Latest / The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast / BlackJack and Paul on MLB Opening Day, Round of Sweet Sixteen, and Their Trip to Vegas

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BlackJack and Paul on MLB Opening Day, Round of Sweet Sixteen, and Their Trip to Vegas · The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the favorite That was not Chad Millman, but
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: a better version of Chad Millman's voice. I'm black Jack
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Fletcher and joining me today has always on Thursday is
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: my favorite human being on this planet. Former fall time,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: four time Major League Baseball All Star and legendary human
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: being Paul Duca. PAULI, how you doing? Um? Got survived
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: eight days in Vegas with you? That's how I feel. Um,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I've heard you mentioned that in a couple of times.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I'm little disappointing. You consider you my best friend? Now? Um,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: we are best friends? Yeah? Yeah, you want to go
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: do karate in the garage? Um, let's do some activities.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Although we did see holl of notes. Um, we may
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: be sleeping in bunk. It's in a few weeks, so
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: that is true the way things are going right now. Uh,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: it was a a great trip to Vegas. It really
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: was with a lot of fun. Um. And you know what,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I miss you already. I miss you too. I miss
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: you too. So let's let's tell people a little bit
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: about our excursion to Las Vegas. We were out there
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: for eight days to cover the first two rounds of
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the n c A tournament. What what are some of
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the more memorable moments from the trip. Paul, Well, there
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: wasn't much memorable about any memories about it. I mean,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: actually the games were okay. I mean, we didn't do
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: bad on the games, didn't play much on the tables.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: The horses was just wasn't clicking most of the time
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: were for the at least the beginning of it, and
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: it was hard to get horse bets into because everybody
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: was concentrating on, you know, obviously the basketball games. But
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: we had a great set up at the West Gate.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: You got to give them a big, big shot man.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: They gave us an awesome the games. Maybe any memorable
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: experiences with co workers or meals or anything like that, Yeah, Like,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know how you operate, but when you know, like,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: let me ask you a quick question. When you ask
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: somebody out to eat, what's the protocol um? Generally, if
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: you're extending the invitation, I think you are buying me
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: your meal. Okay, So are fearless leader Darren Rovel. He's
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: a leader of nothing. First, when he works, he works
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: his tail off. I'll give him that. He's tweets his
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: tail off, well he does, I mean, and Instagram is
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: like a thirteen year old girl. Well true, I mean sellouts,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: not even the word when it comes to his Instagram. Okay,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: so this is gonna be good. I have never in
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: my lifetime. Here's the thing. I've played credit card roulette
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: with with with big league players on a seven thousand
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: r bill where you put seven credit cards in and
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: hoping your credit card does not get pulled out. And
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: so I've played some games like that where guys in
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: this and that, But I've never played a game when
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: a guy invites me to dinner. Okay, he invited myself,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: you and Jeff to dinner. Not only does he invited
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: the dinner, he picks the spot. So there goes the
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: fifteen dollar uber ride. It was actually a thirtysothing dollar cabra. Okay, okay,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: let's add it on. Then we get there now, by
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the way, Revel, Fletcher and Schwartz, and we're in an
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Italian restaurant. Who should be ordering duca la duca Italian? Guy?
