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The Fifth Hour: The Greatest Words in Sports · The Ben Maller Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Kabooms.
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Speaker 2: If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes
0:05
Speaker 2: a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants
0:09
Speaker 2: of the old republic, a soul fashion of fairness. He
0:12
Speaker 2: treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the
0:15
Speaker 2: rich pill poppers in the penthouse.
0:18
Speaker 1: Wow.
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Speaker 2: The Clearinghouse of Hot takes break free for something special.
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Speaker 2: The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now in.
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Speaker 3: The air everywhere, The Fifth Hour with me, Ben Mahler,
0:35
Speaker 3: and good to have you with Danny g not here
0:37
Speaker 3: yet who We have a show to do today, and
0:42
Speaker 3: it's a big day because today is Kentucky Derby Day. Yay, whoa.
0:50
Speaker 3: Now we are not horse racing people. We did the
0:52
Speaker 3: equine pickam on the overnight show.
0:56
Speaker 1: Was that the other day? Friday?
0:57
Speaker 3: Was that Friday the end of the week, I believe
0:59
Speaker 3: it was. So we did the equine pick and we
1:01
Speaker 3: brought that back well. We each picked three horses for
1:04
Speaker 3: the Run for the Roses, which is later today in
1:07
Speaker 3: Louisville and always a reflective day. The first Saturday in
1:13
Speaker 3: the month of May. They've been running the Kentucky Derby.
1:15
Speaker 3: They first ran it in eighteen seventy five, which is
1:20
Speaker 3: mind blowing, and when they ran it for the first time,
1:23
Speaker 3: nobody really cared, right, But now after all these years,
1:27
Speaker 3: it's kind of a big deal. There's only been a
1:30
Speaker 3: couple of times they haven't run the Derby. One was
1:34
Speaker 3: during World War One. That was in nineteen forty five,
1:37
Speaker 3: and I loved the story, which has been passed down
1:40
Speaker 3: over the years. The reason they could not run the
1:42
Speaker 3: Kentucky Derby in nineteen forty five they postponed it because
1:47
Speaker 3: the horses that would have been running in the Kentucky
1:51
Speaker 3: Derby were being reserved for the United States military to
1:56
Speaker 3: fight in World War One. So you imagined, like, if
2:00
Speaker 3: we had a war breakout, I mean, we're always seemingly
2:03
Speaker 3: at war with somebody, but if we had a war
2:04
Speaker 3: breakout here in twenty twenty five, would they be using
2:09
Speaker 3: the horses that would run these multi million dollar horses
2:14
Speaker 3: in the Kentucky Derby. Would those horses be used to
2:17
Speaker 3: fight for the US? Probably not.
2:19
Speaker 1: Of course, we don't really use horses all that much.
2:23
Speaker 3: So nineteen forty five was postponed and then twenty twenty,
2:26
Speaker 3: the second postponement of the Derby because of the pandemic
2:32
Speaker 3: that we all went through there, so that was the
2:34
Speaker 3: second time. But other than that, they've run year after
2:37
Speaker 3: year after year after year. So get your Mint jewliup
2:41
Speaker 3: ready and knock yourself out. And I also this time
2:46
Speaker 3: of the year, I often think what could have been?
2:50
Speaker 3: What could have been? And in my radio career, I've
2:54
Speaker 3: been at Fox Sports Radio for a long time.
2:57
Speaker 1: I did local radio for a while.
2:59
Speaker 3: I started out in Sunday Ago and when I was
3:04
Speaker 3: on the way up in my very early portion of
3:08
Speaker 3: my career, there were two jobs that I got offered
3:11
Speaker 3: early on that I wasn't really ready for, but I
3:15
Speaker 3: considered taking. One of them was an afternoon drive show
3:21
Speaker 3: in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
3:23
Speaker 1: There was a radio station that I had.
3:24
Speaker 3: An opening and they were interested in my services, and
3:28
Speaker 3: I declined to go to Albuquerque, which I didn't really
3:32
Speaker 3: have that big an issue with because I thought, well,
3:35
Speaker 3: I'm not quite ready for it, I don't know anybody
3:37
Speaker 3: in Albuquerque, as I can get something somewhere else, and
3:41
Speaker 3: so that I wasn't upset with the one that I
3:44
Speaker 3: did think maybe I should do. This is what could
3:50
Speaker 3: have been had I taken the job to become the
3:54
Speaker 3: track side reporter at Santa Nita and Park, because back
4:02
Speaker 3: when I got into the radio business, for about twenty
4:05
Speaker 3: years or so, i'd say the eighties and the nineties,
4:09
Speaker 3: they the tracks had a radio reporter in the asshole
4:14
Speaker 3: who worked at the track, but really was there just
4:18
Speaker 3: to promote propaganda for the track, the horse reporter of course,
4:23
Speaker 3: of course, of course, and they would call into a
4:25
Speaker 3: handful of local radio stations and broadcast the results and
4:31
Speaker 3: also not the play by play.
