possible charge and penalty allowed by law as if hurling the entire book at the accused.

So at Uncle Dennis.

That's how

Uncle Dennis is simply just asking rich guys, hey, can you just give me the most?

But not the rule book, though, like just the NBA

rule book.

Right, but it's just the idea that Uncle Dennis is going to be punished for this is asinine.

Like, I mean, he should make all the asks.

And since Lawrence Frank says, we know the rules, they've got to follow the rules, not Uncle Dennis.

I think it's important, though, when you're punishing someone, Dan, that you can't just do it to the person.

You can't just do the clippers here.

I think they've got to find a way to have some culpability.

And one of the negotiating things with Balmer would be, hey, don't make this 100-0.

It's like when you figure out negligence and who's to blame for something.

You want to make it like 90-10.

I I don't know if you know that, but like in a lawsuit, when you get money in a lawsuit, but you're found to be 10%

a participant in what happened.

If you get a million dollars in damages, you actually only get the 900 grand because you're responsible for 10% of it.

So I can imagine a world where Uncle Dennis is told, hey man, you asked, you were a great advocate, but that's worth about 5%.

So the Clippers, you're only responsible for 95% of this salary cap circumvention.

You ever try to name all your financial accounts and their balances, 401ks, investments, properties?

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Don Lebatard.

Go pee-pee.

Stugats.

Go pee-pee.

This is the Don Lebatard show with the Stew Gats.

I do want to talk some baseball because we've got three game threes today.

Exciting.

Greatest two words in baseball, game three.

It is fun today.

And you were not wrong, Billy, when you make fun of me for loving the Padres and their bullpen and saying they could be eliminated.

It's baseball.

I mean, with a short three-game series, like

you lose today, your season's done.

I've liked the Padres the last two seasons better than I've liked them this season, but I also like them this season because their bullpin is really strong.

Like Dylan Cease is a very good pitcher.

They only need three and two-thirds from him because they go to the bullpen and in the middle of their bullpen is Mason Miller throwing fastballs faster than they've ever been thrown by any human being since they started tracking it.

That's not a hittable person.

He's faced seven hitters this postseason.

He's struck out all seven of them and all he's doing is going back and throwing 104 miles an hour and he's not even their closer.

I really do like the Padres, but yes, their season can end today.

That's the beauty of this.

This new thing with two out of three all-in-one ballparks started in 2022.

And every game one winner has won the series.

There has not been a game one loser to prevail.

We're going to get one today.

If the Padres win today,

if the Guardians win today, if the Yankees win today, we have three chances to show what a small sample size it's been since 2022.

But if the Cubs and the Tigers and the Red Sox win, then we get to go a whole nother year by saying game one are the two best words you hear, Billy, not game three, because it turns out game one is the one that actually matters.

David, is it a disadvantage for the teams, the high seeds that have to wait till Saturday to play?

Have you watched all these teams get ready?

The Phillies did a scrimmage where they allowed fans in and they had the powder blue uniforms and the white uniforms.

The Mariners did a scrimmage with Ichiro playing right field where they're trying to stay sharp.

It is a big debate within ownership circles on the competition committee where there are GMs and presidents who believe that being the wild card is an advantage and is what you should strive to do and not.

get the buy, not win the division because baseball is such a game of routine.

And we've seen a lot of teams get upset who are the buy teams.

So, what do you do?

We always make this up.

Let's stay sharp.

We'll do infield.

We'll do outfield.

We'll play simulated games.

But you can play against yourself all you want.

And I think we all know that when you play against yourself, it can feel good for the moment.

But at the end of the day, it's better to have an opponent.

And that is what you find.

And that's why baseball is so interesting: that you've got the Mariners and the Brewers and the Blue Jays and the Phillies who are trying to figure out how come Saturday they can be ready.

When look at the teams playing today, they are going to be jacked up.

Whoever wins these game threes, and they're going to be more ready.

So we'll see how it plays out, but I'd always prefer to be playing.

