Smylie Kaufman Talking PGA Championship, Knicks Whomp The Celtics, Thunder To The WCF, Miami Marlins Kyle Stowers And Tyler Phillips In Studio And A Goodbye To Mr Bing Bong
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Hey, pardon my take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Folks, it's the foreplay guys. Let's talk truly unruly. When you spend every day following the countless laws of golf like us, it's refreshing to get a little unruly. Whether that means using the old hand wedge to escape the bunker, or just cracking open a hard seltzer

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On today's part of my take, we've got a ton of sports to talk about. A lot of sports this weekend. We're going to talk about NBA playoffs. We had some duds in Game 7s. We had the Preakness, which was incredible. Celtics-Knicks are over. We're going to get our thoughts from Hank from Friday night. We got a great interview with Smiley Kaufman talking PGA Championship stuff.

Scotty Scheffler is back in the winner's circle. He's got his third major. We also have a really fun interview with Kyle Stowers and Tyler Phillips from the Miami Marlins. They came into studio last week. Awesome dudes. A little baseball talk. I think we're going to hit everything. We're going to hit all the sports today. Let's see. We got hockey, baseball, basketball, golf, horses, horses. We'll have to talk some football. We'll figure out some football.

So, and Max's bachelor party recap after the interview. So, packed show for you. And it's brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. The NBA finals are almost here. And every play could be the one that changes everything. This is the NBA playoffs where heroes rise. Legacies are built and the action never lets up. And with DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, you don't just watch the madness, you live it.

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Okay, let's go. A.W. Hill. Get on my tape. Burn on my tape.

Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers to get $300 in bonus bets. If your bet wins, you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Monday, May 19th. And holy shit, we got sports, baby. Game seven weekend.

Duds. The anticipation for the Game 7 is way better than the actual Game 7s. This is making me disagree with LeBron's take, and he's the first person I've ever heard say this, the two best words in sports, Game 7. Yes. That actually, this kind of puts me back onto Game 6s. I might be a Game 6 guy. Listen, Game 7s are great. Game 7 duds?

I don't even want there to be a game seven when it happens. And we had two of them on Sunday. I agree with you. Game six is maybe more important. Did we have any game sixes? That's the new game seven. New game...

Hank, what would you like to talk about first? Because we have every sport. We're literally going to talk golf. Scotty Shepard. WNBA. Well, I had WNBA on there. We have everything. You want to start with Scotty or do you want to start with basketball? I feel like major championship or game sevens. That's pretty easy. One of those two. What about your game seven that you had, Hank? Didn't have a game seven. Oh, why not? It's Monday night.

Oh, okay. So the Celtics lost. No, you want to start with the NBA? No, I don't, but yeah, sure. Let's get it over with. Let's ease into it. Let's ease into it. Let's rip the bandaid off. Let's do it. Hank is so egotistical that he thought that we were talking about the Celtics this whole time. No, we were talking about the Thunder and the Nuggets, and we were talking about this game seven, and we were talking about Scottie.

Let's wait. Let's talk about the Game 7s today. Let's talk about the Thunder Nuggets. By the way,

I should have started the show. Parody is back. NBA parody is officially back. This now with the Thunder beating the Nuggets in game seven, there are going to be, it's guaranteed seven different champions in seven different years in the NBA. And we also have the chance for two franchises who've never won a title in Indiana and Minnesota. I guess actually three because I don't,

I don't think OKC claims any of Seattle's history. Well, Kevin Durant. Yeah, Kevin Durant. And then the Knicks...

last title was 52 years ago. So no matter what, the final four in the NBA, we're going to get a new champion for half a century. I don't think that Seattle would allow OKC to claim any of their past success. Correct. I think they'd put up a pretty big fight for that. Right. It's obviously the same franchise, but it's not. So we're going to say three out of four have never won a title, and the fourth is the New York Knicks, who haven't won a title in 52 years. So parity is back, and it's just kind of cool –

Because out of maybe a passing of the torch,

SGA, Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Halbert, and one of those four is going to win their first NBA title. It is pretty cool. It is pretty cool. And the Thunder, it looked like the series was just too long for the Nuggets. They were too old, too banged up. Aaron Gordon was playing on one and a half legs pretty much. He couldn't jump off his left leg. What a beast. He's a beast. And by the way, just to put it into perspective, Aaron Gordon played in game seven with a grade two hammy. And if the Lakers were in this game, LeBron would still be two weeks away from coming

back. It's true. Because LeBron, remember when he got hurt in the last game of the Lakers season, they for some reason put out a timetable for his return, which no one needed or asked for. Right. So the hypothetical return, if they had won, here's what I would be able to do. Steph Curry had the same injury, didn't play at all.

That's true. I missed a softball game with the same injury. These are all elite athletes that aren't able to will themselves to do it, and somehow Aaron Gordon was. However, he led the game in rebounds. Pretty incredible. And the final score won't tell you the full story because up until about three minutes left in the first half,

it was a one-point game. And it looked like it was going to be a defensive struggle, looked like it was going to be an ugly game, the exact kind of game that I think the Nuggets would want to be in, that they might have a chance to win. And then in the last three minutes of that first half, it all fell apart, and I believe...

It was 42 to 41 with three minutes left in the second. Well, and then Oklahoma city went on an 18 to five run to close out the half. And then it was just never closed from that point. Yeah. As I say, it all fell apart for the nuggets. It all fell into plan for the thunder. I feel like this series was the thunder, like growing up in front of our eyes because they had in this series, they had the game three overtime game where it was like, Ooh, is this moment too big for them? Then they come back, have the game four and five wins and,

don't close it out in Denver game six. And then even in game seven, the way this game started, they were down 10 almost like instantly. And you're like, Oh, are they getting a little tight? Is, is this like a championship DNA kind of game? And then the thunder again, grow up. And like, that's a game where they're deep. They play defense, uh,

I mean, it's insane watching them play defense. They are so good as a unit. Caruso is such a menace. There's a little bit... I know there's a lot of argument about fouls and all this. I enjoyed watching because I feel like Jokic and Caruso were going back and forth. They were both kind of being very physical. And I do think the Thunder have a little bit of the Seattle Seahawks. There's our football talk of they can't call everything. But Caruso was...

was such a tone setter and so good. And I, I threw out there on Thursday night, I believe that he's so underrated. And someone was like, dude, he's not underrated. He's been all defense a couple of times. And I was thinking about it. He is underrated because two franchises basically got rid of Caruso for nothing. The Lakers let him walk because they were cheap and didn't want to go into luxury tax. And the bulls didn't get a pick for him, even though they should have. Cause the thunder, I think have 7 billion picks. Uh,

And Alex Crusoe is like, Thunder are great as a team, and Alex Crusoe just takes that defense intensity to another level, and they are so fucking ferocious defensively. And shout out SGA, because I feel like he grew up as well. He went games 5, 6, and 7. 31 points, 32 points, 35 points.

And he went game five, 52% from the field. Then game six, 68% from the field game seven, 63% from the field. The best player on the thunder stepped up his game when they needed him to. And they had like, you know, the role players step up today, uh,

The Thunder are so good. They're such a good team, and I don't even know where to start with the Thunder versus Wolves because both defenses are just going to eat each other alive. Yeah, I mean, it was one of those games where Caruso, as a defender, proved that he's worth everything that you're paying him, and then some. And I feel like the games that...

the Thunder as a team do really well are the games where Caruso is not like a top scorer on the team. You know, the Alex Caruso games, I think we talked about them losing one of the Alex Caruso games. Yeah, where he tried to bring him back at the end of the game. Yeah, when he's just like fighting people in the background, when he's playing hard defense, those are the games that fall into place for the Thunder. Yeah, they did kind of grow up. But again, it was a close game. It was a very close game until the end of the first half.

But can you call it a close game if it was only a close game for less than a half? I don't think you can. I'm going to say it was a close game until... That's back to my point about just it being a long series for the older team. Yeah. And they seemed to just run out of all the gas that they had stored up. Well, I mean, Thunder are a better team. They were a better team. And you go back to that game three, like they...

That's a game they could have won, should have won, and it could have been. I do give the Nuggets a ton of credit for even getting to game seven because I do think they were overmatched, and they have a lot of questions going into this offseason because you've got to get more help for Jokic. But Jokic, we love Jokic on this podcast. He's awesome. He could have played better this series.

And I know that he needs probably a little more spacing and some more help. But games four, he only took nine shots today. He was at the free throw line a lot. But game four and game seven, and again, this is all relative because Jokic, even in a bad game, still impacts the game in a way that few people do. But I think it's fair to hold him to the standard of

Best player in the world, and if he was the best player in the world, game four and seven, he could have played better and they could have won this series. Yeah, would he have 20 points today? Yeah. Yeah, 20. He has, like, flashes in these series where he'll, like, explode for 40, but he did not play up to his own standards. And that's a lot of credit to the Thunder because they had him in a torture chamber. Yeah, when Caruso was just banging with him down low, Jokic, he said, like, my last resort is I'm going to have to flop against Alex Caruso. Yeah. And he got rewarded for it a little bit, but, yeah, he was –

He was in a bad spot. He couldn't get it done all by himself. And Aaron Gordon, I think that was the big difference in this game because going into this game,

Well, the Nuggets wouldn't have won with a healthier Aaron Gordon. They lost by 35 points. Yeah, but I'm saying into this game, the Nuggets were plus 32 with Gordon on the court and minus 68 when he was not on the court. Yeah. So it makes a difference. Of course. I'm just trying to give a little bit of context. Obviously, the Thunder were the better team in this series. It went seven, so it's not like it was a blowout one way or the other. It was a dominant game seven performance for the Nuggets.

for sure. But in context, I think that it was a closer series than we're making it seem when we say that, like, Jokic sucked and... No, no, I didn't say Jokic sucked. I said Jokic...

If he's the best player in the world, he had two games in this series that if he had played better, they would have probably won the series. And again, he needs more help around him. I'm more saying like the conversation of Jokic is best player in the world. Best player in the world can sometimes be like, I'm going to take over the series and win the series. Yeah, he didn't do that. And that didn't happen. He did not suck. Although...

Game four, he sucked. He was like seven for 22. And again, I think it's the Thunder defense. They are so good defensively. And yeah, I mean, remember game one, because that feels like forever ago. That was a game the Thunder almost won in the crazy heroics at the end. They lucked into that one. Yeah. Yeah. So I feel like the story of this series is not as much as like, oh, man, the Nuggets are right there. I feel like it's the Thunder grew up and like the demons of the

going through the wars in a playoffs and being a young team, they almost like speed ran it in this series alone. Yeah, I have no idea what to expect at all from the Timberwolves Thunderseries because...

Both teams play great defense. Both teams have emerging superstars that you think that you can trust that are fun to watch when they're great. But one of the guys is going to be obviously able to elevate their game to the next level, and the other's not. Yeah, and it's really going to come down to— I have no idea which one's going to be next. I think it's going to come down to the guys around them. Jalen Williams today was awesome.

And he, they, that's what the thunder need is like the second guy who can step up and Julius Randall has been awesome. So it's like the, the, the wolves feel like they might have that. Uh, did you guys see Yoko's quotes after I liked hit two that I really enjoyed. One was, uh,

He was asked how this offseason would be compared to last offseason. He said the next couple of days is going to be a lot of beer probably. Okay. Which, okay, that's relatable. There's a lot of beer. And then I really like this one. Because this happens with every team. When they lose, they get asked about window and all this stuff. They asked him if this team can win a title.

And he said, we didn't. I don't believe in if stuff. There it is. They didn't win a title. You can't be like, can they win a title? They didn't win a title. Yeah. They'll have to make some changes. Yeah. But I really wish this game was better. That's all. Game seven. Scott Foster didn't do his fucking job. That's my problem. Game sevens are... They need to always deliver. We don't talk enough about the bad game sevens. The bad game sevens are the biggest bums.

bummer. There were a couple bad game sevens today. Yeah. Although credit to the Thunder. I want to say for anyone who had one TV, they did do a good job of like making it no doubter at the end of the first half and in the third quarter so that everyone could switch the PGA championship. That's for one TV guys. The problem was the PGA also became a no doubter at the same time that the basketball became a

Should we do our PGA recap right now? We can do that. I was going to say embrace debate, Big Cat. Is it better to lose in game six, like get the shit kicked out of you, get your teeth stomped in, get your guts pulled out of your belly button, or then to go on to lose game seven and get the shit kicked out of you? How bad do you lose in game six? Game six is really bad. Like worst loss for a defending champion in an elimination game ever? Yeah, but it's also on a Friday, so it's kind of like a news dump. Got it.

But Sunday is in front of the world. Got it. Max, you didn't know that stat. No, that's a good stat. Let's do PGA. Okay, let's do PGA. PGA. All right, so Scotty Scheffler, incredible. So I was thinking about it. Do you think there's probably a few guys out there who timed their nap

where they'd never thought this tournament was ever in doubt. Because they basically timed their nap and fell asleep in the middle portion of the day when Jon Rahm tied it. And then they woke up and Jon Rahm was like six shots back. You're like, oh yeah, I knew. Perfect nap. Knew that Scottie Shuffler was going to run away with this. There was no drama whatsoever in this for that.

guy. Yeah, it was tied. It was in fact tied and it was like, oh shit. Is Scotty going to melt down? Is he going to fall apart? Had a couple bad bogeys on the front nine and then Rom looked like he was being mentally strong. Yeah, and then everything bad possible happened to John Rom and Scotty just kept being Scotty just dialed in.

There was, we're going to get into a smiling a little bit. There was a full recap of smiling controversy about Rory's driver and his driver face. But we have an update to that now. Oh, okay. We have an update to the, the driver that was pulled from Rory because the face was too thin on it. Scheffler, Scotty Scheffler, the champion just admitted that his driver is also tested this week and

Wow. But he won. But he won, but he talked to the media about getting the driver taken away. He did not use the bad driver in this tournament. Huh. Interesting. Just an interesting point of fact. I feel very vindicated that we rooted against Rory for the Masters after he didn't talk to the media any of the days. That should be illegal.

You have to talk to the media. How are we going to do our job? Yeah, listen, we are actually the reason why professional golfers exist is us talking about the golfers that exist. I love watching Scotty win. He's the man. It also just, from a personal perspective, the fact that he's intimately knowledgeable of Stu Feiner just makes it even better. I was thinking about that. Oh, I think about it every time he's leading in a big tournament. I'm just like...

This guy fucking watches Stu Feiner say, eat ass, lick clit. Yeah. Also... Before going to church. Massive respect to Mrs. Scheffler. Because after Scotty makes the final putt on 18, the first thing she does, she's like, you take the baby. Yeah. Like, immediately. She's like, I've been carrying this baby around all day. You take the baby. He's your thing to deal with now. And then Scotty takes him into the clubhouse. Yes. And has to distract him with a hat and, like, another toy. Be like, hey, just...

Focus on this real quick. I have to sign my scorecard for this major championship to count. Can you just look at this hat for a second? The most relatable dad moment because you do like I remember once I was in a car with my kids and they were screaming bloody murder and I got one of them to stop by just handing them a bottle and they just like we're just playing with the actual empty bottle.

That was Scotty Shepard being like, dude, notebook hat. Those are your toys for the next three minutes. You got this. Yeah. And that will distract the kid for about three minutes. And then you got to find something else. I've done that before, but with remotes where I'm like, here, look at this remote. And then they just pick it up and start hitting all the buttons. Yeah. Yeah. Remotes are dicey though. Cause then you just change everything on your TV. Yeah. Well, it wasn't my TV. So it was like free play. Yeah. Yeah. But it was an awesome tournament. Hank, did you have any thoughts on the tournament?

It was an awesome tournament for Scottie. It wasn't an awesome tournament in terms of drama. No, not a lot of good drama. I mean, Scottie going five under in his last five holes yesterday. I'm sure there's a lot of guys who are like, all right, they finished their round maybe a couple holes ahead of Scottie. Like, all right, I got a shot at this. And then they just see him come in five under, four-shot lead going into Sunday. Like, it's over. Wanted Jon Rahm to come back. I wanted to be closer just for the drama.

But I like seeing Scottie win. Yeah. I mean, on Sunday morning, when you can bet on it online, you couldn't even really bet on Scottie. The odds were just so crazy. It was minus 450. The first odd that was at the top of the screen was who was going to finish in second today. Yeah. And that became the new champion that you could bet on. Yeah. And it was all... I mean, we will talk about it with Smiley, but Scottie was in seventh place, and he was plus 250. And I was just like, this...

It's just it's almost like they knew Scotty's coming. Yeah. And there's nothing you can do about it. Yeah. He was pumped when he won. Let out a scream. Kind of. Remember I said I got I got a little hate for my take that Scotty had that moment in the Butler cabin where he was like, oh, it's on now because people were like, no, dude, he just wanted to get out of there and didn't want to take away from Murray's moment. I was like, this might be the fuck you tore from Scotty.

Looks like it might be on. He looks pretty good. Looks like it might be on. Golden Slam, that'd be pretty cool. Yeah. I've watched every major championship for the last, I'm going to say, 15 years. I had forgotten that Scottie only won two. Yeah. It felt like he had won four, right? Because he wins everything else. I know. He wins every other thing, and he's won two Masters, and he's so dominant when he wins that you're just like, this guy is clearly the best golfer in the sport. I had completely forgotten that he had only won two. I knew he had the two Masters. Yeah.

I thought maybe, I don't know, maybe he had sprinkled in a PGA or US Open at some point. But yeah, if there's one knock against Scotty Scheffler, how is he so good and he's only won three? Well, here's the thing. The other part with Scotty is he looks like he's 40 years old. He's 28. Yeah. That's what fucks everyone up. And we're just like, you see, he has looked like he's a 40-year-old man. And I don't say that in a disrespectful way. He just has like a, he's kind of got like an air to him where it's like he's,

He's 12 years younger than us, and I would call him sir. What really fucks me up. His first win was 2022. Yeah. It wasn't that long ago. Right. He's only, yeah, 22 major starts. He's won three of them. Pretty crazy. So he's only, what's his age again? He's 28. He's going to be 29 in a month. Okay. And Jon Rahm is how old? Jon Rahm is also a sneaky. Jon Rahm, I think he's 30. Jon Rahm is probably like 31. Jon Rahm is 30. He is 30. So Jon Rahm is younger than Hank. Yeah. And Scotty is younger than Max. Mm-hmm. That's crazy. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, the young guns. Scotty has looked. Yeah, he's just he's just he's had a man look about him. I don't know what it is. I think it's the beard. It's the size. It's the size. Jon Rahm. Same thing. Yeah. Jon Rahm's got one of those faces that he could pass is like 45. I think they just got size to have half density. Scotty's also just too mature for his age. Yeah, that too. Do you think we're going to get a period where Scotty just goes absolutely wild?

You don't think so? I would say no. I think we're going to get a period where Scotty... Without even entailing for Scotty. It would be like two bottles of wine. Two bottles of wine. I guess... Listen, we like Scotty, front of the program, current guest. I guess you can't ever say no to...

Because if you had the same conversation about Tiger Woods in like 2006, people were like, no way. I don't know. But that's the truth. That was a, that was, I think Scottie is, is, is a pretty safe bet that he, I feel like Scottie has like,

best friends that he gets fucked up with and they're... Those best friends don't even tell anyone that they're best friends with Scotty Sheffler. Like, that's how good of, like, an inner circle he has. Yeah, if I was a sponsor, I would be just looking at Scotty Sheffler, like, take all my money. But you know what I'm saying? Like, Tiger did kind of ruin the whole... Everybody's good. Everyone, no matter what, you're good to say that nothing will ever, you know, be bad about this. Well, I mean...

