The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: It's Science
Episode Date: August 14, 2023Tony has scientific proof that cold plunges are good for you, and that scientific proof...is a podcast. Mike and Stu discuss the biggest story in soccer: a goalie with magic tricks. Then, a former Mar...lins broadcaster's feud with the team sparks a conversation on how the team honors its history and their celebration of the 2003 World Series over the weekend. Plus, Mike shares his opinion on ESPN's deal with Penn. Could this lead to ESPN's departure from Disney? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
You're listening to Giraffe King's Network.
This is the Dunluba Tarshou with the StugatSpotcast.
I'm naturally predisposed to not believe Tony when he says something in science and that was his explanation on
On the the cold immersion is what's called cold immersion
So you you already sound like the authority in this studio on this so I mean I told Billy about this like two years ago
And he laughed me off. It said you're an idiot. It's your stupid and then two years later
He's like, hey guys cold showers. It's not cool. And I'm like, guy, what?
I don't think that's that.
That's how to just like me.
That's a word for a word transcription.
He didn't say this to me two years ago.
What did I say it to you?
You've just been saying that you like to do a cold plunge.
Cold showers?
No, no, no, cold plunge and cold showers are different things.
One is different, those are different things.
But I do cold showers.
Do you get the same benefits from the cold showers?
You do, you can actually even like,
so cold plunge is like the highest form of it, right?
Cold showers a second, and you can actually do
a cold face plunge, which is where you just get ice water.
You freeze it overnight, then you crack it,
put some water in it, and then just dump your face in it.
These are just hangover cures.
This is an actually science.
Well, scientists would disagree.
Okay. Source, trust me, bro. Well, uh, scientists would disagree. Okay. So,
trust me, bro. No, Susanna Soberg from Sweden. She's a excellent scientist. You can look
that up. Andrew Huberman from Stanford. Yeah. We're afraid to look these up. You can,
you can be afraid to look them up if you want, but they're, hang on.
Actually, people. All right. They're actual people. I know, I know who the Stanford guy
is. She's an, so we're one a, like a neurologist with a podcast. Okay. What very good like all the top neurologists
He has time to do a podcast. What what is the science get some patients? I mean he
Stu is a professor
Get some students. What is the science? Okay improve circulation and
Teach exactly boost of metabolism and fat burning
uh... enhance immune function mood enhancement increase resilience to stress
improve sleep quality i can go on
what i read was it i think i'm seeing rfk already on one of the professors
wiki pd page delicious the dude from samford
yeah okay and joe rogan uh... jesus christoni
just because he went on Rogan. Hold on. Hold on.
Give me a second. Just because he went on Rogan,
his advice and everything that he's done and gone to school with
is completely out the window. No, but it gets big fat dismissal
from me. Okay. But I'm just saying. I'm just asking.
Yeah, it gets a big fat dismissal. Okay.
He's asking the question. Just saying, all right. All right.
So what is the science? I just gave it to you. I'm sorry.
I mean, I was looking at this. I'm not going to give you a two-hour
podcast from what he would say. You could just listen to Rogan Mike. I'm sorry, but I was looking at this. I'm not gonna give you a two hour podcast
from what he would say,
you could just listen to the Rogan episode.
I'm not gonna listen to the Rogan episode,
although I saw he did have Post Malone,
and I'm hoping that that one's normal.
Five hours long by the way.
Five hours long?
Bring it up into the week.
All right, was it good?
I'm like halfway, dude.
You listen to it weekly.
Trapped you.
All right, so what is the target area of the...
Your entire body? So the entire body. Yeah. All right, so what is the target area of the your entire body?
So the entire body yeah, all right, and what is this to does it do anything to the immune system?
What are the better? I mean again, Mike? I'm not gonna do reading radio, but wait
No, I'm not it has not reading radio. It's just you telling me what I'm talking told you what is your doctor say about like the heart
It wasn't Rogan Rogan was asking cause
Was asking can have hard complications if you go like heart under that's a lot.
No, that's a myth.
Can the studio team find the photo of Joe Rogan doing a coal plunge where his nips seem
like they were in the ooze?
His Joe Rogan's nipples are out of this world and I say that it's someone with bad nips.
I said, I'm not going to lie.
You know how the, you know what?
You know what?
You know what?
I have a coal water buddy.
No, but this is different.
Those nips, those nips are literally, are you worried about cold water?
What are you doing here?
Because you're fine with those Zempic and like I'm showing you story.
