The Big Suey: Who Is Sal Licata?
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Welcome to the Big Sui, presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Levitard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys? I've done it. And now, here's the marching band to nowhere, Fat Face and the Habitual Liars.

Maybe Mike McDaniel feels like he controls all of this. And he's like, okay, Tua, you think you're worth 50? This season, the offense is going to look different. You think you're going to have those stats? And they try to have a successful season while undermining Tua. So they're going to tank just to not pay the quarterback. No, try to win, but try to...

tank their offensive quarterback stats. Chris, go sit in the penalty box for two minutes for a real estate spectacular. I'm obviously... We call it tanking for Tua. That's a good idea. I'm obviously joking a little bit, but what spot are the Dolphins, in all seriousness, what spot are the Dolphins in if they have Tua in a contract year? You don't want him. If he has the year he has last year, he's gone.

You're going to lose it. No, you can sign him. The problem is that indecision is making the price go up. Every day that they wait and don't sign him, he costs them more and more and more than had they done this a month ago, a year ago, whatever. So at a certain point, they need to make a decision on him because they're going to price themselves out. If they think he's too expensive now, a year from now, what is he going to be? It's not going to go down. Correct. Correct.

Well, it could if he gets hurt, first of all, which you guys skip right past. And if they undermine him. I mean, but it's the NFL. Anyone can get hurt on any given play. That is correct. You can't not sign players because they may get hurt one day. Correct. That is also correct. I would say to you that what it is that you guys are presently doing that is the mind bleep of this and it is why you're stuck in this particular purgatory is –

You're saying it's bad leadership because they haven't signed him. And I'm saying the only reason I think they have good leadership is because they made him look like that. And I didn't think it was possible. And so we are stuck in between the two things because I don't believe two is that good. I believe two has been made.

that good by the circumstances that have surrounded him and if I were him and I don't mean it as a slight to say I don't believe he's that good what I'm saying when I say I don't believe he's that good is best passer in the league look at all the numbers the offensive numbers are off the charts I don't believe he's that I believe that is a system product I believe that he's what Jared Goff is

and if you pay him what Jared Goff got, I would shrug my shoulders and say, okay, fine. If it's more than Jared Goff, because the market stipulates that, and you then prevent me from getting all the other pieces I have to put around him in order to make him successful, you're putting me in a position where I'm paying him too much, and I trust these people to not overpay on these things. It's

It's more important than ever. You're all fantasy GMs out there. You all question every GM. You think you're Sunday League, that you know what you're doing. You don't have to handle the salary cap permutations. And in this particular case, I don't feel comfortable tearing up so much of my value in the one guy I'm particularly afraid of getting hurt.

Still, they can try to protect him. They can try to play the Brady game. They're going to roll him out more. If he's going to be light, he's going to be rolling out around the pocket more, and he's going to be in more positions where he can get hurt. I do believe he's more susceptible to injury than the average player. I believe that we spent a year talking about that.

It's not saying that it's bad leadership because they don't sign him. It's because they keep being in this purgatory position. They don't make a decision one way or another. And like you say, they've surrounded him with all these pieces. Anyone can do it. We saw what happened when he's not there. Anyone can do it. You could find another piece to go in this system, but like...

He's very much a part of this system and why it has been successful. They're playing to his strengths. There's surrounding pieces around him that he can work with. If they let him go, they're going to have to start over from scratch. I agree with what you're saying. And I would also add to you that wherever it is, the difference is on where they assign value. My guess is that Gardner Minshew would put up some decent numbers with this particular offense as well, given that they have a

bit of a cheat code. This isn't to say that Gardner Minshew is Tua, but you understand what I'm saying. If they could do it with Tua, they could find a golf to do it with as well. We are in agreement that it can't be anybody, but we're in agreement that if I give you one of 15 guys and pay him at value, there are 15 guys who could do it, right?

Okay, if one of them is Goff, then it should be noted that Jared Goff is making $53 million a year, the second highest paid player in the history of the NFL at the time he signed that contract. Okay, if he's not that good...

