Latest / The Common Professionals Podcast / 1919 World Series
Transcript
- Michael: Michael, how are we? We are. We are Marshall. We are. I loved using that. I thought about you this morning. First. Yeah. First thing when I woke up this morning. Yep. It was raining. And I said to myself, I really hope Pat is not walking to work. Every time it rains in the morning, I always just think about you walking to work because it always rains when you're going. It ⁓ it happens. It happens, but I like to think that God has a sense of humor. That's all. So it makes me laugh. No, actually it didn't rain on the walk to work today. I got in before the heavy stuff came down. Which has been all day. Apparently there's some big tornadoes down in southern part of the state. Supposedly how far? ⁓ Springfield. Okay. Ooh, that's not southern. That's middle. That's middle? I would say Springfield is middle. Yeah. Right. Because Carbondale is like another three hours. Carbondale's like a six hour drive. If you're going to Southern Illinois University, it's like a six hour drive. Yeah. Isn't Illinois a long ass state. Isn't Paducah like the last the last town on the map? No idea, but that's a funny name. Paducah. Have you ever heard ⁓ the theory that tornadoes can never happen in like downtown Chicago because of the way that the buildings are structured? Yes. That a vortex can't necessarily like catch on. Uh-huh. Do you think there's any truth to that? I I would think so, but I also know of people who did live outside of the downtown area, downtown proper. You know. I'm not talking about the loop. I'm not talking Oswego, Joliet. No, I'm talking no. That doesn't you're not part of Chicago. Stop it. Get out of here. You're further than Naperville. You have no chance. We're talking about a tornado at the corner of Halstead and LaSalle. Yeah, exactly. Right there, Clark and Division. North Michigan and East Whacker. Were those I actually ⁓ my dad would kill me because Clark and Division I don't actually no, they do intersect. I lied. Clark does go at an angle. Sorry. Does Hallstead and Hass ⁓ LaSalle? I don't know. ⁓ I don't think so. I don't know. They they run parallel to each other. Anyway, I think there is some validity to that. I think if there are tornadoes that brew, I think it's over the lake. Cause I think there's been like those water spouts that you can see from the city. Yeah, but like that's what I'm saying. Like the it it doesn't have the room to develop a vortex in between buildings, but it'll do it in the next closest area, which would be over the lake. So the last one was in like eighteen forty seven that hit the city. Yeah, but also th you don't have that big of buildings in eighteen forty seven. I feel like I feel like it's don't have much of nothing in eighteen forty seven. Exactly. The civil war hasn't even happened yet. Right. People are still shitting in the street, you know? Like you throw you throw dead bodies down in the dead body pile, you know, at the end of the road. I think there is a little truth to it where maybe like the tiny ones can't start. I think like if a tornado is al already rolling, it can go through the city, but to actually like start in the loop, I think that that would be an anomaly. Yeah. I wonder if it could roll I wonder if it could roll through the city. I wonder if it would dissipate. I'm sure if you had a solid E five heading southbound on ninety, I'm sure I'm sure Ohio Street would have no chance, man. Skipping the tolls, not using their blinker, you know. Yeah, especially like you already have some shit underneath construction. It's not already it's not set up for tornadoes, let alone, you know, those strong winds. Yeah. Yeah, eighteen fifty five. Eighteen fifty five. Shit. We were still we were we were still exploring the West in eighteen sixty sixty five. Yeah. I think most of Washington, DC was still a swamp in eighteen sixty five. Yeah. What was it? The Jefferson Memorial? There's a picture of it from the eighteen hundreds and it's like fucking swampland. Huh. Yeah, like it looks gross. Like you need to wear boots. Why would they build there then? I don't I don't know. Probably probably got something to do with like the river, you know, like the Potomac being right there or like the waterways or something. ⁓ wow. We got California in eighteen forty eight. So we already hit the whole the whole other side by the time Chicago got hit with that mater. You know what's it what's really funny to think about though, that people in California probably heard about it like four months later. Yeah. ⁓ my god, my cousin in Chicago, I should write him. You think he's gonna write him? Shit, he's probably he gets that six months later. Right? ⁓ yeah, that's old news, man. When was the Pony Express around? Like it was probably about the same time, right? What's the eighteen sixty? ⁓ it's a mail service. So the guys on horseback would take mail from Sacramento to ⁓ like St. Louis. Okay. Something like that. And they would That would be such a fun job. You're the original postman, is that what you're saying? Yeah. What what is it? It only lasted nineteen months. There's a you know that the that the let that the word news is actually an acronym? North South East West. Notable events, weather and sports. ⁓ Yep. Wait, what did you say? Northeast, southwest? I thought it was the directions, yeah. Yeah, I mean that's that's a good one. But ⁓ yeah, notable events, weather and sports. So yeah, people would ride their horses like super fast across Basically, so even then they cared about sports, huh? Even way back then? Well, ⁓ I had posted something because I wanted to I wanted to kind of settle this, right? Kind of like a once and for all thing. Why because ⁓ we we were getting made fun of ⁓ for the World Cup about US. We won our first game ⁓ four to one, right? Uh-huh. And everybody's like, how is this team winning when they call it soccer? You know, and we're getting shit on for it. We didn't name it soccer. It was the English that named it soccer. I did not know that. So in the eighteen hundreds, ⁓ there was a split between what is now rugby and traditional football or what we call soccer, right? And it all had to do about the use of hands, right? Okay. So the people who developed rugby were also playing soccer, but they said we want to use our hands doing it. So they created their own team. Which turned into rugby. The people at Oxford thought that using your hands were not right. So they'd called it association football. Okay. They wanted to shorten that to a sock. A-S-S-O-C-C. It's a terrible name. I know. It's just a short for association football. Right. Horrible. Well, then somewhere, I guess it was slang or popular at the time. Exactly. Yeah. So they popped an ER on it. So they were calling it a soccer, which was hard on they put the hard iron the socks. They sure did. And then it made its way over to the US in like the mid 1800s, about the time that what we know is football was taken off. Okay. So the Brits brought it over, called it soccer. Right. We had our football, so we kept that football and we kept it as soccer. You guys can't call it that, we already got one. Mm-hmm. And then the British stopped using it. Like