Bet Your Bipster | Hour 1 (feat. David Samson)

There is nothing casual about football season. You can tell yourself you're just going to watch one game, and six hours later, you're emotionally invested in a fourth quarter between two teams you don't even care about. That's what I love about this time of year. The entire weekend becomes football. You're texting friends, tracking games, second-guessing coaches, convincing yourself you saw something before everybody else did. And then Monday comes around, and you get to do the whole thing again. Those are the weekends you remember. And for me, some of the best ones have usually involved some good people, a great game, and a cold Miller Lite. No matter what triumphs are in store this season, legendary game days start with Miller Lite. Cold, crisp, refreshing, that clean finish. And it's part of plenty of memorable football weekends. Make game day legendary. 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Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place. Like Chrome. Check responses, setup required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. You are listening to the Dan Levitard Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports app. Now live in all 50 states. This episode of the Dan Levitard Show is presented by DraftKings Sports. DraftKings, the crown is yours. A couple of months ago, we played some fairly unprecedented propaganda from Major League Baseball, where they had fans. saying we obviously need a salary cap, and we're headed toward a work stoppage, and it's the first sort of salvos in trying to win the public relations game. But to answer your question, Mike, from the first hour, the remaining payrolls of the teams in the playoffs, the Guardians are 29th in the sport, the Razors are 28th, the White Sox are 27th, the Brewers are 19th, and the Dodgers are first. So, do we need a salary cap? It's going to be an interesting narrative heading into the World Series with the impending work stoppage. I mean, the Dodgers win with Miguel Rojas and, you know, you got this nonsense of, you know, your ninth hitter is winning the game for you yesterday. Well, let's ask David if Major League Baseball kind of finds this storyline headed into the Fall Classic favorable. What are your thoughts here, David Sampson, of nothing personal? A number of baseball things I want to discuss with you today. It's no problem that the Rays and the Guardians and the White Sox and the Brewers are in because that's never been what baseball has said is why we need a salary cap. It's never been what baseball has said is why we need a salary cap. Because small market teams can't make the playoffs or can't win a division. The reason why they want a salary cap is that it's the best way to get the most teams the most hope and the most consistently year after year. That's why you need a salary cap. You'll never legislate against the Jets like just pure stupidity where a team can't win in a salary cap situation. In theory, you should be able to win. And that's really not the case with every team in baseball. Yeah, like by far the most important thing is a front office that's going to make good decisions. Yeah, but he's saying it's not the case with every team in baseball. The White Sox got John losing 119 games. Like, what are we talking about? That it can happen with any team in baseball. Like, every team in baseball does have hope if the one that just lost 119 games can be sitting here still vying for the World Series. Yes, but legislating a salary cap and trying to even things out even more can make it more of a chance that more teams are involved. And you have to look at a larger sample size. You don't just look at one year. Can you imagine if in the NFL you had a team, let's say the Chiefs, and their payroll was $450 million, and then you had a team like the Packers, which is a small market, in theory, low-revenue area, if they didn't share everything in the NFL, and the Packers had a payroll of $90 million. I think you'd agree that that's not the league that anyone is hoping for, and that's why you do a salary floor and a salary cap. That's the theory that the owners have right now, and that's why they don't really care about this particular year, just like they didn't say the Dodgers ruined baseball when they're winning all the time, or that the Guardians are ruining their plan by making it to the playoffs or the Rays or Brewers. So really, one year's sample size is not enough to change the philosophy. I just heard Draymond Green talking about everything with the salary cap and Kawhi Leonard and saying, well, obviously, if players can get more, why should we have a salary cap? Well, you collectively bargained it. Baseball has a salary. They have a salary cap because they collectively bargained it, and baseball is going to try and get a salary cap again by shutting down the sport because the owners can't control themselves. As I'm sitting here telling you, David, of all the remaining teams, only one of them is in the top 19 in payroll, and it's the Dodgers. Like, there's not an equality problem here. The worst payrolls in the sport, the worst of them. Like, I'm not 29th, 28th, and 27th highest payrolls. Like, the Yankees just got split. Smoked by the Rays, who were better than them all season long and are paying their players, what is it, $200 million less than the Yankees are? Yeah, when we won the World Series, we had a payroll that was lower than other teams, and that is not what the point is. It's the question