You keep showing, I'm trying to do a show and you keep showing me and they're all
from the New York Post's higher risk of fatal complications during surgery.
If you take ozempic, I mean, what are you doing?
Just to lose weight, avoid the surgery.
Been been lucky enough for the heart attack.
Been, I mean, bit lucky enough for the heart attack been a well i mean
been lucky enough to avoid a bit of a suicidal thoughts you know what almost
give me a heart attack the p-k's between australia and france
during the women's world cup quarter final
they went to ten penalty kicks and one of them had to get re kicked
because australia's keeper came out for a line to early and the poor Frenchman lady who missed hers had to kick it twice
and she missed both. They got both got saved.
We didn't cover this enough with Taylor Twelman.
Well, he said it was a top two shootout of all time.
Yeah, but I have a rule.
It was so crazy.
After watching El Patron save PKs for Tigres,
all penalty kicks should just become talent contest between between opposing goalies if you're allowed to hide a PC yarn in your mouth
For that long and then mime and pretend to be on a roadside sobriety check on on your back line
this should just be part talent show part actual meritocracy and
I that world Cup shootout between those two countries was incredible. Yes, but it could have done better with minds.
I know what a mereocracy is.
I don't think Lucy knows.
Can you explain what mereocracy means to Lucy?
No idea.
So you wanted Australia's keeper
to not only make all the saves she made,
but also do a magic trick.
It sounds so much asks.
It was so much yarn, I just saw a video.
So much yarn.
He had it in the whole time, the whole time.
Ow!
I feel like that is a lot to ask.
Where are you storing this yarn?
Well, I assume he went to the sidelines,
but you should don't tell their tricks, you know that.
So did he have yarn did he have yarns that
aside in the event that they would go clearly he did or did he see something on the treatment
table and he's like, I can do something with that. Like and like my guiver decided to pull
up a distraction. Feels like it should have been a yellow card if I'm being honest. Feels
like a little bit of a cheap tactic. I agree. Automatic goal, right?
Look at this.
Look at this.
How many, like using a...
He's pulling like a fake like yarn.
It's a multi-colored too.
Yeah, no, this is an actual magician.
It was actually in his mouth.
I will give him credit for that.
He did a good job.
I don't know what you'd, but we can't,
we don't want, we can't have more of this.
This is not gonna be...
He was mining to us something.
Did the shooter score?
This is not gonna be the thing that makes us sockered the number one day. I can't get right in his. This is not going to be the shooter score. This is not going to be the thing that makes soccer
the number one.
I can't get right in his face.
I think, Jess, you say that, but I do think it helps.
Oh, all right.
Joe Rogan's nipples are on the surface.
There it is.
Oh my god.
Far more distracting than a keeper pulling out six
six yards of yarn of his mouth.
What if Joe Rogan pulled out six feet of yarn
from his mouth right here?
I think he's got six feet of yarn coming
from his nipple area.
Wow.
That is that I've...
Cold water, man.
I'd rather never have to look at that picture, yeah.
Let's throw it up one more time.
Could we not?
Let's throw it up one more time.
Not the, not the image actually throw up ourselves one more time.
So greedy.
So this is a, this is a cold shower.
He looks like he just got in.
So there's no experience with this.
That's a cold plunge though, my cold showers from the shower.
That's a resting position for those nips.
That's the resting, that's a resting position for those nips.
That's crazy.
Off the starting block.
We still have no idea what the science is behind it.
The science is, I'll send you the podcast after it's you listen to it.
I don't know what to tell you.
It's usually how this goes.
Five and a half hours.
No, that's the post below ones.
That's usually how this goes. When someone who gets their science from's usually, that's the post below ones. That's usually how this goes.
When someone who gets their science from Joe Rogan,
like I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm good. I feel like that one's just safer. Now think about the children who, I've got a mimic this goalie.
This is a bad example to set.
We got on T.O. back whenever he pulled a pin
out of this stuff.
So we're gonna get this guy passed.
I don't know three Americans,
but would you need to make a better example
for these children?
Because you're gonna have these children
I had to do magic tricks and go school.
We as in past they had a ball on we.
Yeah, but it makes soccer more exciting, though.
Hey, that's not how magic is not the answer. he is in past a year, but it makes soccer more exciting. No, I mean, magic.
That's not how magic is not the answer.
Are do we think Penn and Teller
could have been great soccer keepers,
but they went into the wrong business?
I like Chris Angel, like they could have been onto something here.
Now it's not uncommon.
