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Forgetting Kyle Tucker + Bears Playoff Heartbreak + Inside the 2016 Cubs (Exclusive Stories) · Monday Morning Cubs Show

0:05
SPEAKER_01: And we're clear.
0:07
SPEAKER_01: Good morning, good afternoon, and evening, Chicago Cubs fans.
0:12
SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to the Monday morning Cubs Show.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: It is Carl.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: I am joined by Mahoney, and today is Monday, January 19th, a federal holiday, Martin Luther King Jr.
0:22
SPEAKER_01: Day.
0:23
SPEAKER_01: We are here together, Mahoney, and it feels good after a gut-wrenching Bears lost last night.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: A gut wrenching loss, Carl, but there is plenty to be smiling about on this Monday morning for us and the maniacs moving forward.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: Plenty of news and notes here to go over over the weekend.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: It was a packed Chicago sports weekend.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: CubsCon going on, 150th anniversary of the organization, 2016, 10-year anniversary, yada yada yada.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the Bears game.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: Let's just get it off our chest to start, Carl.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: It's stung.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: You never want to lose a divisional playoff game in overtime, but honestly, I woke up and it was a great season.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: See, I woke up sad today.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: Like I woke up, my wife was like, What's wrong?
1:09
SPEAKER_01: She like before we even talked, she saw me.
1:12
SPEAKER_01: She goes, What's wrong?
1:13
SPEAKER_01: Everything okay?
1:14
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm just we had that one, man.
1:17
SPEAKER_01: Caleb first down over the 50.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: You know, over time, he he walks across the 50, kind of assesses the rest of the stadium, gives you that vibe that like it's it's fucking going down.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: Throws the pick the next play.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: That's a DJ Moore thing.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: That's like, right?
1:32
SPEAKER_01: That was a DJ Moore not running the route.
1:34
SPEAKER_01: I he's not running the route.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: Nope, he's not running the route.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: You look at the film, and as well as he was in that blue tent, dude, for about five minutes earlier on in the game.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: He got smoked the play immediately before.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: Who knows where his head was at?
1:46
SPEAKER_00: He was not in his locker after the game.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, yes, should have broken on the ball.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: That was a winnable game.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: We had a lot of different instances of drop passes, bad interceptions, as well as missed blocks that, you know, among Countham and Nung guy would have walked right into the end zone had Roma Dunze put a hands on a guy.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: So there were a lot of missed opportunities.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we could have won, but you know, I just look at it now like we got to move on.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: It was a great season.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: We weren't supposed to be there.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: We have a guy in Caleb Williams, we have a great head coach, and now we can write, you know, another chapter to the story going on next year.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now I'm gonna play devil's advocate, but before I do, I'm just gonna remind the loyal maniacs.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: Hey, thank you for showing up.
2:33
SPEAKER_01: If you guys get a chance, you know, throw a review on the show.
2:36
SPEAKER_01: We are gaining momentum and steam, and this is the time going into spring training post-Bears football season, baseball will be here before you know it.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: And the Cubs going and getting Alex Bregman, the Cubs con this weekend.
2:47
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of Cubs stuff we're gonna get to, but like Moni and I were just talking before the show started, like it would just be unrealistic for us to come in here and start firing 2016 Cubs stuff.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: And what did you think of the con?
2:58
SPEAKER_01: Without like the the Bears game yesterday was the biggest sporting event we've had in Chicago since the last time the Bears hosted a visional round playoff game.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: I can't even think what what has even come close to comparing, no disrespect to Cubs playoffs, you know, against the Milwaukee Brewers and the San Diego Padres.
3:16
SPEAKER_01: That is like the way the city responded, like at church the other um on Sunday morning.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Couldn't go anywhere.
3:22
SPEAKER_01: How many Bears churches did you think are in St.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: Catherine at Drexel?
3:25
SPEAKER_01: Like it's crazy how many people are, and I'm not saying it's bad decorum, it's just it takes over the city of Chicago.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: So just in respect and fairness to that, we're just spent a little time up front just kind of licking our wounds here.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: And with that in mind, playing devil's advocate.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: I just remember like obviously the Eagles loss in 2018 uh slash 19, and we were like, we're fine, we got Mitch.
3:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, the defense is solid, the NFC North is getting weak.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: Like, this is all ours.
3:55
SPEAKER_01: And then we're in the basement again for like six more years.
3:58
SPEAKER_01: So I it's hard to like, it's much easier in MLB to take things for granted looking ahead.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: It's tough, but and like what Ben Johnson said in his post-game presser, like it is going a new season, you don't really carry momentum from and the parity of the NFL.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: Teams just get better, retool, it could flip the script, you know, in a couple weeks.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: So, no, it's just different knowing that we have Caleb that what he's done, and it's it was a magical ride, and it did have some of those undertones for me of the 2015 Cubs season, you know, and then like now the expectations next year for the Bears will be a Super Bowl team.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be the expectation.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: How they handle that, we will see.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: It will be a different story.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: Even though, and this is a good point, even though things don't carry over in the NFL.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: I love that point from Ben Johnson that you bring up, just the amount of parody you gotta retool.
4:51
SPEAKER_01: But there is that, okay, let's say, like the esoteric, the soft, subjective, the way people feel when they walk into the building thing.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: The Cubs did not have that at all forever, ever.
5:05
SPEAKER_01: When you walk into a building with a purpose, it did take beating the Cardinals in 2015, it did take going to the NLCS in 2015, it did take Jerry Jake Arietta's monster season and Chris Bryant's rookie of the year to then come back.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: Uh, that's a good parallel.
5:19
SPEAKER_01: Here, let's do this for a second.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: Talk me off the ledge on a couple other things because I'm enjoying your positivity.
5:25
SPEAKER_01: And like I said, I woke up sad.
5:26
SPEAKER_01: So talk me off the ledge on this.
5:28
SPEAKER_01: You think Caleb Williams is the guy he's he's taking those strides, even though you know, three picks, a couple of really aggressive, bad decisions.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: I thought, you know, and then like just talk me off the ledge on that.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, you have to look at it year two, with really uh the first year of having a real coach and first year new system.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: The throws that he misses, he will be making year three and four automatically.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Those are gonna be those short passes, the little misses is his problem.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: It's not the big target downfield in between defenders, not the hard throws for whichever reason.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: And he has that like literally the Iceman stuff where he flips a switch and he has the stone cold killer mentality behind him.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: And I you just you know it when you see it, I know it when I see it, and that's what I see in Caleb.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna fix those little mistakes, and we he will be the best quarterback in the NFL, maybe in year four for the next five.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: That's how I feel.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Are you sad at all that we're like there's I was man?
6:32
SPEAKER_00: I just I got over it a little bit more in the morning.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I was sad, you know.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying you weren't sad.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying are you uh I was gonna it was a question I was gonna say, are you sad at all about I was gonna say that it's over.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: That you know, I'm sad that it's over, but happy that it all happened.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I wanted one more week of the hype and the energy.
6:55
SPEAKER_01: That's for the live in Chicago.
6:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, everybody.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: You couldn't go into a parking lot of uh Walmart, of a Target, you couldn't go to your local grocery store, your butcher shop without people saying, like, go bears, the bear, like, or stopping and having genuine conversations.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: We know I think I mentioned on the last week's show, the lady I met at a Walmart, we were walking, she just stopped us, and she was a seasoned ticket holder in the past, and she's like, Oh, we just just beat the Packers, and like you couldn't have not run into those conversations anywhere you went, so that that's why it does it envelopes the city in this togetherness, and that's what is magical about the Bears being good.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: It really is.
7:38
SPEAKER_01: The Bears are the only team that does the togetherness in the city, you know.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: Even when the Cubs are rolling, baby, we got at what a quarter of the population's talking shit to us, not even not cheering for us.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: I mean, White Sox fan just up our fucking kitchen.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: Gotta watch the F-words.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: Uh, thank you, Lizard King, for counting that one.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: I we have a guy in the maniacs who counts our swear words and then reports back to us.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: So, and I just again, moment for the maniacs.
8:02
SPEAKER_01: Love you guys more than you know.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: And I've said this earlier in the show.
8:05
SPEAKER_01: This season, this cub season, this will be by far the best cub season I've ever covered.
8:13
SPEAKER_01: I and I don't mean the team, I mean the efforts we're gonna put out and the conversations, the stories.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: You'll be so dialed in when playoff baseball rolls around for the Chicago Cubs.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but just gearing back towards that vibe energy shift in Chicago when the Bears are in it and people are are geared up and excited, you know, and the connectivity, the Bears are the only thing in Chicago that unites us.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, how much do you want to reflect on the fact that like not really a united time?
8:43
SPEAKER_01: You know, people can't even agree if they like Matt Shaw.
8:47
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's just a difficult time.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: And like when the Bears are in the playoffs, people just love each other.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: So need more of it, need more of that positivity.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: It does.
8:59
SPEAKER_01: How about that?
9:00
SPEAKER_01: Cole, the cold comet play, arguably.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: I passed out.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: I had to go down to a knee.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: It was an absolute shock.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: That ball's in the air.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: I don't see comet in the frame, and I'm like, oh, that's over.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: And boom, like I dropped a dime right into this bread basket, man.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going nuts, and I go to Kate, that's Comet, Arlington Heights, Arlington Heights.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: Kate, you're not gonna believe what he just did.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: Like, and then I had to go and repeat how he went, he threw this from the 40-yard line.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: It was snapped at the 20.
9:29
SPEAKER_01: You know, and wherever you're telling you telling your wife about how he's from St.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: Vyor, went to Notre Dame.
9:37
SPEAKER_01: Little bit of a reach, people didn't like him for a while.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: You'd be surprised.
9:40
SPEAKER_01: You'd be surprised, babe.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: He's got the best tight end stats in the history of the Bears, which he does.
