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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, 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 man to nowhere, fat face and the habitual liar.

Stugatt, I have a confession for you that I feel like the other room will relate to more than you will. Okay? And it's something that I didn't want to tell you yesterday. And I was trying to figure out how to resolve a potential bad issue that resolves itself, thankfully.

Okay.

So now I feel like I can tell you because I'm pretty confident and it's been resolved. So yesterday we were but you're not sure you think I'm pretty confident it's resolved. I'll have a resolution for now. All right. So yesterday we were recording part of God Bless Football that we're also going to have expanded into stupidity because we interviewed Captain Lee, a boat captain from below deck, and he was going to pick games with us. And Stugats fell in love with him. And it was supposed to be a quick, like 1015 minutes interview that went on almost 50 minutes.

I wasn't supposed to be a part I was not supposed to be a part of it at first. Billy asked me to do it and sit in, and I fell in love with the guy.

No, not exactly true. It's not that you weren't supposed to be part of it. It was for Godless football. So you were supposed to be part of it. But I had contingency plans in the event because it was the last thing we were recording the day in case something came up and you were not part of it.

Right.

So I had reinforcements lined up ready to go to do it with us, right? So we did it with said reinforcements or said reinforcement. And what we're going to do is we're going to release it on God Bless Football, but we're going to have the extended full version on Stupadity because Stugats loved this guy. Just because if we're going to be honest, he's kind of like grouchy old captain. And he just said wild shit. And Stugats loved kind of poking him and getting him to say that stuff. So as soon as it was done, he's like, oh, we're going to do this, that, whatever, right? And then I go and I look at my computer and I don't see that thing happening on Zoom where it's saving the whole thing.

You didn't record it.

And then I go and I hit downloads and I don't see it appearing in downloads.

And I'm like, I was supposed to play golf billy.

Well, I'm like, something is up here, because I know for a fact that I hit stop recording at one point, and it said, you're no longer recording. And I'm freaking out because I'm like, this has happened before, but I know that I recorded this. And then I'm trying to figure out, what did I do wrong? How did this happen? How am I going to fix this? How am I going to get this audio? Because there's no Zoom archive that you can reach out to them if you forgot to record.

But Billy, you're freaking out. By the way, World Series we'll discuss with David Sampson coming up here, but you're freaking out because you knew it was good. Like, we were in it, and we know when we're doing something that's good and funny that our audience will like, it was good.

I am freaking out because I also have then reached out and we came up with this plan. We're going to put the picks in God bless football and have, like, a short, abridged version, and then we'll put the rest in stupidity. And then I already promised that to the people that made it happen. So I'm like, now I'm going to have to go back with my tail between my legs and explain to them, like, it just disappeared. It doesn't exist. I don't have it right. And then I get the most lovely, welcoming, comforting email that I've ever received in my life.

Really?

Yes. And it comes about 2 hours later, and it says, your Zoom interview is now ready to be downloaded from the cloud. And what happened was instead of saying save on my computer, I hit save on the cloud, which I had never done before. And then it just reappeared.

Wow.

2 hours later. And I was like, thank goodness. Now I don't need to figure out what to do 2 hours. Now I need to figure out how to get it out of the cloud, because cloud technology I still don't understand. Where the hell is it? How do I get it? Who has all of our stuff in this cloud? But that's an issue for another day.

2 hours is a long time to.

It did take a while because it'll take only like, five to ten minutes if you're downloading the whole thing. It was a giant file, though.

What were you doing in the 2 hours before you got that message?

I was parenting. I was going and I was like, this is going to be an issue that I'm going to have to resolve, but also I have to get my daughter from school, so this is an issue that I will resolve at a later time.

At any point, were you you know, Stigats was going to play golf and I told him to stay home for this. Were you feeling bad for me, is what I'm asking. No.

At no point was I feeling bad for you. You play ample golf.

I did. And by the way playing today gummy golf.

Gummy golf?

Yeah.

I have a friend who had to have back surgery because of the amount of golf that he played.

Something happened swinging correctly. That's the deal. Well, if you have a good swing, your back should not hurt from golf. Well, I'm just telling just I was.

Told that the issue was the repetitive motion. Had to have back surgery. Has to wear a neck brace now.