And if he's not worth that money, well, guess what? That's the market right now. That's what the Dolphins have to deal with. Greg, the system indicates he is good enough to make that money, right? Like, they were just in an NFC Championship game, and they were playing very well. And, like, he's kind of turned the tide, him and Ben Johnson, the O.C.,

have turned the tide on what this Lions offense is because of Jared Goff's ability to throw into the middle. If they offered Tua a Jared Goff contract, I think he would sign it. Of course he would. They're not getting close to a Goff contract, which I think is what the problem is here. Now, the difference between Jared Goff and Tua is Jared Goff got them one game away from the Super Bowl, which Tua has not. Trevor Lawrence got paid.

You could make an argument, and I would, that Tua is as good or better. Jordan Love, who's really done very little in Green Bay, is about to get his.

Tua's over here going, what about me? When's my payday? And I don't blame him. And the Dolphins have to blink or else a year from now. Goff has also been in a Super Bowl and he's won playoff games. But he got that contract because he took them one game away from the Super Bowl. He got that contract because he made it the best Detroit Lions team any of us have ever seen. And sometimes that gets you paid. Tua kind of

Did that, at least in this generation. The best offense. The best offense we've seen this century from the Miami Dolphins. Which is what he's in charge of. Tua also is a victim of the Brian Flores era, right? Because we saw how he looked under Brian Flores and assumed that's who he was. And then when we see how successful he's been now, we assume, well, that's because of Mike McDaniel. And we assume that his success in college was because of Nick Saban.

So we have two coaches that we give all of this praise to in terms of their successes in college, back with Nick Saban. And now where we have this genius mastermind offensive coach in Mike McDaniel. So we credit him with the success. And then with Brian Flores, we kind of attributed to, well, to his sucks. And that's who he actually is. And he's only good because of his coaches, which I don't know if that's fair or not.

It was actually pretty funny. I think probably that Greg Cody has been in the Dolphin facilities where this would have taken place. But Brian Flores has these office or had these office sort of floor to ceiling glass windows that you could press a button and physically sort of frost them.

I've seen those. I wanted to get those for my house. But that was sort of... Very expensive, I assume. That's what Tua was walking into, though, when the office would go... Like, can you imagine whatever the coldness is when you're not getting along with your coach and a physical frost just goes over the windows because of what Flores had and the sort of separation is the Belichick way. This part, man, as someone...

who will tell you that I value the small things that make me happy now more than I ever have. The pollution that money can be when you've already found people who believe in you, the way that these people clearly believe in a tour, they have rehabbed the confidence that Flores could have destroyed during a delicate time, a style of coaching that really runs Belichick right out of the league.

Because that's not how we deal with this generation of young player. The job is hard enough. Mental frailty can get punctured at any point when you're doing what these people are for a living and Tua is sleeping at night with whatever his fears and pain are of, is my brain okay? I'm making decisions about my brain and my future mental health in ways that are truly terrifying.

To have a group of people in management who support you the way this group of people have supported Tua and then have the disconnect be over a few million dollars, that poison to me is really something that is a contaminant that I feel for the people involved.

because there's a human being underneath that helmet and I wouldn't want to get so caught up in what the other guy has that I forget how tough my first year was when I had a coaching staff that didn't actually believe and understand me in a way that made me feel properly supported. There is and should be a value to that. And I'm not the guy who's asking others to take discounts, but I am asking Tua to look into a mirror and have a self-assessment on value that

does give the franchise some credit for what that value is. But that's also a very pro-management view on this situation, right? Because you could also say, well, Mike McDaniel looks kind of pedestrian at times when Tua's not out there making things happen. Mike McDaniel looks like he doesn't have solutions to certain problems. Mike McDaniel looks like the second time teams see his team play, they've figured him out. Mike McDaniel looks like when he has the backup quarterbacks in, he's

his offense doesn't work. So I would say that he's helped Mike McDaniel as much as Mike McDaniel's helped him because we don't have any evidence of Mike McDaniel succeeding without Tua. As a head coach, we don't, but it's only because he hasn't been a head coach outside of Miami and the backup situations that they have been here haven't been top five picks. They haven't been top five talent at

quarterback. But they're trying to tell you that his quarterback isn't like the argument they're making is like, you're not a top five. But I'm not, I'm not being pro management. I'm being pro happiness. Do you know how fun it is to play the game the way Tua gets to play it? He wasn't allowed to play it that way in his first year. And the disconnect of who's responsible for that tore apart Brady and Belichick. You don't think it's going to tear apart two amateurs like Tua and McDaniel too? Let him play out the contract, run the shit out of the ball.

