Ball or Strike: Your Uncle Gary Is Going To Prison

Five games back can feel like nothing or everything, and right now it feels like everything. We’re locked into the NL Central race, refreshing Brewers scores, and asking the only question that matters for late-August Cubs baseball: do we actually have a path to catch Milwaukee, or are we just entertaining ourselves?

We dig into the roster the way real fans do, with equal parts love and obsession. Pete Crow-Armstrong gets the spotlight as a true headline player because the speed, defense, and swagger are changing games nightly. We also give flowers to the “memory makers” like Javier Assad for underrated run-stopping work, and Nico Hoerner for quietly doing second-half damage while the broader conversation looks elsewhere. Along the way, we hit the bigger theme: enjoying the regular season without letting October anxiety steal the fun.

Then we get serious about what shifts a season. Dansby Swanson’s oblique injury isn’t just a lineup swap, it changes the entire feel of the infield and what the pitching staff can attack. From there, we pressure-test an October rotation built around Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes, talk playoff seeding and why the top wildcard spot at Wrigley matters, and map out how the bullpen looks if Palencia locks down the ninth. We even take a detour into the Dodgers money noise, just long enough to remind ourselves to stop staring at other teams and handle our business.

If you’re riding with this Cubs team, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more fans find us.

Thanks for tuning in! 

- Carl & Mahoney

Transcript

Friday Solo Show Ground Rules

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning, good afternoon, and evening, Chicago Cubs fans, and welcome back to the Monday Morning Cub Show. It is Thursday, August 20th. This is your Friday episode, your second episode of the Monday Morning Cub Show. We're in season, baby. We're rolling. We're 20 games over 500. We're 74 and 54. We're going to talk about it. We got a lot to talk about today's show. Put the gun to my head. I'll do it. We'll do, we'll do, we'll be out of here 45 minutes. We'll be out of here 45 minutes. Uh, if you're new to the show, I do solo shows on Friday. They get a little weirder. They just do. They have been the last couple weeks. Is that because I'm weird? Yes. Is it also a testament to the community? Yes. We have weirdos listening to this. We're all weird. That's why it's weird on Fridays. Uh this past Monday, Mahoney was out. Um, so if you're if you're just new to the show and you're going back and you're getting acquainted, you're like, this guy just talks in the void solo. No, there's Mahoney. He's here on Mondays. He's classic. He's wonderful. He's the most electric 40-something-year-old guy in the Chicago Land area. I promise you on that. So he's here on Mondays. This is Friday. This is how the show goes, an hour and a half. It's just the first bullet on the agenda. Boys. Okay, five games back. I have prepared some baller strike. I am excited to talk about the the really the sequencing of chasing the division. We're chasing the division, right? Like the box scores are open. The game tracker, the live updates. I have bumped the brewers into my favorites on top of uh, you know, my Chicago teams on the app so that I can see the score as soon as I open it. Because I know when I'm going into the app, the most use I have for the app right now is to find what's going on with the brewer score. So that's a problem. That's a lifestyle. That's a choice. That's a mental headspace. And we choose to live there. We choose to do the show.

Thirsty Vaquero And The Bit

SPEAKER_00 2:00

We choose to be Cubs fans, I guess. That sounds a little preachy, huh? Join Le Colt. Who wants a drink? What if I make it? I got the Kool-Aid. Uh, no, I'm not drinking Kool-Aid actually. I have a Lamone Le drone right here. I have a 12-ounce Thirst of Carol, the title sponsor of today's episode of all Monday Morning Cub Show episodes and lineup previews. Listen to this baby pop. Oh. A little bit of a little bit of moisture on top of the can there, boys. You know what I'm saying? Just a little moist. This little Lamon Ladrone, I'm gonna take a little sip here. That's a 12-ounce candle. Now, when they were like, hey, we're doing the 12-ounce big push manufacturer, blah, blah, blah. You know, you're thinking, hey, I've had the 16. I what's it like? I've had the tall boy. Oh, buddy. Oh, buddy. The the way a 12-ounce hits and uh the volume and the proportions, it's just so completely perfect. We talk about Thirsty Pacero all the time on the show. That's because there is no show without him. You know, it's a Mexican-style soda. It's got a signature spicy finish. It's got a little heat at the end of it. And I should have told you at the start of this, I'm gonna say it for those that are with me right now. If you did fast forward, you know, fucking rotten hell. What do you do for a living? You lay bricks? Fine. I don't get up in the morning and fucking pray for rain. You know, I don't go to your job site, you know, tell the guy who's paying you that guy's not good at his job. What are you doing? You're laying fucking bricks. You know, and I'm over here making your life harder. No thanks, pal. Now I'm not saying doing podcasts is laying bricks. What I'm just saying, simply here, guys, is let's not make each other's lives harder. You're here, you're in the show. I'm gonna ask you to reach in the fridge, grab a thirsty week carol. If you don't have one, get one. If you're looking for one, they're on Amazon. They ship to your front door 16 ounce, 12 ounce. You know. Try me. I s on my life, try me. And we will do, we will do it. We'll do the three hour, I'll just sit here and do beverage testing. You know, hour one, non-alcoholic. Hour one should be fucking hard boost, actually. Start with the hardest stuff, you know, and then gradually work your way in. I'll do that if I have to. Don't make me. Just go to Amazon, check out Thirsty Vicarol. Now, in conjunction with him, we obviously have a segment to get us