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Do you want my twenty three in me kit? So
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: not only does that happen, Revel proceeds to go let
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: me order. We'll wait, wait, wait, wait a second okay, okay,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: guy invited you knew the chef, so he knew the
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: chef personally. They got phenomenal pasta. You're gonna love it. Um.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I actually like the holder my own fucking food. And
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: that's where I come from. Okay, So I got our
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: last podcast. I get it, I get it, I get
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: along with it. We eat all this Italian food. The
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: bill comes, it's three dollars. So now I've gone to
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: a restaurant I didn't want to go to. I've eaten
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: food that I don't want to eat. And the bill
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: comes and he goes, hey, I'll cover two hundred of it.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Can you guys cover the other hundred? And I don't
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: think I've ever paid for a meal where I got
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: invited and ate the food that the guy asked me
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: to eat. And here's the best part about it. I
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: wake up at like three o'clock in the morning and
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: I basically called Blackjack and me and black Jack are
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: both got her faces in a toilet throwing up all
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: we ate that night. True story. I thought I was
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: having like a pendicitis. It was. It was a very
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: painful experience. It was I think Ravelle poisoned us intentionally
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: so we would be off our game for the live
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: show the next day, and he could shine and then
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: he took the hunter and twenty dollars and he made
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: a two giant fifty dollar Betsy. So that was our
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: time in Vegas. Um, all right, so let's move on.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: We'll get to a little bit more of that later on. Um, PAULI,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: we've got we've got the Sweet sixteen coming up. Great
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: games and he you, okay, black Jack Dadua with the
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: space traces all the way back to Sicily just wondering
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: with the space. Oh all right, so the Sweet sixteen.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Are there any games tonight, PAULI that particularly have your interest? Well,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: obviously with Opening Day in baseball, got interest and the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Graham Tournament right now, I know, but it's like, you know,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: we're in my wheelhouse when it comes to the baseball.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: But he listen the n C attorney. Um, it's what
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: I sort of thought. Obviously, it's been very chalky, which
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: we thought going in right. Um, I like Oregon, I
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: do the way they're playing, and Virginia can go and stretches.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I get it the ender and over in the game.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: I think it's like one eight teams area, Um, but
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: just eight and a half points. At this level is
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: just a lot of points. An Tina Altman is so
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: good and it comes down to coaching now that they've had,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: you know, some time off. And I also think Florida State. Now,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I know Kanzaki can score, but if Florida States, they're
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: very big, very tall, and if they can establish inside early,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: I think they can hang with Gonzaga as well. I
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: think Florida State ken I would lean to them plus
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: the seven and a half. The other one, I don't know.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: I still like Virginia. I think Virginia, what are you
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: gonna do with the Michigan game? That's a confusing. Texas Tech,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I've got Texas Tech in the final four. I think
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: they win the game out right. Um, Tennessee I've got
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: winning as well. Tennessee is just such a good shooting
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: team from the floor. The seven percent from the floor,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's pretty tough to shut down. What
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I like about Tennessee we talked about that before, is
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: that they don't need to win the game from the
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: three point line, where a lot of other teams sort
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of do and get hot like in Tennessee can score inside.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: And now you're right, they're very, very good. I mean,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: like I went back in that game. I think I
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: actually like the game under because I think Perdue is
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: gonna try to slow it down and I think that's
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: gonna be a good game. So then Friday, we've got
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: l s U Michigan State, Michigan State a six and
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: a half point favorite, Auburn U n C U n
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: C a five point favorite, Virginia Tech Duke Duke by seven,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: and Houston and Kentucky Kentucky three point favorite. And it
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: looks like PJ. Washington will be back for Kentucky in
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: that game while he start there Houston and Kentucky Kentucky
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: a three point favorite. What do you think love Kentucky,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Love Kentucky? The Kelvin Sampson's over with to me, I
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: always thought Houston it was very, very good. But their
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: size is now going to come into uh focus when
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: it comes into the sweet sixteen and now Washington coming back.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be a slow grind game. And
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: here's the thing I get that care Calvin Sampson is
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: a great coach. When you give Kyla Parti that much
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: time to prepare, he's gonna lock up Houston and Houston
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: goes and stretches where they have trouble scoring. So I
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: really do like Kentucky and I'll tell you right now,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Virginia Tech is gonna give Duke all they can handle.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think people are trying to say, oh,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: they escaped UCF and they escape that tip. It's not
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: over yet. I think a lot of people are starting
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: to realize that Duke is now beatable, you know what
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: I mean. After that first game when they beat Kentucky
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Key by about a hundred first game of the season,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: everybody crowned them champion. Now, little by little, people are
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: starting to crack into Duke, and you CEF almost got
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: it done with only think three. I mean, you heard
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: the u c F players on the court telling them
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: shoot it at them to take three exactly. And I
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: think that's what's gonna happen. If you watch the UCF game.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: The guy didn't unbelieve that. He sagged everybody inside and said,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: go ahead, you guys want to make twenty three pointers.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Go ahead. He did a great job. What do you
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: think about Auburn, U n C and l S U
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Michigan State. See here's the Auburn game. Is the trickiest
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: game because North Carolina gives up almost eight to nine
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: threes a game. They're one of the worst defensive teams
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: in the nation against the three, and that's what Auburn
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: lives on. But here's the thing about Auburn. They can
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: put up a hundred points one night fifty the next night.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: So I've understood, you know, I understand now why that
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: total has completely risen. I still the North Carolina wins
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the game, but this is a dangerous game for for
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Roy Williams because Auburn is one of those teams that
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: could beat anybody and in a given night, agreed that
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: game in the l s U Michigan State game, to me,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: are two tough ones. I think, what's the grind fest?