What?

For a little bit while recovering.

Really?

Yeah. It's old money. Charlie, he had to have back surgery because of golf?

Yeah. Get out of here.

I was told it was golf related.

Charlie always wears a neck brace just so he could sue.

Mean, I don't think he needs to sue anybody.

He doesn't. He definitely doesn't. He sued enough people, I think.

What is that?

I don't have no idea.

You're right.

Charlie. Charlie does not need to sue anyone. You are 100% right.

Anyways, thoughts and prayers of Charlie's back and neck brace situation.

Really? Yeah.

T's and peas.

It's very nice of you. So we have this interview. It's saved. It's good. We're fine. Okay.

I think we're good. I was told it was there. I started downloading things. I haven't heard for sure that we're good, but I'm pretty sure we're good.

Right.

I thought that it may be a cloud situation. Has that happened to you guys? That you've had something just disappear like you thought you were recording and you didn't? And this is like I'm now realizing as I'm talking, this is only interesting to us because we're the ones that have to deal it. People who are listening to this show or watching on YouTube that don't have to do this on YouTube cannot relate at all. So you know what? Never mind.

No, Billy. Lazy river.

It happened to me, and I wasn't recording. You know what it was? It was Dan having an interview.

What happened? You forgot who it was?

I forgot who it was with sonano.

Was it the no, the sit down.

The big sit down.

Brad Williams.

It's John Amici.

Ah, meech. Yeah.

That's even worse, because they were talking serious race issues and oh, God, the feeling of not having that how'd you.

Get out of it? What did you tell Dan?

We don't have it.

Oh, wow. That's not the answer.

That's not the way you go.

Unfortunately, that's the only answer.

Billy. The one thing is everybody can relate to is doing something at your job that you were thinking that you were doing, and then you ended up not doing it. I think everybody can relate to that. There's one thing that is universal. That cold sweat that hits the back of your neck or the middle of your chest when you know something happened at work and you're like, damn, I don't think I did that, or I didn't do it. Right. That's a terrible feeling. When you realized when I was doing Tony's NFL road trip where I was interviewing different people from different teams, there was a packers one that didn't get released because I didn't record it.

You did what?

Wow.

What? When?

Beginning of the season.

Little preview.

What happened to it?

I didn't record it.

So I did the entire interview and I was like, you know what I hate about cordon? My bad. Here's what I hate about Cloud. What cloud does. I get these emails all the time. They're like, thank you for using all your storage.

Oh, that sucks.

Here's a link to purchase more. Like, you're thanking me only because I have to buy more now.

Yeah, I do it on my email. I pay Google, whatever, like $9 a year to have more emails. And I think it's strictly because I just have so many unread emails.

It's a scam.

I mean, life's a scam. If you really.

Rubbing off on you guys.

Well, there's always good place for a very nice scam or scheme in the background.

Right?

Always good to have one in the back pocket.

Life is a scam and then you die.

Lucy, how's your poll coming along? Where are you going?

I haven't checked it in a minute, but it was a big landslide so far for Georgia, Florida, and 57.8% people. Think I should go to Jacksonville.

Where are you thinking of going next week? Do you have, like, that far in advance or you don't?

I was actually just looking at the game. So next week would be LSU. Alabama would be really cool. Notre Dame and Clemson.

Have you been to Tuscaloosa before?

Never been to Tuscaloosa. Never been to Clemson either. Or Iowa. Northwestern with well, not this year.

Me and your dad college lame day.

Why would you subject yourself to so many Iowa games? You're a fan, but you're going to do it again.

I like to see my family, so.

They go to every Iowa game?

They don't go to every Iowa game, but my family goes to one or two games together a year and they're going to this game together.

Nice. I know that's nice.

I wish sometimes I'm like, why didn't my dad go to Georgia for why?

I went to Clark University.

Well, why didn't you go to Georgia.

For know, I toured. I didn't apply. It was this whole thing.

What was your college application process? Like, how many places did you apply to? How many places did you get waitlisted, rejected, whatever.

Okay, so I have a good story with this. So I applied to three schools. I applied to Iowa, which was the easiest application of my life. I didn't even have to submit a transcript. I got accepted, like, the day my senior year started. They were like, Come on, don't send us your transcript. We're not worried about that. We don't need your extra credit.

