Latest / The Mark Belling Podcast / Mark Belling Podcast #184: The Brewers did it their way and Mark analyzes exactly what that way is. And some personal reflections on what it's like for your lifelong team to win its first ever championship. Also, bad polling news for Wisconsin Republicans and our weekly football preview.
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: The Mark Belling Podcast is presented by Uline. For quality
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- 0:32Speaker 2: You're only going to have to indulge me for a moment.
- 0:35Speaker 2: Just have to pause before beginning the podcast. I've got
- 0:38Speaker 2: to get this out of my system.
- 0:40Speaker 3: Yes!
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- 1:15Speaker 2: I'm going to explain how we're going to do today's podcast.
- 1:21Speaker 2: My first segment here, we're discussing the fact that the
- 1:26Speaker 2: Milwaukee Brewers have won the World Series. Segment two, I'm
- 1:30Speaker 2: going to cover the news of the day. And segment
- 1:33Speaker 2: three is our regular end of the week football preview.
- 1:37Speaker 2: And again, we're doing this podcast on Thursday. So this
- 1:39Speaker 2: podcast is being done the day after the Brewers won
- 1:44Speaker 2: the World Series, but before the Packers play Thursday Night Football.
- 1:48Speaker 2: I know that many of you listen to these after
- 1:49Speaker 2: the fact, so I'm giving you a time context on this.
- 1:52Speaker 2: So for those of you who just couldn't care less
- 1:55Speaker 2: about the fact that the Brewers won the World Series,
- 1:59Speaker 2: you can skip ahead to segment two, but that's where
- 2:01Speaker 2: I'm going to open the podcast and talk about it today.
- 2:08Speaker 2: I've been trying to put this... in perspective. And I'm
- 2:14Speaker 2: looking at it two ways in terms of other than
- 2:18Speaker 2: things that like are directly personal in my own life.
- 2:22Speaker 2: You know, things that happened externally. Where does the Brewers
- 2:29Speaker 2: winning the World Series fit? First, I've reflected over my
- 2:34Speaker 2: life on sports victories. Where does this fit? And I've
- 2:40Speaker 2: come up in my own mind with sort of a
- 2:43Speaker 2: ranking of the greatest sports victories. I'm, by the way,
- 2:48Speaker 2: excluding anything that would involve any of my resources because
- 2:51Speaker 2: those are things in which I'm in. In other words,
- 2:53Speaker 2: external events. I'm not in any of the sports teams.
- 2:56Speaker 2: I'm just a fan. Where this fits. And my ranking is,
- 3:02Speaker 2: number one, Packers win the ice bowl. I was a
- 3:06Speaker 2: kid when that happened, but I remember everything about it.
- 3:12Speaker 2: Number two is last night, the Brewers winning the World Series.
- 3:18Speaker 2: A very close three. And in fact, if I do
- 3:22Speaker 2: this list five years later with more, five years from
- 3:25Speaker 2: now with more perspective, I might have the ranking different.
- 3:29Speaker 2: I would say the Bucks winning the NBA championship five
- 3:34Speaker 2: years ago. The fourth would be the Packers winning the
- 3:38Speaker 2: NFL championship in 1966. the year that they beat Dallas
- 3:44Speaker 2: in the Cotton Bowl. And number five would be Marquette
- 3:47Speaker 2: winning the NCAA championship in Al McGuire's last game. That's
- 3:52Speaker 2: kind of how I have it. None of the other
- 3:54Speaker 2: things that have happened, like the miracle on ice, the
- 3:57Speaker 2: hockey team winning in 1980, nothing else cracks my top five.
- 4:00Speaker 2: And there are a lot of other things that probably
- 4:03Speaker 2: could be going into that. Then I thought about where
- 4:07Speaker 2: does this fit into just all events of my lifetime,
- 4:12Speaker 2: not counting anything I'm personally involved in. In other words,
- 4:16Speaker 2: I would exclude anything involving my family or friends or
- 4:21Speaker 2: a personal relationship, just things that are outside of me,
- 4:27Speaker 2: but I care about. It's hard to rank them, but
- 4:31Speaker 2: I think in looking back at my life of the
- 4:36Speaker 2: things that have happened in the world, the things that,
- 4:39Speaker 2: in other words, I'm personally not doing myself but observing,
- 4:44Speaker 2: I actually think Trump winning in 2024 is number one.
- 4:50Speaker 2: The Brewers winning this World Series, this is very, very
- 4:53Speaker 2: close to that, and the ice will be very, very
- 4:55Speaker 2: close to that. But the vindication that Trump got when
- 4:58Speaker 2: he won in 2024, the total comeback after everything that
- 5:03Speaker 2: was not only done to him but all of us,
- 5:08Speaker 2: That's probably number one. Trump's victory in 2016, any number
- 5:12Speaker 2: of other presidential elections. I can't put in there Reagan's
- 5:16Speaker 2: win because I was transitioning from a liberal to a
- 5:18Speaker 2: conservative then, and I was ambivalent when Reagan won in 80.
- 5:22Speaker 2: I was still on the fence ideologically in 1984. Reagan
- 5:28Speaker 2: was the greatest influence in my life in terms of
- 5:31Speaker 2: making me a conservative. Basically, he governed as a conservative,
- 5:34Speaker 2: and I saw that it worked. And that made me
- 5:37Speaker 2: question my ideology on everything. But that was a long process.
- 5:42Speaker 2: Then you get to sporting events and so on. Obviously,
- 5:45Speaker 2: I would not include, if I had ever been married,
- 5:48Speaker 2: which I'm not, that wouldn't be on the list because
- 5:50Speaker 2: I'm talking only about things that are kind of external
- 5:55Speaker 2: to my life. Let's talk about the Brewers' win. And
- 5:59Speaker 2: everybody's giving all this analysis of the team and where
- 6:03Speaker 2: it fits in. I'm going to try to discuss this
- 6:05Speaker 2: from Two levels. First of all, a personal level of
- 6:09Speaker 2: what it means to someone who has been a Brewer
- 6:12Speaker 2: fan from day one. And I'm one that was there
- 6:18Speaker 2: on day one. It's like, you know, on my radio show,
- 6:22Speaker 2: I still have people come up to me all the
- 6:24Speaker 2: time and say, they listened to the first show. Now, obviously,
- 6:28Speaker 2: some people listen to the first show. It just wasn't
- 6:30Speaker 2: many people listen to the first show because the show
- 6:32Speaker 2: that I inherited had terrible ratings. We were like in
- 6:36Speaker 2: last place. There's no way all of these thousands of
- 6:40Speaker 2: people who claim that they heard the first show, I'm
- 6:42Speaker 2: sure some of them came in and heard a show
- 6:44Speaker 2: three or four weeks into this thing or they got
- 6:46Speaker 2: word of mouth, but I just don't think there were
- 6:48Speaker 2: that many that listened to the first show. I was
- 6:51Speaker 2: there with the Brewers on day one. So I want
- 6:55Speaker 2: to offer the perspective of somebody who has been, had
- 6:59Speaker 2: an experience with this team throughout its entire 56-year history.
- 7:04Speaker 2: And then I just want to talk about this particular team,
- 7:09Speaker 2: what made it as good, what makes it as good
- 7:11Speaker 2: as it is, and the experience of it. For the
- 7:18Speaker 2: last number of years, as the Brewers have been consistently
- 7:22Speaker 2: very good, Over the last decade, they are consistently the
- 7:27Speaker 2: best team in Major League Baseball. The Dodgers and a
- 7:30Speaker 2: couple of other teams are right up there, but I
- 7:32Speaker 2: think the Brewers might have the best record over the
- 7:34Speaker 2: last eight years. They've made the playoffs in all but
- 7:37Speaker 2: one of them. The COVID thing was kind of screwy.
- 7:40Speaker 2: They got in in the COVID year when they got
- 7:43Speaker 2: into a playoff with a shortened season and so on,
- 7:45Speaker 2: but they have been a consistently strong team really ever
- 7:49Speaker 2: since David Stearns came in and took over the operation
- 7:52Speaker 2: of the team. built it up. They're essentially in the
- 7:56Speaker 2: playoffs every year, and they win the division almost every year.
- 8:00Speaker 2: But they've not won a World Series. And there's been
- 8:03Speaker 2: this attitude that I've heard around Milwaukee, and I know
- 8:06Speaker 2: it from a lot of my friends that are big-time
- 8:08Speaker 2: sports fans, that, yeah, fine, we can be a good
- 8:12Speaker 2: team year in and year out, but we will never
- 8:14Speaker 2: win the World Series. And people said that, I think,
- 8:18Speaker 2: because they hadn't won the World Series. That's the one
- 8:22Speaker 2: thing I've never bought. The one thing that I can
- 8:27Speaker 2: say with all certainty about baseball is that it is
- 8:31Speaker 2: the one sport, the sport most likely that if you
- 8:34Speaker 2: simply get into the playoffs, you can win it. Football
- 8:37Speaker 2: is a close second. There are many years in which
- 8:42Speaker 2: the best team in the NFL does not win the
- 8:44Speaker 2: Super Bowl. The last time the Green Bay Packers won
- 8:47Speaker 2: the Super Bowl, they got in as the bottom seed.
- 8:50Speaker 2: At that time, there were six teams that made it
- 8:51Speaker 2: per conference. And the Packers were the sixth seed. They
- 8:54Speaker 2: had to win all the way on the road and
- 8:56Speaker 2: then win the Super Bowl in Dallas against Pittsburgh. There
- 9:02Speaker 2: have been lower seeded teams that have won the Super Bowl.
- 9:05Speaker 2: Usually it's one of the top seeds, but you can get,
- 9:09Speaker 2: both times the New York Giants won the Super Bowl.
- 9:11Speaker 2: They were low seeds and they got in there. In baseball, well,
- 9:15Speaker 2: the Dodgers have won it the last two years in
- 9:17Speaker 2: a row. If you go back over the last 10 years,
- 9:19Speaker 2: there are all sorts of teams that Didn't make any
- 9:22Speaker 2: sense at all that won the World Series. The year
- 9:26Speaker 2: that Cleveland won it. Going back a few years, the
- 9:31Speaker 2: year the White Sox won the World Series. I mean,
- 9:35Speaker 2: did Washington win the World Series? I think they did, Jason. Yeah,
- 9:41Speaker 2: the Nationals won in 2019. Nobody thought much about them.
- 9:46Speaker 2: Kansas City won the World Series.
- 9:48Speaker 4: Yes.
- 9:49Speaker 2: They were just teams that were good enough to get in,
- 9:52Speaker 2: and then they knocked off a few series and won.
- 9:55Speaker 2: I do think as they've expanded the number of teams...
- 10:00Speaker 2: the cream now more so rises to the top. When
- 10:04Speaker 2: there were only four or eight teams in there, say
- 10:08Speaker 2: the eighth best team in an eight-team playoff has a
- 10:10Speaker 2: chance to win, but now you have to go through
- 10:11Speaker 2: three rounds. If you don't get the bye, you've got
- 10:15Speaker 2: to win the best of three game. series, then you
- 10:17Speaker 2: have to win the best of five, then you have
- 10:19Speaker 2: to win a best of seven, and another best of seven.
- 10:22Speaker 2: That kind of requires that you be a pretty good team.
- 10:25Speaker 2: But I've always felt that if you get in, you
- 10:28Speaker 2: have a chance. And that one of these years, the
- 10:32Speaker 2: Brewers would win it because they're in it every year.
- 10:35Speaker 2: I've just always felt that. And I've debated with people
- 10:37Speaker 2: who said, well, no, you need to have this, or
- 10:39Speaker 2: they have that, or you need to have all these superstars.
- 10:42Speaker 2: And so I Doesn't make any sense to me. If
- 10:44Speaker 2: you're good enough to win your division over 162 games,
- 10:48Speaker 2: you're good enough to play well over the 15 and
- 10:50Speaker 2: 20 games in the postseason. It's just hard to do
- 10:53Speaker 2: because there's now, what is it? Is there 12 teams
- 10:56Speaker 2: that make the postseason? Yeah, six per league. And I
- 11:02Speaker 2: think it's not a one in 12 chance, but it's close.
- 11:05Speaker 2: And again, in the two most recent years and then
- 11:08Speaker 2: this year, the team that seemed to be the best
- 11:10Speaker 2: team did win, but that's been aberrational. So I always
- 11:13Speaker 2: felt that it was possible. On the other hand, it
- 11:19Speaker 2: has never happened. And the way the Brewers have been
- 11:23Speaker 2: knocked out of the postseason in several of these instances
- 11:28Speaker 2: was excruciating. In fairness, just about everybody when they're knocked out,
- 11:35Speaker 2: it's excruciating. Every year the Packers make the playoffs and
- 11:38Speaker 2: get knocked out and don't win the Super Bowl. The
- 11:40Speaker 2: game that knocks you out is kind of excruciating. But
- 11:44Speaker 2: I mean, there have been brutal losses that have knocked
- 11:50Speaker 2: you out. So I approach this thing two ways. First
- 11:54Speaker 2: of all, I've always felt, and I've argued forever, that
- 11:58Speaker 2: the Brewers were going to win a World Series. And
- 12:01Speaker 2: I thought it would happen in my lifetime because I
- 12:03Speaker 2: think that this period that they're in right now is
- 12:05Speaker 2: built for sustained excellence. The philosophy that the owner, Mark Adonazio,
- 12:10Speaker 2: has is to have a team that is good year
- 12:14Speaker 2: in and year out. He does not believe in going
- 12:18Speaker 2: all in to win it in an individual year and
- 12:21Speaker 2: sacrifice your future. Having that philosophy, knowing that there's a
- 12:26Speaker 2: very good chance that you're going to get into a
- 12:28Speaker 2: doggone year every year, I always felt that they were
- 12:31Speaker 2: going to win one of these. Having said that, I
- 12:37Speaker 2: will be totally honest, and I did not think that
- 12:40Speaker 2: they'd win the San Diego series. The one thing that
- 12:44Speaker 2: I'm convinced of is the team that wins the World
- 12:46Speaker 2: Series is the team of those that make the playoffs
- 12:49Speaker 2: that's the hottest team at the end of the year.
- 12:51Speaker 2: And the Brewers are really hot. San Diego was hotter.
- 12:57Speaker 2: And I just looked at the, and I think if
- 12:58Speaker 2: you look back at retrospect, the second best team in
- 13:01Speaker 2: baseball at the end of the season was the San
- 13:03Speaker 2: Diego Padres. The Brewers win in that five game series
- 13:06Speaker 2: of three, one, three, one, but two of almost all
- 13:11Speaker 2: four of those games could have gone the other way.
- 13:16Speaker 2: I didn't think they'd win that series. And if you
- 13:18Speaker 2: would have put a gun to my head and said,
- 13:20Speaker 2: do you think they're going to beat the Dodgers? I
- 13:25Speaker 2: guess I would have said no. And then the Tampa
- 13:29Speaker 2: Bay series. Now, part of this is I'm a worry ward.
- 13:32Speaker 2: I'm not a sports pessimist, but I'm also not a
- 13:36Speaker 2: starry-eyed optimist. Oh, we're going to win, we're going to win,
- 13:38Speaker 2: we're going to win. I have friends that are in
- 13:39Speaker 2: both camps. I have people who think we're never going
- 13:43Speaker 2: to win, and I know people who think that we're
- 13:45Speaker 2: always going to win. I'm realistic. I felt that Tampa
- 13:49Speaker 2: Bay posed a terrible matchup for the Brewers because I
- 13:54Speaker 2: thought that Tampa Bay had better starting pitching right now.
