February 11, 2020 • 41 mins
Big Ben talks about potential changes to MLB playoffs, a former Blue Jays player suing the Astros, Maller to the Third Degree, Maller's Mountain of Money: Jennifer Aniston Edition, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mallers
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
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(00:23):
This is the best of the Ben Maller Show on
Fox Sports Radio. We have a lot of lawsuits to
talk about, which is always I like that because I
get to practice law behind the microphone of Fox Sports Radio.
So we will get to those as we make our
(00:44):
sojourn to the overnight hours. But the story that caught
my attention that I really wanted to ran about because
people are getting really worked up about this and their
their blood is boiling. They're gonna have heart attacks here.
And I don't know why you would have a coron
area over something like this, but Major League Baseball is
mulling radical changes to its postseason play. Now I realize
(01:04):
it's February and pitchers and catchers are starting to go
to spring training, and there's no real meaningful baseball until
like October. I understand that I'm aware of that, but
I find this interesting. I find this interesting, and I
can talk about what I think is interesting, and I
think this is an interesting deal. If you haven't heard
about it, if you've been out of the loop. Here Supposedly,
(01:25):
the powers that be that run baseball are planning to
increase the number of teams. Currently, there are ten teams
that make the playoffs. They're gonna go to fourteen. So
they're gonna add two teams in the National League and
two in the American League. But they're also going to
add a reality TV type format to determine who gets
to play each other in the wild card round. Because
(01:47):
you're gonna have more teams in the wildcard round. Each
league would have three division winners still and four wild
card teams that would make up the postseason. They're the
best team in the league, each league, American, National League,
they get a buy. It's like the NFL, right, you
get a buy. You have the top two records in
both baseball or in football, and you get a buy.
You know, to worry about number one seed, number two seed.
(02:09):
You get the week off. So it works, and so
baseball wants to do that just for the top team
in each league and the two remaining division winners and
the wild card teams with the best record of the
four would have to you know, would host all the
games there. There would be no road games. The team
with the better record would host all three games in
(02:30):
the opening round. So there's a lot to it. There's
more than that, but that's the meat and potatoes of it.
So there's a lot to talk about. So let's discuss
the question. What's the big takeaway from this proposal from
Rob Manford that was leaked to his media buddies, And
really the whole point of this is to get reaction
for people to see where the temperature in the room is. Now,
(02:51):
I disagree with that flushing of the toilet. I disagree.
You've got you've got sugar daddies, interlopers and are the
official and we will combine all these together will make
some Bob a good news. Now, Hey, Rob Manford, who
gets plenty of abuse when I'm here, When I take
over the powerful microphones of Fox Sports Radio, I unload
(03:14):
on Rob Manford. He's our punching bag. We like picking
on Rob Manford. He deserves it. He should be charbroiled
over the Astros tobacco, which is continuing more in that
later Nevertheless, the expanded postseason plan, I liked what I heard.
Call me crazy. I liked what I heard. I didn't
think it sucked. I think it was tera wasn't the
worst thing in the world. Now, listen is less more? Yes,
(03:37):
I learned years ago at iHeart University, less is more
when in doubt throw it out. Those are all principles
I learned. But if you know the situation and you
look at what could happen and what possibly is not
going to happen, you gotta give this a thumbs up.
I like what I saw Why. The main reason I
(03:58):
liked this is inevitable. As much as you are someday
going to die and you are going to have to
pay taxes or you're going to jail, it is inevitable
that the postseason and Major League Baseball is going to
expand that was always the plan. When they started the
wild card there was one wildcard team, then they expanded
into two wild cards, and then they eventually the master
(04:22):
plan by the people that planned this all out, the Gatekeepers,
was to keep expanding the postseason slowly and baseball is
in a never ending battle to expand postseason because you
have to keep up with the Joneses, and that's where
the revenue is. And it's all about having new products
(04:43):
to sell. Who buys these products, and it's not you
and I. It's the sugar daddies that run television, the
executives of TV networks. They're the ones that bank roll
Major League Baseball, and if that ever dries up, where
they'll be a big rollback and how much players make
in salary. But the idea here in the made for
(05:04):
TV reality format, major League Baseball would essentially turn the
playoff matchups in the first round to a schoolyard dodgeball
game where you have to pick sides when you're back
in like fourth grade in elementary school, and you have
to pick side. Someone's feelings are going to get hurt.
And I like it because somebody is not gonna be
(05:27):
picked right, they're gonna offended. And the team either way,
either you're not picked and you're offended, or you're the
first team picked and you're offended. Everyone's gonna be in
a tizzy and they're gonna be all whining and MOPy
and all that, and really, what Baseball is doing is
taking a page out of the NC Double A's playbook,
and the plan is to have all of this play
(05:49):
out in real time on television, a made for TV
spectacular on a Sunday night, the last day of the
baseball season. But by the way, there'll be a Sunday
night NFL game going on, so no one will be watching,
but they plan it to be the last Sunday of
the regular season. Each team of the division winners that
aren't the number one seed will have representation and they
(06:11):
will pick on live television, just like the Selection show.
How cool is that? Will they have cheerleaders? And will
they have the mascots and all that? Are they gonna
really maybe bring Dick vital In if he's still around
when this is going on? Why not? Now? It's all
to drive revenue, right. Major League Baseball will then sell
the rights to this new fugazi show as part of
(06:34):
a nice attractive television package and you can put advertising
in that and tanda make a lot of money now.
Part be here. Adding extra teams of the playoffs is
certainly not without playmish, and I am not to someone
that's out there cheerleading for this to happen. I just
know that it's going to happen anyway, whether I like
it or not. Some will say the jump to ten
(06:54):
to fourteen is not that big. It is. I believe
it is a rather large jump. There's a lot of
mediocrity in Major League Baseball today, and one of the
big problems with the sport is many of the teams
don't try to win. It's a pandemic, sam Hinky disease,
tanking is all over the place. But this will further
dilute the regular season, at least, that's the argument against
(07:16):
adding more teams. And I've seen people banging the drum here.
It's like, this is not going to encourage teams to
spend more money, and teams will say, we don't have
to spend more money because there's more playoff spots and
you've got one hundred and sixty two days and nights
of inventory that become less valuable during the regular season
with every new playoff spot that you create. That's the
(07:39):
argument against it. But I'll play Devil's advocate, right because, yeah,
major League Baseball, are they guaranteeing themselves that there'll be
some interlopers that make the postseason yeah, there'll be some
people crashing the party that are not supposed to be
there among the elite teams. But the counter argument here
is that they put enough qualifiers in there so you
(08:03):
still are value winning in the regular season, that that's
going to offset the disparity, meaning that if you have
the top record in baseball, you immediately advanced to the
second round, so you are encouraged to continue to try
to win games. When you've already wrapped up a division title,
for example, you've run away with it, you still have
to finish ahead of the other teams because you then
(08:24):
get the first round by So that's good, right. I
like that. And if you're a wildcard team, you don't
get any home games. Now, some teams don't mind if
Washington Nationals were a great road team, but a lot
of times people would rather be at home. And the
rules are legitimately different in baseball depending on where you play.
A baseball game at Finway Park is much different than
a game at Dodger State in the way it plays
because of the dimensions of the ballpark and all that.
(08:46):
But major League Baseball they've got fourteen. They will have
fourteen playoff teams, which would still be less than the
NBA that has sixteen. Now the NFL continues to have
the fewest teams. What are they They're at ten right
they've got the three division winners and then they've got
the two wildcard teams in each conference. But that is
eventually going to expand. And it's like when you need
(09:08):
petty cash, what do you do? You expand the postseason.
That's how it works. You expand the postseason, you add
more teams in, and that's how it goes. And though
somebody will cut your check and you'll go down to
the bank and you'll put the check in the bank,
and then you'll take the money out and you'll spend
the money on what you want to spend it on.
Then the last warrior. So the more rounds of the
playoffs you add in theory, the more quirky the outcome.
(09:30):
And I've gone back and forth on this because I
was thinking about it because I have no life and
I think about these kind of things. Is it better
or worse? Now? It's always been random, the randomness of
the baseball postseason, which is both a blessing and a curse.
It's a blessing if you're a second rate team like
the Nationals and you win a World Series. It's a
(09:51):
curse if you're a team like the Dodgers and you
end up blowing it because of the randomness of baseball,
and that's not going to change. An average team can
have a week one week in a playoff series when
they bat five seventy is a team and advanced. A
great team with all the top pitching can have some
projectile vomit and go out in the mound and have
(10:14):
a couple of bad starts in a row and be eliminated.