Should have gone to Iowa.

It was very easy. Got into Iowa. I applied to auburn. And I applied to UNC. Now my dad wanted me to go to UNC. He did not want me going to Iowa. He wanted in state. Iowa was a huge party school. He didn't want me going there. And he was like, hey, if you get into UNC, that is where you're going. So I at that point knew I wanted to go to Iowa for school, so I wrote my admissions essay to UNC. On why I wanted to go to Iowa and they waitlisted me.

Wait, what?

You had to write an essay for UNC and you wrote an essay about how you didn't want to go to their school?

I wanted to go to Iowa and I got whitelisted, which I think is super impressive.

Was that a young Lucy kind of rebelling against dad?

Yeah, and he's so happy I went to Iowa. And he was so happy when my little brother went to Iowa, but he was like, yeah, you should definitely go to UNC. Because they had a really good journalism school in State. It's a phenomenal university.

It is.

But I did not want to go there.

Right.

So I took matters into my own hands.

That's crazy.

Yeah. I was a very well behaved kid. I was never rebellious. Like, I didn't do anything except for that.

But the Tar Heels losses are more exciting than I was wins. I mean, yeah, put it on the polaroid.

They are. But it's too late now. Four years out of state tuition later, here I am.

I know.

Sad.

Yeah.

Did you go to journalism school? Is that what you graduated? Yeah. Do you look at that and say, what am doing?

Yeah. Sometimes I'll just sit there and be like when I was wearing the Bobby Petrino outfit, I was like, I can't believe I got a degree to do this. I can't believe I did that.

It's crazy. You just kind of sit back and you're like, this is not what we were learning in class.

I didn't learn any of this.

The game is changing, Lucy. Yeah.

Need a die every day.

Same here.

Roy, I can't believe that you wrote an entrance, like an admission essay about how you didn't want to go to the school and would rather go to. So the closest thing that I have and it had never occurred to me because when I went to school, they would do testing for honor Spanish and stuff like that. And as an innocent little boy, I never thought of the idea of let me tank this so that my life is easier and I don't get into the harder classes. So I would get in and ultimately they're like, you're too dumb to be in this class. You're no longer going to be in honors next year. And I'm like, okay, I guess I'll now have to go home and disappoint my parents with that information when I could have saved myself that trouble of never going in. So there were kids that were fluent Spanish speakers that intentionally tanked the Spanish assessment classes to get into gringo Spanish. And it was a cakewalk for them because it was like, you just have to like, yo may nombre, whatever. And it's like, that's obviously completely incorrect, and you get an easy A.

There was tanking going on in your school. Yeah, that's great.

Tanking in Spanish.

It's great to get to an easier Spanish class. I love it.

Twelve year olds were doing this, twelve year olds. The idea never occurred to me. And that you wasted your time writing an admissions letter about how you didn't want to go there is just I had to apply.

Right.

My dad said, you have to do it. And he wanted me to go there. I made sure. And he's so happy now. He's so happy that I went to Iowa for the most part.

Of course he is.

But now he's stuck going to an Iowa Northwestern game.

He was going to go anyways. At least now he has someone to go with.

Well, he could have been at a UNC Virginia game last.

So just as bad, but more exciting. David Sampson.

Don lebotard Sports stugats. More sports. This is the Don Levitard show with the stugats.

Time for our weekly sit down with former Marlins president David Sampson, coming to us from a very sad room somewhere in Connecticut. I believe he is the host of Nothing Personal. You can check it out. He's killing it. It's a great podcast. It's on five days a week, and you can check it out wherever you get your podcast or on the DraftKings network as well. Good morning to you, David. How are you?

I am awesome. This room is actually not as sad as it looks. It came with a painting in the background that was so bad that I had to have it removed by security.

But it looks like a sad room. It really does. Billy. Sad room or no, I feel like.

It'S probably a nice room.

Okay. Yeah.

You have it set up like the computer set up, like on a grand piano or something?