- 14:02Speaker 2: I feared that the Brewers' younger pitchers, like Miz and
- 14:08Speaker 2: Logan Henderson, were very arm-tired and couldn't go more than
- 14:13Speaker 2: four or five innings. And there turned out to be
- 14:15Speaker 2: some truth to that. Whereas Tampa Bay had veteran pitchers
- 14:18Speaker 2: with strong arms, Rasmussen, Freddy Peralta, Martinez, who'd be likely
- 14:23Speaker 2: to go six or seven innings. My philosophy on baseball,
- 14:27Speaker 2: as people have listened over the years, I look at
- 14:30Speaker 2: starting pitching and almost nothing else. That's just how I
- 14:34Speaker 2: evaluate it, and I feared that Tampa Bay might have
- 14:38Speaker 2: better starting pitching, and I feared the Brewers were going
- 14:42Speaker 2: to lose this. So you couple this, and that sense
- 14:49Speaker 2: that they are the best team in baseball and eventually
- 14:51Speaker 2: going to win this, which were the perspectives I was
- 14:54Speaker 2: coming from, to not liking any of the three matchups
- 14:57Speaker 2: that they had. And when they were up 2-0 in
- 15:02Speaker 2: the Dodgers series and had to go to Los Angeles,
- 15:07Speaker 2: I'll be honest with you, I didn't know if they
- 15:08Speaker 2: were going to win this. That game that they clinched
- 15:16Speaker 2: was still, to me, surprising that they were able to
- 15:19Speaker 2: pull it off. even after the Brewers won the first
- 15:22Speaker 2: two games of the Tampa series. Yeah, they won the
- 15:25Speaker 2: first two at home, but they had to win the
- 15:27Speaker 2: first two at home. Going back before that, game two,
- 15:33Speaker 2: the Brewers fell behind four to nothing in the top
- 15:36Speaker 2: of the first inning. And I was just struck by
- 15:39Speaker 2: the fans here. Nobody seemed despondent. The Brewers came up
- 15:42Speaker 2: in the bottom of the first inning and everybody's cheering.
- 15:44Speaker 2: And I'm just like, you're going to write this one off.
- 15:47Speaker 2: The Brewers are facing the best pitcher in the American
- 15:49Speaker 2: League in Drew Rasmussen, and they had spotted him four runs.
- 15:56Speaker 2: I thought the game was a lost cause. Okay, I'm
- 15:59Speaker 2: going to be at every game that we play here.
- 16:00Speaker 2: We're going to have to go down there and win
- 16:02Speaker 2: a couple of them in Tampa, I guess. They came
- 16:05Speaker 2: back and won that. Despite this, I was convinced of
- 16:11Speaker 2: nothing going into Tampa. That fifth inning in game three,
- 16:18Speaker 2: just felt the weight of the world off of me.
- 16:21Speaker 2: And I think a lot of Brewer fans did when
- 16:22Speaker 2: you had that. It only lasted 15 or 20 minutes
- 16:25Speaker 2: because so many of the hits were on the first
- 16:27Speaker 2: or second pitch. This bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing,
- 16:30Speaker 2: where they went from being up two to nothing to,
- 16:32Speaker 2: was it nine to nothing or I think 10 to nothing.
- 16:35Speaker 2: At the end of that inning, you're going to win
- 16:37Speaker 2: this game. You're going to be up 3-0. Nobody has
- 16:40Speaker 2: ever lost after having been up 3-0. But then game
- 16:43Speaker 2: four comes. It's one of the most brutal ways to
- 16:46Speaker 2: lose a baseball game imaginable. You've done everything right. You've
- 16:52Speaker 2: blown through your entire bullpen. You have a guy who
- 16:57Speaker 2: hit only three home runs all year playing as if
- 17:00Speaker 2: he's Mickey Mantle getting a hit every time up and
- 17:03Speaker 2: still somehow you lost the game. I feared that this
- 17:08Speaker 2: was the same moment that we had earlier in the
- 17:12Speaker 2: postseason when a San Diego Padre hit the ball off
- 17:16Speaker 2: the cable at the top of the American family field roof,
- 17:18Speaker 2: and it landed in Jackson Churio's glove. You see things
- 17:21Speaker 2: like that, and I just think team of destiny, and
- 17:24Speaker 2: I just feared, was this the turning point? I was
- 17:27Speaker 2: scared to death watching the game last night. I was
- 17:30Speaker 2: scared to death. They're up 3-1. It wasn't even a
- 17:35Speaker 2: must game. If the Brewers lose, they still come back
- 17:38Speaker 2: home up 3-2 with two chances to win at American
- 17:42Speaker 2: Family Field. It would seem to be a game in
- 17:44Speaker 2: which you look forward to with all anticipation of being
- 17:47Speaker 2: able to win, but not that terrible of a deal
- 17:50Speaker 2: if you don't win. I'm still scared to death. And
- 17:55Speaker 2: I was not scared to death in any of the
- 17:56Speaker 2: Super Bowls that the Packers played in when they were
- 17:59Speaker 2: in there. I'm just scared to death of this game.
- 18:03Speaker 2: And it must be. I always pride myself on not
- 18:07Speaker 2: being emotional in my thinking, but being logical. But it
- 18:12Speaker 2: just had to be that the emotion uncovered it, and
- 18:15Speaker 2: the Brewers scored the first run. I started to think
- 18:21Speaker 2: they may win. You could just tell from the beginning
- 18:25Speaker 2: of this game and the pitchers that were pitching, Mizorowski
- 18:28Speaker 2: and Rasmussen, that this was going to be a low-scoring game.
- 18:33Speaker 2: You also knew that the Brewers had enough of their
- 18:35Speaker 2: bullpen ready that they might be able to throw up
- 18:37Speaker 2: blanks if they got there. Then it was one to nothing.
- 18:41Speaker 2: Then it was two to nothing. And then suddenly it's
- 18:42Speaker 2: four to nothing. But when did I get convinced the
- 18:49Speaker 2: Brewers are going to win? When that ground ball started
- 18:52Speaker 2: rolling to Bryce Terang. I did not need Jake Bowers
- 18:56Speaker 2: to glove that ball at his glove. I saw that
- 18:58Speaker 2: ball going to Terang and I knew he was not
- 19:00Speaker 2: going to boot it. It was such an easy play.
- 19:02Speaker 2: That's when we had it. And I watched the game
- 19:06Speaker 2: by myself. I, you know, friends asked me, do you
- 19:09Speaker 2: want to go out here? Go over to the, I
- 19:10Speaker 2: did not want to have to put up with watching
- 19:12Speaker 2: this game with anybody else, because I just thought everybody
- 19:14Speaker 2: would be driving me crazy. And I needed to go
- 19:18Speaker 2: through my own process with this, the home games. I
- 19:21Speaker 2: watched there's 45,000 other people in the stadium. It's a
- 19:23Speaker 2: shared experience when it's a road game and it's on TV.
- 19:28Speaker 2: I just wanted to be by myself. And it was
- 19:31Speaker 2: just such a release for people who are not into sports.
- 19:34Speaker 2: They just don't understand why people care this much. My producer,
- 19:38Speaker 2: Jason's a Cub fan. And how many years was it?
- 19:41Speaker 2: It was like a hundred years since they had won
- 19:43Speaker 2: before they won their world series. It was like a century,
- 19:45Speaker 2: wasn't it?
- 19:45Speaker 5: 108.
- 19:48Speaker 2: So it was the same thing. I mean, they had
- 19:50Speaker 2: won one, but it was more than a century ago.
- 19:53Speaker 2: And I'm sure that for Cubs fans, it was just,
- 19:57Speaker 2: we're now a pretty good team. Eventually, we're going to
- 20:00Speaker 2: win one of them because you're in there long enough
- 20:02Speaker 2: and you have a competitive team long enough. Eventually one
- 20:05Speaker 2: of them is going to be your year, but because
- 20:07Speaker 2: it had never happened in the lifetime, probably of any
- 20:09Speaker 2: living Cub fan, there's just that sense of doubt. And
- 20:14Speaker 2: also because it's never happened, it makes it more special.
- 20:20Speaker 2: The Packers Super Bowl that they won in, was it 20?
- 20:24Speaker 2: I always get mixed up on years because the Super
- 20:26Speaker 2: Bowl is the year following the regular season. It was
- 20:29Speaker 2: either 2011 or 2012, the one that they won in Dallas.
- 20:32Speaker 2: I mean, that was an incredible experience because we watched
- 20:35Speaker 2: that on my cruise. My cruisers, about 300 or so
- 20:40Speaker 2: of them, are packing the showroom of the cruise ship
- 20:43Speaker 2: watching this collectively together. I mean, that was really, really cool.
- 20:46Speaker 2: But Packers had won a Super Bowl 15 years earlier.
- 20:51Speaker 2: They won two Super Bowls earlier than this. They'd done this. So,
- 20:54Speaker 2: I mean, if they had lost, that would be awful.
- 20:57Speaker 2: But you could at least say the Packers won one.
- 21:00Speaker 2: That's why it was so important for me for the
- 21:02Speaker 2: Bucs to win one during Giannis because it's so hard
- 21:06Speaker 2: to get an existential player like Giannis. You have to
- 21:13Speaker 2: win at least one with him, and they got that one,
- 21:16Speaker 2: just as they had Kareem for about five years. They
- 21:20Speaker 2: got one with him, and that was one I remembered
- 21:23Speaker 2: as well, but the Brewers had never won one. If
- 21:26Speaker 2: they come back and win one next year, it will
- 21:28Speaker 2: be spectacular, but it will not be the same. And
- 21:33Speaker 2: I'm sure Jason's a Cub fan. If the Cubs, God forbid,
- 21:36Speaker 2: somehow win it next year, that would be a spectacular thing,
- 21:39Speaker 2: but it won't be as big a deal as when
- 21:41Speaker 2: they won it for the first time. I would think
- 21:45Speaker 2: the Bears probably are a pretty good example of that.
- 21:47Speaker 2: The Bears have won NFL championships, but they had not
- 21:49Speaker 2: won a Super Bowl. So when they won their Super Bowl,
- 21:53Speaker 2: It was a bigger thing and a bigger release. Look
- 21:56Speaker 2: at the Detroit Lions. I'm not even sure if they've–
- 22:00Speaker 2: I'm sure they've won an NFL championship, but have they?
- 22:03Speaker 2: I don't know. 1956 or 7. I just have a
- 22:08Speaker 2: sports encyclopedia in there. And, Jason, they certainly had not
- 22:12Speaker 2: won one in the Super Bowl era, and they've never
- 22:16Speaker 2: been to a Super Bowl, have they, the Lions? Nope.
- 22:20Speaker 2: Lions and the Jaguars. So, I mean, if they got
- 22:24Speaker 2: to one and won it, it would just mean more,
- 22:27Speaker 2: I think, to, I don't mean they're casual. And anytime
- 22:30Speaker 2: you ever run like this, you get people who jump
- 22:32Speaker 2: on the bandwagon. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm a
- 22:35Speaker 2: fair weather fan in any number of things other than
- 22:38Speaker 2: the major sports that we have. I mean, I remember
- 22:42Speaker 2: the year the Wave won the soccer championship. I started
- 22:44Speaker 2: to get into that toward the end, but it didn't
- 22:46Speaker 2: mean as much to me because otherwise I barely pay
- 22:48Speaker 2: any attention to the Wave. So it was just such
- 22:53Speaker 2: an incredible release. As for people who don't understand, well,
- 22:55Speaker 2: why do you care so much? It's just a game.
- 22:58Speaker 2: I don't know. The skin that I have in the game,
- 23:03Speaker 2: the skin I have in the game is I watch
- 23:05Speaker 2: these games all the time. I've been a season ticket holder.
- 23:09Speaker 2: I never remember when. I think it was 1992. It
- 23:12Speaker 2: might be 1991. And the first couple of years, it
- 23:16Speaker 2: was a partial package. But starting in like I'd say
- 23:21Speaker 2: it was about 1995. I got a full package at
- 23:24Speaker 2: County Stadium. Now, I don't go to 81 games. I'm
- 23:26Speaker 2: not like Baseball Bob, who has not missed a pitch.
- 23:30Speaker 2: I just can't even imagine that guy. He hasn't missed
- 23:32Speaker 2: a pitch. A pitch. And I think like 46 years.
- 23:38Speaker 2: People who don't know baseball, Baseball Bob's kind of a legend.
- 23:41Speaker 2: He buys the one ticket. He sits just off the
- 23:43Speaker 2: edge of the Brewer dugout. He sits right behind where
- 23:45Speaker 2: the owner sits. He buys the one ticket. Baseball Bob
- 23:49Speaker 2: will not order anything concession. He won't order a soft drink,
- 23:54Speaker 2: he won't order a beer, and he won't buy any food.
- 23:57Speaker 2: And the reason for that is he refuses to go
- 24:00Speaker 2: to the bathroom. He doesn't go to the bathroom because
- 24:03Speaker 2: he doesn't want to miss a pitch. And I get that. Now,
- 24:06Speaker 2: if you haven't missed a pitch for 45 years, you
- 24:08Speaker 2: don't want to let anything screw that thing up. So,
- 24:12Speaker 2: I mean, that guy's been sitting there watching this, and
- 24:14Speaker 2: he's been through thick and thin, lately a lot of thick,
- 24:17Speaker 2: but for decades a lot of thin. Imagine how big
- 24:21Speaker 2: of a deal this means to him. I'm not at
- 24:25Speaker 2: that level, but I'm up there. It's just an incredible feeling.
- 24:30Speaker 2: And then this. As somebody who has lived in Wisconsin
- 24:36Speaker 2: for all but six years of his life, There's just
- 24:41Speaker 2: something about when a team from this state does something big,
- 24:49Speaker 2: it is a bigger deal than almost any other place.
- 24:54Speaker 2: And you just saw this over the World Series. I mean,
- 24:58Speaker 2: every night they sold out the viewing party, the watch
- 25:01Speaker 2: party at American Family Field. Now, they didn't sell the
- 25:04Speaker 2: upper deck, I don't think, because I think they said
- 25:06Speaker 2: the attendance for these was like 33,000, 34,000. That's like 33,000,
- 25:10Speaker 2: 34,000 people to go to a ballpark to watch a game.