Our best talent are becoming magicians instead of keepers
that also do magic.
It's not that uncommon for managers to sub in a PK specialist.
That happened in the France game and she was incredible.
Yeah.
So what I'm saying is you should get, because the odds are already stacked against goalkeeper
anyway.
It's hard to save penalty kicks.
It's so weighted towards the kicker that your PK specialist could be not as great a keeper,
but a better showman.
And you essentially have the mind freak.
Can you imagine if you're setting up
for this pressure-filled moment,
women's world cup, you step up to the penalty spot
and the mind freak just starts levitating?
How do you even...
What do you do?
You get what?
That ball is going into the stands, but I go low.
I mean, that's what I was saying.
I'm not going to say.
I've always been like,
that has a good five level opening. if I've ever seen one, just a rabbit, the rabbit makes the save.
I was, I was, you couldn't rabbit cannot make this. You could pull the rabbit out of the
hat, but the rabbit cannot make this. That's where I draw the lot. Yes. I wasn't, I
tuned in to this pk. It was like 4 30 a.m. Grease time
But I've had the the fought mob alerts on that game and it got into a point that my phone was buzzing pretty
pretty well and I woke up just in time to see the the DIY roadside check
being done and
El Patron was for me the story of the leagues cup and i wanted him to
advance just to see
i thought genuinely you couldn't rule it out that he was going to bring a live
animal
onto onto the
pigeon some sort something something
yeah pigeon flying out of his love he's like oh well how'd that get out he's
wearing sleeves classic illusionist move
although it is hard with the goalie gloves
but i'm sad to see him go.
Don Lebatard.
We are crazed right now.
You are a fettin' gris.
What are you guys?
I'm not saying.
I'm not saying.
He's keeping this act over there.
Jats has been right the entire time about the Miami Heat,
and a mean here is getting buried by heat nation.
He's been telling you.
He's been keeping it.
You're praising screws.
He was all for knives. He shoot it. What is that?
What are we doing?
When screws go to the cup he's looking to lay it up
He's not looking to turn it over like Duncan Robinson is Duncan Robinson is a cow
Listen, let's see his a coward
Stugats
Chris a coward
And bam can be bam in DC. I am done with him
And Kyle Lowry's one of the worst postseason players
in the history of the NBA.
This is the Dan Lebathar show with his two cats.
And this is the Dan Lebathar show with his two cats.
And this is the Dan Lebathar show with his two cats.
I'd like to bring it back to the Marlins
because there was a nice little nostalgic series
between the Yankees and Marlins.
Those two have an intertwined history. They took the field
against one another in 2003. Was that the 100th anniversary of the the world series that I think
so there was a hundred on the patch. I'm here for your trivia night needs. But I saw that there was
naturally a lot of 2003 related events and And I'm in a baseball chat now,
and it's helping me follow the sport.
You would think that if I was following the sport
as quickly as I alleged,
I would not be wearing this jersey, but here we are.
And Glenn Gaffner, a former broadcaster for the Marlins,
recently learned no longer with the Marlins.
That's on me, not on anyone else,
but he has a sub-stack.
I just saw what was screen-capped to me in the group chat, but I thought he made valid
points.
The accusation, or at least where I was led to believe it was going by Glenn Gaffner
and the headline, was that the Marlins conveniently traffic on their history, but they've actually
treated their luminaries
and people actually from the O3 team so poorly
that it seems disingenuous whenever they actually
want to run back the nostalgia train and capitalize on it.
Like they gave away these great replica
of the oversized 2003 rings.
And I do get that to a degree.
This is a franchise that seems almost reluctant to embrace.
It's past and I do know that their past is sorted.
But for someone like me who's experienced
and we don't have to reliticate this,
I checked out on the team shortly after
they made this trade with the Blue Jays
the trade that they inevitably won
because it just seemed like business is usual.
I felt duped by David Samson and Jeffrey Lauria
that they would stop resorting to these terrible trades
if we did what they told us to do,
which is support this stadium.
And I was a lead propagandist on this project.
And now I'm one of those people
that misses the orange bowl desperately.
And I don't have any connection point
to the Miami Marlins now.
I have a connection point to the Florida Marlins of 97 and 03 baseball at one point was my favorite sport.
But this franchise does have a bad past when it comes to those teams.
They have banned a jbr net surprise me when he was welcome back into the good graces of the franchise.
They've literally booted people out of their offices.
They don't have retired numbers.