Player Flavors With Cubs Standouts

SPEAKER_00 4:25

rolling each week. Our Thirsty Vic Carol, there's three flavors. There's watermelon, there's mango muerte, there's Lamon Ladrone. Well, spicy watermelon. Who's our spicy watermelon player of the week? Who is the who is the player on the Cubs who encapsulates just, I mean, being the flagship, really, the torch bearer? It's Pete Crow Armstrong. We got some baller strike for him. Are you guys watching the shit he's doing? When I say he looks like Mike, Mike Trout meets Ken Griffe, and people go, You're crazy. You know, what I'm talking about is the the quick twitch that Trout has with the super stardom of Ken Griffey where you can't take your eyes off of him and he's sweet and he's cool. But at the same time, like in gameplay, like Mike Trout's a psychopath. Mike Trout is a uh lunatic. Now, a lot of that's kind of worn off over the years as he's like launching golf courses and shit. But when you're making the comparison about PCA, you're trying to say it's unlike anything you've ever seen until you see it, and then you go, There's nothing like it. You're right. You're a hundred percent right. That's a spicy watermelon, my friends. Welcome to my universe. Uh, okay, sorry. I'm gonna talk about Javier Assad here because he's our Mango Morte. He's just an underrated, he's he's Javier Assad just going three scoreless, balls on the table, you know, helping Gossman out. These are those situations you look back on if you are a lunatic and you did live live through the season. You know, casually, three years from now, you're gonna be in an elevator. You're gonna be where you have a cubs pin on your lapel. What do you do? You're you're an IT software salesman. Fine, fuck it. You're still selling software. In IT no less. You know, AI's coming for your job. We'll worry about that in another episode. But you wear you wear a fucking jacket to work when you have nice presentations. And so this this lapel, this cubs lapel, why am I doing this? It's uh it's on your blazer. You know, some nice guy gets on, 33rd floor, it's it's all melting. Oh fuck. Just work with me here. You're going to lunch, you've had a you've had you have a stressful day. And the guy's making small talk with you, and he sees the Cubs pin. And it's a 2026 World Series Championship Cubs pin. And this nice older man, you know, his guys, I mean, really, hanging on by a thread. And he sees your lapel and he goes, I like the pin. That was a great season. And you go, hell of a run. And he goes, You have a you have a favorite player from that team? And you go, Javier Assad. I mean, when he stepped up and crossed town class, and you'll know because you'll see the blank look flash across this guy's eyes. Because he, like many other people, don't give a fuck right now about the Chicago Cubs. Until what? Until it matters. So you're gonna drop the Javier Assad White Sox game reference on him, thinking, well, you just referenced the lapel, you're gonna lose this guy to fucking Mars, buddy. No shot does he know the Javier Assad game. The Javier Asad game is for you and me right now. It's so that six years from now, you know, you're gonna see me coming out of Butch McGuire's, and you're gonna go, Carl, Javier Assad game. And I'm gonna turn around, I'm gonna go mid-August 26. The fucking spark that lit the engine that drove us to the World Series fucking title, boys. That's what I'm talking about. That's why Javier Sad's the Mango Muerte. Send this guy down a triple. I don't want him, don't like him. Then one day, one day, what? You don't have a choice, buddy. I told you I'll go hours on this. Lamon Ladron, Nico Warner. All right. If I wrote it in the outline, I'm gonna talk about it. Just a guy, just does anybody know who has the most hits, the highest batting average, the fucking all the totals. I gotta watch the F-word. That was that one was too many. Some of them can be emphatic and performative, and they have their place. I listen to the tapes. I watch my own tape, pal. I know when it's a good one and a bad one. That was a bad one. Alright? But who's leading the league and everything? Second half, it's Nico Horner. You know, who who's not getting talked enough about? Probably Nico Horner because he didn't have a good first half. Do I think that's the rationale there? What's our takeaway then? A plus B equals C, C is equal to nobody talking about Nico Horner being good right now. I don't want any of you guys chasing it. So we're just moving on. Uh we got some baller strike here. I mean, if you're just coming across this show and you're going, who the who is this guy? Who is this lunatic? You know, nice to meet you, Michael Carl Stirk. By all means, call me Carl. You know, that's a very comfortable, that's a very comfortable uh, you know, what do you call name, I suppose. Goose, Maverick, Carl. You know, that's like when you hit the radio, you want my attention, you go, Carl, I'm tuned in. That's why you have a call sick. You know, and people are like, hey Mike, everyone turns around because everyone's name Mike. Do you get what I'm saying? That's why when you do the the type of work I do, you know, the type of work I do. Oh, wow, that was authentically so lame. When you've been when you've lived in this world, you would understand the need for a call sign, Carl, etc. Why am I down this rabbit hole? Why? Because this is a Friday show, and I'm saying if you guys are if you guys are sitting here, you're new to the show, you're a diehard, you just you just want more Cubs baseball. You know, and I'm over here just talking about non-alcoholic Mexican-style sodas, you know, and how they pair well with Chicago Cubs players. It's act one, baby. Like, let me get my legs underneath me. All right, let me process the Lamona drone. Now, baller strike division's still available.

Ball Or Strike Division Still Available

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Baller strike division is still available. That's a let me say this again. Baller strike, the NL Central Division is available. Now, because it's solo, I need you to say you gotta have one for me here. Is it a baller strike? I'm asking you, get your opinion ready because I'm gonna talk through this. I go fast. I'm gonna let you formulate one right now. Again, is the division still available? Ball or strike. That's a strike, correct. That is a strike. The reason that's a strike is we play Milwaukee a bunch at home. We got nine games, cup takes, offballs. I mean, really laying them in there. And then we play Milwaukee. How could that how could it possibly not be a strike? It's 3-0. This Little League World Series Empire. I mean, you you literally have to extort me. Uh, maybe not even me, a loved one. Me, I might even just call it a strike. Because it's like in honor of the game, I don't think I could call it a ball. And then you go, I'm I got a I'm holding your dog at knife point. Then fine, maybe it's a ball. Even then, I got history here. No, I love Scottie Puppin too much. It's a fucking ball. Put my dog down, dude. What are you doing with that knife? You out of your mind? It's a strike, guys. The division is still available. The reason the division is still available is because we still play Milwaukee. Now, a couple other things too. It's very easy to lose sight of this. We're 74 and 54. We'd be 10 games up in the AL West. Now, the AL sucks us here. Whatever. But think of some of the seasons. I've gotten on here preached extensively. We went from 1945 to 1984, no playoffs. 108 years, no championship. Obviously, guys, obviously. Thank you very much. But historically, when you think about just how bad we've been, uh it's crazy to say there's like a place in history, this 74 and 54 team, it's would we go to the playoffs in 1960? No. Right? Would we? No. Who we we that's is it no. I would actually now that I say that, we would have to catch Milwaukee to go to the playoffs. I probably should have wrote that one out there, dipshit. As I'm talking through this. That's the exercise. So as we're looking at can we catch Milwaukee this year to win the NL Central? Catching Milwaukee would be akin to making the playoffs many years ago. You know. Why does that matter? Because it just people bitch a lot. You know, we lose that game three Wednesday against the White Sox, get blanked at home, or keedy off the fucking scrap heat pile. That's another bad one. Uh, sorry, Lizard King. That's Lizard King's the guy's shout-out when I curse unnecessarily, by the way. And he's a diehard of the community. So if you hear me name drop a Lizard King, or if you hear me go Lizard King or Cook Daddy's another one of my guys, I got aces in the fucking sleeve, pal. All right, now that's a good F-word, Lizard King. Score that one is a good one. And by the way, you're not responsible for keeping track of good ones and bad ones. Just gross total only, and you're not even responsible for that. Just something you do for me out of the I don't even know why you do it. I just enjoy it. The fact I'm having this one-on-one with you right now in the middle of the show, uh, that's a special place for that's a special place for us. Send this to the boys. Um I want to get back to the vision, it's still being available. Why is this significant?

Enjoying The Regular Season Now

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Why? Well, in context of what matters to us, I'm gonna make this argument that this season and Cubs fans in general, we do lose sight of the day-to-day privilege is a stretch, gift is a stretch. I'd say the day-to-day break the game affords us in how much better that break is when your team is good. The privilege of having a good team, of giving a shit. So that we're just sitting here in mid-late August going, well, do we have enough for the playoffs? There's a balancing test of trying to enjoy it. Like I enjoyed today's off day. I know I'm gonna be into the Seattle series. I I know it this weekend, and that's a road West Coast series. That's a weird series. I really enjoyed today's off day, knowing tomorrow I'm all geared up. I'm all geared up for the Mariners. And I want to enjoy that Friday night Mariners game because we're 20 games over 500. We got a good mix of guys, played great baseball. In the same respect, you start to get to the point where you go, is this season only success if only a success if we're successful in the playoffs? And I've come to this point uh several times on the show uh this summer, and I'm gonna revisit this point now, and hopefully with a little bit more clarity of what I think is an essential part of being a Cubs fan this season and moving forward under the premise that this is a this is a well-run organization now, that we're out of whatever hole we were in, you know, in around COVID. Okay. The differentiator is they're two different seasons. Like I it's a regular season. I've I'm enjoying this regular season. I think this is a regular season that has captivated me. I love doing the show. I'm dialed into this team. I identify with each different player in some sort of unique capacity. I just feel very connected to the players and the way they play the game. All right, now is that esoteric because I watch them all the time? Is it because I do is it because we have this relationship? I do the show because we know each other, is it because I'm plugged into this historically? Why why does it matter? You know, I'll argue back because they play great defense every night, and you know you can count on that shit, you know, because like we're we're we're an extremely competitive team that's seemingly never out of any game. You know, when you think they've played their worst baseball, they're about to play their best. You know, when you think they've played their best baseball, there's like more good baseball to be played. It's it's an extremely wonderful dynamic, save the network there. And so that's where you just have to stop at the start of the show, 15 minutes in, as we transition into what I would comfortably say act two. You know, find them find time and enjoy without the wins and losses. The quality, the fact that it's good ball, that these guys are solid players, and there's no real big pussies, like at all. You know, I'm gonna try to make some arguments here in my head of like, do we have pussies on this team? No. I'll cut into a moment here real quick.

