Monday Morning Cubs Show
A show every Monday morning about the Chicago Cubs from Carl and Mahoney.
Monday Morning Cubs Show
3 Gold Glove Winners + Why The Dodgers Aren’t Ruining Baseball
A thrilling baseball year ends, and we’re fired up about where Chicago goes next. We kick things off by saluting three Cubs Gold Gloves—Pete Crow-Armstrong, Nico Horner, and Ian Happ—and why these awards actually matter for roster building, contract value, and a defense-first identity that plays in October. From there, we relive a chaotic, edge-of-the-seat World Series and tackle the hottest take in the sport: the Dodgers aren’t ruining baseball. They develop as well as they spend, and that’s the blueprint every serious team should follow.
We dig into what Los Angeles did right, why the Blue Jays’ payroll undercuts the “small guy vs. big guy” narrative, and how Yamamoto’s fearless workload became a postseason lesson in value. Then we bring it home to the Cubs: how to approach starting pitching without overpaying for risk, why relievers are best found through development and rebound bets, and how to keep the defense elite while adding more on-base and late-inning swing-and-miss. We also talk about Ian Happ’s underrated consistency, the importance of durability, and which arguments about awards actually hold water.
Between segments, we share a burst of life: London plans (type G plugs, bum bags, pub crawls), EPL ticket gymnastics, and a quick Goose tour recap. It’s baseball-first with just enough culture and humor to keep your commute moving. If you care about the Cubs’ next step—and want a clear-eyed plan for getting there—this one’s for you.
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Thanks for tuning in!
- Carl & Mahoney
And we're clear. Good morning, good afternoon, and evening, Chicago Cubs fans. Welcome back to the Monday morning Cub Show. Today is Monday, November 3rd. I am Carl. I am joined by Mahoney. It is good to see you, my friend. Good to see you, Carl. Top of the morning to you. Coffee is piping hot. We have a loaded Monday morning cub show for you guys. And by loaded, I mean a classic textbook, ball or strike. It's going to be a great show.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a strike down the middle, Carl. We got a few different topics that we're going to be getting to throughout the show. The baseball season is officially over, so we can kind of get into some of that off-season stuff. But, you know, great season, great year. Glad it's done. And now we can focus on moving forward and the future of this organization.
SPEAKER_01:I've long said for me, you know, when the when the World Series is over is when you when you when it's really over, you take a deep breath. Baseball season's over. And it is a good feeling if you're watching 162, you're putting in the time and effort. So congratulations to the Dodgers. Going to talk about them in a second. But in celebration of the baseball season being over, I'm traveling. I'm going international this week. And I still have a little bit of COVID. I didn't put that in the show notes beforehand, but I just got to tell I I think I have long COVID Z-packing it right now. I will keep you updated. Flight is 48 hours from now. So hopefully we clear the skies on this COVID stuff. I do have a little bit of carpal tunnel, and I am going to London.
SPEAKER_00:Well, Carl, I'm glad that you're hitting the Z-pack. I feel like a Z pack, even if you have a cold, you got to square up those five pills before you're going on a transatlantic flight. Yeah, hop, skip, and a jump over the pond. That's going to be exciting. We'll get into that in a little bit. Um, I don't know if your carpal tunnel is related to the long COVID. I do think there could be some inflamm uh inflammation within the joints that couples with uh, you know, some long COVID symptoms, but you know, not a doctor here. Either way, Carl, it's something to keep an ear uh eye out for and you're you know, take some ibuprofen, hopefully you'll be all right. Well, I appreciate that, Mahoney.
SPEAKER_01:And the ibuprofen, you know, recommendation, trusted, true. Um rode that one hard for a little bit, maybe too hard. You know, like that's one of those you gotta be careful because like you feel a little liver pain. Yeah, you know, is it a handful of Tylenol before you tee off with the transfusion? That's not a good thing.
SPEAKER_00:No, it's definitely you want to want to pound a lot of water when you're taking a lot of ibuprofen, a lot of Tylenol for arthritis pain, that sort of thing. Keep that system flushed, and um, you know, otherwise, if you're taking it as uh directed, you're gonna be perfectly fine.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Hey, just quick here, guy. I'm like weighing this. Do I want to get into this? We should just do it. We hey gold glove award winner, Chicago Cubs, but first some gold glove news for the podcast. Whoa. All right, guys. Ask and ye shall deliver. We made a big deal during the playoff push. Wanted to thank Thirsty Vacaro for getting behind us. I had encouraged people, I'm still gonna do it right now. If you have a second, please rate the podcast, preferably five stars. It's super easy on Spotify. Like if you're listening to this, you can just you literally can just go to Spotify, just click five stars. Means a bunch. How much does it mean? Same thing with Apple, and if they make you leave a review, you know, spumoni, whatever. Say what you gotta say.
SPEAKER_00:A couple, yeah, cost seven words, I think, is all they ask.