If we had had this exact same conversation, big cat a year and a week ago, and we were to say Scotty Scheffler lifetime odds to ever be arrested. True. Plus 500,000. We would say, yeah, don't take that back. Yeah. This was his revenge. Yeah, it was. Yeah. Nike put out an ad, uh, best golfer in the world. Question mark. Guilty. Pretty good ad. Pretty good ad. Um,

All right, so that was PGA. Do you want to talk about... This game, seven just ended. Oh, Florida-Toronto? Florida-Toronto, yeah. Yeah, bad game seven. Do you want to do hockey? Well, this game just ended. All right, we'll do hockey. Let's do hockey. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Hank's just betting on that volcano in Yellowstone to erupt at some point before we get to the Celtics recap. Just running out the clock.

hockey, Leafs. Turns out it wasn't their year. Not their year. Panthers looked great. The first period Leafs were okay, but once that ref got his face caved in by a stick, everything just tilted towards the Panthers. And the thing about the Leafs is if you get two quick goals on them, they just crumble. They turn into the biggest pile of snot that you could see. I feel like, though, even in the first period, the Leafs were kind of holding on.

Whereas you saw the shots in the zone. The Panthers felt like it was not an if, just when. The Panthers are a better team than the Leafs. They are. They just won a cup. They played perfect hockey tonight. This was about as perfect of a game seven as you can play. Doesn't help Leafs fans dealing with this loss. This wasn't one of those Leafs choked. Haha, Leafs choked seasons.

They played a better team and went to seven games and lost. Yeah, Marshawn turns out was a great pickup by the Panthers. Yeah. And then we also had the Stars. What team let him go? The Bruins traded him. Oh, okay. The Bruins traded him. We also had the Stars. The Stars, awesome. The Stars are very good. They finished that in six against the Jets. Overtime winner, which overtime winner to finish a series at home. What a moment that has to feel like. Pretty incredible. Pretty...

The barn was rocking pretty tough loss to bounce back from with a handshake line. Yeah. But you got to do it. Yeah. Got to do it. Got to always do it. Um, and now I'm,

Outside of Carolina, no offense to the Carolina Hurricanes, but after watching them play against your Caps, I don't like watching them play hockey. Yep, that's fair. I'm very excited for Stars Oilers. That's going to be awesome. And I'm excited that Biz is going to get his life back. And maybe we'll like... Did you see... So we're going to have Biz on Wednesday's show to talk about the conference finals.

Credit to TNT because they just let Biz do whatever he wanted. He was, before the game tonight, he had a candlelight vigil for the Maple Leafs, and he was lighting the Leafs, each candle, being like, got to get Marner going, light the candle. If that was your first time tuning into hockey, you're like, this guy has lost his complete mind. Yeah.

But it was great TV. He's like a fan, except he's only really been a fan of the team for a couple seasons. But he's gotten off the deep end for them. I do think that the Leafs discussion is going to be interesting this offseason because they cannot come back with that same team. It's not going to happen. But again, the Panthers are so good. They are. Bob was locked in.

locked in. I thought for a second Oldie might have saved the Leafs going down to Florida for game six. That was bullshit that they kicked Oldie out. Did they actually kick him out? Because he shook hands with the police officer. That's because he is the best at neutralizing any situation of anybody that I've ever met in my entire life. The cop went down there. He's like, hey, yeah, we've heard some complaints that there was a guy demonstrating side pouch.

up against the glass. We're going to have to kick you out, sir. And then by the time they got to the top of the steps, the cop was probably like, hey, you want to come to my kid's birthday? Yeah. You seem like a fun guy. I think he just got moved. I think his sections got moved. I don't think he actually got kicked out because he is that good. Yeah. He can neutralize anyone. What else, Hank? Oh, Preakness.

I was going to say, I think the Mark Scheifele story of the Jets, that was some things are bigger than sports. Big time. His dad unexpectedly passed away before the game. He scored a goal. He scored a goal. I know. Handshake line after the game was Waterwork City. That was one of the...

like tears in your eyes, handshake lines. Yeah. I've seen in a while. Yeah. I mean, that's unreal that he was able to do that. Yeah. To play in that game. It's crazy. Bigger than sports. A lot of things are bigger than sports. Yeah. Perspective. Did you watch the Preakness? I did watch the Preakness. Journalism, maybe the coolest stretch run there ever. Yeah.

He got fucking... He got form tackled. Horse form tackled. The guy that the caddy cheater... No, the caddy. Yeah, the caddy. Yeah, no, you got it. The caddy. The jockey? Yeah. Was that just haters? No, there was some bumping and grinding. Yeah, it's old school horse racing. They were elbowing each other. It's 1990s horse racing. Yeah, but journalism...

It was so cool to watch the last, I don't know, 100 yards where he, it looked like he had nitrous in his ass. He was going in a different speed than every other horse on the track. Yeah, the jockey was saying afterwards, like, yeah, I've run this type of race with him before. He has that ability to do it. And it was, I'm glad that he won. Look at me. Yeah, that's some old school shit right there. That's some bumping and grinding. That's some full contact horse racing right there going up to the 18th fairway. Yeah, it was fun. That was a fun race.

You enjoyed it? Yeah. Were you happy for journalism? Yeah, I love journalism. Journalism-ing. Journalism-ist. You love all of it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Did you guys see that foul on Angel Reese? Let's save that. Let's save that. Let's save that. Yeah. Why don't... Should we talk about Friday night? The boat?

The boat? Yeah, that was crazy. That was Saturday night. The Mexican boat that ran into the Brooklyn Bridge. I think a couple people might have died. That was pretty sad. But Hank brought it up, not me. Yeah, you said it was awesome, right? Yeah, you said it was awesome. I said it was wild. A couple people died. Yeah, a couple people died. I never said it was awesome. It was not awesome. It was a Mexican Navy training ship. Insane video.

There's a lot of stuff going on with ships running into bridges these days. Insane video. What do you think about that, Hank? I know. The first person I thought about, this is sad, the point that Hank's broken my brain, but the first person I thought about when I saw this video was Hank and what kind of dots he's connecting to try to pull this all together. Yeah. So what's your theory? I don't know. They're saying they lost power and just floated into the bridge. Yeah. That's scary stuff. Beacon of Bridges, Mikhail Bridges, plays for the Knicks.

He does. And that was Friday night. And that's where the video is from. That was Friday night. Should we talk about that game? You got to see the Joe Biden. Let's see how many things you can get. Empty the clip. Go ahead. Yeah, Joe Biden has cancer. Hope he's okay. Former president, yeah. Prostate stage four. Mm-hmm.

What else you got? Paul Skeen struck out Bryce Harper. Yep. Three fastballs. Okay. That was crazy. Sick. MLB debut. Six-inning scoreless. Nine Ks. Yeah, that's cool. That was actually going to be my next pick. That was the only way to get me going. Yeah. Anything else? What else you got? You want to do WNBA?

Yeah, I mean, that was a wild, wild opening night. Yeah. Like, at first, I was kind of like, why are they... You know, there should be basketball on tonight, but they delayed it for the WNBA, and it makes sense why they did it. It was action everywhere. I think I'm addicted to WNBA discourse because that was the first game of the season, and...

I've never seen racism thrown on both sides so quickly. First game of the season, everyone was just calling each other racist. It was fucking awesome. Yeah, so... Racism everywhere. When it comes to Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese, there's a lot of people that don't care about the WNBA who have thoughts about the WNBA. Correct. And...

There's also a lot of people that care very deeply about the WNBA that don't want all the discourse from their fan base growing to a point where it reaches critical mass in America where you get assholes rooting for your sport. But here's the dirty secret is if you want to be a successful league, you have to reach that point where the world's biggest shitheads have very strong opinions about all your athletes. Correct. It's like a little catch-22, and it's fun to see a league –

deal with those growing pains because obviously people are talking more about the WNBA in the last two years than they have in a very long time. And it's not to say that they didn't have fans. Their fans were just, it was a smaller group. And now it's, it made that leap all of a sudden to becoming a national talking point on not just sports media, but just

mainstream media in general it's not yeah it's it's just race racism and now every game is a race war and now think about all the shitheads out there that pay attention to any sort of like news like if you deal with a national news program you're reaching millions of people a lot of whom are very dumb yeah and now they're going to have strong takes on your sport how do you deal with the idiots now becoming fans of your sport the uh the following question was a regular foul

I thought that was a pretty right. It was hard. She put some stank on it. The only criticism of Kaitlyn Clark fouling there was that Angel Reese misses a lot of layups. She just let her shoot. She probably would have missed it, yeah. And that's my biggest takeaway from the Angel Reese versus Kaitlyn Clark rivalry, if you want to call it that. I actually feel bad for Angel Reese at this point, and it has nothing to do with how she's handled herself or anything. It's just simply...

Kaitlyn Clark is so much better than Angel Reese at basketball that it doesn't feel fair. Yeah, I think Angel Reese is struggling with the fact that Kaitlyn Clark is better at her best thing than she is. She's better at everything. She had a triple-double. She's tied for the third most triple-doubles in WNBA history, and she's played 50 games. Yeah. She's just better. And they don't like each other, which is...

Again, I think good for the sport. Great for the sport. That they don't like each other. But then how do you deal with having a bunch of weirdos out there that now care very deeply about your sport without trying to actively push them away, which is also a mistake. Right. To push away the attention that your sport's getting. Do you agree that, like, in a weird way, I feel bad for Andreessen, the fact that she...

She wants a rivalry and she has history with Caitlin Clark, but it's nowhere near equal footing in terms of play

And it's like almost an awkward fit. Like, Caitlin Clark needs a different rival because this one is just not fair. Yeah, well, the thing that she does have, and I think this actually contributes to why she's really not having a good time with all the Caitlin Clark publicity, is the fact that they did beat Caitlin Clark in the championship in college. Correct. So she's got that in the back of her head. Now she's struggling to realize that, oh, shit, she's way better than me. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's tough. The triple-double is tough on opening night. And she's not going to be able to get over that. And racism by everyone. Racism by everyone. LeBron is...

There was LeBron congratulating Caitlin Reese and people being like the bronze or Caitlin Clark, Caitlin Reese. Thank you, Hank. You're really sharp. You're welcome. LeBron congratulating Caitlin Clark and everyone's like LeBron to sell out. And then our guy, white boy Rick saying Angel Reese can't is dribbling at her chin and then saying he's racist. And I was like, I love all this. Everyone's racist on both sides. I do love Angel Reese getting all those rebounds off her own missed layups, though. Yeah.

It's fun to watch her miss like four in a row and get four rebounds in a row. Yeah. That's good basketball to me. I just, I can't remember the last story where we've had the equal claims of racism on both sides. And it's like, guys, it's, we're talking about basketball. Yeah. It's like, what are we even doing here? But people have just gone nuclear and it's just so toxic that I, I'm addicted to it. It's like a angel Reese's Caitlin Clark's Achilles heel. Yeah. Yeah. That was mean. Is it not? Yeah, no, it is. I think it's mean. I think it's valid, but it was mean.

You want to talk about Paul Skeens again? No, I mean a little more like, a little more, you know, not as national sports podcast, but, you know, local to us, Chicago. Cubs swept the White Sox this weekend. PCA's the man. They're hot. Cubs are hot. Everyone's talking about it. It's all the city's a buzz. Cubs fever. That was the game on Saturday. I love PCA. I'd die for PCA. Do they call it a subway series here? No. What do they call it? It's just...

White Sox versus Cubs. Okay. I mean, it is connected by a subway, but I feel like Subway Series is New York, and it's the L. They actually had a Subway Series this weekend, too. That's right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You got that? People are mad at Juan Soto. Both sides are mad at Juan Soto. Yeah.

Classic. They tried to do a trophy. I don't think they have it anymore. The Crosstown Classic trophy. It was so sad. It's a hot dog. When both teams were not good and it was like they literally had a trophy and it was just like, what is this? It should be the bean. The bean should be their trophy. Take a picture. The Crosstown Cup was so sad.

But yeah, Yankees fans are pissed at Soto because he left and they booed him. I actually like Soto's response to it where he just tipped his hat to all the booing fans in right field. Yeah. He was just like, yeah, bring it on, bring it on. And then now Mets fans are mad because he didn't run out of the batter's box. Yeah. And Yankees fans were turning our back to him. That was kind of weird. He doesn't care. Yeah. Also, he doesn't really do anything. He doesn't really owe you anything. No.

Why is Juan Soto the bad guy in this situation? Yeah. By the way, Max, he's looking out Crosstown Cup. The best part about the Crosstown Cup is the tiebreaker would be who won it last year. So there was a year where there was no winner. It was like 3-3, but it was because the team had won it last year. They get to keep the cup. Fucking so stupid. I love that. So stupid. All right, Hank, what else you got?

I think it's time. It's time. It's time.

We have a video pulled up of everything that Hank said. I don't know if we want to start. I want to start with giving the Knicks their flowers. Same. I think we need to give the Knicks their flowers because I think that's appropriate because the Knicks are, shout out Knicks fans, they have gone through a lot of shit. They've seen some really bad basketball for a lot of years. I think there was a lot of weird gatekeeping going on on Friday night because Knicks fans were going crazy in the streets and guys on billboards were

I, this podcast is very much in favor of enjoying the ride. If you're a fan, you can't, you can't be like, Oh, jobs, not finished jobs, not finished for the players. The players would say jobs, not finished. Jalen Brunson actually said that they had a team meeting after game five, after they lost in Boston, being like, that was piss poor effort jobs, not finished. They didn't really celebrate. They say, if you watch, they celebrate a game for victory. Uh,

a lot and then they on game six they didn't really celebrate that much after on the court the fans should celebrate the fans should enjoy every moment of this and soak it in and have the best time ever especially like basketball and hockey when the weather turns there's no better celebration yeah shut down 7th Avenue climb up the foul pole it rocked high five Timothy Chalamet is hanging out the side of a limousine do all that stuff you should absolutely celebrate it you got to the Eastern Conference Finals which is

Obviously difficult to do. First conference finals in 25 years. First, yeah, in 25 years. And you've got a very fun team to root for. A tough team. A mentally, physically tough team. I would say the toughest in the fact that you had... There was two moments on Friday night where I was like, this... I mean, the game was over pretty quickly. But...

Mitchell Robinson basically playing defense on the entire Celtics team on that one possession where he was just hustling his ass off. And then Josh Hart having a triple-double and diving for offensive rebounds when they're up 40.

This Knicks team has grit. They have guts. They have like they've done a good job with their roster, making the moves they made. And yeah, they're in and Jalen Brunson. And I'm sure Knicks fans, I would I would love for you to chime in and tell me if I'm close or where I'm at. What do you got means? What are you pulling up? Langston Calloway.

Alexi Shved, Andre Bargnani, Lou Amundsen, and Lance Thomas. Knicks fans have been through shit. This franchise has been a joke for a long time, and New York cares about basketball, so them celebrating the way they did, I'll actually say it. You know what?

My only critique of New York on Friday night, you didn't go hard enough. You should have gone crazier. I think today you are well-deserved to celebrate this as a New York Knicks fan. And the team is fun to root for. They're so fun, in fact, that I find myself rooting for the New York Knicks.

Which is crazy when you think that New York fans, they're also Rangers fans. They're also Yankees and Mets fans. It's insane, but this is a likable team. Yeah, and New York. Somehow New York has become the underdog. Living in New York, you know that the Knicks, and it happens when there's split teams everywhere in the city, like New York, where there's Mets and Yankees fans and Jets and Giants fans, but New York is the one team that everyone gets behind.

Do you know what I mean? Like, so the city does feel different when the Knicks are doing well. We didn't even get to see it. We saw a couple, like, runs. But Knicks fans, do not apologize for anything. Go as crazy as you want to go. Fucking talk any shit you want to talk.

This is the whole point of playoffs and watching sports and watching, you know, Langston Galloway, you know, six years ago, seven years ago. This is the whole point is that you get these moments and you should embrace it and enjoy it as

as much as you possibly can. Two years ago, your main focus was Charles Oakley getting kicked out of MSG for trying to fight your owner. Yeah. Now you're in the Eastern Conference Finals. I appreciate also that New York did not give a shit when the Nets were good. No. They're like, we don't care. No. But the Knicks, now that's the stuff. No, I remember I walked out of – I went to the Game 7, the Kevin Durant foot-on-the-line game, Bucs-Nets, and –

And walking out of that game, there was like a crossing guard who was a Knicks fan. He was just talking all this shit to the Nets fans. He's like, you guys fucking suck. And everyone's like, dude, the Knicks suck. He's like, I don't care. At least we're not the Nets. Yeah. I have a question, though, and I'm sure memes you could chime in, but I want to hear from Knicks fans as well. I think Jalen Brunson is already a top five Knick.

I think it's not. I think the list now is Patrick Ewing, Willis Reed, and Clyde Frazier. And then it's like, yeah, Earl Pearl and then Mello is somewhere in there. Obviously, Lynn Sanity has a special place in Knicks fans' hearts. But I think he's a top five. He might be top four. The New York Knicks, in the last 20 years, before Brunson got there, they won eight playoff games.

In the three seasons he's been a Knick, they've won 21 playoff games. And he's like... He's also... I think it's just like the undersized guard kind of thing that everyone can get behind. Second round pick. Second round pick. Dallas being like, no, we're good, which is still crazy. Went to a small school. Small school. Not known for basketball.

That part's wrong, but you can continue. Yeah, no, I think he's a top five Knick of all time in the three years that he's been there. And he's awesome, and he's the heartbeat of that team. And yeah, they're fun to root for. And Tibbs is like, you know...

He's tips. He had those guys in there with 10 minutes left of 40. Like I said, the Knicks being scrappy underdogs, it's an interesting position for New York fans to be in. And Big Cat, do they lose that going up against the Pacers? Because they were going up against the defending champions, so it was easy to root for the Knicks against the Boston Celtics for a lot of people out there that didn't have a dog in the fight. Going up against the Pacers, do you think they lose that? Or do you think they just lean heavily, heavily into the past –

of like Reggie Miller versus the Knicks and they just stir up those old emotions well it is on TNT so Reggie Miller will be calling the game so we'll get a lot of that it won't be the Stephen A. Smith show so I think I love this I love the Eastern Conference there's like the this is going to be bad blood city because these teams have legitimate real history they

They played, I think it was like six times in eight years in the 90s. You had the John Starks headbutt of Reggie Miller, which was more of a Reggie Miller flop. You had the Reggie Miller eight points in nine seconds. You had the Larry Johnson four-point play. You had Reggie Miller doing the choke to Spike Lee. There's history between these two teams, so I'm excited. I think this will be toxic. People don't like the Pacers. People don't like the Knicks.

There's going to be moments that everyone's going to be mad at each other. It's going to be awesome. I think that the Knicks are fun to root for, but then you see one or two examples of them celebrating this win that makes you think, I could see myself being motivated to hate this fan base. I'm going to take it on a game-by-game basis. I like rooting for the Knicks right now, but I can see a world in which I completely flip on them. And Exhibit A...

Might be your very own Knicks fan here. Memes? Memes. Yeah. Memes. And you should celebrate memes. You should celebrate.

But you went on a war page. War path. I wrote down what you did on Friday night. It was crazy, man. You went... For people who don't follow us on social, pardon my take. First, for a little bit of back-behind-the-scenes context, I texted the group text, like, congrats, memes. And I think he just said, stay offline for the next 24 hours. Yeah, he warned you. And then he went to do...

Hank is Bonnie Blue twice. Bonnie Blue and Lily Phillips. And Lily Phillips. They were calling him Bongie Blue. Bongie Blue. That's great. He hit Max with a stray. He had the graphic ready for Cat being in the Eastern Conference for one year and already being in the Eastern Conference Finals.

