Latest / The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast / Story Time with Jason Benetti

Transcript

Story Time with Jason Benetti · The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Favorites, the podcast part of the Volume
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: podcast Network.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: I am Chad Moment of the Action Network Today.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I'm joined as always by my co host, my companion,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: my Campadre, my BFF professional better Simon Hunter Ros.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: I am in Chad. How are we doing?
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Brother? Your son a little froggy.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: It's early in the morning.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: Brother, I'm not I'm not a married man with kids.
• 0:34
  Speaker 5: I feel like.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: In the morning. So yeah, I've heard by.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: This time in the morning. I have fed the dog,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I have fed my kid. I have defended myself from
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: dirty looks for walking into the room where my kid
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: was just to give him his food. I have exercised,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I have showered, I have prepped for our podcast.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I am rated a role. I'm gonna need a nappy.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: Well, I went to bed.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: I went to bed two hours ago. So that's that.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: It perfectly sums up the level we're on right now
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: in different ways.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Why did you go to that two hours ago?
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: Because life's fun. I'm not going to tell you what
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: I did, but I had a good night, let's just
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: put it that way. And yeah, nothing criminal, mainly maybe
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: a new video game came out chat who knows either way.
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: I literally do whatever I want. I'm living the dream.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Brother.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: It's amazing we're BFFs because you and I are living
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: entirely different lives. You know who's got an exciting life
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: our guest, because he is not only living the dream,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: he is considered by many, including myself, to be one
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: of the very best sports broadcasters working today.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: He's been on the show before.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: He's the television play by play voice of the Detroit
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Tigers and so many other games, college basketball, college football,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: you name it, he's doing it. He's the host of
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the Have a Seat podcast. Some of the hardest working
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: vocal cords in the business. Welcome back to the show,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Jason Bennetti.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Gentlemen, how are you?
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: I think my life is somewhere in between you two.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Well, that's because you're on the road every single night.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Basically you work nights. I mean you basically you're basically
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: like a lounge singer.
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: Yeah, honestly, that's not far that's not far from the truth.
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: There's a dire straight song called all the Road Running.
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: It's just it's Mark Knoepfler. I think that's pretty much
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: my life. That or up in the air with George Clooney,
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: But I don't know which is sadder.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: If it's a alla.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Matt Mitchell, our producer who you graciously hosted, ed a
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Brewers Tigers game earlier this season.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: I thought that was a class act.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: His favorite call of yours was twenty twenty two College
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: football TCU at Baylor. TCU as the ball they're down
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: to with twenty two seconds left, third and seven Baylor
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: twenty six yard line with no timeouts for TCU. If
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: they lose, they lose a shot at the college football playoff.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Can you tell our listeners what happens next?
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: So yeah, I almost like get emotional thinking about this
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: moment because and that's so cheesy, right, Like it's a
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: sports play by play call, right, but it's everything you
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: want in a team concept emotionally. So like you know
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: those big moments where a play by play person yells
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: and it's just the play by play announcer and it
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: sounds like, you know whatever, Like it sounds great, but
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: when you do it together, it just means a lot,
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: you know, because you know that you've kind of it's
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: like a great scene in a movie that you build
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: off of each other to make sure that that you're
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: both feeling the emotion of it. Like I have some
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: actor friends who've told me, like, when you see two
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: actors sitting at a diner right and the camera is
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: over one of their shoulders, it's not always that that
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: second person is in the scene. As the person who's
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: talking is looking straightforward, they might be doing that alone.
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: I've had actor friends tell me that they respect most
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: the actors who will sit opposite them and give them
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: the emotional reaction for them to feed off of so
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: they can have that real human concept that is this.
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: So TCU runs the ball without timeouts to set the
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: ball all up in the middle of the field, and
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: then they absolutely fire drill three alarms, send their kicker
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: on running with the field goal unit. As time is
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: ticking away like sand is moving fast from the hour glass.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Gravity is pulling harder for some.
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: Reason, and they are sprinting this kicker onto the field
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: so he can make the biggest kick of his life
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: and nothing will surpass that as the biggest kick of
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: his life, as we found out, like his name's Griffin Kel.
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: They absolutely nail it and win the game. But in
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: that moment, you know, I say, it's a run on
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: third down. Brock gets some urgency in his voice. I
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: join in. I'm a little more urgent than Brock. They
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: build the line, the offensive line. As they're doing it,
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: we're kicking up the energy piece by piece. He nails it.
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: I make the call. Brock jumps in and says wow,
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: and then says, I don't believe what we just saw,
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: or some version of that. But it was every level
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: that they went to, you know, almost like a like
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: a menu at a buffalo wing restaurant where it's like, oh,
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: there's this many chili peppers. No, no, no, no, there are
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: this many chili peppers and this many. We did it
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: together and we felt the energy, and I remember very
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: distinctly there is a moment after we're done narrating it
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: where it's just the scene that Brock and I were
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: like if you had the snoop cam in the booth.