9:46
SPEAKER_01: Cole Komet is the most prolific.
9:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think he has the most receptions or most yards or most touch.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: He's like got a better overall career than any other tight end in Chicago Bears history, which I find to be I don't know what I find that to be.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: But that was a great play.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: It was.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: And the future's bright in Chicago, okay.
10:09
SPEAKER_01: Okay, last thing, a lot of drops last night.
10:11
SPEAKER_01: We're moving on here, guys.
10:13
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying there were a lot of drops last night.
10:15
SPEAKER_01: Weather, you know, like bare weather, we got to capitalize on.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: Those are mistakes I want to see from the Rams.
10:19
SPEAKER_01: Like, I want to see our guys.
10:20
SPEAKER_01: We got to have like better glove technology.
10:22
SPEAKER_01: We got to have something, man.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: I also think that we hyped it up way too much within the media, and everyone's, you know, buys into the bear weather.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be freezing, it's a California team, but act like these guys aren't cold either, right?
10:37
SPEAKER_00: On and on our bench.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: So I feel like we dumb that down a bit and don't talk about it as much, then LA might not be as keen coming in to like what's going on.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know they have their own, you know, weather guys and what have you, but I don't know.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: We blew that a bit out of proportion, and you can see that that wasn't gonna make a damn bit of difference, you know, w in the in the game, ex besides the random drops and what have you.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: And the Rams caught the balls, you know, that we would have dropped in the big situation.
11:03
SPEAKER_01: So that's well then yeah, the net effect.
11:05
SPEAKER_01: Like, it sucks for them, it sucks for us, is where they miss.
11:08
SPEAKER_01: Like it does suck for them, it does suck for us.
11:10
SPEAKER_01: Um, but like we did hold them the seven, you know, it's they the Rams threw overtime, one position overtime, 17 points when they're averaging 31 biggest game of the season.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: You know, they're firing on like you got everybody.
11:23
SPEAKER_01: You got Devontae Adams, Puka Nakua.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: So there is some effect where it's like, you know, we they were slow, we couldn't take advantage.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: We got to move on.
11:32
SPEAKER_01: We got to move on.
11:32
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last thing that's preventing me from moving on.
11:35
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last thing that's in my head where I'm like, fuck, you know, just our inability to just take the points in the first half.
11:43
SPEAKER_01: Like Ben Johnson just refuses to take Cupcake field goals.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: I understand touchdowns win the game, but like, don't you think your offense is gonna have a chance to get back down there?
11:52
SPEAKER_01: I would like to see a little bit more conservatism, however, I understand I'm saying this because we lost, and there are several moments where you're going, man, if we just kick the field goal there, we're up three.
12:02
SPEAKER_01: So, um, do you how do you reconcile Ben Johnson's fourth down aggressive tendencies throughout every single opportunity?
12:10
SPEAKER_00: So I extremely aggressive.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean, last week one was a suicide fourth down in the first half.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: We obviously came back and beat the Packers in that regard.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: But yesterday's game, I did feel like we should be taking points earlier on, and then second half or maybe second part of the second quarter on, that's when you're going forward on fourth every time.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: I think you take the points early, get some of that momentum.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: Hey, good drive, you know, instead the the however it went down, I think Caleb threw a pick at one um on one of those drives.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: So either way, I I feel like you go a little conservative early, and then if you want to have that aggressive mentality, you take that on later in the game, as our players and team has performed the best, you know.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: So that's just how I feel about it.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: But one other like little positive thing I do want to kind of sprinkle on.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: I I love seeing our boys in the stands, Ian Hap, Nico Horner, Jameson Taeon.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: They looked like they, you know, they got all the same hats from them sure, maybe from the Bears marketing team, but they looked identical.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: I love seeing guys bonding at, you know, a night where it's negative 10 wind chill and what have you.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: It's windy, it's not comfortable, and they're in the stands rooting on another team in the city.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: And that was great.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: And what a nice time too for CubsCon to be with the with this atmosphere going on, right?
13:28
SPEAKER_00: So, what a great time for you folks to come in and visit CubsCon, you know, get your gear, see all the folks, get your autographs and what have you.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: And like for the players, that had to be kind of nice too, knowing that there was a big event that they could all kind of rally around if they wanted.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: So, two takeaways or about the Cubs players there, and I love that call is that I don't they don't need to be in Chicago at that point.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: I thought CubsCon stuff had wrapped.
13:50
SPEAKER_01: So, like, you could have gotten on a private jet and just gone home.
13:53
SPEAKER_01: You're Jameis and Taeon making whatever you got$130 million in career earnings.
13:57
SPEAKER_01: Like, just fire up whatever that is, you can go back home.
14:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, and the same thing goes for Ian Hap.
14:02
SPEAKER_01: Like, you don't have to be in Chicago right now for this because the players do have to for the convention.
14:09
SPEAKER_01: And uh would people be surprised to find out most of active players want nothing to do with the convention?
14:15
SPEAKER_01: Almost all of them.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: Like Tay Jamison Taeon does because he's a very nice guy.
14:19
SPEAKER_01: He grades out as just about the nicest guy in Major League Baseball.
14:22
SPEAKER_01: And then Pete Crow Armstrong, you know, he certainly wants to be at the convention because he's a rookie and he wants to get his, you know, grow his profile.
14:30
SPEAKER_01: But then, like, take a guy like, do you think Nico Horner wants to be there answering questions about Matt Shaw?
14:35
SPEAKER_01: You know, do you think Kate like Cade Horton doesn't want to be in Oklahoma with his girlfriend?
14:39
SPEAKER_01: Or like there's just so many guys there that are like, okay, we got to sign autographs, got to do this stuff, put a smile on your face.
14:46
SPEAKER_01: It it's from my understanding, it is something these guys just are like, oh God, you're putting me in a convention center with their like it's just the same as anyone out there, including me or you, that have had to go to multiple conferences over the course of our professional lives.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: The first couple, you're it's unbelievable.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: You can't believe the amount of swag that you're getting for free in these notebooks and pens.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: And it's just you know, you're drinking the Kool-Aid.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: If it's a company thing, hell yeah, dude, I'm gonna die for this place.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, you're fifth, you don't want you don't see light for three days sometimes.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: And you're, you know, maybe just at lunch and you're just dialed in on these things, and it can be taxi.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: It's the same for any profession as I'd imagine it is for professional baseball players, probably more so because they have the ability to maybe enjoy some of that off-season money a little bit more than the rest.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Either way, same thing, though.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing.
15:45
SPEAKER_01: Autograph hunters, you know, it's not kids, they love, you know, kids, they but there's the difference between you see an autograph hunter sending a kid armed with memorabilia and merchandise to be autographed, you know, in the hotel lobby, in the men's room, in the elevator, standing outside your door at the hotel.
16:05
SPEAKER_01: So I there's just uncomfortable stuff.
16:07
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I'm stressing all this up is to say the the fact that our team and players and from that team were like, no, now it's time to go stand outside and cheer on the bears, uh, like gives me the chills thinking about they want to do it together.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: They're boys.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: Like that's what that says for sure, dude.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're very well put, and I couldn't agree more, and that's what I love seeing.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: Then you hear, you read the stories.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I don't want to go off too cough course here, but Bregman is the type of guy he comes in, he's calling every single player, he's calling Arizona and to like set up meetings with their hitting philosophy.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: And like Jamison Taeon said he called him the night I think he came over.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: He mixed a margarita or something.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: He was watching the Bears last week with the Bregman News Bro, Bregman went over to Teyon's and they they hung out for a minute.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: That's the type of shit the Bregman bump we're gonna call it.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: This dude is coming in, and that it really replaced any of that sting of are we or are we not gonna sign Kyle Tucker and Carl, especially after that money that we saw drop.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know if we're moving on too fast here from the Bears and the Cubs.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: Why would you say you don't know?
17:09
SPEAKER_01: We are moving on, my friend.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: We are we're in it.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you because I was gonna say here is my transition to Kyle Tucker.
17:16
SPEAKER_01: I tried.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: You did great, you just didn't have to stop at the end.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's my problem still with transitions.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: I'll be able to do that.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: I think this is I honestly think, and I you know, maybe I'll regret telling you this halfway through the show, but I really do think this is just about the best you've I've ever seen.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: You roll, you're rolling right now.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: You are fucking dialed in.
17:37
SPEAKER_01: That intro you dropped when you just picked up the that was some of the best intro work I've ever seen from you, Mahoney.
17:42
SPEAKER_01: So, like rest of this episode, you got transitions.
17:45
SPEAKER_01: You fucking transitioned there is again, lizard thing.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: Um, okay, so here is my Kyle Tucker transition.
17:52
SPEAKER_01: There was a notable cub from the team last year that I did not see at the Bears game.
17:56
SPEAKER_01: There was a notable cub who was not at this Bears game, he will not be at that Bears game for the rest of his life, unless I guess we're playing the Tampa Bay.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: He was also not featured on any of the highlight videos shown at Cubs Convention from last season eight.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: Kyle Tucker might be the most unceremoniously hated player uh internally.
18:18
SPEAKER_01: Like players hated his guts, the staff hated his guts, the leadership hated his guts.
18:25
SPEAKER_01: You know, you got a great player on paper who turned out to just be a real slack-jawed pussy in the clubhouse.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: I will complain that I wish people were harder or the media, and this is kind of like part of the Cubs, you know, propaganda or control system.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: That like, of course, none of this stuff comes out until after we have moved on from Kyle Tucker.
18:45
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: One thing I love.
