July 4, 2025 • 41 mins
Jason Fitz & Buck Reising fill in on this 4th of July on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe! The guys discuss why baseball doesn't have the same effect on holidays as football does on Christmas. Fitzy then gives us a behind-the-scenes look into what kind of factors impact the hot dog eating contest & the contestants!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, thanks for listening to the Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe Podcast with LaVar Arrington, Brady Quinn, and
myself Jonas Knox. Make sure you catch us live weekdays
six to nine am Eastern Time three to six am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. You can find your local
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show over at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us
(00:22):
live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Oh, you can feel the electricity in the air. The
fireworks will be there for us tonight. It is the
fourth of July, and we are here for every ounce
of the fun that we are about to have in
the next several hours. Buck Rising, Jason Fitz. Usually I'll
be honest, you know what, Buck, Usually I'll be honest.
I start most shows in most hours with sort of
(00:56):
a monologue in a statement. But today it's fourth of July, man,
Like you know, it just feels like today is a
day for us to peel back a little bit, for
us not to be as serious as as so many
people are. Like Today's a day of glorious celebration. I
feel like people driving around right now that are getting
to start their day need the reminder that this is
an awesome day. It's just there's something about the fourth.
(01:17):
I'm not usually a sentimental guy or a guy that
really like gets work. He gives me a look. I'm
not that guy, but I don't know the fourth hits me. Brother.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Oh please, you spent the first three hours that we
did one of these shows together talking.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
About, Oh, we've known each other for.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Ten years and oh this is so special for both
of us that I just looked at you. It's like,
it's seven in the morning. Leave me alone. What are
you talking about?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
What do you mean You're not a sentimental guy?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Okay, you don't have a heart. Okay, Like if we
are all playing roles on the Wizard of Oz, you
were definitely the ten men, and I'm definitely the cowardly.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Oh that's so rude, so rude to greet me with
on this Independence day. You know what I want independence from?
I want independence from fireworks. I'm so sick of this.
I tried so hard to go to bed through the
fireworks last night. Who the hell told you you could
shoot off fireworks on July third? I almost I was
almost that person fifty. I almost went outside and yelled
(02:12):
at the neighbor and said, I have to be up
at four am.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Cut it out so close.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I once in my life when I was living in Nashville,
one time a neighbor we were lighting fireworks off on
the I think it was on the third, and I've
been gone so much I didn't know that there was
a like a drought warning or whatever. So she called
the cops and they they came and dancing at about
like eleven thirty at night. They came in, let us
know what we could do. I look, I respect it.
(02:41):
I respect a crotchety old man for you. Like because look,
especially in certain parts of the country, the third of
July has become this big like, hey, we know you're
gonna go downtown on the fourth, so we're gonna do
our side community fireworks. People are gonna have people over
like the third of July. It is its own little party.
And while I agree with you, I think we came
to the consensus yesterday that fireworks are overrated. But we
(03:04):
figured out in that conversation that it's not just fireworks
for you, it's really the crowds, the crowds are overrated.
The third of July should be your day, brother, Like
you can get all the fireworks you need on the
third of July. You can have all of the fun
you need and you don't have any of the pressure
of the crowds are the fourth Like this feels like
this is a good thing for you. The third should
be your celly day.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I'm willing to accept that. Listen.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
I'm open to negotiations on this because I understand that
it is Independence Day. We get to celebrate living and
working and being a part of the greatest country.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
In the world. I am one hundred percent for that.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
I am one hundred percent for everything that it stands for,
except these damn fireworks.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I swear, it's just it's the one thing.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
But you're right, it's really more about the crowds and
the celebration to me, and we have I think somewhere
in the neighborhood of one point six million people flooding
the city of Nashville, where I'm broadcasting from Fitzie and
Connecticut and the rest of the crew hanging out in
La this evening or I guess this morning. So we
(04:10):
always do it big, right, Nashville as a city does
it big for Fourth of July, and I'm also proud
of that because it's one of the most impressive fireworks
displays anywhere in the country, to be honest with you,
and the way that the music community here rallies around
the celebration to make sure that everybody has a great time,
it's a really.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Cool and special thing.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
So I'm gonna ease myself out of the crotchetiness, if
that's even a word, this morning, and we'll see if
we can't have some fun.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
We got a lot that we're gonna get to over
the course of the morning, including why that fireworks display
is not only amazing in Nashville, but also wildly difficult.
I'll explain that later in the show, but in the meantime,
I had this philosophical question for you this morning because
this is what usually happens. I've been lucky enough, and
(04:58):
I do mean lucky enough to work on the Fourth
of July for most of my adult life music before
and now radio, I'm always sort of working on the fourth.
I like working on the fourth. I think this is
an incredible opportunity to hang out with people on a
day where people just have a good spirit. But here's
the conversation so often that happens on the fourth, so
often when we start these shows, somebody else, Why doesn't
(05:20):
major League Baseball own the Fourth of July? Like Baseball
hot Dog apple Pie, like Total America through and through?
And I got to thinking about that weirdly this morning
when I woke up and I couldn't sleep, like I
was sitting there thinking about the philosophical question of why
doesn't baseball own the Fourth of July? And I kept
thinking it's easier said than done. And what hits me is,
(05:43):
you know, for three years I was the sideline reporter
for the Hot Dog Eating Contest, and I don't think
my phone has ever blown up more than it did
for whatever reason, the Nathan's Famous hot Dog Eating Contest
owns the Fourth of July like everybody watches it. Well, look,
there's a full slate of Major League Baseball games. Baseball
is putting things on. I don't know that the simple
(06:03):
concept of we're going to own this day is easier
said than done. What the NFL is accomplished with owning
Thanksgiving and now taking Christmas from the NBA is so
particularly special. I don't think we should necessarily assume that
anyone else can do it, Like there's no one magical
pixie dust in the air, and it's gonna make people
(06:24):
stop their Fourth of July and say, you know what
I really want to do today? I want to check
out the Red Sox game. Like that isn't real?
Speaker 4 (06:30):
And I think that's There's a couple of things to that, right.
What's the biggest difference between football and baseball?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Fitsy one's fun to watch and the other isn't.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Oh, why you see you're talking about everybody having good spirits,
good energy. Today, I come in here shaking a fist
at the sun, literally at the sky while people are
shooting fireworks off and you side swipe baseball. Now, the
biggest difference, the biggest difference. Good morning, By the way,
we're happy to have you here.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
On five Sports Radio. We really are. We're gonna have
a good time. The biggest difference to me is the inventory. Right.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
There is such a premium placed on the NFL because
there are only seventeen regular season games, and.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
We thirst for it.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
It's an oasis in the sports desert each and every year,
where you know, I'm scrolling Twitter yesterday and There's plenty
of things going on, but the vast majority of my
timeline is consumed by football stuff because people are craving football.
Cam Ward, for example, here with the Tennessee Titans. He's
in Miami, He's throwing to his receivers. People are around
(07:33):
the country going to different places working out with their
teammates in this dead time, and still that is more
captivating to I think a good portion of the sports
consuming audience than regular season baseball is right now.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
It's just an inventory thing to me.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
There's so many baseball games, and especially this I know
it's to say that. I mean it's early in the season.
It's early in the season at this point in time,
even though we are past the halfway point for all
intents and purposes, I just I have a hard time
gravitating towards things if you're just talking about me, and
(08:11):
maybe this speaks for other people in the audience, have
a hard time being captivated by something that I know
still has eighty something games to go. In principle, and
that this is not the most important time of year.
July fourth is not the most important time of year
for a baseball team. Jockeying for position in the standings.
It's just simply not so. With that in mind, I
(08:35):
think that the time in the sports calendar should belong
to baseball, but it's not nearly. It's not an equivalent
of the NFL and what the NFL means when you
know that even though there are more or games spread
across more days than there ever has been, Surely by
the time, you know in twenty years from now, there
(08:55):
will be football seven days a week and we'll all
rejoice as a result as the NFL continues to try
and dominate things both home and abroad. Right, that's really
the biggest difference to me. I just don't I don't
think that that baseball is in a position to own
a specific day, especially when this specific day just happens
to fall right in the middle of their season.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I mean, I had somebody walk up to me at
a bar yesterday that I didn't know, and he immediately like,
first thing he says, is forty five days until college
football is back. That's it, Like, I don't know. And
his first thing he says and he's like, I just
need something on TV that's sports, And I looked around,
I'm like, there's baseball on like three TVs right now, dude,
(09:37):
And maybe that's what planted the seed of this concept.
But you're right in the sense that you know, peel
behind the curtain a little bit. My first radio job
where Buck and I met was at a station there
was a flagship for the Nashville Predators, and it was
funny to me. I remember distinctly the first fall that
I worked, and it was October, and because we were
the flagship for the station, the broadcast partner the Nashville Predators,
(10:01):
we were getting yelled at by certain people at the
Preds because we weren't talking enough hockey in October. And
I remember so distinctly looking at our bosses at the
time and saying, the third line defensive pairings of a
hockey game in October don't matter right now, like people
only care about college football in the NFL right now.