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: Brock and I are looking at each other just like wow,
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: and Brock says, I am shaking.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: Third down, another run de mercado. Then you get on
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: the field, Yeah, it got a hustle.
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: Here a run and now it's a total scramble.
• 6:43
  Speaker 6: Emergency mode for the unbeaten horn Frogs. Hipno toad in
• 6:49
  Speaker 6: a hurry Griffin con for the wind Ta CEO.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: It's undefeated stew whoa unreal.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: I am shaky. I can't believe what Sonny.
• 7:09
  Speaker 7: Dykes just did.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: That is a walk off, really a runoff.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: For the ages.
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: It's the genesis of my Brock impression, which I am
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: very excited about. But like, everything is a little extra
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: emotional in that moment. And then you have a guy
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: who is so good because he's done a lot of
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: talk radio, He's so good at getting the emotion out
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: of moments, and I think that was really it was
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: our first of three seasons together, and that was the
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: moment that I think we would both and our entire
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: crew would look fondly on and say, like, I think
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: that's kind of when we hit the pocket.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: So you're in Saint Louis. You travel constantly. You do
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: every single sport. I like, because I watch every Bulls game.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: I've heard you do Bulls games, both preseason games and
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: like early season games when Adam amin might be on
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the road for Fox. And I know you do college basketball.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: I know you do college football obviously doing the Tigers,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: like Travel Warrior, Travel Nightmare. Do you subscribe the theory
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: that you get paid for the travel and the rest
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: is fun. How do you manage the travel? Where do
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: you never want to go again?
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: Oh wow?
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: Hat tip to the Trailblazers by the way for giving
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: me five games this year and letting me stay on
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: the NBA circuit. So because I did enjoy it a
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: great deal and very small nod to them. You talk
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: about the stat Cast show, what they do with Tom
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: Haberstrow reminds me of a lot of Petriello, and so
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: I felt very much at home just bringing it full
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: circle with what they do that I can probe the
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: depths of Tom when I fill it for Kevin, who
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: has been so super generous to me. The place I
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: never want to go to again is an absolute trap
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: because if I go back there, they.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: Will remind me of that. You know.
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: My first year doing minor league baseball, I was with
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: a team in Salem, Virginia, where our parking lot was
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: where Borat went to the rodeo.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: In my country, they take them and they take them
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: to jail. In Finnish take them ounta and hang them. Yes,
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: half five.
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: So I was with this team in Salem and our
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: first road trip we went to Northern Virginia. It's a
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: team that's now defunct. They've moved, and I believe the
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: hotel probably no long longer is standing. But most of
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: the team got bed bugs from that hotel, so I'd
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: rather not go there ever again. Thanks for that. I'd
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: also rather not go to the hotel in New York
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: City during college basketball season this season where the fire
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: alarm went off four time. I'm in a two hour
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: span and I was, I swear to you, I was
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: on a seven hundred and forty second floor. I don't
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: remember what floor it was, but I think it was
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: seven forty two. So yeah, no thanks on that. But
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: I actually I had a couple announcers, and I actually
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: felt this way too, say to me, like older announcers,
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: really revered announcers say to me during COVID, if they
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: never let us travel again this once we were traveling
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: once more, if they never let us.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: Travel again, I would have quit.
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: And I actually feel the same way, because you can't
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: do it justice, you can't do it right without being
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: at the game in the city. And so I actually
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: I remind myself even when travel is tough, like I've
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: had a couple cross countries for Fox this year, and
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: I don't care. I'm like, as long as I know
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: when I need to when I get to sleep next,
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: when I get to have that one night of sleep,
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: that's kind of my reset button. I'm good because I
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: didn't miss it a great deal when we weren't travel
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: when I was sitting at home in twenty twenty off
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: a kit in my living room, like making leftovers and
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: doing Korean baseball games from Chicago, like, I really missed it.
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: I missed the travel. I missed it a lot twenty
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: twenty one, like I was very vocal about the White
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: Sox not traveling TV and Major League Baseball not traveling TV,
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: and you know, you don't know what the plot's going
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: to look like twenty pages later when you're in the
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: middle of the story. I didn't know if we were
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: ever going to travel again. There seemed to be some
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: networks who were pretty comfortable, you know, regionally, and then
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: you know, teams, teams, but also networks but also leagues
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: that kind of were okay with it for a little while,
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: but a lot of us pushed back. And I think
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: it was important because you don't get the same entertainment
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: value out of a game done from a studio.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: You just don't.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: You're in Saint Louis today, one of my favorite talents
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: where my mommy is from. Do you know why the
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: date October second, twenty eighteen is significant?