is, how do you win the World Series? Getting to the playoffs is one thing. Then what are your odds of advancing? Getting to the playoffs when you have a low payroll, yes, the White Sox lost 100 games three years in a row, but so have the Rockies, and they're not sniffing the playoffs. The Cubs did. The Cubs did it, won a World Series, didn't have a dynasty. The Astros did it, did have a dynasty. It doesn't always work to lose 100 games in a row, three seasons in a row, and then recover. It just doesn't always work. So you're taking this year, and then you're trying to extrapolate over the course of an entire CBA or an entire decade, and that's just not the math. The thing that you're doing, though, is you want prices fixed for the owners, and I don't. Yeah, Dan, no, that's not actually what I'm saying, because in the NBA, it makes me cry. It makes me crazy, and the owners, too, that they have to pay a 12th guy on the bench multiple millions of dollars who stinks. We call it internally in the business, like, I can't believe how many concaks there are, and that's the salary cap league, and that's just the reality. Salary cap and salary floor actually helps more members of the union, and it sounds like I'm pimping for the owners, except they call every day listening to nothing personal, threatening to call you to cut off my microphone, because I'm not so pro-owner at all, but you just don't have the money. You don't have the facts right of what a salary cap and salary floor would do for the players. They would actually, as a union, get more money, but the reason why it's being fought is that someone like Scott Boris says, but you're stopping 10 guys from making the most they can make, and that's just not really what a salary cap is. You don't think I have my facts right on they want a salary cap because the owners want something that controls the Steve Coens of the world from screwing up the entire salary structure? Yeah, so it's not that, actually, because he's got 26 guys. The Steve Coen tax is what it's called, and the Dodgers are actually over it. Basketball has it. It's called the second apron, and all the owners, and Amin will agree, they are scared of the second apron. They don't want to go over the second apron, and that is the definition of when you have a soft cap versus a hard cap, so don't listen to Draymond Green say, well, owners want to pay more money. Just let them. That's not exactly what's happening. I think Draymond's point is the idea that Steve Ballmer would go to these lengths to pay Kawhi Leonard more money is proof that some owners would want to pay more money. The thing that redistributes the wealth for the NBA and allows us to have such a robust middle class is the maximum salary. The idea is that if I could pay, for example, Steph Curry what he was worth, which is probably $80, $90 million when you bring in not just on-court product, but also the ticket sales, the attention, all the stuff that they get, as a result of having Steph Curry, but still had a salary cap, what would happen is the 12 guy that you're talking about, David, would make minimum because we wouldn't be able to afford under the cap. That's what happens in the NHL. Right. So basically it's the limits on the individual salary that create that middle class, but when you talk about overall spending, what it would do is, yes, it would curtail what the Dodgers and the Yankees do, but it would force. All those cheap clubs to spend up. And that's what David is talking about, if I'm not mistaken, right? It's if there's a lot more people running it cheap than there are people who are overpaying on the top end. The math is very clear and in the owner's proposal and this again, it's right there in black and white and the players union just hasn't responded. The salary floor that MLB is presenting would cause more money to go into the system than the amount of money that goes out of the system, quote unquote, by having a salary cap lower than where two or three, three teams are, and the union just doesn't know how to do the math. Just one more thing on Draymond Green, if you don't mind. There's people who for a living, and I assume Draymond Green has one of these, a tax attorney. And a tax attorney's job is to go through the tax code, like your accountant does, and figure out how to make you pay the fewest dollars in taxes. We all have people doing that for us. That doesn't mean that there's something inherently wrong with the tax code, or that we disagree with having a tax code. It means that we are gonna do everything we can within the rules to get the biggest advantage. That's just how things are. So I don't view owners as trying to get around it the way Ballmer does as an indictment on a salary cap. - Yeah, I was just gonna say that Ballmer didn't do it within the rules, though. I think that's his point. So if this type of rule skirting, or even rule straight up just disregard is happening, then why do we have a salary cap at all? - But I mean, people go to jail for tax fraud. So yes, there are people who do not operate within the rules, and they get punished for it, which is what happened to Steve Ballmer. But that doesn't mean that there aren't other teams who are finding ways. Don't think he'd have an entire department on how to deal with the salary cap and structure to make it work to their benefit. - It's just Ellisburg. He keeps it all in his head. - Oh, it's one guy? - Yeah, it's one guy. One formidable guy. - One hell of a guy, though. - Yeah, one formidable guy. I