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: You think l s U Michigan State could be a
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: grind fest? I do, And I think that I would
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: take the points with l s U and Auburn in
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: both of those games. I think that Michigan State wants
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: to slow this thing down, play in the half court
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: a lot. L s U very athletic, very long and
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: if you remember in January and February, they were one
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: of the hottest teams in the country. Man, I mean
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: LSU was really playing incredible. It's it's surprising they've made
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: it to this point without their head coach, Will Wade,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: who's suspended. UM at some point you would think that's
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: a factor, but maybe they're using it for motivation. I
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: don't know, but I think they can cover six and
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: a half. Yeah. Listen, they're big, they're tall, they play
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: the game very well in another team that doesn't need
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: to live and die by the three coin shot. And
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I think that's key. Alright, So PAULI tell me, now,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: tell the people here who's winning the national title? Well,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: you know I had picked my final four was the
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: a c C matchup in the SEC matchup was Tennessee
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: and Kentucky, and then and then then Duke against Florida State.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I like Kentucky, I do. I think this is call
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: a Party's best job that he's done. Um. I think
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Washington winning those two games with alpet Washington it was giant.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Now throwing him back could be a little bit funky
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: because he needs to get back in the mix and
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: back in the flow. So if they can get through
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: the first half of that game and he gets going,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: and and and I just I really feel like Kentucky
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: has got what it takes to maybe go all the way.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: And and the thing about it is, if they face Duke,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: they're gonna remember every single part of that first game
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: in the season, and I think Duke will be for
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: a rude awakening if they play each other. Yeah, I mean,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: I listen, I like Kentucky a lot. Ultimately, I have
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Virginia winning this thing. But UM, I think the winner
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: of that matchup, I've got them both in the final four.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I think that's who your national champion is. UM. As
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: you mentioned before, Paul, today's opening day in Major League Baseball.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Any last minute future bets, any bold predictions, anything, anything
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: kind of out of left field, we should know. I
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: think Aaron Nola is gonna win the Cy Young um
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: for the Phillies. He had the worst defense last year,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: UM in baseball. Now with was Hoskins moving, they come
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: get Harper, he's gonna get more run support. UM. Obviously
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: he's the opening day starter UM this year. UM. He
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: was seventeen and six last year and black check what
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: sold me on him was that he had only given
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: up like four or five home runs. He got up
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: nine home runs in September on October, so he probably
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: got a little bit tired. You know, the ball doesn't
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: sink as much um during during the summer, and that's
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: what he lives on, his power sinker. But what I
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: saw in the All Star Game, he chewed up some
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: really good hitters and with that ball club now he's
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: got a chance to win twenty games. So he would
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: be my cy young prop Um, and I think that's
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: a pretty good choice. Although you're gonna have to beat
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: suzer Graham, I get it, but I think that because
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: that division is so tough, Um that you know, maybe
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: shot in the graam will beat each other up. Okay, okay,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: fair enough, PAULI. Before we get back to the show,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: we need to talk about something that's very important to
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: all of the ladies and gentlemen listening today, and that's
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: a rectile health. Men are terrible at taking care of
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: their health. Whether it's a knee injury that you faked
• 13:24
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• 13:28
  Speaker 1: are usually more comfortable rubbing some dirt on it than
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: seeing a doctor. I'm sure you've done that a few times.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: But there are some things, Paul, you can't rub dirt on,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and that is the case for a rectile dysfunction. Studies