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: I think that was Cubs Rockies wild Card Day.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: That's exactly what it was.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: It was the first ever MLB stat cast on ESPN.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: You were the play by play.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: To this day, it is the best baseball broadcast I've
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: ever heard.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: I'm not even kidding, Simon, I don't know why you're laughing, Like.
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: Uh, the most shocking port chat is the fact that
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: the Rockies were in the wild card round. That's probably
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: that's the most shocking car of this conversation.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: They were good back then.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: They were.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: That was like, by the way, talking about Saint Louis
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Nolan Ernatto, I think that's like when he was sort
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: of in his prime. And I think they won that
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: game actually, but I couldn't even tell you the final score.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: I think it was, actually I can't tell you. I
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: think it went extra innings and I think the Rockies
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: won two one. But Jason, truly that was a revelatory broadcast,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: like loved every second of it. And I remember I
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: had just left ESPN to launch Action less than a
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: year earlier. And one of the reasons like we launched
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Action is because I just didn't think ESPN was going
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: to get it, like when it came to this kind
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: of information that would engage fans in an accessible way,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: and that broadcast did that. I remember emailing Phil Orleans,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: who you know, is the producer of MLB's broadcasts, and
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: I'm like, this was fucking ridiculous. And I feel like
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: when you were in the moment, explain to people like
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: what that was, because I do think it was transformative.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Explain to people how it came about, and your partner
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: it and what you thought of it.
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah, man, you just hit me right in the heart
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: because that show changed my life in some ways, not
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: just career wise, but just informationally.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: The whole goal for us for that show was to
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: be not really different. I think that would be the
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: inclination is like, hey, let's be different. Our goal for
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: that show was to make sure that if it was
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: on the screen, it was really specifically relevant, Like it
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: made sense to this moment, it made sense to this
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: specific player. The graphics when we walked up a player
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: like this was his best attribute, this is how he
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: might impact the game. And Mike Petriello, who works for MLB,
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: he's a stat cast guru. With his help, you know,
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: I got to really understand exactly how powerful the information.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: Can be that we had.
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: But you know it was it was Eduardo Perez, Mike,
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: and myself in the booth. Andy Jacobson was our producer
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: who's now the producer of Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN,
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: the main show, and we all got together and basically
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: just said, hey, let's make this information sing as much
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: as possible, as specifically as possible. And my first recollection
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: from that day is when we were having our meeting,
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: we had breakfast at the hotel in downtown Chicago, and
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: I was living there at the time, so I went
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: from home to the hotel and we were talking about
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: all this information and I said to the group, I said, hey,
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: is there still time for us to tell stories? And
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: I remember Phil phil Orleans who you mentioned, jumping in
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: and saying absolutely, like that should still be a part
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: of this show. But the information is different, and it
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: just kind of jigsaw puzzled in for me. At that
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: point where it was like, Okay, we are using stats
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: in the most muscular way possible while also keeping the
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: joy of baseball. And I remember distinctly, Shoot, I don't
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: remember who the player was, but I remember late in
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: that game we put up sort of a trivial pursuit
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: pie piece, like a whole pie of underneath a player.
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: It was a specialty graphic they had built for us
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: for his directional outs above average, and he was really
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: good one direction, and I swear to you, the next
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: batted ball was in that direction and he made the catch.
• 16:14
  Speaker 5: I don't remember who it might have been, like Charlie Culberson,
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: I don't remember who it was, but I just kind
• 16:20
  Speaker 5: of looked at Mike and he looked at me and
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: Eduardo and I are laughing, and it was just like,
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: oh man, we have fully unlocked the potential of what
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: baseball on television might be. So yeah, that was That
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: was an amazing night. We didn't we Mike. Mike found
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: a place for us to eat, and it was like
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: the wrong direction, Like we went further north instead of south,
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: back to the city, and we were all making fun
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: of him and like, but we didn't care.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: I swear to you.
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: I was up until four thirty in the morning just
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: buzzing on the high of teamwork.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Did you have a lot of experience or interest in
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: that kind of information Before that game.
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: We kind of had a dry run by doing the
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: home run Derby. I think twenty eighteen was the first
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: time we did the derby, so we hadn't done on
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: a game here exactly right, There was no this was
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: the first time we rolled it out in a game broadcast,
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: but we did the derby, and I want to say
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: twenty eighteen was Washington. I want to say it was
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: it was NAT's Park with Bryce Harper and his dad
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: just piping in fastballs like over and over and over again,
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: to the point where they were like, you're cheating, You're
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: throwing too many, you know, whatever it might be. But
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: so we did that, and you know, we could kind
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: of get a feel for what the information might be.