Bregman Spanish Moment And Clubhouse Life

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Here's a tangent. Alex Bregman getting on the post game the other day and just ripping it, just absolutely ripping it fluent Spanish. And okay, there's a moment where you get the goosebumps because what I'm thinking about is Kevin Alcantara having a question and not being able to explain it properly in English. Because that would probably be pretty complicated. You know, and I'm using him as an example. I don't know what his capacity is to speak English. That's a little unfair. What because the last name's Alcantara? Come on, Carl. You're right. You're right. That's a little unfair. I gotta do my due diligence on people's fucking linguistic capabilities before I start coming in here and painting broad strokes on this canvas. You know, that's some guys can't pick up the language. So I'm not saying Al Cantera. What I'm saying is fine, it's not Alcantara, it's Pedro Ramirez. Well, that's Ramirez, how convenient. It's like maybe it was a Maya. I don't know. I have no, I don't know, other than to say at some point somebody's been in that clubhouse with that guy, not picking up on what everybody else is saying because they don't speak the shit and they can't afford a translator because they're not some high-priced, you know, Japanese exotic free agent signing. You know, turns out your dad sold you to the Yankees. Why am I laughing? You your dad abandoned you to the a New York Yankees travel scout many years ago for phenomenal no money. Alright? Why is this so why it's not funny? There's nothing there's nothing funny about that. But at the same time, it's just the circumstance of like there's all the shit some of these guys have to go through to get in that fucking clubhouse. It is heavy stuff. Some guys are coming in with with different backgrounds, is my point. Alright? Not every not everybody, you know, went to LSU like Alex Bregman and was sought after like Alex Bregman and has been had their dicks sucked up and down the baseball circuit their entire life to the capacity Alex Bregman has. There are guys that are in that clubhouse that are like the fact they're there is astonishing to them from the second they walk in there to the moment they leave, and and then probably every moment in between the next time they go on the clubhouse. And so when you see when I'm this is a very, I told you, let's get on a tangent. When I see Bregman just seamlessly cut into friendly, Spanish banter, was it with Miguel Espinosa? The play the the Spanish broadcaster the Cubs have. That guy's electric. I need to get a feed for that guy. This guy's unbelievable. Um, but he's doing the interview, and uh, and it just like that. It in this in the time it takes for Alex Bradman to recognize a fastball, is the time it took me to get the feeling that like that's this is a guy who's fucking helped people before. That did have had a difficult that have had moments where they didn't know who to talk to or who to turn to. Now you're gonna come back and go, he's from New Mexico. His dad was actually the governor of New Mexico or a senator or something, some some some some high-ranking position in New Mexico, which would then suggest wouldn't if you were a politician and you were getting the Mexican vote in New Mexico, wouldn't you want your kid speaking Spanish? So I'm sure there's a good argument there. I'm sure somebody's gonna come back to me and go, listen, the family's wealthy. This guy took private lessons. The reason he speaks Spanish is because his dad has, you know, hard, unpaid fucking labor all over the property. And, you know, those are the guys who actually raised Alex. Like someone's gonna bring that shit to me and you can stuff it right back up your fucking ass. That's not the point. I don't care where the source of his bilingual capacity comes from. I'm just saying it was a nice fucking moment when you look at the team, and it's a it's a little brief cut-in. I go back to the Javier Assad game, you in the elevator with that guy. You know, we have these like little moments where you go, that me, this little thing means a lot. Javier Asad coming off the mound, JD pumping him up, that there's the memory. There's your baseball card for the season. Put that fucking thing in the box. So here's my here's a little pregnant thing. I'm just putting it in the box. I'm going, I didn't, and here's the other thing. Maybe some people listen to us are going, you're way too long-winded on the fact our third baseman is conversational in Spanish. I get that. But I'm coming back and going, it's a big fucking deal. You think it's small, I'm making it a big deal. I didn't know. I had no idea he was like that. I did not. When people say he's a rat, he's in the dugout, he's doesn't go home, he loves the game, he'll communicate with anybody. When the Cubs sign him, he went and met with minor league coaches. He he got a Scotty report on all his teammates. He wanted to communicate with everybody, asked for every fucking number in the organization, blah, blah, blah. You know, you're it's like I have a high opinion, of course I have a high opinion about this guy. Complete never even check the box. Fluent in Spanish? Yes, friendly, approachable, perfect. You guys don't give a fuck. You don't think you think it's you think it's they're staying at the Ritz Carlton. Fly in private, hookers in between. You think it's a cakewalk. You think it's easy. You know? And I'm gonna go on who who is speaking Spanish? Javi Baez had some had some love in that clubhouse. You know. Shout out Texker Fowler, Jason Hayward, those are good dudes. You know, that just opened the door to such a wide tangent. Like, do I want to even go down this Jason Hayward path? We're staying positive. We're 20 games over 500. We're catching Milwaukee. You know, we're an act two of the

PCA Case For All-Time Great

SPEAKER_00 22:33

show, baby. Baller strike PCA is one of the greatest cubs ever. Baller strike PCA is one of the greatest cubs ever. Now, I don't have to fucking rule on this one. That's a bad F word. I don't have to rule on this one. I I just this is a robot zone. By logic, by defunct, by the rule, letter of the law. That's a strike. PCA is one of the greatest cubs ever. Answer me this. Is Hack Wilson one of the greatest cubs ever? Anybody? Yes. Yes, Hack Wilson is one of the greatest cubs ever. Also, one of the most more tragic stories if you pair it next to like the babe Ruth Superstardom Rise is like a booze hound, and then like the sad Hack Wilson. You know, but you live and you learn. My point, let's stay in the logic box. If Hack Wilson's one of the greatest cubs of all time, you know, far be it from me. PCA is gonna go back to back 30-30 seasons. He could be 40-40 this year. Uh, you know, that's not unrealistic. Was he the is he the he's the only guy since since Barry Bonds to go 30, what, 30, 30 back-to-back seasons before age 26 something? Am I missing this in the National League? Someone's gonna come back and be like, what about Mickey Mannell? Mickey Mill's dead. That's what I would say. Uh Mickey Mill, also a sad story. Those those old interviews, Mickey, Mickey Mannell, like sit around looking at the camera. Listen to me, kids. Don't drink alcohol. Mick. Mick. Mick, you're scaring the children. There's a reason we don't tell kids how hard life is, it's because they're children. There's a reason we don't. There's there's a reason kids you grow up, you're an adult, you go, they didn't teach me that in school. It's like, yeah, because we weren't trying to fucking terrorize your childhood. You're in third grade. Let me tell let me teach you about a float floating mortgage interest rate. Are you out of your mind? You're in fifth grade. It's time, it's time. It's time to learn about all the injustices of the criminal justice system. How about that? How about that, Tommy? You know, meanwhile, Mary Kate's hooters. I'm just saying, the stuff people, they think kids, it's like we get we people grow up, they go, no one taught me this as a kid. It's like, yeah, you were a kid. You were playing you were playing in the fucking dirt. You were you came in the house with mud and and you ruined the furniture. What do you what do you mean? What do you mean no one taught you about finance when you're a kid? Oh shit. So, anyways, uh Nicky Mantle is dead, was the point. All right, and and that is a small slice of just what I'm trying to represent when I say I'm not necessarily sure where PCA across the American League, I know in the National League, you don't hear those names. You don't hear the Willie Mays did this too. It's just PCA to that. Who else to that? Uh Barry Botts. You who? That's the category. So if we're gonna start doing that season-long statistics, nobody in back-to-back seasons before this eight, and we're gonna put in the same vein, Hack Wilson, you get a plaque, then by logic, guys. PC is one of the greatest cubs ever. Already. Already. You know, knock on wood. Don't make me say it. Don't make me say it. Just knock on the wood. Just knock on. I would knock on wood. What I learned is that when I knock on wood, that sound impacts the audio readings that I go through to make the edits to this so it sounds better. So when I make because I'd be listening back, I go, why is there that there's a weird echo in that area? There'd be a weird kickback or something. It's because I'm pounding the desk. It's because I'm a moron, right? That doesn't take away from the fact that PCA is one of the greatest cubs ever. Strike. All right,