into the nineteen. Well, so let them do what they want. Yeah, I wanted to put a Kabosh on that. So it's not our fault. It's a Also I learn ⁓ we've been involved with the World Cup since nineteen thirty. Well that's good. We should be. I I just thought that we joined like, you know, like ten years ago. No, we've always we've always been a pretty athletic nation. Also we have so many people. Like you should be able to field twenty two people that can play when you have millions. That's what baffles me about India and China. Like how are you how do you have over a billion people and can't find twenty two that are athletic enough to compete with the rest of the world? Like how is that possible by sheer numbers, you should have you should be able to feel the team. They should. I I think they do. I just don't think they're their They never make it. They never make it. Spain just tied with ⁓ An island off the coast of Africa, like Western Africa. They have a pop what? Curacao? Something regardless. They have a population of six hundred thousand and they were able to do it. That's that's who that's a that's a neighborhood in India, six hundred thousand. That's a neighborhood in fucking Chicago. That's insane. Yeah, it's no, it's wild. It's a street. Right. I mean, I was pretty surprised that that we did win, what was it, four one against Paranoia? We're in a pretty easy division, I think. I think they're giving us home field ⁓ niceness. You know. But also I have heard that this is the best US team we've had in quite a long time. So I mean there are a lot of pragmatic and optimists, right, out there about the US's involvement with ⁓ the World Cup. I like to take the more pessimistic ⁓ conspiracy theory route and I think it was rigged. I wanna say it just it didn't feel like a real win. And even while I was watching it, I was kind of like something feels off about this. I don't know, Michael. You know I didn't watch it, but that's a big one to rig. That's a big one. And also like we are expected to get out of our little division. Right. ⁓ Can I bring up something real quick and then we can circle back? I'm sorry, this is completely off topic, but I've just been thinking about this with the pony in. You said that it's ⁓ you said it's what what did it what was it again? The Pony Express. The Pony Express. But what would what does news stand for? ⁓ news, notable events, weather, and sports. That weather part had to have been just so wrong all the time. How on earth were you predicting the weather in eighteen sixty? How? Right? Hey, I gotta I gotta run to to San Francisco. What should we tell ⁓ about the weather? Well it looks good now. Given given a five day forecast in eighteen sixty? ⁓ I was tracking the weather on my ride here and it ⁓ it rained and then it didn't. And then there was a tornado and then there wasn't. Yeah. We're just kind of like ⁓ guessing. Just guessing. Just completely guessing. I wonder if that's where like all those ⁓ like old wives tales come from about the way I can feel in my bones, you know? Sometimes well maybe that's what they did. They had the animals cause they say when cows or dogs start eating grass there's a storm coming, so Maybe the weather people back then just had a bunch of different animals that they were able to figure out what the fuck was going on. Bring the old all It's coming right for us. It's coming right for us. Get the gun. I mean, I know I know Trump got made fun of for wanting to nuke ⁓ a hurricane, right? But I think back in the eighteen hundreds, if you were to like take a shot At a tornado, like let's just see what happens, you know? I mean I'm I'm guessing that that was in the the possibilities, like how do we stop this thing? I don't know, shoot it. You can make fun of Trump for that, but what people don't know is Operation Starfish Prime, where we were just shooting nukes into the Van Allen belt just to see what would happen. We were shooting nukes in our protective radiation core that could have easily fucked everything up. It ⁓ ⁓ the grid went out in Hawaii because it messed things up so bad. Yeah. You're gonna I did I had no idea. Yeah, we were trying to blow up the atmosphere. Just is just for shits and gigs, just to see what would happen. We actually did it. You know I shit on the internet a lot, but sometimes distracting us, you know, keeps us from doing shit like that. Yeah. Yeah, seriously. It's funny if you Google Starfish, Operation Starfish Prime, ⁓ the first YouTube video that pops up is titled We Nuked Space. Yeah, dude. Like literally. Just to just to see what would happen. And I'm pretty sure it made the radiation even higher. Well shit, Terry. I guess that just didn't work, did it? What would you what did you want to happen? What we what what do you what is your end game? I I I don't know, but ⁓ it's gonna be pretty fucking cool to find out. That's you're a top scientist and that's what you're thinking? It's gonna be cool to find out. What was your end game? Jesus. God. Never said we were smart, smart creatures. Insane. Yeah. Which I mean is another kind of funny point about the World Cup that I never really thought of is that ⁓ duh this is this is ⁓ dog's favorite time of year because they get to watch us also being interested in kicking around and chasing the ball ninety minutes. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Yep. I mean best friend. Do you think that there's a possibility of this being rigged? I mean y ⁓ there's always a possibility. I would I would like to hope that for certain things like this, the World Cup, the Olympics, like you can kinda just like h put things aside, the politics aside for the sporting. Let's let's not bomb each other for the three hours we're playing against each other. And then we'll go right back to bombing, of course. But for this time, let's just let's just ⁓ enjoy the game together. And then we'll go back to nuke in the atmosphere. Exactly. And yeah, and then we'll blow the atmosphere up again. But also, I mean the Russians did do a bunch of steroids and they got kicked out of the Olympics. So True. Yeah. ⁓ you know, can't have nice things, you know? Wouldn't be the first time it was fixed, which brings us to the topic today, the nineteen nineteen World Series fix. Yeah. Right in our own backyard. Right? And did did you like look into this? At all? Did you like cause I've heard about it and there's a dr great drunk history episode about this that I did watch. But it's it's a little bit more interesting than just like they were paid to throw the game. Well, Michael, being being a native Chicago in here, this was one of those little bedtime stories we got occasionally, so we knew about it a little bit, but I never did a deep dive in it. But ⁓ as the story goes, the ⁓ the White Sox or the Black Sox as they're called these days, over a hundred years later. they threw the game because they were being underpaid by the owner, old old man Kamiski. And there was also some some gambling stuff that was going in there. it was a Jewish last name. It was like Rothschild or Rothburn. Rothstein. Arnold Rothstein. Who was C who was connected to He he had ties to Capone. He had ties to what was his name? Bumpy Johnson, Nucky