July 15, 2026 • 38 mins
Big Ben talks about the low-scoring 2026 MLB All-Star game, the new features of the game, Rob Manfred campaigning for an MLB salary cap, Maller to the Third Degree, #QueenOfHearts w/ LaReina, Password: Word Game of the Stars, and more!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for the Benmatlers Show at Foxsports Radio dot com.
You can find it there or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
We go to the city at broly Lof they played
the ninety sixth edition of the Midsummer Classic. Now, for
many years they played two All Star Games a year.
Can you imagine if they tried to play two All
Star games?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Now?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
These players bitch and complain so much. Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Back then, players thought, well, this is a great opportunity
to promote the game of baseball. Now it's really fascinating
to see how this has all played out. Anyway, the
Midsummer Classic took place on Tuesday night.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
It was on Foxes. Did you watch? Perhaps not? Well,
we watched so you would not have to.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
The American League All Stars soundly defeated the National League
All Stars for nothing. Now, if you were looking for drama,
if you were looking for excitement, heroics, you got that
in the home run derby. You did not get that
in the twenty twenty six MLB All Star Game, as
the AL picks.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Up the win.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Now they have dominated over the years, they had not
won since way back in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
I can't believe. I barely remember that. I was a
little child back in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So it was all about the pitching was good, pitching
bad hitting, Toronto's Dylan Cease setting the tone. The lidlifters
strike out one, two, three, there you go, strike out three,
scoreless first inning, and the Al staff took the baton
and completed the shutout, the National League All Stars getting
(01:57):
Bupkus Squad Douche and the the pitching staff for the
American League, combining for an All Star Game record fifteen
strikeouts and allowing just three hits. Holy Bob Gibson batman now.
The only additional scoring came in the eighth inning, when
someone named Miguel Vargas were told he plays for the
(02:17):
White Sox, crushed a four hundred and thirty three foot
home run a moonshot to extend the Al to the
final score, which was four to nothing. So that is
a good jumping on point. Let us discuss the question
for the esteem panel, and here it is, give me
the thumbnail recap.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
What stood out?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
What are you gonna remember about the twenty twenty six
MLB All Star Game in Philly. So I've got Princess Cruises,
bud Light, and Hallmark Card.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
And we'll put all of these things together.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And we are going to do the Hogy Pogy. I
don't even know what that is. It just sounds like
a rhyme. So the Hogy pogy. All right, Now a
the All Star Game, which my favorite parts of the
All Star Game are the mascot photo and that's done prior.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
To the game.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And then I also enjoy the introductions when the players
come out and they're wearing their uniforms, and it's nice
that Baseball decided to actually go back to that as
they had gotten away with it. They were playing soft
they were wearing rather softball uniforms for a good amount
of time, and they've gone back to the traditional uniforms
in the All Star Game. As far as the game itself,
(03:29):
this All Star Game, it was the National League All
Stars provided a syllabus on how to provide a disaster class.
This was a fest. It was a snooze fest. I mean,
you don't have to sugarcoat it. We're on a daytime show,
we're on overnight. We can tell the truth. It sucked,
all right. This was not just a loss for the
National League. It was a total Philly flop. You know
(03:52):
how that Philly Special in the Super Bowl against the Patriots, Well,
this was the Philly flop. It began with starter Christopher Sanchez,
who ran into some early command issues, shall we say,
And by the time the first thing was over, he
had gotten tattooed so badly. How badly it was so
badly that the mound should have come with a yellow
(04:15):
and black parental advisory sticker they could have put right.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
There on the man.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
The American League effectively decided the game in the top
of the first inning. They hung a three spot crooked
number up courtesy of Ben Rice, who sucked in the
home run derby a Ribby signal here, and then a
two run knock by former Dodger and current Yankee Cody Bellinger,
and that was it, and he rode that.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
That opening swing.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Bellinger was the All Star Game MVP, rather lackluster MVP. Now,
the reason he was the MVP is they could not
slice up the trophy to give every single pitcher for
the American League a piece of the trophy, and then
they had to figure out the math on that had
does everyone get the MVP bonus? So they just said, well,
give it to Bellinger. That's it now. As for the
(05:07):
other thing that I jotted down regarding the game itself
on the notes app that I have the Philadelphia delegation
led by Christopher Sanchez. If this was a political rally,
that was a total crash course on failure.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
So Sanchez got lit up.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Kyle Schwarber got beat the other night in the home
run derby at the Buzzer by Jordan Walker, the Redbird,
so that began the thing. He had Schwarber, Bryce Harper,
and Brandon marsh who got five at bats went zero
for five with four strikeouts. I didn't play in the
All Star Game. I'm told that's not good. It was
an emasculating performance. These hometown heroes went full princess cruises.
(05:51):
They wanted to escape completely and enjoy the freedom of
a nice relaxing cruise. Unfortunately, they were playing baseball and
that was a blueprint for failure. Is this a preview
of coming attractions for the Philadelphia Phillies if they were
to make.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
The playoffs down the line? Is this what we're going
to get.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
From Schwarber and Harper and Sanchez in the postseason? Stay tuned.
It was amusing yet again, as most of the people
who were on camera in the crowd were decked out
in Philadelphia Philly paraphernalia. And they didn't seem too police,
They did not seem too polease.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Now, page two.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
The broadcast for the All Star Game was not received
very well. It was heavily criticized. Now, Major League Baseball
made it a point of emphasis in this all stof
you didn't.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
See it or hear about it.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I know ostro Jant was watching every pitch, but for
those of you that weren't, they made a point of
emphasis of having what I believe is a new record
for bits. As my program director years ago would say, stick,
stick a lot a lot of bits, the bits kibbles
and bits kibbles and bits during the game there as
(07:05):
the theory was they were trying to showcase the personality
of the stars of baseball with endless in game interviews,
skits and other stuff. It was literally everywhere during the broadcast.
So the question give me your thoughts on the mic
(07:25):
up players and all the other stuff. The twenty twenty
six All Star Game added features the add.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Ons to the All Star Games.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
So this came. People are gonna blame Fox and TV
and all that. I promised you. I know a little
bit how they make the sausage. This came from two
forty five Park Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan. Two forty five Park Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan.
Those little weasels, Yeah, little weasels in my head, and
I know I'm gonna date myself. But there used to
be these great commercials from bud Light back in the day,
(07:56):
and I thought of that commercial thing when I was
watching the All Star Game.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Back in the day, they had these.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Real men of genius, and it would be like if
we would make a commercial be like today, we salute you,
mister Marketer turned the All Stars into twitch streamer Guy morphing,
the game into the unholy love child of a Saturday
night live episode on a corporate Ted Talk. One Star
simply played baseball. But you asked, what if we turned
(08:24):
them into YouTube influencers?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
While they were playing baseball.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
You gave us non stop sketches and forced fun like
Toronto's Dylan Cease and as catcher Shay Langeliers looking miserable
as they were miked up while going against Juan Soto.
He got so bad that Ceas actually quizzed John Smoltz,
the broadcaster for Advice mid count, who could forget Kyle
Schwarber's earpiece falling out three times while he was trying
(08:51):
to hit him the All Star Game. Or Bryce Harper
looking visibly disgusted during the direct interview while he was
trying to hit. And then you had for some of
this very odd roundtable where you had Justin Verlander, Cam
Schlitzler and the Miz. It looked like they were doing
a zoom call during the pandemic while the game was
(09:12):
going on. And now the Miz and Schlitler didn't seem
to please. Verlander was seemingly angling for some kind of
broadcasting job.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
He seemed like he was kind of into it.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So crack open a cold bud light, all great Sultan
of simultaneous content, and you traditionalists out there, you just
wanted to clean game, just wanted to watch the game.