When you say it's not pro-management, it is pro-management when you're saying it's just business. They're not disrespecting him. It's just business. The fact of the matter is there's one flawless quarterback in the NFL. It's Patrick Mahomes. You can have a criticism of every other starting quarterback in the league, including the ones making $50 million a year. The market has spoken loudly in just the past year or two.

Okay, where every quarterback who signs an extension is practically destined to be the biggest paid player in the league until the next contract. I don't think Tua's asking to be the biggest paid, but he's looking at eight or nine quarterbacks making $50 million a year, and he's going, I'm better than that guy, that guy, and that guy. I want mine. I got it out of my system. I hadn't done it for years.

I hadn't done it for years. I know I did it 12 minutes too long. It was fun. We have not. I don't think it was fun. I think I had it. It was great. I had it a lot. I think it was necessary. I don't think it was fun. Ask Jessica if she thought it was fun.

It was a lot of Tua. We've had worse topics. Well, we just haven't done. We have not. I love Tua talk. I think if we clip you saying Tua is not good, we will do numbers. Numbers, Dan. I am surprised that we have not had that conversation for three straight years every day.

Because it used to be what sports radio was in this market. I want to make America great again. Thank you. Listen up, folks. The college football landscape has changed a lot. NIL deals, social media, the transfer portal. There's never been more distractions for an athlete. But Powerade knows what's important. The commitment to the game. The game is what matters. With 50% more electrolytes than Gatorade Thirst Quencher, Powerade hydrates athletes exponentially.

as they block out the noise and put in the work. Hydrate your grind with Powerade. Grab a pack today on Amazon or at a store near you. See product label for additional details. It takes more. Don Libetard. Surely every time you're watching this, you recognize that your wife is laughing that she married Larry David. I do, yeah. One of the great characters in the history of television, in my humble opinion. And to my credit...

My personality... In my humble opinion, followed by to my credit. To my credit. It's amazing. My personality does predate Curb Your Enthusiasm. Stugatz. Oh, wow. I'm not going to say Larry David patterned himself after me. All right, put it on the poll, please, Jude. You did, Greg Cody, copyright being an asshole long before Larry David. This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stugatz.

What have you guys done to me? What did you guys throw into the algorithm? I've tried to stay out of the Tua conversation. I've probably stayed out of it for more than a year. I have not had any kind of opinion.

that could be grabbed and aggregated and thrown as chum into the water. There are very few sports topics that get this kind of engagement. What have you guys done to me on the subject of Tua? If the Tua conversation was a pool, this is what you just did. Don Lepotard. What the hell is going on with Miguel Alí? That was the cannonball button. That's not my fault. That button says cannonball. Back to you, Dan.

All right. Good work. To be fair, Dan, these are your own words that were posted on the Internet. Right. But what is being done with those words to misrepresent me as you guys often do? How is that a misrepresentation? How does playing your own words misrepresent you? I don't know.

No, Chris was laughing at me. I don't know how you edit stuff. I don't know what you guys do to put me in bad situations. What have you thrown into the chum stream of getting to an engagement? Just a good old-fashioned quarterback is worth a conversation, Dano. Getting back to the roots, and people love it. All right. Jessica. If the topic was a pool, you did can.

Well said. Yeah. Excellent work as the executive producer. Jessica, the number of things that I would like to get you involved on today, because I didn't like the way that that Tua conversation went and the way that it...