The Miguel Cabrera thing was kind of cool nostalgia,
but it just reminded me of pain
of the worst trade ever made, arguably.
I mean, you could throw the yellow trade up there too.
But he sucks.
Who?
Yellow sucks.
Yellow sucks, yeah he's not.
Bad trade, but it can't be the Cabrera trade.
Cause Cabrera, Cabrera, yeah, yeah, that's okay.
That's a great.
The Azuna trade was an incredible trade.
No one talks about that.
So good.
But Jeffery Laurie.
Sandy and Zach Galen from Marcella, Zuna.
Woof.
At least, at least the Cardinals.
Jeffrey Laurie is back in the news though,
because with the O3 rematch happening,
they had good crowds.
They had one of the best crowds in the history of the ballpark this weekend.
There were over a hundred thousand people over three days.
Yeah, no, a lot of Yankee fans and they'd be the first to admit it.
There are a lot of Yankee fans there, but even when the Yankees come to town previously,
there are not a hundred thousand fans over the span of three days.
It was the largest, I think it was the highest series sold ever in the park for a Marlins
series.
So that's a combination of the Marlins are relevant
in a wild card race and the Yankees are the Yankees.
Yeah, exactly.
The Yankees travel everywhere.
Everyone benefits from the Yankees going to town.
And there has been, even if they're not good
and the Yankees aren't great this season,
there has been actual seeds if you want to fuel the,
if you build that they will come argument
that was made many years ago.
There are hints now of, if you compete compete you can get crowds over there with the
Marlins, the nostalgia hasn't really resulted in bigger crowds of the Teal
Fridays, but they've actually got good buzz around the franchise, but do you
think that this is actually a fair accusation, Pygling Gaffner?
I think that the the origin of the conversation even came from,
hey, the weekend prior, they gave out these 2003 replicas,
like you said, and they said, hey, wear it out specifically
to this series.
So it was an encouragement of fans who were already there
the weekend before to come back out to the ballpark,
which I don't think that's such a crazy thing to do.
And when you talk about capitalizing on the history of the team,
yeah, when Geter first came in, and this ownership group was helmed by the forward facing
Derek Geter, a lot of the things from their history were wiped away. A lot of those things
were not referenced. The 2003 team was obviously not going to be referenced. Is that the team
he'd lost to? But over the span of years now at the stadium, they've added a little bit
more back.
This year in particular, they added a Marlon's museum
that does commemorate the 97, the 03 team.
You know, there's Hanley Ramirez highlights and stuff in there.
There's a full sort of origin in the last 30 years.
No, this ownership group hadn't really embraced
the previous one as much,
but now that you're back to these flashback Fridays,
that you have the museum in left field,
to me, this felt like reaching a bit on a weekend
where you knew there were gonna be a ton of people
in the ballpark.
I mean, Glenn's sub-stack has been quite bitter
and negative throughout the same tire existence.
No, it's a fair accusation.
I don't honestly even understand,
I mean, I don't know why I'm saying this,
I don't understand what the point of it is
To be honest with you because like if you were looking to get back in the game
I don't know that this is the best look for him sour grapes a little bit like it's all just very negative
If you're the marlins why wouldn't you look back at the fact that you have two world series championships?
Yeah, I wouldn't be seven. What are you gonna do?
I know the rest of every single year
I know the rest has been bad. It's been ugly, there's been some bad stuff going on,
but why would you lean on those things
and not the two things that you've actually done?
Billy, well how many teams it's 97 of one two world series?
I would exchange 20 years of horrific moves
and horrific baseball and feeling like
I've been fleeced by the owners, I would, for two worlds.
And before we go to Billy on this,
I do think you ask a question,
what are you gonna do, bring them back every year?
That's part for the course of baseball.
So then you're 72 dolphins.
Like this is the 30th anniversary of the team
of the 20th anniversary of the world series.
Like there's reasons.
I made all the sense in the world.
I love that there's a Marlon museum.
There's Chick-fil-A's in my hometown
that have been around longer than the Marlon.
But I do think, I just went to Camden Yards
and they had their Hall of Fame.
And JJ Hardy is an Orioles Hall of Famer.
You know, I do think that there can be,
there are players, great players in the history
of the game that had great windows of time here
with the Marlins and for whatever reason,
the Marlins be it the change in the ownership group.
I think it's fair to say that they haven't done enough with it.
I understand Billy's point about Sour Grape's,
but I do think it sheds light on a fairly reasonable accusation.