The greatest example of this would be the Detroit Tigers,
who years ago had Justin Verlander. They had David Price
and the guy from the Nationals, Max Scherzon. They had
three either have won the side or about to win
the cy young and they lost to the Baltimore Orioles
(10:35):
in a short playoff series. But they had the great pitch.
They didn't pitch that well for that week and they lost.
And you're also opening up Pandora's box. Is what you're
doing here, because you are again and we mentioned this earlier,
but you're you're allowing unwanted visitors to enter the postseason.
And the more unwanted visitors you welcome in the chances
(10:58):
are that one of them will end up or possibly
two of them in the World Series, and that's problematic
because you want the top Darling teams in there, because
that's good for ratings in theory. And while you don't
have to worry about the top teams losing the wildcard
round because you have to buy and you don't have
to worry about that, which is a nice thing, you
don't have to worry about any kind of roadblock in
(11:21):
that department, it does create more bad actors that could
further erode the later rounds of the playoffs with the mismatches. Nevertheless,
overall I like the plan. It creates some artificially awkward
and uncomfortable drama and artificial uncomfortable awkward drama. It's not
(11:43):
the worst thing. It's not the worst thing. This is
kind of what the NBA does with these faghasy All
star contests where they have players picked and all that.
But overall I give it the thumbs up. It creates
that situation but makes teams deal with distress and anxiety
of having to pick who they want to play, pick
your poison in the wild card round. Of the playoffs
(12:05):
for that second team in the American in the National League.
It adds a layer of stress, it adds a layer
of anxiety. It's an inconvenience that they have to do this.
People's feelings will be hurt, They'll be an emotional wreck,
and it makes for good talk radio. So anything that
makes for good talk radio I fully support. I admit,
I admit I'm looking out from my own interest slutely
(12:28):
I'm doing. I gotta lie about that, of course. 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. Another Day and another
plot twist involving the Dark Arts. It's the code that
the cheaters from Texas. We're using to have the greatest
(12:51):
three year run in the history of baseball during the
regular season, the Astros, and they are going to have
to lawyer They're gonna have to lawyer up. The inevitable
has happened. If you've not heard the latest, maybe you
were out of the loop. You weren't paying attention. Someone
by the name of Mike Bullsinger who Mike Bullsinger, former
(13:12):
Major League pitchers. Former Big League pitcher Mike Bulsinger has
filed a civil lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court
against the Houston Astros for unfair business practices. But there's
a whole lot more now. Bullsinger, who at the time
was a pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, and he
(13:35):
had the misfortune of going against the said Astros when
it was bang bang and all that a Bullsinger is
seeking unspecified damages for interfering with and harming his career.
He's also asking the Astros forfeit nearly thirty million dollars
(13:56):
in postseason shares and their twenty seventeen World Series title,
with the money going to the children charities around Los
Angeles and a fund for old players retired baseball players.
So let us discuss the question, does Mike Bulsinger have
a case against the Astros. Surprisingly, the answers, yes, he
(14:18):
does have a case. You've got indisputable smear campaign and
the boogeyman, and we will combine these things together and
we'll make some banana cream pie, which Skeeter in Montana
is going to provide for us. Banana Creampie now number one.
While the lawsuit at first glance, certainly seems for gaze.
(14:42):
I'm not gonna deny that it is positioned as unfair
business practices, but that's just a smoke screen. Mike Bulsinger
is really suing the Astros for ending his major League
baseball career by cheating, and he can present a very
compelling case. And that's why there is something thing to this.
It is not something you just toss away like tissue.
(15:04):
This is exactly what happened it. Major League Baseball has
admitted the Astros broke the rules with the dark arts. Correct. Yes,
there's a report out by Rob Manford. It didn't go
to great detail, but it did admit and people were
punished for what happened, So that's not up for debate.
The question is not whether the Astros cheated. They did.
(15:25):
Baseball's admitted they cheated. People have lost their job as
a result of the Astros dark arts, so that's an
open and shut case. Now. Furthermore, Mike ball Singer, whose
big league career really did end on August fourth, his
appearance against the Astros in twenty seventeen. He was out
of the big leagues at age thirty one. He's thirty two.
(15:46):
Now it's indisputable. He was forced to pitch in the
Japanese League in twenty eighteen to twenty nineteen, out of baseball,
out of pro baseball in America, and Bolsinger came out
of the Blue Jay bullpen. If you don't know the story,
he was pitching for Toronto. It was the fourth inning
and he got tattooed, give up four runs on four hits,
(16:08):
walked three batters while recording only one out. It was
almost like they knew exactly what was coming every time
he delivered a pitch. It's amazing, you know why, spoiler alert,
They didn't know exactly what pitch was coming. Ball Singer's lawsuit.
One of the interesting parts I read through it is
(16:28):
he highlighted remember that story we talked about the Astro
fan that's a graphic designer. This guy named Tony Adams,
who's big Astro fan. He did an in depth study.
He tracked every available Astro's home game in twenty seventeen
four bank bang and whistle while you're working all that.
The results of that study indicated that Bullsinger, Mike Bullsinger's
(16:52):
outing had fifty four trash can bangs that were heard
the most the entire season, the most the entire season.
So that now the Blue Jays designated him for assignment
after that game. He never appeared in the major leagues again,
and he did have to go to Japan, as we
said to pitch. So this seems like a pretty compelling
(17:13):
case if Baseball's admitted the Astros have cheated, and this
guy did the research and determined that there the peak
of their cheating was when he Bowlsinger was on the mound.
You see where this is leading. You see where if
you were on a jury where this is leading now
the second finger. So what's the Astro's defense gonna be, right, Well,
(17:33):
let's think this through logically. If you were providing defense
and you were part of the legal team to defend
the Astros, they will they will claim, well, this guy's
a bump, right. They can't claim they didn't do it
because Baseball's admitted they did it, so they will instead
use a smear campaign. They're like bull Singer, he's terrible.
He would have been out of baseball anyway, and it's
(17:54):
his responsibility to change his signs, and they'll do the
classic victim shaming. And if that fails. The Astros will
then mix in some classical character assassination. How will that work?
I'll walk you through that. They will look at Bulsinger's
Baseball reference page and they will note his many failures
before he got to Houston with Toronto and got rocked
(18:18):
by the Astros. Bolsinger had an eight and sixteen career
record within the ERA of four point six one while
pitching for Arizona and the Dodgers prior to going to
the Blue Jays. So what's his counter argument when the
Astro's defense lawyers say, well, yeah, this guy's is stiff,
this guy's a turn Well, his counter argument Bulsinger was
(18:41):
actually a serviceable starting pitcher in Los Angeles. Over an
entire season. He had a seven and ten record for
the Dodgers. I think that was in twenty fifteen. Had
an ERA of about four and a half, which is
an average major league pitcher. It's kind of pitcher in
midjor league baseball. I can have a job for a
long time, and the Houston lawyers they may go to
their bag of dirty tricks and use everyone was doing it.
(19:04):
I always like when they bring up the everyone was
doing it defense. I always get a kick out of
that one. I like that one a lot. Final point,
so imagine the roller coaster ride that this civil lawsuit
takes if it reaches And this is the key thing here,
This is the smoking gun, the discovery phase. All right,
this is the trump card. This is the ultimate win
(19:29):
for Mike Bulsinger. And this is what's gonna sway this
particular case. Again, You've got Baseball at meeting that the
Astros cheated. You've got the report saying that the peak
of the cheating was when Bulsinger was on the mound
in that game back in twenty seventeen when he was
pitching for Toronto. But we are talking about discovery, which
means depositions, which means Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and all
(19:51):
these other bozos getting called into the principal's office and
all the front office types that are scattered around baseball.
You're about depositions, documents, sworn answers to written questions that
are going to have to be taken by all these
people involved, past and present from the Astro. So this
is going to be a nuisance that Major League Baseball
(20:14):
is gonna do what they're gonna try to brush this aside,
just like they attempted to brush aside the Astros cheating,
and they're gonna try to make this disappear. They're gonna
use a pen and teller magic trick to try to
make this just vanish. And the smart money says, what
happens here the endgame is that Major League Baseball ends
up settling this lawsuit out of court to end the aggravation.
(20:37):
But to say that Bolsinger has no case, I do
not believe that to be true. If he's willing to
go through, and I assume that the lawyers involved in
this are doing this for a cut of some kind
of money that comes out of it, that Bolsinger is
not paying hourly for these attorneys. If that is accurate,
then there's even a better chance that this goes forward.