- 25:12Speaker 2: The monitor is way out there in center field on
- 25:14Speaker 2: the scoreboard. It's not even as good a view as
- 25:17Speaker 2: you get in your living room. Then you had another
- 25:20Speaker 2: 5,000 or 6,000 hanging around you. It wasn't really cold,
- 25:23Speaker 2: but they're outside of the Deer District. Then there's all
- 25:27Speaker 2: these people at Tampa. Now, I admit, if they had
- 25:30Speaker 2: played anybody other than Tampa, there wouldn't be that many
- 25:33Speaker 2: Brewer fans there. The reason those Brewer fans were there
- 25:36Speaker 2: is Tampa Bay Rays fans had to sell their tickets,
- 25:39Speaker 2: tickets for the World Series. Your playoff package goes on
- 25:41Speaker 2: sale well before you know who the opponent is. Most
- 25:44Speaker 2: of those tickets were held by Rays fans who turned
- 25:47Speaker 2: around and resold them on the secondary market. And by
- 25:50Speaker 2: the way, not for that much, because the resale tickets
- 25:53Speaker 2: in Tampa were about 25% for comparable seats of what
- 25:57Speaker 2: they were in Milwaukee. But still, I don't even know
- 26:03Speaker 2: how many. 15,000 out of the 40,000 people there were
- 26:07Speaker 2: Brewer fans. It seemed like more, but that's misleading because
- 26:11Speaker 2: there was almost nothing for Tampa to cheer about at
- 26:14Speaker 2: any point. And that's how you can usually tell when
- 26:17Speaker 2: something good happens, how many people are standing and yelling
- 26:20Speaker 2: for that. But Tampa fans last night had almost nothing
- 26:23Speaker 2: to cheer about. There's just a sense of adopting these
- 26:27Speaker 2: teams and I think caring more about it. And there's
- 26:31Speaker 2: a Wisconsin component to that that Probably hard to explain,
- 26:36Speaker 2: but I just don't think if the Minnesota Twins were, well,
- 26:40Speaker 2: they wouldn't be in Tampa. Let's take a National League team,
- 26:43Speaker 2: not the Cubs, because they have this rabid fan base.
- 26:46Speaker 2: But if the Rockies, if the Rockies got to the world,
- 26:53Speaker 2: I just, I bet there would have been 2,000 Rockies
- 26:56Speaker 2: fans in Tampa, max, if that, if that. This particular
- 27:08Speaker 2: Brewers team. You can't disconnect the Brewers team from the
- 27:15Speaker 2: management and ownership philosophy of running this team. The Brewers
- 27:22Speaker 2: do things differently out of necessity. What they do, every
- 27:30Speaker 2: other small market team could do if they had the
- 27:35Speaker 2: ability to do it. One of the great things that
- 27:40Speaker 2: socialists lefties Marxists do not understand is that human beings
- 27:46Speaker 2: are not interchangeable to be successful in life. You have
- 27:51Speaker 2: to be very, very good and lucky. I look at
- 27:55Speaker 2: my own career. I think I'm very, very, very good.
- 28:01Speaker 2: I was also lucky. I think about rock and roll musicians.
- 28:07Speaker 2: There are a ton of people who I think are
- 28:09Speaker 2: probably incredibly talented, but they didn't get heard by the
- 28:12Speaker 2: right producer or they didn't get the right material and
- 28:18Speaker 2: never made it. Those, however, that did make it are
- 28:21Speaker 2: incredibly talented, but you need the combination of the two
- 28:25Speaker 2: of them. The brewers have a philosophy and they have
- 28:30Speaker 2: hired brilliant people to execute it. And they're frankly smarter
- 28:37Speaker 2: than anybody who works for any of these other teams.
- 28:39Speaker 2: The only team that is close to them in terms
- 28:43Speaker 2: of being smart and being able to excel despite their
- 28:46Speaker 2: market size and budget is the team we just beat,
- 28:49Speaker 2: Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay has been consistently good forever and
- 28:54Speaker 2: ever and ever, even though they have one of the
- 28:56Speaker 2: smallest payrolls in baseball. The Brewers are the same thing.
- 29:01Speaker 2: They have a philosophy of trying to be good year
- 29:05Speaker 2: in and year out. That is a financial decision. The
- 29:09Speaker 2: Brewers have to rely, because they don't get big-time TV revenue,
- 29:13Speaker 2: they have to rely on strong attendance. And if you
- 29:18Speaker 2: have a team that's crappy for several years, in Milwaukee,
- 29:21Speaker 2: we've got a history of this. The attendance does tail
- 29:24Speaker 2: off if you're bad for a while. After American Family Field,
- 29:28Speaker 2: formerly Miller Park, opened, the Brewers were very, very good,
- 29:32Speaker 2: and then they had a gap year gap era, I
- 29:35Speaker 2: should say, after that run where they had a strong
- 29:38Speaker 2: playoff team, the Ryan Braun-Prince Fielder era, they lagged for
- 29:43Speaker 2: a while. I'm just off the top of my head.
- 29:45Speaker 2: Between the years 2012 and 2016, attendance had fallen way
- 29:51Speaker 2: below 2 million. The novelty of the new stadium had
- 29:54Speaker 2: worn off and just bad team again. The Brewers, in
- 29:58Speaker 2: order to make the economics work, have to be a
- 30:01Speaker 2: team where you go to the ballpark, there's a better
- 30:03Speaker 2: than 50-50 chance you're going to see a win that night.
- 30:06Speaker 2: So they built, out of economic necessity, a team that's
- 30:09Speaker 2: going to be good year in and year out. Also,
- 30:12Speaker 2: because they don't have the ability to, let's imagine you
- 30:16Speaker 2: go all in and give $ 50 million to a player
- 30:18Speaker 2: and he doesn't work out. They don't have the resources
- 30:21Speaker 2: to replace that $ 50 million player with another $ 50 million player.
- 30:25Speaker 2: If the Yankees sign a guy for a fortune and
- 30:28Speaker 2: he turns out to be a semi-bust or a bust,
- 30:31Speaker 2: they can just take the same money and sign another
- 30:34Speaker 2: player of the same ability and replace the guy that
- 30:37Speaker 2: turned out to be a bust. The Brewers can't do that.
- 30:42Speaker 2: What they have instead done is invest very deeply in
- 30:48Speaker 2: scouting and player development. And they clearly hire very good scouts.
- 30:56Speaker 2: There's no draft for players from the Caribbean or South America.
- 31:01Speaker 2: The Brewers simply found Jackson Churio and signed him. The
- 31:08Speaker 2: people that they have that are working, scouting in Latin America,
- 31:12Speaker 2: are clearly very good. The talent evaluators that the Brewers
- 31:17Speaker 2: have when they're assessing players that are able to be
- 31:21Speaker 2: in the amateur draft are very good. They spotted Cooper Pratt,
- 31:27Speaker 2: and picked him in the sixth round and then paid
- 31:30Speaker 2: him way above what a sixth round draft choice would
- 31:32Speaker 2: be paid so that he wouldn't go to college and
- 31:36Speaker 2: instead sign with the Brewers. Jacob Mizorowski threw about as
- 31:41Speaker 2: hard as a human being could throw, but he couldn't
- 31:44Speaker 2: find the strike zone to save his life. They spent
- 31:47Speaker 2: a second round draft choice on him. So the first
- 31:49Speaker 2: thing they do is they're very, very good at identifying talent.
- 31:51Speaker 2: The second thing that they are brilliant at is identifying
- 31:55Speaker 2: talent that is already out there in the minor leagues
- 31:58Speaker 2: or in the major leagues and finding guys that frankly
- 32:02Speaker 2: aren't achieving, but they think can be fixed. The number
- 32:09Speaker 2: of players that the Brewers have picked up, not really
- 32:12Speaker 2: on the scrap heap, but as add-ins or throw-ins in deals,
- 32:17Speaker 2: or when they, for example, dump a player with a
- 32:20Speaker 2: year left in his contract and get two or three
- 32:22Speaker 2: young players in, In many instances, those players that are
- 32:25Speaker 2: being given up are not the number one or two
- 32:27Speaker 2: prospect for any of these teams. They identify players that
- 32:31Speaker 2: they think they can improve. And thirdly, there is nobody
- 32:34Speaker 2: in baseball better at player development. I would love to
- 32:38Speaker 2: know what they do with that lab in Arizona. The
- 32:41Speaker 2: Brewers have a pitching lab in Arizona. The information there
- 32:46Speaker 2: is proprietary. And I'm told that the contracts are written
- 32:51Speaker 2: pretty strictly, that anybody who works in that operation, when
- 32:55Speaker 2: they leave, they're not allowed to take anything other than
- 32:57Speaker 2: what's in their brain with them. But the reality is
- 33:02Speaker 2: that every pitcher that comes to Milwaukee seems to improve,
- 33:05Speaker 2: which is why they're able to make these trades for
- 33:08Speaker 2: pitchers that are frankly disappointing, and they come to Milwaukee
- 33:10Speaker 2: and they're Cy Young. So those are the three things
- 33:15Speaker 2: that they do to achieve success. and Excel. And then
- 33:21Speaker 2: there's the controversial part of their business model. They, A,
- 33:26Speaker 2: hardly ever choose to go all in. This past summer,
- 33:31Speaker 2: I mean, everyone knew that if ever there was going
- 33:33Speaker 2: to be a year, it was this year for the Brewers.
- 33:36Speaker 2: There was a uniquely talented player available at mid-season. The
- 33:41Speaker 2: term for those of you not into sports is a rental.
- 33:44Speaker 2: A rental is a guy that's in the final year
- 33:46Speaker 2: of his contract. meaning if you trade for him, you're
- 33:49Speaker 2: only getting him for the next two months and the postseason.
- 33:53Speaker 2: So you're getting rid of players forever in exchange for
- 33:57Speaker 2: somebody for two or three months. Tariq Skubal, the pitcher
- 34:01Speaker 2: for the Detroit Tigers, is a double Cy Young Award winner.
- 34:05Speaker 2: He did have arm surgery earlier this year, but he
- 34:08Speaker 2: was out there and on the market. The Brewers made
- 34:11Speaker 2: an offer for him, but they didn't offer enough, and
- 34:15Speaker 2: that was a decision. The Tigers demanded that the Brewers
- 34:19Speaker 2: include Brewer pitcher Logan Henderson, who ended up being the
- 34:23Speaker 2: number two pitcher on the team this year, in the
- 34:26Speaker 2: trade for Tariq Skubal, and the Brewers did not do it.
- 34:29Speaker 2: They offered up Luis Pena, who is, I think, by
- 34:33Speaker 2: all indications, going to be a spectacular infielder, and two
- 34:36Speaker 2: other big hitters, but they didn't make as good an
- 34:39Speaker 2: offer as the Dodgers do. The Brewers simply are not
- 34:44Speaker 2: going to overpay in the middle of the season to
- 34:46Speaker 2: make an attempt to to win it all. And that
- 34:49Speaker 2: is because they're committed to winning year in and year out,
- 34:51Speaker 2: so you can't give away young players that you've developed.
- 34:56Speaker 2: The second thing, the Brewers have this philosophy, and they've
- 35:02Speaker 2: adhered to it with only one or two exceptions. They
- 35:06Speaker 2: are not going to pay big money contracts to players
- 35:10Speaker 2: over 30, even their own. In baseball, you usually have
- 35:14Speaker 2: control of a player for five, six, or seven years,
- 35:17Speaker 2: And the cost gets greater toward the end because they're
- 35:19Speaker 2: eligible for arbitration. But they pretty much have to stay
- 35:22Speaker 2: with you for those first seven years unless you choose
- 35:25Speaker 2: to get rid of them. So that means that most
- 35:28Speaker 2: of these players who get to the big leagues at
- 35:30Speaker 2: 22 or 23, you keep them until about 29 or 30.
- 35:32Speaker 2: If they turn out really good, they're eligible for free agency.
- 35:36Speaker 2: The Brewers almost always let these players walk. In fact...
- 35:41Speaker 2: What they are likely to do is, rather than let
- 35:44Speaker 2: them walk and get nothing, they trade them with one
- 35:47Speaker 2: year left on their contract. And when they do this,
- 35:51Speaker 2: it often disappoints the fan base. They have consistently done it.
- 35:57Speaker 2: And as much as any of the other factors that
- 35:58Speaker 2: I've described, it is the reason they've won. There were
- 36:05Speaker 2: so many heroes in this particular World Series. But look
- 36:09Speaker 2: at a few of them. I mean, I'm not going
- 36:14Speaker 2: to say he was the MVP of the World Series,
- 36:16Speaker 2: but he was in the top six or seven of contributors.
- 36:20Speaker 2: David Hamilton was a throw-in in one of those deals.
- 36:25Speaker 2: Not the exact type of deal that I'm describing where
- 36:28Speaker 2: you get rid of a guy prior to free agency,
- 36:31Speaker 2: but the Brewers traded the rookie of the year Caleb
- 36:35Speaker 2: Durbin and two other below-average infielders. to Boston and got
- 36:40Speaker 2: two pitchers who were major parts of our rotation this year,
- 36:43Speaker 2: Kyle Harrison and Shane Drouin. Unfortunately, both tailed off at
- 36:46Speaker 2: the end of the season. Huge reasons why the Brewers
- 36:48Speaker 2: had the season that they had, and David Hamilton. The
- 36:56Speaker 2: Brewers traded Corbin Burns with a year left in his contract.
- 37:00Speaker 2: Freddie Peralta is one of the most popular pitchers that's
- 37:02Speaker 2: ever pitched for the Brewers. They traded him this past
- 37:04Speaker 2: season with one year left in his contract. Devin Williams,
- 37:10Speaker 2: the closer. They traded him with one year left in
- 37:13Speaker 2: his contract. This has frustrated fans who wonder, and it's
- 37:17Speaker 2: been among those who say you'll never win a World
- 37:19Speaker 2: Series because they can't afford to keep these guys. The
- 37:22Speaker 2: flip side of that is the return that they have
- 37:25Speaker 2: gotten for these players has been extraordinary. And that's because
- 37:29Speaker 2: they scout so well that when they trade players, they're
- 37:32Speaker 2: requesting certain guys that are probably not the top players
- 37:36Speaker 2: in any of these other systems. what they think will
- 37:40Speaker 2: be very, very good. This poses an interesting dilemma for
- 37:44Speaker 2: them right now because they have a player on this
- 37:47Speaker 2: team right now who is in exactly this category. The Brewers, A,
- 37:51Speaker 2: will not give money to one of their own players,
- 37:55Speaker 2: and I mean big money, $ 30, $ 35, $ 40 million to
- 37:58Speaker 2: a guy over 30. They're not going to do it.
- 38:00Speaker 2: What they instead do is trade him when he has
- 38:02Speaker 2: one year left in his contract. There is a guy
- 38:05Speaker 2: on this team that fits that MO, and that is
- 38:07Speaker 2: William Contreras. I don't think they're going to do what
- 38:11Speaker 2: they always do. I don't think they're going to create
- 38:12Speaker 2: trade Contreras. I just think it'd be a bridge too far.
- 38:17Speaker 2: I don't imagine that they will resign him in a
- 38:22Speaker 2: year because unless William has a bad year this coming year,
- 38:27Speaker 2: he's going to get over 30, $ 35 million a year.
- 38:28Speaker 2: And I'm sorry if I, I would never give a
- 38:34Speaker 2: catcher over $ 30, $ 35 million a year. They don't last.
- 38:38Speaker 2: It's the same thing with a pitcher. Giving huge money
- 38:41Speaker 2: to a pitcher when they're 30 years or older is
- 38:43Speaker 2: a recipe for disaster, and it's a reason that teams
- 38:46Speaker 2: like the Angels and the Mets and so many others
- 38:49Speaker 2: constantly stink. You pay a fortune for these guys, and
- 38:52Speaker 2: you get guys that end up sore-armed or are on
- 38:55Speaker 2: the tail end of their career. Anyway, that's the formula
- 38:59Speaker 2: that the Brewers have had, and they've just stuck to it. Next.