wanna ask-- - I hope they have key man insurance. - I wanna ask Amin this, and David, I wanna bring you in on it as well as we talk about the second act. The second apron. What's going on with the Knicks is interesting because I believe James Dolan will quickly use up all of the goodwill that he got from the championship. He immediately went on the radio and said he doesn't wanna get into the second apron, and now Karl-Anthony Towns is saying his contract's not gonna get done. They lost Mitchell Robinson. Amin, what do you make of the way the Knicks are being managed right now and the fact that Cat is saying before the season, yeah, my contract extension isn't gonna get done? So the Knicks, obviously Jim Dolan has been very clear about where he wants his spending to be, and that's all well and good when you're trying to lowball Landry Schammett and Jose Alvarado, which is what they did in the off season. Karl-Anthony Towns is a different story. When you talk about his contributions and quite frankly, his irreplaceability as a talent, you can't kind of lowball that or extract kind of savings on that. This is the part where the Jalen Brunson took less thing is very detrimental 'cause as we've explained many a time, he took less in the short term. He'll make all that money back on his next deal because the way it works out-- - Which is next year. - Yeah, he opts out and it's when he's eligible for the 10 year-- - Well, we'll see. Maybe he takes a big discount again. - I don't think he will. - All right. All of this was designed for him to get his money, but in the short term, give the team a little bit more flexibility to build and add guys, right? But when you do that, now it turns into the thing that obviously the fans loved it. It's like, oh my God, what a guy. But now it turns into a pressure on everyone else, the Josh Harts, the Miles McBrides, and of course the Karl-Anthony Towns of the world, which is, hey, why aren't you a team guy like Jalen? I was like, well, Jalen didn't give up the money. He just said, I'll take it later. So what's happening now is, and I'm sure David, you appreciate this, is a good old fashioned game of leverage, right? Where the Knicks are saying, look, all this pressure for us to keep this thing together, it's all on you, Cat. Are you gonna mess this up? Meanwhile, Cat's saying, hold on. You can't replace me like you can replace some of these other guys because other than Embiid, Jokic, and Weminyama, there's not a center in the league who can do what I do. - Are you saying that you would give him the 275 right now with reckless indifference toward what it would mean once Brunson gets his new deal and what the reality is in a capped world when you don't wanna be in the second apron, that you will not be able to have a team that is able to win because the role players just won't be available at the numbers you have? - So number one, I'm not saying that. I'm saying it's a good old fashioned game of leverage where the Knicks are arguing, hey, we need to keep this team together and Carl Anthony Towns is arguing, hey, based on who I am and what I do, if I walk, and he can because he can opt out at the end of the year, you can't replace me. There's nobody out there other than these generational talents that aren't going anywhere. - They're never gonna allow him just to walk. - Allow him, what's to allow? He can opt out, he can leave. - And then they'll trade him before February. - But now you get into, you'll trade him. Can you build a team without him that is championship caliber? I would argue no. The second apron, folks. Let me just explain this theoretically, like philosophically what the second apron is. It is the league asking you, are you sure about that? Oh, this is my favorite roster. I think this is the best roster ever. I'll spend whatever. You sure about that? Yeah, I don't want anything else. I will need for nothing if I have this roster. Go ahead and do it. You go ahead and do it. If there are any mistakes, if there are any bumps, like, oh, it turns out I actually need an extra this. Well, you're shit out of luck. 'Cause like David said, it's hard to get those role players out. It's hard to continue to improve your team when you're in the second apron. The difference between the Knicks and every other second apron team we've seen-- - What is it? - Is that they know that roster is good enough. They won the championship. We just saw them do it. And they brought back 90% of the roster. They lost Doug Porte. But for the most part, all the major players are back. So an aversion to the second apron at this stage, I'm not saying late at three, four years down the line, saying, right now, it's kind of ridiculous 'cause you know this roster is good enough. - David, why are you shaking your head no? - Because I'm just curious what our friends at DraftKings say. Are the Knicks favored to win the title this year? - I doubt it. - Favored to win the title? - They're probably fifth or sixth, if I had to think. - I'm gonna guess they're behind the Spurs. Maybe even behind the Celtics. - The Thunder behind the Sixers. - I can look this up on the DraftKings Sports app, now available on all 50 states. - Let me just say right now, they're behind the Sixers. That's not a market, that's not an actual prediction. - Well, he was just asking, where's the money and where are the favorites? I would assume the Knicks are about fifth or sixth. What would you guess? - Let's say third. - There is nothing casual about football season. You can tell yourself, you're just gonna watch one game, and six hours later, you're emotionally invested in a fourth quarter between two teams you don't even care about. And then Monday comes around and you get to do the whole thing again. Go to MillerLite.com/Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Game time is Miller time. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. - Folks, listen up. You know what nobody thinks about until it ruins your entire afternoon? Glare. You've got the TV exactly where you want it, you've got the couch, you're ready for seven days, seven straight hours of football, and then the sun moves three inches and suddenly you're watching the game like this, like, oh, I'm leaning, I'm squinting, I'm trying to figure, is that a touchdown? And instead of fixing the actual problems, we'll just live with that. Yeah, around 4:15, you just can't see the TV, no problem. Yes, problem, that's insane. Your windows matter. The right window treatment can change the way a whole room looks, feels, and most importantly, whether you can actually see what you're watching. Blinds.com makes it easy, go DIY, or have a vetted pro handle everything from measuring to installations. You can talk with an award-winning design expert for free, virtually, with no awkward in-home visit. They'll even send up to 10 samples, fast and free, and everything is backed by their Sure-Fit Guarantee. Visit Blinds.com right now for an exclusive $50 off when you spend $500 or more with code DAN. That's Blinds.com with code DAN. - Dan Levitar. ♪ There's sunglasses in boxes today ♪ ♪ But in my bed in the hospital ♪ ♪ Ending our lives all the same ♪ - Jeremy Tatche. ♪ It's the final nightgown ♪ ♪ It's the final nightgown ♪ - This is the Dan Levitar Show. ♪ It's the final nightgown ♪ ♪ It's the final nightgown ♪ I have a good one. Yep. Spurs and Thunder are tied, plus 270. Then the Sixers and Knicks are tied, plus 900. Then the Celtics and the Cavs. Celtics, wow. So I think it's clear that while the Knicks did win the title last year, the view of the market, if you want to say that, or the experts, however you want to say it, is that they're likely not a dynasty. And, Amin, you said it perfectly. A front office who sticks with the same crew and gets into that second apron, then you're like the Cavaliers, and you're just screwed. Where you think you've got the team and you sign all these players to max deals, you saw it with Duran, and you're seeing it where there's a reticence by teams now to just willy-nilly give the max because it turns out they're not winning titles. And then if they win a title, they can't win another title, and then you're stuck and you're inflexible. So I just don't think Cavs. is going to win this. Talk about leverage. Yeah. If I'm Jimmy Dolan, see you later, Cavs. We love the ring. We appreciate the ring. You know, good luck out the door. Have fun. We can say that they're not a dynasty or whatever, but I guarantee you, if Karl-Anthony Towns is not on this roster, this team get all the way back into the everyone. I don't care how many draft picks you get out of it and how many players you get. You cannot replace him because literally the list of people you can replace him with is three guys. So, David, what are you doing there, though? They just won a championship, okay? It's the goodwill that that team has not had in more than 50 years, and you're hitting them with good luck out the door, have fun. Like, that's not going to fly with – Because I don't understand. Dan, I'm so sorry. The goodwill, what are you talking about? Madison Square Garden prints money. So, whether they are out in the first round, the second round, or miss the playoffs, when you look at their ATP – David, David, you're an expert at dismantling champions immediately after you've won a World Series, and then – Don't give me a break. Well, no, but I'm saying, yes, the good – Seriously, no one cares anymore. No, but – It's 23 years ago. David, though, you – You give Pudge $40 million for four years. Again – Ridiculous. You win a championship. Your fan base wants you to return the same team, not to have the attitude of good luck out the door, have fun. No, actually, that's not what a fan base wants. The fan base wants another ring. They want another title. And you have to believe that the front office knows what's in the best interest of getting another title because they want another title. They want the same thing. David, philosophically, I agree with you in general. I think in this specific case, though, Carl T. Towns is just irreplaceable. If we were having this conversation about Josh Hart, who is heart and soul of the team, and everybody loves him, and he's great, da-da-da, I would be the guy in the room if we're saying, hey, Josh wants $30 million a year. I'm like, I can go out and get another Josh Hart, right? Miles McBride is actually the one in the most vulnerable position because there's dozens of Miles McBrides all across the league and in the G League. They did it with Hartenstein a couple times. Well, they went out and got Towns, right? But they just loved somebody. The fan base loved somebody who was replaceable. Right. So the whole point is about, hey, even if I get someone else, is he as good as the guy that went out the door? No. But is he a reasonable facsimile for a lot less money? That's the game we're playing on this salary cap sport. It's always, can I get a reasonable facsimile for a fraction of the cost and then take that savings and spend it elsewhere in more dire needs, right? The