And it was funny. You're right. It's hard to make
(10:23):
one moment matter. And this is part of the reason
why when people say the NBA playoffs are too long, Okay, well,
I mean they're never going to reduce the NBA playoffs.
They might reduce the regular season someday if they absolutely
have to, although I don't think they will same with
the NHL, Like the playoff inventory is the only thing
that matters. I think Major League Baseball has become that
in so many ways, Like we get swept up in
(10:44):
playoff baseball, but because there is such great drama to
playoff baseball that you simply can't replicate. You can't replicate
the meaning of that result in a sport that has
so many games. So you're right, like there's zero, there's
zero sales pitch. You can be done around Mets Yankees today.
It's going to make Mets Yankees particularly interesting to somebody
(11:04):
that doesn't really care about football or baseball. But when
we get to Thanksgiving, it's super easy to say, hey,
these particular games matter, turn them on. It becomes a
family tradition. I also think we forget how long it
takes something to become a.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Traditions, And that's kind of that's kind of the difficult
spot that baseball is in, right because they still do
refer to the sport as America's pastime when it's not
anymore right.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
It had its run, it had a great run as
America's pastime.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
It's having a resurgence right now with attendance, people are
happy that it's doing.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
What No, And I don't mean this to like I
feel like this is the problem. The biggest problem for
me is anytime we have a conversation about baseball, it
sounds like it's denigrading the sport, and.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
The sport is in a pretty healthy place.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
It would seem there are star players across the board,
there are interesting storylines across the board, and to say
that baseball is not capable maybe of captivating the national
audience across the board on July fourth, sounds like a
shot at baseball.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
But I don't mean it to be.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I think that there are a couple of different things
working against it. I don't think it's a problem that
baseball has to fix, right, It's just kind of this
ancillary conversation around it. And it's compounded by something that
you sent to our group text as we were kind
of preparing for the show yesterday evening into this morning, FITZI,
(12:32):
which is that a lot of these games, with the
way that the broadcast rights have been redistributed or will
continue to be redistributed, you're not seeing a lot of
these games, or as many of these games as you
might otherwise. Because I think there's a disconnect between the
baseball audience, like the crux of the baseball audience, and
(12:53):
where you can actually go to find these games with
the streamers. Now, Apple TV had the Yankees last night,
I'm not mistaken, and there were so many things happening
in that game that people probably were not aware of
because there's not that many people, but at least not yet.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
The numbers don't bear it out yet.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
There's not that many people who are outright gravitating towards
Apple TV to stream their baseball games. And maybe that'll
change over time and consumer habits will change over time
and that'll become a more normalized thing. But as it's
still somewhat in its infancy. I know Apple's had baseball
for several years now. This is not a new thing necessarily,
(13:31):
but especially right now, when the games are not at
a premium for your attention, are you really going out
of your way to seek out different streaming services to
make sure that you can catch one hundred and sixty
two baseball names. I just don't think the vast majority
of people are doing that.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
He's buck rising out Jason Fitzworth get just getting rolling
in for two pros and a cup of Joe. This morning,
we'll break all of that down. Got a lot we're
gonna get to. But up next, I'm going to help
all of you degenerates that want to bet on the
hot dog eating contest. I got insight, yesh, you absolutely
got to have We'll do it next on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (14:04):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (14:18):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour.
Speaker 7 (14:27):
I'll tell you it's a spin off of it Ben
Maler Show, a cult hit overnights on FSR.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Why should you listen? Picture if you will?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
A world will?
Speaker 7 (14:35):
We chat with captains of industry in media, sports, and
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Speaker 3 (14:40):
Facts about human nature and more.
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Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the
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Speaker 3 (14:48):
I'm just feeling the spirit. I got this America just
oozing from my veins this morning. It's two pros and
a cup of Joe. But it's a bucking Fitz takeover.
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz. Huge shout out to
Mighty Mark. We got the whole team. Will be with you,
not just today but also tomorrow for the fellows where
you can usually hang out with most of the team.
I think ARNI getting the weekend off. Buck Buck just
(15:11):
getting used and abused at the weirdest hours of all time.
I've got I've got go ahead, Buck. How are we
feeling if you're good at like it's early feeling great?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Okay, Okay, I just know the drama with you. I'm fine.
I get up.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
I see I'm a I'm a I'm a freak anyway, Like,
I get up.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
So I've heard every relax.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
There's there's Facebook pages to devote to do exactly that.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
We don't need to bring that to the national airwaves.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Well you just did.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
I wake up at four o'clock every day, like, regardless
of whether we are on the air at four or
five o'clock Central time, the way that we have been
the last couple of days because I don't know. I
think this is a bit of a trend potentially, with
the amount of people like yourself who are refocusing their
energies on hell health and wellness and getting to bed
(16:01):
early and being productive in the morning and all these
different kinds of things. Now I'm not like that. I
just don't sleep well, so I'm up at four am anyway.
But uh, yeah, I enjoy this. I feel like my
energy is fine. You keep trying to make this about me.
What are you projecting? I'm doing okay? Are you okay?
Nobody's checked on you yet this morning.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
I am. I'm glorious, dude, like I you know, it's
holiday and I love holidays. We've also found out that
bri our producer is out on holidays. We want I mean, yeah,
hates holidays. I don't. I'm sitting here trying to power
rank them to figure out, like how to decide, you know,
exactly which ones I love the most, and Breeze over
here saying I don't like any of them, and you
know it's fine. I'm characterizing her, as you.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Know, bree has never sounded anything like that ever her
in her entire existence. This is only the second time
I've worked for But there's no way that woman who
greets us with such such joy in her voice every
time we work together is capable of snarling and growling
about holidays.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
The way that you just describe that, that was displacement.
That was definitely smart, like a witch a little bit.
It's just like, yeah, I promise I don't sound like that.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah you want to.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
You want to bring out the tough side on break ahead,
keep keep making fun of her, fitzing, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I wasn't woman, I wasn't. I wasn't making fun of her.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I was just exactly what you were doing.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Okay, Well, here's uh, we'll get into holidays throughout the course.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Of the morning holidays. That would be peak July Sports
talk radio.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Oh yeah, thank you so much. We can mount rush
more than nobody's ever done that before. Okay, So hot
dog eating contest is always funny to me because I
learned more over the course of the hot dog eating contest.
Like the funny thing about being the satelline reporter for
that for a few years was you go in a
couple of days early and you talk to all the
eaters just like you do being in locker rooms. You
(17:47):
spend time talking to eaters, and I'm telling you today
feels like a hammer the over moment, and I'll tell
you why. Like we're at this degenerate world where everybody
can bet on how many hot dogs people are going
to eat. I've talked to Joe Chestnut a couple of
times in the last couple of weeks. Joey making his
return to the hot dog eating contests this year. He
was out last year because of some conflicts with the
(18:10):
Vegan hot dog eating company he was with, so he's
back with Nathan's Famous. But Joey was the one that
taught me two important things. One you need He particularly
needs to have his balance when he eats. He does
this little bob it's what he keeps his body rolling.
So a couple of years ago, when his number was
down a little bit, he'd broken his foot right before
the contest, which actually slowed him down. It's amazing how
(18:32):
little things like that matter. But even more importantly, the
eaters told me the first year I did it that
the absolute thing that you have to look for is
the weather and the humidity. Because the dogs are cooked.
They have to cook so many dogs and then they
have to get them out to Coney Island. If it
is a particularly humid day, they because of the heat anyway,
(18:52):
they cool off quickly. But because of the humidity in
the air, the hot dogs themselves get stickier, they get
tougher to just get them to go on down. So
the less humidity in the air, the faster everybody's going
to eat. So yeah, being that guy, I went to
as I always do now to basically my best chatch
ept and asked what the weather is going to be,
(19:13):
what the humidity was going to be, and I asked
how the humidity compares to usual humidity in New York City,
And today is going to be less humid than it
has been on any Fourth of July in several years.