- 39:03Speaker 2: Two other points. I'm here to declare that the hating
- 39:09Speaker 2: on Craig Council is now over. I can't make anybody
- 39:14Speaker 2: else stop hating on Craig Council, but I'm ending any
- 39:18Speaker 2: disapproval that I have of Craig Council for leaving the
- 39:21Speaker 2: Brewers to go to the Chicago Cubs. It worked out
- 39:26Speaker 2: for him. He got his $ 8 million a year, and
- 39:29Speaker 2: it's worked out for the Brewers. The reality is that
- 39:32Speaker 2: the Brewers have the best manager in Major League Baseball
- 39:35Speaker 2: in Pat Murphy. Most managers are interchangeable. This guy is
- 39:39Speaker 2: a unique thinker, and in this day and age of
- 39:42Speaker 2: pampering and coddling players, has a unique approach to disciplining players,
- 39:47Speaker 2: both young players and veterans alike. All the things that
- 39:52Speaker 2: Murphy has done. There are two things this year that
- 39:55Speaker 2: I think just point to his excellence as a manager.
- 40:00Speaker 2: And both of them hacked off fans when they did it.
- 40:04Speaker 2: Several weeks ago, Cooper Pratt did not run out of
- 40:07Speaker 2: ground ball to first base. He didn't dog it. He
- 40:12Speaker 2: just didn't run as hard as a human being can run.
- 40:17Speaker 2: And he was benched, yanked out of the game by Murphy.
- 40:21Speaker 2: And there are a lot of people that put these
- 40:22Speaker 2: things up in YouTube saying this is just terrible to
- 40:25Speaker 2: do this to a young guy. It wasn't like he
- 40:27Speaker 2: wasn't hustling. He just didn't have a play that you
- 40:29Speaker 2: wouldn't think he'd have a chance to beat out, running
- 40:32Speaker 2: all balls out at it. He also benched the hardest
- 40:38Speaker 2: working player on the team, William Contreras, when he felt
- 40:42Speaker 2: he wasn't going all out on a play. Hard guy
- 40:49Speaker 2: managers who do things like that or hard guy coaches
- 40:51Speaker 2: in football do run the risk of alienating their players.
- 40:56Speaker 2: There must be something about the way Murphy plays his
- 40:59Speaker 2: own good cop, bad cop and being so close to
- 41:01Speaker 2: these players that he's able to get away with holding
- 41:04Speaker 2: them to these levels of high accountability. It's just extraordinary
- 41:08Speaker 2: when you hear all of these brewers in these interviews
- 41:10Speaker 2: from Christian Yelich on Dowd. in which they're just out
- 41:13Speaker 2: of it. We're going to play the game the right way.
- 41:15Speaker 2: We're going to play the game the right way. We're
- 41:16Speaker 2: going to play the game the right way. And when
- 41:18Speaker 2: the manager feels as though somebody dogs it in just
- 41:20Speaker 2: the least, he yanks. Craig Council didn't do that. But
- 41:27Speaker 2: I don't think anybody anymore does that. Two things. You
- 41:33Speaker 2: never know in an organization who's doing what. Now, say
- 41:39Speaker 2: on a radio station or a podcast like mine, You
- 41:42Speaker 2: know what I'm doing. That much you know. Some things
- 41:45Speaker 2: are obvious. But let's just take a radio station. You
- 41:49Speaker 2: don't know who behind the scenes is doing what. For example,
- 41:52Speaker 2: at my old radio station, WISN, where I still work
- 41:55Speaker 2: in the same studio here, we've had extremely talented talk shows. Jason,
- 42:01Speaker 2: who produces my show, is now one of them. Somebody
- 42:05Speaker 2: has to find those people and decide who it is
- 42:07Speaker 2: that you're going to hire. And unless you work in
- 42:11Speaker 2: that company, you don't know, is this a general manager?
- 42:13Speaker 2: Is there a regional vice president, talent scout who's got
- 42:16Speaker 2: a list and recommends? Is it the local program director?
- 42:20Speaker 2: How do you find these people? Somebody, he ended up
- 42:24Speaker 2: working for one of our competitors forever, found me in 1989.
- 42:28Speaker 2: If he didn't find me, I never would have been here.
- 42:32Speaker 2: I mean, who knows where I would have ended up?
- 42:35Speaker 2: So you never really know who does what. when David
- 42:40Speaker 2: Stearns was hired by Mark Adonazio to run the Milwaukee Brewers.
- 42:46Speaker 2: And the Brewers began an immediate turnaround, making numerous personnel
- 42:51Speaker 2: moves that turned out to be brilliant and great drafting
- 42:55Speaker 2: of players. Was that Stearns? Or did Stearns just hire
- 43:00Speaker 2: really good people who made strong recommendations? His right-hand man
- 43:07Speaker 2: was Matt Arnold, David Stearns left the Brewers, Matt Arnold
- 43:12Speaker 2: was promoted, and the Brewers got better. Maybe, again, I'm
- 43:15Speaker 2: not saying it is, maybe it was Arnold all along.
- 43:20Speaker 2: When Craig Council was named the manager, he hired as
- 43:23Speaker 2: his bench coach his former college coach, Pat Murphy. Craig
- 43:28Speaker 2: Council was the manager of the Brewers for eight years,
- 43:30Speaker 2: and that entire eight years, Pat Murphy was his bench coach.
- 43:34Speaker 2: Council left, the Brewers got better. Was it Murphy all along?
- 43:40Speaker 2: Who was it that was giving these insights to counsel
- 43:44Speaker 2: that made counsel seem to be just sharper than the
- 43:47Speaker 2: average manager? Again, maybe it wasn't. Maybe David Stearns was
- 43:51Speaker 2: the driving force and the thing behind the bruise. And
- 43:53Speaker 2: maybe Craig counsel was an incredibly great manager who just
- 43:56Speaker 2: had a good staff of coaches that are out there.
- 44:00Speaker 2: But maybe it was the internal people that were there
- 44:02Speaker 2: all along. So. I think there's a very good chance
- 44:08Speaker 2: Pat Murphy is going to be named manager of the
- 44:09Speaker 2: year for the third year in a row. Usually teams
- 44:13Speaker 2: that are the best team don't win coach of the
- 44:15Speaker 2: year or manager of the year in sports. It's usually
- 44:18Speaker 2: a team that surprises that is better than you would
- 44:21Speaker 2: expect them to be. The thing about the Brewers though,
- 44:24Speaker 2: even though they win the division every year, they're never
- 44:26Speaker 2: picked to win the division the following year. And, I
- 44:30Speaker 2: just think Murphy manages at a different level. Likewise, the
- 44:34Speaker 2: executive of the year in the National League, I think
- 44:36Speaker 2: in all of baseball the last two years in a row,
- 44:39Speaker 2: was Matt Arnold. I think he may win it again.
- 44:44Speaker 2: The thing that separates the Brewers from other teams in
- 44:48Speaker 2: markets their size is the Brewers hire smarter people who
- 44:54Speaker 2: figured out better ways to do the same things that
- 44:57Speaker 2: everybody else does. I think I asked Jason this before.
- 45:07Speaker 2: When the Cubs won the World Series, I get mixed
- 45:10Speaker 2: up on this. You corrected me earlier this week. Was
- 45:12Speaker 2: that a home game at Wrigley Field or was that
- 45:14Speaker 2: game in Cleveland? It was in Cleveland. And do you
- 45:18Speaker 2: tell me that you were in Cleveland? Not the game, yeah.
- 45:26Speaker 2: When I'm watching a game, There were five World Series
- 45:31Speaker 2: games in this particular World Series. There were two in Milwaukee,
- 45:33Speaker 2: which I was at, and three that I watched on
- 45:36Speaker 2: television here. My emotional makeup is just different at the
- 45:41Speaker 2: home games than the road games. First of all, I
- 45:44Speaker 2: don't ever drink at home by myself. So I'm not
- 45:46Speaker 2: having anything to drink. When I'm at a brewery game
- 45:48Speaker 2: in person, I'm drinking beer. It's about the only time
- 45:51Speaker 2: I drink beer is when I'm at a ball game.
- 45:53Speaker 2: I don't know if that's what does it. But when
- 45:55Speaker 2: I'm at a Brewer game in the stadium, I'm a
- 45:58Speaker 2: little tense, but not bad. Watching these games at home,
- 46:02Speaker 2: I am an absolute basket case. I needed medication last night.
- 46:10Speaker 2: I mean, I felt I needed to tranquilize myself until,
- 46:14Speaker 2: as I said, they took this lead. And then you
- 46:17Speaker 2: could see that each reliever that they were I had
- 46:20Speaker 2: this sense that I thought Mizorowski was going to go
- 46:23Speaker 2: seven innings. He was in complete command, and he was
- 46:25Speaker 2: pitching at a level that we have not seen from
- 46:26Speaker 2: him all year in which his control was so good
- 46:30Speaker 2: that he wasn't needing to strike out guys but still
- 46:32Speaker 2: retire them on one meek at bat after another. And
- 46:36Speaker 2: because he wasn't striking out guys, his pitch count was low.
- 46:38Speaker 2: But then he gets this cramp. And, you know, the
- 46:41Speaker 2: thing on the bullpen, it's not hurt the Brewers all season,
- 46:45Speaker 2: but I say this all the time, the problem with
- 46:46Speaker 2: relying on four or five relievers is You need only
- 46:49Speaker 2: one of them to screw up. Now, unfortunately, in game four,
- 46:53Speaker 2: one of them screwed up. The guy at the very end,
- 46:55Speaker 2: poor Shane Drouin. And there isn't anybody on the Brewer organization,
- 47:00Speaker 2: I think, that is happier that they won than Shane Drouin.
- 47:02Speaker 2: Because if the Brewers had gone on to lose the
- 47:04Speaker 2: next three, Shane Drouin, who had a chance to clinch
- 47:07Speaker 2: this thing, it just would have, at the bottom of
- 47:09Speaker 2: the 12th, it would have killed the poor guy. But,
- 47:13Speaker 2: I mean, we brought in Jojo Vermeer. I mentioned the
- 47:15Speaker 2: trades the Brewers make in the middle of the season.
- 47:17Speaker 2: People were griping that Dustin May didn't turn out to
- 47:20Speaker 2: be as good as he was. By the way, Dustin
- 47:21Speaker 2: May now has four rings. They're just certain players in
- 47:25Speaker 2: certain sports that they bop around enough, and they always
- 47:28Speaker 2: seem to bop around to teams that win championships. The
- 47:30Speaker 2: most famous case of that was, do you remember the
- 47:32Speaker 2: basketball player, Jason, named Robert Horry? Whoever he got traded to,
- 47:39Speaker 2: they would win the championship. He was on the Lakers
- 47:40Speaker 2: for several years, and I think he then I think
- 47:45Speaker 2: he might've been on Houston during the two years. Was
- 47:49Speaker 2: that what it was? When Jordan was left to play
- 47:52Speaker 2: baseball for two years, the Rockets won a two years
- 47:54Speaker 2: in a row. And I think Ori might've been on that.
- 47:58Speaker 2: He just kept collecting rings. He was in the right
- 48:00Speaker 2: place at the right time. Dustin May has now won
- 48:04Speaker 2: four rings. And I think in the post season, he
- 48:06Speaker 2: acquitted himself very well. In the Dodgers series where the
- 48:10Speaker 2: Brewers came back to win after that four run deficit,
- 48:13Speaker 2: He did indeed come in and pitch and three runs
- 48:16Speaker 2: crossed the plate. I don't think they were all charged
- 48:18Speaker 2: to him. Maybe they were. Four runs crossed the plate
- 48:21Speaker 2: when he was pitching. But he settled down and got
- 48:25Speaker 2: the next two innings, and had he not done that,
- 48:28Speaker 2: if they had fallen behind eight, nine runs, they would
- 48:30Speaker 2: not have won that game. And I thought he pitched
- 48:32Speaker 2: credibly in the World Series. He was really good in
- 48:34Speaker 2: the spot inning that he threw, and his start wasn't bad.
- 48:37Speaker 2: But Jojo Romero was the throw-in in the trade. Boy, oh, boy.
- 48:41Speaker 2: And then they brought in Abner. You knew that Abner
- 48:43Speaker 2: wasn't going to give up a run. I did get
- 48:46Speaker 2: concerned about using McGill in a second inning. Relievers, when
- 48:53Speaker 2: they have to work two innings, often struggle. I mean
- 48:57Speaker 2: short closers. And when the Rays scored a run and
- 49:03Speaker 2: had a runner on base, it meant that the tying
- 49:06Speaker 2: run was in the on-deck circle. Throughout the playoffs, the manager, Murphy,
- 49:11Speaker 2: has just been obsessed with going lefty-righty. If the other
- 49:14Speaker 2: team has a series of left-handed hitters coming up, you
- 49:16Speaker 2: bring in a left-handed pitcher. Right-handed hitters, vice versa. So
- 49:20Speaker 2: left-handed hitter came to the plate. Aaron Ashby, who didn't
- 49:24Speaker 2: give up a run in the postseason, is ready in
- 49:28Speaker 2: the bullpen. He didn't bring in Ashby. He left McGill in,
- 49:32Speaker 2: knowing if this guy got on base, the tying run
- 49:34Speaker 2: would come to the plate. McGill got him out. And
- 49:38Speaker 2: as great as Ashby was in the postseason, I think
- 49:40Speaker 2: he set the record for most consecutive innings in the
- 49:42Speaker 2: postseason without allowing a run. It was a Mariano Rivera
- 49:47Speaker 2: type performance. Trevor McGill has been just a Brewer stalwart. Plus,
- 49:53Speaker 2: he's the most Milwaukee type guy that there is on
- 49:56Speaker 2: that team. I mean, some of the lock. I swear
- 49:59Speaker 2: he was chugging champagne, not beer. He was chugging champagne.
- 50:04Speaker 2: I also saw a couple of the interviews that he gave,
- 50:06Speaker 2: including one in which he made a vulgar comment about
- 50:08Speaker 2: the Cubs at which he was clearly blasted out of
- 50:10Speaker 2: his mind. But I mean, the guy is like 6'27,
- 50:13Speaker 2: and he's been the closer for so long, and being
- 50:16Speaker 2: able to close out a World Series win just had
- 50:19Speaker 2: to be a great thrill for him. Anyway, I'm not
- 50:21Speaker 2: going to dive into anything pertaining to the game much
- 50:23Speaker 2: more than that, but those are my thoughts on both
- 50:26Speaker 2: a personal level and the analysis of what's made the
- 50:32Speaker 2: Brewers great. Things like this, if you care about them.
- 50:39Speaker 2: And in order to care about them, you have to
- 50:41Speaker 2: invest emotion. People who just sort of follow the team
- 50:45Speaker 2: when they're good or something, they don't have any emotion
- 50:47Speaker 2: invested in this. It's nice if you win these fans
- 50:50Speaker 2: and you see them in all sports that are just frontrunners.
- 50:54Speaker 2: You know, when Golden State got good in the NBA,
- 50:57Speaker 2: suddenly there'd be all these people with Bucs fans wearing
- 50:59Speaker 2: Golden State uniforms. They weren't Golden State fans 25 years ago.