SPEAKER_01:Whatever. 120 characters. It helps. So people say, How much does it help? It helps as much. Thirsty Vaccaro is gonna stay on as the official beverage sponsor of the Monday morning cub show through the balance of 2025, folks. The campaign is alive and well. We did like a post-mortem, like, what a great campaign! Thank you very much, to Thirsty Vacaro. They came back, they go, We're no, we're doubling down, we're here, we're riding this baby into Christmas time, which is great stuff because it's a wonderful beverage with the signature spicy finish, a Mexican-style soda. You guys can get it obviously on Amazon, three flavors, bold, rich. The talk of my party the last week. We had 50, 60 people out, whatever at the house, front lawn, something along those lines. Live music. We had a guy grilling brisket, petting zoo, goats, come touch the goats, come hang out. I mean, really, full, big time adults-only party. Um, I built a par three in the backyard, 60 yards uphill, tough shot. I mean, really, okay. And all people were talking about was the thirsty vaquero.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, Carl, it's an all-bite and it's a no-rattle. I mean, talk about some spicy news to kick off the day. I knew something was up when another package arrived with, you know, a plethora of flavors. It is one of my favorite drinks ever since we had got engaged with them, and uh, I couldn't be happier that they're gonna be riding with the maniacs here moving forward. And you know what? We're not big call to action guys, but you know what? Now we kind of are. We want you to go leave those reviews. That's what means those sponsorships are gonna be coming in. And honestly, go check out Thirsty Vicero. You can get it on Amazon. Um, it's it at Yaxis, I think. Carl's doing a lot of product placement earlier in the month. So um, you know, people are gonna be, you know, yucking that up over the winter months, and it's perfect for winter if you really think about it, because it does get that little spice and that little hint, you know, and it warms your insides a bit as it goes down. So it's really perfect heading into the offseason.
SPEAKER_01:As a matter of routine, too, I like putting a little thirst of a carol in the bourbon glass just on a on a couple ice cubes at the end of the day. You know, I'm not if you're not hitting it, I'm not I'm buddy, you're gonna clear sinuses out. I'm just saying. Of course. If you're just looking for a nice relaxer at the end of the day, reach for a Thirsty Vaccaro. If you want something that pairs well with takeout food, you know, and I mean really all forms of takeout food. Oh, a mango and a pizza. So Thursday Vaccaro, Thursday Vaccarol, Thursday Vacaro, thank you very much to everybody who's reviewed the show that's helped. That's part of the juice, the sauce, so to say. Um, we got some stuff to talk about, all right? The Chicago Cubs, we have gold glove winners. I do want to talk a little bit about the World Series. There's something we got to make clear here about the Los Angeles Dodgers. And when I say stuff like that, guys, I'm not saying whether right, wrong, whatever. These are principal takes and institutional takes of the Monday morning cub show that if you're a maniac, this should improve the way you're gonna go through the next couple months of the offseason when people are bitching about the Dodgers. That's kind of where I'm coming from on this. We do have to get caught up on some goose jam band stuff. I've been meaning to ask you. I get a ton of DMs about talking, we got to talk more about the bands. We're not getting this is not gonna turn into a music podcast, but I do need to talk to Mahony specifically about goose. I have a question about the Chicago Bears, and then we're just gonna do Cubs offseason moves, fuck around in between. Let's just say it anyways, if we could keep it under 45 minutes, why not?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, we'll give it a shot. We'll see if we can keep that under a 45-minute clip. And Carl, if we go over, that's quite all right too. But for the listener's sake, we'll we'll try to keep this one tight.
SPEAKER_01:I'm being honest because I have carpal tunnel, and I don't know how this is going to impact the pot. I could be halfway through, I could get the numbness. I could get the lingering, the tingling.
SPEAKER_00:That could affect in post. That could be a direct effect in post.
SPEAKER_01:Carpal tunnel, rig of mortis, whatever you want to fucking call it. I'll tell you here are three guys that are absolutely not moving at all from this list anytime soon. Pete Crow Armstrong, Nico Horner, Ian App, congratulations on your gold gloves, fellas.
SPEAKER_00:Yep, congrats on the gold gloves, the most in Major League Baseball. I believe we had six nominees, three winners. Uh Nico has just that was pretty much, I think, a lock PCA. 19 five-star catches comparison to any other team in the league. I want to say it was around five at most. Uh could be wrong there, either way. No, no, no, don't could be wrong. Don't could be wrong. I guarantee you 19-5-star catches for PCA and Ian Hap, now just you know, a perennial gold glove winner in left field. Uh it's blessed to be this good defensively. And, you know, there's a few other guys on the team that probably could have wanted to.
SPEAKER_01:See, I don't give a shit about the gold glove when arguing with someone else about a player. And if someone said this guy's Grays won a gold glove, I'd say, I don't give a fuck. Darbar popularity kind of Darwin Barney.
SPEAKER_00:Sure. Gold gloves.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. Like that's something, but hold on. I used to make that argument. I did.
SPEAKER_00:That was that's why I bring it up because it's in our very good, yes, it was how I defended my autographed framed poster of Darbar.
SPEAKER_01:In one of our close muchos, Jake, too, he hated Darwin Barney's guts. I had many of arguments with Jake, and in these arguments, I would be an idiot. I would say stuff like he's won a gold glove, which in those arguments I don't think it matters. Now, here's where the gold glove matters. It's just moments like this. You and I sit around fucking around going, Well, that's nice. Congratulations to Nico Horner, Pete Crow Armstrong. And Ian Hep, it's all different for different reasons, too. I think for Pete Crow Armstrong, it's the first of like, you know, people think he should win 10. Ian Hep now has won enough where you can legitimately say he's like the best defensive left fielder for a long time, since like Alex Gordon, maybe. Or you know, you can really start to argue against people who hate his guts.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, best left fielder in the past 10 years. Like, that's just an argument you can make immediately.
SPEAKER_01:And then Nico Horner need needs this for his contract, is gonna be up, he is gonna be a free agent. And while I was just saying I don't think they matter, what I mean is within an argument, if you were trying to tell me Nico Horner's a good player, and I said why, and you said because he won a goal glove, I'd say shut the fuck up. But if you say, hey, this guy's won five in a row, that's way different, you know. Once you start getting to the territory where you're stacking these accolades, and so I think it's awesome that we're able to see that for me in hap one, two, it's fun with Pete Crow Armstrong. It's kind of like you it's it's like dare I say, it's like when you saw Goose for the first time in 2021, and you're like, man, it'd be sick to see him at the garden. You have that little feeling in your stomach of like, I can't wait to see how big this gets.