I have it set up. It's a two room. It's sort of like a mini suite. I'm here in Connecticut for three weeks doing postseason work for CBS, pre and post game work. But I'll tell you, when I do nothing personal, I like having a great background, but when I got here and set it up, it was so bad that I went straight white background.

Billy, before we get to Christopher Mad Dog Russo, because David, he wants to talk about it. I do, too. We'll play sound in a second. Were you laughing at Phillies fan last night?

Well, okay, so, David, I don't know.

Because I was I spent the entire night just laughing at Philadelphia Phillies fans.

I don't know.

We're so loud.

If you caught what happened. So last time when you came on and you were criticizing the Phillies fans, they did not like like, that clip got a lot of views.

Thank you for doing that, by the way.

It got, I think, more comments than it did likes, which is never great when that's the situation. But it was like a lot of people were upset. Right. And I coming into the postseason kind of seeing how things played out with the Phillies fans. I grew up, obviously, a Marlins fan. I despised the Phillies growing up. I never wanted to see them succeed. But it seemed like a fun, cool environment. I'm like, oh, you know what? This seems like everybody's having a good time. Like it's a different environment than we're seeing in the other games. I would be fine, I guess, if the Phillies went on. And then over the weekend, I don't know what happened. I feel like it was probably the Eagles game against the Dolphins where I'm like, you know what? I don't want these people to be happy. And I know that I sound like a horrible person admitting that, but I'm like, I don't want them to be happy anymore. I think it would be hilarious if they found a way to blow this. And sure enough, they did blow it. And I'm wondering if you take pleasure or delight in the fact that they did that because of the crap that you got from all basically the entire city of Philadelphia just for that clip that you put out last week where all you said was you don't think that they're a good fan base.

I just didn't have them in the top five. No, the pleasure I took is that the Phillies lost.

Yes.

So my background in 18 years in the NL East, anytime the Phillies and Mets lose, that's a good day.

The Braves didn't bother you?

No, you know me. None of that bothers me at all. And for Philly's fan base to think that they're as good as the Cardinal fan base, that's just funny to me. But what's great is that watching the Philly fans boo and leave, I love it. When we won 20 years ago this year on the road in Wrigley, I was happier watching Cubs fans cry.

Well, me too. There was the old lady that was crying in the Nick Cubs hat, and I was so happy. And I felt bad because she's probably no longer with us. But every time that they were laughing.

You can't laugh at someone and feel bad at the same time. I can't put it on the polaroid.

No, it was like and at the time, I was probably, like, 16 or something, right. And I remember having, like, a moral conundrum. Like, I know this doesn't make me a good person, but I'm taking so much joy in seeing all of these old people cry and devastated.

Schadenfreud. It's one of the great words of all time. It's taking pleasure at the misfortune of others. Of course, when you win on the road, as you know, in sports, it's way better to win a game seven on the road than it is at home. Because when the crowd goes silent and you saw it in Philly when they lost their game seven, you could hear a pin drop. And all I kept thinking about is the fans and how they all had plans for the World Series and to go to these World Series games, and then, poof, it disappeared.

Well, Philadelphia as a city, why should that fan base deserve anything? They booed Santa Claus, for crying out loud.

That's right.

You're right, Roy. They deserve nothing.

You know, in 2003, David, I think, well, obviously I wanted the Marlins win because I wanted the Marlins win, but there was just this arrogance and assumed, like, the Cubs are there and there's not even a chance that the Marlins are going to make it. Bernie Mac is there in game six, or he's calling them the champs when he's singing Take me out to the ball game.

That's where it all ended, where he.

Does a game and like, two innings to go. And it was just like they're just so arrogant and feel so entitled to making it to the World Series. That when they were crying, it made me feel extra happy. And I remember as a child thinking I'm a bad person. I'm just not a good no, no.

That's where the series ended. Bernie Mac in the soul, by the way.

He changed it. Yeah, not bartman too soon.

Bernie Mac.

David still shaking his head.

Billy, at all for that. As a matter of fact, I think it makes you a normal person.

Really? Well, you're strange, David.

People have said the same about your.

Normal is what everyone else's normal is. Okay, wait, so you want an update on Russo? Because Christopher Mad Dog Russo, who was on this show last week, and he crushed it. He made a bet. He actually said he made a statement. I'm going to play it for you, David. Then I'll give you an update. Here is Christopher Mad Dog Russo on what he would do if the diamondbacks won the series.