Dansby Injury And Why It Hurts

SPEAKER_00 26:41

baller strike. Losing Dan's response will cost us the division. That's a ball. Losing, I should give you time. I should. That's it's not fun if I'm just rifling. I gotta give you time. So I talk so fast. I got this shit in front of me. That's not fair. And take the blackjack dealer in some Vegas. That's too much. I like the blackjack dealers in Rivers where they accidentally they gotta go slow. The guy's gotta count extra hard. You know, he he lost his job at the airport, so now he but I give this guy credit. You know, not a lot of people would take the time to deal Mississippi stud, but the benefit program is rich. So he's gonna take his time if you don't mind. I like that speed. The blackjack speed in Vegas is like uh the Billy Madison scene when he's speaking Spanish and you're just slow, slow it down, buddy. Slow down. What are you doing? You know, and then the guy's got the leads. Like I said, I wish I could go slower. Why do they say that? Why do they say they want you to win and they wish they could go slower? House rules? Sorry. Sorry. I have to put you through absolute hell. That's my jet. That's a actually not a bad gig fourth quarter of life. You know? This podcast goes belly up. Bunch of the other shit I'm doing fails. You guys are looking for me. I'm in Vegas. I'm in Vegas poolside. I'm in Vegas poolside drinking a thirsty vaquero. Losing Danz B. Swanson will not cost us the division. Although, you know, that's just because we're five games back right now. If we were tied with the Brewers, I would be more inclined to say, yeah, the hill we have to climb, if we can't get up the hill, we're gonna we can't turn around and go, well, Danzig was in here to carry us. Too many of you, too many of us have criticized him, and he hits ninth, right? So that's a simple logic. But then I go back to what about all the leadership stuff I've talked about? Why are we talking about? I thought Danzu Swanson sucked. Why are why are people talking about this? Why is this online? Why do I have to address this? And now that daddy's not home, now that Danzig Swanson's not there to fold the fucking laundry. Wait, you burned the house down? Because you didn't know to clean the lint trap? Well, that's because you're a moron. Now he time you that. That's because your dad didn't want you doing hard labor around the house. Alright? It's because he's a su he's he that's because your dad drove a truck for a living and he looked at you and he said, go to school and make a better life for yourself. So he no, he never wanted you to fold the laundry, never wanted you to cut the grass, he wanted you to study and apply yourself. Uh, you know, but Danz V. Swanson's out. You know, Daddy's mom, he's not there to fold the laundry. So you're just this is the exact situation I'm describing where you go, well, what now? No one taught no one told me we needed a good shortstop. I told you you need a good shortstop. You weren't listening. You weren't listening. So now Danz v. Swanson's out. What, four weeks? Oblique. That's not good. Range of motion, quick twitch, all that stuff. Where's that? Oblique. And by the way, any surprise here? You're new to the show. You don't know this stuff. We have oblique history. Me, you, the cubs, everybody here. Trauma, bad trauma, baby. You know that first time you turn an ankle and that that thing just fucking gone. You ever anybody here ever sprained an ankle bad? Someone just raised their hand, they're like, I didn't. And you know that ankle is no bueno. No, in the works of in the words of Alex Braggman, no me gusta. Not good. No, no me gusta means I don't. That's not what it means. Carl. You know, I wasn't paying attention in Spanish class. Chakra. But my my point my uh my point, I'm just what I'm just trying to come back to this is we bitched and complained. We, the Cubs fans, generally, the community. Dancy Swanson, 27 and a half million. Twin not gonna want more, more, give me more, I want more. And so now he's out for four weeks, you know, oblique, fire that guy, whoever, whoever's in charge of obliques, gone tomorrow, buddy. Pack it up. You know, because now here's we're in a situation where now there's many people going, oh, be nice to have Dansby Swanson here, be nice to have that guy in the middle of the field. Everybody in the dugouts who are that's everybody's just telling the media they're like, this sucks. This is a terrible situation without Dansby. The people who know are like, ugh, this is fucking terrible. This is a terrible situation. I'm at 75, Lizard King. Keep them counting. Um will it cost us the division, though? No, because it's unfair then. We're five games back. We're five back. We were five back with him. No. Maul. But you better check yourself on the Dansby Swanson respect when he puts that uniform back on. All you and when I say you, I'm gonna I'm gonna push it one step further. You're responsible for those you know. You know, I mean everybody. Everybody you know, you are now responsible for ensuring that the Dansby Swanson verdict is rendered officially across. You have to enforce his verdict. He's he's mission critical to our success. All right, that's it. End of story. You have that responsibility now. People in your life that act out underneath that, I'm gonna hold you responsible for that. It's like when you go to high school, you know, your dad's like, please do not throw parties. I'm gonna go fishing this weekend. You heard about your cousin. You know, you're like, what? What happened? You know, Uncle Gary and Aunt Nancy are were on trial. They faced six years in prison because they're they went they went to where'd they go? They were in cabo. Your Uncle Gary. Fuck's he doing. What's he doing in Cabo? Gary. Jesus Gary. Love's an all-inclusive. Uh they're not they're gone for a week. So your cousin, you know. She throws a party, she invites the hockey team. You know what do those guys do? Dumb shit. Dumb shit. You know, somebody somebody burned your neighbor's house down, somebody crashed a fucking car, you know. A fucking kid. You don't even know the kid who's a quadruple legion now because you threw a house party. It's the same situation. Why is Uncle Gary? Oh fuck. I've had such a I've had such a week. I mean, really. Talk about a nice break. Just sit just sitting here chopping it up with you guys. But but what I want to come back to is and I'm being dead serious. Uncle Gary is on trial for something he didn't do for for because some kits and kits some swimmers, some girls, some some, you know, she was going, she was going to Iowa State. She's gonna swim the medley. You know, something like that. Everybody's got a story, all right? Hers is over because honestly. Oh fuck because Gary can't say Gary cannot. He's not going a whole February. He made that promise to himself. I turn fifty, I get a week in a gobble. You know, that's who that's that's the relationship you have with people in your life who talk shit about Dansby Swanson. I need you to be as vigilant as Gary wishes he was when he walks into that courthouse and he's staring down the state prosecutor, and that guy's ready to go. He's gonna he's gonna get fucking binderful evidence against Uncle Gary's negligence. You know, and why Cassidy, the the 17-year-old swimmer, her life is never gonna be the same. And Gary said they're going. Fuck me. I mean, and he doesn't regret going for a cabo. He doesn't. What he regrets is he could have just called, he could have just called your dad to come over and check on the house. He could have just had a neighbor look in. He could have just told he could have done there's there's shit Gary could have done. He could have had just stay at grand and grandpa's. You know, I mean, and then again, in some extent, there's a lot of stuff outside of Gary's control, and this shit's happened to people before. What I'm trying to do is the burden of responsibility doesn't matter Gary's in cabo. Doesn't matter he made a promise of himself when he's 50 about February. It doesn't matter that whatever prices are cheaper week before Super Bowl. They always have been. And Gary's gonna take advantage of that. You know? And now this girl's never gonna swim again. Because you threw a party and some wrestler, some hockey player got hurt, whatever. Fill the fucking blanks. All right. That but my point is now Gary's responsible for the damage. You're responsible for people who talk shit about Danzig Swanson. I see Danz B. Swanson shit talk online, everybody's at work here. I'm at work, you're at work, we're all work. No Uncle Gary's on this show. But which is I did not write that analogy, which that's that's a and if somebody's been through that experience and me laughing about that, I'm not making light of it. The deep bit in my head and why I continue to laugh is I'm just sitting in my room alone in the middle of the woods right now. No Cubs game today. Build about 12 hours, you know, like probably only filling out 11 on the timesheet. You know, who do I work for? I work for myself. I work for myself. I there are people who pay me to do things for them. They pay the they pay a business that I own. All right, so I have a business, I do stuff, I do stuff for people. And a story that's the most I'll talk about work outside of this relationship, this dynamic. You know, I do creative stuff. I help people with creative decisions. I help, I make, I make stuff, I help people make stuff. That's it. You know, twist my arm, I'll tell you more. You know, it's not hard. What I'm just trying to say is it's one of those long week, big presentation tomorrow, big, big fucking thing. So when I say this is a true break, I mean this legitimately that this is over. I'm getting right back into After Effects. I got a little animation thing I gotta slide into a project, and I'm delighted to do that. But if if the I'm not trying to make light of people who who have suffered at the hands of someone else's negligence, because that's fucking bullshit. My point is a loose connection to you know, just just be diligent about the Danz v. Swanson thing. Just be diligent because we spend so much time on this show, like at times when he's rock bottom encouraging you, saying he's he's worth every penny, he's worth every nickel Jed gives him. He's such an important factor. You won't know it till he's not there. And so now we're in this situation where people are walking around going, kind of blows we don't have Dan's B. Swanson. You know, and there's a there is a very small voice that's going, Pedro Ramirez can play second base, because most people are smart enough to understand that combination of Pedro Ramirez and Nico Horner, while effective, is not comparable to Danby Swanson and Nico Horner up the middle, down the stretch every single day. And if you don't believe me, and I don't believe me, and no one else believes me, and no one believes anybody, just ask the starting pitchers. Okay? Just ask the starting pitchers. Hear what they have to say, let me throw you a chair, then sit the fuck down and listen. Okay? There is no space for that conversation or argument. Maybe we've gone a little deep on this, but I don't like oblique injuries. And I want to frame this Dance B. Swanson thing correctly because we have four weeks without him. And there's some people that are going, whatever. It's it's like it's like, you know, you gotta play the Thanksgiving game with your backup quarterback. That happens every season. Like we get through it. This ain't that. This is the this is the left tackle, baby. And he's out December. He might get that, he might get a little time in the Christmas game. You know, again, knock on wood, not doing it again, because I post-proves my own shit. And I learned the hard way. We don't knock on wood on here. I'm gonna ask you to do it for me. Find some wood. Hit that bitch. All