On his personal account, he had, I don't know if you saw this one, PFT, he had the Tropic Thunder Ben Stiller holding Hank's decapitated head. Did you see that one, Hank? I did. That one was good. But then, Meme, so we alluded to this when we were having dinner tonight, and we're like, we're going to have to discuss it. This one is crazy. This is just gruesome. Yeah, it's good. It's good stuff. It's crazy. You just...

You have some deep-seated shit against Hank. I mean, you could tell that this was something that memes put a lot of effort into because I don't think you did a Max Photoshop. No. You didn't put Max's face on anybody. That's a great point. You weren't even... He famed. High off the prize. Yeah, memes. If the Knicks lose in the Eastern Conference Finals, you have to do the Statue of Liberty with Max's face. Oh, okay.

Deal. All right. So and then I want to get to the video, but I have to I have to question one thing memes. Yes, because you were just taking shots, shots, shots. The banner 19 one made no sense. What do you mean? The banner 19, the Celtics 4-0 in the regular season versus the Knicks. What Celtics fan ever said like like was like, hey, we're 4-0 against the Knicks. Hank. He did? Yeah. But he raised the banner 19? Yeah.

There were a lot of fans of the Thunder, of the Celtics, bringing up regular season records. Okay. All right, so they're in place. And the Cavs, too. It was like those three teams beat the shit out of the Knicks in the regular season. So I understand that. That was the only one that I was like, wait, what? But I guess you had context there because you take meticulous notes and you're always ready for this. So do you want to play the clip that you were in your bag? You did a compilation for Hank. Hank, did you watch this?

I think I got like 10 seconds through. Oh, okay. So now you're going to have to watch it like Clockwork Orange. We don't have to watch the whole thing. No, we got to watch the whole thing. Let's watch the whole thing. That was nice of you, Max, trying to save Hank. On Friday, it was reported that Cat is going to be traded to the Knicks. Hank, how do you feel about this trade?

I don't think it affects much. I think New York's going to eat Cat alive, to be Cat's point. Solid team. Great. Embiid will probably take his knees out as well. And I'm not worried about them in the playoffs. Let's just fast forward to the finals. It's Celtics Thunder. That was satire. That was PFT. I'm not worried about the Knicks.

Not worried about the Knicks. Even if we lose, I'll say it right now, if somehow we lose game one, we could lose two games and I won't be worried. If you go down to 0-2. 0-2, not worried. Celtics aren't afraid of anyone. Pull the healthy Celtics beat anyone.

That still could be true. You were down 3-1. That could still be true. And you were losing. The national media this week, this past week, saying that the Knicks were actually going to be a good test for the Celtics. They might be coming for the title. They played on Sunday and the Celtics waxed them. Bing-bong, bing-bong, bing-bong, bing-bong, bing-bong. Bing-bong, Hanky. You blew it. What do you think about the Knicks?

They're not going to go anywhere. Oh, I was wrong. It does feel like they're still away from the Celtics and the Cavs. Right? Far away. Yeah. Does that do anything for you? Yeah. Not clutch at all.

Hank, when you say that you have the Knicks, do you have the Knicks or do the Knicks get you? Because after the game, the Knicks fans, they were outside MSG. And you know what they were chanting? What? We want Boston. We want Boston.

We want Boston. Yeah, they don't have a choice. Yeah, but so they got you. I think we have an amazing perimeter defense. I think we're going to lock them up and make other players beat us. The Knicks don't have those players. Who's got the better Jalen? Celtics. I feel good. I'm happy. I said I wouldn't be worried if they went down 0-2. They came out. They...

what they needed to do, I feel like that's going to be... They're going to win this series in six. Oh, so that's it. That's it for the Knicks. Yeah. Listen, I didn't think the Knicks were going to be in the Eastern Conference Final, but Hank...

You never, let's talk about this from your perspective. You never led this series and you also called this series over twice. I did. I got a little bit ahead of myself. When I said that I wouldn't be worried if they were down 0-2, I didn't think there was a chance in hell that they would lose one game, let alone two in a row.

So that didn't look great. And then, yeah, I mean, obviously before the injury, I felt good about our team coming back. Yeah, they probably still would have lost game four, even if Tatum was fully healthy. So that was wrong, too.

I give credit to the Knicks. Jalen Brunson, the most incorrect take in that clip is me saying not clutch at all. He is unbelievable. He took over multiple games. Fun to watch. Also knows how to dribble with his left hand. A little bit while he's a lefty. Well, but still, Jalen Brunson does it. Got to work on some flopping. But that's an NBA thing across the board. Players flop a little bit too much. But he's...

He's a really good player. Mikael Bridges, again, give him credit. He hit every single mid-range shot like he was everywhere. Hit shots when he needed to. And the Knicks beat us. I think the talking heads in the national media saying the Celtics might be better without Jason Tatum clearly got shown to be complete idiots and fools. One and one without him. One and one. That's a good point. One and two in the playoffs. In this series, one and one. But one and two in the playoffs. What about...

When we started the playoffs, you said over under two and a half losses before the finals. You said take the under. You ended up having... Was that in one series or was that the full playoffs? Five losses. Five losses. So you had... Yeah, well, I did say multiple times. You did hate. Crud G went six and five. Went six and five. I said if the Celtics are fully healthy, they're not going to lose championship. That obviously, you know, we lost one of the best players in the league, in the world. So it's tough to come back from that.

We did our best. We'll always have game five. That was fun. But now the offseason's here. It's sad. It's end of an era. A lot of people being really mean online. I don't let that get to me, though. Everyone has to deal with it. People were nasty, memes especially. Jerry O'Connell especially. That's fine. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. No longer, unfortunately. Well, no, you still do. Yeah.

There's not a new champion yet. You have the crown. No. Let's talk more about the offseason. The crown is dead. Like, the king is... We're in... What is it? Conclave? We're in conclave territory. Do you think... Can I ask you this question? Yeah. Are the Knicks a better team than the Celtics? The Knicks were the better team than the Celtics. They are a better team than the Celtics. Yeah, I mean, you can't... I can't... I'm not going to argue that. Because I was wrong, too. I thought the Knicks... I did not think the Knicks would be in the Eastern Conference Finals. They have greatly impressed me. I don't want to say the S-word again because it got taken as an insult.

Say it. They're scrappy. Yeah. It's the scrappiest team to get to the Eastern Conference Finals. It was so cute how you guys beat the shit out of us. Good for you. What happened Friday night? Let's talk Friday night. Somehow this series not having a single show night was crazy. We had Monday, Wednesday, Friday the whole time. That was really unfortunate.

I mean, the game, they just came out so flat. So, so flat. I think there was just a lot of pressure and shots weren't going in and the Knicks just took, like, just dominated. Second quarter, it was over. Like, the way they closed the first half, they're down 27 at halftime. It was over. It was never even, like, I think the first quarter was somewhat close. We stayed in it, but...

After that second quarter run, it never felt like we had a chance of coming back. I still lie bet them like five times. Oh, shit. I think that this was great for the Boston-New York rivalry. I guess, yeah, because it's a rivalry now. Yeah. Yeah, the back. The Knicks have woken up. Yeah. What do you think about Cat? Cat was wearing a fuck Boston shirt today. I respect that shirt. That clip of Cat after, too. Mm-hmm.

Talking like he's from New York. Well, he's from New Jersey, yeah. But yeah, he might have changed. The tone of his voice changed a little. Yeah. No, it's good for the rivalry. It's good for the rivalry. It gives the guy some fire in the offseason. If the Knicks go on to win the championship, it'll give him even more fire.

It's good for the rivalry. And, you know, we got to just get better in the offseason and try and get back next year. So about that, because I'm kind of glad in this way that we didn't have a show on game night. Now you've had some time to process it and you've really thought about

how bad things could look next year for you personally. So where do you see this team going this off season? Max just nodded and went like this. Good point. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

It needs to be talked about. Listen, credit to the old owners of the Celtics because they did what I think most of us would have done, which is let's just give out some fucking contracts before we sell the team. We're not going to have to pay them. And then somebody buys the team, and now you're talking luxury tax. You're talking all these superstars, all these great players. New owner is a Boston guy, so maybe he kind of just does the same thing where he's like, fuck it, let's just do whatever it takes to win.

Thankfully, unlike the Sixers organization being a dysfunctional shit show, the Celtics are a great top-down organization. I do trust Brad Stevens. I do feel like they're going to go for a route where they start stockpiling. You're going to stockpile? Trading away players, going young. So you're in a rebuild? Getting picks. I think. I don't know. It's crazy. Sounds like a process. Are you ready to announce the rebuild? No.

It's crazy to say rebuild. I'm not a math guy. Someone needs to figure out how we can keep Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum and still have good enough players around them to compete. I have, from what I've seen, again, not a math guy, not a luxury tax guy, not a contracts guy. It's just not a tax guy. It doesn't, not a tax guy at all. It doesn't look...

I can't wrap my head around it yet. If someone can explain to me how we're able to do that and not just have all of our money with two players and then kind of get stuck with shit guys around them, I would be open to that information. Max has a question. We keep talking about these two players. Are both of those players playing next year? They're going to be on the roster. That's a good question. I don't know. That's two different things. That's also a bad question because they still have them on the roster for next year. But...

Okay, that's fair. Yeah. And one's not going to play because he's hurt, but he's still going to be getting paid. No, but I'm saying you can't win if the player's not playing. What do you think about the allegations that the Sixers are in a worse spot than the Celtics are?

Are you asking me that question? Yeah, yeah. Well, Hank asked it. The floor's open. Hank asked it, and so I'm relaying Hank's question to you. Hank said they're not the Sixers. Tatum is going to be out for it. Well, it's an Achilles injury, so we have an idea. But they say, you know, he got the surgery really quick. That's a good sign. So what do you think?

I don't know. Those two days could be a huge difference. Because they would make no sense to come back at the end of the season. Correct. I think Dr. Bing Bong ruled him out for all next year. He also has some thoughts on Kristaps, but it's not for air. Sick. Would love to be a part of one of those inside joke text messages one day. Well, no, I just said it's not for air. He's got swine flu. Yeah. Got attacked by a bear. We'll see. I trust Brad Stevens with my life, but I'm leaning towards...

Rebuild. Ish. Wow. That's crazy. You just hit the rebuild button. Ish. Probably. Memes. Make a graphic. He hit the rebuild button. Memes, how happy are you right now? How awesome was Friday for you? Friday was one of the greatest sports moments I've had in a while. Well, Mets last year and then this. Yeah. And you just were locked in. I was dialed. I said to our production group chat, I was just like, there's a 10% chance I get fired for doing my job. Yeah.

Mims, how long did it take for you? When did you start compiling the list of shit that you're going to put out the instant that the Celtics lose? It was after the Knicks went up 3-1. Okay. I texted Pug and Jack. I said, go back to October 2nd.

And get the cat take. And then start compiling. That's pretty reasonable. And to be fair to Hank. That was a good clip. Good work. To take Hank's side just a little bit. When Hank said that he would not be worried if they went down 0-2, he never actually thought that they would be down 0-2. Yeah. No. So it was really easy for him to say that in the moment. As someone who's been on the other side of one of those memes joints.

They hurt, but it's also like a hat tip. Like, you did your job, man. I also respect as much as I want to chirp, and I do still want to chirp. I respect the fact that memes does its best work strictly fueled by hate. Oh, yeah. If it wasn't the Knicks or it wasn't me...

No one's doing that much work to go back and make that. No, no, no. If the Knicks beat the Pacers to go to the NBA finals, it's not going to be. It's going to be like, yay. It's going to be a graphic. The two Bonnie Blues was a bit much. Yeah, the first Bonnie Blue I gassed a little. And then when I saw the second. What's the other? Lily Phelps. When I saw the second Bonnie Blue hit the tower, I was like, oh, my God. It didn't even make sense. I think we could have used all of the Bonnie Blue. Do you have a Bonnie Blue that you kept in the chamber?

No, it was just the two Bonnie Blues. Is there any that you kept in the chamber that you would like to release right now? Because then people can see it and then hear this point in the podcast. No, the two Bonnie Blues, I felt, was the line. Yeah, but you don't have anything saved? No. Anything that you were thinking about? Because you didn't even put this one on the main, the Ben Stiller, Hank decapitated head. Yeah, I felt that was too graphic for the main. Hank, you look hot as Bonnie.

I think it looks hotter as a Lily Phillips. Hank, all right, spin zone time. Summer's kind of opened up. Doesn't matter. But summer's kind of opened up. You don't have to go. Game for at night. Don't have to do the duck boats. Don't have to make any trips to the wood. Keep your hair. Extra golf. No, I was looking forward to the skullet. I've been planning out the skullet with my barber. Give it to us anyway. I might because that's maybe a little bit too cocky. But for the last three months, I'm like, let's keep the back long. I got to get a skullet.

Give it to us. Doesn't matter. A little bit of, you know, you got less travel, more golf. Did you play a sad round of golf on Saturday? I played... No. No, I did not. Never really affected you then. What did you do Saturday? I just went out. My cousin was in town. Nice. Hit the bars. What did you do on Friday? Friday I golfed. But Friday night? Friday night I...

Just sat on my couch, sad. Stereo TV. I feel like all the losses have just been on that couch. It's been a sad, sad couple weeks for my couch. Yeah. Do you regret not going to the New York office and streaming there? No, I would have if that's what I was asked to do, but I knew Clemmer had that. Tim was on the wood, so... Yeah. Also memes. Clemmer meeks. Maybe the biggest piece of shit move memes did was...

Dave, like I said, Dave threw me under the bus saying that to Chalmé being like, this guy called you performative. And I said in real time, I'm like, I don't think I said that. I don't remember saying that. Then I texted the group talks. I was like, memes, I say this. And he just responded, yes. So I said that. I was like, yeah, my bad. I did say that. I don't remember it. I said it on the show. I don't remember saying that. And then after I was like, can I see that clip, by the way? Because I really don't remember. He's like, oh, no, you didn't say it. That was fucked up.

So the Chalamet rivalry, he just dominated you. Yeah. It's over. Guy's got it all. He's got it all. I'll give a hand up. Chalamet, you got me this time. I'll be back. I bet you he doesn't have a sad couch. No. He's probably got an awesome couch. Yeah, his couch is probably fucking awesome. So at least you got that over him. Yeah, no. It went from me and Dave to Bad Bunny and the best night ever in New York.

Like the clip of him in the limo is awesome. Yeah, he's the man. Yeah. Yeah. I love that he actually cares about his teams. You can tell that he really does. Brought up Chris Duhon. That's what I knew. He's the man. Yeah, there's the old picture of him rushing to Grand Central to get free tickets from who is that? Mario Stoudemire? No, it's like Landry Fields. Yeah. It's great. So, all right. Reset button. Rebuild button.

That's it? Yeah, just hopefully our new owner is like Daddy Warbucks, like part two. Is that Billy Strings? Do you regret calling this series over twice that you were never leading? Yeah. Yeah, I do. 2-1 was probably I got a little ahead of myself. Yeah. And then I was, I will say like I was fully, you know, I was in full denial and just really just trying to procrastinate things after the wood game, game five.

I was probably overextending myself. You didn't want game six to happen. You didn't want to get to game six. Yeah, I was just so happy with how things went in game five, and I want to just bottle up that feeling forever. What would you do this offseason, Hank, if you owned the team? Golf. If I owned the team, I would just spend a lot of money, yeah. Yeah. A lot of golf. I'd blow it all. A lot of golf. A lot of golf. That's the thing. Celtics or no Celtics, I'm playing a lot of golf.

Yeah, no, I know. But it's like all the Celtics here. Season's over. Now I can play more golf. I'm going to play the same amount of golf. Maybe just not go to the games. Right. You were going to have to go sit courtside at an NBA playoff game, which would have been brutal. You're going to have to go on the duck boat and get drunk with Joe Mazzola. You're going to have to do a lot of stuff. Now you don't have to do it. Have you looked up golf courses in Indiana? Because you're like,

be playing the Pacers. Let's see if there's something close by. No, no, I did not do that. He could have gone to games there. Yeah, that would have been cool. Oh, man. Would have been cool. I'm excited for Pacers next. I'm excited for how much golf Hank's going to get to play. Yeah. Max, how are you? Max is mad. Max was mad that it was a Friday night game. Yeah, no, it's bullshit. I've...

This isn't the same reaction that we would have gotten on Friday. Nope. Friday night, we would have gotten tears. It would have been so embarrassing. You would have been so upset. It's bullshit. You had two days to not even think about it. That sucks.

But I am happy that you're fucked and the Celtics are fucked going forward. But that's the thing. We're going to be back sooner than the Sixers. Oh. Let's start another clip. Start the clip. Start the clip. Because everything that you say is wrong going forward. The Booth has the Booth. They have your number right now. This is the Booth's revenge. You keep calling me a loser. I literally just won a Super Bowl. Oh.

He's got you there, too. Dude, it's been a while since Hank's been right about anything. Oh, man. This is brutal. Hank has never been in this position where the booth has owned his ass. No. Yeah, it sucks. It fucking sucks. They're laughing. They're having the time of their life. This is why you lift all those weights, boys. This is why you stay up until 4 or 5 in the morning editing the podcast.

For this moment. That's probably the last time Boston was good. Actually, that's not true. Celtics just won. We'll cut that. Max went too long. I have one last question. Just a thought starter question. Then we'll do who's back in the league. We'll get to our interviews. So the Knicks fans going crazy was awesome on Friday night. I think the Knicks might be the number one city to proverbially burn down in a championship. And I was thinking about this. So...

Obviously, you could throw in the Browns or the Lions or the Bills, but...

Those teams play winter sports. It's definitely different if you win a Super Bowl like it just is versus winning an NBA or a Stanley Cup and it's nice out and everyone just takes to the streets. The only other one I could think of is the Toronto Maple Leafs. That was going to be my... Yeah, maybe. I would definitely put the Browns on there even though it's the wintertime. Their river catches on fire. Yes, for sure. That city is very flammable. I would also say Montreal. Montreal.

Because Montreal has a culture where it's like you riot after good things happen to you. Yeah. Like in Europe. But the Knicks might be number one right now of city to proverbially, but not actually burn down, but like just the most chaotic scenes possible after a championship. What would be great about New York is that you get snippets from like seven different neighborhoods. Yeah. All celebrating in their own crazy ways. Yeah. Yeah.

I will say that I have given some thought about the rest of the playoffs. Yes. Oh, this is good. This is a big announcement. You said that you weren't going to watch the rest of the playoffs. I will. No, I will. Even I'll say I will say after I hope so. We we have a sports. Yeah, no, I know. And after after Tatum's injury, like I was watching the games, I was just kind of like, damn, this I am just watching this as a neutral fan. I don't think we're going to play the Thunder or, you know, the Nuggets or the Timberwolves like.

I will be rooting for the Knicks to win the Eastern Conference. That's huge. And I will be rooting for the Thunder, Alex Caruso. Really the only connection within the world is the Thunder. He's super fun to watch play. Great recurring guest, friend of the program. Loves golf.

I'm pulling for him. I literally texted Caruso after game seven. I was like, dude, you're my playoff team. You personally are my playoff team. As I was watching, I was like, yeah, fuck yeah, Caruso. As a man, I hope he wins. So yeah, it's Thunder over Knicks because I want the Knicks to get there. That's very mean. I think the Knicks... I'm not betting. I'll be betting on the Knicks definitely game one. I think I'll go game by game after that, but...

It would be crazy. Like, you can't... How can you bet against this team? I'm now in the mindset of any of these four teams. I really do. I could see any of these four teams. I think the Thunder are probably the best team still standing. But if you flash forward and you tell me the Pacers, the Knicks, the Wolves, the Thunder all win the championship, I'm like, yeah, they're really fucking good. I think it's a good place to be. It's a fun Final Four. It really feels...

and awesome. And someone's going to have a championship for either the first time ever or the Knicks' first time in 52 years. Yeah. Knicks could absolutely win the title now. Yeah. It's crazy. The Cavs and the Celtics.