I've been wrong in Arizona from day one. A, I'm stunned to beat Milwaukee. I thought they'd get swept by the Dodgers. I never thought they'd even go back to Philly for a game six. I'll try it one more time. I would not be stunned if they won tonight. I would be floored. And I'll say this right a. I'll say this right now, and Bob Raceman, write it down. If they win the next two days, they win the next two games and win this series in seven games. If they win, I will retire on the spot.

He's working today, David, just so you know.

Oh, he is?

Yes, he is. He's working today, doing his normal shift. Mad Dog Radio because he did not want to retire. It's one of those sports radio things that we do and we say something that we don't mean. Lord knows I've done it a thousand times over the 20 years of doing this show. But they came to an agreement. Howard Stern got in the way. And so Stern said, listen, you don't have to retire, okay? But what you have to do is walk around New York City in an Arizona Diamondbacks bikini with a sign that says, I'm a.

Is that's a joke?

You're going to rip Mad Dog? Is that what you're going to do?

The fact is that when you say something like that, don't say something on the air that you're not willing to follow through. Well, I mean, radio, it's not good. Anything he loses all credibility to me. And if you're going to say it, I figured when he said it that he had some deal in place, that he was going to retire because he was old and done and didn't like it anymore. But to me, if you're going to say it, say something else. Say you'll do the show naked tomorrow, anything that you can actually do. Otherwise you're taking your audience as fools. And I don't like that. I respect the audience too much.

The audience will be glued to Mad Dog Show today. It's all over.

He's on first take.

It's everywhere on social media, he's already working.

Yeah, he's on first take.

Well, he clarified earlier, even before saying, hey, I meant radio, not TV. And of course, that's fine, but one or the other, he should have retired. But I love the fact that he gave bulletin board material to the Diamondbacks and they were chanting, I don't know if you have the sound of this, but during the champagne celebration, which don't get me started, everyone use goggles, and they're a bunch of wimps. But during the celebration, they were chanting, mad Dog, mad Dog, loser. Loser. And it really incentivized the Diamondbacks when they won that game seven.

Really? We don't have the sound for that. But that's what happened. So if you're Mad Dog, you have to say, listen, I'm the reason the Diamondbacks won. Right.

I would assume Philly fans hate him more than they hate me.

Wow. No, we do have the sound. No, that's impossible. David put it on the poll to philly fans hate David Sampson more than Christopher Mad Dog Russo. Other way around. Do they hate Mad Dog more than David Sampson? Impossible. We do have the sound of that, I'm told. All right, let's play it. Retire. Play it again, Roy.

They said retire, loser.

Yes, that's right. Doggy's going to love that, though, right, David? He is. The fact that they did that, yes.

So I get that he loves the attention. I get that. It's a good story. But why go with the retirement line? I don't know. And it's a funny thing in sports, the whole bulletin board and making up reasons to get motivated, that really came to the forefront during that documentary, The Last Dance, where we found out that Jordan needs to make up things, make up hatred, make up bulletin board material to motivate him. And it turns out that more players need that than you think, and you should know better than to provide it. And that is what was done in the Diamondbacks, just credit to them. And the Phillies just blew it. There's no other way to say it, much like the Cubs did in three. They really did blow it.

David, how upset is Major League Baseball? They're not going to say it, they're not going to admit it, but they have. What I am saying is the worst World Series in the history of the sport. How upset are they today?

So they are, david, no one cares.

I mean, honestly, no one. Unless you're gambling or you live in Arizona or Texas, nobody cares. Nobody cares.

It's what I would say about some of the Thursday night matchups in the NFL. Unless you're doing fantasy or gambling, what do you care about? And so MLB looks at it, does Fox have a problem with the matchup? They prefer Dodgers, Yankees, every time, of course, but at the end of the day, their advertising revenue and the way they do the cost benefit of these rights deals, it's not impacted by a random year where there's the Rangers against the Diamondbacks. That's not how the valuations go. Because under that theory, you wouldn't want the Blue Jays ever to even be in the postseason because in Canada, you don't get to count that down here in the US. So all of that said, there's a lot of really good stories both on the Texas side and on the Arizona side. And we're going to have a chance to learn more about these stories and these players. And during the course of the next ten days, on nothing personal, I'm going to highlight some of these names that you don't know, like the Arizona bullpen. Lights out. A bunch of players you haven't heard of. Kevin Ginkel, who he's a guy that if you were on your team, you'd know him, love him, and appreciate him, but he's been in Arizona where you don't.