If you want more baseball coverage, we've got pitch clock for you later in the show.

Every Thursday, Jeremy Tashay does a very good job with pitch clock, and also David Sampson does an exceptional job covering baseball.

I want to ask you a few rapid-fire baseball questions.

Other than Scoobel, who struck out 14

Guardians the other day, is there another pitcher anywhere in baseball who has a 92 mile an hour changeup and a 100 mile an hour sinker?

Well, you should look at Paul Skeens.

Everybody's blowing 98, 99.

What makes Scoobel so unhittable is his ability to change planes?

Not the question I asked you, though, because I know everybody's pitching up, and I know that that's what Chapman's success is.

I'm talking specifically about the 92 mile an hour changeup and the 100 mile an hour sinker.

But it's not so no, no one has that exact two pitches.

You're right about that.

Okay, no, I was asking.

I didn't know.

I didn't know the answer to my question.

Jazz Chisholm saved the Yankee season last night.

Yes?

No.

Who said that?

I mean, the infield play where he saved the ball in the infield and he scores from first base.

I don't think another Yankee could score from first base on that single.

I don't think they have another Yankee who's fast enough to do that.

So there were two outs, so he was off.

And I'm not going to sully Jazz, but I will tell you that the Red Sox third base coach and the runner, Eaton, they should have scored on that play.

Jazz should not have thrown the ball to Ben Rice.

Ben Rice should not have tried to pick the ball the way he did.

It was a mistake by both of them.

You smother that ball, and then you run it toward the runner.

That's the play that Jazz should have made, but he was trying to make the glory play of getting the runner out, which he didn't have a chance to do.

And yes, scoring from first on the duck fart that Wells hit, that with two outs, there are 70% of players score on that because Jazz is fast, no doubt.

There are a lot of fast players.

If you're looking to see who saved the season for the Yankees, I think you will have to look and realize that what Bednar has done, his ability to get the final three outs, that was critical.

And also the Red Sox not having crochet, that's critical.

And for me, saving the season, they've got to win today or yesterday's game.

Who cares about it?

You're consistently negative on Jazz.

He didn't like Jazz.

I can tell.

No, but you're consistently negative on Jazz.

I am very complimentary of Jazz's ability to be a 30-30 guy.

I am not complimentary of him in the clubhouse or the things he does off the field.

I'm not.

And I've got information as you all do.

I forgot the way I used to have this, Mike Ryan.

What is it you call?

I'm in the know.

You happen to know.

I happen to know.

Oh, wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

He's alleging that he has.

He happens to know.

Great Scott.

He happens to know.

He happens to know.

Gather, everyone.

Get the children.

He happens to know.

So wise.

Not everybody is loved outside the lines, as you know.

If you have a player who performs inside the lines, it can make up for a lot of ills.

Jazz is a player who is outstanding when the game is happening.

Other times, there are players who look at him and say, oh, I'm not quite interested in that shtick.

In terms of the Yankees, the good news is he's not the star.

He's not the go-to player.

He's not anything other than a player in the lineup, hitting down in the lineup who hits 240.

That's it.

But at the end, what we're looking for today, don't look at Jazz.

What you have to look at is aaron judge has been getting on base with singles if judge and stanton homer in a game the yankees automatically win if one of the two of them hit home runs they generally will win the game so my focus is far more on judge and stanton than it is on jazz today everybody was crushing aaron boone were you

No, and it's funny because the media kept trying to make sure we were aware that was Aaron Boone's decision to pull Freed after six to two-thirds.

That's like saying Aaron Boone chose to bring in Nestor Cortez last year to face Freddie Freeman.

It's just not how it works in the real world.

Those decisions are made before the game starts.

I understand why Booney would want people to believe that it's just his decision, but it's just not right.

You've got a pitching plan.

You go through all the iterations of what could happen.

You think it was like a strange scenario in that game?

Oh, you're into the seventh.

