Random Sports Betting Podcast

Austin from Ajax is back... absolute Random Sports and Sports betting Podcast... we cover everything and all in the world of Sports 

00:00 Welcome Back to Sports and Betting
02:52 Rogers Center Experience and Game Day Tips
05:56 The Impact of Sports Betting Advertising
11:49 Navigating Betting Strategies and Promotions
18:52 NFL Season Kickoff and Exciting Matchups
24:53 NHL Playoffs and the State of Sports Entertainment
28:28 Cleveland Cavaliers and the Beard Bet
29:52 NHL Draft Lottery and the Leafs' Changes
32:29 Austin Matthews' Future with the Leafs
36:44 Leafs Fan Morale and the First Overall Pick
43:07 Transitioning to Baseball: Betting Insights
51:03 Blue Jays' Performance and Key Players
53:53 Dylan Cease vs. Paul Skeens: Pitching Debate
54:55 Cy Young Predictions and Betting Insights
57:59 The Impact of Shohei Ohtani
01:00:19 Oklahoma City Thunder's Dominance
01:03:40 The Grand Grind: A Betting Challenge
01:16:49 Wrapping Up and Future Plans

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Transcript

Kyle Blondin (00:00)
Welcome to the Overrated Experience Sports and Sports Betting Podcast. Yes, we're back. This is a random betting sports drop-in edition of the Overrated Experience. We thought it was way too long since our last WBC. I think that's where we were at ⁓ as far as podcasts go. But we're back. And Austin, how you been doing?

Austin From... You Know Where (00:21)
I've been doing good. Thanks for having me.

Kyle Blondin (00:24)
Look at that dead air. You're supposed to expand on how you're doing. Well, I'll

tell you this, this and that.

Austin From... You Know Where (00:31)
I've been busy with work, not too much time to focus on the sports, but I went out there, seen Jay's game, I've been following baseball per usual, but maybe not as dedicated as I'd like to be, but been enjoying.

Kyle Blondin (00:45)
Yeah, so ⁓ as far as the Jays game goes, ⁓ I mean, your thoughts, I think we're at the end of the renovations to the Rogers Center. I know when we went, the seats we have are really good, you know, right in left field where no obstruction, you felt like you right on top of the field. You had the bullpen that's one of the cool features that you can watch the guys warm up pretty closely. ⁓ Really good experience. ⁓ Would you say there is anything missing?

from the Rogers Center experience is they pretty much thought of everything.

Austin From... You Know Where (01:17)
You know what they've they've done really good with the renovations, you know Jays ticket prices are definitely through the roof compared to the last ten years when I've been going to games personally, but that's to be expected when you're the reigning AL champs, so it is ⁓

Kyle Blondin (01:33)
It is, but let's

think about it. If you had to take a family of four five kids to the ballpark, and those kids, as you know, they like to have some ice cream, they like to have some snacks, which is pretty acceptable, you might get caught up in a few hundred dollars.

Austin From... You Know Where (01:44)
Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (01:49)
on top of the tickets, on top of the travel to get there. ⁓ I believe one of the tips that people do not maximize is the Rogers Center does allow you to bring in your own food. think if you, let's say had a bag of Lay's chips, as long as it's sealed, you can bring it in. Have you done that?

Austin From... You Know Where (01:51)
Yeah.

Yep. Yep, that's true. ⁓

One time I brought a Subway sub and it was all wrapped for me so I just brought that in, ate a sub while I was watching the game and honestly it was pretty great.

Kyle Blondin (02:15)
Yeah, that sounds pretty good. That's exciting. Might do it again. Watch out, folks. Watch out security. We have Austin coming in with a sandwich. Make sure you check him out.

Austin From... You Know Where (02:16)
Yeah, might do it again.

Did you see the cotton candy poutine at the ballpark? Yeah, it looks disgusting. It's like cotton candy, but then there's like mayo. You gotta look at a picture of this thing. You gotta look at a picture of this thing.

Kyle Blondin (02:28)
Ugh, no, I have not.

That's disgusting. Look, like,

that's on the verge of being offensive. That's disgusting. That is absolutely disgusting and why outside of an Instagram photo, why in the hell would anybody have that?

Austin From... You Know Where (02:41)
haha

Because they're sick.

Kyle Blondin (02:52)
What do you think halfway through eating that? Is it, do you show that, my god, I made a mistake, my god, I gotta finish this, but I can't show the audience or the people around me that when they said don't do it, I shoulda listened? Like, do you think you have to get through it no matter what and say it was good? What do you think?

Austin From... You Know Where (03:14)
I Think I think you have to listen you probably paid $20 for you got eat the whole thing, right? And then you probably and then you probably just never never buy it again forget that it happened

Kyle Blondin (03:20)
my god, it's disgusting. Anyway...

Right, right, ugh. But I will say though, it's pretty cool. You know me, like to, if I'm gonna go to a J's game, I would prefer a Friday or a Saturday where work doesn't get in the way if you stay a little bit late. So I, you we went on a Saturday and I thought it was still a cool experience to hop on the train, go downtown, Union Station, they've done it up pretty good where you got a couple bars you can hit up quickly before the game. You can get to a restaurant, fast food.

Like sit down. It's all there ⁓ In so many shops. I'd even I've been down there many times since the renovation at Union Station But until we took that walk in between where we got off Bay Street to the main part of Union I didn't notice how many shops were in there. It's amazing. It's crowded

Austin From... You Know Where (04:07)
Hmm.

Yeah,

you could literally be walking down there and get your hair cut. I've seen a barber shop in there. It's crazy. There's anything. Anything you need. Banks. There's multiple banks. Go Shatidi. Very convenient.

Kyle Blondin (04:17)
Yeah, that's right. That's not so...

Yeah, and I hope the city doesn't

lose that because, you know, downtown you hear stories, the city kind of kind of degrading, ⁓ you know, a lot of folks down there, locked down there, ⁓ that maybe, you know, it's not uncommon for somebody to say that a subway smells like urine, right? Or this, and you don't want the downtown not to be an attractive place where you can put the kids on the go train, head down to a Blue Jay game and enjoy a nice bite to eat without having any issues or any...

You're not looking at your clock when the sun goes down. You can't think that way, right? So hopefully it stays ⁓ and keeps the experience that we had. And even the weight of the game, was great. We were talking baseball and we got some guy heard us ahead of us on the escalator. He starts getting into the conversation. He's holding the bag and he's got a few drinks in the bag and offers it up. And ⁓ so we had, we got a free, what the hell was it called? A free White Claw. We got White Claw.

Austin From... You Know Where (05:07)
Yeah

White Claw? White Claw, yeah.

Kyle Blondin (05:20)
which, ⁓ they're okay, white claws are okay. Did you enjoy the white claw?

Austin From... You Know Where (05:24)
Yeah. Uh, you know what? I'll be honest. I'm not a white-claw guy. I definitely prefer the beer, but, uh, it was a good experience, you know, uh, I always like, uh, having those positive experiences with strangers. You know, uh, we were, we were friends because we were J's fans. Yeah. No, but you know what I mean? It's like, he's a J's fan. I'm a J's fan. So it's like, we're cool, you know, and we had a drink and yeah, it was cool, but, uh, definitely not my cup of tea though.

Kyle Blondin (05:29)
Yeah.

You like having positive experience with strangers.

Yeah, so,

no, okay, so.

Austin From... You Know Where (05:50)
I'm not

big into the carbonated, ⁓ it kind of tastes like carbonated water to me. Not a big fan.

Kyle Blondin (05:56)
I'll do it, but you're right. After a couple, it's like, man, this does taste like carbonated water. Probably not as yummy as you would think. ⁓ Funny, I'm looking on X right now. It's funny to see our live show broadcasting on X. It's amazing. for those out there, when we post a podcast, what I'm trying to do as well is Apple.

Austin From... You Know Where (06:05)
Mm-hmm.

Really?

Kyle Blondin (06:19)
has now or looks like they are uploading video podcasts as well. So you find our video podcast on YouTube at Overrated Experience. You can go on X like I showed you for the live stream at Overrated E-X-P-E-R-2. That's Overrated E-X-P-E-R-2 to drop us a line, comments, check out our live broadcasts, respond to some of our tech or tweets that go out there. And it's pretty cool. also the Overrated Experience had a great experience, no pun intended.

Austin From... You Know Where (06:24)
wow.

Kyle Blondin (06:48)
Couple weeks back when we had the opportunity to get on Cross Country Canada, which is a Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon radio show on the CBC. And ⁓ we were invited on the overrated experience was invited to talk about gambling and promotion of gambling and advertising should the government make it illegal. And I played the part or we played the part for the overrated experience talking about the recreational side, having fun with it, not getting out of control.

and making aware that this is an issue potentially for some out there, but there's also a fun side where it's controlled. But it does put in the back of my head sometimes that there are folks out there and sometimes you even got to look at your own habits and really stay in control. It's like any other vice. Alcohol is a great time until it's not, right? Until it's not. ⁓ So it's a great conversation. We should always recognize

that this sports betting can get out of control, especially in 2026 when within seconds you can sit on your couch and have thousands of dollars deposited into your FanDuel account like that, which could be very dangerous. Austin, I don't know about your thoughts. I mean, I was on the fence about totally banning advertising. I kind of leaned towards limiting and being smart about it in the times maybe an advertisement's on, but

Austin From... You Know Where (08:11)
Mm-hmm.

Kyle Blondin (08:14)
If you said to me, know, look, I think it should be banned, I wouldn't, you know, protest or anything like that, but I could see that point of view as well. What are your general thoughts on the promotion of sports betting, the explosion that we've seen and what impacts it has on our society?