- 51:03Speaker 2: They were Golden State fans when Steph Curry got there
- 51:05Speaker 2: and they started winning championships. And they're just, the Lakers
- 51:08Speaker 2: are another one. Or when the Heat are good, there
- 51:11Speaker 2: are fans that, they're not Heat fans, they just decide
- 51:14Speaker 2: that they are because they're going to back whoever is good.
- 51:16Speaker 2: There's no skin in the game with that because you
- 51:18Speaker 2: never have a losing season in anything because you're just
- 51:20Speaker 2: always backing whoever the great team is. People who have
- 51:23Speaker 2: skin in the games are the ones that are around
- 51:25Speaker 2: and follow the team and go to games and watch
- 51:27Speaker 2: them on TV when they're 32 games out of first
- 51:30Speaker 2: place and do it year in and year out. And
- 51:35Speaker 2: when you see success for, say, a team that you've
- 51:40Speaker 2: invested so much time and emotion in, that's why it's
- 51:45Speaker 2: a big deal. I've had a very good month. My
- 51:52Speaker 2: horse USS Valor won a grade one race. It's probably
- 51:57Speaker 2: the best two-year-old in America. And the Brewers win a
- 52:00Speaker 2: World Series in the same month. By the way, the Breeders'
- 52:03Speaker 2: Cup is this weekend. I know it's because of the Brewers. Normally,
- 52:06Speaker 2: I have people asking, are you going to put your
- 52:09Speaker 2: picks up? Are you going to put your picks up?
- 52:10Speaker 2: Are you going to put your picks up? I mean,
- 52:12Speaker 2: I just inundated with this one. Paul was my producer.
- 52:15Speaker 2: I mean, we were doing a live show. Get these
- 52:17Speaker 2: calls off the air. Is Mark going to put up
- 52:18Speaker 2: his Kentucky Derby? First of all, I almost always do
- 52:21Speaker 2: for the big races. There will not be picks posted
- 52:23Speaker 2: by me on the Breeders' Cup. I just have not
- 52:27Speaker 2: had the proper time to post predictions in a way
- 52:34Speaker 2: that others might rely on them. I'm going to follow
- 52:36Speaker 2: the races Friday and Saturday, and I'm going to bet
- 52:39Speaker 2: on them, and I have opinions on all of them,
- 52:43Speaker 2: but I normally spend two hours researching each race, and
- 52:46Speaker 2: this year it's been like 30 minutes per race, and
- 52:49Speaker 2: I don't feel comfortable telling people this is what I
- 52:52Speaker 2: think because I haven't put the same level. If I
- 52:55Speaker 2: do have an idea, I'm going to post it on X.
- 52:58Speaker 2: If I come up with a horse or two on
- 52:59Speaker 2: a race that I think are good ideas on my account,
- 53:02Speaker 2: which is Mark Belling show on x.com, formerly Twitter, that's
- 53:06Speaker 2: where I'm going to post it. But I've had a,
- 53:09Speaker 2: I've had a very good month. The one, yeah, I
- 53:12Speaker 2: think I know things like this always come to a
- 53:15Speaker 2: thud and it's Saturday night is Halloween, the last day
- 53:19Speaker 2: in October. That means November starts on Sunday. I kind
- 53:22Speaker 2: of think that this election is going to be the
- 53:24Speaker 2: kick in the face that ends this run. But other
- 53:28Speaker 2: than that, this has been a great period. And Jason
- 53:32Speaker 2: is a Cub fan in there. He's even been, like,
- 53:34Speaker 2: gracious about this. And far more gracious than I would
- 53:37Speaker 2: be if you guys had ever won it again. I mean,
- 53:40Speaker 2: there's just, there's no way if the Cubs win a championship,
- 53:42Speaker 2: I'm going to congratulate you on that. I'm just going
- 53:45Speaker 2: to be bitter and cranky and crabby about the whole thing.
- 53:48Speaker 2: But so you're a better man than I am. So I,
- 53:51Speaker 2: on the other hand, on the other hand, it's probably,
- 53:53Speaker 2: you still are in this stage where you think that
- 53:54Speaker 2: you have to suck up to me and so on.
- 53:57Speaker 2: Paul got over that real, Paul got over that real,
- 54:01Speaker 2: real quickly that need to like, he would like do
- 54:04Speaker 2: like situational sucking up. I mean, he hardly ever sucked up,
- 54:07Speaker 2: but there'd be times that he would sort of suck up.
- 54:09Speaker 2: But I always figured that there was an agenda associated
- 54:12Speaker 2: with that.
- 54:12Speaker 3: All right.
- 54:13Speaker 2: We're going to do our football segment in segment three.
- 54:15Speaker 2: This was segment one, and we're going to have a
- 54:17Speaker 2: segment coming up here in a moment. Obviously, this podcast,
- 54:20Speaker 2: kind of a special podcast focusing so much on the
- 54:23Speaker 2: Brewers because it just happened. But there are several other
- 54:26Speaker 2: stories in the world that I want to cover, and
- 54:27Speaker 2: we'll talk about them in a moment on the Mark
- 54:29Speaker 2: Belling podcast. This is the Mark Belling Podcast. All right,
- 54:35Speaker 2: political news. It's not good. I had a feeling that
- 54:41Speaker 2: the race for governor in Wisconsin would, in each successive poll, narrow.
- 54:47Speaker 2: It has not. I think the polling is more of
- 54:51Speaker 2: a crapshoot now than ever. And I'm not going to
- 54:55Speaker 2: give up on any race because of the polls. But...
- 54:59Speaker 2: The fact of the matter is, is that David Crowley
- 55:01Speaker 2: is now way ahead of Tom Tiffany in the latest
- 55:04Speaker 2: Marquette University Law School poll. The margin was down to
- 55:08Speaker 2: three in the poll they took several weeks ago. It's
- 55:10Speaker 2: now up to seven among likely voters. It's closer with
- 55:15Speaker 2: registered voters. What does that tell me? It tells me
- 55:20Speaker 2: that the problem the Republicans are facing is the same
- 55:23Speaker 2: one that we face every time Donald Trump is not
- 55:25Speaker 2: on the ballot. In 2016, 2020, and 2024, the three
- 55:31Speaker 2: most recent elections in which Donald Trump's name was on
- 55:34Speaker 2: the ballot, the number of Republican voters who turned out
- 55:37Speaker 2: was through the roof. Even though he didn't win the
- 55:40Speaker 2: state in 20, he got more votes in 20 in
- 55:42Speaker 2: Wisconsin than he did in 16. One of the many
- 55:45Speaker 2: reasons people have been suspicious about that particular result. It
- 55:50Speaker 2: has just been a challenge to rally low propensity Republican
- 55:55Speaker 2: voters to vote. when Trump is not on the ballot.
- 56:00Speaker 2: Add to that the fact that there are unpopularity issues
- 56:03Speaker 2: associated with Trump right now, and some voters, even though
- 56:08Speaker 2: the governor of Wisconsin has nothing to do with national policy,
- 56:13Speaker 2: they get dispirited and they don't turn out. And I'm talking,
- 56:16Speaker 2: when I say low propensity voters, basically people who don't
- 56:19Speaker 2: care that much. If you cared that much, you'd vote
- 56:22Speaker 2: in every election the way that I do. And many
- 56:25Speaker 2: of the people who listen to me are people who
- 56:26Speaker 2: care a lot and they vote in every election. Both parties, however,
- 56:31Speaker 2: have that 30 to 35% of their populace that doesn't
- 56:35Speaker 2: care much at all. And the Democrats really, ever since COVID,
- 56:39Speaker 2: when we changed the voting laws, have done a better
- 56:41Speaker 2: job of getting their people who don't give a crap
- 56:44Speaker 2: to vote. In many instances, by filling out the ballot
- 56:47Speaker 2: for them, giving them a stamp, having them lick it,
- 56:50Speaker 2: sign the ballot envelope and put it in the mail.
- 56:57Speaker 2: I think Tiffany can still win. He's facing, obviously, the
- 57:02Speaker 2: problem of the blue wave. But the candidate that he's
- 57:05Speaker 2: running against is a total dingbat. He's a lightweight. And
- 57:11Speaker 2: the history of Wisconsin voters being stupid enough to turn
- 57:15Speaker 2: their state over to a Milwaukee leftist is just nonexistent.
- 57:19Speaker 2: It doesn't happen. But the polling numbers are not good.
- 57:24Speaker 2: It's an apples to apples comparison when you're talking about
- 57:27Speaker 2: the same poll. Now, countering that, the last Marquette Law
- 57:32Speaker 2: poll in the 2024 presidential election had Kamala up in
- 57:36Speaker 2: Wisconsin by about four points. That one was way off, too.
- 57:39Speaker 2: This one is seven. And there's, as I say, this
- 57:43Speaker 2: sense of a blue wave. People just don't know how
- 57:46Speaker 2: much of a blue wave it's going to be. To me,
- 57:48Speaker 2: the barometer race to tell you is going to be Michigan.
- 57:55Speaker 2: You have a guy who's essentially affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood,
- 57:59Speaker 2: an out-and-out Marxist anti-Semite who has sympathies for Muslim terrorism, El-Sayed,
- 58:07Speaker 2: running for the United States Senate. If he could win
- 58:09Speaker 2: in a swing state, that means this is going to
- 58:11Speaker 2: be a bloodbath for the Republicans because El-Sayed is one
- 58:16Speaker 2: of the most extreme candidates that either party has ever
- 58:18Speaker 2: put up for the United States Senate. And if he
- 58:20Speaker 2: could win, It means that no Republican pretty much anywhere
- 58:25Speaker 2: in a swing state has any chance of winning. So
- 58:30Speaker 2: I'm approaching this now with at least a sense, a
- 58:33Speaker 2: little bit of a sense of pessimism. Again, I'm doing
- 58:36Speaker 2: this podcast on Thursday. Everywhere on the, well, I shouldn't
- 58:39Speaker 2: say that. Just about everywhere in the state of Wisconsin,
- 58:42Speaker 2: you can early vote through Friday. Some of the smaller
- 58:45Speaker 2: communities in rural Wisconsin and so on, you have to
- 58:48Speaker 2: make an appointment with the clerk and all that crap,
- 58:50Speaker 2: which infuriates me. But in most of your areas where
- 58:54Speaker 2: the clerk's office has regular voting hours, including some of
- 58:57Speaker 2: the smaller cities, early voting is available until Friday. And
- 59:04Speaker 2: the only way to pull this off is for this
- 59:08Speaker 2: fear that I have that the low propensity vote aren't
- 59:10Speaker 2: going to turn out, that they actually turn out. And
- 59:11Speaker 2: that means that those of you that have a brother-in-law
- 59:15Speaker 2: who's a low propensity voter or one of your kids,
- 59:17Speaker 2: you got to get them out to vote and you
- 59:20Speaker 2: got to get them to vote correctly. I want to
- 59:23Speaker 2: turn my attention to The reality is the Democrats just
- 59:27Speaker 2: have the ability to play dirtier than the Republicans do.
- 59:30Speaker 2: I'm not saying that there is a total lack, that
- 59:33Speaker 2: there aren't Republicans that are willing to play as dirty
- 59:36Speaker 2: as the Democrats. I just don't think that they're as
- 59:38Speaker 2: good at it. This thing in Alaska. The Republican candidate
- 59:46Speaker 2: for the Senate is named Dan Sullivan. There's now a
- 59:51Speaker 2: federal investigation going on. Unfortunately, it isn't going to do
- 59:54Speaker 2: anything to change the results of the election. The Democrats
- 59:58Speaker 2: recruited a guy from the middle of nowhere in Alaska
- 1:00:00Speaker 2: whose name is Dan Sullivan. So you've got two Dan
- 1:00:03Speaker 2: Sullivans on the ballot. They put the other Dan Sullivan
- 1:00:07Speaker 2: on the ballot hoping to confuse some of the people
- 1:00:10Speaker 2: who support the actual Republican Dan Sullivan and siphon votes
- 1:00:13Speaker 2: over to his side. By the way, there's no reason
- 1:00:18Speaker 2: I should also add, Alaska has unusual voting. In Alaska,
- 1:00:23Speaker 2: you have multiple candidates from each party on the general
- 1:00:27Speaker 2: election ballot. For example, there are several Republicans running for
- 1:00:33Speaker 2: the United States Senate and more than one Democrat. So
- 1:00:36Speaker 2: you couldn't do this in Wisconsin. You couldn't put like
- 1:00:40Speaker 2: two Democrats on the ballot with the same name because
- 1:00:44Speaker 2: in a general election, there is only one Democrat running.
- 1:00:48Speaker 2: There is a story, however, that I'd like to share
- 1:00:50Speaker 2: historically about this. Back in the days in which the
- 1:00:53Speaker 2: Wisconsin Secretary of State had actual duties, we had a
- 1:00:57Speaker 2: guy who was Secretary of State in Wisconsin forever. His
- 1:00:59Speaker 2: name was Robert Zimmerman. And I think it was his father.
- 1:01:03Speaker 2: He was the Secretary of State before him. So there
- 1:01:05Speaker 2: was a Zimmerman that was Secretary of State for like
- 1:01:07Speaker 2: 30 years in Wisconsin. One year, he was a Republican.
- 1:01:13Speaker 2: One year, the Democrats put up a candidate for Secretary
- 1:01:15Speaker 2: of State whose name was Robert Zimmerman. I don't know
- 1:01:19Speaker 2: why I remember this, but I think the Republican was
- 1:01:21Speaker 2: Robert C. Zimmerman. And I think the Democrat, maybe Robert A.
- 1:01:26Speaker 2: So you had two Robert Zimmermans running for secretary of state.
- 1:01:29Speaker 2: And the Republicans were just that here. They had to
- 1:01:30Speaker 2: keep focusing on everyone that the real one was the
- 1:01:33Speaker 2: Republican Robert Zimmerman. And I still remember his slogan. It
- 1:01:37Speaker 2: was vote for me. I'm Robert C. He survived. Robert C.
- 1:01:40Speaker 2: Zimmerman did win. But I mean, even going back to then,
- 1:01:43Speaker 2: the Democrats put up somebody figuring the only way you're
- 1:01:46Speaker 2: going to be able to beat an unbeatable guy who
- 1:01:47Speaker 2: has incredible name recognition is put up somebody with the
- 1:01:51Speaker 2: exact same name. David Crowley and his health care proposal.
- 1:01:58Speaker 2: Crowley went out and shot off his mouth a few
- 1:02:00Speaker 2: weeks ago saying he was going to allow everybody in
- 1:02:04Speaker 2: Wisconsin to essentially go on badger care. His staff has
- 1:02:11Speaker 2: since tried to explain what it is that he is doing,
- 1:02:14Speaker 2: and the proposal is this. It would subsidize BadgerCare so
- 1:02:20Speaker 2: that one of the plans on BadgerCare, and BadgerCare is
- 1:02:23Speaker 2: the Wisconsin health care plan. It is not low income.