4:33
Speaker 1: It was like live race.
4:34
Speaker 3: Commentary, but you would have a phone and you'd sit
4:39
Speaker 3: out there and you'd give periodic updates post race results,
4:44
Speaker 3: the payouts, the highlights of the races, what's upcoming, Hey,
4:49
Speaker 3: you're coming up today at the eighth race at Santa Anita,
4:52
Speaker 3: so and so and so and so so. Do you
4:55
Speaker 3: have information on the upcoming race. The whole point was
4:57
Speaker 3: to get people to come out to the track, right.
4:58
Speaker 3: You discussed the favorites, the odds, you talk about the trainers,
5:02
Speaker 3: the jockeys, all that stuff, and then once the day
5:05
Speaker 3: was done, you'd do a post race wrap up. And
5:09
Speaker 3: at that time before the Internet, there were people that
5:13
Speaker 3: would bet and didn't know the results or maybe didn't
5:16
Speaker 3: know the odds, and so this is how they would
5:18
Speaker 3: get that information. So anyway, that was a job that
5:21
Speaker 3: was offered to me. It paid pretty good money, pretty
5:24
Speaker 3: good money, and I did not do it. I was like,
5:27
Speaker 3: I'm not really a horse racing guy. I like going
5:29
Speaker 3: to the track. Back then, I didn't really like it
5:31
Speaker 3: that much, but I like going to the track a
5:33
Speaker 3: couple times a year betting on the ponies. I like
5:36
Speaker 3: the vibe out there. I love the fact that you
5:38
Speaker 3: go to the horse track. And I've never been at
5:40
Speaker 3: Churchill Downs, but I imagine it's the same. I've been
5:42
Speaker 3: to Santa Anita and a few other tracks around the country.
5:44
Speaker 1: I haven't been to Belmont Park.
5:46
Speaker 3: But you go to the tracks and it's super wealthy
5:50
Speaker 3: billionaires on one side, and then on the other side
5:55
Speaker 3: you've got very poor people and they intermingle in this clash,
6:00
Speaker 3: this dichotomy of rich and poor and don't really need
6:04
Speaker 3: to be here. I'm so wealthy, I'm just flaunting my money.
6:07
Speaker 3: And then you've got the poor people who are trying
6:09
Speaker 3: to hit the big ticket, win big money on the day,
6:12
Speaker 3: and so they're side by side, and then you've got
6:15
Speaker 3: the smell of crap from the horses. If you're down wind,
6:21
Speaker 3: it's just a magical place. And they're normally beautiful. They're
6:23
Speaker 3: normally beautiful. So today, being Derby Day, I flashed back
6:27
Speaker 3: to what could have been if I had taken that
6:29
Speaker 3: job on site reporter, and I would have been describing
6:33
Speaker 3: the atmosphere and interviewing trainers and jockeys and all that.
6:38
Speaker 3: And that job does not even exist anymore, for it's
6:41
Speaker 3: been a long time. It's been a minute, so that
6:42
Speaker 3: job does not exist. As far as I know, that
6:44
Speaker 3: job is not around anymore. And when I was on
6:49
Speaker 3: my way up the ladder at Saddleback College, one of
6:52
Speaker 3: the guys that was ahead of me at Saddleback actually
6:55
Speaker 3: became a big horse racing guy. He went that direction,
7:00
Speaker 3: went that direction, and I lost track of him. But
7:03
Speaker 3: last I had heard he did end up for at
7:06
Speaker 3: least a number of years in Louisville, and he had
7:09
Speaker 3: a job, a prominent job at Churchill Downs in that world.
7:13
Speaker 1: He then went to.
7:14
Speaker 3: Dallas after that, at a track in Dallas. But he
7:17
Speaker 3: had bounced around and he had had a good run
7:21
Speaker 3: in the horse racing world, so he had had some success. Now,
7:23
Speaker 3: before we get too much Further, I don't want to
7:25
Speaker 3: do all sporty stuff. You know, this is not a
7:26
Speaker 3: sporty podcast. This is not a sporty podcast at all. However,
7:32
Speaker 3: I didn't want to mention since I was I was
7:34
Speaker 3: up watching last night the Golden State Warriors. I have
7:38
Speaker 3: no skin in the game, as you know my allegiances.