problem here. What is it?. is Carl Anthony Towns is too good of a player to say, I can get a reasonable facsimile. Because we're not just talking about a guy who scores inside and can step out and shoot. Not just shoot well for a big guy, but shoot well among the best shooters in the league. It's another level of, oh, and then I can put him in the elbow and he's facilitating my offense and he's making these passes and we saw that change the Knicks overnight, basically, in the middle of the playoffs. So when I say, well, who are the guys who are seven feet tall who score inside? And shoot and also play and facilitate. Jokic, Embiid, Weminyama. End of list. And so you take him off. Who do you replace him with? Whatever you do, it will not be as good. The overall quality of the team has dropped. We already know that center is a little bit thinner this year because Mitchell Robinson's out the door because Ariel Huckport is out the door and Andre Drummond is basically your only other center on the roster. That's why, David, philosophically, you might say, no, no, no, hey, don't let the door hit you where the good Lord splits you. But I think in this case, it's a little bit different. Look how happy David is at just don't let the door hit you where the good Lord splits you. Is that what you're smiling about? Yeah, I never heard that before. What? And I absolutely, I've never heard that expression in my life and I absolutely love it. I mean, don't let the good door hit you where the good Lord split you. I was hoping you'd stop. I wanted you to watch spread on that. I like the door. David, what do you make of what's happening with Digger? So I've not seen it yet, but here's what the business side of it is. Tom Cruise, it turns out, may not be the headlining act outside of the action genre that he thinks he is. And we may be getting to the point where his strangeness and his sort of Peter Pan-like qualities along with his Scientological proclivities have made him a little bit more of a, have made it that he is not someone you want to invest behind. Or, in the alternative, it's a crappy movie. And I don't know which, but what I do know is that it is a huge flop and it doesn't feel like it's going to be one of those cult classics that doesn't have a good box office, but it ends up being an awards darling or has some sort of post, you know, theater run life. David, I think Tom Cruise is probably the biggest movie star ever, but you can't tell me that they could have put somebody else in that role and we're going to have to wait and see. I mean, I think Tom Cruise is probably the biggest movie star ever, but you can't tell me that they could have put somebody else in that role and we're going to have to wait and see. And we're watching these trailers and we're going to go see that movie. So, I think that what Tom Cruise tries to do, what did it remind you of when you watched the trailer? It reminded me of the role he played in Tropic Thunder, where he tries to just be funny, he tries to wear makeup, and it was incredibly charming and amazing, that character in Tropic Thunder, as much as that movie would not get made today. Rescued his career. Rescued Tom Cruise's career, that role. Oh, I don't know that, Dan. Was he not, he hadn't started. He was in trouble, he was jumping, he was jumping on Oprah's couch, people. I'm in love with Katie Holmes! Yeah, so that's still Tom Cruise. He's still that. There's still rumors around him about everything related to his life and sort of the strangeness of it, but it just shows that a good character in a good movie can win the day no matter what. And I guess Digger is just not. Mike, did you see it? I don't believe any of us have seen it yet, have we? I can't wait to see it, and guys, not only am I going to see it, I'm going to go see it in IMAX, just to prove a point, to prove a point. To prove a point to Christopher Nolan. You can't just force feed me this IMAX stuff. I'm going to go, I'm choosing. You know why? You know why? The reason why Digger's not doing well is because they didn't appeal to the 22-year-old TikTokers with some fun meme or something like that, which is all these people care about. That's how movies like Backrooms and Obsession do gajillion dollars. It's not because they're good movies, it's because they want the TikTokers and everyone's like, ooh, I want to use that sound, I want to go, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's all it comes down to. That's all it comes down to now. Guys, Hollywood is dead. Entertainment is dead. Everything is just about the memes and the algorithms. Why are we even doing this? Even this show. You know what? Turn out the lights. We're done. An excellent rant. You don't decide when we're done. We have two hours and 15 minutes left. See you, Mean. Good job. You can storm off in your rage. Take the rest of the day off. The Reaper has arrived here, and I'd like to combine a couple of things here. I'd like to go to the bucket, and also, while we're at the bucket, ask David to break down the Disney, FCC clash while we're doing this. Let's combine the two things. Dan, have you been made very much aware at all of what happened with Disney suing the government? Because you need to get licensed by the government, by the FCC, in order to have ABC networks. And you apply for those licenses in increments of multiple years. But all of a sudden, the FCC said, Hey, Disney, we need you to renew your license right now. You have to start the application process. And the reason they