Freed has over 100 100 pitches and you're at the seven, eight, nine in the lineup.

That's right on our piece of paper.

We have exactly what we do in that situation.

It's not like, oh man, we didn't think of that one.

David, but who the hell wouldn't think of a hundred pitch anyway?

Subjective, though.

He said he took him out because he had the stressful innings, the innings before.

Like, yes, you can make a game plan, but you're still gauging each inning how hard he's working and whether he still has the good stuff.

But we all know, just like the manager, what the stressful innings are.

We know what they look like, and we know exactly what we do and how we count stressful pitches because stressful pitches are a different pitch count than not stressful pitches.

So we have two pitch counts going every game.

We have scenarios we're looking at, of course we're looking at the inning and how it goes, the inning before.

We're not looking at just the result.

Oh, we got the double play grounder.

Well, it was hit really hard and it just happens to be he was it was hit right at him.

We are taking all of those things into account when we are going through the game plan.

So Chris, I promise you, this was not Aaron Boone solely deciding what to do.

But don't you want the manager to have a little bit of a feel for the game, even though you do have a plan?

I mean, heck, your manager, you won a World Series with.

That's how he managed.

There's no question that Jack McKeon was a feel guy.

And guess what happened?

In 03, everything he felt worked.

And in 04 and 05, everything he felt worked less.

And that is just the reality of when you go by feel exclusively.

Just Just like I don't want to go by analytics exclusively.

I like doing both and using both.

But a team like the Yankees, they are far more using analytics than other teams and they have been for a while.

And I could argue, do I want?

a manager to have some rope.

I do because that's how I evaluate the manager.

But that's rope in the clubhouse.

That's rope with relationships with his players, coaches, and up to the front office, with the media.

Those are things that I'm evaluating more so than whether or not he is actually doing what we tell him to do because that's just assumed.

It's like the lineup.

You think Aaron Boone makes the lineup and he chose to sit jazz and Ben Rice in game one?

Of course not.

That comes from the front office.

Aaron can't write a lineup and post it and that's the lineup.

It doesn't work that way.

Baseball's had a lot of changes over the last 10, 15 years, none greater than that one.

Like when did that stop?

No, people don't understand that the front office is that the manager's a a middle manager.

Like, he's an employee.

And I know he's a face and voice for the team, but he's not making decisions.

David, you're saying that, and I know it's so.

I know baseball people know that, but I don't think the average fan knows that.

It's part of the issue I have when I tell people that.

They just don't want to believe it.

And I get it.

Because it sounds so counterintuitive because we want to blame somebody.

And it's so easy when a move doesn't work to play the result and then blame Boone because you get a back page headline.

But that's just not the reality of it.

Less than a minute left, David.

What is the movie you're reviewing for us this week?

And are you still watching a movie a day right now?

So that's the thing I'm going to tell you is that I have not.

September 12th, I watched the first half of aka Charlie Sheen and I have not watched a movie since.

And I had watched a movie every day for...

two decades, including when I was in baseball, going way back.

And I've tried to sit down and I can't get through anything.

I can't get through any of my series I love watching.

So I've got to to figure that out, Dan.

But I used to love movies so much and I just have not been able to get back to it.

So I have no movie to review that I'm trying.

I thought I could review.

I was going to watch Caught Stealing late last night and I just didn't.

Great flick.

Really enjoyed that movie.

I'm trying to bring vibes up.

We love you.

We have missed you.

Good to see you, David.

Thank you guys for everything.

I'm recommending Eddington to you if you do get to movies just because it's

bat shit crazy the end of that movie.

See you later, David.

Good talking to you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thursday night football is on and it's only on Prime Video.

This week, it's a rivalry renewed as the Philadelphia Eagles take on the New York Giants.

It's the Champs and the new Look G-Men.

Coverage begins at 7 p.m.

Eastern with football's best party, TNF Tonight.

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It's the Eagles and the Giants.

Thursday at 7 p.m.

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