SPEAKER_00:Is this guy gonna be the best ever at his position? That kind of thing. Um, yeah, it is very much the start of something, and what we've seen, you know, just highlight reel after highlight reel. Um, I believe that he'll be seeing many more gold gloves for years to come. And really, that's what you said, like the beginning, the starting of it. It's it's it means a lot more than just you know, rep and saying, like, hey, this dude won a gold glove twice in his career over the course of 15. This dude's gonna win many.
SPEAKER_01:It halves underrated, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for sure. Absolutely underrated. And I feel like I even underrate him at times as the season goes on because he's type he's that roller coaster guy you kind of got to ride with, but then you forget how locked down he is in left field. And I think PCA might have taken some you know distraction from that because we were seeing him, you know, moving so much in center, but it goes back, Ian Hap, just that consummate, you know, that rock in left field that has been there since day one, and he's got what, four and out gold gloves to show for it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, this is his fourth in a row. Yeah, that's a met's phenomenal. You know, the other thing too with him, last five seasons he's averaged 156 games started. Or 100 156 games played. Yeah, that's amazing. Durability. So people hate him. I like him. I don't necessarily there's people who love him. I think he's very good. And I think he's a which is a lame to say. I think he's very good. But like obviously, a hard spore, b longevity, done it all while wearing the uniform. I think he should get like what I'm trying to say here is I think he deserves more benefit of the doubt and more like innocent until proven guilty. People love you until he gives you a reason to hate him. Where I think he's just like the first player people love to shit on. On Cubs Twitter, on Cubs Twitter, I should say.
SPEAKER_00:You know, I feel as well as if he had kind of that puppy dog Anthony Rizzo-esque personality, then he wouldn't be as easy of a target for people to dislike. And I don't want to say like that's just his personality, that's who he is. You know, we're not gonna get anything different there, but if he was more of that like joking around type of dude, maybe he wouldn't be the person that you know they get really upset when he has those down months.
SPEAKER_01:I'm just speculating. I've met him, he is intense, he is a funny guy, but he is intense, um, in a understated way, like in a just a real, like damn serious way. Now, his father, who passed away when he was younger, was a PGA professional guy, was like a professional golf, like runs the country club, you know, whatever. He's like in that PGA of America thing, and he was right, you know, grew up on the golf course or whatever. And those guys can be fucking real serious in competition, right? The way those guys get like laser focused about stuff. I always think that about him when he's playing. Then he does strike me as like a guy on tour playing on a Sunday, coming down the stretch, people yelling at him like I think you might get like a little head nod from him or a wave at the start of the game. But for the most part, dude, he's just such a what I'm trying to say is a real bona fide professional, and that was a detriment to the 2016 core and some of those younger guys. You'd point your finger and say, El Morris should be a better pro, Baya should be a bigger pro, Addison Russell's a trash pro, Rizzo consummate pro. Rizzo consummate, right? Some some issues with Chris Bryan after injury. But my point in saying this, like Ian Hap is just a consummate in every single way. Congratulations, four-strike gold gloves.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's truly amazing. Congratulations, Ian Hap and the rest of the boys.
SPEAKER_01:See, this is why we have a hard time going 45 minutes, because I get so I mean, completely long-winded about my appreciation for Ian Hap and maybe just some deep character trait Molly.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I mean, I think that it does go to show why he is who he is based on that upbringing. And it's something to fill in the maniacs as we're, you know, continuing along on our 45-minute journey.
SPEAKER_01:I hope he is hitting the ball well right now. I'm talking about the golf ball because he a couple weeks left. Got to get your scores posted here, guys. And you have two weeks left in the state of Illinois before you get your scores posted for 2025. So you know he's out there right now, Shore Acre, Chicago Golf Club, just pounding, just absolutely taking the biggest fucking divots. All right, so uh speaking of taking a big swing, some big swings in the World Series here, guys. Game seven, let me start here. Did was that a better game seven than ours?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's hard just with the bias, obviously, but if you look at the the way everything played out at the end of the Dodgers Blue Jays Game 7, I don't know, man. I I I'm I would never say it's better than ours just because we ended the 108-year what have you. But dude, I don't know if I've ever felt worse for a fan base than I did the Blue Jays within you know those that 20 minute stretch.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that was that was just excruciating. Now I think if you had to pick between the two, it's a good examination of if you like the pain, then this was a better Oh yeah, yeah. If you're into that, if you're into just like complete gut-wrenching, heartbreaking failure, then I've hard to beat this one. The Blue Jays could not have given it up.
SPEAKER_00:Just the almost walk-off, two dudes colliding, the series ending, like everything. Migo Rojas hasn't hit a dinger since September, right? The nine-hole hitter. There's just there was so much that happened and the the cinematic, you know, respect of baseball that I could not get over the blue jays lost that game. I I really couldn't, and then I also wasn't that surprised that the Dodgers won it, if that makes any sense at all.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I would like to say people were cheering for the Blue Jays as a counter to the Dodgers and how much money they spend.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, because the Dodgers spend a lot of money. Show Hey Otani, 70 million a year, etc. Don't make me go through it. But they have three, what, 350 million payroll, 330 or something. And the beauty is people were cheering, which is obviously the first in baseball by a lot, which is a lot. And people were cheering for the Blue Jays because the Dodgers, you know, are the evil empire and all this stuff. Little do people know the Dodgers or the Blue Jays, I should say, spend$260 million in payroll or almost$20 million over the luxury tax. Yeah, on the board. Some of the biggest cards. Public doubt. They're like sixth in pay. People are like, we're cheering for the blue jays because I hate the Dodgers because they spend so much money. Because people are spending$260, and then I'm not even converting that for the Canadian, you know, I don't have that exchange rate in front of me. That's a lot of change, buddy. It's a lot. So if you were cheering for the Blue Jays on the principle of, you know, fuck the Dodgers because they spent a lot of money, I think that is a misplaced uh that's a misplaced sentiment.