But again the smart money says that Baseball end up
(20:59):
settling out of court to end the aggravation because discovery
is the boogeyman that Baseball must avoid at all CAUs
they want no pot of the bugey man. Stay away
from the boogeyman. Now, major League Baseball is living in
a paralleled dimension, right. They seem to think that you're
an idiot and maybe you are an idiot, but I
(21:20):
give you more credit than major League Baseball. The people
that run Baseball think that this story is just gonna
fade into the abyss. No, no, no, no, no. You
know and I know, and every man, woman and child
knows that Baseball is going to attempt the old cover up.
They've already started it, right, gonna mandate broadcasters not talk
about this. The people that are employees of the teams
(21:42):
won't be able to talk about it openly. It's not
gonna work. You know why it's not gonna work very simply.
You can't unring the bell, and the toothpaste is out
of the tomb. You ever tried to put the toothpaste
back in the tomb? You get some of it in,
but you can't get it all. It smears the toothpaste everywhere.
You cannot do it. And I don't want to hear
(22:03):
about the YouTube videos of people that know cut open
the toothpaste. Don't send me those. I've seen enough of them. Okay,
any reasonable person knows that you can't put the toothpaste
back into two There's no getting it back. And this
is the first of many class action they'll be class
action lawsuits. My man, Roberto gonna go to small claims court.
(22:23):
He lost. He's still paying off his world series, taking
it from twenty seventeen. He's gonna get it, try to
get some of that money back. And so the beat
goes on, and so it goes on. So again I've
made my argument. I believe ball Singers got a case
and you can tell me if you agree or not.
Sound of aj Hine taking a dump from twenty seventeen. Yeah,
(22:44):
and Roberto, you missed it. But we did a Mala
monologue yesterday where we highlighted the fact that that the
manager at the time of the Astros, aj Hinge, went
asked and that that ridiculous interview they did with state
run MLBtv on Friday night over the weekend and aj
Hinch was asked point blank were there buzzers used by
Astral players. He did not deny. He did not deny,
(23:07):
He gave a non answer. He would not answer the question,
which tells you they were using the busters. That Altoba
when he ran off the field and he didn't want
his little jersey because he's a little guy. He didn't
want his little jersey ripped off. It's because there was
a buzzer, and and that's why aj Hinch would admit
to it, because if it didn't happen, you admit to it,
(23:28):
because it's not going to come out that it happened.
But he didn't admit to it because he thinks he's
gonna get a job in baseball. Someone's gonna hire that
weasel aj Hinch, that Mama Luke's gonna get a job
with somebody. And he doesn't want this coming out three
or four years from now when he's working, because he'll
lose his job again and he doesn't want to be
a party that. Be Sure to catch live editions of
The Ben Meller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven
(23:50):
pm Pacific. It's maller, how about that? To the third degree?
This is one big Ben gets quilled. You bring in
the koptalo Hayton and his Oh couldn't hear you? Yeah? Ben,
You've long been against Sean Payton and his calls for
(24:10):
increased replay and adjusted rules, etc. However, Sean Payton revealed
in an interview this week that technology is coming from
more accurate spotting of the football. He says he expects
to see uprights flashing yellow when the ball crosses the
plane of the goal. Now these are changes that you
could get behind, right, Ben, Well, here's the thing. I
saw this story and Sean Payton, who just won't shut up.
(24:33):
He has an opinion about everything, which I guess is
good and bad at the same time. But hey, technology
is great until it doesn't work right, then chaos ensues. Now,
on the surface, this sounds fine, right, the technology is available,
why not use it? But what happens when the ball
is covered up in a pile a mass of humanity?
And the new fugas system fails because you can't determine
(24:56):
if a knee was down or the position of the
ball without the chip crossing the goal line. They're gonna
have to come up with a backup plan and be
I imagine the NFL Rules Committee. I think of it.
Think about how this would go down the rules committee
when they propose this would be like with Big Bird
from Sesame Street would make an appearance and Big Bird
(25:17):
would pass out his book. Big Bird follows the signs,
and then you'd have like you'd have a read along
with all the NFL coaches. Red light means no conversion,
yellow means maybe, and green means touchdown. Just bring big
Bird in. Why not? That's next? I learned from Big
Burn when I was a kid. Why not? All right? Next?
(25:39):
For most of the NBA season, it's been the Milwaukee
Bucks and then everyone else in the Eastern Conference. However,
the Raptors are in the midst of a really long
win streak, fifteen game win streak in fact, and they're
now being discussed as serious threats to Milwaukee's dominance. Do
you agree, Ben? I do not, and I'll tell you why.
I do not believe. Number One, the Raptors haven't played
(26:01):
anybody in this stretch. They have been beating up Tomato Cans. Now, listen,
you're supposed to beat up Tomato cans, but I'm not impressed.
You don't get extra credit. Okay. Toronto is very similar
to the Lakers in the fact in the Eastern Conference,
but they beat up the week and they tread water
against the elite. The Raptors are twenty five and three
(26:22):
against losing teams. I think like that. Twenty six and three. Now,
that's like a nine winning percentage against losing teams. After
they beat Minnesota fourteen and eleven, they're only three games
above five hundred against teams that have a winning record
that's not very good. And two, the Bucks are in
a class by themselves, right, I mean, we've talked about this,
They've run away with everything. I have the Celtics as
(26:44):
the biggest threat to Milwaukee in the East now, Pascal
Siakam who was called by a different name under our
friend Marcel in Brooklyn, and listen, I have them as
like the third of the fourth team in the East.
The Sixers are just functional right now. They're a hot mess.
But overall I don't take Toronto that seriously and as
(27:06):
certainly I don't have them getting back to the NBA
Finals by any means. All right, next, Now, a few
weeks back, you discussed how you don't believe that Frank
Gore is a Hall of Fame player. Correct, not a
Hall of Famer? Does not get my vote, Kopa loop right,
though you do admit that he will get in. Shouldn't shouldn't? Ben?
Now TMZ caught up with a JAG's legend, Fred Taylor,
(27:27):
who said that he is sure that he will get
into the Hall of Fame. Which Hall of Fame is
he talking about? Now, Ben, I don't consider him a
Hall of Famer, and I guarantee you don't either. But
will they let him in? No, I would say nah.
I mean, here's the thing about the Hall of Famer.
I'll bring up the rant first of all by Dion
Sanders who said a couple of weeks back that the
(27:48):
standards have been lowered, that every they're letting every Tom,
Dick and Harry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
It's not an exclusive situation like it used to be.
So you'd say, under the lower threshold, fred Taylor has
a chance. But even under that threshold, I say Fred
Taylor does not have a chance because he didn't play
long enough to rack up the all time rushing numbers that,
(28:09):
for example, Frank Gore has just because of longevity, not
because of actual dominance in any single season. And saily.
Under the Mall plan for the Hall of Fame, the
criteria to get in the Pro Football Hall of Fame
would be streamline. We talked about us a while back.
Did you win an MVP Award? Were you an All
Pro at least one time? And can you tell the
(28:31):
story of pro football during your era without saying your name?
You have to get two of those boxes right, and
fred Taylor wasn't at all pro I don't believe. And
you certainly can tell the history of football without mentioning
Fred Taylor's name. And he never won an MVP Award,
so he doesn't qualify to be a Hall of Famer. Now,
the NFL won't do that because there's a business in Canton, Ohio,
(28:53):
and they have ceremonies every year. They have to keep
letting people in and all that. But Fred Taylor was
a workman running back. He's not a legend of the game.
He's a good player on some decent teams back in
that era in Jacksonville, but I do not put them
in the Hall of Fame. But he'll get You'll get
consideration because everyone's getting consideration. All right there, it is
Mallard of the third degree? How did we do? Ben?
(29:15):
You fail this edition? Well, why would I fail? What
did I say? Ten game win streak? Is they played?
Nobody does the best. Everyone beats bade good day, sir.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports
(29:38):
Radio dot com and within the iHeart Radio app. Search
f SR to listen live. Now. Mallard's mounting the money.
Do you have what it takes to get to the top?
Probably not all right, So it's Maillard's mounting of money.
We will welcome in Arkansas. Is now. I want to
(29:58):
keep a couple of people on the bullpen, Eddie, just
in case this does not go well. Yes, people on
the bullpen. Now. We have someone called the Elvis Expert
online for Hello, Elvis expert, Hey big Ben. What makes
you an Elvis expert? Well, I'm I'm a historian and
(30:20):
everything Elvis. Yes. Can you make a living doing this?