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• 15:03
  Speaker 1: So we're gonna move on now to everyone's favorite time
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: of the week. That's Storytime with Paul La Duca. And
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: because last week we were in Vegas and Chad was
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: hosting NERD, he didn't give Paul story time, we're gonna
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: do a double edition this week. So Paul, I want
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: to start with an Opening Day story. Tell us what
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: is one of your standout memories of Opening Day? Well,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: stand out in memory Opening Day was in two thousand. Um,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: I didn't make the team at the spring training. I
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: was really really upset. Uh. What you do is you
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: travel with the team to um um the Subway Series,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: not the Subway Series, the Freeway Series, and you play
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: those three games against the Angels and then you go.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: So I had broken camp and boom, I get sent down.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Well the night before that he got sent down. It
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: was me, Kevin Elstair and um one of the clubhouse guys,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: and we just got schnockered. I know I was sent down.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I mean we were in San Francisco Opening Day, and
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: I mean literally we carried the clubhouse guy to the
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: room and I carried Elster to his room. Okay, so
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: I get basically next morning, I'm on a flight. I
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: gotta meet the team. I think in Oklahoma City, where
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: it wasn't two thousand, um uh, they had already started
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: this or they usually in the minor leagues, you start
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: your season like m M. Four or five days later
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: somewhere in that area, so you have a little time.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: And so I get to Oklahoma City and um um start.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: And I turned on the game and Jose off from
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and scratches. So Elster is playing shortstop, and I'm like,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: you've got to be kidding me. I basically carried him
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: to his room. Well, he proceeded to hit three home
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: runs that day, just totally hungover, completely hungover. And then
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: after the game, since he knew he was gonna play
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: of the next game, he called me and goes, you
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: need to come back. I'm like, bro, I just landed
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: in Oklahoma Cities. Like we got to do the exact
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: same thing we did last night. So wait, did you
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: actually go back to the couldn't go back? I had
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: to play like in two days in Oklahoma City. Like,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: but that's that's like crazy story because Offerman, I forget
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: what happened to Offerman. He got hit either by a
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: line drive and batting practice. And like Elister wasn't going
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: to play, he was just basically on the roster to
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: be a defensive guy because he had some of the
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: best hands I ever saw. If it was if it
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: was hit at Kevin Elster, you were out. So he
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: was a defensive guy. And then he goes deep three times.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: So sometimes sometimes it's it's good to go up there,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: No thoughts. Alright, So our second story is going to
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: be amusing and heartwarming at the same time. Um, it
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: involves Paul's saint of a mother. Why don't you go
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: ahead and start out by by telling us that story, Paul, Well,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: a lot of people always look at me and obviously
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: listen to me and think, um, I'm a nutshot. Well
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: that's true, this is partly true. But one lady in
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: my life kept me grounding, and that was my mother. Um.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Sadly she passed away. And when I graduated in three
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: I when I went to Arizona State, you know, I
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: went to the Cow League and my mom fainted, um
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: at a restaurant and sort of went to the doctor
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: the next day. And my mom and my dad basically
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: had hidden that my mother had cancer. So let's fast
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: forward to you know, I'm going up and down in
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the minor leagues. They just made me a catcher, basically
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: told me they were going to release me. Is my
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: big break. They asked me to go to the fall
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: league because I'm basically living in Arizona. Well, I'm basically
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: take care of my mom too, because she's passing away
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: a cancer. So I went to the doctor that that
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: night and I said, listen, you know, you know how
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: much longer does my mom have with chemo or without chemo?