SPEAKER_00:Misplaced. It's almost like I was cheering against them just for how well they spend all that money. Because if you just look at everything, how what came together, um, it was just non-stop, dude. Like, and all those contracts have paid for themselves, ladies and gentlemen. So all that money that they deferred, they're already counting, they're counting right now, they're in the green for the most part. Like, yeah, money well spent across the board in LA.
SPEAKER_01:That was a crazy, that's probably the best seven-game World Series. Like the best games within them. The games are incredible.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, and even the ones where it's like the Dodgers bats are dead. Uh, can they come back? They did. The ball gets stuck in the wall. There was storyline after storyline, superstar-driven headlines with Otani not pitching. They're not gonna pitch to him the rest of the series. That's something I read that the you know, Blue Jays manager actually said, and then they they did, obviously, but I mean, I really thought they weren't gonna pitch to Otani for the rest of the series. I bought into that, and it was just it was from a fan perspective, it was everything that you could have wanted in a World Series. And, you know, our sting, you know, the taste was kind of out of our mouth by that point because we got to watch some of the National League Championship game, have a couple shows, you know. I got to join, I got to listen to you on a few. So it was nice to just enjoy it as a baseball fan and get to see just such an amazing product. It's really good for the league all around. I think so.
SPEAKER_01:They're great, they're awesome. Beat them, beat them. The Blue Jays almost beat him. Ernie Clement almost beat him. Miguel Rojas is the guy who stepped up for him. You know, Yamamoto, by the way, certified gangster. I know you're big at Osaka. Can you just tell me for a little bit about like what people in Osaka think about him?
SPEAKER_00:Or they I mean the fact that his his like samurai spirit, if you will, when he brings it to knowing like I'm gonna go deep in this game, I'll be available on extras tomorrow. Three days rest, no problem. He'll do anything for that squad. Deep out, and that that really is is just that was magical to watch, dude. World series MVP, like that dude. Holy smokes, you just don't see that often in a pitcher.
SPEAKER_01:Ball's the size of my head, I tell you. You know, just an unbelievably gutsy performance from that motherfucker.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was it was unit was really unbelievable to watch great World Series.
SPEAKER_01:So now Dodgers aren't ruining baseball. There is no salary cap. There shouldn't be a salary cap. That's the whole point of why you play baseball. The contracts are gigantic. Most of these guys, you know, could go play something somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, what's the formula? Develop players and spend a shitload of money. That's it. That's how you win in this day and age.
SPEAKER_01:So you can't tell me the Dodgers are ruining baseball because they gave Yamamoto$325 million. It's a lot of money. They gave it to him. That's how they want to spend it. If this guy blew his elbow out, couldn't pitch in the World Series, and they lost it. You know, there is a risk when you spend that much money. And they've done a great job developing these players. Thank you. They're not ruining baseball. Who's ruining baseball? Bob Nutting, the guy who owns the Pirates, fuck him. Uh, you know, the family who owns the Nationals, and the people with the Angelo family or whatever. Whoever the people are that own the Orioles, fuck those people. Right.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know their names, but I know who you're talking about. That's what I was gonna bring up, but I didn't because I didn't know their names.
SPEAKER_01:You know, at least the people who own the Marlins, I guess, are starting to try. You know, and who cares? That stadium is that neighborhood's shitty, but it's Southsiders.
SPEAKER_00:I got bad news for you. Private equity isn't gonna come and save anything over there, and I think you all know that, but either way.
SPEAKER_01:I know. They uh that Jerry Reinsorf's a huge issue, you know. Dude, there's so many problems. The Dodgers aren't one of them. The Mariners almost went to the World Series, and the Mariners ownership is a group of like rich friends from Seattle that bought out Nintendo in the 90s, and I they didn't spend dick on them, Mariners, the investments exploded, but they're all like when I say modestly wealthy, there's a billionaire in the group or something, I'm sure. But it's mostly guys 100 million here, 200 million here, that pooled their money in together to buy the Mariners. And I'm just using this as an example of like they're a game away from playing for the World Series, and you saw how hard the Blue Jays played against the Dodgers. It's not like the Dodgers swept them and steamrolled them and all this stuff. Like, there's definitely a threshold to like where you have to be good enough to compete.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I thought series over. I did not think that the LA was gonna come back and win that going into game six. No shit.
SPEAKER_01:So the problem is just the shit are the fucking shitty teams that don't spend money. So there's my World Series take. With all this said, I need a break. I'm talking too much. What's going on with Goose? This is by far the official band of the Monday Morning Club show.