Combination of things with the Marlins though, right?
The ownership changed hands, right when,
you know, kind of, it's just pointed out.
The team was old enough to start having a hall of fame
or retired jerseys or things like that.
And when your ownership changes hands particularly to one of the players who lost a world series to you, who doesn't necessarily want to
honor that team, they had bad relationships with Konaine and others as they first came
in. A lot of those have been meant to like Konaine was around on Friday, along with by the
way, almost the entire memorable 2003 team. You had dairically you at Alex Gonzalez,
you had Jeff Konaine, you had so many players from Beckett.
Josh Beckett, who's number should be air?
I think his number should be retired.
Well, and maybe someday those guys will end up
with numbers retired.
It hasn't happened yet.
What's the argument here?
They haven't done enough in the uniform.
Well, when it was Jeater,
was Jeater's not gonna retire that number.
But right now, it would appear to me,
someone that is not following the sport all that much
and had a connection to yours prior, it would appear to me that someone that is not following the sport all that much and had a connection to years prior.
It would appear to me that the Marlins have an impossible standard to get your jersey retired by them.
I mean, no, just who was who was jersey was your tire first? Maybe. Yeah, but he's had two numbers. Right. So who's number you retire?
I would retire, Josh Beckett. And he's had two numbers. You're gonna honor them like it's fine.
Those things may happen. I just think you're looking at a stage of Marlon's baseball
where they're just now starting to really embrace
some of the old history in a way that is really fun.
Like that's why this weekend was so fun
because you got to see some of those names
and those names were talking about some of the similarities
that they see with this particular team
and making moves at the deadline.
And like that type of stuff is fun where how many times in Marlins history have you had
a moment where you're sitting in August and you're competing and you're able to remember
an old team and feel good about the team that you currently have and look back.
I mean, that's one of the first times in franchise history.
We're finally at the point in Marlins history where people who grew up with the Marlins
have children of their own.
And that's what you do do the annual thing
of running it back to the glory days of yesterday or even
though there aren't that many glory days.
So you can tell your kid about Robinette
and how he looked like your friend's dad
what a year.
What scare you.
I'm not as bothered by all of this.
I don't even know that.
I don't care about it.
I'm not that bothered.
I think like what we see about it by Jeffrey
Loria weighing in to the fray. He can just go away. I don't know what they're talking to him for
because he has a new book about art or something who cares. I don't know why anybody would talk to
anybody who read that team. It's not even like he paints. He sells art. He sells something that
other people do. For the audience, it's something what did Jeffrey Loria actually say?
I mean, I didn't go behind a paywall, so I don't know all of it.
I'm gonna have to find some way to read it.
But what part of what I read was,
he said that Miguel Cabrera and Donchoa Willis left
via free agency, which did not happen.
So, it kind of absolves them of the worst trade ever.
Not exactly sure what old Jeffrey's thinking.
It does it though, it makes him look worse.
What, no, I mean, I would have rather let Miguel Cabrera
and Donchoa Willis walk in free agency
than lay claim to the worst straight in the history
of the sport.
Wouldn't you?
The eight-
He's a German high five in the guys
when they were leaving the field yesterday.
That felt fun.
I couldn't pick Bruce Sherman out of line.
I have no idea what Bruce Sherman was.
Oh man, he was there.
He was front row.
He was high five in the guys
after they were walking in.
This burger.
Oh, I can pick a Marlin out of a lineup, by the way, this is a side note.
Who are the Marlins?
I have never met one of them, but salute to all of them guys.
Well, why are they in a lineup?
What crimes are they committing?
They're just playing good baseball.
I have no idea what Bruce, I just realized that he's an anonymous owner and he's in town.
I have no idea what he looks like.
He was at every game this weekend, and he was really excited like he was sweating.
Big sweater, big sweater vest guy.
He was chatting with all the guys from the O3 team.
He made a joke to me about wanting to sign all of them
to this team, see if it would help make the playoff run.
He likes Bruce Sherman because Bruce Sherman
recognized him on the Bright Line one time.
Well, that's all it takes.
Bruce Sherman takes the Bright Line.
Bruce Sherman does take Bright Line.
That's how anonymous he is.
Shocking.
That's how anonymous Bruce Sherman is in this town.
Could Jeffrey Laurier take the bright line?
Absolutely not.
By the way, Lauria said,
Geter came in and destroyed the ballpark.
Destroyed public art was a horrible thing to do.
I mean, he's right about that.