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: And so I had been able to, you know, kick
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: the tires on baseball savant and get to kind of
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: learn from myself over the course of the season in preparation.
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: But then when you see it in play and you
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: see how like heat maps can show you exactly what
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: might happen in a game off a pitcher's hand, based
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: on specific matchups.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: It's intoxicating in so many ways. And also we had
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: what I remember as like a fourteen inning game. But
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: we got off the air and I wasn't looking at
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: social media. But we got off the air, and I
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: remember people being like, well that went well, and I
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: was like, oh, how well? And then I looked at
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: social media and it was.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: Like, do this more.
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: That's the best thing ever, and like, you know, the
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: concept allowed us to be able to do that. But
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: we also happened to have in the booth two analysts
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: who are virtually egleless and so Eduardo and Mike can
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: you know. It wasn't like I think this camp and
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: I think that camp. That's not the point. Like that
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: is the really overly basic way to do a show
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: like that. It's like, well, I'm here for analytics, I'm
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: here for baseball garbage. That's garbage. That's not how this works.
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: How it works is you take the information, you funnel
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: it to a player, they tell you how it hits them.
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: We then ask follow ups to the person who's kind
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: of the information guy, and they talk to each other
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: like human beings.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: But I think that's.
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: Why, you know, if I don't want to put words
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: in your mouth, Chad, but when you said like ESPN
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: might not get it, I feel like if you were
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: doing that as a as sort of like a hot
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: take show, it would devolve into just yelling at each
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: other about who's right. And that's entertaining for twelve seconds,
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: but not twelve innings.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: One of the topics that comes up often. I get
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: asked this all the time, and I'm sure people ask
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Simon about this too, is that kind of stat cast.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: It's really one nuanced piece of language away from being
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: a gambling cast.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: I'm asked all the time, do you think that gambling
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: will be a regular part of broadcasts?
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: My answer is usually know, because I don't know that
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: there's a big enough audience of gamblers that it's worth
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: incorporating it for the people who aren't gamblers. But do
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: you ever think about how to incorporate gambling information into
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: your broadcast? And you do every sport, so it's not
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: just for baseball, But do you think about that as
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: a circumstance or is something that is of value? How
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: do you consider that sort of new aspect of sports?
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, it's a tough one for me because
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: of my multiple employments. You know, like I'm an employee
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: of the Tigers. I am not a gambler by definition,
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: can't be, but I wouldn't be anyway a sports gambler.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: So it's a tough question.
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: But I also do play by play on FanDuel Sports Network, right,
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: so church and state are not as separate as they
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: used to be. And I you know, I'm not going
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: to be like Victorian England about this either in the
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: way that I perceive it, because you know, we do
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: the fandual home run ons on our Tigers games and
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: all that stuff.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't do it.
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: I can't do it, but I would say, you know,
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: like what I am, what I always marvel at in baseball.
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: This is going to be a little bit of a
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: generic answer, but it's only because like the specific answer
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: probably isn't worth it for me. But the kind of
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: generic answer is I marvel at how much information there
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: is that could help people if they wanted to just
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: follow the game, right, So I guess I would. I
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: would push back a little bit on like not even pushback,
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: but I don't know the distinction between information and gambling
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: information anymore. You know, like, I think all information could
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: be used to follow the game very specifically, step by step,
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: but we do. I will say this is the part
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: that I feel comfortable being very specific, and I think
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: it's I think it's some version of a novel thought.
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: You all be the judge. But you know, we spend
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: a lot of time in our baseball prep trying to
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: find tendencies. Like we had a game the other day
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: where a Red Sox starter was throwing a lot of
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: sinkers to right handers that were pulling off the inside corner.
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: So you look at his heat map and there's this
• 22:17
  Speaker 5: red blob inside off the plate to right handers, so
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: his sinker is not a strike most of the time.
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: So we pulled that heat map because it was kind
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: of a novel lo and behold the first sinker he
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: throws to a right handed batter in the game is
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: glabor torres any homers off of it, and it's in
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: off the plate and he like opens up to hammer it.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: And you know, the.
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: First thought is, oh, my gosh, you can follow along
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: with anything through baseball savants, And then my second thought was, oh,
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: people could use this information, you know, like that did
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: run through my mind of like if if you're that good,
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: it's a little bit like and I don't want to
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: be like inside Trading tiptoe the line guy, but you know,
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: like I read one of Jim Kramer's books in two
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: thousand and six and he's talking about listening to earnings
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: calls over and over again for like companies that have
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: had IPOs right, And so I think the information is
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: out there if you want to dive into it. But again,
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: the danger is danger. But like the the counterbalance of
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: that is is everybody in baseball is looking for tendency breakers.