did it, according to Disney, is that our president did not like what ABC News was doing, didn't like the choices they were making politically. And Disney said, hold on here, government. We are suing you. They went to federal court and they're going to win by saying that the president and the government is violating our First Amendment rights to operate. We don't need to get a new license. We have a license. This is being retaliatory for us doing our job. And the judge in federal court heard the arguments and said, wow, this seems strange, FCC. Why did you go after ABC for these new license registrations when you didn't need to? Could it be what they're saying that you're trying to quash the news? That's not good in our country, even when we are judges on the right. So they are briefing it, which means they're arguing it back and forth. And what Disney is saying is that they are impacted by this. They are making editorial changes based on the government cracking down on what they talk about, which is not America. That's Russia. So you want to know how to win a lawsuit? Pretend that you can't talk about something that you want to talk about. Go to court and you're going to win. And that's what's happening in our country today. Disney is in a lawsuit against the government, and they're going to win. Roy selected the Bengals. The Bengals are playing against the Dolphins here in Miami and are a six and a half point favorite. Put it back, David. The Dolphins are winning that. Let me just get this. Is it with the spread or is it just even? Straight up. Straight up. You can bet your Biffster. I'm taking the Bengals. I'm undefeated. No costumes for me, Danny boy. What just happened? What just happened? OK. You say you can bet your Biffy and instead you changed it to Biffster. No one says that. Like what? Well, because you don't like when I say things that you think are from the 70s. So that's from the 2020s. No, no. I changed the updated version. No, nobody says you can bet your Biffster. Who says you can be able to do that? I do. I hear it all the time. Just now. Tastemaker. Trendsetter. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you thought about trying therapy with our longtime partner BetterHelp, insurance options may now be available nationwide. With an average copay for eligible members of just $23 per month, per session. World Mental Health Day may have passed, but your mental health doesn't suddenly stop mattering after October 10th. Stress doesn't check the calendar. Burnout doesn't send an invite. And that thing you've been overthinking? Yeah, of course it waits until 1147 at night to suddenly become the most important thing in the world. Mental health is part of everyday life, so you don't need a specific day or some huge moment to focus on it. Therapy can be a place to work through the everyday stuff too. Work stress, relationship dynamics, or something that just feels off. If you've been waiting to start therapy, BetterHelp works with more than 125 health plan networks, and eligible members may have an average copay of just $23 per session with insurance. Don't have insurance or don't live in the United States? You can still get 10% off your first month. Visit betterhelp.com slash DLB to explore your payment options. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P. BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash D-L-B. A big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting and hollering. Keep it cuervo. Keep it cuervo, baby. Dan Levitar. Analytics have slash are ruining the game. We're playing AI hoops. That's his team. His team's in the forefront of all this. Dan's ass. Don't steal my thunder. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Jonathan Saslow. I get carried away. This is the Dan Levitar Show. Congratulations, David. What's the movie you're reviewing for us this week? Bang Your Box. The Robin Bird Story. Hello. Please tell me that anyone in that room other than you, Dan, knows what Channel J is in New York City and knows who Robin Bird is. I haven't seen that movie, but I've wanted to see it. It has gotten my attention because of this, what we're going to show you right now. They put that up, and then all of a sudden, it's something that I want to watch, but I don't know. So Robin Bird basically had a TV show that she was the host of that was on the same channel as Al Goldstein's Midnight Blue. It's where there was nudity, and for boys who were just beginning to understand what to do when you saw something that wasn't necessarily through squiggly lines and figuring out that, wow, that's actually a nipple. What do I do here? She had this unbelievable TV show that taught people that sex is okay, that talking about sex is okay. That being sexual is okay, and this is during the time when AIDS was starting to happen, and there was all of this, hey, if you're promiscuous, you're dead, and Robin Bird became this amazing spokesperson for really the sexual revolution for both men, straight and not, for women, straight or not, and she now has grown up, and she has a documentary about her, which goes through all the things she did to try to move forward our interest and ability to talk about sex, and Robin Bird was a very, very important part of my childhood and many people my age, and I was thrilled to see her and that she's still around on Fire Island. She's like the mayor of Fire Island, which has both a gay side and a straight side in New York, and it's well worth your time. Anything called, I mean, that was her