There's this just a hobby. Well, it's a hobby. It's
a hobby. Have you been able to monetize it? Do
you go to Elvis conventions and things like that? And
do you have like yeah, I do get invited to
a lot of things like that. I've been a bunch
of books and help with all kinds of publications, you know,
(30:41):
radio programs, all kinds of stuff. Ben, Did you know
I used to collect Elvis memorabilia? I did not know that. Yeah,
I have a pretty extensive collection. I have a friend
of mine in Dallas who's an Elvis impersonator. How about
that guy went to elementary school with Yeah, as an
Elvis impersonators on stage in Vegas with an of this
impersonator or did you fine memory? Yeah? Yeah, it was
(31:03):
pretty cool. So you have like a white sinquined like
leather outfit. I mean it wasn't leather, but I did
have that white sequin like v neck full body outfit. Wow.
The material was gaberdine that they were made out of it.
This is the Elvis expert. Yeah, what was Elvis's favorite snack? Well,
(31:25):
of course we always hear about the peanut butter and
banana sandwich, right, that's right, heavily overused. Oh look at
the Elvis experts setting the record straight here that that was.
That was that's urban legend. But that So what was
his favorite snack then? If it wasn't that, what was it? Well, no,
I mean that's gonna be the most well known one.
(31:47):
Of course he did like those. But you know, Elvis
was a big fan of Southern cooking. Thing. He liked
a lot of food. Did he really die on the toilet? No,
he passed away on the floor there in front of
the toilet. Yeah, all right, a whole lot of second
of this expert he's gonna play and then yeah, yeah,
(32:08):
I mean too, he's together with a basin Rena. Shouldn't
he be living in Graceland? Shouldn't he be moved down?
All right, let's see who's on six? Coop. I see
these other guys have all played a bunch. Let's see here.
Let me well, he hadn't heard the guy on six
hadn't heard the game before. Oh well, that's not gonna work.
That's that never goes. Well, that's Dre and Seattle's and
(32:29):
play that much? Hello Dre. Wow, I'm honored, Thank you
Ben for picking me. You have risen to the levels
of being selected to play the game. Drey, tell the
guy and beaver dam who's got a friend in punk Chatani?
Who knows somebody in Rancho Cucamonga. What you do for
a living? I drive railroad personnel around the yards and
(32:53):
to pick up their trains and engines and do what
railroaders do. So I'm basically uber for the railroad guys.
But and you wear you wear one of those conductor
hats while you do it, right, you have one of
those train, those old school train conductor hats on No,
but I've been asking can I wear overalls? Though I
liked the overall. Yeah, you should do it. You should
(33:14):
dress up like an old school train conductor and just
see if anybody asked questions. You know, Yeah, that'd be cool.
I'm gonna do that one day. And then I love
those lamps that they have the old conductor lamb. Yeah, yeah,
I like that old the old, back before planes took over,
the trains ruled the land. Yeah, all right, Hold on,
Secdre Sodre the train guy versus Elvis expert guy in Reno,
(33:38):
Elvis expert guy. Hold on a second, you punch the
right line up, Elvis expert guy, Who do you want
to partner up with? Well, if since Justin had an
Elvis collection, he'd be the obvious choice. All right, you
are teamed up with the coope. Do Luke do it?
Hold on a sec and Dre in Seattle a train conductor. Man,
who do you want to partner up with? Drey? Well, man,
(34:01):
I'm gonna take the obvious choice to Ben Mellows shows.
Do it? All right? We will pummel these Elvis guys
into submission. What are the categories here? Why don't we
pick the categies and we'll pause for the cause and
get right to the games. All right, this is this
is the Jennifer Aniston addition of Mallar's Mountain of Money. Right.
She is fifty one years old today, and the categories
(34:25):
are as follows. Friends. She's the one, the breakup and
the switch. Elvis, what categories you like? Well, it's friends,
all right. Hope and I have the same last name,
so we gotta win, all right, and Dre you've got
she's the one, the break up and the switch. I'm
(34:45):
thinking a switch band. All right, we will take the switch.
Very good, Everyone paused right there, Do not move where
you are. Everyone's stay in place there, and we will
have Mallard's Mountain Money, the Jennifer Aniston addition. We'll get
to that and we'll do it next. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at
two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. And right back to
(35:07):
it we go. It is now Mallard's amount of Money
in its entirely as we do it right now. It's
made possible by discovered card. We treat you like you
to treat you, and so we have the Elvis Expert
who was teamed up with Cooper Loop and it's the
Jennifer Aniston edition. So they picked the friends category, and
(35:28):
then Dre who's in Seattle, the train conductor man and
he is with me, and we picked he picked switch.
So Cooper Loop, you are up first. Forty five seconds
on the clock. These sports figures were roommates with another
famous sports figure, Elvis. You're ready, I'm ready, all right,
first and last names. All right, let's let's begin. All right.
(35:52):
One of the best quarterbacks of all time, not Tom Brady,
played for the forty nine Ers. Yes, Pittsburgh Steelers safety
also played for USC. He's got crazy hair. He's in
commercials with uh Patrick Mahomes right now. No, the safety
he had like he's like uh Samoan or something. No
(36:18):
running back for the Raiders he got. He got traded
to the Chiefs. It didn't dend well for that. Yes. Uh.
He was the coach of the Colts when Peyton Manning
won a Super Bowl Tony. Yes. Uh. He was a
wide receiver on the Colts after Marvin Harrison. He was
coop got flustered. He was flummixed with a Troy pay
(36:42):
three off. So I said quarterback, corback, I said safety.
They got there's some tension on that team d bad chemistry.
He got you bad chemistry over there. Might have to
make a trade like the Sixers. All right, we picked Dre,
you picked the switch. These athletes these as he's our turn.
(37:04):
These athletes were involved in one for one trades. All right, Dre,
We need the first and last name. Are you ready? Yes, sir? Alright?
Forty five seconds on the clock and we're on our
way go. All right, Uh Laker legend just died in
the helicopter crash. Yes, Eric Canada for the Toronto Raptors
(37:27):
back in the early two thousands. Yes, Utah Jazz Center
right now, he's out of France. The Jazz Center name.
All right? Now, moving on, how about yes? All right?
All right, jumping ahead to a one hundred point question.
Sonics three point specialist. He wore number three in the
(37:48):
nineteen eighties and the nineties for the Sonics. Yeah, strategy,
redskin Bronco running back early two thousands. He used to wear.
He dressed up. He's from the U in Miami running back.
Not in time. Not times went out, But that's why
(38:09):
we get to leave. We're up. Once taken into account
the players hometown, you know, it works out. Occasion usually
does not work out with the Dale Ellis, thank you
very much. SuperSonics live on. All right, Elvis, would you
like she's the one or the breakup? All right? These
(38:30):
athletes married their high school sweethearts forty five seconds. Let's go.
Uh quarterback of the Chargers. He just he's not going
to resign with them. Yes, this guy won a Super
Bowl with the Ravens. Then he sucked with the Broncos.
Uh no, um third baseman for the Cubs. Right now,
(38:55):
he might get traded in. All right, white wide receiver
for the Packers. He he retired a couple of years ago.
Oh my god, ask him about Elvis? All right, um
catcher for the Giants. There's a rule made after him.
He can't block the play. Oh my god, I bet
an upset on the toilet tonight. Right now, buddy, that's
(39:23):
ninety and that's I'll be careful. Would you ask for
Eddie really endorsed this guy? The Elvis guy? Joe Flacco
is the Ravens quarterback. Chris Bryant, Jordy Nelson, Dre, you
want to run up the score, Dre a right participation trophy?
I'm not all right? The breakup. These athletes. These athletes
(39:46):
had a bad break up with their team, and we'll
put forty five seconds on the clock just to run
up the score. Here we go, ru on our way, Yes,
all right, crazy receiver. Later the Steelers and the Raiders.
Correct center for the Lakers, with teammates with with Kobe Bryant,
the big Diesel check. Yeah, correct guard for the Golden
(40:13):
State Warriors. He choked out his coach, PJ. Carlesimo. You
do that right away, NFL twin not let's see here,
let's see uh not Ronde the other one played with
the Giants. Yeah, correct, Red Sox outfielder. Teammates with Big Poppy,
the left fielder for the Red Sox. In the name,
(40:40):
it doesn't matter. Three hundred and three total parts. Ramos
come down, Yes, I was Manny ramiros uh. We didn't
even try one hundred point question, which was coo put
Carlos Paine. I don't even know a clue. He was
a journeyman first baseman. I don't know how you would
ever get He led the Ale and home runs one
year and he's currently an analyst. Like I said, I
(41:01):
don't know anyone that knows who the hell Carlos paying
is But Dre, you won the game. That's most important. Congratulations. Hey,
why is any so quick quick on the clock? How
are you complaining? You just want easily man enjoy your victory.