October Rotation Confidence Check

SPEAKER_00 39:45

right. Uh baller strike, we have an October rotation, I believe that's the baller strike. You tell me what you think it is. We have an October rotation. We have an October. No, we'll we have an October, we have an October rotation. What does that mean? Who writes a shit? I do. Who wrote that? We have an October rotation. I would never say that. Why did I write that? This arc this rotation is October certified. All right, you blowhard. I mean, what do you want? We got Gossman one, we got Clay Holmes two. People are gonna be asking Clay Holmes to pitch game one because he's gonna look so good down the stretch. Don't fall into that trap. Do not fall into that trap. Clay Holmes pitches game two. He pitches game two and he pitches and he pitches and he pitches game five. Or he pitches game two and he pitches game six. You know? We it don't don't don't start because people were like, who's Clay Holmes? Clay homes is when we trade for a guy who's hurt. Like three weeks ago, many of you were like, uh, a guy who's hurt. That was your knee-jerk reaction. You texted your group. We trade for a guy who's hurt. I don't know about this. You know, and then like four weeks from now, you're gonna be like, I think that guy should be our number one. All right, so everybody just in the middle. Everybody get in the middle here. We just get in the middle, calm down. Do not overreact. Clay Holmes is very good. And our defense is only gonna make him look better. We have the best defense in the league, and he's one of the best pitchers for the defense we have assembled. Okay. It's it's a very specific uh caliber starting pitcher. Now, there's more talented starting pitchers, and there's more successful starting pitchers and all that stuff. But if you're gonna take the core strength of this Cubs, the thing that's number one in the league that you could not even come close to arguing about, other than obviously Pete Karmstrong being the best player, is our capacity to field the baseball. All right, our defensive abilities, how however you want to word that, you know, like the way we hit the cutoff man, our positioning, our first step, you know, our accuracy. However, the whole pet, the whole pie, the pot pie, the chicken, mmm. Peas, no thanks. Get your peas out of here. I don't like peas. Never have, never will. But I will eat this pot pie defense. I will enjoy every bite. There's a flaky crust. That flaky crust is called crisp infield play. You love it, I love it. It's a bedrock to each solid bite. Okay, Clay Holmes takes advantage of that because he pitches the weak contact that puts that defense in play to its strengths. He's gonna be phenomenal in a game two situation. Game one is Kevin Gossman. Now, but we have an October rotation. I mean, it's like fuck if we can't we have this lineup, uh, we have Gossman, we have Clay Holmes. So like if we can't find one other guy to pitch game three, so like if Boyd isn't isn't pitching well, then give me somebody who is. If it's Assad, like that's a court, that's that's wild. I even just said that out loud, but that's that's the length I personally would be willing to go to. I know the organization wouldn't and won't. There's too much data at play to roll Javi or Assad out there. But that's how far, that's how many rocks I'm looking under when I look at the playoff rotation. So what I should have said is ball or strike, we have enough after one and two to feel confident about October. And I would say that is a strike. We do have enough to feel confident. I just I don't know if the enough is good enough. That's that's a that's a theory about physics, about volume