Austin From... You Know Where (08:30)
Yeah. See, I believe people should have the decision to gamble. There's no doubt about that. At the end of the day, it's their money. They should be able to make the decisions with their own money. That's my opinion. But when it comes to advertising, it's a little bit of a gray area, right? It's kind of like a cigarettes in a way. It's like when you're watching the blue J's game and you're seeing all these sports books, you know, it's like, this is also in my head. The thing I'm thinking is these are getting advertised to children as well. Right. So they're growing up thinking that.

You know, it's normal, it's fun and it is normal. can be normal and fun, but it's always something to be cautious of, you know? So in all those advertisements, I think there should be something almost like a warning kind of like, you know, the back of your cigarettes has like, with the statistics of how many people's lives had just ruined or something like this, you know? ⁓ so yeah, those are kind of my thoughts. you know, I'm definitely more on the lenient side, I would say, but I would definitely say there is levels. And I would say that advertising has been.

More on the extreme side.

Kyle Blondin (09:28)
Yeah, so it's extreme for sure. It's still there. I remember when sports betting became legal in Ontario, there was such an explosion, like just over the top, know, multiple betting sites advertising. I do see it a little limited currently. It's still there. know, the Bet365s, the FanDuel and DraftKings are still there, but man, it was such an explosion right off the bat.

to get people on board and I'll tell you man, the sports books are not your friend. They're there unlike ever before. They're there to make money, right? There's no shock. I'm not telling you anything that's shocking. The betting options, which I think are something that I think fly under the radar, but whose advantage is it? Is it you the consumer or the fan duels of the world when they advertise a prepackaged

same game wager of four or five events that happened during let's say today's cavalier game, who's trying to persuade who in taking that bet? Who's in the better position on the winning side if you choose to take one of those packaged same game parlays? Who do you think, Austin?

Austin From... You Know Where (10:41)
Mm-hmm.

⁓

Them, for sure. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (10:52)
Them, 100%.

It's, yeah, you may hit now and then, you may hit, but they're not presenting packaged bets for you so that you can be winning consistently. Remember back in the day when, let's say bet 365 as an example, will give you a free $50 bet, right? Those exist still, however, I can tell you, unless you're a VIP status, you're not getting much at Fandol.

Austin From... You Know Where (11:12)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (11:22)
but they tend to provide promotions that are profit boosts. But you have to have a same game parlay with a set number of legs on it, and it has to be plus money. It can't be a minus 150 kind of bet. So that's the interesting part of what these betting sites do. So be careful out there. Let's be on the same page. And again, this, what we do, we're gonna talk for fun. We're gonna talk.

how it can be a great conversation with buddies, talking about your bets. But if it gets out of control, man, you gotta back out and you gotta hit the eject button and take a break. The funny thing is I always have to think to myself is there's always tomorrow. There's always next week. Nobody ever runs out of games to bet on. But if you're Australian second division soccer at four in the morning to catch up on yesterday's losses, maybe you wanna slow it down.

Austin From... You Know Where (12:06)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah. And I want to say something too. I feel like there's so many parlay boosts that I see now that it almost doesn't make sense anymore to just make a normal parlay. Wait for one of those booths, because if you're being offered 50 % boosts and you were going to do it anyways, I'm not, I'm not talking about being persuaded. I'm talking about people that do parlay's because that's the kind of betting they prefer. They like those long shots. I'm not saying they're in it for the money or I'm not saying it's profit profitable, but if you're going to do that anyways,

wait until you got one of the boosts weekly you're going to find those 30%, 50 % increases to your three leg parlays. And if you're going to do it anyways, you might as well take them. Would you agree with that?

Kyle Blondin (12:57)
Yeah, I mean, I don't look for those. I mean, there's people out there that do, that's fine. That's probably smart, right? If you're going to be patient and if you were going to take a same game parlay, you might as well get that 20%, 30 % boost on it to increase your payoff. But if you keep taking those same game parlays on a consistent basis, you're going to be rolling out that bankroll pretty quick.

Austin From... You Know Where (13:10)
Yeah.

Yeah, I guess there's other profit boosts look forward to as well. Perfect example here would be during the NFL season, every week they'd have a 30 to 50 % boost on a touchdown scorer. And I know we were taking advantage of that on a weekly basis and it actually made the betting worth it.

Kyle Blondin (13:39)
But you're looking at it from a logical, I will say that's one of your strengths as a sports better. You're not quick to race into make a bet. You usually have a good reasoning to why, you know, why you're placing a bet and you try to find value, especially in baseball. You tend to pick up on the trends of what pitcher may be in line to win and, you know, a team that's kind of on the back end of a, of a bad run, despite if they're the Dodgers or Yankees and take advantage of that.

So I'll give you your props on that, that you have a good eye for this. And speaking of football, how many days, Austin, do you think before we have kickoff between the Seattle Seahawks and Patriots to kick off the new season, how many days do you think we're away?

Austin From... You Know Where (14:20)
How many days? I don't know, like 80 days?

Kyle Blondin (14:22)
How many days?

And I'm not even, I'm

not counting preseason. I'm talking regular season.

Austin From... You Know Where (14:27)
Regular

season days till football. ⁓ honestly, this is a real shot in the dark. I have no idea. Let's say 70 days.

Kyle Blondin (14:34)
70 days is absolutely incorrect. More. Think about September, right? Think about where in May. 115 days until we kick off the new season and wow, man, the regular season schedule was also posted and that got a lot of play. You can't believe the explosion of popularity in the NFL. I will say though,

Austin From... You Know Where (14:36)
Less.

yet hundred how to know hundred fifteen okay

Kyle Blondin (15:00)
There will be some point, maybe not in the near future, there will be some point where these owners go a little too far and people start pushing back and turning the TV sets off. Again, not anytime soon, but they are pushing and pushing and pushing. I mean, we're gonna have a game in Australia, 49ers and Rams as the second game of the season. I can't even comprehend the local time this game will be on, right? I don't know.

Austin From... You Know Where (15:28)
Yeah

Kyle Blondin (15:29)
I mean, I've read it, but I can't understand it because of the time difference. I don't know if it's yesterday or tomorrow this goddamn game will be on, right? I can't remember if Australia is ahead or behind. ⁓ You have that. You now have a Wednesday night game ahead of Thanksgiving. So you know how Thanksgiving has the three games? You have now a game on the Wednesday night that will lead into Thanksgiving.

Austin From... You Know Where (15:35)
Hahaha

Really?

Yeah!

Kyle Blondin (15:59)
Makes sense. It makes sense because I believe you know that is like the party time of the year the day before Thanksgiving in the United States Let me just bring up the schedule actually the schedule for Thanksgiving is pretty damn nice Let's see All right, so let's go to week one So week one we got Patriots and that's on a Wednesday to the season as far as I can't remember It opens up on a Wednesday September 9th paths and Seahawks rematch of the Super Bowl which

Austin From... You Know Where (16:00)
Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (16:29)
Honestly, was a very forgettable Super Bowl, right? It was not memorable at all. Rams, I guess it looks like 8.35 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thursday, September 10th. And the first Sunday nighter is gonna be Cowboys, Giants. Broncos and Chiefs kick off the first Monday nighter. That might even be Patrick Mahomes quarterback. That might be, what's his name? From the Bears and from the Jets.

Austin From... You Know Where (16:31)
yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Bears Caleb? No, no, no. ⁓

Kyle Blondin (16:57)
No, the

quarterback out of Ohio State. was a Bears quarterback. He was with Pittsburgh. my God. Justin Fields. My guy, Justin Fields. Yeah, so he might be behind center when this kicks off based on Patrick Mahomes' recovery. And then let's get into Christmas time. ⁓ December, blah, blah. Okay, let's go back and let's check out the Thanksgiving schedule. So.

Austin From... You Know Where (17:01)
Yeah, he's a mobile quarterback. can pitch him. Yeah. Justin Fields, yes.

Kyle Blondin (17:25)
Tell me if you don't like this Thanksgiving schedule. Tell me you don't like this one. So, the Wednesday, November 25th, leading in to Thanksgiving, we have Packers Rams, which is a pretty juicy ⁓ matchup. My God, man, the parties that are gonna be happening on Wednesday, November 25th, leading into Thanksgiving. And then you got the traditional Lions game, they play the Bears. Solid matchup, very solid there, that's great. Eagles-Cowboys, I mean...

Austin From... You Know Where (17:47)
Mm-hmm.

Kyle Blondin (17:52)
Eagles should be in the mix. have no clue what the Cowboys will look like. I mean you're hoping this game is relevant. Cowboys in that 430pm slot. Interesting 820 game, that night game. Chiefs visit Bills in the brand new Bill Stadium. Have you seen that, the new stadium? The images? Okay, you gotta look at this. ⁓ It's outdoor, which I would question, I don't know why for a Buffalo, why it be outdoor. However,

Austin From... You Know Where (18:12)
⁓ no. I- yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's weird.

Kyle Blondin (18:22)
They do have it built so that I think it limits the weather impact. So the crowd, like a soccer stadium have covers over them. ⁓ It looks nice. It looks pretty good. It's better than what they were in. You know, in Highmark Stadium, I think it was instead of Rich Stadium. So interesting, big, you know, 115 days. That's where the overrated experience really gets going. That's our, that's our focal point. So we want to get, these drop-ins and, know, talk and sports gambling, but we're really focused right on.

115 days from now getting ready for the NFL season because that is the creme de la creme of sports betting and the only thing that sucks that means summer will be over and winding down but let's do it now. Let's talk about these other sports that are in action right now. How much have you been, you can be honest with me, I get it, you're not the biggest hockey fan but NHL-wise, playoffs specifically, we'll get into other topics, how much have you been following the progress in the second round so far?

Austin From... You Know Where (19:10)
Yeah.

You know, I follow the highlights. You know, I follow the scores. I seen Mitch Marner have one of the greatest goals that I've ever seen. You've definitely seen that as well. And then, yeah, I know, I think I was, yeah.