You should have put that in there. Injuries, man. PFT laid the death knell when he was like, can we just fast forward the Eastern Conference to the Cavs and the Celtics? Yeah. Yeah. I said, all these other teams, get the fuck out of here. It was the Celtics. I was also egging Hank on a little bit with that. But the ESPN analyst, this is now the 3-0 for them. Yeah. So they all picked against the Timberwolves, against the Lakers. They all picked against...

The Pacers against the Cavs, and they all picked against the Knicks against the Celtics. Yeah. So if you get that graphic going, you know they're about to be wrong. Yeah. Memes and I both said Knicks in six before the series started. There you go.

Only two media members. That counts. The booth is up. The booth is up huge. All right, let's see who's back, then we'll get to our interviews. We've got two great interviews, Smiley Kaufman talking more golf, and then an awesome interview with Kyle Stowers and Tyler Phillips from the Miami Marlins in studio. So it was great hanging with those guys. Who's Back of the Week is brought to you by our friends at S&P.

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My Who's Back, I emptied the clip trying to filibuster. I'll go, because I'm looking at it on the screen right now, the librarians, the next chapter, they're showing these commercials in all these games. I can't believe it's a real show that is being made. It looks like the dumbest fucking show of all time. Is this one where Nicole Kidman's like a shirt or something? No, no, no, this is a movie. Have you seen the commercials, though? It looks like, I don't think it is Lin-Manuel Miranda.

but it looks like him. Yeah. And it's like a bunch of action hero, superhero librarians. Look it up. Look it up. I can't tell if it's him. I literally think I'm guessing that he wrote the show or something. It was like, let's get an action double of myself. But the commercials, every time I see him, I think it's like a spoof commercial for like a different product. And then at the end, it's like librarians. Wait, hold on a second.

Rebecca Romijn is in it? Yeah, she's a star. She's a star. No, she's not. Damn, man. She's first listed. Damn, man. No, she's not. How?

How could you? No. No shot. Wait, this is the Librarian's 2014 TV series. Oh, okay. All right. All right. That would have been crazy. That was season one. That would have been crazy. Wait, but is she in season two? I don't know. I hope not. Oh, my God. Librarian's the next chapter. Season... Oh, yeah. Okay. So there's four seasons. I think she's in them. Is she in the new one? I've got to pull it up right now. Let's see. Let's see.

story. I don't see your name in this. Okay. I also don't see Lin-Manuel Miranda's name. I think Hank just... Look at the guy. Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah. I see Lin-Manuel. No, no, he is. That is him. Is that him? No. That does look like him. I don't think it is. Look at him though, BFP. That's Callum McGowan. That does look like him. I'm looking at it. Yeah. He had to have written this show. Is that Olivia Munn? Yep. Nope. It's fake Olivia Munn. Olivia Morris is in it.

So it's a fake Olivia Munn and a fake Lin-Manuel Miranda? Well, Olivia isn't the one that looks like Olivia. Jessica Green looks like Olivia. Got it. Yeah, I guess he's not. I don't see him on the executive producers or anything. I just, when I see the commercial, I'm like, is that Lin-Manuel Miranda? I'm like, no. And I'm like, he must have been like, let me just cast an action version of myself. But yeah, I'm going to have to watch this at least an episode because...

Again, I just can't believe it's a real show. Is the Rebecca Romijn, is that the same as this show? I think it might be. I think that was the previous chapter. Because this is the next chapter. This is the next one. This is the next chapter. Yeah. Got it. It's about crime fighting librarians. Great. Great. Who's back, Hank?

Thank you. It's on the TV right now. You're just looking around the room. Okay. Oh, I did give like eight before. Yeah. I mean, to be fair, Hank did take like everything before Who's Back came up. So my Who's Back of the Week is Vanny Woodhead. Oh. How's Vanny Woodhead looking? Oh, good question. Vanny Woodhead's good. We sent an invoice for some parts. It's getting fixed up.

Okay, because when was the due date on Fannie Woodhead again? It was spring, summer-ish, so it would be right now. I just hadn't heard anything about him, so I figured we might check in, see how he's doing. We're about to hit summer. Memorial Day is the start of summer. So we're like seven days away. Are we on track? No. Oh. Okay. Because that was your thing. I'm working on it. I'm still working on it. It could happen still, but I don't want to... There's been some delays and...

possibly me just forgetting to send an invoice. Well, the Celtics. Because if we went through the list, like memes, your thing is to meme Hank to death. Check. Max, your thing is to freak out and make good content about getting tricked in April Fool's. I went to the bachelor party. Bachelor party. Check. Hank, Vanny Woodhead. On it. How far would you say we're behind? I don't know. My hands aren't dirty yet.

What does that mean? Like, I don't know exactly, you know, what needs to get fixed and how long it's going to take. If, you know, if you were on a flight, it would be a delay where you're not, like, upset about it. You're not going to change any plans. You're just like, all right, minor delay. Okay. Like someone, they're just fixing, like, a light in the bathroom. So we shouldn't be looking for alternative routes? No. So it's no longer spring-ish summer. It still could be. It's solidly summer? Yeah.

Never say never. Because summer doesn't start until, like, July, right? June 21st. Yeah. So never say never.

June 21st, are you taking the over or the under? Over. Okay. Yeah. But, you know, you would have taken the Celtics going into the series. Like, anything can happen in this game. Yeah. I would have taken it. So you're saying we get an upset and down? You probably get some good value on the under. Okay. All right. I have two who's back. The first is Giannis because he did a Q&A while everyone's wondering where he's going. And it was very funny because he was answering. I think Giannis, like...

People were asking him very loaded questions. He was answering them honestly. Like someone asked, out of all the cities you've ever been to, which city made you the happiest to be there, not counting your hometown? He said Florida cities.

He said, what's your favorite city to play in on the road? He said, New York. He said there was something else about, I think there was something with Texas or something, but he's basically just throwing red meat at the internet being like, here you go. And I think he's actually being genuine. Like, I don't know if he's doing this on purpose. Florida cities. Yeah. Florida. All Florida cities. All Florida. Orlando. It would be a good fit. It would be great. My other who's back is PEDs.

Because did you guys see Brittany Mahomes? No, I did not. I did. Yeah. There's been some upgrades. Let me look at this. Respectfully. All due respect. Developing. Developing. Respect. All due respect. I think she's always been a lovely person. She's always been a lovely person. I'm just saying there has been some alterations. Good for her. Yeah. All due respect. Cannons. Mahomes always been a big TD guy. Yeah. Yeah.

The overused joke of the weekend online was, look at the weapons Mahomes got to play with this year. I like that. That's good. It's a pretty good one. Very nice lady. Yeah. Respect. Looks great. Always has. Also, the real PEDs is Jose Alvarado. Philly's closer got busted for PEDs. No. Big time bust. 80 games. 80 games. Ineligible for the postseason. Not good. Not good. That sucks. Max? Max?

Not great. Not great, especially because the bullpen's already very bad. But we also just brought up a prospect. He's 36 scoreless, 9Ks today. We have like eight starters and like two relievers. Okay, so what happened with Jose Alvarado?

You know, he was a little bit overweight, and I think you... He's the fat boy. It was a fat loss drug. Okay. You can't get fat loss drugs? It was the fat pill? I don't know. It probably has meth in it. Yeah. You can take fat loss. Listen.

Sometimes you feel like a fat boy and you want to be less of a fat boy. And he has a clip about calling himself a fat boy. It's very funny. Yeah, play it. And this is what did him in. Is that the key for any pitcher though, Jose? Is make sure your legs are strong? You know, I am the grizzly bear. Yeah, you are. I am the grizzly bear. I got... Sometimes I call like...

to my people in the glue house bro I feel like a fat boy yeah they shouldn't have busted this guy yeah no we laughed over but he's like yeah fat boy I'm fucking fat I'm looking up what he got busted for looks like he got busted for taking supplemental testosterone

So I don't know if that's necessarily a fat boy move. I don't think the way you made it seem was that there was rumors that it was a fat loss drug that had testosterone in it. Okay. Got it. But I actually believe him that he was not trying to do it in a steroids way. He was just trying to get lose weight.

Well, so it was exogenous testosterone, which is not one of the fat boy drugs. This is what... I don't know. This guy, he's got 15,000 followers. Jose Alvarado accepted the suspension. Dave Dombrowski said it was a weight loss drug that caused him to fail. Phillies will treat it like losing someone to injury. I think that's why the MLB came out and said what it actually was. It was because they said... That's bad, Max. That's bad. Yeah, I mean...

Deadline. Pick up guys. We got eight starters and two relievers. Your buyers. All right. Let's get to our interviews. We got two great interviews. We got Smiley Kaufman and we have Kyle Stowers and Tyler Phelps from the Miami Marlins. We're brought to you by our friends at Stella Blue. The weather's heating up. So stay cool with Stella Blue cold brew. Whether you love a bold, dark roast in indulgent flavors or our newest variety, Ms. Peaches, 100% Colombian. We've got a cold brew for everyone.

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Uh, pause Chicago. We give money back to try to help homeless pets adopt. Don't shop and buy some delicious coffee and get the cold brew because it is so good. And I just, I put it in the fridge. I, every Sunday night I get home.

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on time and for the best price. Plus, fees are always included, so what you see is what you'll pay. We're looking at tickets. Hank, can you pull up a ticket for opening night, NFL?

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It's better at game time. $20 off and you can get your best. You know you're getting the best deal with game time. Go right now. Use code PMT with game time for $20 off. Okay, here he is, Smiley Kaufman. Ooh.

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest, recurring guest. It is Smiley Kaufman. You can see him on NBC Sports. You can see him coming up with the U.S. Open and the Open Championship. You also can listen to him, The Smiley Show. He just did a live stream after the PGA Championship. And he was there in Charlotte all week, Smiley.

I don't really know where to start other than Scotty Scheffler is just the best golfer in the world. And it feels like maybe you can explain it to me. It feels like the gap is larger than we let on because obviously Rory and, you know, Xander won two last year, but it does feel like when Scotty plays his best, there is no one close to him. Is that a fair assessment? Uh,

I think we're back to regular scheduled programming and great to be back on with you boys and always enjoy coming on. Yeah, I mean, guys, Scotty Scheffler, it's absurd what he can do with a golf ball. And I think maybe most of us and maybe members of the media were blinded a little bit by the Grand Slam with Rory McIlroy at the Masters and Augusta National and just how important that was.

not only for Rory's legacy for the game of golf, but even after that, I'm thinking, oh gosh, Rory could potentially win the next six majors in my head. And I'm just somehow forgetting about how good Scotty Sheffer was over the past couple years and then

Scotty Sheffer goes to the Byron Nelson wins by what was it? Eight shots at the Byron Nelson then shows up this week and gets the job done. It didn't ever feel like it was going to be a five shot win in the end, but there was a lot of drama that happened over the last couple hours that made it

Kind of a boring ending, but a very exciting hour or two in there, just not knowing what exactly was going to happen. Did we see a little bit of that emotion from Scottie as he won? Like, you guys forgot about me? Is this bad boy Scottie that we got to see drop the gloves? Because, I mean, he made that putt on 18, spikes the hat. That's an outburst the likes of which we've never even imagined from Scottie to throw his hat on the ground. And everybody was like, oh, my God, I can't believe this guy showed emotion.

How rude was that, right? I mean, we're trying to play golf out here. It's a gentleman's game and he's out here throwing his hat around in celebration. But to me, dude, PFT, this guy's a competitive psycho. It's unbelievable how this guy is wired. But he's got this soft side of him too, this like emotional dad side that any dad can relate to just at any moment he could cry and you just don't know when it's going to happen. But then...

when he's, you know, when he's playing and before he gets that moment where he gets emotional, he is legitimately just a competitive freak. Um, he never gets out of the zone. Oftentimes when I'm out watching him out on the golf course and walking the grounds with them, uh, I know when to stay away and when he's not going to talk or when he's not going to joke around. And, um,

He was in the zone today, and it was fighting it on that front nine, guys. He had all these left misses going, and you're thinking to yourself, is Scottie going to blow this today? Yeah. Yeah, there was that moment where Jon Rahm tied him, and it was like, oh, man.

Is this really going to happen? And then Jon Rahm completely melted down, and Scottie just kind of stayed steady throughout it. I want to go back, though, the start of the tournament, and obviously the odds don't tell everything, but I thought it was crazy because on Friday, I believe it was, I was looking at the odds. Scottie's in like fifth or sixth, and he's probably four strokes back.

And he's by far the favorite to win the tournament. If you're one of, and in the, in the argument, the beginning of the tournament was like, look at these guys. They're not like the known, they're not the known guys at the top of leaderboard. If you're one of those guys who came out and shot a 64 or 65 on Thursday and you're in the lead, are you the whole time thinking like, well, Scotty is four strokes behind and I'm fucked.

Hopefully those guys aren't going to look at the odds boards after they're 65 on a Thursday. But, dude, I mean, Scottie was plus 450, I think, coming into the week. I believe he still had the shortest odds. And then after his two-under round on Thursday, he moved up. Like you said, he was still four strokes back of the lead. Actually, no, five strokes back of the lead because Vegas shot seven under. And he moved up.

to plus 350. Yeah. And that's crazy. And that's when you're thinking to yourself, okay, so the lead is actually 200. It's not seven under. The scoreboard is wrong. Everything that you're seeing, it says what the lead is. Oh, no, it's actually Scottie down here, five strokes behind. And you know what's even crazier, guys, is that I just looked at what the odds are next week at the Colonial. Scottie Sheffield is playing next week.

He's plus 250 to win next week at the Colonial, which is the most absurd number. That's Tiger-like. I think Tiger got maybe into...

Like he never got to where he was like minus on a week to where that you were weighing money down on, on a loss. But I, we're entering a territory that's crazy. And Jordan Spieth, I think he's, he's the next best odds next week at the colonial at I think 22 to one. So we're talking just the biggest gap. That's crazy. It is nuts. And it is tiger like, because tiger, I remember like there was a year where tiger like to win the masters was like plus one 50 or something. It's like, this is ridiculous.

So I know this is a lame thing to do, but I do love to talk about it. Is Scottie officially on Tiger watch? I know he's got a lot of things to do, but I saw a stat 22 major starts. I think Tiger had three wins in his first 22. Scottie or sorry, Tiger had five in his first 22. Scottie has three. Scottie had more top 25s, more top tens and the same amount of top fives. Like what?

I know. I never thought when tiger happened, you're like, it's never going to happen again, but it does feel like Scotty is, and maybe the competition is just harder because like you see the guys that week in and week out are so good. But like, if you had to put a number on Scotty, if everything stays like, you know, if he stays healthy and plays for 15 more years, like it does feel like he will be in that double digit majors territory. Oh,

You're right. And health is going to be a big key to that if he remains healthy and continues the form that he's on. The strokes gained, that's something that we can kind of compare generations a bit when we can go back and look at how well did Tiger Woods strike the golf ball and then compare it to how well Scottie Scheffler has done it. And it's comparable data. So when you look at that, you say, OK, he's as good as controlling his golf ball as Tiger Woods is.

And then you look at, all right, how has he done since 2021? You look at all the top events that he's played in, and he constantly puts himself in contention week in and week out, especially for the majors. So when you look at that and you think about –

just what he's accomplished to this point and how crucial it was for him to win this week. Because if he would not have gotten the job done this week, all of a sudden you're thinking to yourself, okay, he's only got two majors. He's only won the Masters. And we think about what he's going to be measured against over the course of his career as far as how many majors can he win and can he pass Tiger, can he catch –

uh, past Jack Nicholas. Well, he definitely needed to get it done today. And he did. And, um, and all of a sudden you start to think, okay, is, is he going to be the next player to complete the, uh, the grand slam? And actually, uh, somebody tweeted this out. I can't remember who it was, but they, they actually said it would be considered the golden slam because he's won a gold medal. Now he was able to win. If he's able to win the U S open in the open championship, uh,

he would be the first to complete the Golden Slam. I wish I could give credit to whoever came up with that. No, just take credit. As first reported by Smiley Kaufman. Yeah, like the Golden Slam. Pardon my take, Mark. Yes. So I was looking at a bunch of the stats that you were kind of alluding to, and he's on all these lists with Tiger and Jack Nicklaus, as you mentioned, the only golfers to win...

two Masters and a PGA before their 30th birthday. You can look at the stats and I'm a little bit upset at Scottie because it was going to be fun to say that he's just a Masters merchant, that he's like Rafa Nadal and he can only win at Augusta and he hasn't even bothered

like competing in the other majors. So we can't talk about that anymore. But when we're talking about strokes gained and all this data that you brought up, where did he, where did, where can you see that? Where can an average casual golf fan watch him play? Like, was it Saturday this year where it's like, he's dealing with the same conditions as everybody else, but he's just hitting the ball that much better.

Oh, gosh, man. I think he gained like eight strokes down the stretch over the last five holes in the round yesterday. And this is – it's not an anomaly. This is what he does. He finds a way in the most challenging conditions when we talk about the firm greens, when we talk about holding 15-mile-an-hour crosswinds and shots that extend past wedges. We're talking like seven, six irons where really proximity gets shrunk to an average –

Shot would be, you know, 30 or so feet. And he finds a way to break the mold down the stretch and hit shots inside of 15 feet. Well, having the best shots of the day and later the day where typically it's firmer, faster and it's more challenging. He put the tournament to rest. We thought last night until all of a sudden he's tied with John Rahm with Rahm was seven to play and with him with nine holes to play.

but yeah, I'm very, I was very excited to see Scottie get the job done. Cause you want to see, uh, you know, a player of his caliber, uh, be able to, to reach the heights that we think he can in the game. So for him to get the, this win, uh,

What a start to the major season. Rory Mack were in the Grand Slam and now Scottie went in the PGA. It just gets you excited about the next one where the last six majors have gone to Scottie Shuffler twice, Sandra Shoffley twice.

Bryson DeChambeau and then Rory McIlroy and I don't know who's going to win a major outside of a group of about eight guys these guys are that good right now yeah it is pretty crazy I so Bryson you mentioned I wanted to ask a question about that uh Bryson like he just he he gained so much from his drives and he's he's bombing it so much farther than everywhere everyone else but

But then it feels like his iron play was just all over the place and his putting wasn't there. Is there a fix for him or is it like, no, dude, he's like in the last six majors he's been in the contention in pretty much all of them. It will happen again for him.

I think I talked to you guys after the U.S. Open last year when he changed to the bulge-faced irons, which is just – it's so awkward to say as a technology in the game of golf. But there's so many weird sayings in the game of golf that bulge-face technology just kind of fits right in. And with Bryson, apparently he was talking about this after the round that –

It's adding extra curvature to shots for him. And he really only plays a draw and he hits it so high up in the air where the difference between, I think, him and Scottie Sheffer when it comes to iron game is that Scottie Sheffer has the ability to always make his golf ball fly straight. And they both hit it just as high. They hit it. You know, if you're looking at them both at an eight iron, they're both of the same apex.

but Scottie Scheffler with, with crosswinds can hold a right to left wind to make the golf ball fly straight or Bryson to Shambo for the most part, just plays a little push draw shots. So right to left shots are going to get overemphasized to where they go too much to the left where Scottie's ball is always landing softer on the greens. Because when you're fighting up against a breeze, it's adding spin to the golf ball. It's going to make the ball land softer where Bryson, uh,

doesn't hit many shots where he controls the trajectory and brings it down. So it's, it's something that he 1000% needs to improve on. But he hits it so good off the tee and his short game around the greens is putting his chipping. He's bunkering is all at such an elite level that in major championships, he's always going to be in contention. Right? Yeah. I saw this was from John Sherman. He was watching the round today and he said that Scotty came out with his club face too closed and,

But as the round went on, he found a way to manage it and that he'll go down as an all-time great because of his face control. So I think a lot of... Cake has terrible face control. Bad face control. The worst face control. Both golf and real life. Resting bitch face is what he's got. So Scotty had resting bitch face today, but he learned how to smile through it somehow. Yes. Is that something that you can see on a broadcast? Yes.