Seeding Matters And Catching Milwaukee

SPEAKER_00 43:19

versus mask. Uh baller strike, baller strike nine games before Milwaukee. We will go six and three. That's a strike. That's a strike. You got a problem with that? You got a problem with us going six and three? Tough guy? Uh no, we we should we should be able to squeeze out six and three. I mean, Seattle's tough. Seattle's tough because we gotta get on the road and go to Seattle. That's the hard thing about Seattle. Now, Seattle stinks us here. They are not good at all. That's a World Series uh not a world series, that's a good team hangover drought. You know, let's talk about World Series. They almost went right. You know. Stay on track, buddy. So we should be competitive this weekend, is what I'm trying to say. That's what I would like to say. We should win two out of three. You know, I'm not scheduled mapping. I'm just saying six and three going into Milwaukee. Now here's the caveat to this. It's like, yeah, that that is a first pitch strike. But here's like the here's the second pitch. We're like, oh, uh-oh, nasty strike. Is it we'll still be five games back in Milwaukee when that series starts. So that's kind of the sure, we can go six and three. Milwaukee's scorching. Scorching. So that's just do you want to get into that? You want to get in, we need the division, we need a top two seed, we need the seeds, we need the division, we need the buy. We need the I say we need need at a minimum to be the first wildcard team. Now we want you want to get a passionate debate out of me. Start start pussyfooting around with that two spot in the wildcard. Start fucking around and go be the five seed in the National League playoffs. Now we're getting into that. That's where you really get the fire going. Because we need it's at a minimum. When the playoffs start, we need to be at Wrigley Field for the three game. At a minimum. Now, applying that forward, it would be nice to catch Milwaukee. Wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be nice to catch those damn brewers? Ugh. You know? How do they it's like, wow how? How? Cause they do it the right way? Cause they do it the right way. Don't make me get into it. You know I will. You know I want to. You know I want to talk about Joey Ortiz. You you know I'll sit here and I'll slop up Pat Murphy left and right. He's putting a clinic on. And we're paying Craig Council eight million a year. Eight? Do you know what you can do with eight million dollars a year? Do you know, do you know how many lap dances that is? We get eight million dollars to Craig fucking counsel. Pat Murphy's over here, up five games mid-August, half the payroll. My cheeks, pal. Uh baller strike

Palencia As The Bullpen Missing Piece

SPEAKER_00 45:57

Palency is a missing piece to our bullpen. That is a strike. And you guys, Zavir Shon's awesome. Okay. Yeah, when he's when he's not when he's pitching the three o'clock Thursday afternoon Angels game against who are they playing? Somebody who had to travel to Los Angeles, somebody who was out last night, somebody's DMing some Instagram influencers that live in the Los Angeles area. You know, some guy making $1.7 million is getting taken of the woodshed by some whore. Right? By a whore. And then he's gotta go out, he's gotta go out, he's gotta play the next day. He's gotta play. You know, he was up all night, you know, f arguing in a in a just a horrible fight of words with a terribly stupid woman. Uh but she she will suck the skin off, she will suck the skin off his rod. That is a fact. So he puts up with it, and then he's gotta go play a day game, and Zavarishan rolls in the seventh inning. Now, nobody gives a fuck about this game. You play who do you play for the Marlins? You live in Miami. You go to LA, of course, you gotta get a taste of some. You live in Miami. You're in LA, of course you're gonna taste. Of course you're gonna taste. You know? What you're not gonna taste of is a Scottin report on a guy named Zavarishon. You know, that's the last they alphabetize the Scotter reports. So this guy's so good. No one's fucking seen him. You know, no, I then now we're teasing. I'm in teasing such a lame word. Now we're we I gotta get this baby back on track. What I'm saying is when we acquired Zavarishon, the big righty, you know, the guy from the Angels, 6'5, 230, went to Kansas. What was he, eighth round, twentieth round? You know, he was not not top round. Uh, you know, again, that could have been. Oh God. I am used myself. That is so pathetic. You know, they they they were gonna draft him sooner. They just they just had the excel list, they had it sorted A to Z, so they can never. That's so I already made the alphabet joke, dude. I already went in on that. Do you don't need to make that joke, Carl? My point is, was he up for the task or the moment? And they try to get into it when I said the background, the DNA, all this stuff, the experience, exposure. Do you have it in Los Angeles? Is this what you both now? You're gonna go to Wrigley, 40,000 brewers are in town. All this people are asking you questions. Hey, that Taylor McGregor girl's pretty hot, huh? Like, do you get that? You have you're you're in a universe that you weren't in in Los Angeles. You you just now everything's a little amplified. If you have you tried the deep dish, you know what I mean? Did you did did all the shit, dude? Did you all the shit that you have to do when you come to Chicago? Did you do this? Did you do that? Did you get the fuck? And everybody you know wants to go to Wrigley Field. Everybody you've ever met in your entire life is telling everybody they'll ever meet in their entire life that they grew up with a guy named Ryan Zavirjan. He plays in Major League Baseball. Yeah, he's my but one of my best friends from high school. Not your best friend, one of. Precise language. One would do one of my best, like basically one of my best friends. Basically. So now he's not your best friend, he's one of, and he's not one of these basically, he's essentially like more or less. Like we we practically grew up together, is the next thing you're gonna say. Then you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna say, You haven't heard of him? Yeah, he plays for the angels. They just traded for him at the Cubs. And then you're gonna DM him, you're gonna message him, you're gonna send him a message on what, Facebook? You're gonna message his dad, you're gonna hit up his mom. You say, Hey, sh hey, Mrs. Zavarishan. And then you're gonna reintroduce yourself because you fucking hardly know this guy. You, like everybody else who's talking about him, and you say, I don't know if you remember me, because the relationship's so thin and vague. Now that you're on the front lines, you gotta go talk to this lady, you gotta ask her for tickets to Wrigley. You don't know what to say. You don't. So you say, Hey, it's Gary J. It's from across the street, if you remember me. You know, I just saw Ryan got traded to Chicago, and I was gonna be in Wrigley at the end of the month, and I was wondering if you could help somebody from the neighborhood out get some tickets. I was looking, I'm having a hard time finding tickets. I'll pay for them. That's what you'll say in the message. You'll tell Mrs. Zavarishan, you'll leave an offer. You'll say, I'll pay for them, Mrs. Z. No problem. You don't know that the player section has to be in what? In section 110. Where is that? What's this section? It's behind the it's behind the on deck circle, and it's like 15 to 25 rows back outside of the 1914 area. That's where all the wives and girlfriends and family sit. And so when you get when you airstrike tickets, they that's the first wave. Now Zavarishan wasn't giving those tickets away, but every time he has to give those tickets away, he's got to pay taxes on giving those tickets away, and those tickets retail at 550 a pop. All right. What do they retail at against the Cardinals this past weekend? 375? Texas on that ain't cheap. So you ask for four tickets, Zavarishan's gonna get them. They're gonna take 425 out pre-tax because he's got he has to throw in on the tickets. So you just asked, you just you just messaged Mrs. Zavarishan on Facebook if you could if for her to get in touch with her son so that he could pay $400 for a kid from the neighborhood to go to the watch the Nationals play on a Friday against the Cubs. And everyone that has ever met this guy from his local jurisdiction is going to be sending the same message, having the exact same conversation. So when we talk about, hey, this podunk kid from Kansas who's who is just establishing himself in Major League, is he a fit for the back end of the bullpen? And this is it all to answer the question about Palencia. Palencia has the gasoline entrance. Palencia has the flame flamethrowers and the fart and the sparklers. Farklers, the fucking sparklers. You know, he has all that. Like that's when when you say Palencia fill in the void, it's not necessarily I like Zavarishan. I like his stuff. I don't like him going where you go, you're the last man in the room. I don't, and it's not to say he can or can't. Now's not the time to find out. You we want to find out because he's so good in the eighth. We haven't even gotten to that point with him. So, what does Plenzi do when Plency comes back? Plency's nine, gasolina, boom, light it up, fucking close that end of the chapter. So then Jacob Webb can go slide right into eight. He can start splitting it up with Zaviran. Now we can start. Now let's pick and pop a little bit what we're doing with seven and eight. Now we're gonna take the load off Zavirishan, and then and then in essence, it's gonna get easier for the Zavirishan family to deny your ticket request. Sorry, there's been so many messages since Ryan came to the Cubs. We hope everything's well with your family. God bless. And she's gonna copy and paste that thing, and she's gonna be wheeling and dealing that motherfucker all through Thanksgiving. She's gonna let the season finish. She's not getting back to you, buddy. Sorry, you're not getting the tickets. Go to StubHub, go to whoever your game time ticket app preferred broker is. You know, promo code blow my fucking balls. I don't know why I just got mad at the ticket exchange people. I suppose they're in this grand scheme of people, like they're fine. I guess you're in ticket. I got a buddy who's in ticket sales. Uh he left a big finance job, actually. Like a big finance job. He's got an NBA, all this stuff. Uh, he went to get his CFA, I believe took his first one, passed the second one poorly, again, poorly, again, very poorly, and then got his MBA and then got into, you know, whatever, got into it, got into finance. Not on the operational side. I think he was on the active investment side. He was making a lot of money. Now he's selling, he's selling tickets. He all he does is tickets. He's just in the ticket business. He's an honest guy. He's an honest guy. I like that guy. What's his name? I'm not telling you his fucking name is. I'm not out. Like if I, you know, I feel like that's a little personal. I haven't said enough personal things about this guy, but what I'm saying is I know a guy in the ticket business. He's an honest guy. There's absolutely I'm just self-correcting here. There's absolutely no reason for me to say promo code, what I say blow my balls. That's a promo code. You know, in the meantime, if we're slinging anything, go get some thirsty vaquero. That's my point with Palency, though, about the missing piece of bullpen. He comes in to nine, we're just assuming he's healthy. That's the hypothetical we're in. It crunches the guys who have extended their some themselves in his absence. So we gotta get this baby. We gotta land