SPEAKER_00:The fall tour has concluded. They did make an appearance at Hula Wien last night out of Florida, a festival with a number of jam bands, it seems. Um, you know, there were some rumors about a late fall tour looking like that's gonna be mostly down south in Florida and throughout. So while it doesn't look like there's a lot on the Midwest calendar, I think that could prove pretty fruitful for us come wintertime. We might see a couple of Milwaukee's Grand Rapids, and I'd imagine maybe a show or two in Chicago. So that would be great. Um, but no, great fall tour throughout. The boys were dressed up last night. Rick had some kind of weird part. I don't think I think they were just kind of being like funny aliens kind of thing. It wasn't like a a uniform costume. In the past, they've done stranger things, opened up with the opening to stranger things. Um, you know, uh funny too, we brought this up as a topic, Carl. I I finally did it. So I I went and got my goose vinyl sticker, and now that bad boy is on my MacBook Pro, right in the top left corner, and I'm I got the band sticker on my MacBook, the only thing, so there's a nice, you know, simple, simple, clean feel to it. Um and I don't know, but putting pulling back like a sticker, a slap, as they like to say in the industry, on my computer, it brings me such joy, or hanging a poster. It is truly the little things in life that that make me the happiest. And I've been just pulling out my my computer, just looking at the sticker that's on there for the past few days.
SPEAKER_01:So I've been I've been to a ton of shows with I've been to a ton of shows with Mahoney, and it's amazing your ability to get these posters and keep them in good enough shape because most people, when you see them, they've got the poster rod slung over the shoulder.
SPEAKER_00:I don't have a tube, I'm not carrying it. You're not a tuber.
SPEAKER_01:It's crazy. It's like it's one of the greatest gifts or skills. Mahoney can be juggling two different beers, you know, left-handed cigarette hanging out of the side of his mouth with his poster untouched, yeah, crystal clear.
SPEAKER_00:I'm pretty proud of myself for that, Carl. Thanks for pointing it out. Um, I also, yeah, big on the Tchotkis. Anybody's handing out pins and stuff. Like, I'm always down to get a couple pins. I'll give you however many couple bucks here and there. Those all always all end up in the garage, you know, in the studio. Um, I haven't gotten the chain your dragon vinyl, so my birthday's coming up on Friday. Potates, if you're listening to this, just you know, cough, cough. Chain your dragon vinyl. Love to spin that one on my birthday. But no, yeah, goose, goose is back. I mean, two two studio albums out this year. Unbelievable work, really. I'm also going to be one of those guys, so they have Goosemist coming up. That's always around my daughter's birthday, so I'll likely never be able to go to Goosemis. But you know those festivals like like the Dead will throw in Mexico with like the little all-inclusive places.
SPEAKER_01:All time dream of mine is to hit inclusive for like Sturgel and Yeah, that is me when I'm 48 and older. That's the only thing I we're going to now. Here I am. I'm going to London on Tuesday or something. This is a big trip. A lot of expensive. Great. Let's do it. We're celebrating my Mrs. Carl. She deserves to be celebrated. And this is what we want she wants to do. So we're going to London. My point is, as I have this international trip lined up, planned, prepped, all this stuff. I'm just sitting here being like, damn, dude, week on the beach. All inclusive the five night.
SPEAKER_00:You're going to England tomorrow morning. Literally. Yeah. Yeah. No, I my point is I just can't wait to go to those things. But let's get let's get into London. Let's get in England. You're you're heading over across the pond. Um I did prepare some travel tips for you. I know you're a traveler, so a lot of these might be something you're pretty well versed in. But um anything else, Carl, about like, yeah, you guys are heading out to London for the week.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, my I would say I don't know. I'm sure other people can attest to this or something. My wife and I are that's so lame, my wife and I.
SPEAKER_00:God, I have to it's only lame when you're you're saying it and you hear it yourself, dude. It's not lame when anyone else hears that sort of thing. Well, okay, thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you then. So our you know, I don't talk that much about private life, historically speaking. Um, our big our favorite thing to do, where we like to go hiking and see, we're not we're like urban hikers. We like put on the walking shoes and log in like 15 miles through a metropolitan center and bar crawling and going to museums and stuff. Now, I guess that's called sightseeing, but we like to party. So I'm like, it ain't sightseeing. I'll tell you right now, it ain't necessarily sightseeing as much as it's more like having a car bomb at 10 a.m., hitting the road, getting out, meeting people, going to pubs, making friends, and we're like that wherever we go.
SPEAKER_00:Um there might be some birding in between here and there. Yeah. Some what? Birding. You know, checking out birds, writing down uh we do bird watch. That's why I brought it up. I know.
SPEAKER_01:We're weird, dude. I am in particular. No, London's the big London is the like the big leagues of pub crawling and walking around town and going to museums and going where there's a couple soccer games we're gonna go to, there's a couple theater plays we're gonna go to. I got the private box for mousetrap, longest running play on West End since 1942 and Agatha Christie. So that'll be fun. There's a lot of fun stuff you know, we've wanted to do. But the biggest thing, honestly, is we like getting up first thing in the morning, walking all over town and having a dozen beers.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, dude, that's the way to really experience the culture.
SPEAKER_01:So that's basically, and if you know Mrs. Carl, she She can she can keep up with just about anybody. Um, so that's kind of what we're doing, which isn't to make it sound like we're just going there to get loaded, but like I do have a list of all these bars from like 1550, 1650, you know, Charles Dickens used to drink here, shit like that. So with all that being said, Tim, what's your tips? What do you got for me, pal?
SPEAKER_00:You know about the chargers. I know you're gonna be loaded with portable chargers, but you do know that they have type G plugs in the hotels and any other lodging that you'll be doing in an Airbnb or wherever that happened you happen to be staying. So bring your type G power converter. That's gonna be my tip number one for when your portable chargers need to be charged themselves. Carl, you're gonna bring your bum bag, okay? You're bringing your bum bag. I know you're a big fanny pack guy. Here on the States, we call it the fanny pack. You say that you got your fanny pack on in England, they're gonna give you a bit of a side eye. You're gonna call it the bum bag. So your fanny pack, once you cross over into Heathrow, uh you're gonna be calling it a bum bag from there on out.