So now you have Joey Chestnut coming back with the
chip on his shoulder about the fact that they wouldn't
relent and let him do it last year. He's the
only major league eater that has no other use of employment,
(19:34):
no other ways of making money. So he's the only
person that gets to train year round because he does
this is his only living. He's been working on this
and he's gonna get ideal conditions. I think Joey Chestnuts
about to hammer a number, I mean hammer a number.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Well, he's a huge favorite.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
If you're looking at the betting markets right now, he's
minus eighteen hundred. The next closest is Patrick Bertoli or
BERTOLETTI excuse me, plus one thing plus one thousand at
this point, depending on which sportsbook or which offshore place
you're getting here, hot dog eating contest, gambling odds, and
I love that you have actual analysis to bring to
(20:14):
this because it's spot on. I can imagine that that
would that would have a huge impact. Did you see
the quotes coming out of Joey Chestnut this week in
the lead up to this, because I don't think anybody's
as excited to get.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Back onto the platform that he most belongs on.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
I get what they were trying to do last year,
and that Netflix made a play for Joey chest nutting
to see as they try as Netflix specifically tries to
get into the live broadcast rights game, whether that be
It's not Love Island. What was the reality television show
they tried to live stream the reunion show of I think.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
It was epic fail. Love is Blind?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Maybe yeah, maybe yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
I want to say it was love is blind and
now obviously they've got football on Christmas and things like that.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
They tried to make a play for Joey.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Chest Nut last year with that vegan hot dog deal
that he was that he was a part of. But
he is He has said that he is going to
do this as long as he can. He's going to
do this until the wheels fall off. And today today
feels like a day where Joey Chestnut comes out and
gives us his a game, the best of the best,
absolute dominant fashion, regardless of conditions.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
He is going to just obliterate.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
The competition, especially with a little bit of layoff. He's
been waiting for this moment for quite some time.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Yeah, I found looks like the over under on dogs
for Joey Chestnut is seventy one and a half. Okay,
so he had seventy six is the record that he did,
I believe in twenty one and sixty two is what
he consumed in twenty three. But remember the leg injury
in twenty three was a big part of that, so
he was down a little bit from what he's Yeah,
(21:49):
you're right, he's going to kill it. And here's the
funny thing, little inside baseball here, but I talked to
people at Netflix last year.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Won't do baseball, but we'll do inside baseball on the
hot dog gat.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I talked to people at Netflix last year about them
making the play for Joey Tesna. It was never really
about wanting to blow up some huge hot talk gating contest.
It was about testing a live run before they got
to the Christmas And like when Netflix starts to run
some of these things live, they're just continually looking at
ways to make sure that their systems and practices work
(22:21):
for when they actually get hammered on Christmas Day the
way they knew they were going to. So all of
these live events that went poorly for Netflix last year
were all actually part of what they understood was their
process to get ready for Christmas Day, which was a
raving success. Right, So everything worked great, they didn't have
any issues on Christmas, but they had to basically make
(22:41):
other events sacrificial lambs to test the processes in order
to get to that situation. So it worked, But it
does bring us all the way back to where we
started on can you genuinely in the modern market, can
you convince someone to go to a if you're not
the NFL to go to a streaming service and truly
(23:02):
watch your content. And it's this is an interesting thought
process to me because I'll go back to the NFL.
The first time I toured in Europe, and this was
probably twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, I was stunned when we
went over to Europe and the NFL Sunday ticket exists
all over the world, right, but in Europe at the
time they offered you could buy it. Like I went
(23:22):
over there didn't want to miss the Raiders game. So
the question I went to sign up for European Sunday
ticket and the country it knows what country you're in
from your laptop, and immediately this is all the way
back what thirteen fourteen years ago. It immediately asked did
I want just the Raiders games? Did I want just
this week's games? Or did I want all games? Like
they have offered the Sunday ticket as an o la
(23:42):
carte choose your own adventure for over a decade to
everybody but America. And it's funny because now as we
continually see everything get more and more to just website,
streaming services, all of these things, well they've been doing
some of that for the rest of the world forever.
I don't know the answer to. You know, you can
have the best event in the world, but if you
(24:04):
put it on Amazon Prime and it's not a football
game like the Yankees being up seven to nothing and
then are being down seven to nothing and having their
huge comeback, that really nobody watched like our people, And
you can speak to sort of a different generation than
I are people genuinely coming home and saying, oh, yeah,
that WNBA game is over on insert streaming platform here
(24:25):
and I'm gonna find it. And if not, is that
really worse though than some of these sports again, like
the w that at times are buried on networks I
didn't even know existed, Like, oh yeah, you can find
that Asis game on Ion if you're looking for it. Like, I,
my god, I don't know what's worse. Like, I just
think that if you truly want to blow things up
(24:46):
in a way that people will watch it and crave
it and go to it, you got to make things
as simple for everybody as humanly possible, one network that
they can go to and they don't have to think.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Sure, but that's not the reality of the situation, right,
There's only so many things that can be put on,
and plenty of I don't want to call them fringe sports,
but the WNBA has been considered that prior to having
its huge surgeon momentum here in these last couple of years,
and I would say that there's plenty of those fringe
(25:16):
sports jockeying for that visibility and trying to do deals. Hell,
I don't know if it's see how much you've kept
up with or if you pay attention at all to
Formula one.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
And I would not pretend to.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Be any kind of expert, but they had, you know,
they had a good momentum, moment where drive to survive.
The Netflix special had galvanized a lot of people's interest
in the sport, and that can have that that tangible
interest to the point where I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Hell, we were going here locally, We were.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Going to eight thirty am F one watch parties at
bars and trying to talk bars into opening up early
so that we could go and have people come watch
the F one race, put it on the projector and
kind of enjoy that together. And that that did fade
after a period of time, when you know F one
is still highly competitive, highly entertaining. It just is does
(26:06):
it have staying power once it gets its initial hooks
in you, does it have the ability to keep you
there beyond that first fad phase? Right, So, Formula one
is currently trying to renegotiate its rights and their rights
deal is with ESPN. ESPN is currently paying, based on
the reporting of the Athletic eighty five million dollars for
(26:29):
the Formula one rights, and F one wants more than that,
and ESPN reportedly, again based on the Athletics reporting, has said, no.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
We're not giving you any more money for this. It
seems fine the way it is.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
The ratings spike, hat was just that it seems to
have been a spike, and maybe people over a longer
period of time will will grow that into a more
sustainable thing. But at this point it's not worth additional
investment on the part of the networks. That's That's something
that I think has to be taken in consideration there
(27:01):
as well, for the you know, the difference between the
streaming people that stream or because I'm I'm kind of
the anomaly here fits I'm thirty one, but I have
like I have a full cable package because I can
write it off on my taxes, and why wouldn't I
do it that way? But I also have all these streamers,
so like, I have the option to consume as much
(27:22):
or as little as I want, but I simply want
the option.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I am one of these people ease of use.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
I don't want to have to, you know, sign up
for a subscription on the day of a game, or
a couple of minutes before a game because I just
found out it's on peak, Indiana's playing Iowa on a
Tuesday night on Peacock or something like that, which would
make me insane because I just want to watch the
Indiana basketball game. That that has happened to me a
couple of times to the point where I'm just like
(27:48):
f itt Will. I will sign up for as many
of these things as I need to have. I will
make sure I know which streaming platforms versus which broadcast
platforms traditional broadcast platforms my team is going to be
playing on, because that will not happen to me again. Now,
I'm sure the vast majority of people, probably one are
not interested in spending that kind of money, and I
(28:10):
completely understand that, because to sign up for the streaming
packages in a piecemeal a la carte way has become
nearly as expensive as as a YouTube TV subscription, maybe
not quite as expensive as cable still is because I'm
stunned by my cable and internet bill every month. It's outrageous,
completely outrageous. But it is getting closer and closer to
(28:31):
that point. So I would understand people who just kind
of recoil it that idea and say, well, I went
away from traditional cable because of the cost, and now
the cost is such and with rate increases seemingly every
year on some platform or another, I'm going to end
up paying as much, if not more than my addition
(28:52):
or my initial sports consuming plan needed me to spend.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
I worked with a kid a few years ago that said,
you know what I want. I want a guide that
will take all of my streaming services and put them
into one place and tell me what's on right now
so I don't have to go from spot to spot
to spot. And I'm like yelling loudly aggressively, you are
describing cable like I don't. It is.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
It is in shaw my TV guide from like the
early early nineteen nineties.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
See what they make of that? Like an actual TV
guide like pamphlet.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
You know what, dude, like, not only I used to
to you know this back being an old man, it
wasn't unusual when you went to the grocery store for
your mom. If you were a kid, your mom would
just like drop you off in the magazine aisle and
be like, I don't go anywhere, and so I would
sit there. Especially in the summer is the best because
the football preview magazines would come out. Again, I'm older
than the Internet, so like you know, you flip through
(29:46):
the football preview magazines. The first time we got to
read all that stuff. Man, TV guide was actually really helpful.
You know, you sit around and you can you can
read what was coming on TV guide. Look, I understand
part of this is if your Netflix or Amazon or
Apple or any of these places, one of the benefits
you have is you get a captive audience. So even
if you don't have as many eyeballs, the fact that
they are stuck in your app and can't simply turn
(30:09):
the channel during a commercial stoppage in play makes those uh,
those commercials more valuable. And that's one thing I think
people forget sometimes, Like as much as we want to
talk about ratings all the time, for every sporting event.
Understand that the less things that actually get live ratings,
the more that the ad revenue is for the things
that are getting live ratings. So all of this, you
(30:29):
know sort of and look, you mentioned F one. I
was at ESPN when that searge started, and everybody was like, oh,
I need to get into F one more. All gonna
I'm gonna be an expert. There's gonna be opportunity the
you know, worldwide leader doing it, and then you could
tangibly feel just that momentum slip away. I don't know.