Kyle Blondin (19:31)
Yeah, mean, people are gonna talk

about Marner, like, my God, why did Toronto let him go? Those goals and those situations were not happening in nine years in Toronto. It's not happening. So kudos to Mitch. Let's see if he can keep it up against Colorado, which is an elite level Stanley Cup winning team. But when push came to shove, it didn't happen here in Toronto. So I'm not gonna look back and say, my God, this season for the Leafs could have turned out much better if Mitch Marner was here.

If our goal was just to make the playoffs, hey, maybe he puts us in a better position. But that wasn't the goal for nine years. It was to progress at least beyond the conference final, which never happened. got to the second round two times in nine seasons. Pathetic. So I don't want to hear your crap about Mitch Marner, Austin. Sorry, what else have you noticed? What else have you? Also, sorry, did you hear the story in Vegas about torts? John Tortorella costing his team a second round pick?

Austin From... You Know Where (20:31)
Uhhh, no. I didn't hear this.

Kyle Blondin (20:33)
Okay, this is the big news about, say, yesterday, day before. John Tortorella, after they knock off the Ducks, win the series to go to the conference final, decides in protest, because Braden McNabb, one of their players, was suspended again, that he would close the doors to the media. Right? So they couldn't come in. He wouldn't speak to the media. A couple players were allowed to go speak at the podium. But he shut the door. That's a big no-no in the NHL, because you're trying to promote.

your sport, especially in the Vegas area, where if you're shutting out your local, know, beat writers, that's not a good sign. So the NHL came down hard on the Vegas Golden Knights. Apparently this was based on after a few warnings about, I guess, their media treatment. They took a second round pick away from the Vegas Golden Knights for closing the door on the media and fined John Tortorello $100,000 for doing this. I'll tell you right now, this guy...

Austin From... You Know Where (21:03)
Hmm.

my god.

Kyle Blondin (21:29)
is a joke. When he came into the Vegas Golden Knights, I figured, okay, you know, he's gonna have maybe, if he's successful, a short period of time before his act gets old. And I didn't think he'd be this fast. He's pulled this shit before. It's so brutal. This cat-mouse with the media. These actions that bring attention to him. And it's almost like, you know, when somebody says, I don't want attention, but look at me, that's what he does.

Austin From... You Know Where (21:39)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kyle Blondin (21:58)
And when he's out of the NHL, he's the first guy signing up for a job with ESPN or any other hockey media. He's a joke. He's pathetic. ⁓ He's got a great team. The Vegas Gold Knights are definitely in the mix to win the cup, but just a joke of a coach and his act is going to get old very, very soon. So if you didn't hear that, take a read about it. But that was one of the big stories coming out of the Vegas Gold Knights.

Austin From... You Know Where (22:21)
Mmm.

It's a crazy story. Second round pick is no joke.

Kyle Blondin (22:26)
It is no joke and I think they can appeal and potentially get it back but what a loser man honestly what a fucking loser sorry part of my French and then the Habs yeah go ahead

Austin From... You Know Where (22:34)
Yeah. I also, no,

I just see, I just wanted to say, see kind of two parallels. Tell me if you agree with the NBA and NHL where one series has the two best teams. Like it seems like quite by quite a bit. Like I would say Vegas and Colorado are significantly better than Buffalo and Montreal. they not just like, okay. See in the spurs to Detroit and Cleveland.

Kyle Blondin (22:58)
Yes, but remember Carolina is waiting to play the winner of Buffalo Montreal in the conference final and you can make the argument, you can make the argument that Vegas, Colorado are probably could be playing for the Stanley Cup, but the way that Carolina has played and hasn't dropped the game yet, they swept both series, they have taken their knocks, they've taken their licks over the years where they've been expected to get to the final and do some damage and they have not. You know, I think everybody's benefited by

Austin From... You Know Where (23:03)
⁓ right, right.

Wow. Wow.

Kyle Blondin (23:27)
The Florida Panthers not sitting around here in the playoffs because I think they've had an off injury plagued season and things opened up for the rest of the NHL as soon as Florida bowed out. It was not there to grind it out. You also notice that the entertainment value is absolutely on a peak level right now in the playoffs. And I'm sorry basketball fans, but at the moment the NHL is kicking your ass as far as entertainment. ⁓ The drama, the view that they want it more.

It's simply there in the NHL right now and I do believe the NHL wagon is picking up steam in the US because it's always been, know, the big four, long distance behind the other three major sports. But you can't argue that this NHL in the last couple of years and especially this playoff run is picking up steam in the United States. It's how can't you love, man, you got something wrong, you drop the gloves, you fight, you check.

You have passion, guys are battling through injuries. Nathan McKinnon, the night they eliminated the Minnesota Wilds took a puck to the mouth, pool of blood. Guess who's on the bench five minutes later? It's Nathan McKinnon. And he scores the tying goal to send it to overtime, where the Avalanche knock off the Wilds. And then you got the NBA where you have Anthony Edwards. Eight minutes left in a game that, the Spurs were going to win, and they were in well-positioned to win, walks into a Spurs huddle.

and start shaking hands like it's the end of the game. What Minnesota Timberwell fan wants to see their superstar do that? Tell me, what superstar, would Michael Jordan ever do that? No goddamn way Michael Jordan would do that. He might give respect at the end of the game, but eight minutes left, you're walking into a huddle and shaking hands and hugging like it's over? Like you're not, you're basically throwing up the white flag? Unacceptable.

Well that's what you get. The NBA's gotten soft man. Like college basketball is where the grind is. Right? But the NBA's gotten soft. They're soft. I don't know. Do you have comments on that? Am I wrong? Am I right?

Austin From... You Know Where (25:33)
I don't know I definitely had fun watching the Raptors I think okay sees first disperse is going to be much must watch basketball so also be tuning in

Kyle Blondin (25:45)
Yeah, I guess I'll

say that maybe some teams and some players have gotten soft. They wouldn't put the Raptors in that soft category. They lost game seven. It wasn't because they didn't put a hundred percent of that effort in there and want to win. And I never felt that they, you know, took the foot off the gas. They just got beaten by a better team in game seven. And the Cleveland Cavaliers. ⁓ Yep. As the underdogs, but they did. They did. They couldn't get it done.

Austin From... You Know Where (26:03)
If I'm not mistaken, they won all their home games, right? As the underdog.

Yeah. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (26:14)
When to count it? Game seven, but talk about it. I mean, when you look at this season, you're looking at next year, bam, they could be back.

Austin From... You Know Where (26:16)
Yeah. Well, yeah. Would you say? Yeah. Yeah. I like in my head, you know, if we had home field advantage, realistically, there's a great chance we won that series. So that's kind of as a Raptors fan, that is kind of crazy to see that we're already at that level or could be. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (26:23)
POOF!

Yeah,

and then big big game seven today in the NBA you have Pistons Cavaliers Pistons with a big road win in Cleveland to push this game back to Detroit What are the odds here today because we're a betting show. We should really talk about What we're looking at as far as odds in this game. So four and a half point favorite are the home Pistons two and a half 200 205 and a half is the over-under I like the over

I like the over, it seems kind of low to me. I'll take the over there. I think the Pistons do close it out. I think that game six was the opportunity for the Cavaliers. They couldn't get the job done. And guess what? James Harden, who's been pretty damn good in these playoffs, tends to go missing in these big game sevens. We'll see if that happens today. What do you think? Who's grinding this out? ⁓ I think you're completely wrong. Absolutely wrong.

Austin From... You Know Where (27:22)
You know, I think actually Cleveland gets it done today and pulls up the upset on the road. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (27:30)
I'm kidding, but that's your opinion. You know, it's a free country. We'll give it to you. We'll give it to you. All right, so you think Cleveland's taking it? think Pistons closed it out. What about that over under? Do think there'll be a grind out game or do think we'll be seeing a reigning threes today?

Austin From... You Know Where (27:45)
I I'll say the over but I'm not confident on it. I I think it could go either way But I'm confident on Cleveland though Put that down for an awesome for May Jack's lock

Kyle Blondin (27:52)
So you're not, you're just leaning, okay.

A lock! ⁓ not even a lean. Not even a moving up in my chair lean. It is a lock.

Austin From... You Know Where (28:00)
Cleveland wins! No, no!

Lock it up.

Lock it up. Throw away the key.

Kyle Blondin (28:08)
That is ready to pour the cement, ready to mix it, ready to walk away that the job is done and it's gonna take care of itself. That kind of lock. Wow, okay, whoa. Okay, so you're going on Moneyline or are you talking about covering the spread?

Austin From... You Know Where (28:16)
Yep, that kind of lock. Hit it with the trowel, that kind of lock.

⁓ dr money line

Kyle Blondin (28:26)
Plus 158, you're ready to put some money on that. You're back in the beard because you have a beard. I think that's a little biased. Maybe I think you're little misguided because...

Austin From... You Know Where (28:28)
I'm ready to put some dough on it and throw it in the Yep. You know what, I might be...

You know what? That could be it. Don't take my advice. No, I'm just kidding. We're going all in with Cleveland. Fear. Fear the beard. Fear the beard.

Kyle Blondin (28:43)
Just cause you're trying to be James Harden. Yeah. Just cause you're trying to be, okay. If Cleveland wins today, okay, will you grow it longer?

Like a James Harden-esque until, how about this? You grow that beard or commit to keeping the beard and keeping it growing. You can shape it, but you can't reduce the size as long as the Cleveland Cavaliers are in the playoffs to represent the Harden. Got it? Okay. All right. So the Harden beard is on the line.

Austin From... You Know Where (29:03)
All right, deal. Deal, to represent a Hardin. Until Cleveland is out of the playoffs,

this beard is here to stay.