SPEAKER_01:And I have two. Um this was my plan because you got to be careful for pickpockets. Yes. So I have a tight, smaller bum bag that I'm gonna wear underneath the jacket. And a burner valuables, and then I'm gonna have a burner strapped across the front of me that's gonna have non-essentials, the Rick, you know, the Rick Steves map. Yeah, you know, but burner pair of sunglasses. That was my strategy, you know, yeah. Incidentals, I suppose. But thank you, bumbag. I gotta be careful. I I'm going over with multiple fanny packs.
SPEAKER_00:And uh, you know, not to tip there. I know you've been to Europe plenty, but you're not gonna have to tip at any of these bar places, even though you might try, they're gonna tell you not to. From what I've been told. Hey, I've never been to England.
SPEAKER_01:Number one thing I'm excited to see is how I will handle this because I'm gonna have a couple beers and then I'm gonna get an American, I'm gonna have my American ego's gonna come out of me.
SPEAKER_02:You're gonna fucking money, dude.
SPEAKER_01:Take the fucking money. Appreciate it. Go buy yourself a pack of bubblegum. All right, George. Take the fucking money. No, and I'm also nervous, someone's gonna make fun of my accent. I'm gonna be nine L's deep into the day, and some local is gonna be giving me a hard time. Say couch again.
SPEAKER_00:They're gonna target you to the Midwest, even. You're gonna they're gonna know the region of the states that you're coming from for sure. I had gotten that a lot when I went to like Germany, but I feel like that Londoners are are more uh dialed into our television and cultural landscape of the Bastons, Chicago's, New York's.
SPEAKER_01:Have you worked or spent time with any Brits?
SPEAKER_00:A bit, not nothing extensive to where we had an actual relationship.
SPEAKER_01:I had two close one work relationship for one year in a consulting capacity where he came over from London to work in the Chicago office. I was like 25, 26, had just finished my CPA exams and was working on projects with this guy. And then another time worked three years with the sales guy who was from London, who had moved to Chicago because he got he married a girl from Chicago and then they relocated. He won't move to, I guess she met him while she was studying abroad or simple. Anyways, this guy ends up in Chicago. He he literally was like, I got married knocked, basically got married to this girl. He ends up in Chicago, not by any plan of his own.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So two guys I worked close with, one guy for three years, another guy for one year, they are in my estimation, fucking awesome people. Hilarious. Like, you want to have a cold beer, have a cold beer. You want to dip out early, but these guys will work till midnight if they have to. But they won't do shit around the office. They're hilarious guys. And they're representative of the value of the lad value, of the chap value, of the having a pint at lunch, you know, double taking the cute girl who walks by in the mini skirt, you know, very much the as long as you get your work done type of mentality. You know. Guys like to fuck around, so we're gonna have a good time.
SPEAKER_00:That is gonna be fun.
SPEAKER_01:What other tips you got for me, Mahoney, so I don't end up face down in the Thames?
SPEAKER_00:Well, more of a question are you doing the double decker tour?
SPEAKER_01:I don't think we're gonna do a double decker tour, but I am gonna use the double decker bus.
SPEAKER_00:So you can just use the double decker bus. That's just their buses.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh. Well, I will go to the top floor of those buses if you can. Just like an IMAX screen, you know, just like live. So I thought that that was all tours. That's their actual like transit system.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, those are their actual buses.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, very cool. Double decker buses is their actual buses. How's about it? Right?
SPEAKER_01:Castles, you gotta hit up some castles, Carl. You think it was just iconic because someone owns a company that they're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00:I thought it was like Wendella boats, but double decker.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, we're being selfish here on the Monday morning cub show. Really, for the first time in the history of the show. Most of the show just fires and goes. Cubs, cubs, cubs. So we're off season. We gotta let loose during the offseason a little bit.
SPEAKER_00:Any football matches going on? Are you gonna be able to catch any football matches even in you know league three, English league?
SPEAKER_01:We're in match week, I believe, 11 now, 12. So no, you know what? I'm going the first night, I'm going to Queen's Park Rangers game, which is in the second tier, and it's easy to buy tickets. Six, and then everyone else, everyone else is in it's impossible to get tickets. So I'm calling in some favors from some buddies that do business in London to see if they can help me get these Chelsea tickets. Because you have to be as annual subscriber to the like team. You gotta pay like whatever. Chelsea wants me to pay 55 pounds plus conversion rate with no point three, nothing set 70 pounds. I think I get a scarf and a fucking wall magnet, you know, to be a part like of their official support or network.
SPEAKER_00:That's wild.
SPEAKER_01:So so then that thus allows me to go into their official resale exchange and possibly buy some tick like I don't know about this.
SPEAKER_00:When is that gonna get to the states? When is major league baseball gonna adopt that model? As soon as you started talking about that, I feel like Tom's already ticking. Don't they have some sort of stake in one of the EPL teams?
SPEAKER_01:He tried to get its stake at Chelsea because that's right. Okay, once Russia invaded Ukraine, apparently the NATO made the former owner of the Russian the Russian owners tell the team or whatever.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, that makes sense. But now watch next season. We're gonna have you're gonna have to pay a subscription fee to be an official Cubs fan.
unknown:All right.
SPEAKER_01:I want to go back to the I want to go back to when Russia invaded Ukraine for a second.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, yeah, let's go back to the invasion.