I think, look, if everybody can just accept like super
(30:50):
fans are gonna be fed. If you're an MLS superfan,
it doesn't matter where they put Like I get the
MLB package through T Mobile for free, right, Like they
just give me MLB Okay, great, Like that's awesome. Like
if you're a super fan of a sport, you find
it and you'll watch it wherever. I just think we
have to accept that that all stunts a little bit
like if The Masters was suddenly put on Amazon Prime,
(31:12):
less people are going to watch the Masters. If if
any of these key events, like if we reach a
spot where the Stanley Cup Final decides that they're going
to be put on you know, insert streaming service here,
they want to put it on Netflix. That is you
just have to accept it. That's going to kill the
growth of your sport to casual people that are just
stumbling through, because the average person that opens up Netflix
(31:33):
isn't opening up Netflix saying I wonder what's happening in
live sports today that I can watch.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Yeah, that's that's a tough balance to strike, right, because
you and I have experience with this. I mean, when
the when the Preds one hundred years ago, eight years ago,
it feels like much longer work. We're in the Stanley Cup,
the Nashville Predators. FITZI and I were both working locally
in Nashville at the time, and they they would put
the Stanley Cup game that that that series.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Against the pit the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
They would put some of the games on NBC Sports Network,
And I'm trying to figure out where that do I
get NBC Sports Network? Are they really about to put
Stanley Cup final games on an ancillary channel that I'm
going to have to seek out or potentially up my
cable subscription just to be able to consume. That's the
component where I think social media can play a huge role.
(32:23):
Social media can help you grow the sport, grow the
interest in the sports show, the highlights the way that
SportsCenter or your traditional highlight reel show would be able
to do, and then over time, and maybe this is
not a perfect scenario, but one that seems to make
sense at least in my mind. You've got the inventory
wherever you've got the games right, You'll use social media
(32:45):
to be able to capitalize that on that, whether you
post those clips on TikTok after the fact for a
certain generation, or continue to try and just inundate people
with it on Twitter, Instagram, reels, all these different marketing
tools that can also serve you and serve the growth
of the game and potentially welcome people in as you
widen that tent a little bit, or widen that audience
(33:05):
under the tent a little bit. But it's still it's
it's still a These things take time, and we are
in a microwave results society, so I'm sure that the
television networks are probably dealing with the same thing.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
It's also like to be deep deep in economics for
a second.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
For a lot of people, four people.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
You know, deep economics to make that.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
A radio t's broadcast professional.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Breeze over there, Like, I can't cut any of this
for promo purposes. Look, I would just say lost leaders
matter right, Like I think what we have to understand
is part of the reason all of these sports are
going to different streaming services is because at some point,
streaming services today are willing to pay too much to
get these sports because the concept is I'm going to
get people to start checking out Amazon Prime more, I'm
(33:54):
going to get people to start checking out Netflix more.
It's the reason that you saw a bunch of gambling
companies get into the content business like FanDuel and DraftKings
and spend a bunch of money on a bunch of
people to do shows, and then over time you see
that happen less and less. Why because now they've gotten
the what they want, they got the attention out of it.
Do they need to keep making that content? Does that
content actually make the money? Look at Caesar's a few
(34:16):
years ago, had all these huge names that they were
putting out there constantly for what you know, then they
stopped doing that because they realized that, hey, we've seen
all that we could see out of it so the
sports are at some point a bit of a lost leader.
That's all. That's all I'm saying. Okay, deep philosophical statements
all over the place. I know it's the fourth of July.
We should relax. We will, But in the meantime, one
(34:37):
of the most misreported stories in all of sports over
the course of the week, and we're gonna fix it.
We're gonna get it right, and that includes correcting some
of our colleagues. We'll do it next these Buck Rising,
I'm Jason fitz hanging out with you for Two Pros
and a Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (34:51):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am three am Pacific.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Don't let facts get in the way of a good
narrative on Sports Talk one on one and Boy has
it happened this week? I mean, the information available at
the hands of people that sit in front of a
microphone is pretty bountiful, and I'm not sure why. Instead
of looking at information asking questions like why, instead, the
(35:24):
easiest thing to do is just yell into a microphone
with no consequence. And I'm not gonna let us stand.
We're gonna correct some wrongs here. He's Buck rising on
Jason Fitz What Buck's giving me a? Look, we're in
for two pros and a cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Why would you try to take away the thing that
I love the most, which is just shouting into microphones
without any context, nuance, or anything else.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Why would you do that to me? That's my that's
my superpower.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
You to You're trying to kneek at me before we're
even an hour into the show this morning.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Well, look, I'm gonna go full Tawny Harding on this thing.
That's a fun dated reference for people.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Or ankles out here.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
Oh, be sure to check out the Fox Sports Radio
YouTube channel a ton of our great videos from a
ton of the Fox Sports Radio shows. Just search Fox
Sports Radio on YouTube. You'll see a whole bunch of
video highlights from shows. And subscribe while you're out there
so you always have instant access to our Fox Sports
Radio videos on YouTube. I'm all into yell. I just
think that as a general population, we could all afford
(36:23):
to stop and ask why before we yell, like especially now. Look,
I'm right on that cusp age wise where to be
fully honest, in my senior I grew up with nothing.
We didn't have any money. My senior year of high school,
my papers were typed on a typewriter, Like I didn't
have a computer like that. That wasn't something my family
(36:44):
could afford. Right, So the Internet isn't something that I
ever saw until I went to college. Right, So I
think maybe generationally, I come from a spot where I
had to ask why, and I was raised to ask why.
So before I run into a microphone and just start
yelling something, I'm sort of that that person that's gonna
ask four or five people and I'm gonna make sure
(37:06):
I'm not missing something, and I'm gonna go to chat
ept now and I'm gonna ask it to give me
three different angles on every one of these things. Like
that's how I'm natured. So I'm frustrated buck that this
week a lot of stupidity became the calling card for
comments about Caitlyn Clark. And look, I can I can
already hear people driving that are rolling their eyes Kitlinark whatever,
(37:29):
Like look, I'm gonna beg the world don't get so
dug in on your takes about Caitlin and the w
that you refuse to actually step back and ask why
when you see the report that Caitlyn Clark was the
ninth leading vote getter from players in the WNBA All
Star cycle instead of just.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
As a guard, not just like in total, not regardless
of position, but the ninth best guard in the sport
was what she was voted on by her peers.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
So this reminds me of the conversation a few years
ago around I don't remember which player it was, but
one of the NFL players that said he's never even
gotten an NFL MVP vote, this is impossible. Well, I
started asking NFL MVP voters at the time and found
out that at the time They've changed this in the
last couple of years, but at the time, every vote
(38:17):
getter got one name to put on a card. So
the concept of well it said player never got a
single MVP vote in the NFL five years ago, six
years ago, Well that's pretty simple, because if you only
got one name that you can put on the placard,
that's different. Like if we're asking Buck Rising to vote
on the MVP and he gets four or five names.
(38:38):
That's important. If we're asking Buck Rising to vote on
the NFL MVP and he only gets one name, now
all of a sudden, we're gonna sit there and say, well,
how did Josh Allen not even get a single MVP?
Maybe everybody that year just prefer Lamar Jackson or Passion Malmes,
you know. So you need the nuance and that's where
this matters. Like I talked to a couple of people
that actually play in the WNBA. I talked to a
(38:58):
couple of people that are actually part of that voting
process and was immediately informed Number one, every player only
got to put four names on their card. So and
then they give a cumulative score. You get a number
of points for four, three, two and one, so on
and so forth, more points as you go up the latter.
So the concept that she got the ninth most points
doesn't mean that that somebody sat there and laid out
(39:20):
eight other players. It means that all of the players
laid out just enough players ahead of her that in
the vote process she might have been fourth on everybody's
and that still could have put her ninth. We have
no way of knowing that right now.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
Yeah, but that's so much less fun than being fake
mad and on social media about this because you had
people who I do consider to be nuanced and reasonable
and thoughtful about the way that they go about their
analysis and things like that. And you know, I think
when people mention reasonable and thoughtful and nuanced, maybe dig
vital doesn't necessarily come to your mind. But like Diggyv's
(39:53):
out there just sideswiping the entire league on Twitter because
of the jealousness and pettiness is in the way that
he in the way that he contextualized it of WNBA players.
Don't they know how much revenue Caitlin Clark earns for them, this, that,
and the other like it, It becomes people want to
make it an indictment of somebody. Women's basketball has been
(40:16):
a polarizing topic for a long time or an easy
topic for a lot of people in sports to just
stand up, look around to dismiss. And so now once
you think you found that and it's being done at
the expense of the great White Hope Caitlyn Clark, then
that becomes a little more visceral for a lot of people,
and they can stir up a little extra outrage.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
And it also allows some people.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
To grift off those kind of emotions on the Internet
for a living, to take advantage of that. And I
think those people know who they are well.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
And that's where I saw the Dicky V tweets and
I immediately thought, man, this is sort of the equivalent
of DICKYV being got got by a fake Adam Schefter account,
like he got got by a bunch of information that
lacked context. There's more context, even more context to it
than I want to give you, and why we're all
looking at the wrong way. We'll do it next to
pros and a cup of Joe and his Buckin' Fits
Hey, thanks for listening to the Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe Podcast with LaVar Arrington, Brady Quinn, and
myself Jonas Knox. Make sure you catch us live weekdays
six to nine am Eastern Time three to six am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. You can find your local
station for the Two Pros and a Cup of Joe
show over at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us
(00:22):
live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Oh, you can feel the electricity in the air. The
fireworks will be there for us tonight. It is the
fourth of July, and we are here for every ounce
of the fun that we are about to have in
the next several hours. Buck Rising, Jason Fitz. Usually I'll
be honest, you know what, Buck, Usually I'll be honest.