18:49
SPEAKER_01: Because it's like he was there, we could have been harder on him.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: I had called him out a couple times down the stretch talking about the way he had left the Cubs to go rehab in Tampa.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: You could read between the lines.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: But we don't have a culture in the Cubs media department that allows for transparent reporting or objective reporting, and they wouldn't even let somebody into the clubhouse or ask a question or wear a credential that could even go down the path of criticizing a player or team decisions.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: So, like there were plenty of opportunities in season when we care, fake Cubs fans care, where somebody inside who's a source person can say there are major rifts in the way this guy has been received by his teammates, but for whatever reason, we don't get that.
19:37
SPEAKER_01: Instead, we get this sl this sloppy, lazy, just like regret just completely regressed player and no explanation, which then is a very frustrating experience for fans, which may sound like nothing until we remember there are like tens of millions of Cubs fans.
19:53
SPEAKER_01: Like the Cubs fans are everywhere.
19:55
SPEAKER_01: So, like, how could you not feel an obligation to at least have a reporting culture that?
20:00
SPEAKER_01: Can get because now here it just feels cheap and easy.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: It feels like he's out the he's out the door, he signed with the Dodgers for a lot of money.
20:06
SPEAKER_01: We got Bregman, and it's like now we're rubbing Bregman.
20:10
SPEAKER_01: Like now Bregman's being shoved down our throats as a great prepared player, and he is.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: And like that's not what Kyle Tucker was.
20:17
SPEAKER_01: Like, well, Kyle Tucker isn't on his team anymore.
20:19
SPEAKER_01: So I don't like that we're just fucking talking shit about him as much as we are, but like he does deserve to have shit talked about him.
20:26
SPEAKER_01: So there's my long-winded take on the situation.
20:28
SPEAKER_01: Mahoney, your thoughts.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: My thoughts on the on Kyle Tucker and his recent contract, an astronomical 60 million a year over the course of four opt-outs with year three and four, I believe.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: Insane money.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: Good for him.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's nice to move on to as just we don't have to discuss the like the would they or wouldn't we?
20:47
SPEAKER_00: I know we moved on pretty much halfway through last season.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, but just hearing about it, the you know, Bregman is the best possible way to soften that blow.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, but and 60 million, dude.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: Who thought he was gonna get an NBA Max deal?
21:00
SPEAKER_00: Like everyone, after everyone saw that, I haven't heard or talked to one Cubs fan or saw even tweets that was like, can't believe we didn't pony up that dough for Kyle Tucker.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Like, who gives a shit?
21:13
SPEAKER_00: If it's 60 million, it's you're laughing at it.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: All right, the Dodgers, whatever.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what the evil empire, yada yada yada.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: But the fact we were we weren't even ever gonna come to close to half of that type of money, right?
21:25
SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't make it it doesn't make a damn bit of difference.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: Good for Kyle Tucker, and we can move on, and that's and that's really uh that.
21:33
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't I couldn't agree more, Mahoney.
21:36
SPEAKER_01: We can move on from it.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: Now, I do want to talk just briefly about the Kyle Tucker dynamics with the Dodgers.
21:42
SPEAKER_01: I know some people have seen some stuff about this.
21:43
SPEAKER_01: Now, the Dodgers are in the highest luxury tax possible and have paid the maximum amount of penalties for years now, so they're gonna get they have to pay a tax.
21:53
SPEAKER_01: So they're gonna pay$60 million to Kyle Tucker, and then they owe Major League Baseball$66 million because of the extra sixty million dollars to their payroll.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: They have to pay like an extra dollar ten in tax.
22:08
SPEAKER_01: So Kyle Tucker, cash outlay, how much cash?
22:12
SPEAKER_01: We talk about cash a lot that the Dodgers are investing in the moves, like they are spending cash on this.
22:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh a hundred and twenty a hundred and twenty-six million dollars next year will be how much cash the Dodgers have to.
22:27
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of that's deferred from Kyle Tucker, I would expect.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: I don't know the details on that.
22:31
SPEAKER_01: But uh the the balance sheet transaction right now, without those figures, or I should say the cash flow statement, will be a$126 million cash outflow for Kyle Tucker to be probably the, you know, he's behind Shohei, Freddie, he's behind Muki.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: He's probably not as good as Yamamoto.
22:53
SPEAKER_01: You know, like where does he compare to I, you know, you could you could look at him and say he's probably the fifth best player on the Dodgers, and the Dodgers have to spend$126 million for him next year.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: That is that's more than I believe like uh 10 or 11 other major league entire payrolls, is how much cash Kyle Tucker will absorb next year.
23:19
SPEAKER_01: It's absurd.
23:21
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's why the Dodgers are able to do it.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: They got this guy, Todd Bailey, behind him, who was hired by Mark Walters to run Guggenheim Investment.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: He became the CEO and the president of Guggenheim Investment.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: Now, Guggenheim is the investment company that owns the Dodgers.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: Uh, this Todd Bailey guy also owns Chelsea.
23:42
SPEAKER_01: He also owns the Los Angeles Lakers part of it.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: He owns the Los Angeles Sparks outright, and he is a like legendary figure in finance, just a like complete balled-out fucking sleek dude who built his way into Guggenheim, the guy who started Guggenheim that owns the Dodgers, Mark Walters, identified this guy, had been working with this guy, hired him into his team, groomed him to take over Guggenheim and all this other shit.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: And this Todd Bailey guy has done nothing but just add billions of dollars to Mark Walters, bottom line, in the company as an old as a whole.
24:17
SPEAKER_01: And so when he took over the Dodgers, because the Dodgers were in bankruptcy the family who owned the Dodgers were in bankruptcy, the timing around it was perfect for this masterful businessman to come and take the Dodgers and then do a TV deal that's worth$300 million in cash every single year for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
24:42
SPEAKER_01: $300 million cash.
24:44
SPEAKER_01: The next closest TV deal are the New York Yankees at a shade over$100 million.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: So we're talking the Yankees are way bigger than the Dodgers, buddy, globally.
24:55
SPEAKER_01: Way bigger than the Dodgers globally.
24:58
SPEAKER_01: And they're getting three times as much cash uh the Dodgers are than the Yankees every single year.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: And all that money they just take it and they put it right back in the players.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: They don't give a shit.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: You know, the Cubs, what do they what do you think?
25:10
SPEAKER_01: They're losing money on marquee network.
25:13
SPEAKER_01: They gotta operate it, you know.
25:14
SPEAKER_01: So it's a real behind the scenes.
25:17
SPEAKER_01: The Dodgers have a great advantage in their media rights, and they've used that appropriately.
25:22
SPEAKER_01: They also have great, you know, scouting and talent development and drafting.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: So they're excellent at a bunch of different things.
25:29
SPEAKER_01: But when you look at the Kyle Tucker thing, you say$126 million out of their pocket, it's obviously crazy.
25:35
SPEAKER_01: How did they get there?
25:36
SPEAKER_01: Because of a guy named Todd Bailey or Bowley or however you sound his name, in his background and career in finance and excellence, just an excellent, because like the just one of the best business guys.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: Like, he's not just proficient, he's not just proficient in Excel, he also is a deal maker if he's getting those that kind of coin for television rights.
25:55
SPEAKER_01: And and the fact that like he just happened to be in the right situation at the right time, working on this Dodgers deal, trying to take over the Dodgers, trying to maximize the revenue behind the Dodgers.
26:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, meanwhile, you know, and I'm not saying the I, you know, whatever, it is what it is.
26:10
SPEAKER_01: Like, our business guy is Crane Kenny, who has worked for the Cubs for 32 years or whatever, and uh hasn't done anything in business relative to what this guy from the Dodgers has done.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: Like, that's the point I'm trying to make.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: The the juice behind the Dodgers business muscle is like global capital billionaire investors are just amazing worldwide like leaders in what they do on Forbes list for being businessmen.
26:37
SPEAKER_01: The Cubs business guys, uh, we're having hot dogs with the Budweiser people in the exactly.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: It's like working with City Beverage to get some movement on extra kegs to their market, you know, to like something going on in Gallagher Way.
26:50
SPEAKER_01: It is.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: It's yeah, like they're getting a couple comp kegs, you know, but still getting a bill.
26:56
SPEAKER_01: We're sponsored by a Chicago-based insurance brokerage.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: Oh, guys, really unbelievable.
27:05
SPEAKER_01: Hey, speaking of sponsors, we're way late in the show for this, but our title sponsor is Thirsty Vaquero, a Mexican-style soda that is all bite, no rattle, three bold flavors.
27:15
SPEAKER_01: We have been pounding it recently because we are in our health kick phase of 2026.
27:20
SPEAKER_01: So alcohol, it's not completely out, right?
27:23
SPEAKER_01: Like it's not completely out.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: I probably had three bears yesterday during the Bears game, and then I had three Thirsty Vaqueros, you know, just splitting it up a little bit as we're working our way through the pizza.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: And I just can't say enough good things about this beverage.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: And I know there's maniacs who've tried it and I've gotten the feedback from them that are like, holy shit, you need to be way more aggressive in these ad reads, cram this stuff down people's throat.
27:45
SPEAKER_01: Like, people are like, you absolutely need to be like it.
27:50
SPEAKER_01: I need to be force feeding people Thirsty Vaquero at this point.
27:53
SPEAKER_01: Thirsty vaquero, which you can get on Amazon, my homie.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: You can get it on Amazon.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: You can also visit thirstyvaquero.com and three absolutely delicious favors.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: We got lemon ladrone, mango muerte, and sandy salvaje.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: And these things that's a watermelon juice with spicy jalapeno, your mango muerte, you got your mango juice, habanero pepper, sweet lime juice, and savory chili spice is going to finish off our Limon Ladrone.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: And guys, this is all real 100% agave and real fruit juice they're using.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: It's and I can't stress enough, it's the taste, it's the experience, it's a beverage experience.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: It's phenomenal stuff.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: It's the biggest hits at my parties.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: I bring it out when I go visit to other, you know, other joints and what have you.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: Thirsty Vicero is it.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: It's all bite, no rattle.