7:41
Speaker 3: I just want a good story, that's all I want.
7:44
Speaker 3: But I am biased towards the Clippers. I would like
7:47
Speaker 3: to see the Clippers be successful and the Clippers play
7:50
Speaker 3: later today.
7:53
Speaker 1: How dare you in game seven? The greatest words in sports?
7:58
Speaker 1: Game seven?
7:58
Speaker 3: You just want to close games, Evan, in the final
8:01
Speaker 3: couple of minutes, everything on the line. That's all you want, right,
8:05
Speaker 3: You just want that wonderful So I'm in right, and
8:10
Speaker 3: you know everyone's all the Nuggets should win.
8:12
Speaker 1: The Nugget should win. They're at home. Why are the
8:15
Speaker 1: Clippers even bothering to show up? I know all that.
8:18
Speaker 3: Stuff, I get all the trolls in my inbox. I
8:23
Speaker 3: got you very very happy. I know, like true trolls,
8:26
Speaker 3: if the outcome happens that you do not want, you
8:30
Speaker 3: will crawl behind the refrigerator and go into hiding again.
8:33
Speaker 3: I totally understand that we know how this works, so
8:36
Speaker 3: I'm not shocked by that at all. But as far
8:39
Speaker 3: as the the gambling information, because it's all about the
8:44
Speaker 3: gambling information, as we like to say here, the Clippers
8:49
Speaker 3: and Nuggets, and the Nuggets opened up.
8:53
Speaker 1: A one point underdog.
8:55
Speaker 3: They're favored by a point and I have even though
8:58
Speaker 3: the road team has one. I think it's like eight
9:01
Speaker 3: of the last eleven. We had the stat the other
9:03
Speaker 3: night on the Overnight show with the Denver Nuggets are
9:06
Speaker 3: now a one and a half point favorite, so that
9:08
Speaker 3: line has flipped by two and a half points. The
9:12
Speaker 3: money is pretty heavy in favor of both the public
9:16
Speaker 3: liking the Nuggets and the sharps liking the Nuggets. So
9:20
Speaker 3: we'll see if they're right or not. Coopers and Nuggets
9:24
Speaker 3: in Game seven day. But on Friday night last night,
9:28
Speaker 3: the Warriors could not lose. There's no way they could lose.
9:33
Speaker 3: Steve Kerr had given up, he had raised the white flag.
9:37
Speaker 3: He the old woke coach there, had said, all right,
9:40
Speaker 3: we give up. We're done. In Game five. We're not
9:43
Speaker 3: gonna even try to win. We're gonna rest our starters.
9:46
Speaker 3: And as I mentioned in a previous episode, of the
9:48
Speaker 3: radio show. It's like, I don't have a problem with
9:51
Speaker 3: Steve Kerr pulling his starters midway through, but when the
9:53
Speaker 3: game got back in to reach, you put your starters
9:57
Speaker 3: back in and go for the jugular.
10:00
Speaker 1: Mister.
10:00
Speaker 3: I'm so worried about the health of my team. I
10:04
Speaker 3: happen to watch some of the Warriors feed because Doris
10:08
Speaker 3: Burke is so.
10:09
Speaker 1: Freaking annoying to me. Oh my god, she is so bad.
10:12
Speaker 3: So I flipped over to the Warriors feed that I got,
10:15
Speaker 3: and I'm watching that on one of those Russian websites.
10:19
Speaker 3: I'm watching the Warriors feed and the broadcaster for the
10:23
Speaker 3: Warriors I started laughing and I almost puked in my mouth.
10:27
Speaker 1: They were claiming that the Warriors were.
10:29
Speaker 3: Having issues because they had to fly, you know, these
10:33
Speaker 3: long flights between San Francisco and Houston. And I'm thinking,
10:39
Speaker 3: to myself, are these guys idiots? Like are the Warrior
10:44
Speaker 3: fans morons? Is anyone think that's an issue? So let
10:48
Speaker 3: me get straight. So the Warrior players have to get
10:49
Speaker 3: on their their chartered flight which waits for them. They
10:53
Speaker 3: have to have a vip bus service take them to
10:57
Speaker 3: the airport. They get on a chartered flight, they go
10:59
Speaker 3: to their five star resort hotel by police escort. And
11:03
Speaker 3: this is somehow grueling travel that's wearing these players. Now,
11:09
Speaker 3: what are we doing? They're not traveling by train. This
11:10
Speaker 3: is not Babe Ruth in the nineteen thirties or whatever,
11:15
Speaker 3: traveling by train.