thing. They sang a song at the end of every show, Bang My Box, all with naked guys and girls, and you're like Tweety Bird going around and saying, More, more, more. Talk to me. It's a good movie. Some of our listeners slash viewers may know her from her work, and Debbie does Dallas. Yes, you may. Put it on the poll at Levitard Show. Wow, there's a nipple. What do I do here? Just make it one word, yes or no. Michael, what do you have for David before you get out of here? Michael? All right, Michael, I would like to ask about college football ratings. They are down 11% year over year to this. At this point, and a lot of people are pointing to a narrative that, well, college football has gotten too political this year. However, the program that is steering that narrative is College Game Day, and they're up year over year. So what's happening now? Well, two things, Mike. You know that the way Nielsen measures has changed. That's number one. But number two, no one's focused on the ratings. When we talk to John Skipper on Sporting Class, and when we think about the obsession we all have with ratings and the PR announcements that come with it, none of these huge broadcast deals, the broadcast platforms, the streamers, they don't focus on that at all. So whether they're down 11% or up 11%, where I'd like to focus with you is what is the status of these broadcast deals? What's the status of the Protect College Sports Act and the antitrust exemption that will allow conferences to actually negotiate TV deals in entirety? So that, to me, is a far bigger story. I don't think anybody should be focused on the ratings. Nothing personal. is the name of his podcast, and every day, weekdays, for two hours, he is covering a ton of terrain that I legitimately hear no one else in sports media, never mind sports business, sports media covering. So I suggest that you listen and watch if you want to be more informed, especially on sports business, and especially on baseball. Thank you, David. Good to see you. Bet you're a bipster. Yeah, bet you're a bipster. I don't, modern phrases or language that's outside of the 1970s is not something that's going to happen. It's going to happen. You can bet you're a bipster. I want to ask a question that I do not believe anyone in the American sports media is asking today, based on what I think was the most talkable story that came from baseball last night. And the question is this. There was, evidently, a home run interfered with during the Yankee game that would have tied it 4-4, that instead became a ground rule double. I actually thought it was a home run. I thought it was a home run. I thought that Victor Mesa could have caught that ball, but we can discuss various versions of this in a second. The question that I wanted to pose in front of you guys today is, in my history watching sports, I'm remembering the names of two fans ever. It's Jeffrey Mayer and it's Steve Bartman. And I remember those names decades after they interfered. I'm not going to remember the name of whoever it is that did this last night. And the question I want to ask you is, what changed here? Because I'm remembering Jeffrey Mayer's name for doing that in Yankee Stadium, and that's 25 years old. Steve Bartman did it with the Cubs. These are two major franchises, but it happened again in a Yankee game last night. What change that will make it so that last night's Yankee fan will not have his name remembered and recorded by history? So Jeffrey Mayer was the first really famous one, right? Because that one was clearly not going to be a home run, and he stuck his glove out. And it was ruled a home run. And many people at the time thought the Yankees would have lost. It was a high leverage moment in a high leverage playoff game, and it ended up working out in the Yankees' favor. So that's why he's famous, right? He's beloved in New York. In replay age, that's something that could not have happened today. Yes. Now, fast forward to the Bartman, and the Bartman was the opposite, right? Because Moises Alou had to catch the home team. The Cubs were going to win this game. But the Bartman. The Bartman sticks out his hand and grabs the ball, and as a result, the Cubs lose the game, and they end up losing the series, and everyone blames the Bartman for that. He becomes a villain. Mayer, hero, Bartman, villain. Alex Gonzalez completely off the hook. Alex S. Gonzalez. Let's not confuse here. So to clarify to you, Dan, why is this guy not going to get remembered? Because the Yankees were already facing elimination and looked outclassed and outgunned in this game. And so the reality is, that guy doing that, maybe they would have won, but we all felt like the Yankees were done for anyway. Well, and there's also no reason to remember him. The right call was made. It's also earlier in the playoffs. Like, you're looking at a team down 2-0 in the ALDS. Not the Mayer one. The Mayer one wasn't. Mayer's game one of the World Series. It was game one of the World Series. No, it was Yankees-Orioles. No, it was Orioles. Oh, ALCS. Game one of the ALCS. I apologize. They went on to win the World Series. But it's game one of the ALCS. It's actually. It's 30 years ago tomorrow. And wasn't it Jeter, too? It was Jeter. So we get to remember it as a big moment for him as they go on to win their first World Series. So you're talking about things that ultimately influenced a team that was in the middle of a curse still in the Cubs. And you're talking about later into the playoffs. It's the only game on. Isn't it amazing? I think if you put it on a poll, hey, does Amin know baseball? Resoundingly. You'd say, no, he doesn't know anything about baseball. And I'm sitting here and I'm like, I'm remembering Moises Alou and Steve Bartman and Jeffrey Mayer and all these. It's like right there. So aren't you amazing is the question you're asking us? You are. No, the question I'm asking is, how is it that I retain all of this information about a sport that I, quote unquote, don't know shit about, right? 