But you knew that Major League Baseball marketing knows today's
audiences that aren't even watching the All Star Game, they
crave live stream reaction videos, and that is exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
What they got, all right.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Now, last word, So, the very end of the broadcast
with the announcers, I noticed something and I want to
run this by you because my head, this is something
I don't know if you.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Agree with me or not. So John Smoltz, the Fox.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Commentator, at the very end of the game, he thanked
all the All Stars who bothered to show up.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
To the game, all right, and.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Those that participated in their little shtick on the broadcast.
So the question did John Smoltz have alternative motives with
the end of All Star message? So it sounded to
me the tone was what we'd like to call a
dead John Smoltz was not just dropping a little polite hint.
(10:45):
He was throwing a wicked curveball like he was back
with the Atlanta Braves years ago and had some serious attitude.
It was a masterpiece of passive aggressive snark. That's what
it sounded like. I could drive by wrap than a
Hallmark card and to an old school guy skipping the
(11:06):
Midsummer Classic, which is a great honor, is total sacrilege,
And so.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
It sounded just the tone. You know, It's like when.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
He aggressively praised the guys who actually had the decency,
the common courtesy to show up and take part in
the dumb bits they were doing. The subtext was deafening.
It seemed like he was firing heavy artillery, throwing mortars
directly at the two biggest stars in baseball who I
don't think were there, Aaron Judge and sho Hey Otani,
(11:38):
and those guys got and the others. There were others
that were not part of this game and treated it
like it was a root canal, and Smoltz I got
the vibe. And again I'm using some psychobabble here that
Smolt's real message was dripping an acid. It's like, hey,
congratulations to the players who didn't treat this showcase like
(11:58):
a painful dentist appointment. And again that's how it sounded
on my TV. We also had the near miss Heard
round the world. The near miss heard around the world, Well,
what is that?
Speaker 4 (12:12):
That would be.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Junior Camonero, the Tampa Bay Rays third baseman who was
knocked out of the All Star Game and the incident happened.
It was in the third inning.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
He got hit by a pitch and he immediately ran off.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
The field and went in for x rays. Got hit
on the hand, and the x rays were negative. He's
I think fourth in baseball, got twenty eight dingers this year.
And it is baseball, though, so even if you don't
have a broken bone, it is possible as a baseball player,
(12:48):
Junior Camonaro could be out for a while. Baseball players
generally do not have toughness. They generally speaking, are down
for the count quite often when things like this happen.
So we'll see if he's out for any period of time,
but at least not broken. So it would appear that
(13:09):
if Junior Camonaro is out for a bit, so be it.
I did get into a little text thing with some
friends of mine in the in the media world. We
were all going.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Back and forth. Well, we did the what if or
I guess what about is what if?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
You know?
Speaker 4 (13:21):
That's that whole thing.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
What about if Otani was playing and he got hit?
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Would this be the end of the All Star Game?
Would they get rid of it? And we were we
were in agreement, We were.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Kind of in agreement that yeah, there would be if
Otani or Judge got hurt in the All Star Game,
got hit by a pitch, they'd make it like the
NFL and just have tic tac toe and and volleyball
and the other bull crap they do in the NFL
and get rid of the All Star Game. Junior Camanaro, though,
(13:54):
even though he's a good player, not a big enough
star for that devan, it turns out he's okay. It
turns out he's okay.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Mallar.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
I'll tell you it's a spin off of The Ben
mather Show, a cult hit overnights on FSR.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Why should you listen? Picture if you will a world will.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
We chat with captains of industry in media, sports, and
more every week explore some.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Amazing facts about human nature and more.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
So our lead this hour is from the boardroom, and
that is where MLB Commissioner Rob Manford held court and
renewed his push.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
For the cap, the cap, the cap, the cap, the cap,
the salary cap, arguing that the payroll gap it has
become impossible to ignore as the CBA Negotia Shans continues.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
So if you didn't see this in the lead up
to the All Star Game, perhaps you missed it. Manford
highlighted what he clanned was a four hundred and forty
one million dollar bay roll gap between the high spending,
high falutant Dodges and the lowest spender, the Miami Mars. Now,
technically the Mets have the highest payroll in baseball. The
Dodgers have the highest payroll if you include all the deferred.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Money, which whether they will be paying for.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Years and years and years and years and years and
years and years and years and years and years. Manford
said it defies human experience to ask a fan to
think that the bottom end of that gap has the
same opportunity to win as the top end.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Close quote.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
How he also said major League Baseball owners are unusually
unified on the issue. Declaring quote, Manford said, I have
an ownership group that is morenited than any group in
my entire time in baseball. So that is a good
jumping off point. Let us discuss the question, how do
(16:09):
you categorize Rob Manford campaigning for an MLB salary cap
as the commission. I've got farmers market, theater district, and
billiards and we will combine all of these things together
and remind you this is not going to pass the
smell test.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
My first thought is the quote by Manford is a
double whammy. Double whammy for baseball for the owners because
Manford is telling fans of teams in small markets that
they really She's implying you shouldn't support the team because
(16:51):
it defies human possibility that a team that's at the
bottom end can possibly end up winning. So why would
you support a losing team. The other thing that he's
doing is he is it's a shot at his own business,
which he has run for all these years that he
has not been able to get these tightwad teams to
(17:14):
spend more money. The problem is not the Dodgers, the
problems the Marlins and the Athletics and the Rays and
teams like that. That's the problem, and he doesn't want
to address that. And it's not about saving baseball, all right,
it's not about saving baseball, as we say, it's about
saving billionaire owners from themselves.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
And of course Rob Manford.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Who is hired as a conduit from the ownership group,
is going to say that they're completely united. Did you
expect anything else? Are you that big a simpleton? Do
you expect Mamford to come out?
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah, we got like half the owners. They don't give
a crap. They don't They don't want to sell a cap. Yeah,
come on, voting to pay less in peril. Just think
about this logic. And it's possible you've never owned a
business and you've always worked for someone.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
And you've never done anything on your own. You've always
had a boss.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
But just think of this logically, if you're the owners
and you put a rule in to cap, how much
you've got to pay the players? Therefore, don't you guarantee
more profits? Isn't that the easiest vote to cast? And
Manford talking about like four hundred, he said, four hundred
(18:23):
and forty one million in payroll gap. And that doesn't
prove the system is broken. It just proves that there
are many more cheap teams that treat baseball like a
coupon clipping hobby, extreme coupon clipping. And that's the issue,
that's the disease. Right, Teams who refuse to spend are
the ones who have failed baseball, and the commissioner doesn't
(18:46):
have the balls to call them out. In the Marlins
A's Pirates, the usual suspects. They can spend much more
money than they're spending. They can't spend as much as
the Dodgers. They don't have to, right, you just have
to close the gap a little bit. They simply chew
not to. They simply choose not to. And they've been
that way for years and years and years now. Manford
(19:06):
conveniently leaves out meanwhile, a couple of things, and this
is where he's working at a local farmer's market. Rob
Manford working at the farmer's market cherry picking, and he
is so good at cherry picking. Rob Manford, del Monte
should hire him as an advisor.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
He's that good.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I notice that Manford never said franchises are bleeding cash.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
That they're losing money, they're in the red. He never
said that.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
He can't say it because it's not true, right, And
if he does say it, then the players will be Okay,
show us, let's have a third party and let's do
some accounting and we'll we'll audit the books and we'll
see if that's the case. He's not saying that, you know, No, no, no, no,
he's just claiming that fans can't believe.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
In the actual little guys. So give me a bloody blake,
give me a break.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Even Osiewash notes, that's nonsense, right, that's not a real
financial argument. That is more like a fairy tale told
at bedtime. Now page two. So Rob Manford also acknowledged
that baseball has repeatedly tried to address competitive balance through
the what they call it the luxury tax. But you
(20:19):
know what that means, he admitted, quote, sometimes you got
to admit you fail. Manford said, all right, question, where
does Rob Manford and his admission that he failed with
the luxury tax?