Kyle Blondin (29:12)
Okay, but if they lose today or when they lose, will you shave it?

Austin From... You Know Where (29:15)
⁓ I'll maintain it. I'll maintain it. No, I can't shave it. I get clowned at work in construction. You can't come and clean shaven. You get bullied. That can be pretty rough.

Kyle Blondin (29:18)
Come on, commit to it, huh?

Are you serious? Are you serious?

What kind of culture are you working in here? That's disgusting. I didn't know the concrete business was such a dark place. ⁓ Anyway, let's flip him back to the NHL and we talked about the Leafs. They have picked up the first overall pick. They won the NHL draft lottery. They were sitting with fifth.

Austin From... You Know Where (29:32)
Ahaha

Yep.

Kyle Blondin (29:52)
in the standings until the lottery. If they would have gone any higher, they would have lost the pick to the Boston Bruins. They've gained the first overall pick. They don't have any of their first round picks the next two seasons. They have a Colorado first pick, but that's going to be like a 31, 32 kind of pick going into next year. year the Leafs, John Chaka, I forgot, we haven't had done a podcast since all this went down. So the Leafs, in a quick summary, had fired, sorry, had

Austin From... You Know Where (29:56)
Wow.

Kyle Blondin (30:20)
Keith Pellet had kicked out Brad Treeliving. He brings in John Chaca and Matt Sundin. Chaca is a former general manager, young general manager with the Arizona Coyotes. He had a bad breakup. I think he was accused of tampering, looking for another job at the Levis with the Devils while he was still hired and working for the Arizona Coyotes. Some people in the NHL circles look at him as a fraud. If you, did you see the,

opening press conference with John Chaka and Matt Sundeen and the reporters asking questions.

Austin From... You Know Where (30:56)
⁓ Yeah, they're basically kind of undermining them and kind of basically saying they're not qualified. They're the least qualified ones for the job. that pretty much that? Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (31:05)
Pretty much, yeah.

He's pretty much, again, basically Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun, stating that out of, and don't, I'm just summarizing what I think ⁓ he said, was out of 20 hockey executives that are well known, only one of them had said good things to say, 19 of them basically shit on the pick of him as their general manager. And we quite don't know what is Matt Sundin's role. I mean, he's...

I think he was locked out as an ambassador or consultant, but he wasn't put into that. You know, he, he runs the show kind of position, ⁓ like in front of hockey operations. And I don't know if that means that maybe he's in this role to put a dip his toe in and then has the opportunity to want that role. And maybe they're just holding it for him until he makes that final decision. I don't know. But I mean, and then they go ahead and fire Craig Borubei, which.

It's not surprising that that team just blew up. mean, Craig Borubi will land on his feet somewhere, but that was just ugly last year. It's kind of like, I don't know, something I trying to think of an analogy where you just can't use this again. It's just simply, you got to throw it away and start over, ⁓ and understanding what, but it's the, the, the iffy part here is where are the leaves going? I mean, you got that first of all, pick, do you blow it up? It doesn't look like they want to blow it up and.

Austin From... You Know Where (32:14)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mmm.

Kyle Blondin (32:29)
You get your captain, which I'm going to go off here in a second here. And I'm sorry for kind of going on here, but I'm going to be, I'm going to, I'm going to use foul language in a second here. So I want you to make sure that you have the bleep ready to go. when Austin Matthews at the year, impressor, before all these changes occurred, stated that when asked about two years from now, when his contract ends, he really didn't get an answer, right? He's like, well, we'll see what happens.

I'm okay with that. Every NHL player that has a contract that is a few years out, I don't expect them to, you know, no, I'm a leaf for life, I'm going to die a leaf and nobody's done that. That's not today's NHL. You'd be stupid to do that, to give any leverage that, hey, I'm not going anywhere, I'm just waiting for two years and give me a contract. There's no goddamn way that would happen. Why would he not exercise the right to have options closer to his free agency? But when he comes out after the

leaves higher John Chaka and Matt Sundin and states that I don't know if I'm gonna be with the club anymore. They need to present something to me that there's, you that I need to see changes within the club for me to want to come back. You know what I say to that? Fuck you. Like, fuck you, Austin Matthews. I've called you out before being a fraud. You're a fraud. You're a fraud. You're not even close to the level of a Connor McDavid, Dreisaitl, McKinnon. Who are you to dictate

Austin From... You Know Where (33:36)
Mm-hmm.

Kyle Blondin (33:55)
that trade me I won't fulfill my contract unless you make the moves that I deem appropriate for me to step in the lineup again. How can he come back and be captain of this team? Taking a position like that. Again, the two years from now, I'm okay with. But holding the team hostage, the reason why they at had a shit season is because you didn't perform.

Austin From... You Know Where (34:10)
Mm-hmm.

Kyle Blondin (34:18)
Let's put it on you. You're the captain, you're the highest paid player, you're expected to perform. You didn't. You couldn't stay healthy. When you were in the lineup, you had significant droughts of non-scoring. What do you expect the season to look like if you're not in the lineup or you're not performing? Well, guess what? You got the result. Who are you to dictate anything? You're on the decline. So when I heard that...

I felt he was done. It's over here in Toronto. And sit back right now and look at the market. I gotta imagine the LA Kings are thinking, wow, we just got fucking smoked by like the Colorado Avalanche. And we got a decent team here, but we do not have the goal scoring. Maybe Austin Matthews is the question. Let's make that franchise altering decision to make a move for Austin Matthews. Let them make the mistake of doing that. You have the Utah Mammoth who are

Austin From... You Know Where (35:11)
Mm-hmm.

Kyle Blondin (35:15)
you know, second year into Utah after coming from Arizona, had a good little playoff run, a little series against Vegas, but got stopped short with a young team. Maybe their owner's gonna get aggressive, like, I wanna compete now. Let's make a crazy move and get Austin Matthews. Let them give you a call. Minnesota Wilde, they went toe to toe with the Avalanche. Made big moves to Quinn Hughes, which I love, by the way, and he may or may not come back. But if he does come back, Minnesota Wilde is thinking, wow, how do I get past the Colorado Avalanche next year?

Austin From... You Know Where (35:28)
Mm-hmm.

Kyle Blondin (35:44)
Maybe Austin Matthews added to my lineup will do that. You know, the Leafs had a moment four or five years ago when they made a decision to sign John Tavares. They used a big chunk of their cap to make a big commitment on a player. Many of those other teams are looking at making a splash as well. Free agencies dry. Let one of those teams make that mistake. Let two of those teams or three of those teams put up a bidding war for Austin Matthews because they think

Austin From... You Know Where (36:12)
Hmm.

Kyle Blondin (36:13)
He's that missing link to the Stanley Cup. Let them make that mistake. Go into the draft. You probably draft. I got to believe Gavin McKenna first overall. And I think you move on. It would have been a nice idea to have Gavin McKenna play with Auston Matthews, you know, right off the bat. I mean, you got McKenna, Matthews, Tavares, Nylander, Nyes. But I think the Auston Matthews ship has sailed. What are your thoughts on keeping Auston Matthews? Is it time for him to go or would you kind of?

Bring it, you know, bring them back for another year and try to make a run of the playoffs.

Austin From... You Know Where (36:45)
personally, I think it's time for him to go, but it's a really hard call. You know, when, when, ⁓ when all this stuff was going down before we got the first round pick here, I've never seen like leaf fan morale at an all time low. Like I remember I was seeing YouTube videos of like, when they hired a Sundine and Chica, you know, people were like, guys, I'm out. Like I'm out as a fan. I, and, every year, yeah. Yeah. Like they, was like a talk show.

Kyle Blondin (37:09)
You seen that?

Austin From... You Know Where (37:14)
I remember like it's just in my Instagram reels, but it's like guys I'm out like I'm not I can't be a Leafs fan anymore He's like they're taking off the hats and shit And then I just can't believe like it's at an all-time low and then all of a sudden boom We got the first overall pick and everything's back to normal again There's all this leaf optimism like for my entire leaf for my entire life It's always been like nothing but Leafs optimism and then there was a two-day window in the in my 28 years of existence

⁓ where i actually seen everyone like shit on the leaves together and then we get the first round pick it's like everything's good again you know it's gonna there's honestly kinda surreal but but but but yeah yeah right yeah yeah

Kyle Blondin (37:52)
That sounds like a triage moment where, clear! They're back! They got the first overall pick, they're back! my god,

beep beep! It's flatlining, boop boop, boop boop, clear! And that's what the first, you're right. There's some optimism with the first overall pick. But it's funny where's the direction, can they fuck this up? They could, right? I mean the pick is Gav McKenna. He could, there's other players in this draft that could be better down the road.

Austin From... You Know Where (38:12)
Mm-hmm.

Kyle Blondin (38:19)
But I think you have to take him. he is, you can't fail on what the public perceives as the first overall pick. Just can't do it. You gotta take him. So maybe there's some optimism, but they gotta have somebody in there to make bold decisions. I was driving to work the other day, and I listened to TSN radio, and the conversation was about the Montreal Canadiens. I'm not a Montreal fan, but I'm not.

Austin From... You Know Where (38:27)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (38:46)
I'm not one of those who's gonna say, it's a Canadian team, let's hope they win the Stanley Cup. Fuck that. If you're not a true Leaf fan, if you're fucking saying the Montreal Canadiens, you'd rather see, you wanna see them raise the cup. Are you insane? Are you insane? Like would, you know, any other sport, like would the Cowboys, man, let's go Houston Texans. You know, like, ⁓ no, why the fuck would you say that? No way! The Mets. Or the Reds, yeah.

Austin From... You Know Where (39:09)
Yeah. Or like the Yankees rooting for the Red Sox because they're in the AL or something.

Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (39:15)
That's

right. It was stupid. So God like who cares if they're Canadian? Who cares? The parade's not going down your street, right? You get no credit. I mean, there's nothing to talk about because let's say the Oilers would have won the cup or in this case, the Canadians, lone Canadian team back wins. Have you ever talked to a Montreal fan? Have you ever talked to a Habs fan? That's like, dude, really? Is your boss? But like, do you want to hear them gloating?

Austin From... You Know Where (39:36)
I work with one. Yeah. No.

Kyle Blondin (39:45)
Like for next year? Like, do you want that on? Do you want that at the work site? No! No, you don't! You gotta give them props. I wouldn't shit on the Canadians. I will say that they're probably right now the most exciting team to watch in the NHL. The Bell Center's rocking. I mean, you can't get a better atmosphere than a Montreal.

Austin From... You Know Where (39:46)
No, no.

No, no.

Kyle Blondin (40:05)
But when I'm driving to work and I'm hearing, you know, TSN radio talk about Montreal and the rise of the Habs, it just angered me because the Leafs for nine seasons stayed the course. And I remember during the COVID season where we had the Canadian division and another disappointment where the Habs come back from a 3-1 lead over the Leafs. The Leafs are up 3-1 in the series.

Austin From... You Know Where (40:18)
Mm-hmm.

Kyle Blondin (40:34)
And they knock off the Leafs. Another game seven, where Marner or Matthews did not do anything. Surprise. And handshakes. Bye bye Toronto. The Habs lost Carey Price to retirement. They've shuffled the decks of chairs. They come into the season on the rise. They even walk into the playoffs and knock off the Tampa Bay Lightning with a rookie goaltender, Dobish. They have...

Really not much performance from their top guns 50 goals score, Kolf Caulfield and Nick Suzuki. I mean that was their only blemish like in this playoff run against Tampa. And then you have Suzuki and Caulfield wake up and start performing. So this whole team is motoring. Yeah, they got pasted last night. They're going to game seven, but they're still in this thing. And then talk about they have additional prospects like ready to go that we haven't even seen yet.

And I'm thinking, what the fuck has happened to the Leafs? No prospects, no picks. Do they try to make a run at the playoffs or why? I don't know. And what it comes down to is they just could not make a decision. They could not make a bold decision when the writing was on the wall after disappointment. Game seven lost, can't handle it against the top teams in critical moments. Couldn't make a decision.

to move one of their core four or make a significant culture change to try to make the outcome different. They didn't have the balls to do it. And all the excuses that the surrounding parts were the problem. ⁓ the coach is the problem. Now we're three coaches in. GM was the problem. We're multiple GMs in now. We're multiple side players in. And the core four was the problem. And it continues to be the problem with the core three. Make a decision.

change the course and maybe Leaf fans will forgive you that we'll have to hold on again and wait a couple years before we can get back into contention. That's my soapbox rant. Fuck you Austin Matthews. Leafs, get back on board with a do-over. So, awesome, that's what happened.

Austin From... You Know Where (42:50)
I respect it.

Kyle Blondin (42:51)
Okay, good. We're gonna move on. What are we gonna move on to? Well, I'm gonna move on to another topic here. ⁓ Baseball, let's talk baseball. All right, we're in baseball mode here. We're baseball situation. Right now, if I asked you what bets you have in baseball today, what do you have?

Austin From... You Know Where (43:06)
So today I actually just have a small parlay just a to one win and then two wins so I got Tampa Bay in the morning and then ⁓ The blue Jays at 130 so that's such as three that's at three to one odds Honestly, I haven't checked because it was one nothing when I started the podcast So, let's see. Let's see if I'm in luck

Kyle Blondin (43:19)
And what's the score in the Tampa game?

Okay.

Austin From... You Know Where (43:27)
And we're down 2-1, but it's not halfway. It's only halfway, bottom of the fourth.

Kyle Blondin (43:32)
The Tampa leading the American League East. Are they still? Yeah, they are.

Austin From... You Know Where (43:35)
Yeah, yeah,

there's they're leading they're leading

Kyle Blondin (43:38)
That's what happens to me is that I get caught up on the playoffs down the NHL and NBA that I lose focus on not the day to day games in the major league baseball, but what the situation is like who's leading the East and who's like, you know, hot right now. But can you throw in any tips, any insight in baseball, whether it be gambling, whether it be fantasy, whether it be for today, whether it be going into the week, anything to look out for, for a major league baseball betters and fantasy players.

Austin From... You Know Where (44:04)
Well, well,

yeah, well we're looking at Tampa here and if you actually truly did believe Tampa was the best team in the division which I honestly I Still think the honestly the Jays might have the best value here on division betting but you know Tampa is still a three to one underdog to win the division right now, so Where where the Yankees are minus 260 which kind of sounds insane

You know, the Yankees are good, but they don't come off to me as an elite team. one, yeah, one thought I didn't really come with any like betting tips or anything, but one thought that I did have in the American league is I took a step back and I tried to think who's the best team in the American league. And you know what? I think when it comes down to like best team, maybe they finished, I think they'll finish guaranteed top three in the record. ⁓ but when it comes down to the playoffs, I'll be thinking they're the best, probably Atlanta.

Kyle Blondin (44:37)
Nah, they don't do they? They don't.

Austin From... You Know Where (45:01)
The Atlanta Braves are just a solid team. Yeah, or, ⁓ sorry. God. Sorry. ⁓ sorry. Sorry. I'm trying to say Atlanta is. They're the team to follow right now. They're the team to, bet on a Cunha is out right now. ⁓ but I think, I think they could make a run, you know, the,

Kyle Blondin (45:02)
In the American League, you said American League. They're in the National League.

Credibility just shot the hell right there.

Yeah.

Austin From... You Know Where (45:24)
The New York Mets are not the second best team in baseball. I do think they still get to the playoffs, if you can bet on that. A lot of people have wrote them off completely. But I think the second best team in baseball is the Atlanta Braves.

Kyle Blondin (45:39)
Okay, let's discuss that value in a second here. currently right now the Mets are 19 and 26. Seven games under 500. They have absolutely been shit on by Mets fans and baseball fans alike. You gotta love the outrage on Instagram. I love those videos of, I can't even remember that dude. I wanna give him props of his, he doesn't just do the Mets, but he mostly does the Mets, but he just goes off. It may be a show. I don't care if he's faking it. He does an amazing job of overreacting.

Austin From... You Know Where (45:54)
I know.

Is he screaming?

Kyle Blondin (46:09)
to, oh, love it, I

love it. I think there was a play this week at First Base, I can't remember if it was on First Base or the Mets, where, yeah.

Austin From... You Know Where (46:16)
my god, the guy where the guy fell. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (46:18)
Like I've never seen that before. You can imagine this guy's outrage watching it. But it's worth it. Again, I don't care if it's fake. I don't care if it's manufactured. Anger. I love it. So more than Mets fuck up and go south, it's better for my entertainment. Not good for Mets fans. But it's fucking great. But let's talk there. Because I think, if I'm mistaken, didn't the Mets also go on a big run last year?

to get to the playoffs? mean, they were not necessarily beating the doors down at the start of the year, but they went on a hell of a run second half and got to the playoffs. Did they get to the playoffs or was that two years ago?

Austin From... You Know Where (47:02)
I don't think they made it to... No, they missed the playoffs last year. I'm pretty sure. I don't want to... Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (47:05)
Did they miss the playoffs? Okay, I'm thinking... I'm thinking two years

ago, when... because they took on the Dodgers and the... and all, like I just... I don't know why that... just... I forgot about that. Google it. That's just pathetic. I should really know that.

Austin From... You Know Where (47:12)
I'll Google this.

The New York Mets did not make the playoffs in 2025. Oh, fun fact. If I'm not mistaken, did it not come down to the last game of the season against the Miami Marlins and they lost that game?

Kyle Blondin (47:25)
Okay, okay, all right. Yes.

I don't know

Austin From... You Know Where (47:35)
Alright, so, yeah, uh...

Kyle Blondin (47:38)
But they were there. I mean they weren't

Austin From... You Know Where (47:39)
There was there.

Yeah. Um, if I'm not mistaken Oh, yeah. Okay. The Mets were eliminated from playoff contention on the final day of the regular season after a 4-0 loss to the Miami Marlins They finished tied with the Cincinnati Reds 83 to 79 So yeah, they actually they they lost last season in the worst possible fashion You know, I remember thinking that and I'm like, wow, they really lost in a leaf style fashion

Kyle Blondin (47:49)
Okay.

Okay.

Okay, wait, thanks. Well, we have the Mets. Okay, so right now to make the playoffs on FanDuel, what do you the Mets are, odds to make the playoffs right now? Seven games below 500. Oh, no. Oh, it's higher than that. You get better odds. You're underselling the negativity toward the Mets right now. To make the playoffs...

Austin From... You Know Where (48:09)
Right?

⁓ I would say plus 120, but there's a chance it's even negative.

Yeah, 350.

Kyle Blondin (48:31)
Close, it's 310, plus 310. Is there value for you there?

Austin From... You Know Where (48:34)
310 wow that that's worth it.

There's value there.

Kyle Blondin (48:38)
Okay, like I mean you have like Bichette's gotta get going, right? That's a guy I cheer for man. I don't know why he's just like when people like because they were I don't know why the Mets fans were fixated on Kyle Tucker I bring Kyle Tucker in and they feel like they've settled for Yes, but they they Mets were in contention to pick him up and I think they were there in their mind They won it and felt Kyle Tucker was the right fit

Austin From... You Know Where (48:41)
Yeah.

⁓ Kyle Tucker went to the Dodgers.