The home run sculpture was the best thing
that's ever happened to this town.
That was awesome.
And it's still there.
You can still take a selfie with it.
It's just outside the stadium.
I hate Lone Depot Park.
I hate the artistic direction that Loria took it in.
And I mean, I understand why he's defensive
because Loria has a millionaire's eye
when it comes to art, right?
He has gotten into the position that he's been in,
not just because he built taxpayers
and suffered through the albatross of owning
a professional sports franchise, but it's because he has really discerned taste.
And I hate going through that ballpark.
It's just a mishmash of all the colors.
What's your favorite color?
Well, that's what he's pissed about.
Well, he's mad that the colors were taken out and he wants his colors and his art back.
It appears.
I was pissed when they took away black and teal.
Black and teal was great.
I just watched the baseball game.
I'm not looking to see what color the corridors are,
who cares.
But I do care when it comes to like emotional connections
because it's a franchise that doesn't have players
stick around long enough for me
to actually develop any relationships with the players.
So I do like things like nostalgia nights.
I do like running AJ Burnett out there.
I get excited.
If there was a Lenny Harris night, please dear God, let me know.
All the time.
I'd go back to, if there's-
Whaty teams can have that night?
Can we just have a night dedicated to that time
that Chris Volstad knocks somebody out
after somebody charged the mount?
I'd be there for that.
Don Lebertard.
Kiss me where you bruise me.
Kiss me on that flashy part
Really? Yeah, really?
Kiss me on that flashy part
Taste me, not touch me
Taste me on that flashy part
Wow, Rosé
Stugats
Rosé
I'm talking about the cladder is
I'm talking about the cladder is
Yes, I am
Now we're out here riffin
And I'm gonna try to find it if I can.
Wonderful rendition.
This is the Don Lebertar Show with this two-gats.
We don't really have to throw off that image
of Joe Rogan up anymore.
And now you've added Vienna sausages to the mix
even as opposed to the self-cheats
as he had on his on his breast before. Now we have Vienna sausage, Joe Rogan, entering a cold tub of some sort.
Not a fan.
Jeremy, you interviewed Jake Berger and that's a real name.
I did and Jake Berger is a real name, yes. And he's been good for them, yeah?
He's been really good since being traded here.
You know, he's a big power hitting third baseman.
And what was great about that trade as well
as the Josh Bell trade was you were getting control
beyond this year.
So if the Marlins were gonna be buyers,
they wanted to sort of build cornerstones
and now they have both corner positions
and first base and third base covered for next year.
Josh Bell, a guy who's been a Marlins killer for most of his career.
And so to add him to this team.
And now, look, Jake Berger has the walkoff over the weekend.
He's got a ton of extra base hits.
Josh Bell, homered from both sides of the plate in winning effort.
And since an addy, it looks like Kim Aing had a really, really, really good trade in.
They've also been keeping the offense afloat because a lot of guys have been struggling
right now and they've been keeping them in this race.
It's those two players have really kept them alive over the last week.
Like, their offense has struggled in a major way outside of the last inning against the
Yankees.
I mean, their offense has really done just about nothing.
And yet that five run ninth, like, that's why it makes you sort of believe, all right.
There's something with this team that they can get it done.
I didn't have it on the topic board that I'd be talking the most upon being gone in Europe
for 15 days.
I didn't myself think I'd be talking about Marlon's baseball this much, but we do have
a big team building exercise tomorrow in which we're going to watch the Ashros and the
Marlon's and it's a doldrum to the summer.
Allow us that.
But one thing that did happen while I was gone, that I wanted to discuss with the crew,
was the news that ESPN finally found someone to license their name to a sports book.
And it all happened pretty quick.
Once the news came out, you realize Barshtel goes back in the hands of Port Neufer and
Undesclosed Sum and Penn, who has spent more than its market cap on digital acquisitions. After many years of ESPN trying to get this deal done with every single sports book under the
sun, they finally found a taker in Penn. ESPN gets to tell its Disney shareholders, we licensed
our name, and we now are the largest shareholder of Penn. That's a win in the short term, I guess,
right before a earnings call to say we found a way
to generate $1.5 billion out of nothing,
just us merely existing.
But.
It's a win for ESPN.
Like I see where you're going here,
but adding $1.5 billion, I know it's a gambling partner,
I know it could go a lot of ways,
but on the surface, adding $1.5 billion. I know it's a gambling partner, I know it could go a lot of ways, but on the surface, adding $1.5 billion to your company
of revenue.