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Where does that land with you? All right?
Speaker 1 (20:37):
So I took out my GPS and the maps app
on my phone. On the GPS, which is never wrong.
It pinned this in the theater district, making this pure
I'm talking completely authentic kabuki theater. Manford's failure is actually
(20:59):
a success story, and it's a success story for something
called the long con, which Major League Baseball has been
efforting since the nineties workstoppage. The long con is used
to justify a hard cap, and this is all part
of the master plan. When he says Manford, we failed,
it's a commissioner's dog whistle. It's a dog whistle, and
(21:25):
it signals to owners that it's finally time to unleash
the doomsday device, the union bunker buster from Major League
Baseball's ownership group. Manford does not mean the sport failed.
He does not mean that. That's a misnomer. Rob Manford means,
(21:45):
and the way I interpreted this, that the luxury tax
failed to prove we can live without a cap, right funny?
How will eagerly admit to that, or he'll meet admit
I'm not admitting it. He'll admit to that yet, Manford,
I'm still waiting for to admit that he completely fed
up and he let the twenty seventeen cheating a one
(22:06):
one thousand and two one thousand holes them in Houston,
skate bang bang, whis the whist, the whistle, all that
during the World Series, and let them get away with that,
let them skate like it was a event at the
Winter Olympics. And he'll also never concede that those ghost
runners are a stain on the game. He won't admit that,
(22:29):
choosing instead to treat a Little League fever dream like
some kind of sacred baseball tradition. It's all backwards. It's
all backwards now, final point. So the Commissioner's comments helping
to escalate the tensions, the rhetoric going back and forth.
Everyone's playing in the court of public opinion. And the
(22:50):
expiration date the doomsday clock.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick December first,
just after the World Series, December one. That's it.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Turn out at the last the parties over. Yeah, that's
the end date on the labor deal. And so the
Baseball Players Association continuing to have their own rhetoric. They
are passionately rejecting the salarycap. Their argument is the sport
is financially healthy, and that competitive imbalance is caused by
(23:22):
some owners choosing not to spend money ding ding ding
ding ning, not by flaws in the system and Major
League Baseball here's the key part of this. So they've
been running commercials online and also on old media promoting
a salarycap as part of their level the Playing Field campaign.
Major League Baseball itself as aired ads pushing for a
(23:45):
salarycap and floor in the next collective bargaining agreement. Now,
union officials were asked about that, and they do you
think they A said, boy, that's great, it's wonderful. They're
running commercials promoting baseball and a salarycap. Be no comment
or see what the f is wrong with you?
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Losers? Ding? Well, if you if you.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Pick see, that's the right answer. If you pick see,
that's the right answer. Yeah, Baseball's union said the commercials
are perverse. Perverse is the word used by the union boss.
So the question what is the proper bucket for the
baseball union calling MLB's commercials for a salary cap perverse.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
So the baseball owners.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Here are running these I'm gonna call them there sleazy
Super Bowl style commercials for a salary cap.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
And they're doing it to brainwash the low information fan,
the dullar. That's what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
And they know there's enough dumb dumbs out there that
are mesmerized by a TV commercial where they're like, oh,
oh that makes sense, okay, and they can convince people
it doesn't seem great for the business that you're telling
people we must have a salary cap. A actually, because
baseball is dying and the only thing that can save it.
(25:04):
The only silver bullet that we have is this hard
salary cap.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
That's it. So the proper bucket for this would be
the billiard's bucket.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
And you talk about playing some dirty pool here, it
is like they hired Johnny Archer, the Scorpion great pool player,
to run the table playing some dirty pool, and the
owners want the fans to think they're behind the eight ball,
and the Union is entirely right to call this perverse.
They are owners are pushing this doom and gloom mole,
(25:39):
this doom and gloom propaganda about competitive balance and suffering
small markets to scare everyone.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
But you know what that means.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
They really just want to crush the players and make
sure that the owners get more profit. And it is
one of the only things in life where a number
of people root for the oligarchs. You don't get this
in other spots. No one is out there campaigning saying
the people.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
That own Walmart need to make more money.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
No one's saying right, No one's saying, well, I really
wish Apple would raise the price of the iPhone so
we can make more money. No. In as it was
pointed out, if they actually cared about the fans, they
would not be spending millions of dollars Baseball on this
(26:33):
manipulative marketing campaign. And Bruce Meyer, the guy that's the
union boss, he pointed out that the ownership group likes
to talk about.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
The fans, the fans, the fans, the fans boss, the fans.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
They all want this, they want this salary cap. Right, And,
as he pointed out, if they owners really did pay
attention to what the fans wanted, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the
Athletics and several other teams would have new owners sell
the team, sell the team, sell the team. Well, how
often does that work. The only time it's really worked
(27:09):
is with the Dodgers and Frank McCourt, and that has
turned into the Blue Dynasty of Major League Baseball. The
corporate Dodgers have dominated. However, here's the these owners are
wearing when when fans chant you sell the team, sell
the team.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
The owners wear these.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Special skull Candy headphones, and that the headphones allow them
to hear only what they want to hear while they
laugh all the way to the direct deposit.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
And that's how they operate.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Here we go, Here we go, Here we go.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Mallard, how about that to the third degree, This is
one big event gets grilled.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
Coop a Loop, an anonymous NFL personnel evaluator, predict this
week that.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
I love those coop ye and I just can't get
enough great sources.
Speaker 6 (28:08):
They predicted this week that Lamar Jackson will have a
big year, saying this is like a contract year for
him coming up like a contract here, Ben, do you
think Lamar will have a bounce back season this year?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
The issue with Lamar's health and he's getting older. He
does not appear to be taking care of himself. My
boots on the ground tell me he's enjoying himself, which
is great. But as you get to a certain point
in your athletic career, if you do not take care
of yourself.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
It eventually catches up with you, and that if he plays,
he'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
But he's gonna have the auchies and he's gonna have
the injuries, and so it doesn't matter. He's gonna get
peet either way, whether the Ravens pay him or he's
got enough MVP awards and enough on his resume that
someone's gonna pay him.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
So he'll get the money whether he has a big
year or not.
Speaker 6 (28:56):
Next the NFL is revealing their annual top one hundred
player rankings, and Michael Parsons isn't happy about where his
quarterback landed. Seventy one players in the NFL aren't better
than Jordan Love, Parsons road Ben Is Love properly.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Ranked well, Micah Parsons, you know, to quote Tony Bruno,
it's an outrage.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
You know, it's not the top quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Obviously, if you just go by quarterbacks, Jordan Love would
be higher than seventy one.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
I think that's about right.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
There's a lot of players in the NFL's eleven positions
on offense, eleven positions on defense. That seems about right
to me. Jordan Love is inconsistent. There are moments he's
the top quarterback in the NFL. There's a lot of
moments where he's average, a lot of moments where he's
not that great, So I.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Think it's about where he should be next.