Kyle Blondin (49:05)
And we're really pissed when the Dodgers picked him up and had to settle, quote unquote settle for Beau Bichette. And that's where I'm like, what do mean settle? The guy was fucking outstanding last year. Vladie wasn't on fire until later in the season and in the playoffs. I would say Beau carried their offense a lot in the regular season until he got hurt. And then comes back on one good leg and bashes a nice home run there in a clutch moment. I'll take that guy all day.

Austin From... You Know Where (49:32)
Yeah. Three,

three, one, three run home run in game seven of the World Series. Yeah. I'll never, yeah. I'll never forget that feeling. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (49:38)
Game seven of the World Series. mean, what else do you want? That's a Met Metz, come on. Yeah, like what a

guy's a player, man. He got my respect. mean, this Jay's team, I mean, they're not on fire right now. They got a win yesterday. But when I look at what I felt about John Schneider as manager after that Brio Fiasco against the twins a few years back, I was going for his head. They blew that lead against the Mariners a year earlier in the playing game. But also,

that run, mean all they did was not win the World Series. They couldn't do any more but win the World Series. I Dalton Varshaw, I was down on him. I thought he was a garbage, only strike out, can't hit lefties. No, you know his bat? Yeah.

Austin From... You Know Where (50:11)
Yeah. Yeah.

Now he's the guy keeping us in the playoff race right now, getting us, ⁓

the la our last two wins are a game winning hits by Dalton Varsho, if I'm not mistaken.

Kyle Blondin (50:28)
Yeah, but look what he did in the playoffs last year and when it mattered the most, he performed. I can't take it away from him.

Austin From... You Know Where (50:30)
Yeah.

Yeah, see that. Yeah. One,

one thing that I love about the blue Jays is there's a lot of guys on the team that it's like, they just feel like they're meant to be there. You know what I mean? Like even barger, like, I don't know. So like the fact that he can rocket a ball in from outfield at 105 miles an hour. Uh, and you know, you know, the offense is somewhere in him too. You know, it's like, there's so many players with so much potential. Oh man. Uh, and you know what? We haven't had a chance to talk about this cause we haven't done, uh, many podcasts.

Kyle Blondin (50:43)
Yeah.

Austin From... You Know Where (51:03)
But wow, how good is Dylan cease looking like he Dylan sees is looking like one of the best pitchers in baseball, you know, and it's like losing Bo Bichette who, which I agree with you was her second best hitter after Vlad. ⁓ but you know, if we can replace him with a top three, top four pitcher in baseball, you know, it eases that, that hurt a little, it's just about getting healthy. Now I think, losing all at Honda Kirk as well. What a impact that guy has on the team. I think, I think it's like, honestly, it's, ⁓

Kyle Blondin (51:07)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Austin From... You Know Where (51:31)
It's hard to understand the impact that a guy like that could have, but I don't think we play baseball the same without a Kirk as our catcher.

Kyle Blondin (51:38)
Yeah, and you know, I remember watching that game against the White Sox when he got that foul tip and you didn't think anything of it. He walks off and he's got a broken thumb, I guess, he had on there. ⁓ And then Barger, you talked about Barger who was a significant player for the Blue Jays. And then he came off the IL and then went back on the IL. When you get into these injury situations and you lose your depth, especially a guy like Alejandro Kirk, another guy, I didn't have much faith in, you know, when he first.

you know, started to rise to fame in Toronto. But yeah, he's a big loss and he's clutch and man, he's got to have these guys back. They need to hang in there, tread water enough so when they get and hopefully get healthy, they can get on a run. And yeah, Dylan Cease. I'm trying to remember the last time we had a dominant pitcher. mean, have Kevin Goss was a great pitcher. Don't get me wrong. Maybe you have ⁓ a Savage who could be a great pitcher, but.

The dominating stuff, like just overpowering strikeout after strikeout that Dylan Cease is putting on the board. I can't recall the last time we've seen that in WJ's uniform, a picture with that dominant ⁓ amount of stuff in his repertoire.

Austin From... You Know Where (52:51)
Yeah.

Would you rather have Dylan cease right now or Paul skeens?

Kyle Blondin (52:57)
I'm gonna go Paul Skeens, I'm sorry man. Paul Skeens is an exceptional unicorn. He's an unicorn. you know, Dylan Cease has bounced around from ⁓ White Sox to San Diego, now to Toronto. I mean, yes, he's dominant, but Paul Skeens is a unicorn, man. Let's not go crazy here.

Austin From... You Know Where (53:11)
But I mean, you know what?

No, I think it's crazy. Listen, at the end of the day, Paul Skeens, has he won Siyoung? Because Dylan Cease has.

Kyle Blondin (53:22)
Yes, and

he's won two Sae-Yungs, like in a row.

Austin From... You Know Where (53:26)
Did he win rookie of year? Paul skeins won Cy Young. Am I crazy? Paul skeins hasn't won a Cy Young. Two. He w think he won rookie of the year. Okay. I know Dylan sees has won with San Diego, right? Yeah. Cause all I'm saying, all I'm saying is obviously this year, ⁓ you know, he's been better. And then, ⁓

Kyle Blondin (53:28)
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. We should know this. I don't know why. Let's just check it out. Let's check it out. Let's go to the facts.

Let me put my old man glasses on.

Austin From... You Know Where (53:53)
Also, he has a Cy Young under his belt where Skeens doesn't have the Cy Young under his belt. At least we got to confirm this, of course.

Kyle Blondin (53:58)
Okay, let's confirm. Hold on.

Austin From... You Know Where (54:00)
All right,

let's see what ⁓ Google has to say.

Kyle Blondin (54:04)
Day one. So for the American League, you obviously know who won the last two. Your boy.

Austin From... You Know Where (54:09)
Yep, Scoople.

Kyle Blondin (54:11)
Scoobble, Garrett Cole in

2023, but we're looking at National League here. Guess who your 2025 winner was? Paul Skeens, man. I'm like, what are you talking about? I apologize. I thought I was thinking Scoobble, but Skeens won last year.

Austin From... You Know Where (54:17)
So, okay, so he has so he has one though not to Okay, so, okay. We'll meet in the middle. We'll

meet in the middle I thought it was zero you thought it was two so we'll chalk up one as a tie

Kyle Blondin (54:30)
And when is Dylan

cease? 1-1. He doesn't want 1-1. No?

Austin From... You Know Where (54:33)
Has he not?

⁓ my, I swear Dylan Sees has a, here let me Google this.

Kyle Blondin (54:37)
This really turned on you big time. I couldn't be more right and you couldn't be more wrong. This is getting ugly.

Austin From... You Know Where (54:39)
this may have.

Kyle Blondin (54:46)
And the final answer, want you to be like referee after checking if there was a disallowed goal coming to center ice and letting the crowd know your findings. After review, after review, Dylan Cease has not won a Cy Young. However, Paul Skeens has won and recently won the 2025 National League Cy Young award. Therefore, Kyle Blondin is right. Thank you.

Austin From... You Know Where (54:55)
⁓ fourth in Siong voting, god. Yep, that's my bad.

All right, skeins wins,

skeins wins.

Kyle Blondin (55:16)
For being wrong, Austin gets a two minute penalty for delaying a Delay a pod. Way to go. That is rough. Man, you were off! Like that was just like, you know your little train was right off the tracks there. Right off the tracks. Okay.

Austin From... You Know Where (55:21)
That's rough. That's rough.

Alright, well you know what?

He's still better. He's winning it this year. Alright. Let's go. I wonder, I wonder honestly, I do wonder what the betting would be on that now.

Kyle Blondin (55:35)
Skeens might come back.

Well, let's go. We're a betting show. We gotta look this up. Let's look it up.

Austin From... You Know Where (55:43)
Yep.

Look it up. ⁓ One sec. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (55:47)
Alright, Austin,

can't wait till you have put reading glasses on when you have contacts and stuff, It's pathetic. It is pathetic. Yeah, but you just have, instead of contacts, have glasses. I have contacts on. And I still need reading glasses. Alright, so we're gonna look at... Cy Young, come on, come on, come on. American League Cy Young. Dylan Cease is plus... Kim Schittler is still favorite over Dylan Cease. Kim Schittler.

Austin From... You Know Where (55:53)
I do got reading glasses on right now.

Norma, yeah. shoot.

Wow,

that's actually insane. Are you pronouncing that right? Are you sure? ⁓

Kyle Blondin (56:14)
Imagine losing to a guy named KM Schittler. Come on. Nah, probably not. And guess who's favorite in the

National League to win the Psyong at the moment? Who is your betting favorite? Paul Skeens. 2025 Psyong winner. Yes, and Paul Skeens is number one in the National League.

Austin From... You Know Where (56:25)
Skins. Skins.

Sweet so Dylan sees is he's second in voting Interesting Yeah,

hey, they could both win as well Wait, he's really you know what I would say ⁓ it Yeah in the National League. think Otani has a great chance as well. He's got to be there, Well, well, I don't know if you've yeah, I don't know if you've seen it but Otani actually has been focusing on pitches pitching So he hasn't been batting on the games that he's pitching. Yeah, so really seems like

Kyle Blondin (56:38)
They could, but...

You think so? Not Sanchez, Philadelphia, he's number two. And he's been on Lights Out.

I seen that,

Austin From... You Know Where (56:58)
Listen, if that guy's locked into trying to go for that, then I think anybody's in trouble. That's Shohei Otani.

Kyle Blondin (57:04)
You know that guy's looking for his trophy case to say I got two World Series rings. I got a couple of MVPs already. I need that Siyoung to top it off. I think you're absolutely correct. And I think he has all the leverage in the world that when he signs that contract with the Dodgers, it is, I am going to dictate, pitch. I'm going to dictate if I feel that I want to chase the Siyoung and not bat, then you're going to do it. I don't think that's by mistake. I think that is...

Austin From... You Know Where (57:14)
Yeah.

That's crazy.