28:41
SPEAKER_01: The can has texture on it when you're holding the can.
28:43
SPEAKER_01: It's like pieces of little ripples.
28:45
SPEAKER_01: Love that.
28:45
SPEAKER_01: And that's part of the reason why they hit they make the cans.
28:48
SPEAKER_01: It's like a it's like it's like Mexican street, like street art.
28:53
SPEAKER_01: You know, it feels like you're holding the can, you feel that connection with the beverage.
28:57
SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful.
28:58
SPEAKER_01: Now, just another thing, you can enjoy it in a bourbon glass like I do.
29:01
SPEAKER_01: You can throw that baby on ice in a pint glass if you're having a meal with it, mixes well, obviously, as the ice dilutes, the water, just a savory, delicious beverage.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: Get it on Amazon if you like the Monday morning cub show.
29:13
SPEAKER_01: You want to make sure there's more Monday morning cub shows, support Thirsty Bacero.
29:17
SPEAKER_01: Ideally, through Amazon, that they have their best shipping partner.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: That's how they get it to you most reliably.
29:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, and that that's all I gotta say.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: Also, here just throw a review.
29:25
SPEAKER_01: Five stars, Spotify Apple.
29:27
SPEAKER_01: If we're doing call to actions, I'll bundle them.
29:29
SPEAKER_01: Believe that.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if you could do six, do six, but I don't think the machine's gonna allow you.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, click five stars, review.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna give us a little bit of a bump.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: And you know, we appreciate it from the maniacs who haven't.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: Some people don't like to do reviews.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: I promise it'll take you two seconds.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, so please, that would help the Monday morning cub show moving forward, rolling into spring training and this 2026 campaign.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: Baller strike, you would rather have Alex Bregman over Kyle Tucker strike, piping hot down the middle.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean it's just I I love everything I know we're getting fed a lot of stuff, but everything I've read from Mooney and the like the background coverage, his family's beautiful, like seeing them come through and just getting the heroes welcome, knowing he's gonna be here for you know however many years, what was it, five years?
30:20
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, that's why like I'm a Bregman guy, that's a strike carl.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: And they announced the amount of money that they're gonna defer on Bregman's contract, and it is substantial.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: So that's something we've complained about with the Cubs before that they don't defer money on the contracts.
30:37
SPEAKER_01: Meaning, if you're not, you know, following that, it's you know, if I give you a hundred million dollar contract over 10 years, you'd say, okay, then I'm gonna get$10 million a year.
30:45
SPEAKER_01: But you can defer the money and you could say, I'm only gonna pay you five million every year on the contract, then you'll get$50 million when you retire.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: So that's something people have done for a long time in baseball and recently has been ramped up in free agency to secure big contracts, but the Cubs for years wouldn't do it.
31:02
SPEAKER_01: And Jed had said that's against policy last year when they couldn't get Bregman because they had never deferred deals.
31:08
SPEAKER_01: And so it's like Tom and ownership have kind of taken their lumps from missing out in free agency year after year.
31:15
SPEAKER_01: So to get them to be like, all right, we can finally defer money, and we go out and we get Bregman, and we use def we use deferrals to get Bregman.
31:23
SPEAKER_01: So the deal was announced at five years, 130 175 million for 35 a year, but he's really only making between like fifth 15 and 20 most of these years.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: They're deferring 20-15 million dollars a year on this.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: So I think it's like uh I think it's obviously good, but if I want to apply it and be like happier about it, it's like looking ahead, that's such an arrow in the quiver because there are guys who want to play at Wrigley.
31:54
SPEAKER_01: Family guys want to play at Wrigley, Bregman wants to take his kids out to dinner after a 120.
32:00
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna want to be at home with the kids, you know, all that bullshit.
32:04
SPEAKER_01: And it really is the most attractive place for family.
32:07
SPEAKER_01: So if we're gonna do deferrals and then we're gonna defer like to the extent where it's now we're deferring 5 million, we're deferring 1520 out of 35 a year.
32:15
SPEAKER_01: Buddy, we're in good shape, right?
32:17
SPEAKER_00: And one notion from you know, last year we would talk about is players are gonna take the money and you know, they might they're not gonna just play at Wrigley because they don't like they want to play at Wrigley, but now when it comes to moving money and securing their financial future, that the narrative has changed because of the philosophical approach from the front office.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, Braggman did want to come here, it is attractive, and that now is going to be um advantageous in negotiations moving forward, and and then that's just a beautiful thing.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, in relation to spending, and it's not particularly on deferrals.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: One thing, you know, general manager Carter Hawkins, I've actually heard him say something that I wanted to hear was the fact that paying the luxury tax is going to be less than a consideration now that we're a contending team, and we were not a pay in 2025.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: This is a tweet I saw from Jesse Rogers.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, so that was a welcome, welcome to my ears.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: Now, whether that happens or not, I don't know.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: But that's more of a question that we'll I think dig into as the you know season gets closer.
33:21
SPEAKER_01: I hate that sound bite.
33:22
SPEAKER_01: You know, Carter Hawkins needs to keep his mouth shut and because now I'm confused.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: Like, wait, are we gonna go out and get more and not care about what we're spending?
33:31
SPEAKER_00: Like with you know, with things pertaining to that luxury tax.
33:34
SPEAKER_01: Now that we're a contender, yeah, like now I'm pissed off about it.
33:38
SPEAKER_01: Fuck stick.
33:39
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember 2024?
33:41
SPEAKER_01: We could have been a contender if you guys did anything with that bullpen.
33:45
SPEAKER_01: Are you out of your mind?
33:47
SPEAKER_01: Are you out of your mind?
33:50
SPEAKER_01: Ugh.
33:51
SPEAKER_01: Carter Hawkins should be nowhere near the media.
33:55
SPEAKER_01: We're happy to go over the luxury tax now that we're a contender.
33:58
SPEAKER_01: How about we finally have our cash reserves are starting to be moderately recovered from COVID?
34:03
SPEAKER_01: And I don't really know the history of this organization that well, so I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut because every time I say anything, I sound like a big moron, is what Carter Hawkins should be saying.
34:12
SPEAKER_01: I'm a moron.
34:13
SPEAKER_01: You don't want my opinion, I don't know shit.
34:15
SPEAKER_01: And and he does, obviously.
34:17
SPEAKER_01: What I'm saying is that if you believe that we're now, they're hiding the fact that they are financially incompetent, that they have been financially incompetent on an asset that generates almost$600 million in operating revenue every single year, and it would take a monkey fucking a football to screw that thing up.
34:37
SPEAKER_01: It's unbelievable what they did in the in the years we had to go through, the unceremonious like departure we had to go through with the 2021 Cubs, the shit we did with we wouldn't trade Wilson fucking Contreras crying in the dugout.
34:53
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just the absolute downright, just negligent fucking thoughts through your head to be sitting here and going, well, now that we're a contender, we weren't a contender when when Say Suzuki dropped the fly ball in right field against the Atlanta Braves, it would have guaranteed us a playoff spot and what would have been a great turnaround from a shitty 22 and a rebuild that David Ross saw through in 23.
35:16
SPEAKER_01: We weren't a contender when we went out and spent$40 million on Craig Council, then got boat raced in the NL Central by the Milwaukee Brewers.
35:23
SPEAKER_01: We weren't a contender then.
35:24
SPEAKER_01: What we needed was Pete Crow Armstrong to become an MVP caliber player while Kyle Tucker fucked off in the corner, and we got every single thing we could have out of Sayas Suzuki, Michael Bush, Nico Horner, Carson Kelly, and a bunch of fucking number five and number sixes.
35:40
SPEAKER_01: Now we're a contender because Colin Ray served up a 4.1 ERA last year and Jamison Taeon pitched well at home.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: Now we're a contender because Justin Steele's coming back from Tommy John surgery, and Kate Horton looks like the player that was promised.
35:52
SPEAKER_01: Now we're a contender.
35:53
SPEAKER_01: We'll go over the fucking luxury tax, Carter.
35:55
SPEAKER_01: Shut the fuck up.
35:56
SPEAKER_01: You are so dumb.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: Exclamation point.
36:03
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: You're fine.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: You are fine.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: I know.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: I had to read the quote.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: This is a notion of talking finances.
36:09
SPEAKER_01: Hey, there's some some guys are at home right now cleaning up a workbench or you know, like putting track like folding laundry, you know, like big organization day in the Mahoney household.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you that much.
36:20
SPEAKER_01: It is.
36:20
SPEAKER_01: This is a huge one.
36:21
SPEAKER_01: Martin Luther King Jr.
36:22
SPEAKER_01: Get yours, get take a take a Monday national holiday to just kind of take a deep breath and stuff.
36:27
SPEAKER_01: Minus 20 wind chill.
36:28
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, maybe that was a little too aggressive towards Carter Hawkins, but when he says stuff like that, it deludes the reality.
36:36
SPEAKER_01: If you're somebody who cares and follows the Cubs, then you have this mouthpiece, but jabroni baloney blowjob sandwich sitting here saying stuff that is completely counter to the reality of where the Chicago Cubs are.
36:53
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, we're happy to go over the luxury tax.
36:55
SPEAKER_01: No, Alex Bregman was smart enough to understand he wants to play in a world-class environment that his family can enjoy.
37:03
SPEAKER_01: And let's the fact they've been talked about this, he gets his play next to Dansby Swanson.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you get to partner up with like those are the two smartest guys in baseball.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: Those are the two toughest guys in those are the two most prepared players, those are the two guys who win and lose and care more about it than anybody else.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: Those are the guys that you talk about, well, would you take a little less money to play for the Cubs?
37:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, those are the guys that would, those are the guys that want to be there.
37:29
SPEAKER_01: So that's where energy and effort should be.