Boxes you out. I mean I to be fair I have my own opinions, but I thought you guys handled it very well So I said I'll sit this one out. I'll let Tony hit Tony's right Billy's right You're right Greg's right in small parts. I don't think any of us are completely right everyone was right You know there's a lot of sides to this thing

Everyone's right. Everyone's wrong. And that is why there have been months of indecision as the price goes up on this, because I do think it's a legitimately fascinating subject for a market that has had trouble replacing quarterbacks since Marino. Like it's an

unbelievable run of never having someone who's this kind of valuable and then arriving where you still can't determine what the value is of somebody because the sport has changed so much management has changed so much he's changed so much and you're just confused as to what the value we're all sitting here in the value assignment business it's salary kept you got to win in the margins because

because you gotta be better with your money than the other guy is with his money. And we're all sitting here like, what's he worth? And we're arguing about it and everyone's a little bit right and everyone's a little bit wrong. - I mean, the Dolphins obviously don't wanna pay him as much as he wants to get paid. They've had their reservations, which is obvious

because of how long this has taken. And Tua rightfully wants to extract as much money out of his career as he can because the window he has to make the amount of money that he could make being an NFL quarterback is very, very small. We all know this. So I don't blame him for wanting to make more money and thinking his value is higher than what the Dolphins have.

think it is and this is how negotiations work unfortunately they're very clearly not seeing eye to eye on it and so that's why I think the Dolphins have botched this from the beginning they've waited too long and the price has just gone up like Greg said but at the same time I don't think Tua is wrong for not wanting to budge and sign something that he doesn't think is worth what he's worth a few months ago when the negotiation started so it's it's kind of a shit show

The other thing that I wanted to bring you in on, because I felt this never happens to me, where I get to see that something on the Internet is fake before someone else knows.

understands and tells me that something is fake. I'm almost always on the wrong end of that. And I don't know how the rest of you listening to this and in this room grew up with your parents or grandparents chirping about sort of the dangers of propaganda, the dangers of misinformation, the dangers of

of not being able to have information or information sources you trust and how corrosive that can be to democracy to freedom to confusing and disorienting the public that simply cannot trust

its eyes, its ears, because of how well propaganda has worked. But rest assured that in my childhood, there was very little talked about more that engendered fear than the idea of propaganda or the government being able to shape agenda in a way that has control of the facts and information in a way that confuses. And I believe that right now,

In 2024, we're all living in whatever the modern equivalent was for what they were feeling in the 60s that looked more like McCarthyism and all that stuff. But the modern thing that's happening right now is that it becomes very hard to tell what's real and what's not real. My wife...

was fooled by an AI video of Mike McDaniel talking about Tyreek Hill and the number of children that Tyreek Hill has had out of wedlock. And she doesn't know anything about sports. And it seemed real and it looked real and it's AI and you can't.

tell from the distortion of the lips and the way that everything's moving. You cannot tell that it's not him talking. And the only thing that gave me access to it is like, no, Valerie, Coach would never talk that way publicly about all of what is happening there. Although, man, it would sure as hell be a hell of a lot. Like, that's one of the refreshing ones, McDaniel. He's one of the ones who actually says the interesting things. Nobody's willing to touch this subject at all in the Dolphin facility.

But the thing that I wanted to ask the young people here is, are you guys better about not being fooled by all of this stuff? Or do you guys also now get got because it's getting better and better and it's getting more sophisticated about how to fool you? Like AI, I'm getting better at detecting it. I got fooled by Paul Maurice videos were circulating during the Panthers playoffs that were clearly fake.

Panthers never won. One or two of them may have got me, but I'm like, like AI, I'm improving at recognizing it. It's all in the mouth. If you can't really tell what the person's saying via the mouth, you know it's AI. Didn't I do a top five list once of like top five ways to detect AI videos after there was some Dabo Sweeney video last year that was viral? That was real. That one was real. I know, but...

Anytime I think of Davos Swinney, I just think of Tyler. But one of the reasons, if I can, I don't remember everything from the top five, but one of the ways you can tell if it's AI is if the person is saying something that is ridiculous. That is usually the number one tell. There was a Biden one that was making the rounds yesterday and the day before that I was like, huh, clearly AI. No one's being fooled by Leon Edwards. You mean he didn't say his brain was applesauce in real life? That's crazy. I don't know.

No one is being fooled by Leon Edwards, correct? I don't know, Dano. I haven't seen it. Let's see this thing. The welterweight champ is fighting this weekend in London, doing a training, a running training with his coach. All right, looks real so far. Just jogging in a park. Yeah. All right. So far looks real to me. I'll be the judge of this. He's jogging in a park.