So things like that. Adeles Garcia, his story, the way he was wanted by nobody. The Marlins could have had him. Anyone could have had him. No one wanted him. And now look at him. So there's a lot of stuff to talk about.

Is this going to be his Randy or Rosarena postseason?

It already is, yeah. I mean, think about what he's done. Now you're mentioning that. And we talk about Cardinals fans. Let's talk about the Cardinals front office. Garcia and Arazarena were both Cardinal players who were let go because they weren't thriving there. And Billy, you've always been upset on the Andrew Miller and Cameron Maven. Stuff. And I only point out that every team in baseball has really good players who aren't really good for them and then go somewhere else and become really not just it wasn't just me, it's every front office out there from the best to the worst.

All right, so next segment, David, you will give us your top five keys to the series storylines. What are we doing here?

I want to give you top five things to watch for over the course of this World Series.

Okay. The worst World Series in the history of the sport. We will do that next. We'll continue with former Marlins president David Sampson.

Don Lebotard. Do me a favor, Chris. Look up Gerald McCoy's IMDb and let's see how many stats Stugats gets. Right? About what?

Gerald McCoy IMDb. He was in movies.

I'm going to check it out. Check out Gerald McCoy's IMDb, his pro football focus grade. Stugats. Okay, so I am on Gerald McCoy's IMDb. There was an acting credit in which he played Gerald McCoy in the league, which was a popular show on FX. Then he played himself on the Dan Patrick Show in episode 12.4, 2018, and also something called the Game Day commute. He played himself archive footage. He was featured once on Romans Burning.

I mean, look at that.

This is The Don Levatar Show with The Stugats.

We continue with David Sampson here. He'll give us his five storylines to watch out for in the worst World Series in the history of the sport. We will do that in a second. He is the host of nothing personal. There is a game we're going to play here. After your five storylines, we'll get to your movie as well, david, we got a lot to cram in in this segment here. We're not going to get to the NBA. Something tells me I know you want to talk about it, but Billy is just going to throw out a name. Okay? A random name. We'll do it after your five storylines and I have to guess whether that person is on the Diamondbacks or the Rangers. Okay. All right, we're good with that.

You ought to win that game. Stu, you've heard of these players, I assume, to prepare for your shows this week. You've been watching the MLB playoffs prepare?

Yeah, no, I watched and just rooted for Philly fans to be miserable and I got my wish. Your five storylines. David samson. Go ahead.

Number five, will Garcia stay hot?

Which team?

If you haven't watched Adelese Garcia, he is a player who won the MVP in the ALCS. He can downright rake. He is setting records left and right, and it is hard to stay hot over the period of two series, but if he does, it makes the Rangers lineup very difficult to navigate.

Well, that's what we saw with Nick Castellanos. Nick Castellanos could not stay hot in the NLCS and he hit a home run. I think his first at bat and then went like, oh, for 21. The rest of the Series it cost him.

And he was very hot against the Braves and then all of a sudden he went cold. Not uncommon, but the Rangers need Garcia. Number four, how many times will the Texas Rangers bullpen implode? That's been the biggest issue with the Rangers. As opposed to the Diamondbacks, whose bullpen is lights out. They've got your old friend Arolis Chapman, who is the guy who won the World Series with the Cubs in 16. The Yankee, the Red, who used to throw 120 miles an hour, sid Finch. Well, it turns out he's not so lights out anymore. And they've got, really, no one they can rely on other than their closer, Jose Leclerc. And even he has a tendency to give it up. So that's going to be something to watch for. Number three will Texas win its first ever World Series? For all the people who complain about how bad it is to be a Marlins fan, I would only point out there's been some issues in between, I grant you. But in a matter of 26 years, you've got two rings. The Texas Rangers in their entire history have a doughnut.