37:32
SPEAKER_01: Not fuck Car Hawkins.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: Alex Bragman picks the number three on the back of his jersey, Carl, for uh his uh you know, Cubs campaign, and that said there is a new patch that's gonna represent the 150th anniversary from 1876 to 2026 that's gonna be on that uniform.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: Looks sharp, looks sharp, looks nice, and uh, I love the fact that didn't Bradman pick number two because he was drafted second and now he's doing a three for his third World Series.
38:00
SPEAKER_01: So this guy's chasing he can't wear two.
38:03
SPEAKER_01: Nico's got it.
38:05
SPEAKER_01: So it's like a nice pivot to like, well, I think he's just one of those single-digit guys.
38:08
SPEAKER_01: And if you've always been the best player on whatever team you've played, you're a single-digit guy, you know.
38:13
SPEAKER_01: So uh love the number three.
38:16
SPEAKER_01: I do like the numbers that we have.
38:17
SPEAKER_01: Another thing I like, even though we don't have the history to support it, just I'm not a huge retire number guy.
38:23
SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't think that's like a great it can be overdone.
38:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it should be under the like Thurman Munson getting his number retired.
38:34
SPEAKER_01: 1977 dies in the plane crash for the Yankees, right?
38:37
SPEAKER_01: Like it was in 77, 78.
38:39
SPEAKER_01: Like, retire the number immediately.
38:40
SPEAKER_01: Captain dies tragically, retire the number.
38:43
SPEAKER_01: Um, obviously Jackie Robinson accept on the day.
38:49
SPEAKER_01: And the fact they let grandfathered guys, Mariano Rivera, wear it.
38:52
SPEAKER_01: Like, I thought that was bad.
38:53
SPEAKER_01: I thought you should have just retired it.
38:55
SPEAKER_01: Boom, flat, simple.
38:56
SPEAKER_01: Everybody else has to go get a new number.
38:57
SPEAKER_01: If you got a problem with it, there's no bigger problem someone can say about changing another number than the problems Jackie Robinson had to play through.
39:03
SPEAKER_01: So change your fucking number.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: You will not print 42 on the back of your jersey.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: It's impossible.
39:07
SPEAKER_01: The Yankees and Babe Ruth, Yankees and Lou Gehrig, DiMaggio, Berra.
39:15
SPEAKER_01: I mean, even then, Berra.
39:16
SPEAKER_01: Like, that's a good that's a perfect example.
39:18
SPEAKER_01: Or if you look at the Cubs, retiring Greg Maddox's number is like just makes me want to barf my guts out.
39:24
SPEAKER_01: Right.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: Like Ryan Sandberg retire that number.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: But other than that, like there shouldn't be, yeah, there shouldn't be a ton of retired numbers up, you know, waving in the wind.
39:35
SPEAKER_01: And even then, I'm the biggest Ron Santo guy of all time.
39:37
SPEAKER_01: And I'd say, you know, there's something about seeing it on the field.
39:41
SPEAKER_01: Like there, there could you could have a different category where you can earn the number, or the number is awarded to a player, or you know, it's a real high honor to wear number 10 for a season.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: Like in soccer, like the number 10 is like the best player on the field.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: It's an honor to wear number 10.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: I know that's at least in Brazilian culture, I'm pretty sure that's relative.
40:00
SPEAKER_00: Relatively worldwide.
40:02
SPEAKER_01: I think Brazil is nine for Pele.
40:04
SPEAKER_01: Uh or maybe it's ten.
40:05
SPEAKER_01: Ten is the position.
40:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:06
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, Mahoney.
40:07
SPEAKER_01: Ten's big time.
40:08
SPEAKER_01: Ten is big time in soccer.
40:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if you have 10 on, you're the guy.
40:12
SPEAKER_01: World Cup's coming up.
40:13
SPEAKER_01: Any plans?
40:14
SPEAKER_00: No, no plans.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: Goose is playing at Madison Square Garden in June, and I will not be able to go because the hotels are all completely booked out from a two-hour drive window.
40:25
SPEAKER_01: So no, Mahoney.
40:27
SPEAKER_01: Goose did not sell out the hotels in New York City.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: No, the World Cup.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: It's happening at the time.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: The World Cup.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm an idiot.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, or not that big.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, so like you can't get a hotel room, or it's an extreme amount of money.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: It's basically if you live there, you could go.
40:44
SPEAKER_01: Catch a little Portugal versus Morocco in the morning.
40:47
SPEAKER_01: You know, double dip with a goose at night, that'd be sick.
40:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's just a little bit of an expensive, pricey trip out of my budget at the moment.
40:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't blame you, dude.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: You know, like four to the World Cup, though.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: It's in America.
41:00
SPEAKER_01: That'll be cool.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of really big events, worldwide events, I did want to talk just briefly about CubsCon and the 2016, you know, get together.
41:10
SPEAKER_01: I thought that was a really nice touch, and this is something that came up in my mind earlier in the show to circle back on.
41:18
SPEAKER_01: I bet the active players had a tremendous experience seeing how well the 2016 guys were received.
41:29
SPEAKER_01: And I like the idea of them being around each other and being able to take away the camaraderie and the brotherhood that the 2016 guys have, which was on display in spades this weekend.
41:42
SPEAKER_01: The clips, you know, the coverage you got to see.
41:45
SPEAKER_01: Those guys are so close.
41:47
SPEAKER_01: And so I hope that bleeds into you know the the active team being like, I want that bad.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: A little taste, a little taste of the aura, a little taste of you know the fans, how they the adoration of these guys and their legends.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: So having our guys now be able to see that is gonna feed them.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna feed them at the right time, gearing up going into spring training.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh, very, very cool to see them on the Dempster show.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, David Ross was there.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: It was just Anthony Rizzo had a bunch of good sound bites, you know, talking about a lady who's like, do it again next year.
42:23
SPEAKER_00: He's like, hey, lady, we did it before you were dead.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh huh.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: And you know, the crowd went nuts.
42:27
SPEAKER_00: It was all it was awesome to see.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: There was like they announced the statue, right?
42:32
SPEAKER_00: It's it sounds like it's gonna be a good the culmination and you know what with plaques.
42:37
SPEAKER_00: We don't know other details, but you know, that it was awesome to see, Carl.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: I know you were super close with that team, and um, yeah, I'd love to hear, you know, maybe some more of your takes on just their presence alone at the Cubs convention this past weekend.
42:52
SPEAKER_01: Uh the monument thing, I'd start there, and that obviously I just I'm curious if they're gonna do a statue or a monument, and and I I hope it doesn't dwarf the because it sounds like it's gonna be a big deal.
43:05
SPEAKER_00: It does, and I can't imagine it's gonna be on the empty slat.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: That might be safe.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: I think they have to do a separate thing in Gallagher Way.
43:14
SPEAKER_01: Because I like going to the statues in Gallagher Way every time I go to a game.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: It's I always go to the statues, always read the every single if I go to three games in a row, I'm going to the statues every single game in a row.
43:26
SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's just a really cool that's become a really cool area, and one of my favorite parts of Wrigley Field is going to sit and get during a game, like the third, fourth inning, going out, grabbing a beer, posting up on the Astro Turf, sitting in front of the statues and watching on the big screen and listening to the crowd roar.
43:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, I that's just awesome.
43:44
SPEAKER_01: Now, if they for that monument in that statue, I'd like it to be on a standalone corner destination so you could just go seek it out yourself because then I would seek it out every time I went to Wrigley.
43:53
SPEAKER_01: I'd want to see that, you know, and that'll be that's just so cool.
43:56
SPEAKER_01: And I know that's something we've talked about for a while.
43:58
SPEAKER_01: Is like, how are they gonna honor those guys?
44:00
SPEAKER_01: And then it's like, well, who do you pick to honor?
44:03
SPEAKER_01: You know, so the fact everybody gets a taste, that's really incredible.
44:07
SPEAKER_01: And this is a good bridge into yes, I had an emotional, it's emotional to see these guys back and to see these guys bullshitting around, and to think about like when they were playing was when I was coming up with Barcelona.
44:21
SPEAKER_01: I got I got first got into Barcelona in 2013 and got to meet Rizzo right away through Dante, and then it was weird at the time because you know, and there's a lot of different ways to approach this, but I would just say, like, you know, at the time, Big Cat's like super busy running Barcel and uh Chicago, and the bear season was just about to kick off, and Rizzo had invited Barstool to come to a game, and something with Big Cat and Dante.
44:49
SPEAKER_01: They, you know, Big Cat wasn't available, couldn't go, etc.
44:52
SPEAKER_01: So Dante was like, hey, Rizzo wants a couple Barstool guys to come to a game because he's got this uh charity thing and he wants to promote it.
45:00
SPEAKER_01: He's like, I told him Big Cat would come, he can't.
45:03
SPEAKER_01: Can you come with?
45:04
SPEAKER_01: And I had been on Barstool for like a year, if that, posting like you know, Cubs, news, and notes bugs.
45:11
SPEAKER_01: So I go and meet Anthony for the first time.
45:13
SPEAKER_01: Nobody cares, dude.
45:14
SPEAKER_01: We were like on the field with him during BP.
45:16
SPEAKER_01: This is 2013, and this is before the Cubs are even fucking worth.
45:21
SPEAKER_01: No one even cares, dude.
45:22
SPEAKER_01: Like, nobody cares you're on the field.
45:24
SPEAKER_01: Good luck getting on the field now.
45:26
SPEAKER_01: So we're out there with Rizzo bullshitting.
45:29
SPEAKER_01: I think we went out a couple times afterwards, you know, after games and would like, you know, through Dante would set it up because he and he and Rizzo were real close.
45:37
SPEAKER_01: And then because of that, I then started getting invited to Rizzo's annual charity event.
45:43
SPEAKER_01: And Rizzo's annual charity event originally started as like anybody could buy a ticket, and all the players would come.