I start most shows in most hours with sort of
(00:56):
a monologue in a statement. But today it's fourth of July, man,
Like you know, it just feels like today is a
day for us to peel back a little bit, for
us not to be as serious as as so many
people are. Like Today's a day of glorious celebration. I
feel like people driving around right now that are getting
to start their day need the reminder that this is
an awesome day. It's just there's something about the fourth.
(01:17):
I'm not usually a sentimental guy or a guy that
really like gets work. He gives me a look. I'm
not that guy, but I don't know the fourth hits me. Brother.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Oh please, you spent the first three hours that we
did one of these shows together talking.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
About, Oh, we've known each other for.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Ten years and oh this is so special for both
of us that I just looked at you. It's like,
it's seven in the morning. Leave me alone. What are
you talking about?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
What do you mean You're not a sentimental guy?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Okay, you don't have a heart. Okay, Like if we
are all playing roles on the Wizard of Oz, you
were definitely the ten men, and I'm definitely the cowardly.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Oh that's so rude, so rude to greet me with
on this Independence day. You know what I want independence from?
I want independence from fireworks. I'm so sick of this.
I tried so hard to go to bed through the
fireworks last night. Who the hell told you you could
shoot off fireworks on July third? I almost I was
almost that person fifty. I almost went outside and yelled
(02:12):
at the neighbor and said, I have to be up
at four am.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Cut it out so close.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I once in my life when I was living in Nashville,
one time a neighbor we were lighting fireworks off on
the I think it was on the third, and I've
been gone so much I didn't know that there was
a like a drought warning or whatever. So she called
the cops and they they came and dancing at about
like eleven thirty at night. They came in, let us
know what we could do. I look, I respect it.
(02:41):
I respect a crotchety old man for you. Like because look,
especially in certain parts of the country, the third of
July has become this big like, hey, we know you're
gonna go downtown on the fourth, so we're gonna do
our side community fireworks. People are gonna have people over
like the third of July. It is its own little party.
And while I agree with you, I think we came
to the consensus yesterday that fireworks are overrated. But we
(03:04):
figured out in that conversation that it's not just fireworks
for you, it's really the crowds, the crowds are overrated.
The third of July should be your day, brother, Like
you can get all the fireworks you need on the
third of July. You can have all of the fun
you need and you don't have any of the pressure
of the crowds are the fourth Like this feels like
this is a good thing for you. The third should
be your celly day.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I'm willing to accept that. Listen.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
I'm open to negotiations on this because I understand that
it is Independence Day. We get to celebrate living and
working and being a part of the greatest country.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
In the world. I am one hundred percent for that.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
I am one hundred percent for everything that it stands for,
except these damn fireworks.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I swear, it's just it's the one thing.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
But you're right, it's really more about the crowds and
the celebration to me, and we have I think somewhere
in the neighborhood of one point six million people flooding
the city of Nashville, where I'm broadcasting from Fitzie and
Connecticut and the rest of the crew hanging out in
La this evening or I guess this morning. So we
(04:10):
always do it big, right, Nashville as a city does
it big for Fourth of July, and I'm also proud
of that because it's one of the most impressive fireworks
displays anywhere in the country, to be honest with you,
and the way that the music community here rallies around
the celebration to make sure that everybody has a great time,
it's a really.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Cool and special thing.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
So I'm gonna ease myself out of the crotchetiness, if
that's even a word, this morning, and we'll see if
we can't have some fun.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
We got a lot that we're gonna get to over
the course of the morning, including why that fireworks display
is not only amazing in Nashville, but also wildly difficult.
I'll explain that later in the show, but in the meantime,
I had this philosophical question for you this morning because
this is what usually happens. I've been lucky enough, and
(04:58):
I do mean lucky enough to work on the Fourth
of July for most of my adult life music before
and now radio, I'm always sort of working on the fourth.
I like working on the fourth. I think this is
an incredible opportunity to hang out with people on a
day where people just have a good spirit. But here's
the conversation so often that happens on the fourth, so
often when we start these shows, somebody else, Why doesn't
(05:20):
major League Baseball own the Fourth of July? Like Baseball
hot Dog apple Pie, like Total America through and through?
And I got to thinking about that weirdly this morning
when I woke up and I couldn't sleep, like I
was sitting there thinking about the philosophical question of why
doesn't baseball own the Fourth of July? And I kept
thinking it's easier said than done. And what hits me is,
(05:43):
you know, for three years I was the sideline reporter
for the Hot Dog Eating Contest, and I don't think
my phone has ever blown up more than it did
for whatever reason, the Nathan's Famous hot Dog Eating Contest
owns the Fourth of July like everybody watches it. Well, look,
there's a full slate of Major League Baseball games. Baseball
is putting things on. I don't know that the simple
(06:03):
concept of we're going to own this day is easier
said than done. What the NFL is accomplished with owning
Thanksgiving and now taking Christmas from the NBA is so
particularly special. I don't think we should necessarily assume that
anyone else can do it, Like there's no one magical
pixie dust in the air, and it's gonna make people
(06:24):
stop their Fourth of July and say, you know what
I really want to do today? I want to check
out the Red Sox game. Like that isn't real?
Speaker 4 (06:30):
And I think that's There's a couple of things to that, right.
What's the biggest difference between football and baseball?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Fitsy one's fun to watch and the other isn't.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Oh, why you see you're talking about everybody having good spirits,
good energy. Today, I come in here shaking a fist
at the sun, literally at the sky while people are
shooting fireworks off and you side swipe baseball. Now, the
biggest difference, the biggest difference. Good morning, By the way,
we're happy to have you here.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
On five Sports Radio. We really are. We're gonna have
a good time. The biggest difference to me is the inventory. Right.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
There is such a premium placed on the NFL because
there are only seventeen regular season games, and.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
We thirst for it.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
It's an oasis in the sports desert each and every year,
where you know, I'm scrolling Twitter yesterday and There's plenty
of things going on, but the vast majority of my
timeline is consumed by football stuff because people are craving football.
Cam Ward, for example, here with the Tennessee Titans. He's
in Miami, He's throwing to his receivers. People are around
(07:33):
the country going to different places working out with their
teammates in this dead time, and still that is more
captivating to I think a good portion of the sports
consuming audience than regular season baseball is right now.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
It's just an inventory thing to me.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
There's so many baseball games, and especially this I know
it's to say that. I mean it's early in the season.
It's early in the season at this point in time,
even though we are past the halfway point for all
intents and purposes, I just I have a hard time
gravitating towards things if you're just talking about me, and
(08:11):
maybe this speaks for other people in the audience, have
a hard time being captivated by something that I know
still has eighty something games to go. In principle, and
that this is not the most important time of year.
July fourth is not the most important time of year
for a baseball team. Jockeying for position in the standings.
It's just simply not so. With that in mind, I
(08:35):
think that the time in the sports calendar should belong
to baseball, but it's not nearly. It's not an equivalent
of the NFL and what the NFL means when you
know that even though there are more or games spread
across more days than there ever has been, Surely by
the time, you know in twenty years from now, there
(08:55):
will be football seven days a week and we'll all
rejoice as a result as the NFL continues to try
and dominate things both home and abroad. Right, that's really
the biggest difference to me. I just don't I don't
think that that baseball is in a position to own
a specific day, especially when this specific day just happens
to fall right in the middle of their season.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I mean, I had somebody walk up to me at
a bar yesterday that I didn't know, and he immediately like,
first thing he says, is forty five days until college
football is back. That's it, Like, I don't know. And
his first thing he says and he's like, I just
need something on TV that's sports, And I looked around,
I'm like, there's baseball on like three TVs right now, dude,
(09:37):
And maybe that's what planted the seed of this concept.
But you're right in the sense that you know, peel
behind the curtain a little bit. My first radio job
where Buck and I met was at a station there
was a flagship for the Nashville Predators, and it was
funny to me. I remember distinctly the first fall that
I worked, and it was October, and because we were
the flagship for the station, the broadcast partner the Nashville Predators,
(10:01):
we were getting yelled at by certain people at the
Preds because we weren't talking enough hockey in October. And
I remember so distinctly looking at our bosses at the
time and saying, the third line defensive pairings of a
hockey game in October don't matter right now, like people
only care about college football in the NFL right now.