Speaker 6 (29:43):
The Dodgers are the best record in baseball and are
predictably a top most power rankings ben.
Speaker 7 (29:47):
Which team do you think puts up the greatest challenge
to a three peat?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Well, if everyone's clicking, obviously, the Yankees are in the
World Series down the line, the Philadelphia Phillies.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
I don't really think the Atlanta Braves that much or
the Milwaukee Bruce. How do we doing cool?
Speaker 7 (30:04):
You passed this mission?
Speaker 4 (30:05):
That's so we'd put it on the board.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Exciting news.
Speaker 7 (30:28):
Queve, she wants to talk to you. Such a great song.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
This is Milkman Mike in Colorado. Right, Yes, job, Jay
Scoop teamed up with Milkman Mike.
Speaker 7 (30:58):
Another one is great.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Yeah. So what do we got? What do we got got?
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yeah? We got question We got questions. You want questions?
We got questions Lorena, rob and the three two one who's.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
Working the day shift.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
He says, what do you feel is more attractive shaved
head with a nice shaped beard or clean shaven with
a full head of groomed hair.
Speaker 8 (31:19):
Ooh, that's a great question, because, well, for one, I
also think you're missing one with the big hair and.
Speaker 7 (31:26):
The facial hair. No, that's not that Ruin's the point
of the question.
Speaker 6 (31:32):
I like.
Speaker 7 (31:34):
Which one?
Speaker 4 (31:34):
Did you like anything?
Speaker 7 (31:36):
The one with the guy who has everything?
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Come on, Lorena, throw the ball. Guys like me at
bald Come on, Lorena.
Speaker 7 (31:44):
Come on, I had a very long relationship with that.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
Okay, I just like a beard.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
I like it.
Speaker 8 (31:51):
You get to pet it, you know, it's nice.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
I don't really pet beards. But you know, I've never
met I've never there is a bearded woman a bed.
No I didn't. I saw them as a kid at
the circus or whatever. Are the stateable women?
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Yes, lovely lady Michael, and Tulsa says, in addition to
the blankety blankety blankety, what is the best breakfast to
make for your significant other?
Speaker 4 (32:14):
So, like you said, the breakfast sausage? What else is
you know?
Speaker 7 (32:18):
You always have to have a well rounded meal for breakfast.
Speaker 8 (32:20):
But I like homemade French toasts with crispy bacon.
Speaker 7 (32:24):
And you always have to have eggs.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
I don't care what style you.
Speaker 8 (32:27):
Make them, what you prefer, but I think it's a
good protein to mix in there.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
I really like eggs. I'll tick scrambled though with some cheese.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
Or scrambled with cheese is so good.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Solid ferg Dog.
Speaker 7 (32:37):
Like your eggs really dry, don't you?
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Ben No?
Speaker 4 (32:40):
I like him well done, but.
Speaker 7 (32:43):
I also like a five year old just however, what
do I like?
Speaker 4 (32:48):
I like cornby fash. I love cornby fashion. That's that's
a solid.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
The ferg Dog says, you know of any dating sites
of the cater to nine O two one o super fans.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
It's actually a really good idea for a dating site. Yeah,
I don't know that that one of those group chats
on Facebook. They have a lot of different groups on there.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
It feels like more of a redded thing. Let's say
hello to Stevie Meatballs. Who has a question to those?
Stevie Meatballs welcome.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Good morning everybody. How are you?
Speaker 4 (33:20):
We don't have time for that, Stevie meables all right?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
All right, Loraina I got to run something past you.
All right. I'm fifty three years old now, Okay. Back
in high school, I lived in the western suburbs of
Fort Lauderdale, and I went to this old Catholic high
school way down to Port Larder. It was like a
forty minute drive home. So when I finally got my
driver's license, I used to drive like three or four
people home every day. The last person I would drop
(33:46):
off every day, this girl Amanda, one day professed her
feelings for me right when I was into some other
girl that had a boyfriend. Oh, no, way in my league.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
So I turned her down right, yeah, question quickly.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
I remember, I just remember this like a year ago. Okay,
all I remember is the first name.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
I don't know what's the question.
Speaker 7 (34:08):
I think he wants to go find her.
Speaker 8 (34:09):
And if you want to go find her, I would
definitely go on Facebook and look her up. You could
go into your class, like your school class here, good luck?
Speaker 4 (34:17):
All right?
Speaker 7 (34:18):
Question next time?
Speaker 4 (34:19):
If you if you like barbecue, Lorena, should a man
always do the grilling?
Speaker 5 (34:23):
Yes? No?
Speaker 4 (34:24):
Yes, all right, she said, yes quick. Queen of Heart.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Attention everyone,
and the password is.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
Password, you idiot, password the word Game of the Stars.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Here's Ben Meler.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
All let's do it. Here we go Password time. Man,
let's welcome in our contestants for password. We have a
Phase in Chicago. Hello, Phase, welcome.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Quint up Man. There he is my man.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Phase met him and a couple of years ago. And
then who do you want to partner with with Phase?
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Wait?
Speaker 4 (35:12):
All you want to be a loser?
Speaker 6 (35:15):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (35:16):
Loraina picked one, two or three?
Speaker 3 (35:20):
One?
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Tour number three? Well you have picked? What does it say? Toothpick?
You picked a guy named toothpick in Fort Worth. Hello Toothpick, welcome.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
So how are well?
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Welcome Toothpick. I'm a big fan of those plastic toothpick things.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
I love them.
Speaker 7 (35:42):
Yeah, that's right wing toothpicks all.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
The way I go plastic like to ruin the environment.
Who would you like to partner up with, mister toothpick guy?
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Let's get let's go all right, we're.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
In it to win it. Go ahead. We have a
list of words one to ten. Phase in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
You were on first, so help us out there, Phase
and pick a number one number one.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
You didn't say it right. You didn't say it right,
despat job.
Speaker 7 (36:10):
Are you all right?
Speaker 1 (36:12):
No? No?
Speaker 4 (36:14):
There it is?
Speaker 9 (36:14):
There we go alright, go ahead, cool, all right, let's
go with uh, let's go with yes anytime plantation.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
Wow, Coop, how dare you?
Speaker 1 (36:33):
No?
Speaker 4 (36:33):
No, you Coop got excited for a second you thought
that you had said the thing. Let's go with homestead.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Up arm.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
We got the lead and we will not concede. You're
losing phase, you dope. You should have picked me?
Speaker 4 (36:56):
All right?
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Uh?
Speaker 7 (36:57):
Miss you kind of cheated right there, kind of like
yes you did. You're like you got excited because you.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Tell him.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Losing, mister toothpick, ignore him, mister toothpick two to ten?
Uh four, number four, Well that's a that's appropriate that
you would pick that because that's really the theme of
the show.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Uh, let's go.
Speaker 7 (37:25):
Well, I'm not trying to cheat, Coop.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Let's go with intricate, intricate, intricate, intricate, intricate.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
No clues, no clue, I don't have a clue.
Speaker 7 (37:38):
All right, Phase, let's go with convoluted.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Big word.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Guys, not that easy. Phase is not this job is
now you need an answer phase.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
You're gonna lose the game. You don't get this right,
that she here? No, you lost your face. You lost
face is a loser.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
You lost. We want, mister TOOTHI, all we need is
one word.