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: If your first pitch swing rate is four percent, at
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: some point you gotta bust that tendency. And so just
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: when you think you have it sized up, somebody does
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: something else completely different. And to me, informationally, that's the
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: fun of it. But I you know, that would be
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: the thing that if you were somebody who's inclined to
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: place a wager on a sporting event, it might frustrate you.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Simon.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I know you're a big baseball fan. I know how
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: much you love the Phillies. When you watch a game,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: do you watch it through the lens of information and analytics,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: or because it's not a sport you bet on.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Is it just a purely visceral experience.
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: I mean I do bet, I just don't better professionally,
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: So like if I'm getting good info, I always take
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: a position. But it's also like last night, perfect example,
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: as a Phillies fan, it was an easy bet.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: They're playing the Rockies. Okay, they open minus.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: I believe two fifty, and I say to myself, I'll
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: wait till it's live. Hope the Rockies get up one
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: or two. Sure enough, I think it was a third
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: or fourth inning, Rockies are up three to two. Take
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: a position on the Phillies at a plus number. I
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: think they end up winning the game, like nine to three.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: Chets.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: So it's just those type of things. I'll take positions
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: on where the Rockies are so bad and you know
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: the pitching tendencies, and right now the Phillies are going
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: through an issue where their bullpend that we had a
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: guy basically tested positive for who knows what. But it's
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: funny where the market moves off of that. Where the
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: Phillies are a travel day, they're going to the Rockies
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: play Colorado, and that number is usually the Rockies are
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: probably the worst team in baseball. The usual numbers minus
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: three hundred and guys I know who don't even bet.
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: They know how bad the Rockies are, so they'll bet
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: on that game. So that's the type of thing where
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: I think back in the day, that guy never bet
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: And that to me is the biggest difference now with
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: statue what Jason's talking about, where like I like that
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: Jason's not out here acting like he knows what he's
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: talking about. When he works for a gambling company where
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: he's he stays in his lane and he does it
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: because it's part of his job. If they're like, hey, Jason,
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: give it out a home run guy, he'll do it.
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: I mean, he watches the game, he knows what he's
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: talking about. He's just letting people know, like I don't
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: do this for a living. I'm just doing as part
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: of the job.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: I like that.
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: I like that there's more than baseball because I want,
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: I do want to hear from people like Jason who
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: are around the game a lot knows the game. But
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: he's not coming from from any type of angle, right,
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: He's just going strictly off what he knows, what numbers,
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: he follows and all of that. So to me, I know,
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: Jason went I love it because it's like it's a
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: new territory for him.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: I love people like.
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: Him getting into this type of stuff because it's something
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: that me loves gameling.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: I love hearing his view of baseball through that lens.
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: So yeah, it's my first question you, Jason, is just
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: do you hate it or if you embrace it a
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: little bit where it's it's just fun giving that perspective
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: on those step of numbers. Do you even hear from
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: fans about your your picks or anything like that? Are
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: you just are you just all about the job? So
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: I honestly don't build them like I don't. It's not
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: my choice. It's graphics that builds them.
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: Like I'm totally I'm very agnostic. Like I just I
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: it is a line that because I'm a team employee,
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: it's just not ever worth it. Like I will say, like, hey,
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: here are the fan dual home run odds and then
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: he's got this many or like we you know, like
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: looking into it, there's this matchup for that matchup. But
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: I really truly I give the information for the information's sake,
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: and if people want to use it for whatever purpose, right,
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: to like make fun of their little brother who doesn't
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: know as much about baseball or whatever it might be.
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: Like I I so, you know, like I've played blackjack.
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: I'm happy to go to Vegas and play blackjack like
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: that is that's like I enjoy that. But I also
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: like it is just not worth it for me in
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: any way to go any closer, because you know, like
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: we we our producer said to me last week, like, hey,
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: you know they they want us to talk a little
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: bit about Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe and.
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: All that stuff.
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: And I was like, I don't really have one of
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: these like really strong opinions about this. And I also
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: don't know that I want to go into it because
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: if my opinion ends up being as I sus it out, like,
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: if my opinion ends up being, hey, they shouldn't be
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: allowed in the Hall of Fame. And I work for
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: FanDuel Sports Network, Like then what right?
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: Like that? Then what? So you know, I'm a.
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: It's interesting because I'm a team employee and our games
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: are aired on FanDuel Sports Network, and I think, like
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: to your point, Chad, I think there's an alt cast
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: out there, like I really do think there's an alt
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: cast and teams have tried it. Teams have tried it
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: for sure, Like I know they tried it in Chicago,
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: like a specific gambling cast and things like that, and
• 28:19
  Speaker 5: I you know, I think you just have to figure
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: out exactly what the rules are that are going to
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: keep you employed. Like the only thing that stops me from,
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: you know, having a very open conversation is I'm a
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: team employee, and I like I cannot bet on baseball,
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: cannot will not not going to happen.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: I always know, even when I don't know, like flipping
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: through the channels for a college football game or a
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: college basketball game, I know when it's a Benetti broadcast.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: A because your voice is distinctive, but B there is
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: something funny and charming that you slip into were like
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: a reference that is good for the ten percent of
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the pupil, but those ten percent that get it freaking
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: love it and then become sort of acolytes.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: You've done this.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: With the Tigers broadcasts, a couple of which have gone
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: a bit viral. One I think was you basically called
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: an entire inning as if you were golf announcers.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Right, explain sort of what happened.