45:49
SPEAKER_01: And I remember going in there the first year after I met Rizzo, and then Rizzo's introducing me to people.
45:54
SPEAKER_01: And again, this is through Dante.
45:56
SPEAKER_01: Dante knows Rizzo, I get introduced, and this is before they're worth his shit.
46:00
SPEAKER_01: Now that's like the going into the 2014 season, and you start to meet guys, and you start to, you know, hey, yeah, I'll go to that game, or yeah, I'll post that on the blog, I'll tell that story.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: You start to start building credibility and right, your credibility and relationships, like genuine relationships were built over those years with those dudes.
46:21
SPEAKER_01: Now, in the meantime, one of my best friends, I officiated his wedding.
46:28
SPEAKER_01: Um, and his wife, this is wild, his wife was working, it had like a best friend from work that lived in Boston, and they worked on all these projects together.
46:43
SPEAKER_01: They just were on like they're always working on stuff together, and then her friend from work was like, Hey, I'm finally moving to Chicago.
46:48
SPEAKER_01: My husband got a new job in Chicago, and it turns out it was Theo Epstein's wife.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: That's insane.
46:54
SPEAKER_01: So my buddy's what girlfriend at the time is like, hey, we have to go out to dinner.
46:58
SPEAKER_01: My friend just moved here from Boston, and she's bringing her husband.
47:01
SPEAKER_01: And my buddy who's a diehard Cubs fan, like walks into this dinner, meets Theo in the lobby.
47:06
SPEAKER_01: He's like telling my uh his girlfriend, he's like, Holy shit, that's Theo Epstein.
47:11
SPEAKER_01: He just he just got and his girlfriend's like, Yeah, that's Marie's husband.
47:17
SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, and then they like turn around and my buddy's like, Holy fuck, I'm having dinner with Theo Epstein.
47:23
SPEAKER_01: So they became friends, and then I got introduced to Theo, like through that personal connection of like, yeah, do you know?
47:33
SPEAKER_01: I know, hey Theo, I'm friends with Danny and Elaine.
47:36
SPEAKER_01: I said, I you know, blah blah blah.
47:37
SPEAKER_01: And then when they got married, I officiated the wedding, and it was the night Montero hit the grand slam, and it was like a 50-person wedding.
47:46
SPEAKER_01: Marie was there.
47:47
SPEAKER_01: Theo was obviously in this was in San Francisco, they got married in Sonoma, but Theo was in was in the skybox watching the game.
47:56
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, they're in the fucking NLCS at home against the Dodgers.
47:59
SPEAKER_01: He's like, hey, obviously, I can't go to this wedding.
48:01
SPEAKER_01: That's how close Marie is with them, that or how close the girls were that Marie was like, Well, I'll go to the wedding instead.
48:07
SPEAKER_01: So she goes out to San Francisco while the cubs are playing, you know, in the NLCS, which I think is like like I wonder what Theo is like, you're going to a wedding?
48:17
SPEAKER_01: We're playing the Dodgers.
48:18
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing going to a wedding?
48:20
SPEAKER_01: And so what I'm trying to do is dress up.
48:22
SPEAKER_01: I had these alternatives.
48:24
SPEAKER_01: So like I have this, you know, and Theo ended up being just about the coolest guy I could ever imagine.
48:30
SPEAKER_01: And I had spent so much of my younger years as a teenager, early 20s, being like, I would do anything to work for Theo.
48:35
SPEAKER_01: I've seen.
48:36
SPEAKER_01: I would do anything.
48:37
SPEAKER_01: Like the emails I would send this guy, the amount of times I would chase him down in a parking lot, he'd be like, How the fuck did you find me here?
48:44
SPEAKER_01: Or Jason McCloud, who worked for him.
48:46
SPEAKER_01: I would like stalk these guys when I lived on the north side and I'd try to get in.
48:50
SPEAKER_01: Hey, give me a job.
48:51
SPEAKER_01: Tom Ricketts, I used to email his assistant Lorraine incessantly.
48:57
SPEAKER_01: 2010, 11, 12, 13, because we met at a charity event and someone's like, Oh, she works for Tom.
49:03
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm like a bone on a dog, or I'm a dog on a bone, man.
49:06
SPEAKER_01: Like, I get my hands on this stuff, and like I I all I wanted to do was get in and tell stories about the Cubs and be a part of it in whatever capacity I could be.
49:16
SPEAKER_01: And this is my long-winded way of crescendoing into of all of this, there's nobody that even comes close to David Ross and the impact he had on me.
49:24
SPEAKER_01: And you know, Rizzo, I would say what you're talking about.
49:28
SPEAKER_01: A buddy and a friend through Dante.
49:31
SPEAKER_01: And it got to the point Rizzo's last night in Chicago.
49:34
SPEAKER_01: They moved out the apartment.
49:35
SPEAKER_01: I get a phone call.
49:36
SPEAKER_01: I'm at dinner with my wife.
49:38
SPEAKER_01: It's Rizzo.
49:39
SPEAKER_01: I'm I, of course, you answer that call.
49:41
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, What are you doing, pussy?
49:42
SPEAKER_01: You know, you're like, do dinner with yeah.
49:45
SPEAKER_01: He's like, get your ass down.
49:46
SPEAKER_01: And it was to a bar Dante owned in Old Town, and he's like, It's my last night in Chicago, get here as soon as possible.
49:52
SPEAKER_01: I walk in, they had the bar closed.
49:54
SPEAKER_01: There were only like eight people in there, ten people in there, and the and it's Rizzo watching the Dolphins on Sunday night football, and he's loaded.
50:03
SPEAKER_01: We had just traded him to the Yankees.
50:04
SPEAKER_01: He's back.
50:05
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're all loaded, we're all we've been out drinking, and like that, that like hey, it's my last night in Chicago.
50:13
SPEAKER_01: We're going out for drinks.
50:15
SPEAKER_01: We just packed up the condo, we're going back to Florida tomorrow.
50:19
SPEAKER_01: We got one more big night in us, right?
50:22
SPEAKER_01: And like being it in that's kind of like where you're like, this is all paid off, or maybe this is like where does it go from here?
50:29
SPEAKER_01: How do you how does it get better than now?
50:32
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, hosted a show with Jake Arietta.
50:35
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, get to work with him for a year, and we should talk.
50:37
SPEAKER_01: There's funny stories there.
50:39
SPEAKER_01: I love that man inside and out, deeply and dearly, and one of the all-time alpha males you've ever you've ever met.
50:46
SPEAKER_01: But this is long-winded all of me to come back to David Ross.
50:50
SPEAKER_01: Because David Ross knew I didn't belong in some of this shit.
50:53
SPEAKER_01: He'd see me at these charity events.
50:54
SPEAKER_01: What the fuck are you doing here, Barcel?
50:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
50:57
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh no, you know, Rizzo, you know, and he'd be like, Here, I want you to meet somebody.
51:02
SPEAKER_01: And he'd walk over and he'd say, Hey, Carrie.
51:04
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like Carrie Wood.
51:06
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Hey, talk to Carl for a second here.
51:08
SPEAKER_01: He's like, You're alone.
51:09
SPEAKER_01: Hey, what's up, Carl?
51:10
SPEAKER_01: It's like, holy shit, David Ross just so then I spent a night with Kerry Wood, you out of your fucking mind.
51:14
SPEAKER_01: And then another time he sees me at one of these events, I'm alone.
51:17
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, You doing anything after this?
51:19
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, No, I'm not.
51:21
SPEAKER_01: And there's a little big cat thing in here where like I thought I was gonna go to this event with Big Cat, and then he was like, Yeah, I don't know if I'm going.
51:28
SPEAKER_01: So then I was like, Okay, well, then maybe I won't go.
51:30
SPEAKER_01: But then I was like, fuck it, I'm gonna go anyways.
51:32
SPEAKER_01: And I go in there, big cat sitting there with like Rizzo or something.
51:36
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh, hey, you didn't see, you know, I was like, Oh, what's up, dude?
51:40
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Oh, hey, and he was there with one of his friends, so like, whatever, it's a big, you know, like there's a lot of shit going on, and and I was like, Oh, and I thought I was kind of like, oh, maybe I should get the fuck out of here.
51:50
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I, you know, like did I overstepping bounds here?
51:54
SPEAKER_01: And Ross is like, dude, he's like, Come with me, and brings me over.
52:01
SPEAKER_01: Guys, look who showed up, it's our biggest fan.
52:04
SPEAKER_01: He's fucking you guys remember Carl and all this shit.
52:07
SPEAKER_01: So when the event's over, he's like, Where are you going?
52:09
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I'm going home.
52:10
SPEAKER_01: He's like, No, you're coming with me, buddy.
52:12
SPEAKER_01: So this is in January 2016, and he fucking walks me out the back door of what was Paris Club through the alleys of Chicago, down River North, into RPM Steak, walks me into the second-story glass dining room that seats 40, that overlooks the entire RPM Steakhouse, sits me down at a table with Kyle Hendricks, Eric Jokic, who is a triple-A pitcher for the Cubs, and Chris Bryant, Chris Bryant's wife.
52:38
SPEAKER_01: And there were 40, there were like the entire Cubs roster was there, and they had a private dinner set up.
52:43
SPEAKER_01: And we we were the last two people in the room.
52:45
SPEAKER_01: We walk in the room, I look at him and I'm like, Well, what is this about?
52:48
SPEAKER_01: And he was like, You there's nobody that deserves a nice meal with the boys more than you.
52:56
SPEAKER_01: Sit down.
52:56
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Does everybody know Carl?
52:58
SPEAKER_01: Introduces me to people, sit down, bring out the food, fucking spend three hours in there.
53:03
SPEAKER_01: We're drinking champagne, lobster towers, like you name it, and Ross is over there looking at me, hey, having a good time.
53:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, you want to talk about literally the most amazing in my life.