Like, can you tell, like, he's figuring this out as the round goes on? Or is this, like, something that you say when you're watching it to try to sound smart? Yeah, I think Randy Smith, Scotty Sheffler's coach after Friday, went on the range with him and they were, like...

Randy was basically holding his hips and working on getting his hips to turn correctly. Yeah. So part of that helps with sequence and just knowing how to clear out at the right time. And I would say earlier this year, Scottie's biggest issue was a left miss and it came out a lot of times in pressure, pressure moments.

what you've been dealing with will come out. And that's kind of what Scotty dealt with on the front nine. And you're right, PFT, his face control is absurd. And maybe we can ask Scotty to ask Big Cat,

how to exactly set up to the golf ball because big cat, of course, maybe has one of the best setups in the game of golf. And, and, and you, I would say probably struggle to clear your hips through the golf shots as well. And I would say that maybe Scotty had maybe watched you play too much golf recently heading into Sunday because the knees are locked. The hips weren't clearing at the right time. And,

maybe just watching too much golf podcast or YouTube content. Yeah. I never clear my head. No. And Hank does have an issue with not being able to close his face. Yeah. The big time. All right. So, so I want to talk about the course real quick. I will actually know what's, what's up. Explain to me the driver saga that happened this weekend. They, they test the,

50 people's randomly their driver. And apparently Scotty uses backup driver still dominated. Rory uses backup driver was a baby and didn't talk to media. It, the only reason it's a story is that, is that Rory didn't talk to the media the entire week. So I think people were upset that Rory wasn't, uh, just making himself available, especially coming off of a grand slam. Uh,

And typically is one who always is one to talk to the media. The only time really that it comes to mind was, of course, after the U.S. Open last year where you can't blame the guy for not wanting to talk to the media. Oh, we could. We did. We did. Oh, you did. Okay. Yeah. I mean, he like pulled – he peeled out. It was – He almost ran over like six kids in the parking lot. Yeah. Yeah. I just feel vindicated that he didn't talk to the media because we rooted against him at the Masters. I feel a little vindicated. But what's up with the testing of the drivers? So –

So it's kind of interesting because there isn't exactly a protocol that tests the entire field, which you would think if you're just like a casual fan, you would think that they would test every single player's equipment so that it's not just random. You just want everybody to be playing under the same conditions.

And so that was the conversation where was people asking the question as well. Was Rory's driver, was it conforming the week of the Masters? And so I think that's why the narrative of Rory not doing media kind of got overblown because his driver wasn't conforming for the week.

To me, it was a big nothing burger, but I think people just wanted just to hear Rory's thoughts on it because typically he gives so many thoughts on a lot of things in the game of golf. What does that mean, though? What is conforming? My understanding was that the drivers, as you use them more, as you hit more shots with them, the face gets thinner. And so then as like through natural wear and tear, as the face gets thinner, it becomes almost a springboard.

Yes. Because the face has a little bit of give to it. So it could be something where it's not like it's a driver that he got from a store. Like he didn't see an infomercial for like get 20 extra yards as you drive. I did that. Yeah. With this, with this fake driver. Uh, but it was like just through overuse and the same thing happened to, was it Shoffley a couple of years ago at the open?

Yeah, no, it happens all the time. And you explained it perfectly. When guys face gets thinner, typically that's when you start to hit it the furthest and you'll start to notice maybe a little bit difference in a ball flight at times. And all of a sudden you look down at your face and then it's cracked. So that's a lot of times what players are looking for is if their, if their driver face cracks, especially if they start hitting shots offline. But the protocol there's, there's,

There's a certain way they measure it. And apparently it doesn't take very long for the fact that they could measure the entire fields, clubs week in and week out. But for whatever reason, it's randomized. It just seems like a situation, just hire more people just so where you just know everybody's playing under the same conditions. Yeah, you should test every driver. Should that be on the players? Like, do the players monitor how their driver looks at all? Because I would think, like, unless there's a crack on your driver and there's something screwed up about the

ball flight I wouldn't think that most players are like self-reporting hey no check this I think might be thin yeah

When I was playing on tour from this was probably 15 to 2019, I can think of maybe one time that I remember my clubs got checked. Maybe my caddy was asked to get them checked and took them over. But me personally, I don't remember it happening. But when I was talking to some journalists in the media center this week, they said that from 2019 up until now that they've kind of...

activated a little bit more to where it's being tested more frequently. And even that number being a third of the field being tested, that number seemed high to me. I always thought it was closer to like 10 to 12 guys being tested week in and week out, which really didn't ever really make a whole lot of sense to me anyways. So what I'm taking away from this is Rory had an illegal driver. He was a baby about it, didn't talk to the media, had to use his backup driver. That's why he sucked.

but that also means that he had an illegal driver at the masters asterix. He needs to still win the masters to complete the grand slam. So you're going to run it back. That's what I got. It sounds like the driver was at its best in the playoff. Yeah. Right. Correct. Okay. So here's the spin zone. I'm going to throw at you guys is that I watched him play, uh, at the Philly cricket club last week. And he hit that driver, uh,

That same driver that was non-conforming that he had to take out of the bag. He hit it pretty bad. Like he was not hitting fairways with that driver. Well, yeah, because it probably cracked. It was probably right before it cracked. Okay. All right. So there you go. Maybe it was already non-conforming. Who knows? The most non-conforming of his driver was at the Masters. At its peak. That's what I'm going to go with. He won the Masters. He was a thin-faced driver. I got another question about the course because there was a lot of mud ball talk this week. Oh.

Mudball. Mudball. So Shane Lowry, I loved his – he took it out on the course. He beat the course up. First question is, the story came out afterwards that it actually was an ESPN employee that was the one who pointed out that that wasn't his – like he tried to claim –

he wasn't trying to cheat. You can just say, Hey, I think that divot was already there. That's why my ball is half submerged. There was an ESPN bystander who was like, no, that's actually not true. That was your divot. If you were in that spot, would you report that?

I've thought about this so many different times because the person that would have reported is exactly what I would be doing on the ground. So you're up there, you see that the ball lands and then ends up in somebody else's pitch mark. And by rule, you do not get relief in that, which by the way, is so stupid. If your ball is below the level of the surface, I think you should always get relief. It's a ground under repair type of situation in my mind. But

I was thinking about it and a lot of times too, there's enough people around to where I wouldn't ever have to stick my nose in this. And maybe I wasn't there. So it's hard for me to really say, but I, I don't know, man, it's, it's a hard one to call because it just, I don't, I don't want to say it depends on who it is, but also, yeah, it does. Yeah. Gosh. Let's just say, who would you definitely not call it on?

Who would I not call it on? JT, Max.

Yeah, I mean... You better not fucking call it on Max. I'm not calling it... You better not call it on Brooks either. We're going to have problems. Yeah. This is a tough one. Y'all are putting me in a bad spot here. Now I'm going to just start looking away when balls land in the fairway just so I'm not held liable, you know? Yeah, yeah. Wait, wait. But none of them live, guys. Don't want any smoke with MBS. So my real question, though, is... And you can maybe tell me that I'm wrong and you can spin on this...

the complaints about the mud balls is like the softest thing ever. Like, come on golfers, there's mud on balls. So you tell me how wrong I am that it's actually impossible to hit a mud ball. Cause like, this is one of those situations where I love watching the majors. I love watching golf. Uh, you know, there's times when, you know, if the crowd says something and then someone flips out, I'm like, come on, don't be so soft. Mud balls. Uh,

Are they that hard? Is it that hard? Am I way off? Yeah. I was about to ask you, have you ever hit a mud ball? No, I mean, I just pick it up and clean it. I play scramble rules whenever I'm playing just by myself. Well, it's same with me now too. So I personally don't hit any mud balls anymore either, but I can tell you the challenge is, is ridiculous. It is, it is very, very hard, especially when you talk about a quail hollow and a major championship test and, and,

and just not having really any control. And I've seen veterans, kind of old school players, really

really kind of say that guys there's a way around this there's a way to hit these shots to where you can keep it in front of you and it's part of the game it's just kind of rub of the green and that you should just deal with it and then other players like scotty who is just when he's in the fairway he's so good that it's it's a disservice that you don't let him hit the iron shot that he's capable of hitting and that he's now has to basically be punished for hitting in the fairway um

I think that there's an argument to be made there because the PGA Tour, if it was a PGA Tour event on Thursday, so Quail Hollow, for the truest, is played there every year. I would have said that Thursday, the PGA Tour would have probably played it up, ball in hand, to where they would have cleaned the golf balls in the fairway. But because it was a major championship and that the PGA of America is making the call on whether the ball is being played up or not,

play down, that was a significant impact because majors, they don't want to be defined by the golf ball not being played down. Guys just had to deal with it. The rest of the week, it wasn't a big storyline, but Thursday, it was a big deal. That makes sense, too, because I've always thought that the

PGA championship has a little bit of like little brother going on where like you know they moved from the last one to this one they also like there was that one year where the scoring was outrageous and everyone was like well this isn't the US Open so they're trying they're trying to be a little bit more like the rest of the majors so maybe if it were another like they're like hey we got it we got to make sure they hit these mud balls

Well, you know, they got five inches of rain, I think on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday leading up. So the fact that the golf course was even to a point where they could get mowers down Wednesday night just tells you how, how good the golf course was from an agronomy standpoint and just how good the drainage was. But yeah,

Yeah, mud balls are really, really hard to hit. I don't know if you understand how they work. No, I don't. I'll tell you right now, I never will. Because I'm never in a mud ball. I think you need to go try it out for yourself. So when the mud is caked on the left side of the golf ball...

There's some type of aerodynamics that make when the mud flies off, it makes the golf ball shoot to the right. So it's the opposite. The side of the mud is on, so the way it's going to go. So it's on the left. The ball is going right. The mud is on the right. The ball is going to the left. So my bit now that I don't play much anymore, when I tee the ball up off the tee and I just hit a big slice, I'll just say mud ball. It's just such a shame. You just described every shot I've ever taken in my life. I'm just only hitting mud balls.

Exactly. So now you got a new bit. You got a new bit. You got a new bit. What happened with that shot that Jon Rahm hit where it hit the dude in the head and then bounced off his head and went onto the green? How did it bounce that far off his head, number one? And two, did anybody check on that guy to make sure he's okay? Because that seemed like it was pretty intense. Yeah.

I'm 99% sure, PFT, that that guy played fullback in high school. Yeah, because that guy just went up to John Rahman and was like, hey, man, sorry about that. We're all good. Don't worry about it. I was like, dude, that shot just hit your head as hard as it possibly can, and then it bounced 50 yards. He's a dude's dude, a true football guy, a guy that uses the crown of the helmet, a guy that would have definitely been thrown out of plenty of games in high school. I mean, when it—

If you're listening to it live, the sound that it made when it hit his school, he's 20 yards left to the green guys. And it rolls. I mean, the green from a width standpoint is probably a good 13 yards. I mean, it ricocheted a good 30 yards, which is just absurd to think about.

Yeah, I was concerned about the man's health. And the next thing that I saw, he's like shaking hands with John Rahm and like getting an autographed glove from him. And they're like hooting and hollering like that was awesome. I mean, I saw some pretty funny tweets that said that he should have milked it and try to get it. Should have tried to have got about a billion dollars from the PIF, knowing that John Rahm's employers could have maybe helped him out there. So I thought that was a pretty good tweet. Yeah. Let me ask you, did you watch the final round? Are you in Louisiana?

No, no. I'm actually in – I live in Birmingham, Alabama. So I flew home late last night, watched the coverage today. So, yeah. Okay, because I heard that people in Louisiana couldn't watch part of the final round because it cut to a press conference about escaped inmates at a prison. Yeah.

Oh, I did see that on my social media today and I've been following the storylines. I think they've caught, I think about six of the guys that have escaped. So maybe I can follow that live stream later because that would be some good content. I can only imagine how upset golf fans in Louisiana were that they had to deal with that. You alluded to it earlier, but maybe

if you could narrow down just a little. You said like with all these great players that we have right now, you don't know who the next major champion is going to be from the list of the guys that don't have one yet. Can you just give us like a short list of guys that we should keep our eyes on? So players that have not won a major championship that could be next up in line. Is that what you're asking? Yeah. Gosh.

Victor Hovland, to me, he's been all over the place at times when it comes to his golf game over the last really year or so. He won earlier this year in an unexpected fashion, but still, he still, to me, is one of the most talented players that hasn't won yet. Ludwig Oberg would be...

another guy too, who's, I think his game is built for major championships. Ludwig is already contented at the masters a couple of different times. So those would be the two that come to mind first, but there's plenty of other guys that, that, that you can maybe reach on. I think Joaquin Neiman is a very talked about player from the live golf tour, but he finally got his first top 10 in a major. That was a knock against him is that he's,

won all this time on the P excuse me. He won on the PGA tour, but he's also won five times on the live and, uh, had yet to have a top 10 in a major championship and got his first top 10 this week at Quail Hollow. So maybe that's all he had to do is get his first top 10 to maybe, uh, go in potentially at the U S open at Oakmont.

I got a question. So not only Shane Lowry beat up the course, but we also saw Wyndham Clark launch his driver. People were trying to say that that was the same as when Max launched his driver. If you watch, Wyndham Clark could have killed someone. Max did it in the most gentlemanly way where he tossed it up

the fairway where there's no one there it was perfect and he also tossed it where he was walking which was efficient does the PGA say anything after these kind of things are they like hey man you can't do that or do they just they're like hey emotions happen what are you going to do

Well, typically you get fined. And on the PGA Tour, the guys understand kind of what the – there's like certain levels. I'm not sure what the numbers are exactly for fines because they don't – the PGA Tour doesn't make that available public information on what the number is. But I can tell you that when Shane Lowry and I played together, this is the Honda Classic –

back in, I think, 2016. Him and I both got finds on the 15th hole of par three there. You can find it on YouTube. It's actually quite entertaining. They come live to the 15th hole for the first time, and I get up on the tee and hit one in the water.

and snap a club over my knee, Bo Jackson style. And then Shane Lowry hits one in the water right after me and then proceeds to, you know, just to give a good old classic like Shane Lowry, all you fucking idiot. And that's like how he got fined. And Shane Lowry didn't apologize. I did. So he had like a double version of what my fine was. So for the PGA of America this week, to answer your question, Big Cat,

I think if you look at the levels of what the fine would be, Wyndham's would be on a very high level because when you do the no-look throw and not know if anybody's behind you, especially with a little bit of heat, that's where brick could have killed a guy type of situation comes out. Right.

And my favorite part about it, too, is there's a picture, too. I think one of his sponsors, I think, is T-Mobile. And there's a hole of his driver that goes right through the T-Mobile sponsor sign on the back. You got to find it. It's absolutely hilarious.

knowing that it's one of his sponsors. And, of course, he wasn't trying to throw a club. Well, I guess he did throw the club, but just throw it right through one of his sponsors' ads on the back was, I thought, funny for us. And luckily, everybody survived. But I imagine there was probably going to be a fine. I found the video of you snapping the club here. Do you remember what iron that was? It was 7-iron, yeah. 7-iron. So what do you do for the rest of the round? You're just like...

Afterwards, I imagine that you have a couple minutes where you're like... Or a couple seconds, probably, where you're like, sweet, that was awesome. And then reality sets in where you're like, oh, shit, I actually don't have a 7-iron. You can't use it. You're just hitting little chippy 6-irons and big 8-irons. That's all you're doing. Luckily for me, it was on Sunday, so I didn't necessarily have to worry about it too much. That was a good snap. Yeah, it was. Because I would be nervous that I wouldn't be able to snap it. Because that would be... If you're going to go for the snap and you don't snap it...

Yeah. That's a horrible moment. I tried to tell the PGA tour. I was not trying to break a club over my knee. Like it wasn't my intent to break the club. I wanted to just put it up next to my knee and just like, try to act like I was breaking it. But like Bo Jackson, you know, I, I just have these quads that just unfortunately just, they just can't match a seven iron shaft. This might be a dumb question, but what is, what is the drug testing policy like on the tour? How often do you get to randomize, randomize it? I,

I remember that happening often and it, it,

there would be a guy with a clipboard after your round. Typically, uh, they would say, Hey, we need to get a drug test for you. And so you go pee or whatever, but every single time it always happens. Ask any PGA tour player. You always bogey the last hole. It just happens every time like that. It's where you leave and you're just so hot and you can't turn out a, like if you, if you walk away from, uh, one of these urine tests to test, if you, uh, or taking PDs, wherever it is, um,

that can that counts as a uh as a as a false like it yeah it would be a positive test so that's the one you can't walk away from so you got to sit there and uh sometimes you can't pee at the end of the day when it's really really hot you're drinking all these fluids and so you just got to sit in there for 30 minutes just make it small talk with the guy with the clipboard yeah that's not necessarily fun we know with the nfl guys they actually they watch you pee they have

to be in the room and like, they're like, come on, let's see the hog. I got a seat coming out. I have to imagine that in golf they might be, maybe they're a little bit more gentlemanly.

Well, you just hope to be drug tested on during the summer, not like a, you know, a pebble beach when it's 50 degrees out and you come off the course. You say, can I, can I go just kind of run the treadmill here for a minute? Get some blood flow. I got, I got a couple of last questions. John Rom. So we, we didn't talk about, I mean, he was tied at one point in this,

final round on Sunday and then it fell apart. Are, do you think he watching him in this tournament, you think he's closer to being back? Uh, or is it like, man, this was just another moment where things just haven't been going his way ever since he kind of went to live. Well,

Well, I think you got to look at the three holes that were the most crucial ones for Jon Rahm. 13, 14, and 15. 13, he had a 25-foot putt that I can't believe how it didn't drop. Such a good putt. Gravity, wind, everything's helping him out for this ball to break. Somehow, it doesn't break.

And that doesn't go in. And then 14, you know, John Robb's a fader of the golf ball and the wind direction at 14 today was off the left. So not necessarily a comfortable shot, but he hit a three wood, a club that he can turn over and it lands on the right edge of the green. If it lands maybe two steps short of that, it's probably has enough of the draw spin to where that ball bounces onto the green, but it bounces just in a place where it takes a right kick, goes into the bunker and,

And, but it got far enough into the bunker to where that was not, I didn't think it was that difficult of an up and down compared to Scotty who his ball just barely rolled into the bunker at 14. I thought a more of a challenging up and down. So it really did come down to similar type of shots. So Scotty Scheffler and John Rahm, similar type of bunker shots at 14 and then 15, John Rahm and Scotty Scheffler both end up in the same place over the green at 15. Um,

Scotty Sheffer gets up and down to 14. John Rom doesn't hits a poor bunker shot. And then 15, John Rom misjudges the putt from off the green hits it to 13 feet, hits a poor putt coming back where Scotty Sheffer hit it to nothing. And then all of a sudden, John Rom is in a chasing mentality heading into the most difficult part of the golf course was forced to play aggressively. And then it just unfolded. Right. The one thing I'll leave you with here with this big cat, when you ask about, is he closer to winning? Uh,

He's still one of the top five most talented players in the world. There's no doubt about it. Yes, he can win a major. He can win the next major. That's how good he is. But now we can look at a bit of a theme that's kind of happened. When you go back to the Olympics where Jon Rahm, he had the lead, I believe. Gosh, I wish I had the numbers in front of me, but he was comfortably looking like he was about to win the Olympic gold medal. And

I think with five holes left, he found a way to work his way off of the metal stand. So John Rom leaving the 11th green had a seven shot lead over Siwoo Kim, who he was playing with. And at the end of the day, him and Siwoo Kim finish a T8 at four under. And of course, walking to the 12th T's tied with Scotty Scheffler. So what's,

we heading into the day, John Rom wasn't expected to win the golf tournament, but when John Rom was on 12, 13, 14, 15, anybody who was watching felt like John Rom could have done more to challenge Scotty Sheffler to make him hit more shots on 16, 17, 18, just to make it more interesting, not only for us as fans, but to make Scotty Sheffler prove that he can hit these shots to win his third major championship. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. It does. So, um,

How should we feel about Max's tournament? Because he had a great Friday, right? Like an absolutely fantastic Friday. And then things kind of went a little bit downhill. But I would say that making the cut and having that great day to get you to make the cut, I'm going to choose to look at this as a positive weekend for Max Homa.