SPEAKER_01:No, I'm stunned Tom Ricketts hasn't figured out a way to like you're not your your your phone will explode if you're within the boundaries of Wrigley Field and you haven't paid your annual fucking Wrigley Field membership due or something, the GPS fee. That guy's such a all right. So here's an interesting thing. I'm doing I'm doing a deep dive research. I got my hand on old documents that Project Northside, which is the four Ricketts kids. That was what I know that was the four Ricketts kids that they used to buy the cubs because Joe the dad didn't want it them to buy the cubs. But the kids were like, our family should do this, this is a good perpetuation of the wealth, and so they put together a bunch of work and research. I shouldn't say they did, they hired a ton of people, but I got my hands on the fucking wealth management deck from from like the JP Morgan people that were basically putting together the loan package for like$845 million. I got my hands on a bunch of information.
SPEAKER_00:You got your hands on the documents that you have to say, hey, look, I got my hands on the documents, no one's seen these things in 15 years. That's pretty cool just in itself.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And it basically validates that they had bought the Cubs on the premise of it's a fail-proof purchase because of the operating revenue. And so you guys can take on this loan and you can do this because the annual revenue is never going to be below this. And so when COVID happened and they had no fans and no operating revenue, and there were no fans until June of 2021, when he says biblical losses, obviously, I think relative to this, so I'm gonna do more research, and I think I'm gonna sit down and do a solo, like you know Dan Carlin hardcore history, just some two-hour just deep dive into like this is how they bought the team, this is what they were looking for. So that was a project I had in my mind. I don't know why I started talking about that. I gotta shut the fuck up.
SPEAKER_00:No, but that's good to know because we were talking about Chelsea, we were talking about the fan subscription. Oh, yeah, just to have the ability to buy tickets, but it's all interesting stuff, and you know that they've thought about it, it's come across the desk.
SPEAKER_01:He should sell the cubs. He should sell the cubs.
SPEAKER_00:So and the biblical losses thing, I feel like that word you have to use it in a specific context. Like it's a choice word to use because in relation to any insurance policies, so like uh um what is what is the usual term, uh hand of God, not but uh you know, something of God, uh act of God, act. So that's what they're talking really when it comes to like massive, you know, her hurricane or uh earthquake hit the ballpark, and COVID, I guess, was at Tom's eyes biblical. So I'm sure that those are choice words for him to get a couple extra bucks in his pocket one way or the other.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah. Because he's a he's uh he's just it's time for him to move on, is what I would say. I'm not judging him.
SPEAKER_00:I hope you get the tickets to go to a Chelsea game, though, Carl. I think that would be wonderful if you're working on it. I'm gonna figure out that I'm happy you're gonna go see a match regardless, and that's fun. And the fact that you and your wife are gonna enjoy some time, you know, in London and uh Piccadilly Square, or whatever it's called, if you will.
SPEAKER_01:That's the British Museum. Yeah, I have my itinerary mapped out. That took a lot of time and effort. So we have hey, just my last note here. Did the Bears win or did the Bengals lose?
SPEAKER_00:I have it as the Bears won only because they were up by two touchdowns. But then, I mean, the Bengals completely blew it with that one on the end, 15 points, 49 seconds. I mean, we still would have been in field goal range, so that's why I feel like we won the game. But holy shit, is that defense just absolutely atrocious? They don't know how to tackle. Um, we basically did whatever we wanted throughout the game, and I'm not sure about our defense, but I know that the Bengals is a lot worse, and I'm happy that we came away with a win with Caleb Williams looking solid once again.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, we almost lost that game, Joe Flacco. And he's obviously a Hall of Fame quarterback, and anybody who says otherwise is obviously blow me. Um, I think he's thrown for 45,000 yards in his career.
SPEAKER_00:Now he broke his own record yesterday for yards in the air.
SPEAKER_01:I could have I could have gone without knowing that. Like that one of that things a little bit because like whatever. He's got weapons, he's got weapons, yeah. You know, he's on the field a lot. He we scored a bunch of points, he had a bunch of opportunities to go out there, and that bothers me though, big time.
SPEAKER_00:Some of the catches they made were absolutely bananas, too.
SPEAKER_01:It's just they put when they put the schedule out, and I'm like, you gotta go to Baltimore, then we gotta go to Cincinnati. You know, oh, I wanted to die. I may not, I don't want to, who cares? We're just talking about being so.
SPEAKER_00:But then when you see that they're when we see the injuries, like I had both of those circled as wins.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it goes from being auto loss to we should win these games. And I'm sitting there thinking if we're gonna lose to Joe Flacco and the Bengals, this atrocious defense. We didn't. That's why I'm willing to say the Bears won. The Bengals didn't lose, the Bears won.
SPEAKER_00:And our any old Bears team loses that game, and there's a few examples of that this year where we're winning games traditionally, we absolutely lose.
SPEAKER_01:Is Ben Johnson a hard o? Is he a hard ass? Is is he need because my point is we don't we have so many penalties, so many format, so much it's like, but what are we doing? Why are we always penalized? Why can't we not be penalized? So then I look at Ben Johnson and I'm thinking to myself, this is a guy who's doing a little bit too a little bit too much, maybe too much, too much too much paprika in the chili. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, there could be where that's a double-edged sword with when it comes to discipline and your players and players actually buying into what you're doing. I think they are buying in, but are they almost frightened when they're on that line and they're a little jumpy because you know it's supposed to be a hard count? And that we've seen a lot of false starts and little things like that.
SPEAKER_01:He's asking them to do, you know, hey, I want the tackle to pull here, you're gonna hesitate. I think there could be the play structure, it could be so complicated.