53:15
SPEAKER_01: And uh the Cubs end up obviously winning this World Series that year.
53:20
SPEAKER_01: And in August or something, I took my mom to a game.
53:23
SPEAKER_00: This story was waiting for.
53:26
SPEAKER_01: And I walked down, and David Ross just got done warming up Leicester, and the bullpen's still on the side, they're not in the back yet.
53:32
SPEAKER_01: So he's walking past, and I was like, Hey Rossi.
53:34
SPEAKER_01: He looks over and he goes, Carl, no shit.
53:37
SPEAKER_01: Comes jogging over.
53:39
SPEAKER_01: You know, good to see you, buddy.
53:40
SPEAKER_01: How you been?
53:41
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, good, I want you to meet my mom.
53:43
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Mama Carl, no way.
53:45
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Here, I got something for you.
53:47
SPEAKER_01: Out of the back pocket, takes the ball he was just warming up Lester with.
53:51
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I want to give this to you.
53:53
SPEAKER_01: Hey, let's get a picture.
53:53
SPEAKER_01: What do you say?
53:54
SPEAKER_01: Let me get a little snap.
53:55
SPEAKER_01: Let me get one with Mrs.
53:56
SPEAKER_01: Let me get one with Mama Carl.
53:57
SPEAKER_01: So then we take a picture together.
53:59
SPEAKER_01: You know, what's your name?
54:00
SPEAKER_01: My name's Joyce.
54:01
SPEAKER_01: They talk for a little bit, blah, blah, blah, blah.
54:04
SPEAKER_01: A couple months go by, see him in the offseason.
54:07
SPEAKER_01: See him after they win the World Series at the offseason.
54:10
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, without even hesitating.
54:13
SPEAKER_01: How's Joyce?
54:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
54:15
SPEAKER_00: How's Joyce?
54:16
SPEAKER_00: Remembering someone's name, and it's such a what could have been a random interaction.
54:21
SPEAKER_00: That's just that just shows how cool and caring that David Ross was throughout his career and as a manager.
54:28
SPEAKER_01: Now I just had a note here is like sentimental reflections on the 2016 team.
54:33
SPEAKER_01: And that's what I've been talking through is this last note here is just some sentimental reflections I have on these guys.
54:38
SPEAKER_01: Now, what it meant to me at the time was working in corporate America, taking my CPA exams, going to law school, trying to find a way, trying to get into sales, trying to find a way to like, you know, build a network and a book of business in a in an industry, in a professional industry, amongst my friends that were doing the same thing.
54:57
SPEAKER_01: But I had this nagging thing inside of me of like, yeah, but you know a lot about baseball.
55:01
SPEAKER_01: You like baseball, you love the Cubs, you love being around town, and like you do need to pursue this.
55:06
SPEAKER_01: And I can't thank Big Cat enough for giving me the opportunity to write about the Cubs and be a part of Barstool and to grow that side because that then gives you the reason and the avenue to go to these events and be goofy and go to Cubs games and do lineup reviews and give a fuck and be loud about it and try and build an audience and a following.
55:24
SPEAKER_01: And like none of that happens without Dan going, hey, I think you should do this.
55:29
SPEAKER_01: Like, I think you're a good writer and you know a lot about the Cubs.
55:31
SPEAKER_01: I'd love to have you contribute to Barcelona Chicago.
55:33
SPEAKER_01: And I'll never forget those exchanges and how it came together, and I will never be able to repay Dan enough for all that, like ever.
55:39
SPEAKER_01: And the fact that you and I get to sit here and do the show and talk about it is is largely because of that.
55:44
SPEAKER_01: But what it means to me is like the process and the journey to get there could have been derailed by a number of things, including positive things.
55:53
SPEAKER_01: Career goes well, you know, you settle down with the girl you're with at the time, you probably don't end up doing any of this stuff, you know.
55:59
SPEAKER_01: Like if law school went the way I wanted to, then I'd take a different job.
56:03
SPEAKER_01: If you know the sales career was as booming as it should have been, then I am never doing any of this stuff.
56:09
SPEAKER_01: And so it to see the 2016 come back and do this stuff.
56:13
SPEAKER_01: Now, there's a bunch of stuff I'm not even worth talking about at this point.
56:17
SPEAKER_01: Like, I would love to talk a little bit about tell some stories about doing starting nine with Jake and some of the fucking I mean, that fucking guy.
56:26
SPEAKER_01: If you think him on the mound is intimidating, buddy, crack a joke to him about how the league hit 370 off of sports team fastball at the right time.
56:35
SPEAKER_01: Oh boy.
56:36
SPEAKER_01: I mean, literally, you've never you think somebody's scary, you know, catch that guy at the wrong time, and just the amount of fun uh he and I were able to have in that year together, and then obviously, you know, I I I got nothing but uh, you know, I I think um not bad, but I have like it it should have ended or it should have been figured out way differently than it was when starting nine came to an end because I had I was under the impression we had another year to work together because he had a two-year contract, which is why we originally went down to Arizona to move on from the Barcelona Chicago conflict, right?
57:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and the never-ending drama of well, I'm mad about this, I'm mad about that, I don't like this.
57:21
SPEAKER_01: I don't, it's just like we're gonna work on this.
57:25
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't like that, and then that turns into hey, we're gonna move on from Jake's like, well, I just signed a security deposit in Arizona.
57:33
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of shit to get into that, and that's where we're getting away from like the positive reflections on 2016.
57:39
SPEAKER_01: And I would like to reel it in and say, you and I aren't doing this show without that team, and if they don't win that World Series, it doesn't turn into red line radio.
57:47
SPEAKER_01: If it if they don't win the championship, we don't do red line radio.
57:50
SPEAKER_01: And if they aren't those guys, I don't I don't have any of this shit.
57:55
SPEAKER_01: We don't have we have not, we have everything is because of that team, everything is because of that core of what Theo did, of how Joe Madden changed it, of how Rizzo led the team, Lester coming in, Jake stepping up and being the best fucking player of all time, the the farm system, you could just go down the list, and if if any part of that fails, they're not the champions, there ain't no red line radio, Barcelona Carl ceases to exist, which then Carl ceases to exist, which then none of this, then then who knows?
58:26
SPEAKER_01: Who knows where my life is?
58:28
SPEAKER_01: And it's crazy to reflect on the impact that a team has.
58:31
SPEAKER_01: Bears, bears, I don't give a fuck.
58:33
SPEAKER_01: When I say it don't care, they have no impact on my practical life.
58:37
SPEAKER_01: None.
58:39
SPEAKER_01: The Cubs have every impact, and it only continues to grow, and it's just so meaningful, and I'm so lucky, and I just cannot don't even want to think about a life outside of like, well, what if they sucked?
58:52
SPEAKER_01: What if it didn't work out, you know?
58:54
SPEAKER_01: And it brings me to the point where it's like now you and I get to work on this show together, and yeah, man, I feel like the luckiest fucking guy in the world, dude.
59:00
SPEAKER_01: I know a lot of shit's gone down, a lot of people got a lot to say, a lot of things about me.
59:05
SPEAKER_01: Go right ahead, you guys.
59:06
SPEAKER_01: Um I if it gets to a point where it absolutely needs to be, uh, but right now I'm fine, and I know my own, I know anybody, like it's it's not worth getting into that right now.
59:18
SPEAKER_01: I just cannot say again how lucky I am and how much I can attribute that to the 2016 Cubs, that core, that era, Rizzo, those guys.
59:27
SPEAKER_01: So to see him back at CubsCon, you know, just makes me want another one, makes me want to write another chapter with like, well, this is what the 2026 Cubs were able to.
59:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, Carl, amazing reflection of that time.
59:40
SPEAKER_00: And I remember, you know, receiving the text.
59:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we were pretty good friends around then, and it I felt like I was connected through you.
59:47
SPEAKER_00: I remember seeing holy shit, and like I couldn't talk about it with anybody for a lot of times, but like the Theo text messages you and Anthony Rizzo, you would call us and kind of give us some of the rundown of what happened and who you were with, and then me and Tui.
1:00:00
SPEAKER_00: We're like, dude, what the fuck is going on with this?
1:00:02
SPEAKER_00: Everything's hitting.
1:00:03
SPEAKER_00: And then it was just like then they win.
1:00:06
SPEAKER_00: And then it was just magical from there on out.
1:00:08
SPEAKER_00: I I and it was a fun part of my time to be a fan, anyways, for obvious reasons.
1:00:14
SPEAKER_00: The Cubs were good and they won it all.
1:00:17
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, 2016 and it's kind of living vicariously through you in a lot of things was uh a pleasure as well.
1:00:24
SPEAKER_00: So and and and like you said, we wouldn't be doing the Monday morning Cub show if it wasn't for the 2016 World Series Chicago Cubs team.
1:00:31
SPEAKER_00: It was awesome to see them, most of them together, and shame on the Colorado Rockies for not allowing Chris Bryant to attend.
1:00:38
SPEAKER_01: That was tra that's trash beyond trash.
1:00:42
SPEAKER_01: If he plays more than like a hundred games in the last three years he's been there, maybe they let him like you know that's trash.
1:00:50
SPEAKER_01: I'll say on on your comments, thank you.
1:00:53
SPEAKER_01: I I very much thank you.
1:00:54
SPEAKER_01: A huge driving point along the way is like the I can't wait to tell my buddies about this stuff.
1:00:59
SPEAKER_01: You know, like it's like I can't wait.
1:01:01
SPEAKER_01: My buddies aren't gonna believe this.
1:01:02
SPEAKER_01: I have so many like things that have been motivated by the fact that like, oh shit, dude, like Mounty and Tui aren't gonna believe this.
1:01:10
SPEAKER_00: Like the first thing like we'd hear a story, I'd be like, dude, that's like a life, that's a life event.