- 1:02:28Speaker 2: Low income is Medicaid. BadgerCare is what we offer on
- 1:02:33Speaker 2: the exchanges, the Obamacare exchanges. They are for people that
- 1:02:37Speaker 2: are above low income. but for whom health insurance is
- 1:02:43Speaker 2: very expensive. Either they don't have it to their own
- 1:02:46Speaker 2: work or their income is such that it is hard
- 1:02:52Speaker 2: for them to make the contribution, the employee contribution that
- 1:02:55Speaker 2: you make at your work. And those are those people
- 1:02:57Speaker 2: that are in the gap. Crowley's proposal is to, in
- 1:03:01Speaker 2: addition to all of the private insurance plans that are
- 1:03:03Speaker 2: part of BadgerCare and the exchanges, to have a state
- 1:03:09Speaker 2: government run plan and have the state subsidize it. It
- 1:03:13Speaker 2: would mean all the rest of us who have private
- 1:03:16Speaker 2: health care insurance or for that matter, Medicare or anything else,
- 1:03:20Speaker 2: our taxes would go through the roof in order to
- 1:03:24Speaker 2: subsidize this plan that Crowley would be putting in place
- 1:03:27Speaker 2: to allow low to middle income people to be able
- 1:03:30Speaker 2: to get health care on the exchanges. They'd still have
- 1:03:32Speaker 2: to pay for it. but the plans will be underpriced.
- 1:03:35Speaker 2: They'll be underpriced because taxpayers will be subsidizing them. It's
- 1:03:39Speaker 2: taking the part of Obamacare that has been the absolute worst.
- 1:03:43Speaker 2: Obamacare premiums are exploding because the Obamacare numbers have never
- 1:03:47Speaker 2: added up and making our own Wisconsin version of Obamacare
- 1:03:51Speaker 2: in which you will have health insurance for some people
- 1:03:56Speaker 2: being deeply subsidized by the taxpayers of the state of Wisconsin.
- 1:04:02Speaker 2: This is why Crowley is not committing to returning any
- 1:04:05Speaker 2: of the surplus to the tax fears. He's going to
- 1:04:08Speaker 2: spend the whole thing. This $ 3 billion that we're sitting
- 1:04:13Speaker 2: on in state government, which could be the biggest jolt
- 1:04:17Speaker 2: of the Wisconsin economy ever if you simply kicked it
- 1:04:20Speaker 2: back to the public. He's going to spend it all.
- 1:04:28Speaker 2: I've commented that I think Tiffany's campaign has been pretty good.
- 1:04:31Speaker 2: My criticism is he's focusing on just the one or
- 1:04:35Speaker 2: two issues. You know, Crowley's terrible record in Milwaukee, his
- 1:04:39Speaker 2: record of being a taxer and so on. They've left
- 1:04:42Speaker 2: certain issues, I think, off the table. I've commented on,
- 1:04:46Speaker 2: you know, they are not, to my knowledge, yet running
- 1:04:49Speaker 2: ads on the affidavit that's been signed by a Democrat
- 1:04:54Speaker 2: indicating that Crowley asked for $ 250, 000 to drop out of
- 1:04:58Speaker 2: the race, asked for it from Sarah Rodriguez. and then
- 1:05:01Speaker 2: reneged on the $ 250, 000 offer once Rodriguez had a drop
- 1:05:04Speaker 2: out of the race. And they haven't done anything with
- 1:05:07Speaker 2: Crowley going to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee while Milwaukee County
- 1:05:10Speaker 2: executive and having the taxpayers pay for it. I think
- 1:05:13Speaker 2: that if there's a criticism of Tiffany's campaign, it's that
- 1:05:17Speaker 2: they have not exploited how bad Crowley actually is by
- 1:05:21Speaker 2: focusing just on the two or three issues. But in
- 1:05:24Speaker 2: the end, if Tiffany, who's clearly a better candidate than Crowley, loses,
- 1:05:29Speaker 2: it's simply because There's a blue wave that you can't
- 1:05:33Speaker 2: fight off. And maybe the blue wave can be fought off.
- 1:05:36Speaker 2: Polling is far less reliable now than at any point
- 1:05:39Speaker 2: in my lifetime for zillions of reasons, the biggest of
- 1:05:42Speaker 2: which is, well, there's two of them. They still oversample
- 1:05:46Speaker 2: Democrats when they create the sample and B, most Republicans,
- 1:05:52Speaker 2: I mean, I get these texts, the push polls all
- 1:05:54Speaker 2: the time. I've not responded to one in 15 years.
- 1:06:00Speaker 2: It's very hard to get a Republican to respond to
- 1:06:02Speaker 2: a political poll. And that really skews the results. Now
- 1:06:08Speaker 2: that the baseball season is over, I think I know
- 1:06:12Speaker 2: about the team that won it. It is time to
- 1:06:14Speaker 2: turn almost all of our attention to football. I might
- 1:06:16Speaker 2: actually get to a Bucs game this weekend. I'm doing
- 1:06:20Speaker 2: this show on Thursday. The Bucs played last night. I
- 1:06:23Speaker 2: don't even know if they won. I bet this is
- 1:06:25Speaker 2: the first time in years. that I didn't know a
- 1:06:29Speaker 2: day later if the Bucks had won the preceding night.
- 1:06:33Speaker 2: They got crushed by the Rockets. Now I know the answer.
- 1:06:38Speaker 2: In fact, I've heard, before the game started, I heard
- 1:06:42Speaker 2: from somebody who was down there that there were like
- 1:06:44Speaker 2: 8,000 people outside of the Deer District and about eight
- 1:06:47Speaker 2: people actually inside the building at the Fiserv Forum, which
- 1:06:52Speaker 2: I mean, think about that. You've got an NBA basketball
- 1:06:54Speaker 2: game going on inside the building. Nobody's at that. And instead,
- 1:06:57Speaker 2: you've got people standing. It actually wasn't too cold. It
- 1:07:00Speaker 2: was for the end of October. It was nice enough
- 1:07:03Speaker 2: weather standing outside watching the basketball game. Anyway, when we
- 1:07:07Speaker 2: come back next, we're going to preview this weekend's football
- 1:07:09Speaker 2: games and get some point spread picks on the Mark
- 1:07:10Speaker 2: Belling podcast. This is the Mark Belling podcast. And now
- 1:07:17Speaker 2: we turn all of our attention away from baseball. I
- 1:07:20Speaker 2: got Mike Merlet of American Sports Analysts in Madison with me. Mike,
- 1:07:23Speaker 2: I don't know if you're aware of this, but we
- 1:07:25Speaker 2: played a baseball game last night in Tampa. Did you
- 1:07:27Speaker 2: hear anything about that, or are you following that at all?
- 1:07:29Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been a Brewers fan forever as well, so
- 1:07:33Speaker 3: I've been glued to the TV every, you know, nervous.
- 1:07:36Speaker 3: It was awesome.
- 1:07:38Speaker 2: Now, my recollection is your service does baseball, but you're
- 1:07:42Speaker 2: not the one that does it, or do you not
- 1:07:44Speaker 2: get mixed up on that?
- 1:07:45Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 1:07:46Speaker 2: Yeah, correct.
- 1:07:47Speaker 3: Our service does baseball. I don't do the baseball. But,
- 1:07:50Speaker 3: you know, I follow the Brewers. I watch them pretty
- 1:07:51Speaker 3: much every game.
- 1:07:52Speaker 2: Now, have your service put out a pick last night,
- 1:07:54Speaker 2: for example, on Tampa?
- 1:07:56Speaker 3: Yeah. No, no, no. We had Milwaukee.
- 1:07:58Speaker 2: But if you did, I mean, I know it's your
- 1:08:01Speaker 2: business and you don't want to sell bad picks. There
- 1:08:04Speaker 2: are just certain exceptions in which I think you're able
- 1:08:07Speaker 2: to root against the pick that you put out, especially
- 1:08:09Speaker 2: since you're not the one that does the picking. It's like,
- 1:08:13Speaker 2: I guess, if you'd pick against the Badgers, you're a
- 1:08:15Speaker 2: Badger fan, but You're selling that pick. You still kind
- 1:08:19Speaker 2: of want your pick to be corrected. Yeah. Even though
- 1:08:22Speaker 2: you're a Badger fan.
- 1:08:23Speaker 3: But it worked out well because we took the Brewers.
- 1:08:25Speaker 3: So it worked out, you know, two for one.
- 1:08:27Speaker 2: Well, you were ahead of me because I did not
- 1:08:29Speaker 2: think they would win last night.
- 1:08:31Speaker 3: Oh, really?
- 1:08:34Speaker 2: My analysis, first of all, I surprised Rasmussen only pitched
- 1:08:36Speaker 2: four innings. The Brewers did get to him for the run.
- 1:08:39Speaker 2: I thought that he'd go seven. Miz would go his
- 1:08:42Speaker 2: normal five. And the Brewers would have to rely on
- 1:08:44Speaker 2: the bullpen that's been heavily used. That was my knock
- 1:08:47Speaker 2: on the whole thing. Instead, Mizorowski pitched his best game
- 1:08:51Speaker 2: in the last two months and Rasmussen was fine, but
- 1:08:55Speaker 2: he wasn't flawless. And this is a guy that had
- 1:08:57Speaker 2: been flawless really since the beginning of August. So I
- 1:09:00Speaker 2: didn't think that they were going to win. And you know,
- 1:09:02Speaker 2: I'm getting people today asking, well, don't you wish I
- 1:09:05Speaker 2: had come back to him? No, no, no, no, no.
- 1:09:09Speaker 2: If this game was played on the moon, we've won
- 1:09:11Speaker 2: a world series. All right. I do have Mike, American
- 1:09:14Speaker 2: sports analyst in Madison. Um, We're doing this podcast on
- 1:09:17Speaker 2: Thursday afternoon. In other words, we're doing it before the
- 1:09:20Speaker 2: Packer game on Thursday evening. Anything you'd like to share
- 1:09:23Speaker 2: about this weekend's offerings at ASA?
- 1:09:26Speaker 3: Sure. First of all, we came off a fantastic weekend
- 1:09:29Speaker 3: last weekend. On Saturday, we went 5-0, and on Sunday,
- 1:09:32Speaker 3: we went 4-0.
- 1:09:33Speaker 2: Oh, 9-0! How did you pull that off?
- 1:09:38Speaker 3: Well, if you go back to last Thursday, so Thursday
- 1:09:41Speaker 3: through current, we're 12-1. in college and pro combined. So
- 1:09:45Speaker 3: we're on a nice roll right now. And we'll want
- 1:09:47Speaker 3: a big play in college. One of our first seven
- 1:09:49Speaker 3: star of the year in college last week. So great weekend.
- 1:09:52Speaker 3: And what we're going to do this weekend for, uh, listeners,
- 1:09:55Speaker 3: if they want to go to our website, uh, I've
- 1:09:57Speaker 3: got a, a coupon code for them. We've got a,
- 1:09:59Speaker 3: a weekend package up. We've got November package up. And
- 1:10:03Speaker 3: if they sign up for November, we'll give them this
- 1:10:05Speaker 3: last few days of October, including Saturday. Um, so we've
- 1:10:09Speaker 3: got a lot of stuff up there. If they use the, uh,
- 1:10:12Speaker 3: The code word or the coupon code GHOST30. 3-0 GHOST30
- 1:10:18Speaker 3: at checkout.
- 1:10:19Speaker 2: I didn't hear that first word before 30. Did you say,
- 1:10:21Speaker 2: spell it?
- 1:10:22Speaker 3: GHOST.
- 1:10:23Speaker 2: GHOST.
- 1:10:23Speaker 3: Halloween GHOST.
- 1:10:24Speaker 2: Oh, G-H-O-S-T and then 3-0. Is that what you're saying?
- 1:10:29Speaker 3: Yep, and that's 30% off everything on our site through Sunday.
- 1:10:33Speaker 2: You know, I went to Kaukauna High School. Our team's
- 1:10:36Speaker 2: nickname is the ghosts. We're the only ghosts, I think,
- 1:10:40Speaker 2: anywhere on planet Earth. I've never heard of another one.
- 1:10:42Speaker 2: We are the galloping ghosts. I think the game might
- 1:10:47Speaker 2: have been last. No, I think they're in the second
- 1:10:49Speaker 2: round of the playoffs tonight, but that's not one of
- 1:10:52Speaker 2: the games we're going to be talking about. So anyway,
- 1:10:54Speaker 2: ASAWins.com and Mike's discount code that he mentioned is GHOST30.
- 1:10:59Speaker 2: All right. Let's start talking about some football. Normally I
- 1:11:02Speaker 2: lead with college football. This weekend we're going to lead
- 1:11:04Speaker 2: with the NFL because the Packers play on Thursday night,
- 1:11:07Speaker 2: and some of you will be hearing this before then.
- 1:11:09Speaker 2: So let's do a brief preview of the Panthers-Packers game
- 1:11:15Speaker 2: this weekend. Green Bay is, I believe, favored by about
- 1:11:17Speaker 2: 3.5 points. What are your thoughts on this game, Mike?
- 1:11:20Speaker 3: Yeah, tough, tough, tough game, I think. I mean, both
- 1:11:23Speaker 3: teams are off losses. Let's put it this way. If
- 1:11:25Speaker 3: the Packers were to come off a win last week,
- 1:11:28Speaker 3: I'd probably lean Carolina in this game. Carolina got smoked
- 1:11:32Speaker 3: 43-13 at home. One interesting situation with Carolina, Mark, is
- 1:11:37Speaker 3: the last 13 times they've come off a straight-up loss,
- 1:11:41Speaker 3: they've covered the next game 13-0. And if they're an
- 1:11:44Speaker 3: underdog in that next game, they're 15-0, 15 in a row.
- 1:11:48Speaker 3: That's an interesting stat. Green Bay, so many injuries. I mean,
- 1:11:53Speaker 3: they got two starting offensive linemen out. They're down to
- 1:11:55Speaker 3: the third-string center and it doesn't even play center. They're
- 1:11:58Speaker 3: losing defensive tackles. I think Wyatt's coming back. Golden might
- 1:12:03Speaker 3: not play in this game. I mean, it's just, they
- 1:12:05Speaker 3: have so many injuries right now. I just, as soon
- 1:12:12Speaker 3: as their offensive line started playing better, then they lost
- 1:12:14Speaker 3: their centers on like back-to-back plays almost. Just crazy how
- 1:12:18Speaker 3: many injuries they have on the offensive and defensive line.
- 1:12:21Speaker 3: I'm not saying I like Carolina in this game. I
- 1:12:23Speaker 3: just think it's a tough spot for Green Bay. Here's
- 1:12:26Speaker 3: one interesting thing. situation that I, that I found as
- 1:12:29Speaker 3: far as green bagels. So Jordan love has made 26
- 1:12:32Speaker 3: starts in Lambeau field. The Packers are 17 and two
- 1:12:37Speaker 3: when they allow less than 24 points. If they allow
- 1:12:40Speaker 3: 24 points or more, they're Oh, and seven in his start.
- 1:12:43Speaker 3: So 24 is kind of the magic number defensively in
- 1:12:45Speaker 3: this game tonight or.