Johnson, something like that, out in Atlantic City, and the Commission in New York. ⁓ is yeah, he's actually he's the one some say like ⁓ mentored or lucky Luciano looked up to. He's he is kind of the one who they say they give credit to taking the thugish. gangster and turning into more of an organized crime type of ⁓ type of mentality. Yeah, he was a degenerate gambler. Bugsy Seagull was also one that he ⁓ is linked to. Mm-hmm. But it was interesting to me f finding out that shoeless Joe Jackson, like, I mean, when you think and talk about baseball, right? Shoeless Joe Jackson is, I would say, within like the top five players that most people associate with baseball. I always just thought it was because of his nickname. To be honest, I had no idea that he was on this team until about five minutes ago. Yeah. And he took off his shoes to run because they didn't. Is that why? Yeah, but these these are hilarious fucking names. And and I wish we would go back to this. Shoeless Joe Jackson, Chick Gandal, Swede Riseberg. Happy Felch of Lefty Williams. Yep. And Buck Weaver. Right. Like that is that is 1900s nicknames. There's a hilarious ⁓ Shane Gillis stand-up about ⁓ baseball and how ⁓ what's his name? Jackie Robinson. The day that he started playing in the MLB, ⁓ Was the day that we stopped talking all silly and kind of left like the funny nicknames? Well shit. And here comes ⁓ Jaggy Robinson. God damn it, we suck. But ⁓ Huh? ⁓ this isn't even that much money. No, it's like a hundred grand, wasn't it? Yeah, but I was trying to see how much a hundred grand would be in today. Today's time. You wanna take a guess how much A hundred grand in nineteen nineteen. How much do you think that'd be today? ⁓ with inflation one I would say a little over a mil. ⁓ wow. Good for you. Maybe one point five. A little higher. One point eight? Just tab it. One point eight five? No, no, goddamn. One point nine. One point nine. One point nine two five. Not even really like retirement money, honestly. Not at all. Dude, the are you kidding? Patrick Mahomes just signed a contract worth half a billion dollars. And these people these people are getting paid under two. Right. That's like ⁓ your average lottery ticket. You don't even like fucking squad person makes more than that now. Right? A college student makes more than that now. What am I talking about with the new college rules? Yeah. Well there there was one thing that I thought was really funny about all of this. So like it the whole conversation ⁓ apparently started like Schulas Joe Jackson overheard somebody talking about it and then they kind of like brought it up as like a suggestion, like, well, we could fix it, like as a joke. And then they were kind of starting to think, like, yeah, I think we should actually throw this. But the the sign that the Black Sox were using that said we're gonna indicate that yes, we're gonna throw this game was hitting the first batter. So I can't remember who the pitcher was. I want to say it was Lefty Williams with his lefty pitcher. He threw with his right hand. Yeah he would have that's like calling a big guy tiny. That's what they did back then, man. But yeah, he had to ⁓ he had to hit the first batter. And then that would show ⁓ But so they like through the first hold on. So it was always lefty's call. Like, yeah, now I want to throw this game. Yeah, it was like lefty and then so there was one guy who they didn't get involved. So like what, there's ten people, I think, on on a starting lineup. There's nine? There's nine. Yeah. So so one guy, one guy opted out, or they just didn't tell him. Which I think is kind of hilarious. Yeah, dude. That fucking loser. Yeah, we're just not gonna tell him about this. Fuck that guy. So so they throw the first what, two games? And they're like bad throws too, like four one. I think one was like a six one or nine one or something like that. And then one guy, I think the guy that was left out said, Guys, do you really want our legacy to be, you know, losing? The World Series and kinda had like a RAM house speech. It was ⁓ Ray Schulk. He was the catcher. Yeah. See, I think my teammates throw the game, see? ⁓ yeah. Eddie Collins, star second baseman who played cleanly, publicly expressed his frustration over his teammates' poor play. It's just so funny that they chose to like not tell some people. Yeah, fuck those guys. Yeah, so they did like a rah-rah speech and then and then they did end up winning like two or three games after that. But then it was like the night before the second last game or like the last game, I forget whose house they went into. I think it was Eddie. Eddie, I don't know how to say his last name. Coyote. Anyway, they go into his house and they said If you don't if you don't throw this game, we're gonna we're gonna kill your wife. Jesus. Yeah, and it was Arnold Rostein and all of his cronies that ⁓ that told him to throw it. So of course he did. Wow. And the rest is kind of history. But then they ended up what? Two years later? I think in twenty one, they ⁓ somebody like squealed on him. And they all like went in front of a grand jury or something like that. Someone like overheard that they threw it. ⁓ you wanna know what's funny now that I'm looking at the names of of losers who didn't throw the World Series with them? What's funny? None of ⁓ have nicknames. All the guys that threw it have cool nicknames. What? They didn't give me a cool fucking nickname. I got a whole diary at home of cool nicknames. That I thought of myself. That's yeah, that's how you that's a clear divide right there. What are they like real average names too? Like Jim Smith. You got Eddie Collins, Ray Schulk, ⁓ Dickie Kerr was the most notable White Sox player who refused to participate. He ⁓ was masterful on the mound, throwing a complete game in the three-o shutout in game three. See, that's a kind of a nickname, right? Dicky. Dicky? Hey Richard. That's a pretty common. It's not it's not lefty or shoeless joe. Right. Or or Swede. Like, come on, that's that's gotta be racist. You can't do that anymore. Just say fucking Swede, get up there. He was actually Cuban. German. ⁓ do you do you think they like the guys that didn't get involved? Like sat around going like why why didn't they ask us to be part of the fix? Like, do you guys not like us? I'm sure they felt pretty good about themselves when ⁓ they got banned and and got in trouble. True. Do they do they serve any jail time? I don't think so. I I think let's see. ⁓ trial, ⁓ all eight players were acquitted in criminal court due to insufficient evidence, even though they like admitted to it. Like they did say that they were given money, but I guess there is insufficient evidence. Sounds pretty suspicious. Well, I would think that so you got nineteen twenty one, right? About the time that another big event was happening in some prohibition. I think yeah, I think you were the one that found that right? What that this was the cause of prohibition. This we people yeah, because people started a riot so bad after after the loss, fucking getting all hammered and shit and started rioting and burning the city. We almost had the second burning of Chicago after that. And so after that they said no more. No