Oh, totally. I think he feels confident about his game. He got a little bit maybe exposed on Saturday, Sunday, which more challenging conditions. And that's what major championships do. And have you all looked at his scorecard yet on Sunday? Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. Big Cat, have you seen that, Big Cat? Yeah, it was all over the place. Okay. All right. Because if you hadn't, I was going to try to quiz you a little bit because being two over through, I think it was five holes.

and then shooting six over but also making five birdies is the most psychotic scorecard I think I've ever seen. It is crazy. If you look at the circle, the cards they see online with you, the color-coded or the circles, it's just a very festive-looking scorecard. Yeah, Christmas tree on the back nine. We ride with him, so I had him, and on Friday I was like, ooh, this is going to be incredible. But, I mean, Friday's in there. That's the thing. I take away, like, Friday was incredible. All day round.

I mean, PFT, I think it reminds me a little bit of the Washington football team and the LSU Tigers. We could play some offense like when Max Holm with the offense is there. But unfortunately, the defense doesn't show up for a time or two. That's kind of how it's been lately. Yeah, but it's an entertaining brand of football. Yeah, it sure is. Put points on the board. Put butts in seats. All right. I got one last question. Roback question. RHOBACK.COM promo code TAKE. 20% off.

Your first purchase. Cusis, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback has great golf gear. So go roback.com. Promo code take. My last question I'm going to give to Hank. Hank, do you have a question for Smiley about your game? Hank shot a 93 at a member guest on Friday. No big deal. All right. Humble brag.

Yeah, I just have – I struggle making consistent contact and getting the ball in the air. I just hit a lot of thin shots. I don't know if you have any tips or any drills I could do to just try and get some more height in my shots. Good question. Have you considered starting to drink earlier? Yeah.

you know, like, you know, maybe when you, before you get to the golf course. Yeah, that happens. That's, that's, that's not usually the problem. That's usually taken care of. Okay. All right. Well, we just wanted to check that off that box off first, because that's where I would have started you just to make sure that all of your limbs are, you know, firing on all cylinders.

Man, I'd have to see it. You're going to have to send me a DM or text me just a video because I can take a peek. I love looking at big cat swing. That's an easy one to diagnose. But a lot of times when guys can't get good contact and get the ball up in the air, for the most part, it's a pivot issue, meaning like your pivot's not getting through the golf ball. You're using a lot of hands and your pelvis is moving into the golf ball. I know I'm throwing all these words at you, Hank.

Uh, but I can simplify it if you can just send me a swing and, uh, we'll have you, uh, hitting, making a divot out in front of the golf ball and making the ball go up in the air. All right, great. Thank you. You got it. We got to help Hank. He's having trouble getting it up. So we got to get those hips and everything going in the right direction. I think you accurately diagnosed as being mostly a pelvis issue. Yes. It's a pelvis issue. That's right. That's right. Um,

All right, well, Smiley, thank you, man. We love having you on. Appreciate it. And we'll talk maybe U.S. Open or Open Championship because you're covering both. You got it, guys. I got to leave you with this. I was on a plane. This was, I don't know how many months ago it was when y'all did the Andrew Luck interview. And I'd fall asleep. A lot of times I'll throw it on y'all's podcast.

And I'd fallen asleep and I woke up to Andrew Luck doing the snap count. And not only did I wake up, I literally did one of these. And I know I couldn't have been the only person that that happened to. But man, that interview was great with Andrew. That was an all-timer. You should take that sound isolated, make it somebody's alarm to wake up in the morning. It just threw me off, guys. It was good. I love it. All right. Thanks so much, Smiley.

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And now here's Kyle Stowers and Tyler Phillips. And now for something completely different. Okay, we now welcome on two very special guests. From the Miami Marlins is Kyle Stowers, Tyler Phillips. Boys, in studio. You guys have been in Chicago for what feels like forever, playing the White Sox and the Cubs. Uh...

First of all, how's the season going? I know the record's not great, but how's the season going overall vibes? Yeah, I think the vibes are still good. I mean, I feel like we're in a lot of these games, you know, and close to winning more of them. Obviously, you know, you want to win them, but, you know, I think we're pretty close. Yeah, I mean, I can't complain. I mean, I'm new to the team, got here opening day, so building relationships with guys, but...

Yeah, like you said, I think we're in all the games. So you guys both got traded recently. You got traded last year, Kyle. You got traded in the offseason from the Phillies. I got traded opening day. Opening. The day before opening day. That's crazy. Yeah. Was that like, that had to kind of be a bummer? A little bit. Yeah. But I mean, you know, I heard Miami. I was like, oh, cool. Yeah.

cool yeah yeah it's pretty nice yeah you can't complain there's definitely worse places to be is it like weird knowing that like at any point you could get traded is that is that feeling kind of just suck like where it just doesn't go away we're like i i never feel fully safe 100 i was with uh family friends at dinner yesterday and they were reading some article where i was talking about last year's trade deadline and they thought i got traded again oh and like you just had a moment where you're like

fuck, this is happening again. So yeah, I mean, there's a, that's a hundred percent of a real thing. You know, I think in baseball that you just kind of, you kind of never know. Yeah. How'd you guys find out that you got traded? Uh,

I was trying to avoid it all spring. I was out of options. I was with the Phillies, so kind of an impossible team to make if you're a rookie and you're not the guy. Right. So it was kind of inevitable for me, it felt like. I just found out literally the last day of camp. All my stuff was in Philly. I shipped it all. Thought I was making the team. Transitioning from a starter to a reliever, I was like, yeah, cool. And last day, the sixth inning of the last game, they pull me in the office like, hey,

we claimed a guy you're uh you're gonna be traded i was like okay that was yeah what about my stuff yeah right right but yeah it was definitely definitely a weird scenario for me yeah and you kyle you knew you were gonna get traded are you basically you know but you had a good feeling in baltimore that you're gonna get treated yeah i had a pretty good stretch of baseball with the orioles last year kind of around this time of year and and still kind of got sent back down and after that i was like okay well maybe this won't be the place where

where I'd be for a while. And I was actually in the tubs when I found out, um, I just got out of the tubs and, uh, they said, Hey, uh, Connor Norby and one other player got, got traded to the Marlins. And I went and checked my phone and I had a missed FaceTime call from our GM, Mike Elias. And I was like, yeah, I think I'm, I'm the other player. Yeah. Wait. So how about a positive thing? Cause you guys both, how long were you guys both in the minors? 19 to 20.

22 and then 23 and 24 as well. So, yeah. And then, Tyler, you were in the owners for a while. Yeah, 15. High schooler. So, what was the moment like when they actually called you up? Because I love those videos. They're so awesome. You go first. Yeah, mine was unique. I was a COVID replacement player. Wait, what does that mean? Yeah, so when the team traveled to Toronto, if the guys weren't vaccinated, they couldn't go.

Oh, so this is like well after COVID. So yeah. So I was getting, I was getting texts from like our travel guy, like the week before he was like, Hey, do you have your passport on you? And so I was like looking at the schedule and I saw that Toronto was coming up and I was like, Oh shoot, like this could be happening. And,

And so, yeah, that's how I initially debuted. Did they do any, like, fun video? I would just prank. If I were the manager, I would do all pranks for all the videos. Just, like, fake them out. Be like, we're sending you down. Just kidding. We're sending you up. Yeah, no, they didn't give me any special video. After me, they were starting to do, like, the call-up videos for guys. Yeah. It wasn't as special as the other ones. What about you, Tyler? Did you cry? Did you cry?

No, no, I wanted to. I was trying to force something out. There's no video. I didn't see a camera, so it didn't matter anymore. It's hard to send you back down if you cried when you get brought up, right? It means so much to you. Yeah, dude. I mean, no, mine was weird though. Like it's, I took my opt out. So I had an upper mobility. Wait, what does that mean? I just, I told the team, Hey, I'm not going up. I want to take my chances being a free agent.

Oh, got it. Pretty much. Like I had my opt out. Um, we, I think we were in Durham and like the week before Korea was offering me, um,

and it was like they were offering me like the max like for the prorated amount i think somewhere around there um that's just really far and i was stressing out like i just remember it um i was like sitting outside my hotel uh my family wasn't with me and i'm just like pulling my hair out sitting on the steps like i don't know what to do like they wanted a decision i got a call like a tuesday morning they wanted the decision the tuesday night i was like i i need you guys to buy me more time uh

I think like Wednesday, I ultimately turned it down, pitched Thursday, did really well. And then the first of the month was coming up July 1st. My agent said like, hey, dude, like you turned Korea down. We're taking your upper mobility, like your opt out.

So basically the team, the Phillies had to put me on the table for all the other teams to possibly take. And if anyone wanted me, then the Phillies had to decide if they wanted to protect me or not. So kind of putting the pressure on. So if they protect you, then you go up automatically? Yeah, you have to be on the 26th. Oh, so you forced their hand. Kind of forced their hand. That's kind of baller. It felt weird because I told my age, whatever, man, I trust you guys. And I knew...

I think like the first day that teams were interested and now it was up to the Phillies. So the second day I was getting some calls like, hey, this might happen. Right. There was like some weird scenarios where it was like, if you pitch this day, then you're going up with this team. If you pitch two innings this day, then you're going to be in the bullpen this day. And if you don't pitch at all, you're being traded. Like, okay. So I'm just, again, still stressing out. Don't know what's going on. And my manager called me.

um on a doubleheader day when i was supposed to pitch the night game and he said where are you i was like i'm at home it's 9 30 why would i be at the field right like i'm pitching at seven he goes well what if we needed you and i was like why would you need me pitching at seven he's like oh well with the roster change she's like just get in here now i'm like my pitching coach just texted me like hey like uh like where the fuck are you man like you got to be here i'm like oh

So I'm thinking they're canceling my start and I'm being traded. Showed up to the field and they hit me with kind of like a prank like you were talking about. They hit me with like, why weren't you here? Like you're late. I was like, no, I'm not. They said, well, you think you can do whatever you want? I said, no.

No, I don't. What, do you think you're a big leaguer or something? Yeah, I do. They're like, okay, well, good, because you are. Oh, that's awesome. Like, I already knew. Like, I knew, like, two days before. So it wasn't, like, this magical thing. And then they didn't know what move they were making for me yet. So I just sat in AAA for, like, another two days not doing anything until the team was able to make a roster move. Was everyone judging you, being like, oh, you're –

oh, you're a big leaguer. They just thought I was lying. They said, what the fuck are you still doing here, man? What, do you just like want to watch this series? Like, I don't know. The rules of, or the, like just the roster rules of baseball is unbelievable to me. I've never heard of the upper mobility clause. You know, people always ask how much longer are you going to be with this team? And I go, I don't know. They have control over me for forever. It's so weird in baseball. I've heard nothing comes from them too. Like a lot of guys told me these never work.

Yeah, because what would be the, like, if you do it and no one trades you, then you're just shit out of luck. Yeah, pretty much. Now your team knows. Yeah. They're like, yeah, fuck this guy. It's like practice squad in the NFL, except if you have a downside to making the practice squad, too. Yeah, that's crazy. With you, Kyle, you have a different story because when you got brought up, or you made the team after spring training, right? And then you just didn't play.

So they were like, you know, we got to send you back down because you're not getting any at-bats. Yeah. So that's kind of crazy. It's like I made it, but then through something outside of my control, I'm no longer in the big leagues. Yeah, that was 23 for me. I had a pretty good spring, made the team, and just wasn't playing. And, you know, I had a pretty good 22 and thought, you know, maybe I was going to get the chance to play more frequently. Yeah.

Obviously, with the Orioles, there was a ton of good players. Definitely, some mind games happens with that when you feel like you're doing everything in your control and then still not kind of cracking the roster consistently. I always wondered this in minor league baseball. Is it weird...

You're playing with your teammates and these are guys that are your teammates, but you're also competing against them every single day. Is that a weird feeling to be like, hey, I know we're all on the same team here trying to win games, but at the end of the day, like I want to do better than you because I want to get called up before you get called up.

Yeah, I mean, I think of it as kind of like an iron sharpens iron. You know what I mean? Like you're all trying to, you know, kind of lift each other up by pushing each other. And, you know, I've always kind of felt like for me that if I take care of my stuff, then like I'll end up where I'm supposed to be. Yeah, I agree with that. I don't think that anything good really comes from

like trying to compete with a guy like oh like i'm gonna beat you out like right if you at least in my experience like i just try to help everyone like just being a good teammate you're gonna learn something from the next guy and you don't know who you want people in your corner right you don't want to like get people like oh like this guy don't be he's not a good teammate right yeah i'm sure there are some guys in the minors you can feel it yeah and they get frustrated probably do you guys ever have a moment where you're like it's not gonna work out like i'm i'm done with baseball

I feel like it happens semi-frequently, you know, a couple of different times, you know, whether it's performance or injuries. You know, I had a lot of injuries in the end of 23. I ended up getting like hit in the face at the end of the year and like felt very, very far by the pitch. Yeah, yeah. Like how fast? Yeah, 93 fastball. Damn. Why didn't you turn, dude? I, yeah.

I would have ducked. That's a shitty thing for me to say. Hey, bro, did you think about turning? You guys, I've said that before. And then I actually wanted to show my toughness, so I just stayed in there a little bit longer. Yeah. Kept my eye on the ball. Bounced right back up. Where did it hit you? Like right, like kind of like in between my eye and my nose. Next time you get up to bat after that, are you, it's got to be in your head a little bit, right? Yeah. So I missed like two weeks and the rest of the year when I was facing lefties, I was

like stepping out of the box like I was scared of the ball for you know for the rest of the season which was only a couple more weeks but it took me a little bit to get comfortable in there again yeah that's a natural reaction I would imagine like if there's something wrong with you if you get back in you're like I'm not afraid hit me again yeah I did a ton of stuff with we had a bunch of like performance psychologists like with the Orioles or performance coaches and a couple of them worked with the Navy and

And so, you know, it was also really humbling to talk to them about like something I was like scared of from a performance standpoint because they're, you know, like, it's also like, oh, like you guys deal with people who actually deal with life and death. And so put, put me in a little bit of my place. I love that. They're like, oh, you're afraid of the baseball. It's not a grenade, but yeah. Have you Tyler, have you done sports psychology with, for pitching? I mean, pitching pitchers. I feel like that's such a mental game. It's pretty big. Yeah. Um,

I was fortunate, like, when I was with the Rangers when I got drafted. I had a really good peak performance coach over there. Just pushing, like, routines, pushing all, like, the mental stuff, staying confident. You know, it's weird. Like, a lot of stuff goes hand in hand, like confidence and success. Like, confidence leads to success. Success leads to confidence. It's weird. But, yeah, just staying on top of stuff. Like, I've been...

I took up reading a little bit like once I had my Tommy John. You know, just finding a way to just get better. I like to think I took up reading. A little bit. What do you read? A lot of like self-help books. Yeah.

Stuff that just helps the mind, I guess. Did you go straight from high school to double A? No. It was different. It's different now. That's what everyone does. I went high school to rookie ball, AZL. Okay. And surprise, Arizona. You didn't think about going to college? I don't think I could have. Oh, really? I did not take up reading at that time in my life. Kyle went to Stanford. Is he the smartest guy in the clubhouse?

Are you? I don't know. Did you graduate at Stanford? I did. Fuck.

communications okay yeah the smartest communicator yeah at stanford are the uh are the baseball players cool there are the cool guys on campus like the silicon valley we're gonna be you know heading some ai company next year guys um yeah i would say probably probably more those guys the baseball guys you know people some people care about sports some people don't you know like you'd be surprised by how many people are not out on a friday night yeah you know but did

Did you meet any of those future billionaires? You know, I feel like I did not do a good enough job of networking there. I was like kind of just in my own world trying to survive a little bit. You should have given like cool kid classes. Yeah. It's been like come hang with the basement. Yeah. You want to see how we party? Yeah. Just like learn locker room etiquette. You always knew the athletes on campus because of the red backpacks.

If they had the red Nike backpack or like the Gatorade like water bottle, that's how you knew who the athletes were. Yeah. You can't just go out and buy the red backpack? I think you can, but if you do. Stolen values. Yeah, you can't do that. So Kyle, with you, you know, the importance of routines, we're talking about pitching, but for hitting, I'm always fascinated by the different routines guys get into in the batter's box and how kind of the pitch clock might have screwed some of those up.

Like you look at dudes like back in the day, Nomar would have like nine, ten different things. You can't do that with a pitch clock now. How did you come up with your batting routine? Yeah, like pre-pitch. Yeah. Like, yeah, for me, it's deep breath and I look at the –

name on my bat i used to look at the logo um when we had metal bats because it looked like a field but i look at the name my bat i just remind myself that i'm the same guy playing the same game and that you know nothing nothing's changed and i try to just get in the present moment just lock in like tunnel vision yeah yeah so what about you on the mound yeah i mean that breath is important um i don't necessarily like love the pitch clock yeah but you know you get used to it uh

I think in the beginning I was like really sped up where, you know, especially out of the bullpen, like I was a starter before. So like, it's not that far of a, of a run or a wall. I usually walk out of the bull or out of the dugout. Um, but yeah, I get on the mound and now you feel the heart rate going, you feel the adrenaline. So you have to take like, make sure the breath isn't fake. That makes sense. Um, I just try to make sure that I'm doing it so the dugout can see it, even if they can't, like it feels right. Um,

And then at that point, you know, you're in the game. Like, you're going to war. So my thing, I took it from Mike Tyson. He's always stared his opponent down in the eyes. And when they broke eye contact, he knew he won. So that's kind of something that I do.

I'm not as scary as Mike Tyson, but it makes me feel like, hey, it's on now. Remember the Madison Bumgarner with the ump stare down? Yeah. That was all. Which ump was that? Was that Angel? I can't remember. I don't remember. That went on for like a minute and a half. He just stood there staring. I don't know how the umpire kept that going. Yeah. Yeah. Kyle, this is a dumb question because I'm assuming the answer is going to be it was fucking sweet, but

How awesome was it to hit a walk-off home run? It was wild. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that was... Had you hit one before in any other...

Like a summer ball of like in between college season during the summer you play with a random team. And I did one then. Never in the big leagues that I hit a walk-off home run. And you hit it off a very good closer in Mason Miller. Yeah, it was crazy. So when you hit it, did you go extra slow around the bases? I would take so long going around the bases if I hit a walk-off home run. It would take me like five minutes. Yeah, I mean, to your point, it's just like –

I felt like I probably didn't soak it in enough. I hit it and I kind of knew it was getting over his head. I just was kind of watching to see if it was going to get over the fence or not. And kind of seeing this video, I kind of do like this weird point where I'm kind of going up and down and I can't really tell if it went over the fence or not. But it was awesome. Yeah. How fast was that pitch that he threw you? It was 101.7. Damn. Woo!