- 1:12:47Speaker 2: Yeah, tonight Carolina apparently has terrible stats against the run,
- 1:12:53Speaker 2: but the Packers haven't been able to run the ball. I,
- 1:12:57Speaker 2: That's probably, to me, one of the keys to the game. Now,
- 1:13:00Speaker 2: the Packers, as you said, the offensive line, I mean,
- 1:13:03Speaker 2: it was no good before this, but now it's in
- 1:13:05Speaker 2: shambles because of injuries. And no matter how bad a
- 1:13:08Speaker 2: run defense is, if you can't block, you're probably not
- 1:13:12Speaker 2: going to be able to run. So I would think
- 1:13:13Speaker 2: if the Packers can run for over 100 yards, it
- 1:13:16Speaker 2: means the offense is, I mean, even in games that
- 1:13:19Speaker 2: they've been winning this year, they wouldn't run for over
- 1:13:21Speaker 2: 100 yards. If they can run for over 100 yards
- 1:13:23Speaker 2: against the Carolina defense, even with this bad banged up
- 1:13:26Speaker 2: offensive line, probably I would think that they should win.
- 1:13:30Speaker 2: To me, the marquee game of the weekend in the
- 1:13:32Speaker 2: NFL is the other game from the NFC North. It
- 1:13:36Speaker 2: is a fascinating game. The Vikings play the Lions. The Vikings,
- 1:13:42Speaker 2: they just look so unimpressive, but they never lose. They're unbeaten,
- 1:13:47Speaker 2: but in fairness, they have had a very soft schedule.
- 1:13:52Speaker 2: Detroit has a world-class offense. and an atrocious defense. The
- 1:13:59Speaker 2: games in Detroit. I think everybody thinks this is the
- 1:14:03Speaker 2: week that the Vikings get their comeuppance. On the other hand,
- 1:14:07Speaker 2: we just saw the Detroit play Green Bay and the Packers,
- 1:14:10Speaker 2: I felt, outplayed the Lions. And the Vikings might be
- 1:14:14Speaker 2: better than the Packers. This creates just a huge question
- 1:14:17Speaker 2: mark in this game. I don't want to get in
- 1:14:20Speaker 2: the way of this Vikings freight train, but boy, oh boy,
- 1:14:23Speaker 2: they seem to be so overdue for Not only a loss,
- 1:14:26Speaker 2: but like four losses in a row. Your thoughts on
- 1:14:28Speaker 2: the game?
- 1:14:29Speaker 3: Yeah, and we've talked about this a few times this year.
- 1:14:32Speaker 3: The Vikings metrics that we look at don't match 6-0
- 1:14:35Speaker 3: at all. They match more like 3-3, 4-2 at best
- 1:14:39Speaker 3: type of team, but they keep winning because of defense.
- 1:14:41Speaker 3: This is strength. This is an interesting game. Like you said, Mark,
- 1:14:44Speaker 3: first of all, the Vikings have won 11 games in
- 1:14:46Speaker 3: a row now dating back to last season. So they're
- 1:14:50Speaker 3: on a nice roll right now. Division underdogs this year,
- 1:14:54Speaker 3: which were the Vikings would fit this scenario. Division underdogs
- 1:14:57Speaker 3: this year are 23 and 10 against the spread. So 70%.
- 1:15:02Speaker 3: And that's been a long-term thing. It's not, it's not 70% long-term,
- 1:15:05Speaker 3: but division underdogs have done really well. The interesting thing
- 1:15:09Speaker 3: here is strength on strength versus weakness on weakness, right?
- 1:15:12Speaker 3: The number two offense against the number two defense and
- 1:15:15Speaker 3: the number 29 offense against the number 32 defense. So
- 1:15:19Speaker 3: that's an interesting thing to watch here. Here's an interesting
- 1:15:24Speaker 3: stat on Minnesota. The first undefeated team since 1978 in
- 1:15:29Speaker 3: week seven or later that averages less than 21 points.
- 1:15:35Speaker 3: You just normally can't win if you can't score, and
- 1:15:37Speaker 3: they can't score, but they keep winning because of their defense.
- 1:15:40Speaker 3: Now they play a really good offense. Great game. I
- 1:15:42Speaker 3: don't really like a side in this game, but it's
- 1:15:45Speaker 3: a very interesting game to watch.
- 1:15:48Speaker 2: I have a theory about college football right now. And
- 1:15:53Speaker 2: that is that really the trend over the last 15
- 1:15:56Speaker 2: years has been all of these high-powered offenses. I think
- 1:16:00Speaker 2: about what Lincoln Riley did when he was at Oklahoma
- 1:16:02Speaker 2: in which it started with the air raid and some
- 1:16:05Speaker 2: of the others, and everybody had to have a high-powered offense.
- 1:16:08Speaker 2: And I think that that has totally flipped, that right
- 1:16:12Speaker 2: now the way to dominate in college football is on defense.
- 1:16:17Speaker 2: I think you're certainly seeing that in the Big Ten
- 1:16:21Speaker 2: and elsewhere. Almost all of the good teams in America,
- 1:16:24Speaker 2: other than Miami, are really, really good on defense, more
- 1:16:29Speaker 2: so than offense. And that might be kicking in a
- 1:16:33Speaker 2: little bit in the NFL, where we've had a lot
- 1:16:36Speaker 2: of high-scoring games. But I look at a team like
- 1:16:38Speaker 2: the Vikings that have no offense at all, and so far,
- 1:16:42Speaker 2: at least, they're unbeaten. Let's turn our attention to college football.
- 1:16:47Speaker 2: What an interesting game. This is always a great game
- 1:16:50Speaker 2: because it's a great rivalry because the schools have so
- 1:16:52Speaker 2: much in common. Wisconsin goes to Iowa to play the Hawkeyes.
- 1:16:58Speaker 2: Wisconsin is coming off of a major victory over USC
- 1:17:03Speaker 2: in which USC, which has one of the best offenses
- 1:17:05Speaker 2: in America, could not do anything against the Badger defense.
- 1:17:10Speaker 2: And Iowa is the same Iowa team that they've been forever.
- 1:17:14Speaker 2: They seem to have a pretty good defense. Teams don't
- 1:17:16Speaker 2: score much on them, and their offense isn't very good.
- 1:17:20Speaker 2: They're probably really closely aligned in talent. I don't know.
- 1:17:25Speaker 2: What do you think, Mike? Badgers or Iowa? Iowa is
- 1:17:28Speaker 2: favored at home in the game.
- 1:17:31Speaker 3: The spot, Iowa's favored by three and a half, which
- 1:17:34Speaker 3: tells you the odds makers on a neutral field think
- 1:17:38Speaker 3: they're about even, close to even, which is probably correct.
- 1:17:42Speaker 3: We have them close to even in our power ratings.
- 1:17:45Speaker 3: This spot screens Iowa coming off a loss in a
- 1:17:50Speaker 3: game they outplayed Minnesota but had four turnovers, had more yards,
- 1:17:54Speaker 3: better yards to play, but had four turnovers, and Wisconsin
- 1:17:57Speaker 3: coming off a huge home game. I mean, the last
- 1:18:00Speaker 3: four games they've played, and I know they're different teams now,
- 1:18:03Speaker 3: but Iowa's outscored Wisconsin 118-26. Wisconsin scored 10-6, 10-0. their
- 1:18:10Speaker 3: last four games against Iowa. But I don't think Iowa's
- 1:18:14Speaker 3: offense is going to be able to do anything either.
- 1:18:16Speaker 3: That's why this total is set at 36.5, which is
- 1:18:19Speaker 3: the lowest total in college football this year so far.
- 1:18:22Speaker 2: And with rather good weather expected. Maybe that would be
- 1:18:26Speaker 2: understandable if there was a blizzard or something. But 36.5
- 1:18:30Speaker 2: with excellent football weather. But Wisconsin's defense, they're as good
- 1:18:35Speaker 2: as anybody in the country. Wisconsin's offense is not very good.
- 1:18:38Speaker 2: And Iowa's a mirror image of that. The whole letdown
- 1:18:41Speaker 2: thing and spot situation, everything you said is correct, but
- 1:18:47Speaker 2: it's not always a team that's expected to come and
- 1:18:51Speaker 2: have a letdown doesn't always do it a team that
- 1:18:54Speaker 2: you think would come off of a loss and win
- 1:18:57Speaker 2: doesn't always do it but they do it more often
- 1:18:59Speaker 2: than not so you're talking about probabilities also i have
- 1:19:03Speaker 2: a strong opinion of how good wisconsin is I mean,
- 1:19:07Speaker 2: I think right now they're ranked 25th in the country.
- 1:19:09Speaker 2: I think that they're somewhere in that range. I'm confused
- 1:19:13Speaker 2: about how good Iowa is. I'm less convinced of the
- 1:19:18Speaker 2: talent on Iowa and where they fit in than Wisconsin.
- 1:19:21Speaker 2: I think Wisconsin has drastically improved from last year, like
- 1:19:25Speaker 2: maybe 14 to 16 points a game better than they
- 1:19:27Speaker 2: were last year. But I don't have a feel for Iowa,
- 1:19:31Speaker 2: even though we're at the end of October. I mean,
- 1:19:34Speaker 2: who do you... Just give me your general thought. Where
- 1:19:38Speaker 2: does Iowa fit, for example, in the Big Ten? Are
- 1:19:40Speaker 2: they one of the top three teams, top five teams?
- 1:19:43Speaker 3: No.
- 1:19:43Speaker 2: Are they like eighth, twelfth, fourteenth? And I think this
- 1:19:46Speaker 2: year the Big Ten is way down, and the emergence
- 1:19:51Speaker 2: of UCLA and Northwestern, first of all, points to some
- 1:19:54Speaker 2: of the thoughts that I have about defense being so important,
- 1:19:56Speaker 2: but also the league. I think just almost every team
- 1:20:00Speaker 2: is below what they normally are.
- 1:20:03Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, you got... Indiana's not
- 1:20:06Speaker 3: as good as they were last year. Ohio State's not
- 1:20:08Speaker 3: as good. They just lost their quarterback. Obviously, Oregon is
- 1:20:12Speaker 3: way down from last year.
- 1:20:13Speaker 2: Penn State hasn't won a game.
- 1:20:16Speaker 3: Penn State isn't good. I'd rate Wisconsin and Iowa pretty
- 1:20:20Speaker 3: darn close. Probably, I don't have it right in front
- 1:20:24Speaker 3: of me, but we probably have them 6-7, 5-6-7 in
- 1:20:29Speaker 3: the Big Ten. UCLA's really good. There are some really
- 1:20:33Speaker 3: good teams, but then there's a bunch that are Packed
- 1:20:35Speaker 3: in the middle, I'd say Iowa and Wisconsin are at
- 1:20:37Speaker 3: the top of that. Wisconsin's defense, we talked about. Wisconsin's
- 1:20:41Speaker 3: defense is number one in the entire country now in
- 1:20:43Speaker 3: yards per play allowed, 3.9. They allowed 3.2 yards per
- 1:20:48Speaker 3: play last week against USC, who came in averaging 6.6
- 1:20:52Speaker 3: yards per play, 12th in the nation. It's the lowest
- 1:20:55Speaker 3: total that Lincoln Riley's ever had scoring as a head
- 1:20:59Speaker 3: coach and yards per play.
- 1:21:00Speaker 2: As a head coach. I think Wisconsin has seven players
- 1:21:02Speaker 2: on their defense that are going to be in the NFL.
- 1:21:04Speaker 2: I think their defense is that good. They have three
- 1:21:07Speaker 2: guys in the defensive backfield that I think are NFL.
- 1:21:10Speaker 2: They have a couple of corners that just the receivers
- 1:21:12Speaker 2: can't get open on them. There's three linebackers on this
- 1:21:15Speaker 2: team that are going to be NFL players. And I
- 1:21:17Speaker 2: think Sebastian Cheeks, the defensive lineman, has a chance to
- 1:21:20Speaker 2: be picked late in the draft. So, I mean, I
- 1:21:22Speaker 2: think that the Wisconsin, for the longest, you know, after
- 1:21:26Speaker 2: years of really not having lots of talent, even prior
- 1:21:29Speaker 2: to the NIL thing kicking in, they actually have a
- 1:21:33Speaker 2: lot of major, players right now. All of them, however,
- 1:21:37Speaker 2: on the defensive side. And I alluded to this game.
- 1:21:40Speaker 2: Northwestern and Oregon. I mean, the beginning of the year,
- 1:21:44Speaker 2: Oregon was a contender for the national championship and Northwestern
- 1:21:47Speaker 2: was Northwestern. Northwestern, to me, seems to be the better team.
- 1:21:53Speaker 2: Oregon has no offense at all. Is this the week
- 1:21:57Speaker 2: that it flips and Oregon beats Northwestern and Northwestern comes
- 1:22:02Speaker 2: back to planet Earth or... Can Northwestern go into Oregon?
- 1:22:06Speaker 2: The game is on the road in, what do they play? Eugene,
- 1:22:09Speaker 2: I think. And win the game. What do you think?
- 1:22:12Speaker 3: Man, is this a tough game, I think.
- 1:22:14Speaker 2: It's interesting, though.
- 1:22:16Speaker 3: It's very interesting. I mean, Northwestern, if I would have
- 1:22:19Speaker 3: told you before the season at the end of October,
- 1:22:22Speaker 3: Northwestern was going to be 6-1 and Oregon was going
- 1:22:25Speaker 3: to be 4-3 and everyone would say you're crazy. And
- 1:22:27Speaker 3: I would have been one of them that said that.
- 1:22:29Speaker 3: I mean, that's where we sit right now. So what
- 1:22:31Speaker 3: is Oregon's psyche? They wanted to win the national championship,
- 1:22:34Speaker 3: and they're out of it completely now. Four and three,
- 1:22:36Speaker 3: they're out of it. The other thing is their offense.
- 1:22:40Speaker 3: You mentioned their offense. They scored 15, 17, and 10
- 1:22:43Speaker 3: points their last three games. They are 71st in total
- 1:22:48Speaker 3: offense right now. They were 10th last year. Their defense
- 1:22:51Speaker 3: is down. They scored 58 this year in total defense.
- 1:22:56Speaker 3: fifth last year in total offense or total defense last year.
- 1:23:00Speaker 3: And I think people aren't talking about it enough, but
- 1:23:02Speaker 3: they lost both coordinators over the off season. And I,
- 1:23:06Speaker 3: I kind of equate it to win.
- 1:23:07Speaker 2: Well, and they're talking about firing the offensive coordinator. I
- 1:23:10Speaker 2: don't think they have.
- 1:23:11Speaker 3: He got fired.
- 1:23:12Speaker 2: Oh, he did get fired. So, I mean, they actually
- 1:23:14Speaker 2: did fire him and it, it seemed like a reach
- 1:23:17Speaker 2: when they hired him. I don't recall where he came from,
- 1:23:19Speaker 2: but this was not like a guy with a big
- 1:23:21Speaker 2: track record. Maybe he came from New Mexico or something.
- 1:23:24Speaker 3: I think so. Yeah, they fired him this week. And
- 1:23:29Speaker 3: so now that, you know, what does Oregon do offensively
- 1:23:32Speaker 3: this week? Who's calling the plays? Do they change a
- 1:23:34Speaker 3: bunch of stuff up? Let's face it, Oregon is still
- 1:23:37Speaker 3: 54-4 their last 58 home games. Their only home game
- 1:23:40Speaker 3: loss this year was to UCLA as a top 10 team.
- 1:23:43Speaker 3: And now all of a sudden they're only favored by three,
- 1:23:46Speaker 3: three and a half points against the Northwestern team, who's
- 1:23:49Speaker 3: really good. But, you know, Northwestern's wins have come against, Colorado,
- 1:23:54Speaker 3: bad Big 12 team. Ball State, one of the worst
- 1:23:56Speaker 3: teams in the league. Michigan State and Rutgers, two of
- 1:23:59Speaker 3: the worst Big Ten teams. Their best win is Penn State.