more booze. No more booze. Give it back. ⁓ so yeah, they they were ⁓ Insufficient evidence. So what I was getting at is that I don't think it's too wild to think that maybe Rothstein had paid off some of the judges, right? Or some of the lawyers or somebody else to really cover the tracks. Right. I wouldn't be surprised. I mean either. Kinda makes sense. Yeah. but they did report it, but nobody did jail time. And what ⁓ but they were banned. for prof from professional baseball. That was that was their but they were at the end of the career anyway. I think that's why they did it. And they got to keep the money. Yep. So they all retired with a hundred thousand dollars in their pocket. Fucking win win for everybody. I would like to see a follow up like, you know, at the end of like the nineties movies about what happens to everybody after high school. You know? What happened to these eight guys after after they threw the game. You know, shoeless Joe actually owned o opened up a ⁓ cobble shop. Shoe store. Yeah. Shoe store. He became a cobbler. Yeah. He actually is the founder of Payless Shoes. Swede Risberg went back to Cuba. Happy Felch actually ⁓ he became severely depressed afterwards. Yeah, I I mean I don't think it's too crazy. I mean what when did when did c did Capone get big? That w that wasn't until much later, right? No, that was right in the heyday. Yeah, I mean I would in the middle of the the roaring twenties, probably the mid twenties or so. Yeah. ⁓ yeah, for sure. He ran the outfit from twenty five to thirty one. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean he was probably an up and comer, right? 'Cause it was I think Joe Masseria was running it or ⁓ I don't remember. Shit. Who was a guy who was I know this. There was somebody before him. that ⁓ was run in Chicago before he took over. And I wouldn't be too surprised if like all because yeah, I mean this whole thing was just around gambling, right? And that's kind of what put the smear on ⁓ Yeah, but I think this was before Capone's time. Yeah, it was. What I was kinda getting at is that with this being nineteen nineteen, Capone coming to power in what, twenty what did I say, twenty three? Twenty five twenty five that ⁓ The guy running Chicago before Capone was maybe in on it, you know? Mm-hmm. What the fuck was that guy saying? Drive me nuts. Do you think there's been any other any like big championship events like Super Bowls, Stanley Cups, whatever in our lifetime that's been thrown? I don't know, in our lifetime, I know that there was something about the Boston Celtics or It was another mob connection in the seventies with either the Celtics or an ⁓ college team. What are you talking about? ⁓ what was it? There was there was something I w I wanna say it was the Celtics. It was another like event that I remember reading about. there was either I can't remember, it was a s college basketball or Boston Celtics. They were like throwing games under like mafia influence. Huh. Yeah. ⁓ Michael, we gotta look more into this one. ⁓ ch Chinese football scandals. The Chinese Football Association launched extensive investigations in systemic match fixing and gambling rings across the professional leagues from 2003 to 2009. What the hell? Yeah. Huh. Did not yeah, we're gonna have to do a follow up episode on that. Yep. To be continued. But I mean, th I've only started hearing it maybe in the last couple years that the NFL is scripted. Yeah yeah, yeah. Yeah I mean there are some plays that happen where you're just like come on like there's no way like someone who there's ⁓ there's one famous play, it's the Saints versus I I wanna say the Giants. I don't remember. ⁓ but it's ⁓ it's to go to the Super Bowl and the Saints were down, but they had all the momentum and they were they were well on their way to score. And it may have been a two-quel Point conversion or a fourth down. But they they hit this guy on a on a swing pass. So the running back came out of the backfield, did a little wheel route, going going around, and Breeze hit him perfectly. ⁓ well actually, no no no. Breeze was going to hit him perfectly. The defender thought he was playing NFL blitz and took the guy out before the ball even got there. And it was clear as day. Like if someone who doesn't even watch football Could sit there and go, Well, that's illegal. Yeah. And nothing was ever called. Saints end up losing. ⁓ don't go to the Super Bowl. That that one seemed oddly fishy. That's one of those things where like that wasn't even a questionable call. That was clear as day. Yeah. ⁓ I mean I w There's also the NBA ref that got caught throwing games, I forgot about him. Or a whole documentary on that guy. When we were growing up, the ⁓ the coin toss For the Lions. In Super Bowl? Not the Super Bowl. No, you guys never made it to this Michael. The the Lions have never made it to the Super Bowl. You you act surprised that I don't know that. I don't watch NFL. I I I know, but in our lifetime at least. Yeah, no, I I even if they did, it would probably go right past me. And I would be like, ⁓ I guess it happened. Yeah. Yeah. Suck it, Luke. It was ⁓ Thanksgiving coin toss ninety eight. Yes. That's what it was. And where he said heads and it was clearly through he's like it was tails. ⁓ huh. And then walked away. And then they made fun of it in that movie, ⁓ fucking Rat Race. It's Cuba Gooding Junior. He he loses his job and then he goes to Vegas and then ⁓ he gets into a taxi cab and the d cab driver leaves him out in the middle of the desert. He's like, You know how much money I lost because of you? I mean, I don't know if that's like a scripted thing, right? Or if it's fixed, but yeah, I remember that one, at least from our lifetime, about that. Well, and then obviously all the Pete Rose shit, but I don't know if that's rigging necessarily. That's he never bet against his team, which if you're gonna bet Yeah, that's the way to do it. He never bet against his team, I always He always bet his team. He always bet if he did I believe if he did bet, it would be to for his if he did bet on his team, it was always for his team to win. He never bet for his team to lose. Didn't they didn't they kick him out of the hall of fame for that or something? He is n I think he's finally now in the hall of fame and he's been dead for quite a while. Yeah. ⁓ but he was I think he was b I think he was banned for a while, but then yeah, he was just they never never got the votes. Yeah. Unfortunately. Yeah, I never really knew what was going on there. But then what, Sammy Sosa using the cork bat? ⁓ that was just steroids. That's different. That's just steroids. Well wasn't didn't he use a cork cork bat or something like that? Yeah, but they were all doing that. True. Yeah. I mean what a what a time to be into baseball, right? Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire, right? Yeah. Setting like the standard, like breaking all these home run records, doing all this crazy shit. And then like two years later it's like, yeah, they're just fucking taking steroids. nuts We all knew it though. But come on. It it's gotta be kinda like when f you find out Freddie Mercury was gay, you know? Like you kinda know obvious. Yeah. You're telling me the lead singer of Queen is gay. Right? Or Judas Priest, Rob Helford. Yeah. Start David started David Bowie being bi, like duh. Come on. I I'm pretty sure that was a rumor. I don't I don't think David Bowie was actually bisexual. ⁓ pretty darn sure. Let's see. We're we're gonna let's see here. Let's see. He was in an interview. You've been asked the question whether you're Michael, Michael. He was in a room with Freddie Mercury for three days with nothing but cocaine and wine. Well that solves it right there. Come on. You're d you're telling me that they didn't do some butt touching? Yeah. ⁓ at least some sixty-nine and come on. I think I think everybody's gay on enough cocaine. Yeah. There's there's at least a reach around or two. You do enough cocaine and everybody turns gay a little bit. Just a little bit, you know? Come this far. Right. Might as well. I mean, is the cocaine still free or what? Yeah. But ⁓ I always thought that was funny about people finding out that Rob Halford was gay, ⁓ you know, Judas Priest, and then they look at the posters like, ⁓ yeah, he is wearing. All leather and a collar. And yeah, no, that kinda makes sense. That tracks. All the signs right there. Yeah. Now what I was disappointed about was the enhanced games when we were watching That sucked. That did suck. They had a whole game about using steroids and like basically rigging it, right? And they still weren't beating the non enhanced world records. Yeah, that was pretty frustrating. I was ex like I I kinda get it with swimming in particular or running because I don't know if well I guess it also depends on what kind of steroids you're taking or whatnot, but more muscle doesn't necessarily mean faster. You know what I mean? Because you're gonna have more weight to carry and more more to move and stuff. But for the weight lifting events, I figured like you have no reason not to blow some of these records just straight out of the water. Right. And even that was like just kinda kinda getting like right up to the world records. Yeah. Yeah, it was extremely underwhelming. I think I think the whole thing was an anti-drug campaign in disguise. Like as soon as the market ⁓ hit, just boom. Yeah. Yeah, we're not ever investing in this shit ever again. Tell that to the investors. Right? Unless you just see that ⁓ you just see that meme of Kylo Renfrew next year, just more steroids. Pumping with more fucking roids. Right. Just like I thought I was gonna see some Bane motherfuckers walking out, you know? Yeah. I thought it was gonna be Bane versus ⁓ who's the mountain man in Game of Thrones. Yeah, Thorne Bjornensen. Yeah. Who was actually at those games? Was he? Yeah. ⁓ and he holds the record, I think. I don't even know how to spell his name. ⁓ Bjornson. Something like that. ⁓ yeah, he no, he was he was there, I wanna say, at the enhanced games. Like participating or watching? ⁓ he was participating, yeah. Hmm. Let's see. I don't even know how I don't even know how to pronounce his name. Hapfvor. That's not a real letter. H A F what looks like a B, but the tail keeps going. I don't even know what that's a made-up letter. That's that's not real. ⁓ yeah, he was he was at the enhanced games, but he's also three-time champion of the Arnold strongman classic, five-time champion of Europe's strongest man competition, 28 ch 2018 champion of world's strongest man and 12-time champ of Iceland's strongest man. He holds the deadlift record at ⁓ 510 kilograms, which is and he weighs 400 pounds. What? He's six he's six foot nine. He's a Viking. Do you think he actually has like ancient giant blood in his body? I think if there was ever A human trace of giants being real, he is who I'm pointing fingers at first. Like he doesn't even look like he has like giant tism. You know what I mean? How like ⁓ how Andre the Giant or ⁓ the giant both of them. Yeah, the pituitary gland thing, you know. They got a hint of the tism, you know? Right. Yeah. Hint of the tism. But not him. No. This guy is just like he's he's a real life hulk. Yeah, he's a he's a Viking. He's a real Viking. Now I think he's a good Viking though. Like if Yeah, he should have been Hiccup's dad in the what's the ⁓ How to Train Your Dragon. Yeah, which was a great live action reproduction, by the way. Almost shot for shot. You know why? Fantastic. 'Cause they just did the same fucking movie. Finally. You didn't add any bullshit. You didn't have any hidden agenda or secret messages. You just did the movie. Yeah, I remember watching it in theaters and I had to like remind myself that this was live action. There was a couple of movies. One of the highest shit. One of the highest grossing live action movies you did and one of the most well liked ones. Right. Because you didn't fucking change the plot. Why? Yeah. Take the hint, Disney. Take the hint. Are you gonna go see Toy Story Five? I don't know. I don't know. I'm kind of like ⁓ feeling like Homer when he becomes crusty and he beats the burglar. The kids are going, Stop, stop, he's already dead, you know? That's kinda how I feel about Toy Story. I kinda think that that's another analogy where I kinda think Toy Story is turning into the new Simpsons. Like, hey man, the old stuff amazing. I'll watch that anytime, but this new shit. Yeah. Just not for me. They're they're battling an iPad. Like it's not even creative, you know? Like at least you had that terrible Sarah McLaughlin song, you know, about what's her name? Jesse. Jesse. Yeah. Like that shit would break your heart, you know? That was a well thought out storyline, you know. And this is ⁓ Toys, Toys Me iPad. iPad bad. You know, like it's not, in my opinion, anyway, it's not really like Good. I don't know. They're doing another Shrek movie too, Shrek Five. Yeah. I mean, I I would be more ⁓ interested to see Shrek 5 than than Toy Story or than Toy Story 5. Solely because the way that Toy Story 4 ended. Like Toy Story 4 was not good, in my opinion. Like I don't even think I watched that one. They go to a circus. ⁓ Bo Peep comes back. Bo Peep's actually a badass. I I will say that's the one redeeming quality of Toy Story Four. But at the end of it, shocker like spoiler alert, Woody just up and leaves the gang. Just leaves him. He's like, no, I'm gonna go go rogue with with Bo Peep joining a carnival. You guys go. And so then he just leaves him. And so that's the biggest thing is like, hold on. You see Buzz and Woody getting along together like it's no big thing. You're like, Woody, you fucking left. You got a lot of explaining to do to everybody here, man. You got some explaining to do Yeah. And so I'm I'm curious how they're gonna like fold that in where Woody comes back, but I just ⁓ Toy Story Four was so off putting to me where I just I don't even wanna see where they do with this one. Huh. You know that if you Google Toy Story Four, you get to play a claw machine game. Really? Yeah. And and it and it's actually kinda entertaining. Where did you get to do that? I just Googled Toy Story Four and I hit all. Yeah. And then ⁓ it yeah, and then it just kinda popped up and then it does the slow machine. Yeah, kinda cool, right? It's just like it goes. ⁓ it just drops stuff. Yeah, it takes shit off the