I gotta redeem myself another time. It's all good man,
(41:22):
we'll get him next time. Let's sit on the toilet.
Just go to an Elvis convection. Have a peanut butter
and mayo sandwich. Is all you have to do. Oh,
who's the Mayo sandwiches? Dyala and Hart Junior loves the mayos.
You ever had a mayo sandwich? No? No, I've never
had one either. Huh.
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mallers
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 Ben Mallers Show at Fox Sports Radio
dot Com. You can find it there or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
(00:23):
This is the best of the Ben Maller Show on
Fox Sports Radio. We have a lot of lawsuits to
talk about, which is always I like that because I
get to practice law behind the microphone of Fox Sports Radio.
So we will get to those as we make our
(00:44):
sojourn to the overnight hours. But the story that caught
my attention that I really wanted to ran about because
people are getting really worked up about this and their
their blood is boiling. They're gonna have heart attacks here.
And I don't know why you would have a coron
area over something like this, but Major League Baseball is
mulling radical changes to its postseason play. Now I realize
(01:04):
it's February and pitchers and catchers are starting to go
to spring training, and there's no real meaningful baseball until
like October. I understand that I'm aware of that, but
I find this interesting. I find this interesting, and I
can talk about what I think is interesting, and I
think this is an interesting deal. If you haven't heard
about it, if you've been out of the loop. Here Supposedly,
(01:25):
the powers that be that run baseball are planning to
increase the number of teams. Currently, there are ten teams
that make the playoffs. They're gonna go to fourteen. So
they're gonna add two teams in the National League and
two in the American League. But they're also going to
add a reality TV type format to determine who gets
to play each other in the wild card round. Because
(01:47):
you're gonna have more teams in the wildcard round. Each
league would have three division winners still and four wild
card teams that would make up the postseason. They're the
best team in the league, each league, American, National League,
they get a buy. It's like the NFL, right, you
get a buy. You have the top two records in
both baseball or in football, and you get a buy.
You know, to worry about number one seed, number two seed.
(02:09):
You get the week off. So it works, and so
baseball wants to do that just for the top team
in each league and the two remaining division winners and
the wild card teams with the best record of the
four would have to you know, would host all the
games there. There would be no road games. The team
with the better record would host all three games in
(02:30):
the opening round. So there's a lot to it. There's
more than that, but that's the meat and potatoes of it.
So there's a lot to talk about. So let's discuss
the question. What's the big takeaway from this proposal from
Rob Manford that was leaked to his media buddies, And
really the whole point of this is to get reaction
for people to see where the temperature in the room is. Now,
(02:51):
I disagree with that flushing of the toilet. I disagree.
You've got you've got sugar daddies, interlopers and are the
official and we will combine all these together will make
some Bob a good news. Now, Hey, Rob Manford, who
gets plenty of abuse when I'm here, When I take
over the powerful microphones of Fox Sports Radio, I unload
(03:14):
on Rob Manford. He's our punching bag. We like picking
on Rob Manford. He deserves it. He should be charbroiled
over the Astros tobacco, which is continuing more in that
later Nevertheless, the expanded postseason plan, I liked what I heard.
Call me crazy. I liked what I heard. I didn't
think it sucked. I think it was tera wasn't the
worst thing in the world. Now, listen is less more? Yes,
(03:37):
I learned years ago at iHeart University, less is more
when in doubt throw it out. Those are all principles
I learned. But if you know the situation and you
look at what could happen and what possibly is not
going to happen, you gotta give this a thumbs up.
I like what I saw Why. The main reason I
(03:58):
liked this is inevitable. As much as you are someday
going to die and you are going to have to
pay taxes or you're going to jail, it is inevitable
that the postseason and Major League Baseball is going to
expand that was always the plan. When they started the
wild card there was one wildcard team, then they expanded
into two wild cards, and then they eventually the master
(04:22):
plan by the people that planned this all out, the Gatekeepers,
was to keep expanding the postseason slowly and baseball is
in a never ending battle to expand postseason because you
have to keep up with the Joneses, and that's where
the revenue is. And it's all about having new products
(04:43):
to sell. Who buys these products, and it's not you
and I. It's the sugar daddies that run television, the
executives of TV networks. They're the ones that bank roll
Major League Baseball, and if that ever dries up, where
they'll be a big rollback and how much players make
in salary. But the idea here in the made for
(05:04):
TV reality format, major League Baseball would essentially turn the
playoff matchups in the first round to a schoolyard dodgeball
game where you have to pick sides when you're back
in like fourth grade in elementary school, and you have
to pick side. Someone's feelings are going to get hurt.
And I like it because somebody is not gonna be
(05:27):
picked right, they're gonna offended. And the team either way,
either you're not picked and you're offended, or you're the
first team picked and you're offended. Everyone's gonna be in
a tizzy and they're gonna be all whining and MOPy
and all that, and really, what Baseball is doing is
taking a page out of the NC Double A's playbook,
and the plan is to have all of this play
(05:49):
out in real time on television, a made for TV
spectacular on a Sunday night, the last day of the
baseball season. But by the way, there'll be a Sunday
night NFL game going on, so no one will be watching,
but they plan it to be the last Sunday of
the regular season. Each team of the division winners that
aren't the number one seed will have representation and they
(06:11):
will pick on live television, just like the Selection show.
How cool is that? Will they have cheerleaders? And will
they have the mascots and all that? Are they gonna
really maybe bring Dick vital In if he's still around
when this is going on? Why not? Now? It's all
to drive revenue, right. Major League Baseball will then sell
the rights to this new fugazi show as part of
(06:34):
a nice attractive television package and you can put advertising
in that and tanda make a lot of money now.
Part be here. Adding extra teams of the playoffs is
certainly not without playmish, and I am not to someone
that's out there cheerleading for this to happen. I just
know that it's going to happen anyway, whether I like
it or not. Some will say the jump to ten
(06:54):
to fourteen is not that big. It is. I believe
it is a rather large jump. There's a lot of
mediocrity in Major League Baseball today, and one of the
big problems with the sport is many of the teams
don't try to win. It's a pandemic, sam Hinky disease,
tanking is all over the place. But this will further
dilute the regular season, at least, that's the argument against
(07:16):
adding more teams. And I've seen people banging the drum here.
It's like, this is not going to encourage teams to
spend more money, and teams will say, we don't have
to spend more money because there's more playoff spots and
you've got one hundred and sixty two days and nights
of inventory that become less valuable during the regular season
with every new playoff spot that you create. That's the
(07:39):
argument against it. But I'll play Devil's advocate, right because, yeah,
major League Baseball, are they guaranteeing themselves that there'll be
some interlopers that make the postseason yeah, there'll be some
people crashing the party that are not supposed to be
there among the elite teams. But the counter argument here
is that they put enough qualifiers in there so you
(08:03):
still are value winning in the regular season, that that's
going to offset the disparity, meaning that if you have
the top record in baseball, you immediately advanced to the
second round, so you are encouraged to continue to try
to win games. When you've already wrapped up a division title,
for example, you've run away with it, you still have
to finish ahead of the other teams because you then
(08:24):
get the first round by So that's good, right. I
like that. And if you're a wildcard team, you don't
get any home games. Now, some teams don't mind if
Washington Nationals were a great road team, but a lot
of times people would rather be at home. And the
rules are legitimately different in baseball depending on where you play.
A baseball game at Finway Park is much different than
a game at Dodger State in the way it plays
because of the dimensions of the ballpark and all that.
(08:46):
But major League Baseball they've got fourteen. They will have
fourteen playoff teams, which would still be less than the
NBA that has sixteen. Now the NFL continues to have
the fewest teams. What are they They're at ten right
they've got the three division winners and then they've got
the two wildcard teams in each conference. But that is
eventually going to expand. And it's like when you need
(09:08):
petty cash, what do you do? You expand the postseason.
That's how it works. You expand the postseason, you add
more teams in, and that's how it goes. And though
somebody will cut your check and you'll go down to
the bank and you'll put the check in the bank,
and then you'll take the money out and you'll spend
the money on what you want to spend it on.
Then the last warrior. So the more rounds of the
playoffs you add in theory, the more quirky the outcome.
(09:30):
And I've gone back and forth on this because I
was thinking about it because I have no life and
I think about these kind of things. Is it better
or worse? Now? It's always been random, the randomness of
the baseball postseason, which is both a blessing and a curse.
It's a blessing if you're a second rate team like
the Nationals and you win a World Series. It's a
(09:51):
curse if you're a team like the Dodgers and you
end up blowing it because of the randomness of baseball,
and that's not going to change. An average team can
have a week one week in a playoff series when
they bat five seventy is a team and advanced. A
great team with all the top pitching can have some
projectile vomit and go out in the mound and have
(10:14):
a couple of bad starts in a row and be eliminated.