Pick up Hoops game going on. They throw him the ball. Kicks it one shot. Totally fake. Right into the hoop. 100% fake. That's real. Again, this is a left kick that ended Kamaru Usman's run as probably the greatest welterweight that we've seen in a long time. He's standing at a three-point line. Someone tosses him the ball. And in the air, he one-time kicks it. Yeah, lovely drop. The length of the court into the other hoop. And that is 1,000% fake. What?

I don't know. I don't know. Strong kick. So Dan, this video reminded me of things that I would see in my childhood growing up, usually on commercials from PTI when you were doing them. And I made a top five list of the most incredible things that we've seen from back in the day that might've been real or might've been original AI. We don't know yet. Um,

Billy, do you remember, because if I remember correctly, one of the first times that I ever saw video of any kind that was meant to purposely distort how good someone was athletically, it was Michael Vick throwing a football.

ball out of us. Okay, hold on. That might be on the list now. That's the first time I even remember seeing it. Wasn't there a viral commercial campaign that had an assortment of athletes doing it? We're getting to it now. Number five, Chris Chambers catching three balls with two hands.

That's one of them, I remember. Here we go. He's there. He's like, all right, you guys want to see me catch a football? All right, here we go. He's got his gloves on. He's walking down. Jug's machine's about to throw a ball. He's backwards, by the way. He's got his back to it. He's got his back to the footballs. Yes, and he catches three footballs. You're going to tell me that's not real, Dan? Come on. What year was that?

Looks like 04, maybe? That was Chris Chambers as a charger. I didn't even remember him as a charger. Number four. That was number five, Chris Chambers. Number four, the aforementioned Mike Vick doing a lot of different things during the football one.

Knocking the guy six yards back after a quick out route. Here's another one. See? Quick pass in the sixth. Not even a hard throw. Yeah, it's a lob. Here you go. I think this is the one out of the stadium. Here you go. Go deep. Go long. Oops, I overthrew it. It's out of the... Yeah. All right. Still going. I can do that with an orange.

And you didn't go out and bounce. Is that USC Stadium? And imagine if someone throws a ball at you and they're throwing that ball 40 miles an hour. Think about the fact that you jump up and a car hits you at 40 miles an hour. You'd bounce back like that. For those of you who didn't see the video, it was just a little, tiny, little flare. Out route. It wasn't even an out route. No, it's just a little. It's got a pitching catch. It's just a little toss to his running back out of the...

the backfield and his running back goes flying 10 yards like Jason Statham being pulled by one of those rubber cords in a stunt. Like it was a four yard little toss and the running back ended up going seven yards on his back because the ball was allegedly thrown so hard. You know when they throw in front of the sideline before the game and like the receiver catches it and tosses it to the quarterback. That's what they were doing. It's a check down. Number three, LeBron James making unbuckled

Five full court shots in a row. Which is incredible. Perfect form, by the way. Regular form. Look at that. 75 feet. Cash. Are these all commercial campaigns? What? This was viral before viral, right? A little spin turnaround. I don't remember this one, actually. Cash. So this is 2009. So it's sort of... He's shooting from the other baseline. Just casually taking full court jumpers. Incredible. I mean, you're going to tell me that's not real, Dan? Yeah. Give me a break. It's not real. It's not real.

Number two. Number two. Rest in peace, Kobe the Mamba jumping over a car. Watch this. Here we go. Kobe's getting ready. Shuffle on his feet. Defensive stance. He's doing the Birdman shaking the hands. Here we go. Defensive stance. Right on the car. Bam! Nailed it. Jumped over a Mercedes Benz, Dan.

I didn't know that wasn't real until right now. That was real. That was real. That's 100% real. Depth perception. Did Blake Griffin jump over a Kia? That was so fake. Was that fake also? He jumped over the hood. Yeah, the hood. And number one, probably the greatest athletic feat of any century, Lawrence Maroney jumping through both windows of a car. What?

Here we go. Look at him. He's getting ready. He's got a ball. He looks like he's a running back. He's running, running towards a car. Right through the... Oh! No. What are you going to tell me? That wasn't real? Jumping through both windows of a GMC. Come on. There is no name in the history of this show that Stugatz has called more often and been told by the person answering the phone that I am getting on a flight right now than Lawrence Maronick.