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Because she didn't want to do it anymore, and he
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: wouldn't tell me. So, of course, just like I do
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: an umpire's faces, I've gotten into the doctor's face and
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: I said, listen, I doesn't want to do chemo anymore.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Just please tell me. And she basically just said He
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: basically said, she's got two months to live if she
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: takes chemo, maybe six days. So I told her straight out,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: and so she says, you know what, I want to leave.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: So we left the hospital, um, and then we got
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: in the hospice. So we're sitting there in her hospice
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: and I called the Dodgers and I said, listen, um,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna you know, I can't play this the fall League, um,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: and this and that, and my mom interrupted me while
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: I was on the phone. He goes, hang up the phone,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: and I go Mr Blaney, who's Charlie Blaney, who was
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: head of the mar Lakes. I said, can I call
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: you back? He said yes, Paul, And my mom looked
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: at me and says, you're gonna go to my funeral
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: and you're gonna play the next day. Um. And it
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: was like, uh so surreal. I told her, I said,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: you gotta be kidding me. I can't play. Um. She said,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: this is your big break. You're going to the Fall
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: League with all these prospects. No one thinks you're a prospect.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: You're five ft eight, No one thinks you can make
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: it to the big leagues. And I know you can.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: If I'm not there, I'll be up in the sky.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: But you need to go back and play. This is
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: your opportunity. So I remember going to Davey Lopes, who's
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: our manager, and he kept asking me okay, okay, and
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: I said, listen, I'm not okay, but my mom wants
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: me to play. And my mom passed away by a
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: week later, ummm, and I played, and I led the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Fall League and hitting that year, and then got put
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: on the forty man And you know, two years later
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I was in the big leagues because of her and
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of people. I wonder, you know how selfless
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: people can be. And I look back at my mother
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: and how selfish selfish she was to say that to me,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: and I might not have ever made it to the
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: big leagues. Baseball and sports can be ruthless. It could
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: I could have never shown I showed them that I
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: could play against the best with my mom basically helped
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: me along and pushed me along. I still believe this
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: day my mom, my mom led led lead the league
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: and hitting that year, and not me. That's ah, It's
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: a beautiful story, Paul. Now it is like, listen, she was.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: There's an article in Sports Illustrated if anybody wants to
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: look at it. She taught me how to hit. She
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: used to throw me white pinto beans um out in
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the yard. If a lot of people don't know that,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: I used to get people used to say that they
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: had their kids hitting beans. She did whatever it took.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: She knew my batting. She was my hitting coach, so
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: she knew what it took for me to get to
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: the big leagues, and she just I know every mother
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: sees something in their son, but this was different. My
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: mom was not a person that pushed people, but she
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: pushed me because she knew I had a talent to
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: hit a baseball. It's a hell of a story. And
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: your mother sounds like she was a great lady. So
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: now do you want to hear But yes, there's more
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: to this as they're usually Okay, so now you're hearing
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: about this wonderful lady, the saint of a woman. I mean,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: she's the best. Like no exaggeration. When they say opposites attract,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: they do. My dad's the biggest crook in the world.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: My other no exaggeration church twice a week. If if
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the ladies swiped corn at eighty nine cents and it
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: was seventy nine cents, she would make the boy, the
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: check guy, go check, and me and my brothers used
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: to go please, Mom will give you the dime, like
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: you scarred me from going to the grocery store for life.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: So so tell us how your mother impacted your baseball
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: career in a different way. Okay, So now here I
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: am my first spring training, Tommy Lasorda goes, hey, la Duca,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: since you're the only Italian in here, you're the joke teller.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: What every morning we used to get together spring training
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: with Tommy. This was Tommy's thing, and you would go
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: around and then you would introduce yourself, and if you're
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: a rookie, you'd get peppered by by all the the
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: older guys and this and that. Oh I heard get
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: to forty here and they'd rip on you. And it
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: was just like a rip session of fun session. So
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: I got designated the joke guy. I had to tell
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: a joke every day in front of everybody in spring training.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: So my mother comes home the sink of a woman
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: and drops this joke on me and goes, why don't
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: you drop this one? I said, Okay, there's this man
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: that looks into a paper and he sees an ad
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: in the paper a hundred thousand acres for one dollar.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: He's like, you gotta be kidding me. This has got
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: to be a miss print. Puts the paper down. Next day,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: same ad, even bigger hundred thousand acres seventy cents. Guys
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: like he dropped it down a quarter. What's going on here.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I gotta call this guy. So he calls the guy
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: and he goes, Um, sir, He goes, you can call
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: me Charlie. My name is Mr McClendon, but you can
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: call me Charlie. He goes, Charlie. Um, hundred thousand dollars
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: A hundred thousand acres for sevent is that true? Guy goes, yeah,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: why don't you come out and check out the property?