Speaker 7 (38:09):
We won the game, and you do
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for the Benmatlers Show at Foxsports Radio dot com.
You can find it there or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
We go to the city at broly Lof they played
the ninety sixth edition of the Midsummer Classic. Now, for
many years they played two All Star Games a year.
Can you imagine if they tried to play two All
Star games?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Now?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
These players bitch and complain so much. Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Back then, players thought, well, this is a great opportunity
to promote the game of baseball. Now it's really fascinating
to see how this has all played out. Anyway, the
Midsummer Classic took place on Tuesday night.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
It was on Foxes. Did you watch? Perhaps not? Well,
we watched so you would not have to.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
The American League All Stars soundly defeated the National League
All Stars for nothing. Now, if you were looking for drama,
if you were looking for excitement, heroics, you got that
in the home run derby. You did not get that
in the twenty twenty six MLB All Star Game, as
the AL picks.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Up the win.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Now they have dominated over the years, they had not
won since way back in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
I can't believe. I barely remember that. I was a
little child back in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So it was all about the pitching was good, pitching
bad hitting, Toronto's Dylan Cease setting the tone. The lidlifters
strike out one, two, three, there you go, strike out three,
scoreless first inning, and the Al staff took the baton
and completed the shutout, the National League All Stars getting
(01:57):
Bupkus Squad Douche and the the pitching staff for the
American League, combining for an All Star Game record fifteen
strikeouts and allowing just three hits. Holy Bob Gibson batman now.
The only additional scoring came in the eighth inning, when
someone named Miguel Vargas were told he plays for the
(02:17):
White Sox, crushed a four hundred and thirty three foot
home run a moonshot to extend the Al to the
final score, which was four to nothing. So that is
a good jumping on point. Let us discuss the question
for the esteem panel, and here it is, give me
the thumbnail recap.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
What stood out?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
What are you gonna remember about the twenty twenty six
MLB All Star Game in Philly. So I've got Princess Cruises,
bud Light, and Hallmark Card.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
And we'll put all of these things together.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And we are going to do the Hogy Pogy. I
don't even know what that is. It just sounds like
a rhyme. So the Hogy pogy. All right, Now a
the All Star Game, which my favorite parts of the
All Star Game are the mascot photo and that's done prior.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
To the game.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And then I also enjoy the introductions when the players
come out and they're wearing their uniforms, and it's nice
that Baseball decided to actually go back to that as
they had gotten away with it. They were playing soft
they were wearing rather softball uniforms for a good amount
of time, and they've gone back to the traditional uniforms
in the All Star Game. As far as the game itself,
(03:29):
this All Star Game, it was the National League All
Stars provided a syllabus on how to provide a disaster class.
This was a fest. It was a snooze fest. I mean,
you don't have to sugarcoat it. We're on a daytime show,
we're on overnight. We can tell the truth. It sucked,
all right. This was not just a loss for the
National League. It was a total Philly flop. You know
(03:52):
how that Philly Special in the Super Bowl against the Patriots, Well,
this was the Philly flop. It began with starter Christopher Sanchez,
who ran into some early command issues, shall we say,
And by the time the first thing was over, he
had gotten tattooed so badly. How badly it was so
badly that the mound should have come with a yellow
(04:15):
and black parental advisory sticker they could have put right.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
There on the man.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
The American League effectively decided the game in the top
of the first inning. They hung a three spot crooked
number up courtesy of Ben Rice, who sucked in the
home run derby a Ribby signal here, and then a
two run knock by former Dodger and current Yankee Cody Bellinger,
and that was it, and he rode that.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
That opening swing.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Bellinger was the All Star Game MVP, rather lackluster MVP. Now,
the reason he was the MVP is they could not
slice up the trophy to give every single pitcher for
the American League a piece of the trophy, and then
they had to figure out the math on that had
does everyone get the MVP bonus? So they just said, well,
give it to Bellinger. That's it now. As for the
(05:07):
other thing that I jotted down regarding the game itself
on the notes app that I have the Philadelphia delegation
led by Christopher Sanchez. If this was a political rally,
that was a total crash course on failure.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
So Sanchez got lit up.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Kyle Schwarber got beat the other night in the home
run derby at the Buzzer by Jordan Walker, the Redbird,
so that began the thing. He had Schwarber, Bryce Harper,
and Brandon marsh who got five at bats went zero
for five with four strikeouts. I didn't play in the
All Star Game. I'm told that's not good. It was
an emasculating performance. These hometown heroes went full princess cruises.
(05:51):
They wanted to escape completely and enjoy the freedom of
a nice relaxing cruise. Unfortunately, they were playing baseball and
that was a blueprint for failure. Is this a preview
of coming attractions for the Philadelphia Phillies if they were
to make.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
The playoffs down the line? Is this what we're going
to get.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
From Schwarber and Harper and Sanchez in the postseason? Stay tuned.
It was amusing yet again, as most of the people
who were on camera in the crowd were decked out
in Philadelphia Philly paraphernalia. And they didn't seem too police,
They did not seem too polease.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Now, page two.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
The broadcast for the All Star Game was not received
very well. It was heavily criticized. Now, Major League Baseball
made it a point of emphasis in this all stof
you didn't.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
See it or hear about it.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I know ostro Jant was watching every pitch, but for
those of you that weren't, they made a point of
emphasis of having what I believe is a new record
for bits. As my program director years ago would say, stick,
stick a lot a lot of bits, the bits kibbles
and bits kibbles and bits during the game there as
(07:05):
the theory was they were trying to showcase the personality
of the stars of baseball with endless in game interviews,
skits and other stuff. It was literally everywhere during the broadcast.
So the question give me your thoughts on the mic
(07:25):
up players and all the other stuff. The twenty twenty
six All Star Game added features the add.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Ons to the All Star Games.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
So this came. People are gonna blame Fox and TV
and all that. I promised you. I know a little
bit how they make the sausage. This came from two
forty five Park Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan. Two forty five Park Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan.
Those little weasels, Yeah, little weasels in my head, and
I know I'm gonna date myself. But there used to
be these great commercials from bud Light back in the day,
(07:56):
and I thought of that commercial thing when I was
watching the All Star Game.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Back in the day, they had these.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Real men of genius, and it would be like if
we would make a commercial be like today, we salute you,
mister Marketer turned the All Stars into twitch streamer Guy morphing,
the game into the unholy love child of a Saturday
night live episode on a corporate Ted Talk. One Star
simply played baseball. But you asked, what if we turned
(08:24):
them into YouTube influencers?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
While they were playing baseball.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
You gave us non stop sketches and forced fun like
Toronto's Dylan Cease and as catcher Shay Langeliers looking miserable
as they were miked up while going against Juan Soto.
He got so bad that Ceas actually quizzed John Smoltz,
the broadcaster for Advice mid count, who could forget Kyle
Schwarber's earpiece falling out three times while he was trying
(08:51):
to hit him the All Star Game. Or Bryce Harper
looking visibly disgusted during the direct interview while he was
trying to hit. And then you had for some of
this very odd roundtable where you had Justin Verlander, Cam
Schlitzler and the Miz. It looked like they were doing
a zoom call during the pandemic while the game was
(09:12):
going on. And now the Miz and Schlitler didn't seem
to please. Verlander was seemingly angling for some kind of
broadcasting job.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
He seemed like he was kind of into it.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So crack open a cold bud light, all great Sultan
of simultaneous content, and you traditionalists out there, you just
wanted to clean game, just wanted to watch the game.