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Don Levitard. You have some hot takes today. Joe Chestnut's a fraud. Oh, he's on fire. He called Connor McDavid overrated before the show. What the hell was that, Greg? Yeah, no. I love it. Stugatz. Roy, let me explain it to you. You know more about hockey than I do. And this is coming from a guy that's watched Connor play six times. Right. If that. This is the Don Levitard Show with the Stugatz.

One of the many great pleasures that come from having done this show for such a long time. And my God, what a privilege it has been. I don't mean to make it sound so past tense, but given what Stugatz is doing these days, I am past tense. And I want to talk nostalgically with you because I do have a great deal of gratitude for what it is that we get to do every day. I'm Stugatz.

genuinely concerned about what the next few years of all of this is going to look like. We have had an amazing run. Nobody gets to do 20 years of this nonsense. These kinds of shows end up falling apart. There are breakups. You don't make it to your 20 year anniversary.

Go ahead and look at all the shows ever who have done it. There aren't very many. This is not, it doesn't even make sense, Greg, you're a writer, that my career specifically would go to eliminating all other things and just being this show in its 20th year.

And a lot of people who watch and listen to this show never know. It's one of my great prides. What's a bit and what's not a bit over 20 years? Stugant is publicly flirting with WFAN in a way that is not respectful to Metal Ark.

We are paying him this week to not be here doing a guest host thing at WFAN where I'm told those offices are right across the street from Meadowlark.

A three minute walk, I think. Is he going to go to Metal Ark while he is there? Yes or no. Is he going to go visit the 20 employees we have in our New York office, all of it built by the way this thing is growing and expanding, trying to do things differently in a new and collapsing media age? He's got a foot out the door in a way that flirts publicly with New York, but New York doesn't want to pay him. And so he's out there saying,

on the air saying what today, Chris, in his first day. His guest host week is not a full week. He may not be there Friday. He didn't do Monday. He's doing Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. What's the content that he's making? He's...

saying that he's available for a contract. He's saying you're afraid of some host there. We have a clip of it. Let's play this clip, actually. I'm afraid of some host at WFAN? We're going to play again. We're going to play a clip, and Dan, you tell us. Is this true or is this false? So they said what they had to say, Dan and I. Listen, Dan and I, you know.

Dan would be the first one to tell you he too is terrified of Sal Licata, okay? I have no idea who that person is. Why are you terrified of Sal Licata? Why are you terrified of Sal? Who is Sal Licata? Why are you afraid of him? How would I be the first one? Why is he speaking for me in New York through a phlegmy fake laugh telling his lies about people I don't know? Can I tell you something that got back to me?

And it's like an awkward, like it's a weird story to tell. But so he was over at the golf tournament that he goes to every year. Right. And he ran into Josh Allen. And apparently, according to him. Wait, wait. Was it actually Josh Allen or was it a country singer that looks like Josh Allen? I'm told it was Josh Allen. I saw Josh Allen was out there. So we had a conversation with Josh Allen. Apparently, Josh Allen asked him, how's Billy doing?

Which I was surprised to hear. And then he told Josh Allen, you know, Billy's afraid of you. So it seems as though this is a move that he does when talking to people that he just says that other people around him are afraid of said person he's talking to. But I don't really understand the point.

How should the audience and how should I feel about what is presently happening? He did a move last week and Chris, he's gotten very good at this with you and in general over the many years that he is, you know, slippery and sneaky.

He lies to people about what has been allowed. So he told me he told Carl that he was going to be in New York. And then he told Carl that he had told me that he was going to be in New York. And he hadn't told either of us and then just surprised everybody with something that has been in the works since last year. Like he knows he's going to try and get up there over the summer to see if he can get a week in New York that gets paid for by somebody.

The problem is, is that he will say it, but the way that he says it is what leads to the confusion. Because he did say last week, I'm going to be on WFAN, but he didn't say specifics as to when. So he's right in saying he did say, I'm going to New York. I did say I'm going to be on WFAN. It's just the details. And then like, as someone who received a schedule one time,

I saw how confusing this can be because he'll send you like he'll send you like, you know, here's the next 12 weeks of my life. This is what I'm going to be. But like he'll actually send you every single week and some weeks are I'm here.