30 years later. Who are these people quoting you that you don't know shit about it? Put it on the poll. Does Amin know baseball? No, put it on the poll. Isn't Amin amazing? Because it is the question you wanted to ask. Am I the only one that thought that stunk last night that they overturned that? Like, I know. It's what I call. Get out of the. Okay, out of my mentions, I know it was technically the right call, but In that spot, the tying home run, it's just like, oh, wait, it's a game time great moment. Oh, wait, let me look at that. Technically, it was an inch. Is this your new thing now where you just take things that are factually incorrect and you stand on them? Like last night, they got the call right. You don't want them to get the call right. The Panthers went undefeated on the road trip. They lost two games. It's just I just hated that last night. I just I was watching it. It was such a cool moment. And then just to take that away. It was cheating. It was just bullshit. I just hated it. And I know it's right. You're a Yankee fan, though. Yeah, that's it. Maybe. There was a game I was watching yesterday. I was enjoying the technical aspects. Again, we just said that Jeter got a home run that wasn't a home run that wouldn't have counted if we had it. Thank you, Cam. The thing that I wanted to get into that I was watching yesterday is they go to instant replay. OK, a batter is awarded first base on a hit by pitch and they challenge it. And they say, no. That did not hit him. That hit his bat. And the announcers are arguing about it. And they still don't know after watching the replays. Did it hit his forearm? Whatever else. But as they're arguing, did that hit the did that hit the batter or did they hit the bat? The other dugout then files its challenge and says, no, that was catchers interference. And they start looking at the bat and whether it hit the strings of the catcher's glove, just the strings of the catcher's glove. And I'm like, this is all nonsense. Everything they're doing here is nonsense. You can't just stop the game and start putting a microscope on every damn thing and not have it be stupid. This is why replay is terrible, folks. Get rid of it. We don't need it. I like I'm like, Chris, I like that. Hey, did he touch it? I don't know. We're just going to have to live with the results. But by the way, Dan, you mentioned I'm sorry to go back to the guy that interfered with the home run or maybe not a home run. Right. We won't remember his name, but he got escorted out of the stadium. Police escort. Yeah. And I'm like, he didn't do anything wrong. He interfered. He interfered with the game. He didn't interfere. It's an RBI double. Well, good point. I mean, at the end there. He is amazing. Always showing us all of the ways that he's amazing. I have another theory on this because you offer good nuance and good qualifiers. I don't think that baseball matters in the national consciousness the way that it used to matter. And so it's happening in a Yankee game. That's where, like, people get pissed off. The fact that history is not going to. Remember the person's name. And I'm giving you the names 20 years later of two fans that I remember. Has the name even come out? I haven't seen the name. Bartman has never spoken as far as I. No one's ever gotten the Bartman interview, correct? No, but he did release a statement after they won the World Series like a decade ago. Yeah. So they did the documentary on ESPN's 30 for 30. He refused to be part of it, but there are people around him who talked about it. And his mental state wasn't great even years later. And like Zass said, when they won, he released a statement. Released a statement. But even then, he wouldn't come out and speak. Are you believing those as what I'm saying? The idea that just baseball does not matter the way that it mattered with everyone 30 and 20 years ago? So that even when it happens in a Yankee game, history is just going to sort of forget. Part of it is also that they were going to lose anyway. But it would have been a game-tying home run. Like, it would have made that game. But it was so obviously not a home run. Also, the Yankees stink now. It feels like it's such a contrived argument. Like, oh, that would have been. It would have been awesome. But upon watching the replay, it was very clearly not a home run. Thank you, Michael. Don't let the good door hit you where the good Lord split you. Tony, you know that moment at a party or a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks? I know it well. It's usually when I show up, everybody goes crazy. Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it. But it's because Tony usually walks in with Cuervo. I walk in like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuervo is the thing that turns hanging out into this is the night. It has that effect on people. It does. You usually take the credit for it. But again, it's the Cuervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting and hollering. Keep it Cuervo. Keep it Cuervo, baby.