page. Huh. Cool. I always appreciate Google for little stuff like that. True. Now going back to Sports. We I mean we could talk about Michael Jordan and and his degenerate gambling. ⁓ dude. Yeah, but also an assassin. You wanna hear a funny story about Michael Jordan and his gambling? Hit me. ⁓ you know who Dennis Rodman not Dennis Rod ⁓ Jeremy Roenick. You know how Jeremy Roenick is? ⁓ hockey player? Hockey player, ⁓ a big big player in Chicago around the same time that Michael Jordan was playing here. Sure, sure. So ⁓ the story goes that it was ⁓ playoff time for Michael Jordan and Michael Jordan and Jeremy Roanick were golfing earlier that day. Or maybe it wasn't a playoff game. ⁓ he had a game that night. Sorry. They were golfing the morning before the game and obviously degenerate gambling, gambling huge stakes. Michael Jordan gets fucking taken to the house and then he's so pissed he goes double or nothing on this round. And then he loses again and they're get they're drinking, they're smoking cigars, all the stuff that you do while you're golfing, having a good time. Michael Jordan's gotta go play a game that night. And he fucking gets cleaned out from Jeremy Roenick. And then while leaving, Michael Jordan says, I'll do double or nothing on that. But the bet is that I will score forty-five points or more. I'll score more than forty-five points tonight. And Ronick is like, absolutely, you've been fucking drinking all day. Like, no way you could have scored that much. He scored like fifty-two points that night. No shit. Uh-huh. I mean, what what a time to be, you know, somebody working at the clubhouse of the cart girl. You know, in that scenario, watching Michael Jordan just getting furious playing golf. Also, dude, great time to be a a huge athlete or a huge celebrity because there's no cellphone, so no one's taking fucking pictures of you all the time. You can actually hide. And you'd be like, I don't know what you're talking about. I wasn't there. Right? Tiger Woods, take a hint. Stop drinking and driving every five years. Damn a tiger. Right, just get a driver, dude. You have so much money. Just get a driver. Right. If it if you don't have money, you'd fucking Uber, dude. You know? Like, yeah. ⁓ Jesus. He's got a I don't know. But ⁓ apparently I don't really know like the the full story story, right? But wasn't wasn't Michael Jordan's gambling addiction related to his father's death? It's a theory. It's a theory. It's a theory that he owed ⁓ th there's a theory that that's A why they killed his dad and then B why he had to retire the first time in between the ninety three, ninety four season or whatever, or ninety four, ninety five season. ⁓ 'cause he owed some some big money and they they killed his dad and cool things down. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. They told him to take a step back. Apparently. Apparently. I heard A really cool story. This one I think is probably my favorite. ⁓ it's related to Brazil and the World Cup, right? Because all of this is coming out right now. And I'm learning a lot about the World Cup. But in Brazil in 1994, just right before the World Cup, Brazil had this player who was playing for Spain at the time, Romario, right? This guy was like the new Pele. He was like the the best. Of the best, right? So he lived just outside of Rio, I think it was. And in in the nineties in Rio, this is when Brazil started kind of getting its reputation for being kind of dangerous, right? Okay. Because there was there was a bunch of like kidnappings. So like if you were anybody of s the least bit significance, right, you usually had a target on you for being kidnapped. So because Romario. was such a big football player, right? They kidnapped his dad. Like ⁓ they don't really know who kidnapped his dad, right? But his dad got kidnapped, right? And they put a ransom out there for seven million dollars, right? Uh-huh. So they thought that they were it's gonna be an easy payday, right? So Romario went on TV and said, if you don't release my dad, I am not going to play in the World Cup. ⁓ That's actually pretty sick. And and so it gets even better, right? ⁓ everyone started looking for his dad. There was a huge search party. Not only that, but police, politicians, and then like the the big drug cartel kingpin at the time put A hit out on those people that kidnapped Romario's dad. That's so fucking badass. Because yeah, because he just said he's like, I'm not gonna play in the World Cup if you guys don't do this, right? So ⁓ what was it? Like two, three days later after that, ⁓ they found his dad, right? And the kidnappers, I think they were found. Some of the the how the story went is that the an anonymous tip came in. And it was like two ladies that had kidnapped him. And so the ladies went to jail and then Romario's dad was ⁓ returned, right? And then Romario went to play in the World Cup and I'm pretty sure they got really far in the World Cup, if not one in ninety four. Huh. Man, dude, can you imagine if they fucking killed his dad before like he said that? Right? Yeah. Like, ⁓ but here's kind of like the sad part of it, right? The guy that was leading the charge of Brazil won it ninety four. Yep. ⁓ defeating Italy three two in Italy shots. That was like one of Italy's last times being in the the World Cup, supposedly. Italy hasn't qualified. I guess in little bit. So all Italian fans are just now become Brazil World Cup fans. Cause they're like, well, twenty fourteen was the last time. Mm-hmm. I did hear though, so cause I was talking to this guy at work who's a big soccer guy. And he was saying how they do have to have it where like every continent is represented. And so Not saying that there's only so many spots for Europe, but there are like the main spots that Europe gets, you know? And then the other ones have to qualify for it. So like Italy just is better than some of the teams that are in there, but ⁓ you know, the everyone's good. You get weird fucking countries in there Bosnia and Herzegovina. ⁓ Something to like two two countries. Cape Verde. Yeah. Like, excuse me? Right. Yeah, you get all those like random ones, right? And good for them for tying. Like, kudos to you guys. Yeah. That's fucking awesome. Them and then Curacao, they're another island. And then like Haiti is in it. But then like you get all these like really random chip fucking Chechnya. You know, I was Chechnya. Now, my favorite story so far about the World Cup this year is ⁓ the the fellowship that's developed between Mexico and South Korea. So when who was it? It was Japan. It was either Japan or South Korea. I don't know. One of those two teams showed up in Mexico and they gave them all cowboy hats. You know, just as welcome to Mexico, which I thought was really funny. But ⁓ The South Koreans and like the Mexico fans, because I think South Korea played in Mexico first, they like just became friends immediately. And there's videos of like the South Koreans hanging out with all the Mexicans, like partying before and after games, you know? And so funny. They've even turned some like animes into like what happens if Mexico and South Korea are the like the two finalists, you know? They do it like anime style. Just