What's the fastest pitch that you ever, like, I'm sure that you've seen some fast pitches in games, but when you get in the cage, what's the fastest you've ever dialed it up to? Yeah, I feel like the machine, we try to dial it up to, like, over 100. Like, but, you know, it's just when you do it off the machine and you know it's a fastball coming, like, you kind of, like, you know, you can kind of predict a little bit more. Uh-huh.

I don't think I've ever hit a ball over 100 in a real game before, so that was cool. What was the exit VLO on that? I think it was 107. That's got to feel good. Yeah. Do you even feel it when you hit it? No, you don't feel it off the bat. It's the best. It just goes with it? Oh, it's just... You're caught barrel, man. Yeah. There's no feeling like it, other than going down the middle of the fairway. Yeah. That's the closest thing I think that is like that. When you hit a walk-off, I have to imagine that the trot around the bases is usually faster. Yeah.

Because you got the adrenaline. It's like, okay, yeah, you almost end up sprinting around the bases. But if you hit a go-ahead in the ninth, then you can kind of pimp it a little bit. Yeah, I couldn't pimp that one. I didn't know for sure that I got it. Miami's a little bit bigger of a park.

That would have been the only thing that could have made it better is if I knew it right off the bat and got to kind of look at it for a little bit. You'll also never be the biggest pimp in that park because Marlins man's there. Yeah. Do you guys know Marlins man? No, I feel like he doesn't come to our games. Is he still off the team? I don't know. Is he away? They kind of fucked him over though. To be clear, yeah. All he wanted to do was throw out every first pitch. Yeah. And get offered dirt gear or blank check to basically run the Marlins. Yeah.

So you want to be the GM. Yeah, kind of. You want to be the GM. You want to have Marlins Man Appreciation Day at the park. He wanted like six tickets for him and his mermaids that he brings. Yeah. It's really, yeah. All the reasonable stuff. Two things missing from the Marlins is the giant fish statue in center field. I know they moved it outside the park.

but the giant fish that would jump in the air at a home run, and then Marlins man not being there. It's kind of... I yearn for the days of, like, 2018. You know? Marlins man showing up to the games. Yeah, that was his heyday. I have a dumb hypothetical for you guys, and this works, because hitter-pitcher. I don't know. You probably didn't see it, but

Last week, Ryan Presley, the Cubs closer, had maybe the worst outing I've ever seen. He gave up eight earned runs, a walk, five hits, zero outs. So 25 pitches, zero outs, eight earned runs.

I think I honestly could get an out before that because it would fuck you up so bad that I'm throwing 55 miles an hour and you'd probably fly one out. Do you think that's fair? I think so. I think that's fair. I mean, have you seen the position players when they come in? It's the weirdest thing. Usually when you bring in a position player, your team's giving up a ton of runs. Right. And the position player will come in and get three outs super quick and everyone's just like...

Right. So we've been doing that the whole time. So Noha's one of our good relievers. Yeah. So you think that I could get a single out in a big league game? And again, it's obviously not like I'm striking anyone out. It's just they would hit one to the warning time. Then you get three outs. Yeah. Like, honestly. I don't know. Max has to do that against a AAA team. Somebody, the ball is bound to go to somebody. Yeah. Like, there's no, like, it just goes against odds for the ball to just keep landing in the grass somewhere.

Right. It's like the weirdest thing because like when you face a position player as a hitter, it turns into like this like fear-based thing. If I don't want to strike out, what if I get out versus like, you know, when you're facing a real pitcher, you're like, you don't think about it. You're locked in, yeah. And you know that he's going to be actually planning his pitches and you can kind of like get inside and say, okay, this feels like a fastball. This feels like maybe some off-speed stuff. If it's a guy from the outfield, it's like here comes some junk that I'm not going to have any idea, you know, how to hit. It's going to be 55 miles per hour. Right. Yeah.

Yeah, no, we have a dingers-only league, fantasy league, where it's just home runs.

because we don't really – like fantasy sports are just confusing and annoying after a while, so we just do home runs. And loser has to pitch against a college team. Last year, PFT pitched against UIC. Did well. I think they scored three runs in two innings. Yeah, so I was pretty pumped about it. But again, I was so slow. I think it was like 68, 69. But I was pretty wild. Yeah, it was pretty nice. Yeah.

Big Cat was behind the plate, so I had a nice big target. Yeah, I did drop a third strike, but threw him out after. So that was good. Pretty much a double play. How bad did your arm feel after? It was very sore the next day. Very, very sore. Was that all you had? Yeah.

I gave it everything I had. Like you were letting it go. There were a couple where I was like, I'm really going to dial it up on that. That was so judgmental. I mean, I don't know. The position players come in and just flip it. I'm 40 years old. There were a couple where I'm like, you know what? I'm going to reach back and really let this one eat. And I think those got all the way up to like 71.5 miles per hour. Wait, so Tyler, how fast could you throw just playing catch? Like not even trying to throw hard?

I don't know. You're probably in like the mid-70s, right? It's probably, yeah, I guess. If I'm taking it easy, probably. Wait, what's the fastest fastball you've thrown? 97. Okay. Yeah. That's pretty sick. Trying to get it up there. That's pretty sick. When you guys were in Little League, were you just dominant? Yeah.

Were you just like scaring people? Yeah, I was a really good Little League pitcher. Good hitter too, but I was, yeah, I think I threw 72 at 12. Holy shit. I feel like if you're a major leaguer, you're probably the best Little Leaguer in your town. It just has to correlate that way. I know, but then there's some of those guys that like grow early. Right.

and then they'd stop growing after like that 13, 14 years old and then they kind of plateau. Hank was a great little leaguer because he was also, he had like the age thing where he was the oldest. Slightly older. Good birthday, yeah. I was younger. I was like two years above for everything. Did you guys play other sports? Played basketball in high school. Were you good? Yeah, I was pretty good. I mean,

I mean, I played at a small high school, but I was decent. Yeah. Were other parents scared of you when you were pitching? It's like, I don't want my son in the box against that guy. Me? Yeah.

New Jersey baseball, I mean, I threw strikes, but I threw hard, so maybe. Yeah. Maybe, yeah. New Jersey, like, if you're throwing over 90, you're like Nolan Ryan. Yeah. So. I feel like Southern California, like, they just, everyone's a baseball player. Yeah. Yeah. They just, MLB players just sprout out of the ground there. Normal for them. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. I actually have a, I remember when I was, like, in, not T-ball, but it was, like, when, you know, started being, like, player pitch, not coach pitch. Yeah.

And I remember crying one time because there was one guy who hit a person and I was like kind of coming up next. And I remember like crying because I didn't want to get in the box. That's funny. Probably like every bit of like six years old, but...

Yeah. Not, not good at dodging the ball. I hit in the face. I don't know what I could teach you some, some tips. I'm a big pussy. Yeah. I'm just terrified of the ball. Yeah. I'm really good at not getting hit by anything. Cause I just don't even try. Hey, we, we threw this out there to the brewers. Uh, and I know Kyle, you play in the outfield, so you can't probably do this, but Tyler, maybe you can. Why don't you guys do a hidden ball trick? Uh,

Can you try one time this year? Because it looks like you look like a pussy, I guess. Yeah, but still, not if it works, though. I had a kid try to do that for me in short season. I was throwing pretty well, and he came up to me. Someone got on third somehow, and he comes up to me. He goes, Tyler, give me the ball. I was like, why? Why?

I'm pitching. I got to throw this ball. He's like, no, just give me it. Trust me. And he walks out. I give him the ball. He walks over to third. He stands there and like the ball's dead. Like it's not even in play. And he like goes and tags the guy and the umpire's like,

what are you doing? So like, I felt stupid. My coach was like, what the fuck are you doing, dude? Like, like I'm like, yeah, that's never happening again. I will never let that ever happen. Especially in like short season. Yeah. Like it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. Have you ever successfully talked your manager out of not pulling you in a game?

I love when pitchers do that. I think that's a Haas thing. I don't think it's ever worked because trying to protect you, especially like how baseball is now, like everyone, I feel like Tommy John's just like a normal thing. Yeah. I've definitely tried. I didn't think Philly was going to let me go. I was, I had my like my whole speech ready to go to like it was

it was the eighth inning in my, in my CG. And I was like, you complete, he got it. You, you got a complete game shut out. Yeah. I was, I had it already. I was sitting down in the tunnel, like legs bouncing. I'm like, if he comes in here and tries to pull me, I know what I'm going to say. Like, there's no way I'm letting this happen. Um,

But, yeah, other than that, like, I don't think the managers will ever let you go. I even try here. Like, I'm a reliever. Nah, dude, I'm good. Like, let me keep going. He's like, we need you tomorrow. Yeah. How fun is it in the outfield for relievers? Because I feel like that would be really fun. Like, the guy's just hanging out. I know, obviously, once it gets later in the innings, you're like, oh, shit, someone's up. When I first got here, I was a stick in the mud, man. I was so locked in. Like, I'm like, oh, studying hitters. Because, like, I'm a starter. Like, I was a starter.

I didn't know how it all worked. Now I'm kind of keeping it loose. It's still the big leagues. You still need to be locked in for the most part. But the minor leagues, everyone's beef gazing or whatever, just trying to see who's out there, what the talent's like.

Yeah, and now I just mess around. One of our bullpen catchers, he came up from like high A or something, and I just mess around with him the whole time, just try to learn Spanish. He's a Mexican kid. Try to learn some Spanish, teach him some English, a lot of bad words. Yeah, bullpen catcher, that's got to be the best gig ever. I mean, the kid was in Beloit. Is that what it is? Yeah, it's awesome. He was in Beloit, and he misses playing, obviously. I love the dude so far.

But you're in the big leagues, dude. He got to see LA. He's in Chicago right now for a week. Good spreads, good food, good hotels. Does he get treated like he's on the team? I try to treat him. I buy the kid drinks at the hotel. Sometimes I'm like, come here. Where are you going? Let's go. They take care of me. He's out there taking a beating every single night, bullpens, whatever.

I think that's probably honestly a pretty cool gig. Yeah. Would you used to get nervous on days that you had to start? Sometimes. Like, I think like, depends. Like if I had a bad outing, the one before I'm like, oh shit, here we go. Fuck man. I hope this doesn't go bad again. I think like Seattle last year, I got banged up and I had LA literally like the Dodgers, the next, the next series or the next game. I was like, yeah, dude, I got Shohei leading off. I was like,

A little nervous, but once you throw the first pitch, you're good. Yeah, I feel like that's got to be a change mentally, going from being a starting pitcher to a relief pitcher. It's like any given day you go to the ballpark, you could have the ball in your hand. Yeah. See, that's where it's different. Starting, I knew. I knew how to – it was like a build-up. Relieving, it's like –

You could go in at any point. I don't like we don't have many like set roles with this team. Like everybody could go in at any point. I just know that I'm one of the longer guys. But if they need me in a close game, it's like you got to be ready for that. And like you feel the blood flowing. I think it's a little nerves, little butterflies, but it's a lot of just like the adrenaline. Like you just feel it.

like leaving your brain just coursing through your body it's crazy do you pitch differently coming in as a reliever as opposed to getting a starting like if you're if you're starting the first inning top of the first you know who you're going to be facing yeah yeah i mean all the game planning is a is a starter uh i was talking to match strong about it last year um so yeah starters like the SWAT team man like you get everything all the planning like you know the map of everything you know who's hitting what who isn't relievers you you pay attention to the game um

But he told me, hey man, just go in and throw your best shit. Like you got your plan. If whatever you do to lefties, do it to lefties. Whatever you do to righties, do it to righties. Like just go out there and try to throw it as hard as you can. Yeah. Don't bring the team velo down.

Don't bring the bullpen below down and don't bring the ERA up. I was like, okay. Yeah. Cool. Kyle, how many home runs are you going to hit this year? You have seven. Yeah, seven. I think so... You've hit two home runs in two separate games. Mm-hmm. So maybe we got to, I mean, keep doing that, but like spread it out a little too. Yeah, no, I mean...

It would be a huge honor to get drafted in that Dingers-only league. I'll just put my name in the hat there. I mean, seven home runs is not – you could be a pick in that league. I'm trying to put a little bit of an audition tape out for you guys right now. For sure, if it was Dynasty –

It also helps that I have your phone number now because I might like call you and do a draft video being like, hey, you want to play for my team? Kind of like what you guys did with Gunner last year. You want to get on the team? Okay. So how many are you going to hit though? Yeah. Make your pitch to us for the Dingers Only League.

Yeah, I mean, seven home runs. I think it's a decent start. It's not necessarily a league leader, but I think it's a good number. I've always considered myself to get better as the year goes on. Okay, that's good because the league doesn't start until July. Yeah. We just let half the season go. So what if I made a promise to save some? Okay.

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, post-All-Star break. You do need to get – you need to be in – to basically be drafted in the Dinger's Only League is like somewhere in July you need to be in like the top 10 in your position group because that's basically how we draft is everyone just looks at how many home runs have been hit and we're just like, all right, that guy's going to keep doing that. So like if I hit my grand slam like right before the draft, that would have been like huge for like every team. Yeah, but I mean that's almost too huge because I don't want to have to compete against anybody to draft you.

Yeah. Like I want you to be my hidden gem that I pick up. But yeah, if you got to hit a couple grand slams, I would probably encourage that. No, I mean, in all seriousness, I think like 20 is a cool number, but I think I have the ability to do more than that. Bullpen's been talking. We're putting a bounty out for like 35. I'm serious, dude. We play the hat game out there. There's a hat down for you every single at-bat. Oh.

Not to put pressure on you, but that is $20 coming out of all of our pockets. Yeah. Well, I mean, if I start to play poorly, I'll just blame you guys then. Okay. Yeah, that's fair. I'll take that blame. Absolutely fair. If you ever need BP, we got you too. Tyler, we got to bring up your son hates Blooper. Yeah. Is he scared of him or he hates him?

Maybe a little bit of both. Shit. We can't show weakness. Maybe a little bit of both. He just hates him. Well, now he's getting bigger. So I think he understands. Right. Like I've tried to groom him into a fanatic guy. Wait, Blooper's getting bigger? I mean, he's fat. Blooper's a fat fuck. Yeah. No, my son's getting bigger. He's getting a little bit more brave with mascots. Okay. And I've had the conversation with my girl too. Like,

She thinks I'm lying. I don't know. You guys found an article? Was it in an article that I said that? Yeah, you had an article. Yeah, she would have told me that. I was playing. How would I know? But...

Yeah, I think he just doesn't fuck with him, man. I've groomed him to like the fanatic, man. That's my guy. That's like a smart kid, a four-year-old being like, I don't fuck with that fat fuck boob. He doesn't like any mascots, but the fanatic he's friendly with. Okay. Like a little bit more so than the others. Yeah. Yeah, so you said after your MLB debut about your son, he was crying after the game. I was hoping it was happy tears, but he was really just scared of the Braves mascot.

Yeah, that sounds about right. He doesn't watch. Now I hope he watches the games now, but he wasn't watching then. He just went, where's the playground? Where's the playground? Give me some treats. Where's the cotton candy? That's all he cared about. The treats at games. Yeah, I take my kids to games and it's just like I have to like

basically have a manager like having like a set plan for the game being like, all right, first thing we're doing hot dog, third inning we're going to do some candy, fourth inning maybe we'll mix in a pretzel. I couldn't even imagine what it's like for my girlfriend like to even try to manage that. Luckily like the Phillies, they had like a daycare system going on there. So like they had like their kids playroom. He was just there and she got to sit back and relax for once.

But like the minor league games, that's got to be miserable. Yeah. What's the biggest difference behind the scenes for you guys going from minor leagues to major leagues? Like the spread in the clubhouse. Spread is definitely huge. Spread. Flying commercial, like you're usually flying out like 6 a.m. on Mondays. Oh, dude. The bus rides were brutal. Yeah, longer bus rides. Locker rooms aren't as nice. Hotels aren't as nice.

Food's not as good. Yeah, you pretty much just turn into a king like overnight. Yeah, that's pretty cool. It's like you, it's- Pays less. Yeah. Pays less. Who's got the best clubhouse in the majors?

I'd say for a visitor, Yankees or Rangers. I prefer the Yankees. The Rangers are brand new. The Yankees just have their food. The visiting food there is unbelievable. Do you think they do that on purpose, trying to fatten you guys up? Yeah, for sure. Slow you down. What was the spread? It's always some form of steak, fish, and chicken. And then sometimes there's a pasta bar.

And then there's a carving station. It's crazy. Damn. Do you get carvings? I would get so fat. Do any teams have like a frozen yogurt machine? Two of them. Tell me. The Red Sox. Okay. And.

The one we just went to, Seattle. That's sick. They got like Oreos and M&Ms. That's so sick. The guys have been trying to get one. They've been trying to get one in Miami. I want to be in Major League Baseball just for the ice cream. Just for the spread. That's pretty sick. It's like a golden corral every time you go to a different ballpark. Yeah, I mean, you always have options. It's crazy. How long after a game does it take you guys to actually wind down and go to sleep? Are you wired for a long time?

Uh, yes. I mean, pitching. Yes. I don't know how you guys are. Cause you play every day, but, but pitching once you're out there, I mean, you're at the earliest, it's like two o'clock. Really? Yeah. Like you're just wired. I usually just go home, get on the game or something. Yeah. Wire myself up a little bit more until, until the crash happens. Yeah. I usually stay up till about probably one, stay at the clubhouse for a little bit while after to try to

try to wind down so I don't bring anything home to, to my wife. Yeah. That's smart. That's a big thing, man. That's very smart. Like a lot of guys try to rush out. Like, I don't know what you're rushing to. I, cause we, we've been in there. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, you know, like 30 minutes after the game, like where is everyone? Yeah. Yeah. Um, I picked that up from like Nola. Like he had his, he had his little corner, uh,

You had a little whiskey corner where a lot of the guys would just go over there and you just decompress, talk the game. Right. It's good for team building too. Yeah. I like talking about like the game for sure with someone. Yeah. What game do you play when you get home? A lot of them, mainly Cod. Yeah. Nice. You got a squad? Yeah.

Couple boys back home. Yeah. Big Soldier, Ben Merckx. I'll shout him out. He's my guy. He's got DeMayonnaise. DeMayonnaise? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Couple boys from back home. Shout out DeMayonnaise. DeMayonnaise, you said Big Soldier? Big Soldier. Yeah. Soul, like S-O-U-L. Of course, yeah. Yeah, of course. Love that. Yeah, man. We get going. Those are my late night guys. DeMayonnaise is married now, so he's...

He's the daytime guy. I would love to see him demand his wedding. Just mayo everywhere. Just mayo and mayo and mayo. Yeah, man. It's a lot of gaming. That's like one of my vices. Max, do you have any questions for these guys? Max at one point wanted to be a big leaguer. He played college ball at Hofstra. Matt Stairs of the CAA. No big deal. Do you have any questions about big league life? I mean...

I don't really have many questions about big league life, to be honest. I never really thought I was going to be a big leaguer. I just wanted to play college baseball just to like,

tell people I played college baseball and then when I got there I was like this sucks it wouldn't be the first time I heard that so I played redshirted one year played one year and I was like this is it for me you said summer ball, summer ball is the worst the first year I didn't want to do it and then I just didn't play my freshman year a lot and I was like okay I have to do it why is summer ball the worst? just because you're living in someone else's house because you play so much baseball all year round

And you're like waking up at 5 a.m. And then you finally finish the season and you're like, nice, summer's here.

And then it's like, nope, you have to move to like Wisconsin. Live with a host family. Live with a host family and play every single day again. What's that like moving into just a totally random stranger's house and being like, hey, I'm kind of going to be a son for you for two months. I've been pretty lucky with my experiences, but it is different. It's just weird going into it, you know, and you're kind of just like you have your bag and you walk in and you're like, well, nice to meet you. And yeah.