SPEAKER_00:These guys get to the line, they're like, Oh, dude, yeah, how many um uh formations like where it's an illegal formation right off the bat, like I'll see him line up and I'm like, this looks weird, and then there's a flag immediately. That's been happening a lot. So, yeah, I do think you're on to something, and it's something that we're gonna have to keep an eye on.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like when Ted Williams was a hitting coach, people said he was a terrible hitting coach because he knew so much about hitting. That's just what makes me nervous about Ben Johnson. He could know too much about offense, he takes too many things for granted, too many assumptions, where really like your players are morons. Listen to Kurt Signetti from Indiana talk about his players. Not saying they're morons, but he only drills, they do practice for an hour and 20 minutes, hour and 30. He's like, these guys can't can't work these guys much harder than that because they just don't have the mental capacity for it. I know we're professionals here, guys. I'm not talking about hiring Kurt Signetti. I like Ben Johnson. What I'm talking about is are we asking these guys to digest too much so that by the time we get to the line of scrimmage, you know, the penalty that that's where I get I just the penalties kill me. The penalties kill me. If it just Mount Carmel doesn't commit penalties like that, Joliet Catholic. I mean, there's cleaner programs at the IHSA level. Obviously, Brother Ice, good luck to them, you know, against Jacobs this weekend. But my point is there's yeah, you need cleaner football.
SPEAKER_00:It's cleaner football, and you have to coach to your personnel, and whether that be making things a little less complicated for certain players or what have you, just to avoid you know, giving those yards away, then you might have to think that. But either way, a win's a win, and I'm happy that we're five and three with a half game out of first place at the halfway point of the year.
SPEAKER_01:I'll take five and three all day. I don't care if they're a bad team, I don't care if they got holes. Guacamole, Swiss cheese, you name it. What I love is that we're five and three, tough schedule. So it gets harder. You know, I have carpal tunnel, long covet, mahoney. How are you doing? You got a little anything?
SPEAKER_00:I actually do have that arthritis in my foot that I thought was planter. I thought it was a little planter fasciitis, but it's really been sitting on the top of my foot, so I think I have some joint issue there. Could be related to the COVID that I had a couple months ago. So something to think about. Um, other than that, though, no, just the meniscus in the knee that I got to get, you know, scraped and and checked out real quick. But other than that, I'm feeling physically pretty solid right now.
SPEAKER_01:Now, will you go to Mexico for that procedure?
SPEAKER_00:No, I got a doctor in Colorado that's gonna do it. Nice buddy of mine. I said, if you're ever if I'm ever getting surgery on my knee, you're gonna be the guy. One of my best.
SPEAKER_01:I'm sure that won't be complicated for the post op or right.
SPEAKER_00:No, and the insurance and all that that we try to run through. What are you doing? Yeah, I thought at first like he could just slap me up, put some gas on me, but he's like, No, it'd even turn those machines on.
SPEAKER_01:That's why you gotta have a buddy who's like a veterinarian or something, you know, for like the risky stuff. Exactly. You know, cash only. That's so that's so funny. Um, okay, we're at the foot, we're just a little bit over 45 minutes. The last cub thing I'll say is I think that we should decline Showdays option and we should let him pick up the 15 million. So we talked about that. I talked about that extensively last week. So that was just my closing. I spent some time on it, and like I love him. I think he's awesome. I think we could replace him in free agency. If like, yeah, like I don't, I just don't, it's a lot 57 million for three years is a lot of money for a guy that I don't know if he can go a full season and then pitch in the playoffs, like in any meaningful capacity.
SPEAKER_00:No, don't disagree. And I was just in prep for the show, and we're not going to dive too deep into the free agency moves because it is fresh. You know, the Dodgers did just win the World Series about 36 hours ago. But there are starting pitchers out there. A lot of the names that came up across the trade deadline with your Zach Gallins, Dylan Sees has, of course, been a name that's being thrown around that we're looking at. Um, the market looks okay, and then of course, like there's no chance I'm gonna look at like what relievers are out there because I'll never be able to guess that. And I think that they just the people internally know a little bit more about that, but we'll like to see some little reclamation projects that we've seen, you know, in the Brad Collars, the Drew Pomerantz, and that sort of thing. But yeah, the names are out there. I think you know, when the stove does actually start heating up, we will make a move and it will be interested to see on that show to that show to option what the direction of the club is going to take.
SPEAKER_01:It's perfectly said, Mahoney. Perfectly said. I think reliever free agency, that's too deep. I think if you're talking to people, this is for all maniacs.
SPEAKER_00:You got somebody's in here and they're going, not really like scooter is from you know, I tried doing that last season, and I'm like, what am I doing, dude? I don't know enough about these dudes to look at the colour. The relievers?
SPEAKER_01:No, the relievers, it's that's impossible. There's like two relievers you could say, like, oh, he's gonna sign a big contract. Everybody else, you have no clue, no one has any idea. Like Drew Pomerance was raking leaves this time last year. Like Drew Pomerance, you know, whatever. Brad Keller was a starting pitcher, Caleb Thielbar was coaching college baseball. You know, the bulk of our bullpen, you know, Andrew Kittridge, which what was he's an auto mechanic and it's free time. He's changing he changes oil. At a Jiffy Lube, works for his uncle Gary, Gary Kittridge. Go get your oil changed. That's amazing. All right, this is the Monday morning cub show. Subscribe, share it if you guys get a chance. Audio only, guys. No video.
SPEAKER_00:All right, gang. Till next time.
SPEAKER_01:No Cubs.