Dodgers Money Talk And Fan Noise

SPEAKER_00 54:33

this plane. Uh baller strike Alex Bregman's worth 35 million. Right now, that's a ball, but he has Homer's he's awesome. He's great. He speaks Spanish, he warms my heart. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. 35 million, pal. Come on. And don't tell me how bad Kyle Tucker. I don't give a I could I don't care about Kyle Tucker. I'm so sick of Cousin and speak. Did you Kyle Tucker's stuff? Great, dude. Have you gotten maybe you haven't? And I'm sorry, I'm being rude. You know, this is like 39-year-old Carl coming in here being just a real jagoff, but like, all right. Um so that's not good behavior. That's not to Kyle Tucker has nothing to do with us. There's no reason to be talking about Kyle Tucker, to be looking at how he did, to be to be relishing in his failure. I don't give one fly. The only time we're playing that guy, I want him to get out. Did he do well when we weren't playing him? Why does that matter to me? The Dodgers are paying, and fine, I'll do this, I'll dovetail this. People are talking about the Dodgers aren't. You're smart because you listen to the show and you've heard me say before the guy who owns the Dodgers is so smart and just ahead of shit. Okay. So let's be specific because now he's in the spotlight, and people are going, is he gonna be forced to sell the team? Is he going to jail? This is corrupt. We need a we need a salary cap. Buddy, this is this is the work. This is all pub, this is all publicity work here. People start talking about, did you hear what he was doing with the life insurance? If the life insurance company put put up money to invest now, this is where I don't know the details, but as I understand it, as I understand it, how about that's a good one? You could say, you could say as I understand, and anything can come out of your mouth after that. Almost. It's almost as good as allegedly. And in if I had to sit here and rank conditional qualifying statements to what um is about to come out of my mouth. I think it's I think it's clearly allegedly one, but as I understand, or be it as it may. Is that how they say it? Be it as it may. Is that it? I like that one. I think I my buddy's mom used to say, be that as it may. I that that's a that's a big that's a big one, but um sure, yeah. I mean, I don't I'm so I'm so far down the hole here, guys. Uh you know, fuck it, I'm gonna keep it going. The best that I understand it, all right, with this guy in the life insurance companies and the Dodgers and all this stuff, this guy is is an international banking savant going back to the 90s. He's made a lot of money for people all over the world, institutions, individuals. If you're someone or something with money, he has been in the the highest level of that money uh being at play as capital, is being invested, is being deployed, spent, however, you want to talk about monetary, you know, policy, whatever, whatever. How not policy, but like the the function of of money, business of the US dollar, this guy who owns the Dodgers, Mark Walters, uh is is brilliant. Where'd he go? William and Mary is from somewhere, he's from Virginia. He's like a classic, just like born and bred red-blooded American who goes to London and then trains there and is just super smart. I can't you can't say enough nice things about the guy because there's a lot of people, the guy who owns the A's, born into it. Tom Ricketts, born into it. Go down the list. Fucking Indians, born into it, Yankees, born into it. You know, so like the concept of a guy who's going to work for himself and making the money for himself. Now, I think the industry is bullshit, right? As a certified public accountant licensed, I'm not joking. As a certified public, I am a certified public accountant. I passed those tests with flying colors. I was a very uh listen, this is the type of thing I'll say it. It's hard. I was a good student. I took the classes, I I studied, I gave a shit, and then it shows up when you sit down and you take those exams. So I'm not, I'm not sitting here bullshitting you guys. I didn't look at ChatGPT. I'm telling you, to the best of my knowledge, which is actually substantive professional knowledge, to probably the best you know. I mean, unless you're an account, you know somebody smarter than me, great, go right ahead. I'm saying they do they have a show, are they talking about the Dodgers guy? Go listen to that guy. I'm doing the best I can when I'm looking at it and going, people are saying the Dodgers are gonna be forced to sell. And I'm sitting here going, Mark Walters is has been ahead of everybody forever. So no, you know, uh, you know, uh fucking at Northside, you know, Tony Thincrust. No, I don't think this guy's going to federal prison. I think most of this shit, especially insurance stuff, is regulated by state law. If this stuff is housed in California, now you're talking about California state regulators coming after Mark Walters. You out of your mind? Are you out of your this guy owns a sp this guy owns everybody? He he he owns who's Lisa Leslie's team? The Sparks? He's got a piece of them. He's got the Phoenix Sphinx, he's got whatever, whoever they are. He's got them. Chelsea? Wait, does he own Chelsea? Yeah, he does. I just th yes, he does. All right. So we're too this guy's so utterly sophisticated. And what people are complaining is that he manipulated the life insurance companies in which he has controller influence, in which the in which the that the life insurance companies that own the TV network that agreed to pay the Dodgers $300 million a year for 25 seasons or $330 million a year for 25 seasons. Just craziest deal. $8 billion over to over something crazy. This guy engineered the deal. And people go, How'd you do the deal? Well, it turns out the TV company is owned by the life insurance companies, and this guy the point I'm trying to make is that there's a conflated sense of where the money's going. And so now they're saying, Well, you took a loan, and then the loan is secured, or the loan is where you get. I didn't read the bank statements, but now you have a loan, you have money coming from life insurance. That life and the money from life insurance is going to the TV company. The TV company is then washing that money and giving it to the Dodgers so they can broadcast Dodgers games. And then the Dodgers are taking that money and then blowing out the payroll. So then people are going, is it how is that not different than the life insurance company of just the guy going to the life insurance company that he owns and just taking money from the life insurance company and giving it to players? That's the question. And then people are saying, is that that's that's against the law? He should be, he should sell the team. He should we should beat the fucking Dodgers when we play him in the playoffs, is what I gotta say to baseball fans. You know, the it's mid-August. I just went through the mechanics of why people are bitching about the Dodgers owner. You guys are relentless, you never stop, you just don't quit. You just don't, you that and you never take your foot off the gas with the Dodgers. You just did you see Kyle Tucker and you see the honor signs? Did you see PCA's the MVP? Stop acting like somebody who got left at the altar. Like we gotta get some confidence here. If I gotta do it, brick my foot. I'm not saying it, Dave. I almost just did. I almost just ripped the I'm that that is that would be I do have a little self-check here. I do. If I said that and then pawn that off, ooh, that that's a good little cold water on the face. I can't be sitting here swinging brick by brick. I cannot ever say that. No one should ever say that. That's a Dave thing. You can't Dave says brick brick by brick. But I'm saying I'll do it. I'll be the guy. I just where's Carl? He's just out in the field. What's he doing? He's he's he's he's chopping wood and he's carrying lumber, and he just does that all day. Chops wood and then he carries lumber. And then when he carries lumber, he goes back into the forest and he chops more wood. That's it. That's all I do. Come and find me. That's what I'm talking about. You know, I'm just chopping wood and carry carrying water when I say shut up about the Dodgers. Shut up. We gotta catch Milwaukee. We gotta play good