David, I think since 97 there are like five teams in Major League Baseball who have won multiple World Series championships. The Yankees, the Braves, the Dodgers, the elite teams and the Marlins.

Not the Dodgers.

Oh, really?

Not the Dodgers.

The Cardinals.

It's the Giants, Cardinals, Red Sox, not the Braves.

Right.

There's one more. Okay, braves won in 21.

Okay? And that's it. Right. 97.

And the Rangers only have one pinnant, right?

No, they went to a back.

No.

The Rangers went to two World Series.

Yeah, they have two pinnacles.

All right, number two, david Samson.

Will the Diamondbacks become the third franchise to be undefeated with multiple World Series victories? Of course I'm going to talk about our Marlins. We're two and o in the World Series. The Jays are two and o in the World Series. The Diamondbacks are one and o, looking to go two and o and become only the third team to be undefeated at two and o in the World Series.

David, we'll get to your number one in a second run differential. I don't want to hear about it again the Diamondbacks were -15 this year, they're in the world. They're four games away from being the best team in the sport.

Run differential used to be the number one stat we looked at, and we thought that around zero, you're a 500 team. And obviously negative run differential below 500. Positive run differential you're above 500 and normally that's the case. But look at the Marlins this year. They had a terrible negative run differential but they were so good in one run games that they enabled them to finish above 500 and make the playoffs diamondback same situation, but at the end of the day. Look what happened in the Philly series. The Diamondbacks lost game two by a touchdown and a field goal, I think it was ten nothing, and then they won a game four two. Guess what? You're losing the run differential, but you're tied in the series. So I'm much more concerned in the playoffs about wins than losses.

How much of this is because of the expanded playoffs?

Well, the fact that there's two wild cards in it, the fact that more teams are in it and more fan bases are excited for longer, it's exactly what they had hoped for when they expanded the playoffs, and it will allow for more 84 wins to make the playoffs. 84 teams with 84 wins to make the playoffs, which will allow for teams with 84 wins to be in the World Series. That's just how it goes, because as we all remember in this part of the country with the playoffs, you just never know who's going to get hot in October and carry that all the way to a ring.

Well, last season we saw it too, where the Phillies were a wild card team. They end up winning the National League, they make it to the World Series. There's been pushback, I guess, because of the expanded playoffs, and obviously as a fan base that would benefit from this, and you have a team that gets in because of the expanded playoffs, and they go on a run and make the World Series. I just don't buy that. It's bad for the game that you have an 84 win team make it to the World Series and you have the 100 win teams lose in the first round. I just don't buy it.

So let me tell you where that comes from. That comes from the players union when they were at the collective bargaining table where you had to negotiate the expanded playoffs. What the union said is the reason we don't want expanded playoffs is we feel owners will not be incentivized to spend money to win a division or to raise their payroll because they know they can be average. Make the playoffs by sneaking in through the back door and then get hot at the right time and get the ring, which is what the owners want. So the union was very against it, and the reason it got passed is money. And with the expanded playoffs came more broadcast revenue, and it came more teams with higher revenue because more teams were in it for longer, so more local revenue, and that revenue ends up filtering down to players. So that's how the agreement came together. But it is true if you think about it, I don't want to spend an extra 30 million on payroll to try to win 90 when I know that I can win 85 and make the playoffs.

Well, did they feel the same way in 94 with the original wild card?

Well, that was only one even in three. There was three division winners and one wild card, and every team had a play in the Division Series. And that's the funny part you bring up. Do you remember in three, Giants fans were furious. They went over 100 games with Bonds, and all of a sudden, four days later, they're home because we beat them three games to one. And there was a lot of discussion. There's got to be a bigger advantage to the number one seed. Give them more home games, give them a lead, make the road team, win five out of four games. Just insane stuff. It's baseball. It's playoffs. Sometimes a number eight seed beats the number one seed in the NBA. It's how things go.

And I don't know, and you would know this better because it's on the business side of baseball. How much do the ratings actually matter for the World Series? Because people will complain and say they.

Matter, but here's they don't.