11:16
Speaker 1: This is not it. This is I mean, what are
11:17
Speaker 1: we doing? I just I laughed.
11:20
Speaker 3: But the Warriors lost, and they lost in glorious fashion.
11:23
Speaker 3: Glorious fashion going to the fourth quarter. It was a
11:27
Speaker 3: two point game. The Rockets had a two point lead
11:29
Speaker 3: over Golden State going to the fourth quarter, and in
11:33
Speaker 3: the fourth quarter the Rockets led by as many as
11:37
Speaker 3: seven I think it was seventeen.
11:39
Speaker 1: At one point in the fourth quarter.
11:42
Speaker 3: The final score was not necessarily indicative of how dominating
11:48
Speaker 3: it was. Rockets ended up winning by eight, but they
11:51
Speaker 3: were up by seventeen in the fourth quarter. And I
11:54
Speaker 3: remember when Golden State went up through the theory that
11:59
Speaker 3: nobody knows anything and everyone's just making it up. And
12:01
Speaker 3: if you want to be a sports pundent, just throw
12:03
Speaker 3: a bunch of big words together and make it seem
12:06
Speaker 3: like you know what you're talking about. And if you're
12:08
Speaker 3: speaking cliches, a lot of people just fall asleep and
12:11
Speaker 3: they'll just.
12:11
Speaker 1: Go for it.
12:12
Speaker 3: So I bring that up because I heard, Well, the
12:15
Speaker 3: Rockets just aren't there yet.
12:17
Speaker 1: They haven't gotten there.
12:18
Speaker 3: The Warriors have that championship pedigree and they just know
12:22
Speaker 3: how to win.
12:23
Speaker 1: Playoff Jimmy Steph Curry just oohz is confidence, just oohs
12:28
Speaker 1: his confidence.
12:29
Speaker 3: So I'm thinking of that, and I'm watching the game
12:31
Speaker 3: last night in the fourth quarters, two point game, going
12:34
Speaker 3: to the fourth quarter, Rockets have all these bozos who
12:37
Speaker 3: are not there yet and all this, and so how
12:41
Speaker 3: did that go? Let's see Steph Curry in the fourth
12:43
Speaker 3: quarter two point game, took seven shots, missed six of them.
12:46
Speaker 3: He was one of seven, one of seven. While he
12:50
Speaker 3: was on the court, the Warriors were plus minus outscored
12:53
Speaker 3: by eleven points.
12:54
Speaker 1: But wait, there's more.
12:55
Speaker 3: How about playoff Jimmy, Jimmy Butler, all right, took five shots,
13:00
Speaker 3: made as many shots as you and I made zero
13:02
Speaker 3: for five from the floor, and while he was on
13:05
Speaker 3: the court, a minus thirteen with playoff Jimmy on the court.
13:11
Speaker 1: In the fourth quarter. So okay, And then.
13:14
Speaker 3: You got Fred van Vliet shoving it down your throat.
13:18
Speaker 3: You were playing hack and Adams. Hacking Adams is the
13:23
Speaker 3: game plan there for Steve Kerr giving him the old
13:25
Speaker 3: Shaquillo O'Neal treatment from back many years ago. But Steven
13:29
Speaker 3: Adams kept going to the foul line and over and
13:33
Speaker 3: over and over and oh he had sixteen foul shots
13:37
Speaker 3: because they were doing hacking Adams.
13:40
Speaker 1: But it was really the Fred van Vliet game.
13:42
Speaker 3: They had twenty nine points, another dud from Jalen Green,
13:46
Speaker 3: who's just not a playoff player, just not a playoff player.
13:50
Speaker 3: You are what your resume says you are. And Alfred
13:54
Speaker 3: Sengun getting it done also with twenty one and fourteen.
13:58
Speaker 3: So the Rockets set up a game set which I'm
14:01
Speaker 3: fired up for because Game seven is coming up on
14:04
Speaker 3: Sunday night and we go on the radio tomorrow at
14:09
Speaker 3: night after that game will be on and get to
14:11
Speaker 3: break it down.
14:12
Speaker 1: So I'm excited about that Game seven.