Do those families get paid? Do they get a stipend? I think so. They get something, some form of compensation. I think they're big fans, too. I did it in the minor leagues, short season. You hear some crazy stories about guys staying with families that have daughters. You hear some crazy stories. I threw out a first pitch when we used to live in New York in the Hamptons, and that seemed like a pretty good summer league.

Probably not very competitive, but it seemed like those guys were living a pretty good life. Well, the Cape Cod's a big one. That's a great place to be. Yeah. You got like three teenage daughters, and then you invite a baseball player into your house. I feel like there's something going on with that dad. Yeah. He just really wants a ballplayer grandson. Yeah. What were you going to say, Max? The Hamptons was like the summer league transplant of all the kids on my team.

And I chose not to do the Hamptons League. Why? Well, I went to California. I played in the West Coast League. Yeah, that's where I played there. Yeah, and I thought that it was going to be...

Like way better baseball. But it was brutal. I lived in this house with like 15 other guys. What teams did you play for? Like we weren't even like, it was also this guy like pitched me on the West Coast League. It like wasn't a real West Coast League team. It was the San Francisco Seals. Stephen Kwan was on my team though. So that was cool. Oh really? Yeah. That kind of sounds like the California League.

I don't know. We played teams on the West Coast in the West Coast League. But we had like 10 guys living in one house with like the GM. Sounds like a good time. And it was like, no, it was not a good time. It was a bad time. But like everyone else on my team played in the Hamptons League with like the sickest setup ever. My one buddy lived in a guest house of...

this like super rich person on the beach. So he had his own house on the beach in the Hamptons and then he played, he was a pitcher. He like pitched every fifth day and then just chilled so hard. That's pretty good. Sounds like a big leaguer. That's pretty good. Is the point of summer ball if you're a hitter just to track pitches all the time? Because if you don't track pitches, you kind of, that's a big part that you lose. Yeah, I think you just like,

Generally speaking in baseball for hitters, it's just getting as many at-bats as you possibly can. You see guys, if they get injured and miss a lot of the season, they'll go play winter ball now in the DR or something like that. I think it's just always about getting as many at-bats as you possibly can because pitchers need more rest time for their arms and hitters you can just...

Keep going. Yeah, we were talking to Schwarber when he came. It was after he came back from his ACL and he said that when they were thinking about bringing him back up for the playoffs, he just stood in the batter's box and would track like a thousand pitches, not even swing, just to like watch pitches come in. What's the longest you've ever been without stepping into the box, whether it's against the machine or a person?

Yeah, I'd say during the offseason, I usually don't pick up a bat from October till I try to get as close as I can to January. Because like when my mind when I start picking it back up, I can't stop thinking about it. Yeah. So usually about two months, I'd say. Yeah. Yeah. All right. This has been awesome, guys. I got one last question. It's a rowback question. RHOBACK.COM promo code TAKE. 20% off your first purchase. RHOBACK.COM promo code TAKE.

Uh, this is a good question. Cause you guys are obviously in different spots during the game. Kyle, you're in the dugout. Tyler, you're out, uh, in the bullpen. If there's a brawl, how, what, what's your move when you, when you, I love the bull, when the bullpen runs out, it's always so funny. Cause you guys are always so late and it's just like, it's already over, but what's your move? Are you trying to brawl or are you just, are you just going and just trying to separate things? Have you been part of one?

Um, I've been a part of benches clearing. Uh, we, I can't remember who was with me. I think it was the blue Jays when I first got called up and, uh, I was in the cage. Cause when you're coming off the bench, you're kind of getting ready to pinch it potentially. And, and you know, the inning ends, we see it on like the live feed. So I'm like strolling down the stairs and I get down the stairs and everyone's out of the dugout.

And I see everyone's on the field and I like run on and you kind of see me running on late and I was getting texts from people going, Oh, like you're the last one out of the dugout for, for ventures clearing. Yeah. So I think my goal is just to get out there early. Yeah. Get out there early. Try to find work. Look busy. Yeah. As you're out there, like find one guy that you can just kind of grab his shirt. Yeah. Hold one guy a little bit. Yeah. Maybe, maybe say a couple like obscenities and that's, that's, you know, I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind getting in a big old fight.

yeah i've never been out there earlier because it is late just before the pitch is even thrown just start running at the pitcher yeah like i can feel it's about to go down john boy had a breakdown of the the orioles and the um yankees won recently and you see the bullpen like the yankees waiting for the orioles guys to get down the stairs and then like they're all like running right next to each other it's like hey we could just square up right here yeah there's two fights going on i wouldn't mind if

though. Like I've had, I've had a lot of thoughts about this. Um, for some reason as a starter, like when I was on the mound, if it was me, I think that I'm like John wick, like the guy's going to come at me with a bat. I'm gonna like catch it under my arm. I'm like, I'm like Nolan Ryan. Um, but yeah, no, I mean,

It's good to be mentally prepared for that. You've got to be mentally prepared. I took some jujitsu during spring training. Yeah, we had the Philly side of guy there. So I'm ready. You might see me like just like crawling on the ground. Just scooting around. No, I'm ready. I'm ready for whatever. I want to get in one. The shoving or like just like the bouncing around in a circle just –

it doesn't do it for me you want to be with the actions you gotta you gotta make an arrangement with the opposing bullpen before the game like hey if shit goes down it's it's you and i it's like hockey's and goalie you gotta pick the biggest guy yeah you either pick the biggest guy or don't show up yeah yeah um all right well guys thank you this has been really really fun best of luck rest of the season uh and yeah kyle will hopefully be giving you a call when the dingers only do 35 you ever you ever sprint the first base on a walk

No, I love when people do that. That's a big thing for my team. When we're scouting guys, that's the number one thing we look for. Okay. Usually I kind of like throw my stuff like a little bit of like pissed off that I don't get to hit. That's kind of like, you know, kind of like the vibe I try to get off. I'm going to take that into account. Yeah. Put my bat down and just sprint and I'll take off my stuff. If you just do it once, I think that's enough to get you to the top of my big board. Yeah. Okay.

Or for the fight, maybe just walk to first. Just piss the pitcher off. Yeah. Stand down. Walk real slow. Because you're pissed off that he walked you. Literally go in slow motion. That might work, man. All right. Thanks, boys. Cal Stowers and Tyler Phillips are brought to you by Paramount Mission Impossible. The final reckoning. It's the culmination of 30 years of the franchise. Every movie has led to this moment.

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on May 23rd. They were also brought to you by our friends at BetterHelp. Part of my take is sponsored by BetterHelp. Mental health awareness is growing, but there's still progress to be made. 26% of Americans who participate in a recent study say that they've avoided seeking mental health support due to fear of judgment. When people hesitate to get help, it doesn't just affect them. It impacts families, workplaces, and entire communities.

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Max, bachelor party. Give it to us. How was it? It was great. It was great. How's the ankle? Nice boys weekend. The ankle is better. It's better. We were playing some backyard football. I was playing quarterback. We had like a three Mississippi rush the quarterback rule. Yeah.

The pass rush came. I tried to do a little cut, and then I rolled my ankle one way, and then I tried to get back to it, and then I rolled it the other way. Max coming back with a foot injury was like minus 6,000. Yeah, but it feels a lot better today. I'm walking pretty normally. Did you get up? You were laying it on thick. Yeah, you were laying it on so thick. You skipped into the office today. I felt good. The clip you posted on Saturday, I was like, oh, he's out for like a month. It...

That's how I felt. That's a thousand percent how I felt. Did you see the picture of it? It was massive and the entire bottom of my foot was purple. It might just be your cankle. It was purple. You think my ankle is just purple? Might be. That Frank the Tank. Did you make any lifelong friends? Of course.

Yeah, of course. Who knows? Who knows? Shout out to the AWL. Yeah, of course. Who knows? Tell us about the setup.

It was about as like cabin in the woods vibe as you could possibly put cabin in the woods. Best, best. So it was a cabin in the woods is what I'm hearing. But like when I said we had to go to a Walgreens on Saturday or we had to go to a pharmacy on Saturday morning and... You can say Walgreens. The closest...

The closest pharmacy was 25 minutes away. Yeah, that's the best bachelor party. So when you're with your boys and there's not like a, oh, let's go out to this bar and then everyone gets separated. It's like just the boys hanging. It was great. We played beer dart where everyone just sits in a circle on a lawn. And then we all had Trulies in front of us. And then we were throwing darts at each other. And if you hit the dart, you got to drink the Truly.

We played football. We played wiffle ball. Wiffle ball's the best. People were playing hoops. And then we just did a bunch of drinking games. It was great. It was great boys bonding sesh. Did you make a speech?

Oh, did you? I made no speech. There were no speeches by anyone. Do you think you represented us well? Like they walked away from it being like, Max is a cool guy. Those guys are awesome. Of course. We had a great time. We started putting on like YouTube highlights at the end of the night. We watched like John Wall highlights, Lamar Jackson highlights. It was the perfect like summation of a boys night. Yeah. And then what about the wild card?

The wild card was crazy. The wild card was everything I was expecting the wild card to be. He wore a dart to his ankle, and he just kind of let it sit there. We have a PMTV coming out on Thursday. Love that. Jack actually got that part on camera. So you guys were playing lawn darts, and then somebody got hit in the ankle with a long dart, and they were just like, fuck it, we ball. Yeah, he also chose to go barefoot when everyone else was wearing long pants and shoes.

He was wearing shorts and no feet nor socks. Love that. He had no feet?

Or no shoes. That would have been crazy if he had no feet. That's a true wild card. That would have been crazy if he had no feet. No, it was good. I wish I could have played paintball on Saturday morning, but I'm telling you, yesterday morning I couldn't walk. All right, so we should see how this video does. If it does well, maybe we'll run it back for another punishment because it seems like it was good time and it was good time for the AWLs. Yeah, no, I think it was good all the way around. That's awesome. Good job, Max.

Yeah, love my boys. And he's walking pretty much actually normally. Me? He's fine. Yeah, you're fine. You guys are the worst. What do you mean? I walked in today thinking that you were going to be on crushes, and you didn't have a limp. I know. That's good. I wasted...

like thoughts and prayers. No one's practicing post moves. Yeah. What? You were. You were doing the dream shake on the baseline. Now we're lying. Now we're in fiction. Now we're in fiction. All right. Oh, Hank, we didn't ask. Did you have any last thoughts for Mr. Ping Pong? No. What?

A worthy adversary, at least? Worthy adversary, yeah. He earned that win. Shouldn't have taken game five off, but he made good content. He won fair and square. Have you moved on from thinking that he's around every single corner?

Yeah, I'm happy I don't have to see his nonsense anymore. Yeah. Bing, bong, bing, bong, bing, bong, bing, bong, bing, bong, bing, bong. Oh, my God. I'm only here. I'm never leaving. I'm inside of you. I'm like a parasite. That's so fucked up. That's so fucked up. Bing, bong, bing, bong, bing, bong, bing, bong, bong. He took all the centros. He walked into the promisery.

i want to make a promise to hanky and all the awls this is it mr bing bong's gone thank christ he has no connection so you're just giving up on the season no well he's he's he's found a different show yeah i'll be moving on to a uh another barstool show called mostly sports where uh their co-hosts i'll tell you though i don't i and this is no offense to anyone who works on mostly sports they're so

fucking nice like i'm feeling like like bing bonging hank is like something the entire internet needed me to do like they were all rooting for me but with titus i'm getting like messages like don't be too mean to to titus mr bing bong he's a nice fellow yeah if it was brandon then i think you could go even harder yeah but it's nice also uh jerry i

And I want you and Hank to put a cap on this series. But just as an aside, my feelings were hurt today, what you did to me. That was fucked up.

Hey, listen, I was at a girls beach volleyball tournament watching my daughters lose every single game. No, no, no. And you in one text said, no, we have you on tonight. Yeah. I said, so for the, for the AWLs, this is what Jerry thinks of you. He's just, he's, he's thrown us to the side. I was texting with PFT and Jerry and I was like, uh, Jerry,

Jerry said, hey, can I get Titus' phone number? And I was like, yeah, no problem. I made a light joke being like, no problem. We'll have Josh Duhamel on to talk about the Nexus series. We don't need you anymore. I mean, we would take you, but we don't need you. You've just gone on. And then I said, hey, can you come on tonight to a final blow to Hank?

And no response. No response. And then I put him on. No, hold on. Hold on. Then I put him on a text with TJ, the producer of Mostly Sports, being like, hey, TJ, here's Jerry.

Jerry, TJ, you know, we're family here. Want to make the connection so that Jerry can go on Mostly Sports. Jerry responds to TJ instantly being like, whenever you need me. Still no response on the text with me and PFT. And then I texted PFT on that text chain. I was like, Jerry's responding to another text chain and not responding to us here. It's hurting my feelings. And then like an hour passed and he responds again to TJ and not to us. You know who's really good at responding to text, Big Cat? Yeah.

Adam Schefter. Yeah, good point. He is really, really good. Good point. That guy never puts his – he's got two of them. Great point. Two phones. Oh, my God, PFT. You're so right. I forgot that Jerry was here. Sorry, Jerry.

Listen, in my defense, a lot was happening today. That Mexican ship crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge. Yep. Good point. My homeboy got prostate cancer. I was like, look this shit up. Kayla Clark. But your phone worked for TJ. Listen, I'm so sorry. I actually missed that text that was in there. Again, I was outside. It was very bright. Instantly responded to TJ.

Oh no, now he's frozen. He's in the middle of a parking lot. I don't know where the fuck he is. I love that he's always got his car behind him. Yeah. We just lost him. All right, what were you saying? I was saying it was really bright.

I couldn't see anything. The second I saw that you would text me, ask me to come on. Of course, you guys are my first love, but I do have a little bit of an issue. I texted teach and I was like, hey, TJ, I'd love to come on Titus. And TJ was like, well, let me talk to everybody and see if we want Mr. Bing pong. I was like, why fuck you, man? Like, listen, you always have that. You always have a home here.

Thank you. Listen, I didn't mean anything. I just didn't see the text, big cat. You know, you're my first love. Like, literally.

When that hotline rang. It happened twice. It happened twice, and there was multiple texts that he didn't see. And also, he was replying to TJ. Wow, I sent. He replied to TJ. Then I sent another text he didn't see. Then he replied to TJ again. In the glare, though. There was glare. So he was seeing something. Yeah. Okay. Listen to Big Cat. You used to call me on your cell phone.

All right, so... Hey, my man. I need... Listen, listen. Before we put Mr. Bing Bong to sleep, don't worry, AWLs. Mr. Bing Bong's done. Next time you see me, I'll be doing a fantasy recap by myself. It'll be great. That's also not true. If the Knicks go to the finals, we want Mr. Bing Bong. Listen, I do have to say, I read all the comments. AWLs, I read your comments, and some people are really sick of Mr. Bing Bong. Okay, all right, like Hank.

Hank's writing those. Yeah, Jerry, you just listen. Whatever way the wind blows is whatever you're doing. Like, I'm retiring Mr. Bing Bong. Oh, he's back because I got one comment. I took one game off. I didn't feel it would be right to do that to Jason Tatum. Yeah, you send fucked up voice notes to them privately. Not for air. Not for air. We haven't disclosed the context of these voice notes. We have not said any of them.

Not for air. I got it. Oh, man. Wouldn't it be fun to just do? Hey, Dr. Bing Bong here. So, yes, it was a...

A complete tear of the tendon and has terrible disease. That was pretty funny. That was the best stuff. Alright, so let's finish this series. I just wanted to as we say goodbye to Mr. Bing Bong Hank, is it okay if Mr. Bing Bong just has one last conversation with you as the Celtics season is now over? Yep, let her rip, Jerr.

All right. Hey, Hanky. Just remember what the AW has said to you in the comments before you start. Hey, Hanky. Mr. Bing Bong here. You know, it's kind of ironic this Celtics season. It turns out the Celtics Achilles heel was, well, an Achilles heel. Bing Bong. Bing Bong.

You know what the problem is with the Celtics after that terrible, horrific injury is that no one took control of the team like Jordan is taking control of Coach Belichick's life. Bing bong!

Jalen Brown. You know what? Jalen Brown. He was supposed to pick up the slink after that horrific injury. You know? I mean, all he was really good for was jerking off Josh Hart. Be gone! That's a good one. One for three. Word is...

hey hanky where it is your boy robert craft uh saw that uh jalen brown josh hart play and immediately saw him jerking him off and wanted to hire him he loves getting jerked off who doesn't hey listen hanky i gotta say uh i've noticed on the show there's a lot of

a lot of friction between you and Max, a lot of back and forth, a lot of friction, just like Jaylen Brown's hand on Josh Hart's dick, the friction. Oh, Bing Bong. Hey, Hanky, I wanted to apologize. Game one of this series, Mr. Bing Bong blew out your eardrum just like you blew it with. All right, yeah.

Hey, Hanky, Hanky, you know, this whole series. We got a couple more here. Hanky, you know, it's so interesting. You know, the Knicks and Celts. Going toe to toe. Yeah. Speaking of toes, Tiffany, show us your tootsies. We want to see your tootsies. We don't want to pay for that. Give it to us for free.

By the way, I just want to say I'm getting out of Big Bang Character. Yeah. I've been on X now for, you know, usually I do a TV show and they're like, hey, will you live X and all this stuff? And like, maybe I get like 10,000 likes and everything. When the Knicks won game two and I just started screaming, show us your tootsies, Tiffany, show us your tootsies.

literally it's i think there's like two million views on that just me going show us your tootsies bing bong show us your tootsies tiffany why won't you show us your toes in fact the algorithm yeah um oh yeah okay here we go here's a big closer you are you ready hank this is it you and the awls don't have to endure mr bing bong anymore um i'm still working this one out all right let me figure it out okay um hey hanky um

i saw your boss i saw your boy on uh club shea shea on shannon sharp's uh show it's so interesting you know your boss and you between the celtics and shannon sharp you love chokers that's actually a good one i love you we are drafting great

Drake Ming and I'm going to send you your hat and I got a little picture and everything I'm going to send you a little package for all you endured I'm sorry I allegedly hurt your eardrum which just ended up being a head cold yeah it's alright Jerry congrats also we were talking earlier in the show about librarians the next chapter and I was wondering if you could give us any context on librarians the first chapter because I got worried because I said it looks terrible and they said Rebecca remains in it but it was actually that's the old one who still doesn't follow us by the way

But what should we be expecting with the librarians? What is it all about? She's tweeting at us. She doesn't follow us. Pretty rude. You know, my wife was in the original series, The Librarians, and this is the reboot. My wife knows everyone who's involved, so we don't want to say anything rude. But we haven't seen it, but I'm sure it's good. It's a great franchise. I'm sure it's good stuff. Hank's going to be watching. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. Look at us, Hank. What a ride, huh, Hank? Yeah, man. What a ride. Who would have thought two weeks ago in Arizona this is where things would have ended up? Man, it's crazy. Jerry, do you want to participate? This is the end of the show. You want to participate in numbers? Three. Yeah, let's go. Who said three? Somebody already said it? Yeah, Hank did. Shoot. Let me go. What was it? 20 last week?

Let me go 20. Let me go 23. Okay. I'll go 6. I'll go 75. I'm going to go 90. I'll go 1. I'll go 99, Pug. 8, Pug. 21. What's up, Jerry? Close your guess, memes. 6. Nixon 6. Any predictions for 63? 63. Any predictions for Nick's Pacers, everybody? 7. Nixon 6.

I think it's going to be Pacers in seven. I'm just going to say seven. This team is different, Jerry. This team is so good. There's no way they lose even a game. I think he's mocking you, Jerry. I have no idea who's going to win. I really don't. All right. Love you guys. See you at home. I'm in like a parking garage. Like the security's looking at me. I got to get out of here. All right, Jerry. We love you. Love you guys.