So then you get lost in there when I'm there, when I'm here, and then those aren't always updated also. So like the truth is buried in like a little nugget of like a bunch of, it's like a needle in a haystack. The truth is in there somewhere. You just got to find it. And he'll give you the haystack and he's like, well, it was in there. And then you just didn't see it.

He had texted me and Chris last week, like, guys, next week, me, him, and Chris are starting to record something for something we want to do for football season. And he's like, next week for sure, buddy. He, like, locked us in. He's like, you guys good next week to record? We're like, yeah, no problem. Where did he tell you that was airing? Nowhere yet, but maybe WFAN. I don't know. What is it? It was a DraftKings pitch show.

We don't want to give too much away. We're still working on it. It might rhyme with schmanacy. Billy's face. Jessica, what am I supposed to? I'm legitimately asking you here because you often ask, is this a bit? Is this not a bit? I don't know how to handle the fact that we are all in a contract here.

And I'm not making it up when I tell you I have had to hold Skipper by the collar from not just really going crazy in a way that ends Stugatz's relationship with our show. And Stugatz knows that I'm always going to do that for him. And so he takes advantage of it. Actually, you know what I thought was super interesting? I don't know if you guys noticed this. It was, to me, the most fascinating part of this.

the Warriors breakup that nobody talked about. Klay Thompson told Steph Curry, "Do not go to management and try to get me more money because you, Steph, want me to stay here. I want management to do that without your interference." And I thought that was unbelievably wise, not just proud,

But why is because I have not had the wisdom over 20 years of always having to go in on the back end of negotiations to make employers who will not allow Stugatz to have the leverage over our situation. So I always have to go in and get Stugatz the proper value for Stugatz.

and the amount of resentment that that has caused over the years that I had no idea would be circling around in the place where you're not being properly respected by your employer, and that's the respect you want. You don't want it from Steph Curry because of how much he values you. You want to get it out of your employer. I was really surprised that Klay Thompson had...

the wisdom to ask Steph to back off so that they could just break up. Don't you kind of say that, though? Don't you have to say that? I think if you're Clay Thompson, it makes you look nothing but good to say that when even knowing that Steph Curry behind the scenes may say, hey, we need to keep Clay.

Let's get this done. But why can't why can't it just be like, why does it have to be nefarious? Something that Clay Thompson is doing because he's concerned about how you're going to receive him saying the right thing or the wrong thing when all he's doing is telling somebody who he loves and that they've done amazing things together. I want to be valued by my employer here, not by somebody who has power over my employer. I just think it makes Clay Thompson look nothing but good.

to say that. It's like if I, on a microscopic level, if I'm looking for a raise from the Dan Levitard show, I tell you, I don't want you to make this happen. I want somebody else to value me and do that. When in fact, I do want you to make it happen. But it makes me look good to tell you I don't. How should the audience feel about what is presently happening? I think they're tired of hearing about Stuttgart's

But I do have an update about Sal Licata. We have awarded him gas bag of the week multiple times. Oh, okay. My bad. I didn't mean to disrespect the Sal Licata who I clearly fear. One was about Grimace getting too much credit about the Mets. Maybe you were afraid of that. Are you afraid of Grimace? Some people do have a fear of Grimace. There was a whole viral trend with milkshakes. The Mets stopped winning now. Grimace is no longer lucky for the Mets. The Mets have gone back to just being 500 and middling.

The other one was about Juan Soto looking for walks, I believe. I think you also said that he looks like his co-host and that you couldn't tell the difference between the two of them. They both looked identical. Other than the corpus thing, not sure where the fear eliciting comes in. I'd be the first to tell you that I fear Sal Licata of WFAN. But thank you for bringing up Juan Soto because I was watching some Yankee baseball, which was really Rays baseball this weekend, and I saw...