14:14
Speaker 3: But wow, it is a great story if the Rockets
14:19
Speaker 3: end up winning this because Steve Kerr, the wokester you
14:23
Speaker 3: pull back the curtain here, and he's the know of
14:26
Speaker 3: these guys, smartest gather room. He's not a big as
14:28
Speaker 3: big a schmuck as JJ Reddick. But the arrogance, the
14:33
Speaker 3: absolute elitism of Steve Kerr, like, oh no, no, you
14:37
Speaker 3: can't put your starters back in once you're thinking your
14:40
Speaker 3: starters out.
14:41
Speaker 1: There's some impossible you cannot do that.
14:43
Speaker 2: What do you what are you thinking about?
14:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, that whole bull crap.
14:48
Speaker 3: Oh god, it's I don't know if anyone cares nationally
14:53
Speaker 3: about the Rockets.
14:53
Speaker 1: They probably don't.
14:55
Speaker 3: And I don't really have anything pro or against the Rockets.
14:58
Speaker 3: Just to think that the Warriors could futch this away
15:01
Speaker 3: up three to one, which has only happened a handful
15:03
Speaker 3: of times in the history of the NBA. And to
15:07
Speaker 3: do it because you were resting in Game five to
15:10
Speaker 3: win Game six, and then you end up losing Game six,
15:13
Speaker 3: and now you got to go to a game seven.
15:15
Speaker 3: And even if you win a game seven, Minnesota is
15:18
Speaker 3: sitting there relaxing, having a cocktail, eating a juicy Lucy
15:23
Speaker 3: as they just sit.
15:24
Speaker 1: Back and wait for the winner of this series.
15:27
Speaker 3: I also saw that Greg Popovich has stepped down and
15:33
Speaker 3: pop lost it many many years ago.
15:37
Speaker 1: Who goofed?
15:38
Speaker 3: I've got to know Greg Popovich, who has been around
15:43
Speaker 3: a long time, and when I started as a radio
15:48
Speaker 3: stringer and a talk show host. Popovich was a young
15:53
Speaker 3: head coach at the time, and he was always a schmuck.
15:59
Speaker 3: He's always a bit of a douche, but in his
16:03
Speaker 3: later years he became king of all a holes. Craig Popovitch,
16:09
Speaker 3: I don't know anyone that's upset. Popovich is not going
16:12
Speaker 3: to be coaching the San Antonio Spurs anymore. You know,
16:17
Speaker 3: he's got some health problems there, and you know, you
16:20
Speaker 3: know that happens you get older. You don't want to
16:22
Speaker 3: see it happen, but it happens to everybody. If you
16:25
Speaker 3: live long enough, you'll be blessed enough to have some
16:27
Speaker 3: crap go wrong. For as much of the criticism has
16:33
Speaker 3: been directed at Bill Belichick since Tom Brady exited stage left,
16:39
Speaker 3: since Tom Brady walked away from the Patriots and Bill
16:43
Speaker 3: Belichick and the Patriots fell apart. Now Bill's just concerned
16:46
Speaker 3: with his sugar baby, and that's it. Since he coaches
16:50
Speaker 3: in San Antonio. If you you've noticed the San Antonio Spurs,
16:55
Speaker 3: there's a if you if you're to make a ven diagram,
16:59
Speaker 3: a ven diagon of Greg Popovic and the Spurs and
17:03
Speaker 3: when pop had to coach up lesser players, right, coach
17:09
Speaker 3: up players that were not all that good, players that
17:13
Speaker 3: were a little a little out.
17:16
Speaker 1: There on the spectrum.
17:18
Speaker 3: It has been a absolute sixteen car pile up on
17:24
Speaker 3: the interstate there as Popovich has had not one, not two,
17:28
Speaker 3: not three, not four, not five. How about six consecutive
17:33
Speaker 3: losing seasons as an NBA head coach. Six consecutive losing
17:39
Speaker 3: seasons as an NBA coach, and now they gave him
17:42
Speaker 3: some figurehead job in the organization. But I'm not going
17:45
Speaker 3: to miss Greg Popovic as he's finally done after twenty
17:48
Speaker 3: nine seasons with the San Antonio Spurs. So that is
17:54
Speaker 3: that did have the alf birthday influence. I did want
17:59
Speaker 3: to mention this the ALF they influencer. So my weekend
18:03
Speaker 3: is going on obviously right now. Last night was the
18:05
Speaker 3: beginning of the weekend, and so we have the birthday celebration,
18:08
Speaker 3: which is really going to be a series of events
18:11
Speaker 3: birthdays during the week. I'm like, I'm all grown up,
18:13
Speaker 3: so you can't really celebrate during the week because you know,
18:15
Speaker 3: you're not supposed.