• 29:25
  Speaker 7: There, you could argue is that baseball was a sport
• 29:28
  Speaker 7: that actually could be called like golf. Very calming tapper,
• 29:34
  Speaker 7: and he just taps it to with a throw difference. Job.
• 29:39
  Speaker 7: There're two here on six, so the seven teabots, he yes.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: Thank you for that.
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: I would say again, I just told you I don't
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: gamble on sports, but I would say I would take
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: the under on ten percent of people understand the references,
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: maybe ten total people.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Well I'm one of them.
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you. I appreciate that. Jackson Job the
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: picture for the Tigers. His father is Brant Job, who
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: was a long time PGA tour golfer, and we had
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: a picture of Jackson caddying for Brant just before Jackson's
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: fourth birthday at the Masters way back in the day,
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: like eighteen and a half years ago, and so we
• 30:22
  Speaker 5: showed it earlier, but then we got into the thick
• 30:26
  Speaker 5: of the game. And I don't know what made me
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: do it, but maybe it's my partner, Andy Dirks, also
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: being a circus animal, and so I just started, you know,
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: as a golf person, and he came right with immediately,
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: and then we did it for I don't know, a
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: minute and a half, two minutes, and then broke character
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: and then told the Jackson job golf story again. And
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: you know, there was a time in my life where
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: that would have just been the whole thing, right, just
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: because it's fun to be golf announcers and it's fun
• 30:58
  Speaker 5: to laugh and enjoy life. I do as an aside,
• 31:02
  Speaker 5: I do think it's pretty funny when people tweet at us,
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: like you're laughing so much stick to the game, like
• 31:10
  Speaker 5: a dear sir or madam or whomever, I'm sorry, you're miserable,
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: sincerely us like imagining when you're eight, imagining a world
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: where somebody writes into you and says, laugh less that
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: is it's like you're reading the gringe that stole Christmas,
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: you know, like that, that's like what's going on there?
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: And so I just I think those are entertaining. But
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: the reason we did it is because of Jackson and
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: his story. And what I was going to say is
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: there was a time in my life where we had
• 31:45
  Speaker 5: just been really indulgent and done the golf voice because
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: it's funny, and he and I are a little bit
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: like Will Ferrell and John c Riley and stepbrothers, you know,
• 31:55
  Speaker 5: but it was about the kid and it's about his story,
• 31:58
  Speaker 5: and so I think I think that kind of helped it.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Land have you you've been with the Tigers now this
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: is your second season. Of course, you were with the
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: White Sox for many years before that, the favorite team
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: of Pope Leo the fourteenth.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: What's it like?
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: And you're a Chicago guy, how are you enjoying Detroit?
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: How would you compare it to a Chicago baseball experience?
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: Well, I thought this was going to be a pope
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: question because the Pope.
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: The Pope lived for a while.
• 32:34
  Speaker 5: New Pope lived for a while, like four blocks from
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: where I grew up in a Homewood, Illinois. So my
• 32:40
  Speaker 5: text thread was exploding from my high school friends and
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: I that day when we found out, like there's a
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: picture of New Pope at Aurelio's Pizza on the South
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: Side and like he knows to say, hey, use the
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: old oven at Aurelio's Pizza. So you know, we were
• 32:59
  Speaker 5: doing and like the whole like I wonder if the
• 33:02
  Speaker 5: Pope's ever been to Chuck's house at Magic or like
• 33:05
  Speaker 5: did he get his t shirts made at Knickknacks or
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: like all of.
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: This stuff right outside of Chicago suburbs stuff. So yeah,
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: I thought I.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Was going to go there next. I was going to
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: ease your in with the question about Oroy.
• 33:18
  Speaker 5: All right, so here's the answer. I'll give you the
• 33:20
  Speaker 5: answer about Detroit. I Detroit is an amazing sports town.
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: Like I knew it when I went there. You know,
• 33:28
  Speaker 5: I'd been there for.
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: You picked a good time to go, though, you have
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: to admit totally yeah.
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: Totally, totally, totally accurate, very accurate.