A whole lot of people in Yankee uniforms who don't belong in Yankee uniforms. But Soto is one of them, and he's great. And Judge, Aaron Judge, is somehow better. And toward the end of a Rays game where Fairbanks, I don't know, do you follow Pete Fairbanks at all? You have no idea who I'm talking about here. Right, Greg? The closer for the Tampa Bay Rays? No.

all right he's an unusual walk in here in uniform and my dad would be like who are you right with the name fairbanks on the back i still wouldn't know who yeah you'd say that's conor mcgregor yeah uh so fairbanks is fun to watch because he throws 100 miles an hour i don't know how anybody hits him and people do uh

but he's also an unusual interview. And at the end of that game, they were winning six to three, and then somebody hits a double, or Soto hit a double, and Aaron Judge is coming up as the tying run. And I guess, was he asked, Chris, was Fairbanks being asked whether they should have put

Judge on base because Judge has been such a beast this year that he shouldn't pitch to Judge? I don't want to get confused here. I think it was they're down by three. Judge hits a double. Soto hits a double. And now it's the guy was saying, should you have walked Judge? But that would have brought the tying run to the plate. Okay, well, I was watching the game. So here's the situation, right? Fairbanks is leading 6-3 in the ninth. Soto hits a double off of the wall to score a run at 6-4. And now Judge is up. And these are the only two guys who can hurt you.

Soto and Judge on the Yankees, they're terrifying, the both of them. And so Soto's on second, Judge is batting with the ability to tie the game, and the count goes 3-2, and frankly, as soon as Judge hit it, it ended up being a real high fly ball to center field, but I thought he hit it 500 feet to center field. And I guess they asked Fairbanks, should you have just put Judge on base as the tying run? I think after Soto's double, if Kevin would order a walk to Judge.

We want to put the winning run on base? No. We want to bring the winning run up? We want to bring the winning run to the plate? It's been done. I trust myself. Okay. I'm going to go try and get the... Wow. That's a funny stare, though. Good answer. You're looking, Tony, like you don't think that that is anything other than the common response that you... Normal response from Fairbanks. And I love the southern twang, too. He's like, you want me to bring the winning run on base? Yeah. Like, what?

Aaron Judge is pretty impressive, right? It's been done. I trust myself. It's been done this season, hasn't it? Didn't they do it with Ramirez in Cleveland with the Guardians? And they said it hasn't been done since Barry Bonds. And he says, I'm better than Barry Bonds.

You want to know a weird baseball thing that happened, and I know this because Mike Schur is a crazy person. He was texting me about it. So yesterday in the Red Sox and Rockies game, they're in extra innings. It's a tie game. The Red Sox score a run in the 10th inning, but it's in Colorado. So the Rockies have a chance to score or whatever. Actually, no. The Red Sox take a two-run lead. So they're up 7-5 in the 10th inning. That's safe in Colorado. Okay. So the way the extra innings rules work, there's a runner automatically on second base. Okay.

The Red Sox pitcher intentionally balked so that the runner would go over to third base because they were concerned that he was going to be sending the signs to the hitter. So he intentionally balked. Same at bat, the hitter hits a two-run homer. Intentional balk, tie game. That's not the best of the Fairbanks sound I can play for you because we've been playing Fairbanks sound here. I know that you guys are tired of my Rays coverage, but I just love how goofy this guy is.

Pete, just can you kind of run through what was going on in the ninth inning? Maybe you didn't like some of the balls that were coming in? Yeah, they were horrible. You can mark that down in all caps for me. Horrible. No excuse, though. Didn't throw strikes, and that's what happens when you don't throw strikes. You get punished for it. So I'd love to see those come out of the humidor tomorrow in a little better shape before they get rubbed up, but that's nobody to blame but myself for not being able to adjust to some of the quality issues. Dry or not smooth, or what was the issue? There was...

It was just overall bad. I'm not going to elaborate further than that. They were not uniform from ball to ball, so there's no, I mean, dry, smooth, whatever you want to say. Just non-uniform didn't feel right. Did it just make it tough for you to grip and kind of get the ball where you want it to go? Yeah, it's tough to throw your slider when the ball goes that way out of your hand, so...

The humidor is only in Colorado, right? The humidor? The humidor for the baseballs? No, I think they have them everywhere now. Do they? Yeah. Humidor. For cigars, not baseballs. Come on. Let me hear some more Fairbank sound, please. Was it just a matter of command, location, selection, anything specific?

No, I thought it generally sucked. I didn't think it was a specific suck. I thought it was like an all-encompassing type of suck. So, you know, we're going to try and rectify that. But for right now, I'm going to be pretty pissed about it.

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