18:16
Speaker 1: To do that during the week. It's a school night
18:18
Speaker 1: and all that.
18:19
Speaker 3: So I didn't really do much celebrating. I did have
18:21
Speaker 3: a cousin visited, which was really cool to see one
18:24
Speaker 3: of my cousins who lives in Colorado, who was in
18:27
Speaker 3: town for a work conference, and so he came by
18:30
Speaker 3: and visited, and I got a few random gifts and
18:34
Speaker 3: had a zoom call like a FaceTime call with my
18:38
Speaker 3: my brothers, which was nice. I don't talk to them
18:40
Speaker 3: very often, and so that was fun. As far as
18:43
Speaker 3: my cheat meal on my birthday, it was inspired in
18:47
Speaker 3: part by Alf the Alien of Partners.
18:49
Speaker 1: So I was like, I don't know what to eat.
18:51
Speaker 1: I usually fast and I don't eat that much, eat the.
18:53
Speaker 3: Same few things over and over and over, as I
18:57
Speaker 3: what am I gonna do? It's, you know, the birthday,
18:58
Speaker 3: and so Alf mentioned I'm not usually on X during
19:05
Speaker 3: the day, but I don't even know if this was
19:06
Speaker 3: at night or during the day.
19:07
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure, but I saw it.
19:09
Speaker 3: I just popped on there for a second and it
19:12
Speaker 3: was like, Hey, I'm going to have an apple fritter
19:15
Speaker 3: in your honor for your birthday. I said, oh, man,
19:18
Speaker 3: you know, I've not had an apple fritter donut in.
19:22
Speaker 1: A long time.
19:23
Speaker 3: That's a great f an idea to have an apple fritter.
19:27
Speaker 3: That is a wonderful, wonderful idea. So I should have
19:31
Speaker 3: an apple fritter, and so I did. But I had
19:35
Speaker 3: that pastrami fries, a couple of chicken fingers, and then
19:38
Speaker 3: I had a delicious apple fritter, A very unhealthy meal
19:42
Speaker 3: and wonderful. One of my favorite cheat meals is the
19:47
Speaker 3: pastrami fry. Big fan, big fan, and I've mostly been
19:51
Speaker 3: eating it at the house here at the mallor mansion,
19:54
Speaker 3: preparing my food, cooking my food, all that stuff. Have
19:57
Speaker 3: not been spending a ton of time eating out. But
20:01
Speaker 3: it was a nice, nice day with the wife, and
20:04
Speaker 3: then hung out with my dog, Moxie. I put a
20:07
Speaker 3: photo up of me and mox as Moxie hangs out
20:10
Speaker 3: with me most of the.
20:12
Speaker 1: Evening when I'm watching games.
20:14
Speaker 3: I got Moxie to my right and normally sleeping with
20:19
Speaker 3: not any care in the world, as I am freaking out,
20:23
Speaker 3: pulling my hair out, what's left of my hair out,
20:25
Speaker 3: trying to get the radio show together, trying to prepare,
20:30
Speaker 3: get everything good to go. And I did get a
20:32
Speaker 3: message from the great Karen k KK who was with
20:37
Speaker 3: me in the original run on the Overnight Show years ago,
20:39
Speaker 3: and she's she's the big bulldog woman.
20:43
Speaker 1: She always had bulldogs.
20:44
Speaker 3: Everyone Stuid known KK and she was very excited to
20:47
Speaker 3: see photos of Moxie. So there's some bulldog bonding going on,
20:53
Speaker 3: some bulldog bonding going on. Time now for the phraseus
20:57
Speaker 3: all the week, that's right, the phrases of the week.
21:01
Speaker 3: So I thought we'll do something a little different here,
21:03
Speaker 3: the phrases of the week.
21:06
Speaker 1: Now, let me explain.
21:08
Speaker 3: Normally we do a phrase of the week, but we're
21:11
Speaker 3: gonna do the phrases of the week on this Saturday
21:14
Speaker 3: in honor of the Kentucky Derby. There are so many
21:19
Speaker 3: phrases that are used day to day that are from
21:24
Speaker 3: horse racing, colloquial phrases that go back to the eighteen
21:29
Speaker 3: hundreds that started at the track and have worked their
21:33
Speaker 3: way into the lexicon. You think of horse racing, you
21:37
Speaker 3: think of boxing, that have given us so many of
21:40
Speaker 3: the terms that we use in our American day to
21:43
Speaker 3: day idioms and things like that, and of course you
21:46
Speaker 3: go back even further to Shakespeare. There's so many phrases
21:49
Speaker 3: and words that are Shakespearean. But in terms of our
21:52
Speaker 3: world right now, since today is Kentucky Derby Day, the
21:56
Speaker 3: phrases of the week.