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: Like when when the town is like buzzing over Lions, Pistons, Tigers,
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: when for so long it was the Red Wings that
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: were propping up the town, You're like, oh, this all
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: could go write all at once very soon. So yeah,
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: I'm there at the very right time. That is one
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: hundred percent true. But that's part of the honestly. Like
• 33:58
  Speaker 5: I'm not saying that I expected thirty one and eleven
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: to race the playoff spot last year, but I did,
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: you know, Like I do think the world of AJ Hinch,
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: and I do think the world of Scott Harris and
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: Jeff Greenberg, Like I think they have a lockstep between
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: front office and manager that most Major League Baseball teams
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: don't have. And you know, there was a time where
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: I think people thought aj Hinch was going to be
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: the White Sox manager, in part because his signature was
• 34:26
  Speaker 5: on the Tony LaRussa welcome graphic that the White Sox did,
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: you know, so like that that was a thing, that
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: was a very public thing that he was being courted
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: in part for that White Sox job. And I always
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: was thrilled about the thought that he and I could,
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: you know, in our separate jobs, work together and I
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: be able to narrate his decision making because I do
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: do think like he has a little stat Cast dish
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: like I can't really vibe with aj because he sees
• 34:56
  Speaker 5: all of those details and he uses it in his
• 34:59
  Speaker 5: analysis a little bit like the stat Cast show to
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: circle back, like the stat Cast show helped me narrate
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: aj Hinch because that level of specificity is what he uses.
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: But you know, long story short, I having done White
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: Sox games, I know Chicago is split and that becomes
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: your existence.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: Socks Cubs, Socks Cubs.
• 35:21
  Speaker 5: I had never been in a team job where the
• 35:24
  Speaker 5: entire state loves your team, and that I should have
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: known was coming, and I did know was coming, But
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: until you don't have people walking up to you and
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: saying like, I'm a Cub fan, but or I'm a
• 35:37
  Speaker 5: Cub fan and I blank you right, like you don't
• 35:42
  Speaker 5: you don't realize how valuable it is to have an
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: entire state behind a team.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: When we were in Chico, we had an event for
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: the show in Chicago at Joson Weed the last weekend
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: in March, and we were all going down there and
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: I was going to hang out with my family on
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: Friday night and Simon, who was relatively alone, I don't
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: really know what happened that night.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: He was going to go.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: It was like the opening weekend for the White Sox,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, dude, don't bother. You're not going to
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: the South Side to be in a stadium where it's
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: going to be freezing and there's going to.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: Be eight people there.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Like, it's just a different experience. I said, if the
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: Cubs were home, you know, you'd go to this great.
• 36:25
  Speaker 5: Food though, I will say great Field has great food.
• 36:29
  Speaker 5: That is that is definitely something I would stump for.
• 36:32
  Speaker 5: Is some of the better food in the.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but when you're cooking for eight people, it's easy.
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: I will tell you.
• 36:40
  Speaker 5: I have never cooked for eight people in my life
• 36:43
  Speaker 5: because one sometimes is a stretch.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: So, but here's my question about Detroit because last year
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: they had that crazy run and aj Hinch like, I
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: feel like that could be the perfect marriage of broadcaster
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: and manager. But yeah, you know, whenever I think of
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: some of the best movies are baseball movies where the
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: team goes on that run through June, July, August, right,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: and they sort of have the great montage. Think about
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: like every major league right, yep, what is it like
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: when you're in that Like does it feel like it's
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: sped up? Do you feel the momentum every single day?
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: How does that energy manifest itself for you?
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's interesting because that montage that usually starts somewhere
• 37:28
  Speaker 5: near mid season, and this mid season the Tigers traded
• 37:33
  Speaker 5: away Jack Flaherty and traded away Mark Canna and Carson
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: Kelly and Andrew Chaffin and others. So it was that
• 37:41
  Speaker 5: you know exodus that you're used to when you were
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: playing for the long game, and so on the last
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: day of July. Little did we know it was a
• 37:52
  Speaker 5: plot point, but it was. It was like a red herring, right,
• 37:56
  Speaker 5: it was. It was in there as misdirection was the
• 37:59
  Speaker 5: trade deadline, and so there wasn't that slow build. It
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: was just like one day you're not and the next
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: day you are. There was a glimpse right before the
• 38:09
  Speaker 5: All Star breakak when they beat the dodgerswice in a
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: row on two straight walk offs, but until we got
• 38:16
  Speaker 5: to August and they they got super scalding hot, we
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: didn't know. I don't think any of us knew. And
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: it also required that a couple teams really fade. I mean,
• 38:26
  Speaker 5: Minnesota had to fade to let the Tigers back in
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: and that happened, and Seattle didn't play you know, outsized
• 38:34
  Speaker 5: baseball either, and so you know, we get to that
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: point in September where we're in San Diego and the
• 38:43
  Speaker 5: Tigers have given up a lead to the Padres and
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: lost because of Jackson Maryland part in Day two of
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: the series. And then maybe that was day one, but
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: then Parker Meadows hits this grand No that was day two,
• 38:56
  Speaker 5: because Parker Meadows Game three, to avoid a sweep, hits
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: this grand Slam in the ninth inning off the Padres closer.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: And.