Kyle Blondin (57:33)
Crafted out with the leverage of a tawny. I don't blame him. He's doing what he thinks is going to ⁓ Be best for him, but I do believe he probably has all the leverage in his contract to make those calls Not the team. I'll tell you that You what what is her who's the biggest athlete in sport right now like out of the four major sports Who's the biggest athlete like who's got the most power who is the guy right now?

Austin From... You Know Where (57:48)
Yeah. It's like, he's like LeBron James. ⁓ yeah.

Honestly, I would say it's Otani because Otani is clearly the best, the best, ⁓ like the best ever at his sport. Am I wrong? Like I'm just talking like, no one can do what Otani like to be able to have the impact as a top 10 pitcher and a top two hitter. It's like, how do you compare to that? Even if you're like the number one hitter the number one pitcher, how do you compare to that? And unless you're like 10 miles ahead, you can't, you can't.

Kyle Blondin (58:16)
Great.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's

hard to disagree.

Austin From... You Know Where (58:27)
You like you, if

he goes to any team, like I don't know, he's the biggest impact player I've ever seen in baseball for sure.

Kyle Blondin (58:34)
Is

there a, if out of the four major sports coming to Toronto, if somebody was coming to town, is there anybody bigger than Otani as far as, my God, I got a ticket to watch him play? Is there another player that is up there for you?

Austin From... You Know Where (58:54)
I don't think so. I guess Connor McDavid. Connor McDavid maybe. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. That's more local. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (58:56)
What can we? Conor McDavid. Yeah, I think that's more local though. I think ⁓ I don't think he's

here in Arlington, Texas that that's the case. But ⁓ you also look, we were talking earlier about what role does one banana one banana play for the Spurs? ⁓ He his he's incredible, right? He's physically what seven four did we talk about seven five, right? And the guy's draining threes. He's your next Don't like I mean, he's already there.

Austin From... You Know Where (59:18)
7575 Yeah

Kyle Blondin (59:24)
But like you said, as soon as LeBron kind of goes out of the picture, even though he's not the guy, but he's the name still, he's the guy, right? He's the guy in basketball that is the level setter, right? Would you say?

Austin From... You Know Where (59:35)
Well,

you know what I could say? Like the series with okay. See, and spurs, like if, if they go in and they win that series, like we all know it's because web and Yana and if women, Yana can take down this just solidified, ⁓ what it feels like, like it's either, it's either going to be web and Yana is just such a force that he's just, he's able to win championships or it's the dynasty of okay. City. Okay. See, right. So it's kind of like, this series kind of defines.

really the superpower of the NBA like yeah because think about it shy just won MVP back-to-back years but if wemby can come in there and dominate him then you know wemby's that guy then

Kyle Blondin (1:00:07)
It feels that way. It really does. It really does. yeah. Yeah.

Do feel OKC gets respect? I don't think so. I don't feel like they do.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:00:21)
⁓ no, I don't think I see

I don't think they get respect, but I also think they don't get respect just because they make it look so easy. It's just, yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (1:00:27)
The crushing teams, they're crushing.

It's not even a series. The Lakers had zero chance in that series.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:00:32)
Yeah, it's like, it's like, yeah. Zero. Yeah. And,

and LeBron was able to push off the Rockets. You know, the Rockets weren't supposed to be a pushover team, but you can't do that though. Casey, they're too, ⁓ they're too solid. Yeah. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (1:00:46)
Yeah, but they're like crushing teams and

I think this will define either OKC's dominance, but I mean if this was ⁓ if this was the same team, but they were called the Golden State Warriors or if they were called the New York Knicks, they were called the LA Lakers, this would be the biggest show in town. But right now, because they're OKC, Oklahoma City, they're really under the radar.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:01:05)
I agree

Kyle Blondin (1:01:11)
under the radar 100 % but they're clearly the best team in the NBA unless San Antonio ⁓ steps in and knocks them off which possible but unlikely.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:01:19)
Yeah. And, ⁓

and you know what? ⁓ just looking back in time, ⁓ you know, you look at the leaf struggling to make any moves, but then you go back and look at, cause okay. See 10 years ago had Russell Westbrook, they had Durant and they had, ⁓ Hardin was that it? Okay. See. And they, and they blew that team up and look, look at what they were able to build, you know, just a solid all around team. And if I'm not mistaken, they still have.

first round picks out the wazoo like for years to come and ⁓

Kyle Blondin (1:01:53)
They, I

can't even count the number of, I wouldn't even look at it. They, they, they robbed the Clippers, in the, you know, Paul George trade. And there's a few other deals they made that not only did they get picks, but they picked up, ⁓ SGP. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ they, they've done it all right. SGA, SGP, sorry. Same game parlay. Sorry.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:01:59)
Yep. Paul George, right? Or no? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Would you say SGA like, ⁓ yeah, it's okay. It's okay. Would you say, would you say

he's, ⁓ the best player in basketball?

Kyle Blondin (1:02:21)
Would you take SGA over women, Yana? Then he's not the best at learning basketball. So, again, I think this, he's a New York Nick, I think we're talking like he is. And if he's American, probably talking like he is. But the odds are no, he's not. But.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:02:23)
No.

Yeah, that's true.

but he is the best

Canadian of all time.

Kyle Blondin (1:02:41)
Yeah, we talked about it earlier. I can't disagree with that right like you guys got ring. He's got a ring He's got yeah, let's go. Yes. Let's not even debate it Let's go with it. That is he's the guy and but I mean if one banana comes into the series knocks him off and It's all for not. I don't care if they got a championship. It's gonna be focused on him, right? He's the guy so big serious, man, actually just have this conversation

Austin From... You Know Where (1:02:48)
He's got a ring and back-to-back MVPs,

Kyle Blondin (1:03:08)
It's got me a little more pumped for that series. Just to, there's more on the line than just who wins.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:03:10)
Yeah, like, no, like I, it's, it's almost,

yeah, sometimes, no, literally. Like it's like, I think it's literally almost the direction of the NBA, right? Because it's either you're going to get that team based team that's dominating the league or you have that team. Well, and I don't want to call the Spurs a one player team, but I mean, they're a borderline playoff team without him. And then they go to a top three team with them. Right? So the guy's seven, five hit threes. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's all. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (1:03:35)
seven five what is the air like up there my god

Austin From... You Know Where (1:03:40)
Honestly Yeah, I Yeah, I'll be watching that game tomorrow. Yeah, I'll be watching that game tomorrow night

Kyle Blondin (1:03:42)
Holy f- Imagine trying to get into a car? Like a 7-5?

Imagine you gotta give this guy a ride in an Uber and he's gotta sit behind you, like what's the conversation about leg room here and push your seat up? Where's your seat as a driver? Like right in the windshield? Like what is it? Like you're crushed up driving? You can't get in the car, but imagine he's gotta sit right behind you as a driver and you keep moving up, moving up like, you got enough? got enough? And you're like, you're-

Austin From... You Know Where (1:03:55)
Yeah, yeah Yeah, you know what I don't even think let's be honest you can't get in the car he like I don't know like what the Yeah That's

hilarious Yeah, yeah

Kyle Blondin (1:04:12)
Your face is planted against the windshield like it's insane

You're always honking because your chest is against the fucking So when manana maybe it's his time he's got a little bit of an attitude going on right now man, he

Austin From... You Know Where (1:04:21)
⁓ that's so funny.

Could be his time. You know what? I,

I seen in that series, ⁓ with the timber wolves, they, here's the thing. Cause I see you seen that play where he was ejected, right? He takes it. He takes his elbow, swings it and hits the guy in the head. But I seen, I seen guys on Instagram just breaking it down. Like they had this coming. This had this coming. When BB like running down the court, just get a full on. I don't, can't remember if it's Naz Reed. Is that his name on the timber wolves?

Kyle Blondin (1:04:31)
Yeah.

Vidiabo.

Yep.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:04:53)
but he just takes it and then like throws him and the refs don't catch it and when Mena gets pissed, right? And, ⁓ yeah.

Kyle Blondin (1:04:59)
Yeah.

I think it, you know what? I think it's time for him to have a bit of an attitude, a little bit, I'm not taking it anymore. I think that's, it's going to help him and he helped him in that series. It did. And it also gets the, you know, officials attention that when a star like that has to use his elbows to make a point, there's going be more focus on protecting him so that he stays in the game. So it works on many levels.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:05:06)
Yeah.

I think so too. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, isn't it crazy that him? Yeah

him doing that actually benefits him But it's like but at the end of the day But at the end of the day as a fan if you see that kind of bullshit happening to him Then that's what you want to see from him, you know, you don't want fucking you don't want a dream on green level Just punching your teammate in the face, you know, you don't want you don't want unprovoked shit But when it's just a guy standing up for himself, it like you know, you don't want McDavid getting knocked around You know what I'm saying? So It's good to see him stand up for himself

Kyle Blondin (1:05:27)
Yes, it does.

down.

No, no. Yeah.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:05:52)
And I think you're right, good things will come from it.

Kyle Blondin (1:05:57)
Yeah. And I don't want to see a women, yeah. And if I got tickets in the front row, somebody getting away with clutching, grabbing, holding his arm, ⁓ you know, so he can excel and perform the level he can play. same with McDavid. I don't want to see him being hooked. cheap shot it. I want to see him a hundred percent entertaining flying down the ice. So yeah, good for him. And yeah, not now you're cheering for him versus your Canadian, SGA.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:06:07)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, ⁓ it's hard

and you know, and it almost makes you think having this conversation is there a good money to be put on the series for the Spurs? It's nearly three to one. I think it's plus two 90 and to me it seems like more of a coin flip of a situation. I mean, let's, let's remember back in the beginning of the season, I'm pretty sure. Okay. C was like one or sorry, 19 and one or something, but then in like a short window, they lost three straight games to the Spurs.