Why This Season Feels Like A Gift

SPEAKER_00 1:02:58

ball. That's it. We need plans to back in the ninth. So last one baller strike, hell of a season so far. That's a strike, my friends. It has been a hell of a season, it's been a hell of a ride. Um, you know, it's just been awesome, invigorating in a sense, needed. You know, a lot of people need a lot of people need it. You know, when I go as far as say, do I need it? You know, do I need I'm lucky, I got a great life. I have wonderful wife and friends and family, and uh, you know, I'm I'm fulfilled. I have a great, I'm super lucky. I'll lucky, very lucky, you know. So where the cubs fit in on the day to day is really the relationship with I would say probably with my probably with my friends first. Probably that's where it comes in the most, where it keeps me in front of two separate group chats with five to five guys in one, seven guys in another. Uh there's a s there's two guys who cross over into both group chats. So, you know, whatever. It's a little redundant, nobody gives a shit. But I'm being specific, and that's how it functions is like a you know, and this will change over time. For years it was buddy, it's your job, you know, like you do you have to go to Wrigley, go do the go review the bar, you know, go go fucking interview people outside the bleachers or something, whatever. You know, that then it's it's part of the job. Like that, yeah, a little bit, you know, like it is. I'd get I get paid w well very well enough to do to to I'll tell you this, so sit here and do this shit. Some goes, why are you doing this? I get paid well enough to do it. That's a that's a good starting point. You know, is that why I do it? No, absolutely not. Now, would I be in this position now without Thirsty Vicaro coming into me and saying, we want to buy out X amount of hours from you, what does that cost? What does that look like? At a time when I go, I need X amount of hours for me to keep this fucking journey coming. You know, so now as I'm in a position, I got a big presentation tomorrow, big one, that you know, it's a morning one. I got a big morning and I got a call in the afternoon. Two separate things. Presentation of the morning, call in the afternoon. Both both of which don't have not in my crosshairs without Thursday Vacarol. That's a fact, brother. That is a fact. I would throw in the towel. There's a time I go, I'm throwing in the towel. What are you gonna do? I'm gonna I'm gonna go take a couple meetings with a couple buddies, I'm gonna figure it out. And then I'm not knocking on the wood. You know, I do that in post. I'm not doing it. But somebody comes knocking. Now I'm not saying knock on website, somebody comes knock knock, knock, knock. Who is it? Thirsty Vacaro. We want to buy these hours that then extends us to go to this, so that I could sit here today and go, we got this call tomorrow. Big call. Big call, big meeting in the morning, big call in the afternoon. Why, why, why do the Cubs matter in this tangent string of events? Because let's see, now at 39, you could be younger, maybe you're encountering this. You could be older. Or maybe you're encountering this. Maybe you're not. Maybe you're encountering something else. It's not as easy as I would like it to be for me to be have fluid active conversations with my friends because most of us we're just too busy. Like I'll look at my phone and be like, dude, I don't fucking know I want to go see a movie on Wednesday night. You know, you're just like, I don't have time. I don't, I don't. And then I don't even know how to ask for time with my friends. It's it's and I shouldn't say this on it's not that. Listen, we fucking do awesome stuff all the time. It's not, it's just different than when if it's the same group of friends you've had. So for for me, the uh there's a core group of friends for since freshman college, since we're on the baseball team. And so then your memories or your attachment points are more to the to the availability, to the access, to like we're boys, we came up together, we're we're you know, so we we do a bunch of shit together, and then literally there'll come a day where you're like, man, we haven't I haven't seen, we haven't done shit in a while. And so then you get to this point in life. So I I know what day is today. It's October, it's I said off the top, August 20th. So it's September 26th, the ride, the President's Cup Saturday. There's 14 of us, fucking uh that's a bad F one. Tent, passes, all this stuff, hospitality tent, president's cup, big dinner, lunch. Why did I go dinner first? Lunch, you know, transportation, all the whole thing. People are traveling in from all over the country for sip, so like on the calendar, it's just blocked out September 26th, 25th, into the 26th, all day 26th. Because you're 30 fucking nine, dude. You know, you're 39, Joey's traveling, Tom's got kids. You know, where's Mike? Mike's in Miami, where's Mike? Mike's in Mike's in Seattle, where's Mike? Mike's in where is Mike? Has anybody seen Mike? Mike's in Nashville. Why is Mike in Nashville? Because Ryan and Nick are in Nashville. You just start going on the list and you're like, yeah, what are the chances I see these guys at all this year? And there are any circumstances where we're not holding golf clubs or we did not pay a just shitload of money to be in this room? And the answer is infrequently. The answer to that question is infrequently. The idea of, yeah, we'll just grab some breakfast, that's a challenge, pal. That there ain't no just grabbing breakfast. Toddlers are up at six. You're gonna come over and change diapers, not doing that. You know, like my buddy, come over, work on a yard. I had 200 foot oak trees, fall down. Text me, what are you up to this weekend? I got the chainsaws out, pal. Come on by. I got the chainsaws out. That's what I'm doing. So no, I don't have. So why does this make this comes back? I'll tell you what we will come to. The the phone will be buzzing. Ass mad. Game three. It just as soon as he's coming off the mount, bring, bring, ring. I think I love Bragman. You know, so you had you just create a place where you go, I know you have fucking kids. I know you have kids. We're trying to have kids. I everybody's we everybody has stuff they're trying to do. And everybody has stuff they would like to do more of. And mostly everybody has shit they don't want to do. So that's where I leave you guys. You guys probably have to go do some shit you don't want to do. I'm over here talking about how you don't want to fucking do it. That's not very good. Way too many F-words this week, Lizard King. We're gonna clean that up. Cook Daddy, very good album this week. Uh Little Jerry Garcia, I believe Cats Hunter the Stars, so it's a shout out to two Maniacs of the Month. Um, we I we gotta hit we we do need to have we do need to have one of you guys on. Because I'll be at the bar and so I guys, hey dude, I want to come on the show. I'm like, that's right, we gotta do that. We do have to do that. But selfishly, you know, then I gotta set it up. Ah, you miserable prick. You know, lighten up. I'll schedule it. I'll send you the zoom link. We I said 45, we went an hour 10. You know, what is that? Against the rules? You know, this is a weirder one.

Subscribe Share And Closing Thoughts

SPEAKER_00 1:10:04

In the meantime, subscribe some lip, lip, subscribe to the show, share the share it with a friend. If you're this late, leave a review, and that's it. Go I can do better than this. Subscribe to the show, tell a friend, buy some thirsty vaquero. I'm gonna see you guys next Monday. I'm gonna be with Mahoney. We'll be sharp, we'll be ready to go. We're coming off a series win against Seattle. I know it, I can feel it, I can taste it, so let's go see it. In the meantime, get some thirsty vaquero, and of course, go Cubs.