And it was funny. You're right. It's hard to make
(10:23):
one moment matter. And this is part of the reason
why when people say the NBA playoffs are too long, Okay, well,
I mean they're never going to reduce the NBA playoffs.
They might reduce the regular season someday if they absolutely
have to, although I don't think they will same with
the NHL, Like the playoff inventory is the only thing
that matters. I think Major League Baseball has become that
in so many ways, Like we get swept up in
(10:44):
playoff baseball, but because there is such great drama to
playoff baseball that you simply can't replicate. You can't replicate
the meaning of that result in a sport that has
so many games. So you're right, like there's zero, there's
zero sales pitch. You can be done around Mets Yankees today.
It's going to make Mets Yankees particularly interesting to somebody
(11:04):
that doesn't really care about football or baseball. But when
we get to Thanksgiving, it's super easy to say, hey,
these particular games matter, turn them on. It becomes a
family tradition. I also think we forget how long it
takes something to become a.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Traditions, And that's kind of that's kind of the difficult
spot that baseball is in, right because they still do
refer to the sport as America's pastime when it's not
anymore right.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
It had its run, it had a great run as
America's pastime.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
It's having a resurgence right now with attendance, people are
happy that it's doing.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
What No, And I don't mean this to like I
feel like this is the problem. The biggest problem for
me is anytime we have a conversation about baseball, it
sounds like it's denigrading the sport, and.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
The sport is in a pretty healthy place.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
It would seem there are star players across the board,
there are interesting storylines across the board, and to say
that baseball is not capable maybe of captivating the national
audience across the board on July fourth, sounds like a
shot at baseball.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
But I don't mean it to be.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I think that there are a couple of different things
working against it. I don't think it's a problem that
baseball has to fix, right, It's just kind of this
ancillary conversation around it. And it's compounded by something that
you sent to our group text as we were kind
of preparing for the show yesterday evening into this morning, FITZI,
(12:32):
which is that a lot of these games, with the
way that the broadcast rights have been redistributed or will
continue to be redistributed, you're not seeing a lot of
these games, or as many of these games as you
might otherwise. Because I think there's a disconnect between the
baseball audience, like the crux of the baseball audience, and
(12:53):
where you can actually go to find these games with
the streamers. Now, Apple TV had the Yankees last night,
I'm not mistaken, and there were so many things happening
in that game that people probably were not aware of
because there's not that many people, but at least not yet.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
The numbers don't bear it out yet.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
There's not that many people who are outright gravitating towards
Apple TV to stream their baseball games. And maybe that'll
change over time and consumer habits will change over time
and that'll become a more normalized thing. But as it's
still somewhat in its infancy. I know Apple's had baseball
for several years now. This is not a new thing necessarily,
(13:31):
but especially right now, when the games are not at
a premium for your attention, are you really going out
of your way to seek out different streaming services to
make sure that you can catch one hundred and sixty
two baseball names. I just don't think the vast majority
of people are doing that.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
He's buck rising out Jason Fitzworth get just getting rolling
in for two pros and a cup of Joe. This morning,
we'll break all of that down. Got a lot we're
gonna get to. But up next, I'm going to help
all of you degenerates that want to bet on the
hot dog eating contest. I got insight, yesh, you absolutely
got to have We'll do it next on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (14:04):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (14:18):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour.
Speaker 7 (14:27):
I'll tell you it's a spin off of it Ben
Maler Show, a cult hit overnights on FSR.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Why should you listen? Picture if you will?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
A world will?
Speaker 7 (14:35):
We chat with captains of industry in media, sports, and
more every week explore some amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Facts about human nature and more.
Speaker 7 (14:42):
Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
I'm just feeling the spirit. I got this America just
oozing from my veins this morning. It's two pros and
a cup of Joe. But it's a bucking Fitz takeover.
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz. Huge shout out to
Mighty Mark. We got the whole team. Will be with you,
not just today but also tomorrow for the fellows where
you can usually hang out with most of the team.
I think ARNI getting the weekend off. Buck Buck just
(15:11):
getting used and abused at the weirdest hours of all time.
I've got I've got go ahead, Buck. How are we
feeling if you're good at like it's early feeling great?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Okay, Okay, I just know the drama with you. I'm fine.
I get up.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
I see I'm a I'm a I'm a freak anyway, Like,
I get up.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
So I've heard every relax.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
There's there's Facebook pages to devote to do exactly that.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
We don't need to bring that to the national airwaves.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Well you just did.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
I wake up at four o'clock every day, like, regardless
of whether we are on the air at four or
five o'clock Central time, the way that we have been
the last couple of days because I don't know. I
think this is a bit of a trend potentially, with
the amount of people like yourself who are refocusing their
energies on hell health and wellness and getting to bed
(16:01):
early and being productive in the morning and all these
different kinds of things. Now I'm not like that. I
just don't sleep well, so I'm up at four am anyway.
But uh, yeah, I enjoy this. I feel like my
energy is fine. You keep trying to make this about me.
What are you projecting? I'm doing okay? Are you okay?
Nobody's checked on you yet this morning.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
I am. I'm glorious, dude, like I you know, it's
holiday and I love holidays. We've also found out that
bri our producer is out on holidays. We want I mean, yeah,
hates holidays. I don't. I'm sitting here trying to power
rank them to figure out, like how to decide, you know,
exactly which ones I love the most, and Breeze over
here saying I don't like any of them, and you
know it's fine. I'm characterizing her, as you.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Know, bree has never sounded anything like that ever her
in her entire existence. This is only the second time
I've worked for But there's no way that woman who
greets us with such such joy in her voice every
time we work together is capable of snarling and growling
about holidays.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
The way that you just describe that, that was displacement.
That was definitely smart, like a witch a little bit.
It's just like, yeah, I promise I don't sound like that.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah you want to.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
You want to bring out the tough side on break ahead,
keep keep making fun of her, fitzing, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I wasn't woman, I wasn't. I wasn't making fun of her.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I was just exactly what you were doing.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Okay, Well, here's uh, we'll get into holidays throughout the course.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Of the morning holidays. That would be peak July Sports
talk radio.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Oh yeah, thank you so much. We can mount rush
more than nobody's ever done that before. Okay, So hot
dog eating contest is always funny to me because I
learned more over the course of the hot dog eating contest.
Like the funny thing about being the satelline reporter for
that for a few years was you go in a
couple of days early and you talk to all the
eaters just like you do being in locker rooms. You
(17:47):
spend time talking to eaters, and I'm telling you today
feels like a hammer the over moment, and I'll tell
you why. Like we're at this degenerate world where everybody
can bet on how many hot dogs people are going
to eat. I've talked to Joe Chestnut a couple of
times in the last couple of weeks. Joey making his
return to the hot dog eating contests this year. He
was out last year because of some conflicts with the
(18:10):
Vegan hot dog eating company he was with, so he's
back with Nathan's Famous. But Joey was the one that
taught me two important things. One you need He particularly
needs to have his balance when he eats. He does
this little bob it's what he keeps his body rolling.
So a couple of years ago, when his number was
down a little bit, he'd broken his foot right before
the contest, which actually slowed him down. It's amazing how
(18:32):
little things like that matter. But even more importantly, the
eaters told me the first year I did it that
the absolute thing that you have to look for is
the weather and the humidity. Because the dogs are cooked.
They have to cook so many dogs and then they
have to get them out to Coney Island. If it
is a particularly humid day, they because of the heat anyway,
(18:52):
they cool off quickly. But because of the humidity in
the air, the hot dogs themselves get stickier, they get
tougher to just get them to go on down. So
the less humidity in the air, the faster everybody's going
to eat. So yeah, being that guy, I went to
as I always do now to basically my best chatch
ept and asked what the weather is going to be,
(19:13):
what the humidity was going to be, and I asked
how the humidity compares to usual humidity in New York City,
And today is going to be less humid than it
has been on any Fourth of July in several years.