Kyle Blondin (1:06:32)
Yeah.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:06:48)
You know, so it's like they were able to dominate anybody else, but it also not only not only Were the Spurs? I mean the Spurs were doing having an okay record, but it just seemed like they were the kryptonite to the okay see so We'll really see if that seems to still be the case if it's just a matchup difference They can't they can't get over the six the seven five player. They're not just you know, it's gonna be ⁓ The series of the year to watch no doubt

Kyle Blondin (1:07:01)
I think you're right.

I would love before making that bet to have like a one-on-one podcast, 30 minutes to talk to the San Antonio medical staff and make sure that when Manana is a hundred percent healthy and doesn't have like a bum knee or like a hamstring pull or a concussion, anything like that, because he's going to need to be a hundred percent for them to pull it off. And if he has a little bit where he's 99%, no bot, no bet for me, no bet for me.

Okay, so we talked about the NBA longer than I thought we would but very good conversation. If you see me tilt my head, I have a soccer game I'm betting on so I'm looking at it. I need Atlanta and Bologna to get one more goal with seven more minutes to go.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:07:48)
That's okay. I'm

still in. I'm still following Tampa Bay here. We're up for two now on Tampa, which you, which I'm betting on them. So I'm rooting for them, but I just want to make it clear as a division rival, never truly happy that they win, you know, or, but

Kyle Blondin (1:07:55)
Duh, really?

You're not going down

to Tampa putting your raised jersey on?

Austin From... You Know Where (1:08:06)
Yeah, I'm not going to that stadium. It's pretty brutal. Yeah.

Kyle Blondin (1:08:09)
Yeah, it is.

⁓ where I want to go in the conversation next is I want to talk about a series I want to put together podcast wise that tries to lead us into football season, right? We talked about, you know, we talked about this podcast being more of a square better, the average Joe, you know, looking at, it's games on TV. Let's bet it.

you know, getting a little emotional because, you know, hey, there's 20 games on it, I get action on all of them. That's what this is, we're having fun. Excuse me. But I think I was talking to you earlier that we're gonna try something here, a series where I'm gonna try to manage a bankroll of $1,000 and try to follow the professional betting fundamentals. What does that mean? Well, that means

using a percentage of your bankroll, not getting out of whack and start going up and down and fluctuating, but sticking to one, two, three units already preset. And the challenge here is can I do it? Can I do it? Can I stay on course for the slow grind that this is? And that is to become a professional sports better. So I'm gonna share my screen here. Let's ask Co-Pilot, our friends at Co-Pilot.

I'm gonna go on co-pilot right now. Maybe I won't share it. don't know if I'm legally allowed to share it, but let's say co-pilot Let's use AI how often you use AI Austin?

Austin From... You Know Where (1:09:43)
⁓ rarely, I guess. I mean, when you Google things now, AI helps you. So that would be the extent to it really.

Kyle Blondin (1:09:49)
Yes, I want to manage my sporting bankroll like a professional.

I have $1,000. How much should my bets be?

Austin From... You Know Where (1:10:03)
feel like it should be one $200.

Kyle Blondin (1:10:06)
You think so on a thousand? I don't think so, much lower. Short answer, if you want to manage your bankroll like a professional better, your bet size on a thousand dollars, bankroll should almost always fall between $10 and $30 per bet, depending on the risk tolerance and edge. That's the headline. Now let's break it down. So basically 10 to $30. Because you have like a 10 % or 1 % bet.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:10:08)
50.

Kyle Blondin (1:10:34)
It's those small percentages of what you do in your bankroll Wow, it's gonna be tough man. I feel like Well, and I'll tell you with Champions League coming up in two weeks That is PSG taking on Arsenal on May 30th I'm gonna I'm gonna get a pass on that one. Okay, I'm gonna try to grind it up for like for the next two weeks Follow me on overrated exp er 2x

I'm gonna try to share my wagers and how it's going, updates. We'll try to circle back, hopefully Austin can be on these ⁓ conversations and we can just chat about it. We're gonna try to put a few podcasts together. So we're gonna try to do random, quick podcasts to look at how it's going, but also talk about the struggles of a better like myself trying to stick to a professional's way of doing things. Am I tracking my bets? Am I...

Austin From... You Know Where (1:11:18)
Mm-hmm.

Kyle Blondin (1:11:30)
Like using logic to why I'm baking the bets. Am I holding off my sticking to $10 $20 $30 wagers depending on how well I think this game I got, you know, really figured out. What do you think Austin? Like is it, is it time to try to shift more towards a professional way of looking at things versus how things are going today? What, what are your thoughts on this strategy and maybe this series? What kind of interesting things do you think will pop up when we conversate in another podcast?

Austin From... You Know Where (1:11:57)
Uh,

I think, I think you should stick to the professional stuff because I mean, at the end of the day, listen for me, you know, I feel like I'm more likely to make like a $50 bet instead of like a $10, $30 bet. But if this is how professionals do it, then this is how you would win. Right? So if it's, if, if this is the professional way, they're saying that because this is the way to be more successful. Uh, therefore I think it's a no brainer that you should follow it obviously. Right.

Kyle Blondin (1:12:11)
Yeah.

Yes.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:12:26)
And you know, I think it'll make it ⁓ entertaining because you know, you're focused on the more big picture than the small picture as well. Right. So you just have to, I would say it's almost it's almost a bigger investment of time than it is money in a way. Right. So it's just you got to commit that time, be patient, and see how it shakes out, right?

Kyle Blondin (1:12:33)
Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, and it's gonna kick off on Monday. Today's all free for all. It's a holiday weekend. Let's do it. Let's do it up. Let's get crazy. Let's get stupid. Again, responsibly. Okay, you betters out there. But Monday, $1,000, leading up to Champions League. We're gonna pop in a few podcasts. We're gonna make it a special series. What should we call it? The Grind? The Grand Grind? The Grand? The Grind into the Grand? Grand, because it's a Grand?

Austin From... You Know Where (1:12:51)
Mm-hmm.

The grind,

Yeah, the grand grind, I like that. Grand grind, yeah.

Kyle Blondin (1:13:16)
Grand grind? Yeah? Okay,

it's gonna be the grand grind. And I think where the challenge is gonna be, I'm telling you the challenge is gonna be right off the bat if those first two, three bets of $10 lose. And I'm sitting there with $970. That's gonna anger me. That's gonna anger me to see that below $1,000. And those little things are what professional gamblers can live with because they know their swings.

And they got to stick to the plan. Anything that you're doing, Austin, that is worth talking about from the sports season you're into, obviously softball season, how's that going?

Austin From... You Know Where (1:13:56)
Good, you know our team is actually undefeated to know so it's a lot. It's been a lot of fun softball Guy on the team hit a homerun the other night pretty cool No homeruns begin a lot of hits got had some good defensive plays but Nice diving play at third, but other than that. Yeah Yeah, but other than that not too much to report in the softball You know one of the girls had to sit she was that she was feeling a little

Kyle Blondin (1:14:06)
Okay, where's your home run?

Really? Nice. They put you at third base?

Austin From... You Know Where (1:14:25)
Little tired, so I got up there, made a crazy diving third play, but usually I'm in left field, so.

Kyle Blondin (1:14:31)
I'm not saying, my god, you're playing third base because you suck. was more about third base could be a death trap in softball. ⁓ When you see some of the guys coming up there jacking, like just ripping. then a lot of the strategy right now is getting on top of the ball like a tomahawk chop. Where he gets to like the underspin, backspin on the ball, sorry. ⁓ Man, that's dangerous. Like third base. ⁓

Austin From... You Know Where (1:14:37)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Kyle Blondin (1:14:57)
That's why I retired from softball. I don't want to do this anymore. Left field seems a little safer. ⁓ If you ever watch on Instagram, sometimes I'll sit there and watch ⁓ you just have guys jacking, know, plate appearances over the fence, smashing, smashing, you know, some softballs into the left field bleachers or almost hitting the light standard. Something about that watching that man, but playing third base and getting into the teeth, no way.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:15:19)
Yeah.

It was funny. I actually had to show up straight from work. So I had to play softball in my work boots. I tried to stretch. I had no choice, right? But I had to stretch a single into a double in these work boots. And I actually slid and was safe. But the guy just looks at me he's like, no sliding in the league. You're out. So yeah, I didn't know that. I was like, OK. I didn't know.

Kyle Blondin (1:15:27)
my god, Austin.

Is that the rule?

Austin From... You Know Where (1:15:49)
But I yeah, yeah

Kyle Blondin (1:15:50)
It is, it's people enforce the rules, That's

the way it is. So outside of that, anything else you want to share with the audience as we end the podcast, AKA live stream, AKA video pod, anything that stands out to you?

Austin From... You Know Where (1:16:02)
⁓

not much. I just wanted to say, ⁓ happy to be back. ⁓ also top of the first days are up too. So I'm pretty, pretty pumped about that, but, ⁓ no, I'm happy to be back on the pod. Always, ⁓ always a good time. Always good time conversating and, ⁓ yeah, that's it.

Kyle Blondin (1:16:11)
Okay.

I

almost forgot that I did a solo pod for the NHL kickoff the playoffs. It's Totally forgot I did it. All right. So Austin from Ajax is good to be back and you're committed to a couple of quick podcasts to follow along the grand grind. That's a special series that I think everybody out there can relate to. And I'll be like sweating because I can't handle like these small bets, but I'll have to manage for you, the audience.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:16:25)
Hmm. Hmm.

Of course.

Kyle Blondin (1:16:49)
The pleasure's all been yours as the Over 8 Experience is winding down and the Over 8 Experience is over and out.

Austin From... You Know Where (1:16:57)
Awesome for me, Jax out.

Kyle Blondin (1:16:59)
Bye everybody.