• 39:06
  Speaker 5: Like none of us knew it was coming, and I
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: had to recalibrate, Like on the walk back to the hotel,
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: I was going separately from the team because of college football,
• 39:13
  Speaker 5: and the walk back to the hotel, I remember thinking
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: to myself, I'm not going to be surprised again if
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: they're going to do this, Like I am going to
• 39:21
  Speaker 5: be on it from Jump Street expecting that they're going
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: to do this because if they do make this comeback.
• 39:29
  Speaker 5: And this was thirty days in advance, but but you
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: know that Grand Slam. I was on it, but I
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: wasn't expecting it. And those are separate things. And I
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: think this team felt the same that they were doing
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: some things, but they weren't expecting to win. And Spencer
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: Torkle said, actually just told us this on the podcast
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: the other day, like this is the first team he's
• 39:47
  Speaker 5: been a part of in Pro Bowl that he's felt
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: like they come to the ballpark and they expect to win,
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: and I think there's a difference. And so in the
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: way I did my job, I just started expecting fully
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: the unexpected, and that is a recalibration. And so that
• 40:02
  Speaker 5: was that was really valuable and important because then there
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: were all these moments and I was like, Okay, when's
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: the next one, when's the next one? When's the next one?
• 40:10
  Speaker 5: When's the next one? And you almost have to do
• 40:12
  Speaker 5: it like that and not be disappointed if it doesn't come,
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: but just thinking like, all right, we're gonna drill this
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: one now because they're going to do something and lo
• 40:21
  Speaker 5: and be old they did something over and over and
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: over again.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: But does that just make your call different? Is that
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: like that? What does that look like?
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it looks like.
• 40:34
  Speaker 5: Robin Ventura told me when he was the White Sox
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: manager my first year. We were at dinner and he
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: said some version of you know, I've told writers before,
• 40:49
  Speaker 5: try one game and not even in like this is
• 40:52
  Speaker 5: going to sound like he was like ripping writers or something.
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: He didn't.
• 40:55
  Speaker 5: He didn't mean it at all like this. He just
• 40:57
  Speaker 5: meant it as a thought exercise for one game. Really
• 41:01
  Speaker 5: lock in on every single pitch, like really lock in,
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: like don't look at your computer, don't write something, don't
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: talk to the person next to you, be eyes up
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: on every single pitch.
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: You're going to be exhausted.
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: And that was ringing in my ears as this was
• 41:20
  Speaker 5: going on, because I'm like, I think I'm an attention payer, right,
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: Like I think I'm watching the field most times, and
• 41:28
  Speaker 5: I think I'm locked in most times, but I'm also
• 41:31
  Speaker 5: talking to my partner and sometimes there's a pitch that
• 41:33
  Speaker 5: comes where we're in the middle of something. As the
• 41:36
  Speaker 5: pitch comes, that's okay. You're a baseball announcer. I shifted
• 41:41
  Speaker 5: last year as much as I humanly could to like
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: this pitch is meaningful. That pitch is meaningful, and that
• 41:50
  Speaker 5: is not sustainable from April to July. It is not
• 41:54
  Speaker 5: like you just can't because at some point you become
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: over serious. Like last night, we're taping this the Tigers
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: were down eleven to nothing and Tomas Nido was pitching,
• 42:05
  Speaker 5: and we did a bit on the air where Dan
• 42:07
  Speaker 5: Petrie convinced me to believe that a comeback was possible
• 42:11
  Speaker 5: because I basically said, like, I'm under no obligation to
• 42:14
  Speaker 5: tell the people at home that the Tigers are likely
• 42:16
  Speaker 5: to win.
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: This game, and he was like, ah, come on.
• 42:18
  Speaker 5: And then there were two hits in a row and
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: I said, well, great, Dylan Dinglar's the tying run. Next
• 42:22
  Speaker 5: time he comes up, right, Like, you just can't pretend
• 42:26
  Speaker 5: that every pitch matters until it does.
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: Though.
• 42:29
  Speaker 5: That's the fun about baseball. It's a little bit like
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: a Bugatti, right. You go zero to sixty real fast.
• 42:37
  Speaker 5: And that's the way that felt.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Jason Bennetti watching Tigers games is worth getting the MLB
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: package just to hear you doing, brother, Thanks for coming
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: on the show. Good luck with the rest of the season.
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: Yes somebody.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: Simon and I will return with our next episode of
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: The Favorites Tuesday.
• 43:00
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