So now you have Joey Chestnut coming back with the
chip on his shoulder about the fact that they wouldn't
relent and let him do it last year. He's the
only major league eater that has no other use of employment,
(19:34):
no other ways of making money. So he's the only
person that gets to train year round because he does
this is his only living. He's been working on this
and he's gonna get ideal conditions. I think Joey Chestnuts
about to hammer a number, I mean hammer a number.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Well, he's a huge favorite.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
If you're looking at the betting markets right now, he's
minus eighteen hundred. The next closest is Patrick Bertoli or
BERTOLETTI excuse me, plus one thing plus one thousand at
this point, depending on which sportsbook or which offshore place
you're getting here, hot dog eating contest, gambling odds, and
I love that you have actual analysis to bring to
(20:14):
this because it's spot on. I can imagine that that
would that would have a huge impact. Did you see
the quotes coming out of Joey Chestnut this week in
the lead up to this, because I don't think anybody's
as excited to get.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Back onto the platform that he most belongs on.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
I get what they were trying to do last year,
and that Netflix made a play for Joey chest nutting
to see as they try as Netflix specifically tries to
get into the live broadcast rights game, whether that be
It's not Love Island. What was the reality television show
they tried to live stream the reunion show of I think.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
It was epic fail. Love is Blind?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Maybe yeah, maybe yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
I want to say it was love is blind and
now obviously they've got football on Christmas and things like that.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
They tried to make a play for Joey.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Chest Nut last year with that vegan hot dog deal
that he was that he was a part of. But
he is He has said that he is going to
do this as long as he can. He's going to
do this until the wheels fall off. And today today
feels like a day where Joey Chestnut comes out and
gives us his a game, the best of the best,
absolute dominant fashion, regardless of conditions.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
He is going to just obliterate.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
The competition, especially with a little bit of layoff. He's
been waiting for this moment for quite some time.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Yeah, I found looks like the over under on dogs
for Joey Chestnut is seventy one and a half. Okay,
so he had seventy six is the record that he did,
I believe in twenty one and sixty two is what
he consumed in twenty three. But remember the leg injury
in twenty three was a big part of that, so
he was down a little bit from what he's Yeah,
(21:49):
you're right, he's going to kill it. And here's the
funny thing, little inside baseball here, but I talked to
people at Netflix last year.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Won't do baseball, but we'll do inside baseball on the
hot dog gat.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I talked to people at Netflix last year about them
making the play for Joey Tesna. It was never really
about wanting to blow up some huge hot talk gating contest.
It was about testing a live run before they got
to the Christmas And like when Netflix starts to run
some of these things live, they're just continually looking at
ways to make sure that their systems and practices work
(22:21):
for when they actually get hammered on Christmas Day the
way they knew they were going to. So all of
these live events that went poorly for Netflix last year
were all actually part of what they understood was their
process to get ready for Christmas Day, which was a
raving success. Right, So everything worked great, they didn't have
any issues on Christmas, but they had to basically make
(22:41):
other events sacrificial lambs to test the processes in order
to get to that situation. So it worked, But it
does bring us all the way back to where we
started on can you genuinely in the modern market, can
you convince someone to go to a if you're not
the NFL to go to a streaming service and truly
(23:02):
watch your content. And it's this is an interesting thought
process to me because I'll go back to the NFL.
The first time I toured in Europe, and this was
probably twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, I was stunned when we
went over to Europe and the NFL Sunday ticket exists
all over the world, right, but in Europe at the
time they offered you could buy it. Like I went
(23:22):
over there didn't want to miss the Raiders game. So
the question I went to sign up for European Sunday
ticket and the country it knows what country you're in
from your laptop, and immediately this is all the way
back what thirteen fourteen years ago. It immediately asked did
I want just the Raiders games? Did I want just
this week's games? Or did I want all games? Like
they have offered the Sunday ticket as an o la
(23:42):
carte choose your own adventure for over a decade to
everybody but America. And it's funny because now as we
continually see everything get more and more to just website,
streaming services, all of these things, well they've been doing
some of that for the rest of the world forever.
I don't know the answer to. You know, you can
have the best event in the world, but if you
(24:04):
put it on Amazon Prime and it's not a football
game like the Yankees being up seven to nothing and
then are being down seven to nothing and having their
huge comeback, that really nobody watched like our people, And
you can speak to sort of a different generation than
I are people genuinely coming home and saying, oh, yeah,
that WNBA game is over on insert streaming platform here
(24:25):
and I'm gonna find it. And if not, is that
really worse though than some of these sports again, like
the w that at times are buried on networks I
didn't even know existed, Like, oh yeah, you can find
that Asis game on Ion if you're looking for it. Like, I,
my god, I don't know what's worse. Like, I just
think that if you truly want to blow things up
(24:46):
in a way that people will watch it and crave
it and go to it, you got to make things
as simple for everybody as humanly possible, one network that
they can go to and they don't have to think.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Sure, but that's not the reality of the situation, right,
There's only so many things that can be put on,
and plenty of I don't want to call them fringe sports,
but the WNBA has been considered that prior to having
its huge surgeon momentum here in these last couple of years,
and I would say that there's plenty of those fringe
(25:16):
sports jockeying for that visibility and trying to do deals. Hell,
I don't know if it's see how much you've kept
up with or if you pay attention at all to
Formula one.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
And I would not pretend to.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Be any kind of expert, but they had, you know,
they had a good momentum, moment where drive to survive.
The Netflix special had galvanized a lot of people's interest
in the sport, and that can have that that tangible
interest to the point where I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Hell, we were going here locally, We were.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Going to eight thirty am F one watch parties at
bars and trying to talk bars into opening up early
so that we could go and have people come watch
the F one race, put it on the projector and
kind of enjoy that together. And that that did fade
after a period of time, when you know F one
is still highly competitive, highly entertaining. It just is does
(26:06):
it have staying power once it gets its initial hooks
in you, does it have the ability to keep you
there beyond that first fad phase? Right, So, Formula one
is currently trying to renegotiate its rights and their rights
deal is with ESPN. ESPN is currently paying, based on
the reporting of the Athletic eighty five million dollars for
(26:29):
the Formula one rights, and F one wants more than that,
and ESPN reportedly, again based on the Athletics reporting, has said, no.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
We're not giving you any more money for this. It
seems fine the way it is.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
The ratings spike, hat was just that it seems to
have been a spike, and maybe people over a longer
period of time will will grow that into a more
sustainable thing. But at this point it's not worth additional
investment on the part of the networks. That's That's something
that I think has to be taken in consideration there
(27:01):
as well, for the you know, the difference between the
streaming people that stream or because I'm I'm kind of
the anomaly here fits I'm thirty one, but I have
like I have a full cable package because I can
write it off on my taxes, and why wouldn't I
do it that way? But I also have all these streamers,
so like, I have the option to consume as much
(27:22):
or as little as I want, but I simply want
the option.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I am one of these people ease of use.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
I don't want to have to, you know, sign up
for a subscription on the day of a game, or
a couple of minutes before a game because I just
found out it's on peak, Indiana's playing Iowa on a
Tuesday night on Peacock or something like that, which would
make me insane because I just want to watch the
Indiana basketball game. That that has happened to me a
couple of times to the point where I'm just like
(27:48):
f itt Will. I will sign up for as many
of these things as I need to have. I will
make sure I know which streaming platforms versus which broadcast
platforms traditional broadcast platforms my team is going to be
playing on, because that will not happen to me again. Now,
I'm sure the vast majority of people, probably one are
not interested in spending that kind of money, and I
(28:10):
completely understand that, because to sign up for the streaming
packages in a piecemeal a la carte way has become
nearly as expensive as as a YouTube TV subscription, maybe
not quite as expensive as cable still is because I'm
stunned by my cable and internet bill every month. It's outrageous,
completely outrageous. But it is getting closer and closer to
(28:31):
that point. So I would understand people who just kind
of recoil it that idea and say, well, I went
away from traditional cable because of the cost, and now
the cost is such and with rate increases seemingly every
year on some platform or another, I'm going to end
up paying as much, if not more than my addition
(28:52):
or my initial sports consuming plan needed me to spend.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
I worked with a kid a few years ago that said,
you know what I want. I want a guide that
will take all of my streaming services and put them
into one place and tell me what's on right now
so I don't have to go from spot to spot
to spot. And I'm like yelling loudly aggressively, you are
describing cable like I don't. It is.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
It is in shaw my TV guide from like the
early early nineteen nineties.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
See what they make of that? Like an actual TV
guide like pamphlet.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
You know what, dude, like, not only I used to
to you know this back being an old man, it
wasn't unusual when you went to the grocery store for
your mom. If you were a kid, your mom would
just like drop you off in the magazine aisle and
be like, I don't go anywhere, and so I would
sit there. Especially in the summer is the best because
the football preview magazines would come out. Again, I'm older
than the Internet, so like you know, you flip through
(29:46):
the football preview magazines. The first time we got to
read all that stuff. Man, TV guide was actually really helpful.
You know, you sit around and you can you can
read what was coming on TV guide. Look, I understand
part of this is if your Netflix or Amazon or
Apple or any of these places, one of the benefits
you have is you get a captive audience. So even
if you don't have as many eyeballs, the fact that
they are stuck in your app and can't simply turn
(30:09):
the channel during a commercial stoppage in play makes those uh,
those commercials more valuable. And that's one thing I think
people forget sometimes, Like as much as we want to
talk about ratings all the time, for every sporting event.
Understand that the less things that actually get live ratings,
the more that the ad revenue is for the things
that are getting live ratings. So all of this, you
(30:29):
know sort of and look, you mentioned F one. I
was at ESPN when that searge started, and everybody was like, oh,
I need to get into F one more. All gonna
I'm gonna be an expert. There's gonna be opportunity the
you know, worldwide leader doing it, and then you could
tangibly feel just that momentum slip away. I don't know.