21:58
Speaker 1: The Phrases of the Week.
22:00
Speaker 3: The first phrase, which we have used before on this show,
22:03
Speaker 3: but there are always new people listening, is dark horse.
22:07
Speaker 1: All right, dark horse.
22:08
Speaker 3: Now, a dark horse is a lesser known horse that
22:13
Speaker 3: does very well, that's not supposed to do well, that
22:16
Speaker 3: does very well.
22:17
Speaker 1: So now, of course it's known as you're describing.
22:19
Speaker 3: An underdog or a team that is a surprise, that
22:23
Speaker 3: is not supposed to be that good. But the phrase
22:25
Speaker 3: dark horse originated in horse racing in the early nineteenth century,
22:30
Speaker 3: and it referred to a horse that people didn't really
22:33
Speaker 3: know that much about, didn't know it was.
22:36
Speaker 1: Good or bad or anything like that.
22:37
Speaker 3: It was not supposed to be a contender in the race,
22:40
Speaker 3: and it sure enough became a contender.
22:43
Speaker 1: The earliest recorded use.
22:46
Speaker 3: Is attributed to a gentleman at eighteen thirty one, who
22:49
Speaker 3: wrote in a novel The Young Duke. He wrote, a
22:53
Speaker 3: dark horse, which had never been thought of, rush past
22:58
Speaker 3: the grandstand in sweet triumph, and so that phrase eighteen
23:04
Speaker 3: thirty one. The phrase gained more of a regular occurrence
23:09
Speaker 3: in the eighteen forties eighteen fifties, horse racing became a
23:13
Speaker 3: big deal, not only in the US, but also in Britain,
23:17
Speaker 3: and from that point on it became a regular phrase
23:22
Speaker 3: in reports from the track and all that, and then
23:26
Speaker 3: by the mid nineteenth century it was here to stay.
23:31
Speaker 3: In politics, it crossed over. The first notable use early
23:36
Speaker 3: on was to describe James Polk, James K.
23:41
Speaker 1: Polk, who was a candidate, but.
23:44
Speaker 3: An unexpected candidate who won the US presidential nomination in
23:49
Speaker 3: eighteen forty four, and the newspapers. That was back when
23:55
Speaker 3: people read newspapers, and he got the labeled dark horse.
24:00
Speaker 3: Of course, now it's used for any underdog or surprise
24:04
Speaker 3: situation that the so and so is a dark horse.
24:07
Speaker 3: And it's not just a sports term. Another phrase that
24:11
Speaker 3: came from horse racing.
24:13
Speaker 1: As we're doing the phrases of the week, how about
24:16
Speaker 1: buy a nose.
24:18
Speaker 3: It's another horse racing term from a horse winning a
24:21
Speaker 3: race by a photo finish, which is also a horse
24:25
Speaker 3: racing term. But buy a nose, right, the narrowest margin possible.
24:29
Speaker 3: So if you do something and get it done by
24:32
Speaker 3: a very small margin, by a nose is the phrase.
24:37
Speaker 3: The term emerging again late nineteenth nineteenth the early twentieth century,
24:43
Speaker 3: as horse racing became more and more popular and you
24:47
Speaker 3: were determining the winner, and you carefully observe and go
24:51
Speaker 3: to that photo, finish technology and all that, and again
24:57
Speaker 3: sports journalism on the eighteen nineties, eighteen nineties, they would
25:03
Speaker 3: put that in the newspaper. There's an example from nineteen
25:06
Speaker 3: oh two. Newspaper said blue streak one buy a nose
25:11
Speaker 3: over ironclad.
25:13
Speaker 1: And so then it moved.
25:15
Speaker 3: After that over the years that followed politics, sports, it's
25:20
Speaker 3: all by a nose.
25:23
Speaker 1: But wait, there's more. Got a couple more phrases of
25:28
Speaker 1: the week. All right, so how about this one.