1:01:15
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be telling that one interaction for you know at weddings and stuff for the rest of your life, but then it just snowballed, and I'm like, what the hell is going on?
1:01:24
SPEAKER_00: He's ingratiated with these guys, and welcomed it, and that's what's that was beautiful.
1:01:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and I don't think it was like necessarily on the terms of like this is gonna advance my career or like this is important to my career if I if I'm in with these guys and my career goes further, as much as a deep personal want to have a bond or to feel close to something that means so much to me.
1:01:48
SPEAKER_01: And then like whatever, like is oh, now I'm cool because I'm close.
1:01:52
SPEAKER_01: No, it's I want it for me, and so that I can explain so I can have it for me and the people close to me, and I can have my little stories and my little nuggets.
1:01:59
SPEAKER_01: At this point, I will now tell something that nobody has ever heard before about Theo Epstein that you just made me remember.
1:02:04
SPEAKER_01: Now, I maybe I've said this publicly before.
1:02:07
SPEAKER_01: He did he sent me his resignation letter the morning of, and then he'd like was like, hey dude, it's you know, I'm sorry.
1:02:15
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like I'm sorry, it was like, Hey, I wanted you to get this directly from me, and it, you know, it's been a lot of fun getting to know you, and you know, I will like congratulations that blah blah blah blah blah.
1:02:24
SPEAKER_01: But like, you should hear it from me.
1:02:26
SPEAKER_01: It's been a great run.
1:02:27
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna see on the other side.
1:02:29
SPEAKER_01: And attached was his statement that he would read publicly a couple hours later on the radio.
1:02:33
SPEAKER_01: I was like sobbing my eyes out, and then people were like, Why are you taking this so personally?
1:02:38
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of it is like you just everything was been motivated by this guy.
1:02:41
SPEAKER_01: This guy is is my muse, he's gotten me to he's he's everything that has ever been important to me as far as like baseball.
1:02:50
SPEAKER_01: Is I fucking love this man.
1:02:52
SPEAKER_01: So to get to a point where he's like, here's your here's the resignation letter, or I'm leaving letter, but that's not the thing no one's heard.
1:02:58
SPEAKER_01: A couple years before that, he and I had an email exchange.
1:03:01
SPEAKER_01: I pissed him off.
1:03:02
SPEAKER_01: He literally told me in writing, you need to light yourself on fire and never do this again.
1:03:06
SPEAKER_01: He's told me to like walk into the sun.
1:03:09
SPEAKER_01: No, he's like, I can't say it, but like he's encouraged me to off myself for harming the cubs PR about the you the you darvish signing because I was like you darvish.
1:03:23
SPEAKER_00: I remember like trying to analyze these emails and exchanges, and like oh, I was trying to look for a positive side, and one, it was like the ladder, like, hey, what should I do here, Theo?
1:03:34
SPEAKER_00: Sorry for whatever.
1:03:35
SPEAKER_00: Like, should I just like you know walk off a bridge?
1:03:38
SPEAKER_00: And like he's like he said it like eloquently, and he's like, I would like you know, go with the ladder of your uh proposals, and it was like, oh shit, no, and then I'm trying to say whatever, and like you or two, you're like, No, dude, that means he just told me to go go fuck myself.
1:03:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, he was not happy because yes, I I had accidentally, not accidentally, but I thought the cubs had, and I have a source, I do have a source who works for uh fucking orthopedics at rush, all right?
1:04:05
SPEAKER_01: There's somebody who's like in the orthopedic, not an orthopedic, but somebody who has access to what's going on at orthopedics at rush, and they had gotten medicals from Udarvish, and the medicals were cleared, and that had become a thing that they were like, Yeah, those are good.
1:04:20
SPEAKER_01: And then the information that UDarvish is good medicals got into my hands.
1:04:24
SPEAKER_01: And the last couple of years, that was the last move before they announced a signing.
1:04:31
SPEAKER_01: So, like for Lester and for Hayward and all this shit.
1:04:35
SPEAKER_01: So, like, in for UDarvish, it was like, hey, they got cleared, and historically, when these things get cleared, it gets announced in the next hour.
1:04:43
SPEAKER_01: So then I was I was just like you Darvish Cubs, done deal.
1:04:46
SPEAKER_01: And then it got when people were like, It's not at all the case.
1:04:49
SPEAKER_01: So then yeah, I'd reached out to Theo and was like, hey dude, I kind of fucked up here.
1:04:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't read and it's not like I we talk, it's not like he's calling me or something, but then he yeah, he was like, You should fucking he's like you should light yourself on fire for that.
1:05:05
SPEAKER_01: I was like, What what what advice?
1:05:06
SPEAKER_01: What do I do now?
1:05:07
SPEAKER_01: And he was like, light yourself on fire, you know, or something.
1:05:09
SPEAKER_01: It was funny, it was really funny.
1:05:10
SPEAKER_01: He's a funny fucking guy.
1:05:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh we watched the 2017 World Series together on his phone at a party that he did not want to be at, and the Cubs had just lost to the Dodgers in the LCS, and now we're watching it on he's dressed as a vampire.
1:05:24
SPEAKER_01: I'm like smoking a bowl outside.
1:05:28
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, he's at a party with me.
1:05:30
SPEAKER_01: It's our party, it's not Theo's party, it's my buddy's party.
1:05:33
SPEAKER_01: So we're like, you know, I'm out smoking weed, I'm fucking drinking booth, SIGs, you know, like, hey Theo, you want in on this?
1:05:39
SPEAKER_01: He's like, nah, dude, I'm watching the game.
1:05:40
SPEAKER_01: So then I'm standing over his shoulder.
1:05:42
SPEAKER_01: He's like, gee, if you're gonna watch over my shoulder, he just like props the phone up.
1:05:45
SPEAKER_01: He's like, fine, we can watch it.
1:05:47
SPEAKER_01: He's fine.
1:05:48
SPEAKER_01: We'll watch it together.
1:05:49
SPEAKER_01: So then when they were leaving, my wife is hilarious.
1:05:52
SPEAKER_01: She goes, Oh my god, the Epsteins are leaving.
1:05:54
SPEAKER_01: The Sturks need a picture with the Epsteins.
1:05:56
SPEAKER_01: And the look on his face was like, if you post this, I'll fucking kill you.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_01: And the reason is we were both dressed like vampires, right?
1:06:03
SPEAKER_01: Dude, that's amazing.
1:06:06
SPEAKER_01: So it's been fun to reflect on some of this 2016 stuff.
1:06:10
SPEAKER_01: There's really no platform for me to talk about this without sounding like a douchebag or like, yeah, dude.
1:06:15
SPEAKER_01: Like, so I knew him, but while it was going on, I never did.
1:06:19
SPEAKER_01: While they were here and doing stuff, I tried to never make it seem like, yeah, um, yeah, dude, Rizzo's like, what's up, Carl?
1:06:28
SPEAKER_01: Like, I think that's lame.
1:06:29
SPEAKER_01: But I do think in hindsight, um, it is it is fun for me, and this has been a selfish segment here, um, just to reflect on how much it means.
1:06:39
SPEAKER_01: Because then what I get to do is say this.
1:06:41
SPEAKER_01: I can't thank people that listen enough that have given a fuck years, decades, you know, whatever, almost two decades of blogging, cubbing.
1:06:51
SPEAKER_01: You know, I ran a blog before Barstool for like four years in Chicago where I was just a ridiculous person telling stories, just the ridiculous stories.
1:07:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so a lot of this throughout the years, and like it if people aren't list or if people don't care, like the Cub season, I'm promising you, we're gonna have a great Cub season of coverage.
1:07:10
SPEAKER_01: We're just gonna be the best one we've ever had in this, and I think this will be the best team we've had since 2017.
1:07:16
SPEAKER_01: I think it's gonna be an amazing season, and I can't say how grateful I am and how much fun this has been.
1:07:21
SPEAKER_01: And if you're along for the ride, been along for the ride, like I can promise you that this season, what Mahoney and I are gonna put in, what I'll put in, and what we're gonna deliver on this channel, I I honestly have never felt as good, not just about the team, but about myself and about my relationships and about just where we're headed.
1:07:39
SPEAKER_01: And so none of it matters without maniacs, just like none of it mattered without people on red line radio, and none of it mattered with people out of Barstool and all that stuff.
1:07:47
SPEAKER_01: And so to be here at this point, Monday, January 19th, looking ahead, I just feel forever grateful.
1:07:53
SPEAKER_01: Uh, especially for the people that are with me, like people that stuck with me, people that aren't like, oh, I didn't hear, I didn't know that I didn't know that he was a degenerate, alcoholic, drug addicted, wife abusing, beat up, he beat up white socks, dude.
1:08:07
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, dude.
1:08:09
SPEAKER_00: Never had we started on that.
1:08:11
SPEAKER_01: Even fucking get me going on that shit.
1:08:13
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, I push it up or 2015 or something, whatever the fuck it was.
1:08:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, overwhelmingly positive responses in public throughout your career doing this kind of thing.
1:08:27
SPEAKER_00: When I've been with you, it is very, very, very euphoric when we're out together in Wrigley and what have you.
1:08:34
SPEAKER_00: So it's been a fun ride.
1:08:35
SPEAKER_00: And like, just to kind of you know piggyback a bit here, this season is gonna be big for the Monday morning cub show, for the Chicago Cubs, for the Maniacs.
1:08:44
SPEAKER_00: We have things you know coming up, like legitimate action items that we have planning that are gonna make this a little bit more fun and engaged.
1:08:52
SPEAKER_00: So let's get ready to get rolling, folks.
1:08:54
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be every Monday from here on out.
1:08:56
SPEAKER_00: You got Carl, you got Mahoney, and I love all you all.
1:09:00
SPEAKER_01: God bless you guys.
1:09:01
SPEAKER_01: Go Cubs.