But you knew that Major League Baseball marketing knows today's
audiences that aren't even watching the All Star Game, they
crave live stream reaction videos, and that is exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
What they got, all right.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Now, last word, So, the very end of the broadcast
with the announcers, I noticed something and I want to
run this by you because my head, this is something
I don't know if you.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Agree with me or not. So John Smoltz, the Fox.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Commentator, at the very end of the game, he thanked
all the All Stars who bothered to show up.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
To the game, all right, and.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Those that participated in their little shtick on the broadcast.
So the question did John Smoltz have alternative motives with
the end of All Star message? So it sounded to
me the tone was what we'd like to call a
dead John Smoltz was not just dropping a little polite hint.
(10:45):
He was throwing a wicked curveball like he was back
with the Atlanta Braves years ago and had some serious attitude.
It was a masterpiece of passive aggressive snark. That's what
it sounded like. I could drive by wrap than a
Hallmark card and to an old school guy skipping the
(11:06):
Midsummer Classic, which is a great honor, is total sacrilege,
And so.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
It sounded just the tone. You know, It's like when.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
He aggressively praised the guys who actually had the decency,
the common courtesy to show up and take part in
the dumb bits they were doing. The subtext was deafening.
It seemed like he was firing heavy artillery, throwing mortars
directly at the two biggest stars in baseball who I
don't think were there, Aaron Judge and sho Hey Otani,
(11:38):
and those guys got and the others. There were others
that were not part of this game and treated it
like it was a root canal, and Smoltz I got
the vibe. And again I'm using some psychobabble here that
Smolt's real message was dripping an acid. It's like, hey,
congratulations to the players who didn't treat this showcase like
(11:58):
a painful dentist appointment. And again that's how it sounded
on my TV. We also had the near miss Heard
round the world. The near miss heard around the world, Well,
what is that?
Speaker 4 (12:12):
That would be.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Junior Camonero, the Tampa Bay Rays third baseman who was
knocked out of the All Star Game and the incident happened.
It was in the third inning.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
He got hit by a pitch and he immediately ran off.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
The field and went in for x rays. Got hit
on the hand, and the x rays were negative. He's
I think fourth in baseball, got twenty eight dingers this year.
And it is baseball, though, so even if you don't
have a broken bone, it is possible as a baseball player,
(12:48):
Junior Camonaro could be out for a while. Baseball players
generally do not have toughness. They generally speaking, are down
for the count quite often when things like this happen.
So we'll see if he's out for any period of time,
but at least not broken. So it would appear that
(13:09):
if Junior Camonaro is out for a bit, so be it.
I did get into a little text thing with some
friends of mine in the in the media world. We
were all going.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Back and forth. Well, we did the what if or
I guess what about is what if?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
You know?
Speaker 4 (13:21):
That's that whole thing.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
What about if Otani was playing and he got hit?
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Would this be the end of the All Star Game?
Would they get rid of it? And we were we
were in agreement, We were.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Kind of in agreement that yeah, there would be if
Otani or Judge got hurt in the All Star Game,
got hit by a pitch, they'd make it like the
NFL and just have tic tac toe and and volleyball
and the other bull crap they do in the NFL
and get rid of the All Star Game. Junior Camanaro, though,
(13:54):
even though he's a good player, not a big enough
star for that devan, it turns out he's okay. It
turns out he's okay.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Mallar.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
I'll tell you it's a spin off of The Ben
mather Show, a cult hit overnights on FSR.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Why should you listen? Picture if you will a world will.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
We chat with captains of industry in media, sports, and
more every week explore some.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Amazing facts about human nature and more.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
So our lead this hour is from the boardroom, and
that is where MLB Commissioner Rob Manford held court and
renewed his push.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
For the cap, the cap, the cap, the cap, the cap,
the salary cap, arguing that the payroll gap it has
become impossible to ignore as the CBA Negotia Shans continues.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
So if you didn't see this in the lead up
to the All Star Game, perhaps you missed it. Manford
highlighted what he clanned was a four hundred and forty
one million dollar bay roll gap between the high spending,
high falutant Dodges and the lowest spender, the Miami Mars. Now,
technically the Mets have the highest payroll in baseball. The
Dodgers have the highest payroll if you include all the deferred.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Money, which whether they will be paying for.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Years and years and years and years and years and
years and years and years and years and years. Manford
said it defies human experience to ask a fan to
think that the bottom end of that gap has the
same opportunity to win as the top end.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Close quote.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
How he also said major League Baseball owners are unusually
unified on the issue. Declaring quote, Manford said, I have
an ownership group that is morenited than any group in
my entire time in baseball. So that is a good
jumping off point. Let us discuss the question, how do
(16:09):
you categorize Rob Manford campaigning for an MLB salary cap
as the commission. I've got farmers market, theater district, and
billiards and we will combine all of these things together
and remind you this is not going to pass the
smell test.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
My first thought is the quote by Manford is a
double whammy. Double whammy for baseball for the owners because
Manford is telling fans of teams in small markets that
they really She's implying you shouldn't support the team because
(16:51):
it defies human possibility that a team that's at the
bottom end can possibly end up winning. So why would
you support a losing team. The other thing that he's
doing is he is it's a shot at his own business,
which he has run for all these years that he
has not been able to get these tightwad teams to
(17:14):
spend more money. The problem is not the Dodgers, the
problems the Marlins and the Athletics and the Rays and
teams like that. That's the problem, and he doesn't want
to address that. And it's not about saving baseball, all right,
it's not about saving baseball, as we say, it's about
saving billionaire owners from themselves.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
And of course Rob Manford.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Who is hired as a conduit from the ownership group,
is going to say that they're completely united. Did you
expect anything else? Are you that big a simpleton? Do
you expect Mamford to come out?
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah, we got like half the owners. They don't give
a crap. They don't They don't want to sell a cap. Yeah,
come on, voting to pay less in peril. Just think
about this logic. And it's possible you've never owned a
business and you've always worked for someone.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
And you've never done anything on your own. You've always
had a boss.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
But just think of this logically, if you're the owners
and you put a rule in to cap, how much
you've got to pay the players? Therefore, don't you guarantee
more profits? Isn't that the easiest vote to cast? And
Manford talking about like four hundred, he said, four hundred
(18:23):
and forty one million in payroll gap. And that doesn't
prove the system is broken. It just proves that there
are many more cheap teams that treat baseball like a
coupon clipping hobby, extreme coupon clipping. And that's the issue,
that's the disease. Right, Teams who refuse to spend are
the ones who have failed baseball, and the commissioner doesn't
(18:46):
have the balls to call them out. In the Marlins
A's Pirates, the usual suspects. They can spend much more
money than they're spending. They can't spend as much as
the Dodgers. They don't have to, right, you just have
to close the gap a little bit. They simply chew
not to. They simply choose not to. And they've been
that way for years and years and years now. Manford
(19:06):
conveniently leaves out meanwhile, a couple of things, and this
is where he's working at a local farmer's market. Rob
Manford working at the farmer's market cherry picking, and he
is so good at cherry picking. Rob Manford, del Monte
should hire him as an advisor.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
He's that good.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I notice that Manford never said franchises are bleeding cash.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
That they're losing money, they're in the red. He never
said that.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
He can't say it because it's not true, right, And
if he does say it, then the players will be Okay,
show us, let's have a third party and let's do
some accounting and we'll we'll audit the books and we'll
see if that's the case. He's not saying that, you know, No, no, no, no,
he's just claiming that fans can't believe.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
In the actual little guys. So give me a bloody blake,
give me a break.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Even Osiewash notes, that's nonsense, right, that's not a real
financial argument. That is more like a fairy tale told
at bedtime. Now page two. So Rob Manford also acknowledged
that baseball has repeatedly tried to address competitive balance through
the what they call it the luxury tax. But you
(20:19):
know what that means, he admitted, quote, sometimes you got
to admit you fail. Manford said, all right, question, where
does Rob Manford and his admission that he failed with
the luxury tax?