The greatest example of this would be the Detroit Tigers,
who years ago had Justin Verlander. They had David Price
and the guy from the Nationals, Max Scherzon. They had
three either have won the side or about to win
the cy young and they lost to the Baltimore Orioles
(10:35):
in a short playoff series. But they had the great pitch.
They didn't pitch that well for that week and they lost.
And you're also opening up Pandora's box. Is what you're
doing here, because you are again and we mentioned this earlier,
but you're you're allowing unwanted visitors to enter the postseason.
And the more unwanted visitors you welcome in the chances
(10:58):
are that one of them will end up or possibly
two of them in the World Series, and that's problematic
because you want the top Darling teams in there, because
that's good for ratings in theory. And while you don't
have to worry about the top teams losing the wildcard
round because you have to buy and you don't have
to worry about that, which is a nice thing, you
don't have to worry about any kind of roadblock in
(11:21):
that department, it does create more bad actors that could
further erode the later rounds of the playoffs with the mismatches. Nevertheless,
overall I like the plan. It creates some artificially awkward
and uncomfortable drama and artificial uncomfortable awkward drama. It's not
(11:43):
the worst thing. It's not the worst thing. This is
kind of what the NBA does with these faghasy All
star contests where they have players picked and all that.
But overall I give it the thumbs up. It creates
that situation but makes teams deal with distress and anxiety
of having to pick who they want to play, pick
your poison in the wild card round. Of the playoffs
(12:05):
for that second team in the American in the National League.
It adds a layer of stress, it adds a layer
of anxiety. It's an inconvenience that they have to do this.
People's feelings will be hurt, They'll be an emotional wreck,
and it makes for good talk radio. So anything that
makes for good talk radio I fully support. I admit,
I admit I'm looking out from my own interest slutely
(12:28):
I'm doing. I gotta lie about that, of course. 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. Another Day and another
plot twist involving the Dark Arts. It's the code that
the cheaters from Texas. We're using to have the greatest
(12:51):
three year run in the history of baseball during the
regular season, the Astros, and they are going to have
to lawyer They're gonna have to lawyer up. The inevitable
has happened. If you've not heard the latest, maybe you
were out of the loop. You weren't paying attention. Someone
by the name of Mike Bullsinger who Mike Bullsinger, former
(13:12):
Major League pitchers. Former Big League pitcher Mike Bulsinger has
filed a civil lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court
against the Houston Astros for unfair business practices. But there's
a whole lot more now. Bullsinger, who at the time
was a pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, and he
(13:35):
had the misfortune of going against the said Astros when
it was bang bang and all that a Bullsinger is
seeking unspecified damages for interfering with and harming his career.
He's also asking the Astros forfeit nearly thirty million dollars
(13:56):
in postseason shares and their twenty seventeen World Series title,
with the money going to the children charities around Los
Angeles and a fund for old players retired baseball players.
So let us discuss the question, does Mike Bulsinger have
a case against the Astros. Surprisingly, the answers, yes, he
(14:18):
does have a case. You've got indisputable smear campaign and
the boogeyman, and we will combine these things together and
we'll make some banana cream pie, which Skeeter in Montana
is going to provide for us. Banana Creampie now number one.
While the lawsuit at first glance, certainly seems for gaze.
(14:42):
I'm not gonna deny that it is positioned as unfair
business practices, but that's just a smoke screen. Mike Bulsinger
is really suing the Astros for ending his major League
baseball career by cheating, and he can present a very
compelling case. And that's why there is something thing to this.
It is not something you just toss away like tissue.
(15:04):
This is exactly what happened it. Major League Baseball has
admitted the Astros broke the rules with the dark arts. Correct. Yes,
there's a report out by Rob Manford. It didn't go
to great detail, but it did admit and people were
punished for what happened, So that's not up for debate.
The question is not whether the Astros cheated. They did.
(15:25):
Baseball's admitted they cheated. People have lost their job as
a result of the Astros dark arts, so that's an
open and shut case. Now. Furthermore, Mike ball Singer, whose
big league career really did end on August fourth, his
appearance against the Astros in twenty seventeen. He was out
of the big leagues at age thirty one. He's thirty two.
(15:46):
Now it's indisputable. He was forced to pitch in the
Japanese League in twenty eighteen to twenty nineteen, out of baseball,
out of pro baseball in America, and Bolsinger came out
of the Blue Jay bullpen. If you don't know the story,
he was pitching for Toronto. It was the fourth inning
and he got tattooed, give up four runs on four hits,
(16:08):
walked three batters while recording only one out. It was
almost like they knew exactly what was coming every time
he delivered a pitch. It's amazing, you know why, spoiler alert,
They didn't know exactly what pitch was coming. Ball Singer's lawsuit.
One of the interesting parts I read through it is
(16:28):
he highlighted remember that story we talked about the Astro
fan that's a graphic designer. This guy named Tony Adams,
who's big Astro fan. He did an in depth study.
He tracked every available Astro's home game in twenty seventeen
four bank bang and whistle while you're working all that.
The results of that study indicated that Bullsinger, Mike Bullsinger's
(16:52):
outing had fifty four trash can bangs that were heard
the most the entire season, the most the entire season.
So that now the Blue Jays designated him for assignment
after that game. He never appeared in the major leagues again,
and he did have to go to Japan, as we
said to pitch. So this seems like a pretty compelling
(17:13):
case if Baseball's admitted the Astros have cheated, and this
guy did the research and determined that there the peak
of their cheating was when he Bowlsinger was on the mound.
You see where this is leading. You see where if
you were on a jury where this is leading now
the second finger. So what's the Astro's defense gonna be, right, Well,
(17:33):
let's think this through logically. If you were providing defense
and you were part of the legal team to defend
the Astros, they will they will claim, well, this guy's
a bump, right. They can't claim they didn't do it
because Baseball's admitted they did it, so they will instead
use a smear campaign. They're like bull Singer, he's terrible.
He would have been out of baseball anyway, and it's
(17:54):
his responsibility to change his signs, and they'll do the
classic victim shaming. And if that fails. The Astros will
then mix in some classical character assassination. How will that work?
I'll walk you through that. They will look at Bulsinger's
Baseball reference page and they will note his many failures
before he got to Houston with Toronto and got rocked
(18:18):
by the Astros. Bolsinger had an eight and sixteen career
record within the ERA of four point six one while
pitching for Arizona and the Dodgers prior to going to
the Blue Jays. So what's his counter argument when the
Astro's defense lawyers say, well, yeah, this guy's is stiff,
this guy's a turn Well, his counter argument Bulsinger was
(18:41):
actually a serviceable starting pitcher in Los Angeles. Over an
entire season. He had a seven and ten record for
the Dodgers. I think that was in twenty fifteen. Had
an ERA of about four and a half, which is
an average major league pitcher. It's kind of pitcher in
midjor league baseball. I can have a job for a
long time, and the Houston lawyers they may go to
their bag of dirty tricks and use everyone was doing it.
(19:04):
I always like when they bring up the everyone was
doing it defense. I always get a kick out of
that one. I like that one a lot. Final point,
so imagine the roller coaster ride that this civil lawsuit
takes if it reaches And this is the key thing here,
This is the smoking gun, the discovery phase. All right,
this is the trump card. This is the ultimate win
(19:29):
for Mike Bulsinger. And this is what's gonna sway this
particular case. Again, You've got Baseball at meeting that the
Astros cheated. You've got the report saying that the peak
of the cheating was when Bulsinger was on the mound
in that game back in twenty seventeen when he was
pitching for Toronto. But we are talking about discovery, which
means depositions, which means Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and all
(19:51):
these other bozos getting called into the principal's office and
all the front office types that are scattered around baseball.
You're about depositions, documents, sworn answers to written questions that
are going to have to be taken by all these
people involved, past and present from the Astro. So this
is going to be a nuisance that Major League Baseball
(20:14):
is gonna do what they're gonna try to brush this aside,
just like they attempted to brush aside the Astros cheating,
and they're gonna try to make this disappear. They're gonna
use a pen and teller magic trick to try to
make this just vanish. And the smart money says, what
happens here the endgame is that Major League Baseball ends
up settling this lawsuit out of court to end the aggravation.
(20:37):
But to say that Bolsinger has no case, I do
not believe that to be true. If he's willing to
go through, and I assume that the lawyers involved in
this are doing this for a cut of some kind
of money that comes out of it, that Bolsinger is
not paying hourly for these attorneys. If that is accurate,
then there's even a better chance that this goes forward.