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: He goes, but there's a catch, and the guy goes,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: I knew. He goes, you have to marry my daughter.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: One guy goes, well, I'm single and in my mid forties.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Why not. So he goes and he drives, and while
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: he's driving he can see the acreage. It's just luxurious.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: It's beautiful. And he pulls up into this winding road,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: this giant home, and outcomes the owner, Mr mcclennan. Hey,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: how are you doing da Can I see your daughter?
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: While the daughter comes walking out, He's like, oh, no, no,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: I can't. He's like, well, that's the deal if you
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: marry my daughter, and he's like, I can't. So he
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: gets in the car and he pulls off, and as
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: he's pulling off, acres are left he's just looking at
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the acreage and he sees this pond and he's like,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: oh my god. He goes, you know, screw this. He goes,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: I'll put a bag over her head while I'm sucking her.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: I'm turning around. So he turns around and he goes deal.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: So about two months later he buys and now he's
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: gonna build an extra barn. So you know, he needs
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: all these supplies and this and that. Well they have it.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: So he tells his wife, his newly wife. He sweetheart,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna build some lads up here. Can you um
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: give me the ladder. She goes, get the ladder, get
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: the ladder, Get the ladder, Get the ladder, Get the ladder,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: and she goes, get some the ladder. So he walks
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: up the ladder. He's like, sweetheart, I need some nails.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: She's like, get the nails. Get the nails. Get the nails,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: get the nails, get the nails. Please, get some the nails.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: He goes, oh gosh, this is the wrong hammer. Baby.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Can you go get me the hammer. She goes, get
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the hammer, get the ham, get the hammer, Get the hammer.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: So now he walks up the ladder starts nailing away,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: nailing away, and he hits his thumb. He goes, fuck.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: She goes, get the bag, Get the bag, Get the bag.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: I love you, mom. And how did that joke play
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: with Tommy? Sort of? Oh my god, he pet his pants.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: He was the worst thing ever because I brought out
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: my best joke on the first day and I could
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: never top it. Didn't you just tell you to keep
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: telling it? He did, He told me to keep telling it,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: but he the funny part of that he I had
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: to get my dad on the phone because he didn't
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: believe my mom told it to me. And I remember
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: my dad goes, yeah, my mother and my my wife
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: was heard that joke. And like my mom never cussed,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: she like it was just when and that came out
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: of her mouth. Is I never laughed so hard in
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: my life. Jesus, Polly, you gotta do it. You gotta
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: do hey, when the manager tells you to step up,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: you gotta step up with a good joke. Well you
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: you did just that. I remember Brett Butler, who was very,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: very religious. He stared at me for a good fifteen minutes.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Brett did not enjoy No, you know what I told him?
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Go lay your bunts down and hit two eighty. Wow,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: it's ballsy for a rookie. Hey, you have to do
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: what you gotta do. Listen, those guys were ruthless back then.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: The millennials now don't even get it. You used. I
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: remember when I got to the clubhouse, Eric Carrols tell
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: me you keep your mouth shut to your spoken to
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: like you just don't like that was the bottom line
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: of the bus. You sit in the back of the plane.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: This that, this at the stuff that goes on. Now,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: half these kids would get slapped, they would, they would.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: You don't even know how many guys got in my
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: face when I was younger, Like a lot of guys
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: seem guys get choked out on busses stuff like that,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Like these kids are whimps. Do you ever like go
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: and complain about it's your hr rep Yeah right, I
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: remember all of my my managers are like, you know what,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: why don't you guys just go figure it out? And
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: then a lot of guys that I played with, we
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: used to figure it out outside of the clubhouse. Oh yeah,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: ye are you gotta do what you gotta do? You listen,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: if you're a leader and a guy is out there
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: just going through the motions, and you're affecting the way
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: the rest of the team plays and affecting that young
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: kid over there that might get sent down because you're
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: playing like a jerk off and you don't want to play.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: I have an issue with it, you know. And I
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: don't care if you're out till five in the morning.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: I don't give a ship. Like what Kevin Elster did,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: I don't care he had three home runs, so I don't.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: I don't care who you are, what color you are,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: what you are. I want to win. And that's what