25:30
Speaker 3: Also ran. That's pretty good, right, Also ran? Now, also
25:34
Speaker 3: ran is an obvious Once you hear it, you'll be like, oh,
25:39
Speaker 3: that makes sense, But if you don't know what it means,
25:42
Speaker 3: you're like Also ran is a horse that does not
25:47
Speaker 3: place in the money, meaning not in the top three,
25:51
Speaker 3: but describes someone who was in the competition but didn't
25:56
Speaker 3: get it done. So a horse racing phrase again late
26:00
Speaker 3: nineteenth century. Earliest known use in print was in the
26:06
Speaker 3: eighteen nineties. And give an example. The winner was black Diamond,
26:12
Speaker 3: followed by Starlight and Thunder. The others also ran ooh yeah,
26:19
Speaker 3: they also ran. And so that term also ran just
26:24
Speaker 3: was if you ran the race, you finished the race,
26:27
Speaker 3: but you didn't get any money.
26:29
Speaker 1: That's how it worked.
26:30
Speaker 3: The phrase has stayed in the lexicon all these years,
26:35
Speaker 3: and it's a very versatile phrase. Also ran a team
26:41
Speaker 3: that's not very good, like the Angels. I was watching
26:44
Speaker 3: the Angel game last night. They gave up eight runs
26:47
Speaker 3: to the Detroit Tigers and the ninth inning. Don't ask
26:49
Speaker 3: me why I was watching the Angel game. I was
26:51
Speaker 3: just flipping around and the Angels were playing the Tigers,
26:54
Speaker 3: and I flipped over to the game and I was like, man,
26:57
Speaker 3: but those Angels, they're also rans. That game was not O's,
27:00
Speaker 3: that was not by an O's And if the Angels
27:02
Speaker 3: were to win, they would definitely be a dark horse.
27:04
Speaker 3: Art last one, last one across the board, across the board,
27:11
Speaker 3: the last one here on the fifth hour. Now, originally
27:15
Speaker 3: any of this is on over the Kentucky Derby. All
27:17
Speaker 3: these phrases came from horse racing. So across the board
27:20
Speaker 3: originally referred to a bet covering first, second, and third place.
27:26
Speaker 3: It now means covering all the different possibilities, all the
27:32
Speaker 3: possibilities out there. And it originated like all these other phrases,
27:38
Speaker 3: because of gambling, and in the nineteenth mid nineteenth century,
27:44
Speaker 3: if you said, hey, I across the board, it was
27:47
Speaker 3: a bet, a wager that was placed on a single
27:50
Speaker 3: horse to finish in any of the top three spots,
27:54
Speaker 3: so first, second, or third, which is win place or
27:59
Speaker 3: show one placer show, and the bet covered all those outcomes,
28:04
Speaker 3: and so that was it, and over time, like everything
28:09
Speaker 3: else here, that phrase has continued on. But that one
28:13
Speaker 3: across the board goes back from when there were no
28:18
Speaker 3: computers and they.
28:19
Speaker 1: Used tote boards.
28:21
Speaker 3: They used chalkboards at racetracks to display the odds and
28:26
Speaker 3: show all the bets, and so if you went across
28:28
Speaker 3: the board, you were effectively betting all on all three
28:32
Speaker 3: categories listed on the board, spreading your risk and increasing
28:37
Speaker 3: your chance of getting something something in return. So that
28:41
Speaker 3: is the jargon, all of these phrases horse racing jargon
28:46
Speaker 3: that worked its way into the everyday.
28:48
Speaker 1: Language that we use.
28:51
Speaker 3: And there's some other ones, but it's only a half
28:53
Speaker 3: an hour podcast. We don't have time on the pod,
28:58
Speaker 3: nor do you want me to go in to all
29:00
Speaker 3: of the possibilities here that are out there. But that's
29:04
Speaker 3: a few of them, and those are some good once.
29:06
Speaker 3: We'll enjoy the Kentucky Derby today. Enjoy the Clippers and
29:08
Speaker 3: the Nuggets and the Clippers winning that game today.
29:11
Speaker 1: That'll be fun. And we will have a mail bag,
29:15
Speaker 1: mail bag. I will have a mail bag on Sunday.
29:19
Speaker 3: Have a great rest of your Saturday, whatever you're up
29:22
Speaker 3: to today.
29:23
Speaker 1: It's early while we're recording this, and we'll get you
29:27
Speaker 1: next time.
29:27
Speaker 3: As Danny G would say, later, skater osta pasta?
29:34
Speaker 1: What kind of pasta is that? I have never heard
29:36
Speaker 1: of that part? Asta pasta? Is that like a spaghetti?
29:40
Speaker 1: Is that? Do we know exactly what that is? I don't.
29:43
Speaker 1: I don't know.
29:43
Speaker 3: Is that it's not a ravioli. It's definitely not a ravioli.
29:47
Speaker 3: No oh, I'm told it's not a ravioli.
29:50
Speaker 1: I'm out. Why are you still here? My flation