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Where does that land with you? All right?
Speaker 1 (20:37):
So I took out my GPS and the maps app
on my phone. On the GPS, which is never wrong.
It pinned this in the theater district, making this pure
I'm talking completely authentic kabuki theater. Manford's failure is actually
(20:59):
a success story, and it's a success story for something
called the long con, which Major League Baseball has been
efforting since the nineties workstoppage. The long con is used
to justify a hard cap, and this is all part
of the master plan. When he says Manford, we failed,
it's a commissioner's dog whistle. It's a dog whistle, and
(21:25):
it signals to owners that it's finally time to unleash
the doomsday device, the union bunker buster from Major League
Baseball's ownership group. Manford does not mean the sport failed.
He does not mean that. That's a misnomer. Rob Manford means,
(21:45):
and the way I interpreted this, that the luxury tax
failed to prove we can live without a cap, right funny?
How will eagerly admit to that, or he'll meet admit
I'm not admitting it. He'll admit to that yet, Manford,
I'm still waiting for to admit that he completely fed
up and he let the twenty seventeen cheating a one
(22:06):
one thousand and two one thousand holes them in Houston,
skate bang bang, whis the whist, the whistle, all that
during the World Series, and let them get away with that,
let them skate like it was a event at the
Winter Olympics. And he'll also never concede that those ghost
runners are a stain on the game. He won't admit that,
(22:29):
choosing instead to treat a Little League fever dream like
some kind of sacred baseball tradition. It's all backwards. It's
all backwards now, final point. So the Commissioner's comments helping
to escalate the tensions, the rhetoric going back and forth.
Everyone's playing in the court of public opinion. And the
(22:50):
expiration date the doomsday clock.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick December first,
just after the World Series, December one. That's it.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Turn out at the last the parties over. Yeah, that's
the end date on the labor deal. And so the
Baseball Players Association continuing to have their own rhetoric. They
are passionately rejecting the salarycap. Their argument is the sport
is financially healthy, and that competitive imbalance is caused by
(23:22):
some owners choosing not to spend money ding ding ding
ding ning, not by flaws in the system and Major
League Baseball here's the key part of this. So they've
been running commercials online and also on old media promoting
a salarycap as part of their level the Playing Field campaign.
Major League Baseball itself as aired ads pushing for a
(23:45):
salarycap and floor in the next collective bargaining agreement. Now,
union officials were asked about that, and they do you
think they A said, boy, that's great, it's wonderful. They're
running commercials promoting baseball and a salarycap. Be no comment
or see what the f is wrong with you?
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Losers? Ding? Well, if you if you.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Pick see, that's the right answer. If you pick see,
that's the right answer. Yeah, Baseball's union said the commercials
are perverse. Perverse is the word used by the union boss.
So the question what is the proper bucket for the
baseball union calling MLB's commercials for a salary cap perverse.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
So the baseball owners.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Here are running these I'm gonna call them there sleazy
Super Bowl style commercials for a salary cap.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
And they're doing it to brainwash the low information fan,
the dullar. That's what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
And they know there's enough dumb dumbs out there that
are mesmerized by a TV commercial where they're like, oh,
oh that makes sense, okay, and they can convince people
it doesn't seem great for the business that you're telling
people we must have a salary cap. A actually, because
baseball is dying and the only thing that can save it.
(25:04):
The only silver bullet that we have is this hard
salary cap.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
That's it. So the proper bucket for this would be
the billiard's bucket.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
And you talk about playing some dirty pool here, it
is like they hired Johnny Archer, the Scorpion great pool player,
to run the table playing some dirty pool, and the
owners want the fans to think they're behind the eight ball,
and the Union is entirely right to call this perverse.
They are owners are pushing this doom and gloom mole,
(25:39):
this doom and gloom propaganda about competitive balance and suffering
small markets to scare everyone.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
But you know what that means.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
They really just want to crush the players and make
sure that the owners get more profit. And it is
one of the only things in life where a number
of people root for the oligarchs. You don't get this
in other spots. No one is out there campaigning saying
the people.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
That own Walmart need to make more money.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
No one's saying right, No one's saying, well, I really
wish Apple would raise the price of the iPhone so
we can make more money. No. In as it was
pointed out, if they actually cared about the fans, they
would not be spending millions of dollars Baseball on this
(26:33):
manipulative marketing campaign. And Bruce Meyer, the guy that's the
union boss, he pointed out that the ownership group likes
to talk about.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
The fans, the fans, the fans, the fans boss, the fans.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
They all want this, they want this salary cap. Right, And,
as he pointed out, if they owners really did pay
attention to what the fans wanted, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the
Athletics and several other teams would have new owners sell
the team, sell the team, sell the team. Well, how
often does that work. The only time it's really worked
(27:09):
is with the Dodgers and Frank McCourt, and that has
turned into the Blue Dynasty of Major League Baseball. The
corporate Dodgers have dominated. However, here's the these owners are
wearing when when fans chant you sell the team, sell
the team.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
The owners wear these.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Special skull Candy headphones, and that the headphones allow them
to hear only what they want to hear while they
laugh all the way to the direct deposit.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
And that's how they operate.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Here we go, Here we go, Here we go.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Mallard, how about that to the third degree, This is
one big event gets grilled.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
Coop a Loop, an anonymous NFL personnel evaluator, predict this
week that.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
I love those coop ye and I just can't get
enough great sources.
Speaker 6 (28:08):
They predicted this week that Lamar Jackson will have a
big year, saying this is like a contract year for
him coming up like a contract here, Ben, do you
think Lamar will have a bounce back season this year?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
The issue with Lamar's health and he's getting older. He
does not appear to be taking care of himself. My
boots on the ground tell me he's enjoying himself, which
is great. But as you get to a certain point
in your athletic career, if you do not take care
of yourself.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
It eventually catches up with you, and that if he plays,
he'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
But he's gonna have the auchies and he's gonna have
the injuries, and so it doesn't matter. He's gonna get
peet either way, whether the Ravens pay him or he's
got enough MVP awards and enough on his resume that
someone's gonna pay him.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
So he'll get the money whether he has a big
year or not.
Speaker 6 (28:56):
Next the NFL is revealing their annual top one hundred
player rankings, and Michael Parsons isn't happy about where his
quarterback landed. Seventy one players in the NFL aren't better
than Jordan Love, Parsons road Ben Is Love properly.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Ranked well, Micah Parsons, you know, to quote Tony Bruno,
it's an outrage.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
You know, it's not the top quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Obviously, if you just go by quarterbacks, Jordan Love would
be higher than seventy one.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
I think that's about right.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
There's a lot of players in the NFL's eleven positions
on offense, eleven positions on defense. That seems about right
to me. Jordan Love is inconsistent. There are moments he's
the top quarterback in the NFL. There's a lot of
moments where he's average, a lot of moments where he's
not that great, So I.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Think it's about where he should be next.