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: a lot of people don't get now, because all these
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: kids are worried about their images and worried about what's
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: going to happen life after baseball. Bro, you're making forty
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: million hit the fucking thing. Instead of worrying about Instagram
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: and Twitter and worrying about being Darren Vel trying to
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: get free ship. When you're making forty three million dollars,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: you don't need free ship, well said, well said, thank you,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: so so, PAULI. Before we go again, we you know,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: we spent we spent a lot of time in Las
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Vegas over the last two weeks. I mean, I think
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: you and I have spent like eleven of the last
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: fourteen days in Las Vegas. Um any other any other
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: stories you want to tell anyone? Maybe about the the
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: night we went out with everyone from the Action Network.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, like I like to dance. That might keep screaming.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: I know, I don't know what's going on, So tell
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: us tell us a little bit about that, mate. It
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: was a fun night, it really was. It was great.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: It was just absolutely wondrous. I was up till four
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: or forty in the morning looking for a lost woman. Okay,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: you want to go into a little bit more detail
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: on that. I know, I don't really don't really, I mean,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: like had fun dancing on it was a complete mess.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: I get it. But that's part of the lifestyle. Listen.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: If I'm gonna lose two to three thousand dollars, I'm
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: gonna dance it off. Okay, do you have a problem
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: with it? So I was dancing it off, okay, And
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: you know, dancing it off with a couple of women
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: by my side made it even better. And one woman
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: decided to go to the airport. She got it while
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I was eating a quarter pounder. It's also true, I mean,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: like you can't even make it up. Black Jack and
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: I are losing money. Girls are going to the airports
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: and we're eating at Denny's and McDonald's. That did happen.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: That did happen. Yeah, I mean it was like two
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: thirty in the morning. Yeah. But then you're downtown looking
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: for her. And then when I went, I'm looking for
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: her on the street. It's like we were person who Honestly,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: I barely knew what she looked like. You know what's
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: funny is I wasn't really looking at her either. Her
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: friend was way better looking. That's your girlfriend, yes, exactly.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: But Maggie, Hi, mags Uh, that's what complicated it all.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: It's because I'm looking for my girlfriend's best friend in
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Vegas where there's eighty million girls. Good luck. I can't
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: eat black Jack. I can't, like I can't carry everybody. Polly,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: I was there. I know I was walking around with you.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: We just we can't carry everybody like you know schwartzcan
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: physically yes, physically yes, physically yes. Like Jeff. Jeff came
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: out with us that night. That was his late night,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: promised this one night. He gave us one night, and
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: he he just loved watching you dance. It made him
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: so happy. Oh god, he love it. He even said that, like,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: his wife is enamored with my dancing, but then I
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: turned her off with one of my other dances. Yeah. Yeah,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: the the extreme crutch chop that you did turned her off. Well,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: I mean that's just like more of like I can understand. Huh,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: it's more of a seduction. Yeah. I'm just showing the
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: thrust power that I have, Like you know how you know,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: guys have like velocity and it leaves the bat. That's
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: what I'm just trying to show. Paul, he's just showing
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: his bad speed. I was showing my exactly my bad speed. Alright, Um, well,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: I think this is a good time to wrap it up.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Um wrap the show up at least. Well, that's Antonio
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: in the background. Loudest laugh we got from him in
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: a while. Antonio, did they see the song? Antonio? I
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: think that's Alijandro by Lady Alejandro. By the way, for
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: all the people that don't know out there, Matt Ford
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: in Antonio in the background, they're the ones that are
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: the real magic behind this podcast. That's right, that's right.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Listen to this guy trying to butter someone up at
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: this company. What's going on with my mike? Thank you
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: everybody for listening to the Favorite. Make sure you're downloaded
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, Radio, doc Um, Slash, the Action Network,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcast. Leave a five star review.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Um you know, maybe we'll get someone reading those at
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: some point. Again, who the hell knows? Subscribe rate, do
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: all that good stuff. Thank you for listening. Until next time.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: He's Paul Laduka, I'm black Jack Leger. We'll see you later.