That's my question because, okay, here you go. You have Texas and they're going to play Arizona. You're like, this is going to be one of the worst rated World Series ever. These are teams nobody cares about. But it's not like they're selling the World Series this week, and it's not like they have a contract renewal at the end of the month. So how much does it actually matter? Because that money has already come in, hasn't it?

Every negotiation that the league does with its broadcast partners, it never once comes up who is in the World Series or what the matchups will be, or, hey, we need make goods. If it's teams that we don't like, we want a refund. Or if it's teams that we do like, we're willing to pay more. It's never come up.

One time, the horse hockey, you're saying.

It is total horse hockey, but it is a great narrative to put on Twitter and to do releases, and MLB falls prey to it, where they release stuff when the ratings are good. They'll say, ratings up 14.69%. Of course, that could be from a bad number to a less bad number. But stop with the releases about ratings. Stop with the obsession over ratings. It's a different world than when we watched Goodbye, Farewell on Men in 1983. It's just a different world when it comes to ratings. That is not how the networks decide what they're going to pay.

We'll get to your number one here in just a second. Do you think baseball is ever going to sit down? David, if you look at the playoff games and how much excitement there is in the stadium and people watching at home, and the numbers are massive, and why? Because there's urgency. Because there's stakes attached to the game. Do they ever say to themselves, how do we take this and make our regular season games feel something close to what the postseason feels like? Because in the NFL, in college football, you have some of that. I'm not saying they're exactly the same, but regular season games in the NFL, 17 of them, each one means so much in baseball. Doesn't happen. Why can't they shorten the season?

Well, let's say we cut up by half. How do you feel about a Tuesday night game in June? Excuse me? In January, when the Heater playing and everybody's resting. You feel pretty good about that regular season game?

No.

And they've cut it down by half. They only have 82.

Right.

So I guess we'd have to go baseball and basketball down to 17. Of course, it's a different sport. You're not going to do that. We're not a once a week sport, so that's another narrative that we try. NBA load management was going to be one of my NBA topics, and already we get word LeBron's going to play fewer minutes. I'm sure he's going to play fewer games, as he should. He's the oldest player in the league. But at the end of the day, you can't legislate against meaningless regular season games. Except they're not all that meaningless because tiebreakers happen because of them. A little nugget, if Philly had one. The reason Texas has home field advantage in the World Series is that Texas beat Philly in the first series of the season.

Okay?

And that's how they won the tiebreaker. So every game matters. But it's hard to get the fans engaged 81 times. Or as you know in basketball, even 41 times.

Right.

Stu got. What team is Jose Leclerc on? David mentioned him.

I just mentioned him, Stu.

Well, I have a 50 shot here. The Rangers.

Correct. What team is the role?

Does Chapman I was shocked to hear that he's still playing Chapman.

I just mentioned him, too.

Billy rangers. Correct.

Yeah.

How about that?

I was trying really to see what his retention was of because they were.

Mentioned in the exact same I guessed no retention. It was strictly guesses. David Sampson's number one storyline of the worst World Series in the history of.

The sport is, can it go seven? Because no matter who the opponents are, a long series gets more attention, it gets more exciting, because who wouldn't watch a game? Seven between any two teams? And that will be the key to how we look back at World Series.

Billy, you have any more for me?

Josh Jung, an all star.

So now I'm just playing the game. David. He's got two rangers. There has to be a Diamondback somewhere eventually. Diamondbacks?

No, he's a ranger. An all star.

Really? Yeah.

Jose Ruiz.

So you went diamondback. You went Ranger. Ranger. Diamond Ranger.

No, he's a diamondback.

This is terrible.

Meryl Kelly. Starters to gods.

Really? Yeah. There's no real starters these days except for Berlander.

What does that even mean?

I don't know.

He's right about that.

Thank you.

We have openers now.

Yeah. Diamondback.

He is a diamond.

Yes, I know my baseball.

Last one evan Longoria still playing?

Yeah. Longo. What about him?

What team is he on?

Rangers. Oh, God.

Andrew Hayes.

See you later, guys.

Diamondbacks are going to crush him. Nothing personal, David. Tips. And check it out wherever you get your podcast. Thank you, David. We'll talk movies next week, all right? Thank you, David.

Thanks, David.

David, that was great.

You have a great day.

You, too.