Speaker 6 (29:43):
The Dodgers are the best record in baseball and are
predictably a top most power rankings ben.
Speaker 7 (29:47):
Which team do you think puts up the greatest challenge
to a three peat?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Well, if everyone's clicking, obviously, the Yankees are in the
World Series down the line, the Philadelphia Phillies.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
I don't really think the Atlanta Braves that much or
the Milwaukee Bruce. How do we doing cool?
Speaker 7 (30:04):
You passed this mission?
Speaker 4 (30:05):
That's so we'd put it on the board.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Exciting news.
Speaker 7 (30:28):
Queve, she wants to talk to you. Such a great song.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
This is Milkman Mike in Colorado. Right, Yes, job, Jay
Scoop teamed up with Milkman Mike.
Speaker 7 (30:58):
Another one is great.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Yeah. So what do we got? What do we got got?
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yeah? We got question We got questions. You want questions?
We got questions Lorena, rob and the three two one who's.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
Working the day shift.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
He says, what do you feel is more attractive shaved
head with a nice shaped beard or clean shaven with
a full head of groomed hair.
Speaker 8 (31:19):
Ooh, that's a great question, because, well, for one, I
also think you're missing one with the big hair and.
Speaker 7 (31:26):
The facial hair. No, that's not that Ruin's the point
of the question.
Speaker 6 (31:32):
I like.
Speaker 7 (31:34):
Which one?
Speaker 4 (31:34):
Did you like anything?
Speaker 7 (31:36):
The one with the guy who has everything?
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Come on, Lorena, throw the ball. Guys like me at
bald Come on, Lorena.
Speaker 7 (31:44):
Come on, I had a very long relationship with that.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
Okay, I just like a beard.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
I like it.
Speaker 8 (31:51):
You get to pet it, you know, it's nice.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
I don't really pet beards. But you know, I've never
met I've never there is a bearded woman a bed.
No I didn't. I saw them as a kid at
the circus or whatever. Are the stateable women?
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Yes, lovely lady Michael, and Tulsa says, in addition to
the blankety blankety blankety, what is the best breakfast to
make for your significant other?
Speaker 4 (32:14):
So, like you said, the breakfast sausage? What else is
you know?
Speaker 7 (32:18):
You always have to have a well rounded meal for breakfast.
Speaker 8 (32:20):
But I like homemade French toasts with crispy bacon.
Speaker 7 (32:24):
And you always have to have eggs.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
I don't care what style you.
Speaker 8 (32:27):
Make them, what you prefer, but I think it's a
good protein to mix in there.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
I really like eggs. I'll tick scrambled though with some cheese.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
Or scrambled with cheese is so good.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Solid ferg Dog.
Speaker 7 (32:37):
Like your eggs really dry, don't you?
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Ben No?
Speaker 4 (32:40):
I like him well done, but.
Speaker 7 (32:43):
I also like a five year old just however, what
do I like?
Speaker 4 (32:48):
I like cornby fash. I love cornby fashion. That's that's
a solid.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
The ferg Dog says, you know of any dating sites
of the cater to nine O two one o super fans.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
It's actually a really good idea for a dating site. Yeah,
I don't know that that one of those group chats
on Facebook. They have a lot of different groups on there.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
It feels like more of a redded thing. Let's say
hello to Stevie Meatballs. Who has a question to those?
Stevie Meatballs welcome.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Good morning everybody. How are you?
Speaker 4 (33:20):
We don't have time for that, Stevie meables all right?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
All right, Loraina I got to run something past you.
All right. I'm fifty three years old now, Okay. Back
in high school, I lived in the western suburbs of
Fort Lauderdale, and I went to this old Catholic high
school way down to Port Larder. It was like a
forty minute drive home. So when I finally got my
driver's license, I used to drive like three or four
people home every day. The last person I would drop
(33:46):
off every day, this girl Amanda, one day professed her
feelings for me right when I was into some other
girl that had a boyfriend. Oh, no, way in my league.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
So I turned her down right, yeah, question quickly.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
I remember, I just remember this like a year ago. Okay,
all I remember is the first name.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
I don't know what's the question.
Speaker 7 (34:08):
I think he wants to go find her.
Speaker 8 (34:09):
And if you want to go find her, I would
definitely go on Facebook and look her up. You could
go into your class, like your school class here, good luck?
Speaker 4 (34:17):
All right?
Speaker 7 (34:18):
Question next time?
Speaker 4 (34:19):
If you if you like barbecue, Lorena, should a man
always do the grilling?
Speaker 5 (34:23):
Yes? No?
Speaker 4 (34:24):
Yes, all right, she said, yes quick. Queen of Heart.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Attention everyone,
and the password is.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
Password, you idiot, password the word Game of the Stars.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Here's Ben Meler.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
All let's do it. Here we go Password time. Man,
let's welcome in our contestants for password. We have a
Phase in Chicago. Hello, Phase, welcome.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Quint up Man. There he is my man.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Phase met him and a couple of years ago. And
then who do you want to partner with with Phase?
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Wait?
Speaker 4 (35:12):
All you want to be a loser?
Speaker 6 (35:15):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (35:16):
Loraina picked one, two or three?
Speaker 3 (35:20):
One?
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Tour number three? Well you have picked? What does it say? Toothpick?
You picked a guy named toothpick in Fort Worth. Hello Toothpick, welcome.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
So how are well?
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Welcome Toothpick. I'm a big fan of those plastic toothpick things.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
I love them.
Speaker 7 (35:42):
Yeah, that's right wing toothpicks all.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
The way I go plastic like to ruin the environment.
Who would you like to partner up with, mister toothpick guy?
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Let's get let's go all right, we're.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
In it to win it. Go ahead. We have a
list of words one to ten. Phase in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
You were on first, so help us out there, Phase
and pick a number one number one.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
You didn't say it right. You didn't say it right,
despat job.
Speaker 7 (36:10):
Are you all right?
Speaker 1 (36:12):
No? No?
Speaker 4 (36:14):
There it is?
Speaker 9 (36:14):
There we go alright, go ahead, cool, all right, let's
go with uh, let's go with yes anytime plantation.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
Wow, Coop, how dare you?
Speaker 1 (36:33):
No?
Speaker 4 (36:33):
No, you Coop got excited for a second you thought
that you had said the thing. Let's go with homestead.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Up arm.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
We got the lead and we will not concede. You're
losing phase, you dope. You should have picked me?
Speaker 4 (36:56):
All right?
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Uh?
Speaker 7 (36:57):
Miss you kind of cheated right there, kind of like
yes you did. You're like you got excited because you.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Tell him.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Losing, mister toothpick, ignore him, mister toothpick two to ten?
Uh four, number four, Well that's a that's appropriate that
you would pick that because that's really the theme of
the show.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Uh, let's go.
Speaker 7 (37:25):
Well, I'm not trying to cheat, Coop.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Let's go with intricate, intricate, intricate, intricate, intricate.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
No clues, no clue, I don't have a clue.
Speaker 7 (37:38):
All right, Phase, let's go with convoluted.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Big word.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Guys, not that easy. Phase is not this job is
now you need an answer phase.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
You're gonna lose the game. You don't get this right,
that she here? No, you lost your face. You lost
face is a loser.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
You lost. We want, mister TOOTHI, all we need is
one word.
Speaker 7 (38:09):
We won the game, and you do
Host
Ben Maller
Popular Podcasts
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.