Yeah.
That's a good day.
It's a really good time.
Look, and they tried, it's a good day
because they generated revenue out of nothing,
out of just merely existing,
and they finally found a taker to take the seal.
And the reason why it took so long
for ESPN to find a taker is it's a bad deal.
It's a bad deal.
And to me, it actually signals sooner rather than later that Disney's going to spin off ESPN.
I don't know to what.
Apple as a brand is a bigger brand than ESPN.
It's one of the few companies that can actually say that, but it would be more of a brain
integration, right?
If Apple were to go for ESPN, it'd be basically just to go for all of ESPN's rights and their
entire intellectual property and their entire archive of sports.
It'd be a bold move by Apple, but ESPN becoming Penn's largest stakeholder, if you saw what
happened at the stock price, and that happened quickly, didn't really move the needle over
there.
The gaming sector is going to be interesting,
and I say that as someone that is on the DraftKings network,
we'll see how this thing plays out
over the next couple of years,
but the assumption is there's only going to be a handful
if that many winners win all the dust settles.
And we've seen spending go down from books
across the board.
We've seen books that have been known
to spend money, pull that money back,
and not take this deal with ESPN.
I do think at the end of the day,
there's probably gonna be two to three books.
And I don't know if ESPN's gonna be one of them.
And for all the people that would say,
well, ESPN has such a, has such a heads up,
I just merely being ESPN and it's easy to interpret.
That's why it's good for Penn though, I think.
If you're not one of those two or three
and you want to be one of those two or three
and I agree with you, there are only going to be
like two or three left standing when all of this is,
is set and done, they'll buy their competition.
They'll just buy them out of the market, right?
But it's a good deal for Penn
because you're spending a lot of money, yes.
Obviously you have the money to spend, but if you want to become a big time sportsbook
attaching yourself to those four letters is not a bad idea.
Why would they redo that if they attached themselves to Barcelona didn't get exactly
the ROI that they're doing?
I listened to BART, I have great respect.
I really do for what BART still has done in a short period of time.
It's not ESPN.
This is ESPN.
And that all the games are on ESPN.
That's a solid argument.
And there's actually a pretty good comparison.
Look what happened with SkyBet across the pond.
They had the established sports media company,
and they actually got a reasonable market share
because of that, but I would say that's apples to oranges.
Because we're talking about a mature market
that's been relegated for decades over there.
If you think that ESPN can just stroll into this game
and be the ESPN of sports betting,
may I turn your attention to ESPN the phone?
Their brand can only be so fun.
I don't think ESPN thinks that.
I think they just took a sweetheart deal.
And you're right, no one else really wanted to pay
that much money.
Someone did, they took the deal.
They're not as concerned as to whether
or not this works out. Brother, I'm with you. I'm never going to accuse ESPN of having
foresight. Well, I think the issue for Penn is that the market share for Ferd Fandle
Draft Kings is already really high. And even in Pennsylvania, which is their best state,
they're trailing very far behind. So yeah, I mean, their stock went up after the deal was
announced. So I'm sure like short term stock went up after the deal was announced.
So I'm sure, like, short term, yeah, who knows what will happen.
But five days later, it wasn't.
The problem with all of this is that ESPN's costs are getting higher and higher every year.
And if they do want to choose a direct to consumer model, it could be really, really expensive.
And right now, the entire cable system is predicated upon people that don't watch sports
paying a really high carriage fee
for ESPN.
And now you don't have to do that.
You can get more A la carte options
or just pay for streaming options.
And now that's getting more and more expensive as well.
The short of it is.
Yeah, Disney bubbles are good.
Disney is really, really expensive.
But ESPN has been able to earn a lot of money
from people that aren't sports fans just by the fact
that they've had cable.
But now as cable subscriptions are going down and also there's a lot of money from people that aren't sports fans just by the fact that they've had cable. But now as cable subscriptions are going down
and also there's a lot of like conflicting
but sort of not great outlooks on what young people are doing.
I mean, most of them are not subscribing to cable
or watching TV.
Most of them don't even really seem to like sports that much.
It's a pretty scary place to be
if you're a humongous cable giant
that has billions of dollars on the line
for sports rights for the next decade.
Iger came back to a company that had to deal with the pandemic, tourism being largely where
they get most of their revenue.
This is one of the most powerful influential companies in the world in Disney, but Iger
was an interesting choice.
And it seemed as though Iger was brought in specifically to sell.