But again the smart money says that Baseball end up
(20:59):
settling out of court to end the aggravation because discovery
is the boogeyman that Baseball must avoid at all CAUs
they want no pot of the bugey man. Stay away
from the boogeyman. Now, major League Baseball is living in
a paralleled dimension, right. They seem to think that you're
an idiot and maybe you are an idiot, but I
(21:20):
give you more credit than major League Baseball. The people
that run Baseball think that this story is just gonna
fade into the abyss. No, no, no, no, no. You
know and I know, and every man, woman and child
knows that Baseball is going to attempt the old cover up.
They've already started it, right, gonna mandate broadcasters not talk
about this. The people that are employees of the teams
(21:42):
won't be able to talk about it openly. It's not
gonna work. You know why it's not gonna work very simply.
You can't unring the bell, and the toothpaste is out
of the tomb. You ever tried to put the toothpaste
back in the tomb? You get some of it in,
but you can't get it all. It smears the toothpaste everywhere.
You cannot do it. And I don't want to hear
(22:03):
about the YouTube videos of people that know cut open
the toothpaste. Don't send me those. I've seen enough of them. Okay,
any reasonable person knows that you can't put the toothpaste
back into two There's no getting it back. And this
is the first of many class action they'll be class
action lawsuits. My man, Roberto gonna go to small claims court.
(22:23):
He lost. He's still paying off his world series, taking
it from twenty seventeen. He's gonna get it, try to
get some of that money back. And so the beat
goes on, and so it goes on. So again I've
made my argument. I believe ball Singers got a case
and you can tell me if you agree or not.
Sound of aj Hine taking a dump from twenty seventeen. Yeah,
(22:44):
and Roberto, you missed it. But we did a Mala
monologue yesterday where we highlighted the fact that that the
manager at the time of the Astros, aj Hinge, went
asked and that that ridiculous interview they did with state
run MLBtv on Friday night over the weekend and aj
Hinch was asked point blank were there buzzers used by
Astral players. He did not deny. He did not deny,
(23:07):
He gave a non answer. He would not answer the question,
which tells you they were using the busters. That Altoba
when he ran off the field and he didn't want
his little jersey because he's a little guy. He didn't
want his little jersey ripped off. It's because there was
a buzzer, and and that's why aj Hinch would admit
to it, because if it didn't happen, you admit to it,
(23:28):
because it's not going to come out that it happened.
But he didn't admit to it because he thinks he's
gonna get a job in baseball. Someone's gonna hire that
weasel aj Hinch, that Mama Luke's gonna get a job
with somebody. And he doesn't want this coming out three
or four years from now when he's working, because he'll
lose his job again and he doesn't want to be
a party that. Be Sure to catch live editions of
The Ben Meller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven
(23:50):
pm Pacific. It's maller, how about that? To the third degree?
This is one big Ben gets quilled. You bring in
the koptalo Hayton and his Oh couldn't hear you? Yeah? Ben,
You've long been against Sean Payton and his calls for
(24:10):
increased replay and adjusted rules, etc. However, Sean Payton revealed
in an interview this week that technology is coming from
more accurate spotting of the football. He says he expects
to see uprights flashing yellow when the ball crosses the
plane of the goal. Now these are changes that you
could get behind, right, Ben, Well, here's the thing. I
saw this story and Sean Payton, who just won't shut up.
(24:33):
He has an opinion about everything, which I guess is
good and bad at the same time. But hey, technology
is great until it doesn't work right, then chaos ensues. Now,
on the surface, this sounds fine, right, the technology is available,
why not use it? But what happens when the ball
is covered up in a pile a mass of humanity?
And the new fugas system fails because you can't determine
(24:56):
if a knee was down or the position of the
ball without the chip crossing the goal line. They're gonna
have to come up with a backup plan and be
I imagine the NFL Rules Committee. I think of it.
Think about how this would go down the rules committee
when they propose this would be like with Big Bird
from Sesame Street would make an appearance and Big Bird
(25:17):
would pass out his book. Big Bird follows the signs,
and then you'd have like you'd have a read along
with all the NFL coaches. Red light means no conversion,
yellow means maybe, and green means touchdown. Just bring big
Bird in. Why not? That's next? I learned from Big
Burn when I was a kid. Why not? All right? Next?
(25:39):
For most of the NBA season, it's been the Milwaukee
Bucks and then everyone else in the Eastern Conference. However,
the Raptors are in the midst of a really long
win streak, fifteen game win streak in fact, and they're
now being discussed as serious threats to Milwaukee's dominance. Do
you agree, Ben? I do not, and I'll tell you why.
I do not believe. Number One, the Raptors haven't played
(26:01):
anybody in this stretch. They have been beating up Tomato Cans. Now, listen,
you're supposed to beat up Tomato cans, but I'm not impressed.
You don't get extra credit. Okay. Toronto is very similar
to the Lakers in the fact in the Eastern Conference,
but they beat up the week and they tread water
against the elite. The Raptors are twenty five and three
(26:22):
against losing teams. I think like that. Twenty six and three. Now,
that's like a nine winning percentage against losing teams. After
they beat Minnesota fourteen and eleven, they're only three games
above five hundred against teams that have a winning record
that's not very good. And two, the Bucks are in
a class by themselves, right, I mean, we've talked about this,
They've run away with everything. I have the Celtics as
(26:44):
the biggest threat to Milwaukee in the East now, Pascal
Siakam who was called by a different name under our
friend Marcel in Brooklyn, and listen, I have them as
like the third of the fourth team in the East.
The Sixers are just functional right now. They're a hot mess.
But overall I don't take Toronto that seriously and as
(27:06):
certainly I don't have them getting back to the NBA
Finals by any means. All right, next, Now, a few
weeks back, you discussed how you don't believe that Frank
Gore is a Hall of Fame player. Correct, not a
Hall of Famer? Does not get my vote, Kopa loop right,
though you do admit that he will get in. Shouldn't shouldn't? Ben?
Now TMZ caught up with a JAG's legend, Fred Taylor,
(27:27):
who said that he is sure that he will get
into the Hall of Fame. Which Hall of Fame is
he talking about? Now, Ben, I don't consider him a
Hall of Famer, and I guarantee you don't either. But
will they let him in? No, I would say nah.
I mean, here's the thing about the Hall of Famer.
I'll bring up the rant first of all by Dion
Sanders who said a couple of weeks back that the
(27:48):
standards have been lowered, that every they're letting every Tom,
Dick and Harry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
It's not an exclusive situation like it used to be.
So you'd say, under the lower threshold, fred Taylor has
a chance. But even under that threshold, I say Fred
Taylor does not have a chance because he didn't play
long enough to rack up the all time rushing numbers that,
(28:09):
for example, Frank Gore has just because of longevity, not
because of actual dominance in any single season. And saily.
Under the Mall plan for the Hall of Fame, the
criteria to get in the Pro Football Hall of Fame
would be streamline. We talked about us a while back.
Did you win an MVP Award? Were you an All
Pro at least one time? And can you tell the
(28:31):
story of pro football during your era without saying your name?
You have to get two of those boxes right, and
fred Taylor wasn't at all pro I don't believe. And
you certainly can tell the history of football without mentioning
Fred Taylor's name. And he never won an MVP Award,
so he doesn't qualify to be a Hall of Famer. Now,
the NFL won't do that because there's a business in Canton, Ohio,
(28:53):
and they have ceremonies every year. They have to keep
letting people in and all that. But Fred Taylor was
a workman running back. He's not a legend of the game.
He's a good player on some decent teams back in
that era in Jacksonville, but I do not put them
in the Hall of Fame. But he'll get You'll get
consideration because everyone's getting consideration. All right there, it is
Mallard of the third degree? How did we do? Ben?
(29:15):
You fail this edition? Well, why would I fail? What
did I say? Ten game win streak? Is they played?
Nobody does the best. Everyone beats bade good day, sir.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports
(29:38):
Radio dot com and within the iHeart Radio app. Search
f SR to listen live. Now. Mallard's mounting the money.
Do you have what it takes to get to the top?
Probably not all right, So it's Maillard's mounting of money.
We will welcome in Arkansas. Is now. I want to
(29:58):
keep a couple of people on the bullpen, Eddie, just
in case this does not go well. Yes, people on
the bullpen. Now. We have someone called the Elvis Expert
online for Hello, Elvis expert, Hey big Ben. What makes
you an Elvis expert? Well, I'm I'm a historian and
(30:20):
everything Elvis. Yes. Can you make a living doing this?