friends. ⁓ Yeah, but they they see like videos of South Korean like spectator civilians, right? Like crowd surfing with ⁓ with like the Mexico ⁓ supporters. Yeah, dude, it's so funny. I gotta give it Did you hear about the player that ⁓ he got stopped for for his visa, but it was in Canada? Like Canada's not letting him play. No, I didn't hear about that. Yeah. Yeah, there was somebody because everyone's like, ⁓ fucking United States. Of course they'd be doing this. Like, no, that was ⁓ Yeah, it was Canada. That was Canada. It was one of one of Ghana's ⁓ guys. Yep. They denied his visa. Well, there was also there was a couple other ones. There was like the first ref out of Congo or something like that. South Africa, maybe. He was like the first referee that was gonna be Part of the World Cup from Africa was also denied when he came through. Even though like they kind of just left an open door for all like World Cup associated people, right? To come into the country. They're like, nope, not you. Which is another reason why I think maybe, maybe, maybe it's rigged. You know? Yeah. We'll never know, Michael. We'll never know. One of the world's greatest mysteries. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised, especially after all the huge scandals that came out, the NBA. Three like the past I don't know, year or what ⁓ like who knows. Yeah, I mean that Chinese we gotta look into that, that Chinese ⁓ NBA scandal 'cause I didn't realize that was like two years ago. Yeah, I have if no no no it was two thousand three to two thousand nine. Well I was just reading one, I'm gonna have to dig into it, but there was like a tr one recently, like back in twenty two, that there was like some big ⁓ NBA scandal. You know? Honestly, I kinda wanna dig into more of this Pony Express. I'm not gonna lie. Me too. I think we should re start it in that. One more quick thing. If you could take that trail. Yeah. ⁓ my gosh, that'd be so much fun. You could actually do the Pony Express ⁓ historical trail. Really? That's sweet. Yeah. That would be an awesome vacation. That would be a summer vacation right there. ⁓ my gosh. One more thing and then I think we should start the Midwest goodbye. But ⁓ what is it? Carmelo Anthony is in jail? What? I didn't I hadn't yeah, I had no idea Carmelo Anthony. Like, I think I'm pretty sure this is the same Carmelo Anthony. it's not, Michael. It's not? Are we sure? I'm positive. Because I only know one Carmelo Anthony, and I don't know why Stephen A. Smith would weigh in on it. Because there's ⁓ There's a ⁓ there's more to there's Just read about it. Is it okay. So so it's not I always I thought it was the the what? The ball player, right? There's a Carmelo Anthony ball player. I'm not going crazy. There is a ⁓ my I love you, Michael. You're you're adorable. Just so innocent over here. Yeah. Just extremely innocent. It's ⁓ it's a pretty big case. ⁓ okay that's going on that that just happened and ⁓ there's two very opposing sides. But it's not it's not the ball player though, right? Not not even close. Okay. Okay. Well that that clears it up. 'Cause I I saw s something about it. I was like, Carmillon Anthony, like the ball player? Like he's going to fucking jail? You know, and I did no homework outside of that. I was hoping you could elaborate and then We're all learning together, folks. I'll tell you I'll tell you about it a I'll tell you about it a little different. A different time? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, we should start the Midwest goodbye. Okay. But would you rather do the Pony Express trail or the Oregon ex the the Oregon trail? If you had to like spend a summer doing one of one or the other, which one would you pick? You know, Michael, they're both pretty well, hold on. Well, the Oregon Trail, you get to pick your own kind of journey. This goes from you have to go from ⁓ Saint Joseph, Missouri, to ⁓ Maryville, Kansas, Fort Kearney, Nebraska, then you go to Julesburg, Colorado, then you go to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, Salt Lake, Utah. Which, by the way, this I I might sound like an idiot. I didn't realize Salt Lake was actually salt water. Did you know that? ⁓ I just thought that was a fun name for it. We are not smart men. I was just kind of like, hold on, you're telling me I always just thought that every like in in body of water I just thought salt water was only in the ocean. I didn't think that there was actually like inland bodies of water that contained that much salt. It's that you can't drink salt like So you can't say like ⁓ this tap water is amazing from Salt Lake. Where's the other one? There's a big one in obviously Salt Lake. ⁓ Did you know that though? I I did. Yeah, I did know that. For how long? ⁓ pretty much the whole time, I think. Really? Yep. And then there's ⁓ if that blows your mind, you should check out the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is weird where like you can f you float all the time. Yeah. Yeah, but the Dead Sea is at least connected to the ocean. I mean I get that. See, that's that's my point. Mediterranean Sea also very salty. Where does it connect to the ocean? Dead Sea? Yeah. No. It doesn't connect? It doesn't connect. Well it used to, once upon a time. It used to it's all oceans did. Going back to Pangea, it was all one thing. Yeah, it used to. ⁓ Yeah, I knew that ⁓ Salt Lake City is famous for two things. So how did it get there? And Mormons. I don't know. I don't I don't know how may maybe it just stayed. Maybe it's maybe it's ab above a large s salt deposit. ⁓ my gosh, you can't swim in the Dead Sea because it is nearly ten times saltier than regular oceans. Ooh. Don't swim in there. Yeah, I don't really feel like getting covered in A layer of salt, you know? Gross. This is the most ridiculous Google search ever. How did Salt the Salt Lake? ⁓ I've I've Googled weirder shit before. Natural cycle of mineral accumulation. Okay. Okay. So just kind of kept pulling it out of the ground. Yep. I just figured being a Midwesterner, we have the Great Lakes and all the lakes here are freshwater. I just figured Every inland lake was was fresh water. Yeah. And then the of course the Dead Sea connected to the ocean at one point. Yep. When I ⁓ when I spent a little time in up in upstate New York, ⁓ one of the finger lakes, ⁓ I think it's Cayuga, it was it was above a salt mine. It was like twenty. Yeah, but so is Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan is above one of the biggest salt cavities in the world. Really? It what ⁓ yeah, Lake Michigan is ⁓ it yeah, big salt state. No one knows that. Big salt. Lotta salt. Big big on salt, no pepper. Big big on salt that. Mm-hmm. A lot of salt. but you could do a tour of ⁓ the salt mines underneath that lake. And I was like, No, knowing there's a giant lake above me, like I if this if this shit goes south, I'm I'm not drowning in a salt mine. That's not how Michael goes out. But again, if you had to choose between the Pony Express Trail and the Oregon Trail, you had brochures for both. Yeah, yeah. I'm looking s just for just looking at the Nebraska trail, I'm gonna say Oregon, just because I mean, you go from Saint Joe, Missouri to to Sacramento, and I don't want like why would I wanna end up in Sacramento? It doesn't sound good. ⁓ my god. I just found one watching. And then Freddy's Station, Nevada. Like that just sounds like a pain in the ass. Friday Station? Yeah. Sounded out. It's it's it's white on tan, Michael. It's tough to read. I don't know. I'm looking at the same map. I also didn't find whoever decided on this UI is a fucking idiot. Yeah, they it's their first one. There's a movie on Tubi called The History of the Oregon Trail and the Pony Express, and I am definitely watching that. Sounds awesome. I could definitely get down on that. Yeah, I think I'd go from I'd do the Oregon Trail. Yeah. Looks I think if you go through Idaho, it looks a little more scenic. Yeah. I think I think it would be a a good group activity, the Oregon Trail. Get like seven of your friends. And I think it's a lot more rivers involved, so it makes it a little easier. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of no salt river. Is there salt rivers? I don't know. Yeah, salt rivers exist. Yeah, do they? Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I just never thought about that. You know, there's salt salt river. There, I mean there is. I had no idea there was two Carmelo Anthony's. We're all learning something new today. What a world we live in. There's yeah. Huh. I guess I guess there's rivers called salt rivers. But didn't No, no. There's some ⁓ highly saline rivers include the Picos River and the Salt River. Yeah. Could you imagine? Right? Like Pony Express in it. You know, you're out on horseback, you've been riding across the desert and you spot the spot a river. ⁓ God. Hooray. Praise Jesus. We we found water that god damn it, there's salt in it again. Do you think they knew that salt water was bad? I don't know, there's a lot of crazy shit. I d I think it probably took ⁓ a long time to find out. I keep drinking this water but I'm so thirsty, you know? Maybe not. Maybe we've known about that for ⁓ a while. Now can we take the salt out of Salt Lake and sell it? Can we boil it? It's a great question. I remember hearing something Neil deGrasse Tyson talking about this. Why can't we just boil the ocean water to get salt? And he says that the return on investment is not worth the effort. Does that work though? I don't think you can just boil salt water and take the salt out. I don't think that works that way. I mean you could do with like dis you know lakes and s and that stuff. You know, I will say a couple days after we record these episodes, I love going back and looking at my Google search history. Yeah. Can I boil salt water to get salt? Yes, you can. You can boil salt water. You gotta use a lot of it though to get like any type of salt. Hmm. Yeah. ⁓ what one cup of tall a lot? One cup of salt for three to four liters of water. That's actually a pretty good turnaround. No, I'm talking about if you boil the salt water, does it take the salt out? No no no, it leaves the salt. So you can boil off the water and keep the salt. ⁓ Yeah. And then you can drink the water? Well the water would evaporate because you boil it. Yeah, but just because you boil water doesn't mean it all evaporates. So I'm saying in a survival situation I I have a pot. I put pot of salt water on. It comes to a boil. Take it off. Let it cool down. I take a sip of it. Am I hydrating or dehydrating myself at that point? Well, I think if you boiled it at the point where you could you I think you would have to use a strainer. A strainer of like a like a t shirt, you know, pour it through the t shirt to collect the salt onto one side and then you get the clean water on the other side. I think if you did it that way, yeah. I think so. No. I'm just looking at it now. You can't boil it. Kills bacteria, salt remains behind. No. ⁓ So it does work. Kill the bacteria but the salt salt still sams. Huh. There is a crazy method, distillation. I don't know. It's too sciencey for me. You gotta get the water vapors. That sounds too hard. Like would be too hard. Like if you hold my hands over it. Or t shirt, something. Yeah. I mean, if I if I ha if I was Tom Hanks, right? Chuck Nolan out on an island, I think I would I would probably spend a day trying to figure it out. You know, it's not like I got nothing else to do, you know. True. If I was like really bored. You know? I mean shelter, water, then food. Right. They say. Yeah, I guess collect the rainwater. Some guys I was reading into ⁓ this story about this guy that was lost at sea for like four hundred days. And he had survived by catching birds and drinking their blood. And that kept him hydrated. Yeah. Fucking vampire. Right. I mean, it was that or die, I guess. Did you hear about the the two guys that got stranded for like couple of weeks and people like were you guys scared this is a couple of years ago and they were like were you guys scared or he's like actually it was kind of a nice vacation. ⁓ I do remember that hearing about that. Yeah it was actually kind of a good day off. It's kind of nice. I did hear something. So there's like one story I can't remember how long ago it was but this guy returned. He was stranded at sea for 400 plus days but he got lost with like four dudes And he was the only one that returned. And then he was sued by the family members of the four guys that died because they were under the assumption that he ate them to stay alive. Did he come back fatter? No, I don't think so. Well, because he claimed that he didn't, there was no evidence to support any type of like cannibalism that took place. But On reading through that, I also learned that kind of like back in the olden days, you know, kind of like more merchant marines and like there's you know more sea transit, right? That amongst the sailors there was an unwritten agreement that if they were in a ⁓ survival situation being stranded out at sea, and if you died of like natural causes, right, or you were killed in some fashion. that you would be fine with your compatriots eating you if that meant them staying alive. Yeah, I g I guess it was like a real thing. Like they would all like being an organ donor. Right. Yeah. Like here, if I go first, go first. You know? Now you the rule was though is that you could Bob, I bet you're going for my dick, aren't you? Right now, you little cocksucker. The rule was though is that you couldn't you couldn't kill somebody to do that. I get it. I would I think I would sign that. I'd be like, yeah, go for it. Right? It's not like I would know the difference. You know? I'm dead. Throw me in the trash, I'm dead. Right. Use use me to attract a shark and kill the shark, you know? Something. But yeah, I don't know. Well, I think I'm gonna try to find a horse and maybe a saddle and run this Pony Express. I am going to try to figure out how to get the salt water to for us to boil it and actually get this going so we could use salt water throughout our trip. We can make Salt Lake. Yeah. We're gonna need to refill. I'm gonna get some t shirts. Okay. All right, all right. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Common Professionals Podcast. All music, content, and media used in this production are original creations and are owned by the Common Professionals.