Iger. Because I, every single one of Iger's quotes, when pressed on it, when pressed on
ESPN, the Apple and his relationship with Tim Cook, he says all the right things I'll
make you seize on, oh, I think he's going to sell ESPN, putting ESPN directly behind
the paywall and taking it off television altogether.
He doesn't shoot that down.
He adds fuel to that speculation.
So I do think even this, it's just, I think, look, you mentioned DraftKings and its competition
being the largest two in the marketplace.
It does feel to me that everyone else is waiting to see who wins this battle or who's at least
on the medal stand.
And everyone else is just hoping to build enough equity to make themselves attractive enough
for acquisition.
And I bought by one of those two or three.
I'm telling you, that move right there is signal to me that ESP and ESP and ESP are trying
to get on the medal stand.
That's what they're trying to do.
Pent, this is a desperate measure to try to get on the metal stand. That's what they're trying to do. Pent, this is a desperate measure to try to get on that metal stand.
It's a very desperate,
to outspend your market cap by a billion dollars
in relatively short order,
fiscally speaking,
and I'm not the most fiscally responsible guy,
it is a red flag and cause for concern.
But everything about ESPN's recent moves
from the talent set, a sell off,
to not renewing,
to how they approach their business
to bringing Iger back to this very move.
Signals to me that within a short span,
we might see ESPN no longer a part of Disney.
Hell, Disney, because Apple's one of the few companies
that could just be like,
well, let's not just talk about ESPN,
give me the whole thing.
Apple is bigger than Disney.
And I'm sure that's gonna be subject to all sorts of approval.
And I'm worried about the Pandora's box
that that might open.
Considering I spend a lot of money
on Disney products already for my daughter,
I don't wanna make that even easier.
But I do think ESPN, as we know it,
as I've known it for my entire life
pretty much, as it being a dizzy entity,
that move right there kind of signaled
that it's gonna be changing in relatively short order.
But do you think people care about that change?
Like it's still ESPN, whoever buys it, it's still ESPN.
We're in a South to think about ESPN.
I do think people care.
I am, but as long as they're still ESPN,
and I could watch what I wanna watch, which is the game.
But what if they're not ESPN anymore? What if they're Apple? What if they're still ESPN and I could watch what I want to watch, which is the game. But what if they're not ESPN anymore?
What if they're Apple?
What if they're Apple?
Why would you rebrand the four biggest letters in sports?
Because Apple is a bigger brand.
And it's not just in sports.
Apple is a bigger brand.
So you have them buying it and then change rebranding everything.
I mean, you could have them.
I would just keep it status quo.
You can have it as a tab.
You can have it as a tab.
Essentially, we see a lot of people that go through these acquisitions have a tab, and
it's basically the way that maxes.
There's an HBO tab, right?
And I do, maybe they'll see the currency in having ESPN fully integrated to Apple.
But when Apple is looking at the margins, they don't get blown away and
impressed by ESPN's brand equity because they have more brand equity than ESPN. They're
looking at their game rights. So we're talking about a brand absorption with them.
No, I know, but I'm saying part of what you're buying is ESPN. And so why would you change
that? Like you don't want to get too cute with the acquisition. Buy it, we own it, that's it.
Everything stays the same.
Don't confuse the customer, don't do that.
We're hyper focused.
I'm not certain I would watch it
if it's not called ESPN.
There's going to be.
I'm lying.
I'm going to watch it.
There's going, and I think we should also keep an eye
on how Apple is doing with MLS.
It took one big acquisition in messy,
but their global strategy when it comes to MLS
season pass seems to be working. They're starting to hit their numbers. The revenue share is,
it's gotten to the point, it's met the threshold already. And I do think the more and more we talk
about Apple and the more spectacular Messe highlights the better for that, we can see Apple become
a player in this,
and if you've been seeing what Prime has been doing,
what Amazon Prime has been doing,
they've waited into these sports media waters.
They've very quietly got daytime programming,
be it Master Tisfazian or Bon Joir Sports Talk,
they're absolutely beta testing right now,
and I think we're hyper focusing on this pen ESPN thing.
When ultimately it's gotta go the way that a lot of people assume
There's going to be three companies running everything and even in sports
three companies that are going to be running your life. It's Google is Apple and it's Amazon and
If every other marketplace is going by the way who are we to say that sports won't be going that way either
Every other marketplace is going by the way, who are we to say that sports won't be going that way either?
Because those companies are so gigantic, they're going to end up controlling everything,
including your daytime sports television.