- 1:24:04Speaker 2: Every team who has played Penn State in the Big
- 1:24:06Speaker 2: Ten is beat. By the way, I still think Penn
- 1:24:10Speaker 2: State's a good team. Those are all close losses that
- 1:24:13Speaker 2: they've had. They're winless in the Big Ten, and everybody's
- 1:24:16Speaker 2: hating on the coach who came from Iowa State. I
- 1:24:19Speaker 2: actually think It's just one of those seasons in which
- 1:24:22Speaker 2: everything is going wrong, but there's a lot of talent
- 1:24:23Speaker 2: out there on the team. One other quick comment, and
- 1:24:26Speaker 2: our producer here, Jason, who wins his pick every week,
- 1:24:31Speaker 2: went to Northwestern. Chip Kelly, the old head coach everywhere,
- 1:24:36Speaker 2: he's the offensive coordinator at Northwestern. There's a story in
- 1:24:40Speaker 2: the Wall Street Journal about him today. He's running some
- 1:24:42Speaker 2: version of like the winged tee, where he's got guys
- 1:24:46Speaker 2: that are shuttling in this odd tee formation, and You know,
- 1:24:49Speaker 2: now that he's not a head coach and can just
- 1:24:51Speaker 2: run an offense, which is all he's ever been good at,
- 1:24:54Speaker 2: he's one of these outside-the-box thinkers, and he's coming up
- 1:24:57Speaker 2: with schemes that has the other defense just confused. And
- 1:25:02Speaker 2: that's how you can, I think, succeed with perhaps inferior talent,
- 1:25:06Speaker 2: where you're just coming up and doing things in football
- 1:25:09Speaker 2: that the other teams can't figure out what it is
- 1:25:12Speaker 2: that you're doing, and you get guys out of position.
- 1:25:15Speaker 2: One of the stories of college football this year.
- 1:25:17Speaker 3: All right.
- 1:25:18Speaker 2: Those are our previews. We're going to get now to
- 1:25:21Speaker 2: our point spread picks, and let's recap what happened last week.
- 1:25:25Speaker 2: We had two winners and a tie. I actually thought
- 1:25:28Speaker 2: the Lions would beat the Packers by more than three.
- 1:25:31Speaker 2: The Lions won by three, so I got for the
- 1:25:33Speaker 2: second time this year a tie, a push. I think
- 1:25:37Speaker 2: Green Bay should have won the game. I didn't make
- 1:25:40Speaker 2: it a topic this week, but the refereeing in the
- 1:25:42Speaker 2: NFL has just gotten to the point of it's the
- 1:25:45Speaker 2: biggest story of the year. in the league, and the
- 1:25:47Speaker 2: referees cost the Packers that game, which helped me in
- 1:25:49Speaker 2: my otherwise not very good pick. Jason took the Bears
- 1:25:53Speaker 2: over the Patriots. They were favored by three. They won
- 1:25:56Speaker 2: by six. Jason is now seven and one. I keep
- 1:26:00Speaker 2: threatening to kick him out. If this continues, I'm not
- 1:26:02Speaker 2: going to kick him out because I think we now
- 1:26:03Speaker 2: have at a point in which people actually want to
- 1:26:05Speaker 2: hear what he has to say. And Mike got a
- 1:26:08Speaker 2: win last week. He took New Mexico. You said your
- 1:26:11Speaker 2: service was like 9-0 or 11-0 or a million-0 last week. Well,
- 1:26:14Speaker 2: this is one of them. They covered just barely. New
- 1:26:16Speaker 2: Mexico got by North Dakota State. They won that game
- 1:26:19Speaker 2: by five points. So it was a pretty good week
- 1:26:21Speaker 2: for everybody. All right. That's last week. Let's get to
- 1:26:25Speaker 2: this week. Jason, you get to end. I think you've
- 1:26:27Speaker 2: got your microphone on, right? I do.
- 1:26:29Speaker 4: You do.
- 1:26:29Speaker 2: Okay. Which game or games do you want to hear
- 1:26:31Speaker 2: the line on? Cowboys and the Cardinals. That has come
- 1:26:37Speaker 2: up for me on the– oh, here it is. Cowboys
- 1:26:40Speaker 2: and the Cardinals. That game is in Dallas. The line
- 1:26:43Speaker 2: we have, the service we use is scores and odds.
- 1:26:46Speaker 2: And in this case, I have it live because I
- 1:26:48Speaker 2: didn't print it out before we got started. Seven points.
- 1:26:51Speaker 2: Dallas at home is favored by seven. All right.
- 1:26:54Speaker 5: I am going to go. This is kind of an
- 1:26:55Speaker 5: outside the box play, but I'm going to take the Cardinals.
- 1:26:57Speaker 5: The Cowboys are coming off of the divisional game against
- 1:27:00Speaker 5: the Eagles on Monday night.
- 1:27:01Speaker 2: Short work week.
- 1:27:02Speaker 5: I don't think Arizona wins, but I think they keep
- 1:27:04Speaker 5: this closer than expected. So give me the Cardinals plus
- 1:27:06Speaker 5: the seven.
- 1:27:10Speaker 2: I haven't thought much about that game. That makes some
- 1:27:12Speaker 2: sense to me. Mike, what do you think about his pick?
- 1:27:15Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I don't disagree. Cardinals have been better on
- 1:27:18Speaker 3: the road than they have been at home. They beat
- 1:27:20Speaker 3: the Rams. They only lost at San Francisco by six.
- 1:27:23Speaker 3: They lost at the Giants, which a game was closer
- 1:27:26Speaker 3: than the final score. So Dallas coming off a bad spot,
- 1:27:29Speaker 3: and whatever Jason says, I'm going to agree with from
- 1:27:32Speaker 3: this point on.
- 1:27:33Speaker 2: Okay, time to get a pick from Mike. Which games
- 1:27:35Speaker 2: or games would you like to hear the line on?
- 1:27:38Speaker 3: I'm going to stick in college. How about the Oregon
- 1:27:41Speaker 3: State-Fresno State game? It's near. I don't have the number,
- 1:27:45Speaker 3: but it's near the last game. It might be the
- 1:27:47Speaker 3: last game on the board.
- 1:27:49Speaker 2: It's not. The last game on the board is a
- 1:27:53Speaker 2: game that got moved from Friday to Saturday. That's the
- 1:27:55Speaker 2: way it is. I don't know. I can't find it.
- 1:28:00Speaker 2: Oregon State. It's nowhere near the end of the thing.
- 1:28:02Speaker 2: You just think it would be because it's a Pacific game,
- 1:28:04Speaker 2: 187 and 188. Oregon State and Fresno State, which is
- 1:28:08Speaker 2: a game actually in the Pac-10 is back, and that's it.
- 1:28:12Speaker 2: Oregon State on the road is favored by 5.5 over
- 1:28:15Speaker 2: Fresno State.
- 1:28:17Speaker 3: I'm going to take Oregon State minus 5.5 in that game.
- 1:28:21Speaker 2: Yeah, they turned out to be better than I think
- 1:28:24Speaker 2: people would have thought that they'd be. Tell me why
- 1:28:26Speaker 2: you like them.
- 1:28:27Speaker 3: Yeah, they're really good. For people that don't follow closely...
- 1:28:30Speaker 3: They're really good this year. Their offense is the third
- 1:28:33Speaker 3: best offense in the entire country. They average 527 yards
- 1:28:36Speaker 3: per game. They're number one in passing, 345 yards per game.
- 1:28:41Speaker 3: Their offense has been completely unstoppable. And Fresno State is
- 1:28:47Speaker 3: okay this year. I mean, Oregon State's 6-1 against the spread,
- 1:28:50Speaker 3: and they're covering by an average of 16 points per
- 1:28:53Speaker 3: game above the spread. They have a yards per play
- 1:28:55Speaker 3: margin of plus 2.1. They're plus 182 yards per game
- 1:29:00Speaker 3: on the season. Fresno has a negative yards per play
- 1:29:04Speaker 3: and yards per game margin, and Oregon State's played the
- 1:29:07Speaker 3: tougher schedule. Oregon State's only two losses are against Texas
- 1:29:11Speaker 3: Tech and Houston, and both were good games. This offense
- 1:29:15Speaker 3: is really good. They got a guy, their coach, I
- 1:29:17Speaker 3: can't think of his name off the top of my head,
- 1:29:18Speaker 3: but he came from Alabama. He's got this offense humming
- 1:29:22Speaker 3: right now. Just to give you an example, kind of
- 1:29:24Speaker 3: a comparison, these two teams just both played San Diego State.
- 1:29:28Speaker 3: Oregon State beat San Diego State by 52 points and
- 1:29:31Speaker 3: outgained them by four yards per play. The following week,
- 1:29:34Speaker 3: Fresno lost to San Diego State and got outgained by
- 1:29:38Speaker 3: two yards per play. I don't think the market has
- 1:29:40Speaker 3: caught up to Oregon State. I think they win by
- 1:29:42Speaker 3: more than a touchdown in this game, so I'll take
- 1:29:44Speaker 3: Oregon State.
- 1:29:45Speaker 2: Okay, that one sounds good, too. I'm going back to
- 1:29:48Speaker 2: the well. New England is playing at Miami. It's another
- 1:29:53Speaker 2: game in which the road favorite is favored by a
- 1:29:55Speaker 2: lot against Miami. The line is seven. I'm taking the
- 1:29:59Speaker 2: Patriots to win by more than seven against Miami. I'm
- 1:30:02Speaker 2: getting to be something of a broken record on this,
- 1:30:04Speaker 2: but Mike talks a lot about situations. Miami finally got
- 1:30:07Speaker 2: a win. The Jets are terrible, and Miami off the
- 1:30:11Speaker 2: bye last week went in and they beat the Jets.
- 1:30:13Speaker 2: The difference between the Jets and New England is night
- 1:30:17Speaker 2: and day. I was struck last week by how competitive
- 1:30:22Speaker 2: New England was against the Bears. I agreed with Jason's
- 1:30:24Speaker 2: pick on Chicago, but New England made that a game.
- 1:30:28Speaker 2: In fact, I won't say they almost won, but they
- 1:30:30Speaker 2: were in it the whole game, lost by only six points.
- 1:30:33Speaker 2: That gives them, they're now the team with the extra
- 1:30:36Speaker 2: week of rest because that was a Thursday game of
- 1:30:38Speaker 2: last week, and they go into Sunday. The New England
- 1:30:42Speaker 2: offense with Drake May is very, very good. The Patriots
- 1:30:45Speaker 2: have played a very tough schedule. They're only 4-3, but
- 1:30:50Speaker 2: I don't think they've played a particularly bad game all
- 1:30:52Speaker 2: year with the exception of they got blown out one
- 1:30:54Speaker 2: week against Jacksonville. New England's defense isn't great. However, Miami's
- 1:30:59Speaker 2: offense is putrid. They still can't throw the ball. I
- 1:31:03Speaker 2: think New England goes into Miami. I think there's probably
- 1:31:06Speaker 2: going to be about 15,000 New England fans that are
- 1:31:09Speaker 2: at that game. The Dolphins are worse than people think
- 1:31:12Speaker 2: they are, and I think people know that they're pretty bad.
- 1:31:16Speaker 2: I think that this could be a blowout. I've noticed
- 1:31:19Speaker 2: that the betting odds, a lot of people are playing defensively,
- 1:31:23Speaker 2: in picking Miami here, I can't see a single reason
- 1:31:27Speaker 2: to go with Miami, which means I'm probably missing something.
- 1:31:30Speaker 2: And if I am, Mike will tell me what it is,
- 1:31:31Speaker 2: but I just think it's this perfect spot. New England
- 1:31:35Speaker 2: after the, off the loss against Chicago, needing a win
- 1:31:39Speaker 2: at four and three, playing a Miami team that stinks
- 1:31:42Speaker 2: that finally got their win last week. So I'm going
- 1:31:44Speaker 2: to lay the points on the road with the Patriots.
- 1:31:45Speaker 2: Any thoughts on that one, Mike?
- 1:31:48Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't disagree with you. I don't see how
- 1:31:50Speaker 3: you can take Miami right here. It's just situationally. We
- 1:31:53Speaker 3: talked about this in the Wisconsin game. New England, awful loss.
- 1:31:56Speaker 3: Like you said, extra time. Miami, a lot of times
- 1:31:59Speaker 3: teams get that first win, and it's kind of like, okay,
- 1:32:02Speaker 3: we exhale, we got it. And the Patriots have been
- 1:32:05Speaker 3: great in this situation. When laying three points or more,
- 1:32:08Speaker 3: they're 16-0 straight up, which isn't a surprise, but 12-4
- 1:32:11Speaker 3: against the spread with Drake May under center. them coming
- 1:32:14Speaker 3: off a loss, they're starting to play a lot better.
- 1:32:16Speaker 3: They weren't great early in the season, but they're playing better. Yeah,
- 1:32:19Speaker 3: that's the only way I could go. I'd have to
- 1:32:21Speaker 3: lay seven with New England in that game. I'm not
- 1:32:23Speaker 3: taking Miami in that game.
- 1:32:25Speaker 2: All right. Again, if you want to see what Mike
- 1:32:28Speaker 2: and his company have to offer, asawins.com, and they have
- 1:32:32Speaker 2: a 30% deal that you type in in the coupon code,
- 1:32:35Speaker 2: wherever that is on there, that's GHOST, G-H-O-S-T 30, and
- 1:32:40Speaker 2: I'm sure that You cleverly came up with that because
- 1:32:43Speaker 2: of Halloween weekend. So you'll see all of that there.
- 1:32:45Speaker 2: So we'll talk to Mike again last week, but we're
- 1:32:48Speaker 2: not quite done on this podcast. We need to preserve
- 1:32:52Speaker 2: the following for history.
- 1:32:55Speaker 6: Wouldn't be right if it was easy. Never has been.
- 1:32:58Speaker 6: Founded in 79. Pennant in 82. 26 years before they
- 1:33:04Speaker 6: even got back to the playoffs.
- 1:33:05Speaker 3: 2-1 pitch.
- 1:33:06Speaker 4: Palacios.
- 1:33:07Speaker 2: Grounds one softly. Unshakeable. Unstoppable. And champions at last. The
- 1:33:14Speaker 2: Milwaukee Brewers.
- 1:33:20Speaker 6: The power pitching of Jacob Mizorowski. The bullpen to shut.
- 1:33:23Speaker 4: It all down.
- 1:33:24Speaker 6: The length of the lineup again showing up.
- 1:33:27Speaker 3: With the bottom of the order. Driving in the bulk
- 1:33:29Speaker 3: of the runs.
- 1:33:31Speaker 6: And Pat Murphy, at 67 years old, has guided the
- 1:33:35Speaker 6: Milwaukee Bears to their first World Series title.
- 1:33:40Speaker 3: And it don't get any better than that.
- 1:33:43Speaker 4: In a year that started with the World Baseball Classic
- 1:33:46Speaker 4: for a lot of these guys and ended in an
- 1:33:49Speaker 4: incredible World Series championship, it's worth every, every second.
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