I think, look, if everybody can just accept like super
(30:50):
fans are gonna be fed. If you're an MLS superfan,
it doesn't matter where they put Like I get the
MLB package through T Mobile for free, right, Like they
just give me MLB Okay, great, Like that's awesome. Like
if you're a super fan of a sport, you find
it and you'll watch it wherever. I just think we
have to accept that that all stunts a little bit
like if The Masters was suddenly put on Amazon Prime,
(31:12):
less people are going to watch the Masters. If if
any of these key events, like if we reach a
spot where the Stanley Cup Final decides that they're going
to be put on you know, insert streaming service here,
they want to put it on Netflix. That is you
just have to accept it. That's going to kill the
growth of your sport to casual people that are just
stumbling through, because the average person that opens up Netflix
(31:33):
isn't opening up Netflix saying I wonder what's happening in
live sports today that I can watch.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Yeah, that's that's a tough balance to strike, right, because
you and I have experience with this. I mean, when
the when the Preds one hundred years ago, eight years ago,
it feels like much longer work. We're in the Stanley Cup,
the Nashville Predators. FITZI and I were both working locally
in Nashville at the time, and they they would put
the Stanley Cup game that that that series.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Against the pit the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
They would put some of the games on NBC Sports Network,
And I'm trying to figure out where that do I
get NBC Sports Network? Are they really about to put
Stanley Cup final games on an ancillary channel that I'm
going to have to seek out or potentially up my
cable subscription just to be able to consume. That's the
component where I think social media can play a huge role.
(32:23):
Social media can help you grow the sport, grow the
interest in the sports show, the highlights the way that
SportsCenter or your traditional highlight reel show would be able
to do, and then over time, and maybe this is
not a perfect scenario, but one that seems to make
sense at least in my mind. You've got the inventory
wherever you've got the games right, You'll use social media
(32:45):
to be able to capitalize that on that, whether you
post those clips on TikTok after the fact for a
certain generation, or continue to try and just inundate people
with it on Twitter, Instagram, reels, all these different marketing
tools that can also serve you and serve the growth
of the game and potentially welcome people in as you
widen that tent a little bit, or widen that audience
(33:05):
under the tent a little bit. But it's still it's
it's still a These things take time, and we are
in a microwave results society, so I'm sure that the
television networks are probably dealing with the same thing.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
It's also like to be deep deep in economics for
a second.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
For a lot of people, four people.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
You know, deep economics to make that.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
A radio t's broadcast professional.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Breeze over there, Like, I can't cut any of this
for promo purposes. Look, I would just say lost leaders
matter right, Like I think what we have to understand
is part of the reason all of these sports are
going to different streaming services is because at some point,
streaming services today are willing to pay too much to
get these sports because the concept is I'm going to
get people to start checking out Amazon Prime more, I'm
(33:54):
going to get people to start checking out Netflix more.
It's the reason that you saw a bunch of gambling
companies get into the content business like FanDuel and DraftKings
and spend a bunch of money on a bunch of
people to do shows, and then over time you see
that happen less and less. Why because now they've gotten
the what they want, they got the attention out of it.
Do they need to keep making that content? Does that
content actually make the money? Look at Caesar's a few
(34:16):
years ago, had all these huge names that they were
putting out there constantly for what you know, then they
stopped doing that because they realized that, hey, we've seen
all that we could see out of it so the
sports are at some point a bit of a lost leader.
That's all. That's all I'm saying. Okay, deep philosophical statements
all over the place. I know it's the fourth of July.
We should relax. We will, But in the meantime, one
(34:37):
of the most misreported stories in all of sports over
the course of the week, and we're gonna fix it.
We're gonna get it right, and that includes correcting some
of our colleagues. We'll do it next these Buck Rising,
I'm Jason fitz hanging out with you for Two Pros
and a Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (34:51):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am three am Pacific.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Don't let facts get in the way of a good
narrative on Sports Talk one on one and Boy has
it happened this week? I mean, the information available at
the hands of people that sit in front of a
microphone is pretty bountiful, and I'm not sure why. Instead
of looking at information asking questions like why, instead, the
(35:24):
easiest thing to do is just yell into a microphone
with no consequence. And I'm not gonna let us stand.
We're gonna correct some wrongs here. He's Buck rising on
Jason Fitz What Buck's giving me a? Look, we're in
for two pros and a cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Why would you try to take away the thing that
I love the most, which is just shouting into microphones
without any context, nuance, or anything else.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Why would you do that to me? That's my that's
my superpower.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
You to You're trying to kneek at me before we're
even an hour into the show this morning.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Well, look, I'm gonna go full Tawny Harding on this thing.
That's a fun dated reference for people.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Or ankles out here.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
Oh, be sure to check out the Fox Sports Radio
YouTube channel a ton of our great videos from a
ton of the Fox Sports Radio shows. Just search Fox
Sports Radio on YouTube. You'll see a whole bunch of
video highlights from shows. And subscribe while you're out there
so you always have instant access to our Fox Sports
Radio videos on YouTube. I'm all into yell. I just
think that as a general population, we could all afford
(36:23):
to stop and ask why before we yell, like especially now. Look,
I'm right on that cusp age wise where to be
fully honest, in my senior I grew up with nothing.
We didn't have any money. My senior year of high school,
my papers were typed on a typewriter, Like I didn't
have a computer like that. That wasn't something my family
(36:44):
could afford. Right, So the Internet isn't something that I
ever saw until I went to college. Right, So I
think maybe generationally, I come from a spot where I
had to ask why, and I was raised to ask why.
So before I run into a microphone and just start
yelling something, I'm sort of that that person that's gonna
ask four or five people and I'm gonna make sure
(37:06):
I'm not missing something, and I'm gonna go to chat
ept now and I'm gonna ask it to give me
three different angles on every one of these things. Like
that's how I'm natured. So I'm frustrated buck that this
week a lot of stupidity became the calling card for
comments about Caitlyn Clark. And look, I can I can
already hear people driving that are rolling their eyes Kitlinark whatever,
(37:29):
Like look, I'm gonna beg the world don't get so
dug in on your takes about Caitlin and the w
that you refuse to actually step back and ask why
when you see the report that Caitlyn Clark was the
ninth leading vote getter from players in the WNBA All
Star cycle instead of just.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
As a guard, not just like in total, not regardless
of position, but the ninth best guard in the sport
was what she was voted on by her peers.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
So this reminds me of the conversation a few years
ago around I don't remember which player it was, but
one of the NFL players that said he's never even
gotten an NFL MVP vote, this is impossible. Well, I
started asking NFL MVP voters at the time and found
out that at the time They've changed this in the
last couple of years, but at the time, every vote
(38:17):
getter got one name to put on a card. So
the concept of well it said player never got a
single MVP vote in the NFL five years ago, six
years ago, Well that's pretty simple, because if you only
got one name that you can put on the placard,
that's different. Like if we're asking Buck Rising to vote
on the MVP and he gets four or five names.
(38:38):
That's important. If we're asking Buck Rising to vote on
the NFL MVP and he only gets one name, now
all of a sudden, we're gonna sit there and say, well,
how did Josh Allen not even get a single MVP?
Maybe everybody that year just prefer Lamar Jackson or Passion Malmes,
you know. So you need the nuance and that's where
this matters. Like I talked to a couple of people
that actually play in the WNBA. I talked to a
(38:58):
couple of people that are actually part of that voting
process and was immediately informed Number one, every player only
got to put four names on their card. So and
then they give a cumulative score. You get a number
of points for four, three, two and one, so on
and so forth, more points as you go up the latter.
So the concept that she got the ninth most points
doesn't mean that that somebody sat there and laid out
(39:20):
eight other players. It means that all of the players
laid out just enough players ahead of her that in
the vote process she might have been fourth on everybody's
and that still could have put her ninth. We have
no way of knowing that right now.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
Yeah, but that's so much less fun than being fake
mad and on social media about this because you had
people who I do consider to be nuanced and reasonable
and thoughtful about the way that they go about their
analysis and things like that. And you know, I think
when people mention reasonable and thoughtful and nuanced, maybe dig
vital doesn't necessarily come to your mind. But like Diggyv's
(39:53):
out there just sideswiping the entire league on Twitter because
of the jealousness and pettiness is in the way that
he in the way that he contextualized it of WNBA players.
Don't they know how much revenue Caitlin Clark earns for them, this, that,
and the other like it, It becomes people want to
make it an indictment of somebody. Women's basketball has been
(40:16):
a polarizing topic for a long time or an easy
topic for a lot of people in sports to just
stand up, look around to dismiss. And so now once
you think you found that and it's being done at
the expense of the great White Hope Caitlyn Clark, then
that becomes a little more visceral for a lot of people,
and they can stir up a little extra outrage.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
And it also allows some people.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
To grift off those kind of emotions on the Internet
for a living, to take advantage of that. And I
think those people know who they are well.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
And that's where I saw the Dicky V tweets and
I immediately thought, man, this is sort of the equivalent
of DICKYV being got got by a fake Adam Schefter account,
like he got got by a bunch of information that
lacked context. There's more context, even more context to it
than I want to give you, and why we're all
looking at the wrong way. We'll do it next to
pros and a cup of Joe and his Buckin' Fits
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