There's this just a hobby. Well, it's a hobby. It's
a hobby. Have you been able to monetize it? Do
you go to Elvis conventions and things like that? And
do you have like yeah, I do get invited to
a lot of things like that. I've been a bunch
of books and help with all kinds of publications, you know,
(30:41):
radio programs, all kinds of stuff. Ben, Did you know
I used to collect Elvis memorabilia? I did not know that. Yeah,
I have a pretty extensive collection. I have a friend
of mine in Dallas who's an Elvis impersonator. How about
that guy went to elementary school with Yeah, as an
Elvis impersonators on stage in Vegas with an of this
impersonator or did you fine memory? Yeah? Yeah, it was
(31:03):
pretty cool. So you have like a white sinquined like
leather outfit. I mean it wasn't leather, but I did
have that white sequin like v neck full body outfit. Wow.
The material was gaberdine that they were made out of it.
This is the Elvis expert. Yeah, what was Elvis's favorite snack? Well,
(31:25):
of course we always hear about the peanut butter and
banana sandwich, right, that's right, heavily overused. Oh look at
the Elvis experts setting the record straight here that that was.
That was that's urban legend. But that So what was
his favorite snack then? If it wasn't that, what was it? Well, no,
I mean that's gonna be the most well known one.
(31:47):
Of course he did like those. But you know, Elvis
was a big fan of Southern cooking. Thing. He liked
a lot of food. Did he really die on the toilet? No,
he passed away on the floor there in front of
the toilet. Yeah, all right, a whole lot of second
of this expert he's gonna play and then yeah, yeah,
(32:08):
I mean too, he's together with a basin Rena. Shouldn't
he be living in Graceland? Shouldn't he be moved down?
All right, let's see who's on six? Coop. I see
these other guys have all played a bunch. Let's see here.
Let me well, he hadn't heard the guy on six
hadn't heard the game before. Oh well, that's not gonna work.
That's that never goes. Well, that's Dre and Seattle's and
(32:29):
play that much? Hello Dre. Wow, I'm honored, Thank you
Ben for picking me. You have risen to the levels
of being selected to play the game. Drey, tell the
guy and beaver dam who's got a friend in punk Chatani?
Who knows somebody in Rancho Cucamonga. What you do for
a living? I drive railroad personnel around the yards and
(32:53):
to pick up their trains and engines and do what
railroaders do. So I'm basically uber for the railroad guys.
But and you wear you wear one of those conductor
hats while you do it, right, you have one of
those train, those old school train conductor hats on No,
but I've been asking can I wear overalls? Though I
liked the overall. Yeah, you should do it. You should
(33:14):
dress up like an old school train conductor and just
see if anybody asked questions. You know, Yeah, that'd be cool.
I'm gonna do that one day. And then I love
those lamps that they have the old conductor lamb. Yeah, yeah,
I like that old the old, back before planes took over,
the trains ruled the land. Yeah, all right, Hold on,
Secdre Sodre the train guy versus Elvis expert guy in Reno,
(33:38):
Elvis expert guy. Hold on a second, you punch the
right line up, Elvis expert guy, Who do you want
to partner up with? Well, if since Justin had an
Elvis collection, he'd be the obvious choice. All right, you
are teamed up with the coope. Do Luke do it?
Hold on a sec and Dre in Seattle a train conductor. Man,
who do you want to partner up with? Drey? Well, man,
(34:01):
I'm gonna take the obvious choice to Ben Mellows shows.
Do it? All right? We will pummel these Elvis guys
into submission. What are the categories here? Why don't we
pick the categies and we'll pause for the cause and
get right to the games. All right, this is this
is the Jennifer Aniston addition of Mallar's Mountain of Money. Right.
She is fifty one years old today, and the categories
(34:25):
are as follows. Friends. She's the one, the breakup and
the switch. Elvis, what categories you like? Well, it's friends,
all right. Hope and I have the same last name,
so we gotta win, all right, and Dre you've got
she's the one, the break up and the switch. I'm
(34:45):
thinking a switch band. All right, we will take the switch.
Very good, Everyone paused right there, Do not move where
you are. Everyone's stay in place there, and we will
have Mallard's Mountain Money, the Jennifer Aniston addition. We'll get
to that and we'll do it next. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at
two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. And right back to
(35:07):
it we go. It is now Mallard's amount of Money
in its entirely as we do it right now. It's
made possible by discovered card. We treat you like you
to treat you, and so we have the Elvis Expert
who was teamed up with Cooper Loop and it's the
Jennifer Aniston edition. So they picked the friends category, and
(35:28):
then Dre who's in Seattle, the train conductor man and
he is with me, and we picked he picked switch.
So Cooper Loop, you are up first. Forty five seconds
on the clock. These sports figures were roommates with another
famous sports figure, Elvis. You're ready, I'm ready, all right,
first and last names. All right, let's let's begin. All right.
(35:52):
One of the best quarterbacks of all time, not Tom Brady,
played for the forty nine Ers. Yes, Pittsburgh Steelers safety
also played for USC. He's got crazy hair. He's in
commercials with uh Patrick Mahomes right now. No, the safety
he had like he's like uh Samoan or something. No
(36:18):
running back for the Raiders he got. He got traded
to the Chiefs. It didn't dend well for that. Yes. Uh.
He was the coach of the Colts when Peyton Manning
won a Super Bowl Tony. Yes. Uh. He was a
wide receiver on the Colts after Marvin Harrison. He was
coop got flustered. He was flummixed with a Troy pay
(36:42):
three off. So I said quarterback, corback, I said safety.
They got there's some tension on that team d bad chemistry.
He got you bad chemistry over there. Might have to
make a trade like the Sixers. All right, we picked Dre,
you picked the switch. These athletes these as he's our turn.
(37:04):
These athletes were involved in one for one trades. All right, Dre,
We need the first and last name. Are you ready? Yes, sir? Alright?
Forty five seconds on the clock and we're on our
way go. All right, Uh Laker legend just died in
the helicopter crash. Yes, Eric Canada for the Toronto Raptors
(37:27):
back in the early two thousands. Yes, Utah Jazz Center
right now, he's out of France. The Jazz Center name.
All right? Now, moving on, how about yes? All right?
All right, jumping ahead to a one hundred point question.
Sonics three point specialist. He wore number three in the
(37:48):
nineteen eighties and the nineties for the Sonics. Yeah, strategy,
redskin Bronco running back early two thousands. He used to wear.
He dressed up. He's from the U in Miami running back.
Not in time. Not times went out, But that's why
(38:09):
we get to leave. We're up. Once taken into account
the players hometown, you know, it works out. Occasion usually
does not work out with the Dale Ellis, thank you
very much. SuperSonics live on. All right, Elvis, would you
like she's the one or the breakup? All right? These
(38:30):
athletes married their high school sweethearts forty five seconds. Let's go.
Uh quarterback of the Chargers. He just he's not going
to resign with them. Yes, this guy won a Super
Bowl with the Ravens. Then he sucked with the Broncos.
Uh no, um third baseman for the Cubs. Right now,
(38:55):
he might get traded in. All right, white wide receiver
for the Packers. He he retired a couple of years ago.
Oh my god, ask him about Elvis? All right, um
catcher for the Giants. There's a rule made after him.
He can't block the play. Oh my god, I bet
an upset on the toilet tonight. Right now, buddy, that's
(39:23):
ninety and that's I'll be careful. Would you ask for
Eddie really endorsed this guy? The Elvis guy? Joe Flacco
is the Ravens quarterback. Chris Bryant, Jordy Nelson, Dre, you
want to run up the score, Dre a right participation trophy?
I'm not all right? The breakup. These athletes. These athletes
(39:46):
had a bad break up with their team, and we'll
put forty five seconds on the clock just to run
up the score. Here we go, ru on our way, Yes,
all right, crazy receiver. Later the Steelers and the Raiders.
Correct center for the Lakers, with teammates with with Kobe Bryant,
the big Diesel check. Yeah, correct guard for the Golden
(40:13):
State Warriors. He choked out his coach, PJ. Carlesimo. You
do that right away, NFL twin not let's see here,
let's see uh not Ronde the other one played with
the Giants. Yeah, correct, Red Sox outfielder. Teammates with Big Poppy,
the left fielder for the Red Sox. In the name,
(40:40):
it doesn't matter. Three hundred and three total parts. Ramos
come down, Yes, I was Manny ramiros uh. We didn't
even try one hundred point question, which was coo put
Carlos Paine. I don't even know a clue. He was
a journeyman first baseman. I don't know how you would
ever get He led the Ale and home runs one
year and he's currently an analyst. Like I said, I
(41:01):
don't know anyone that knows who the hell Carlos paying
is But Dre, you won the game. That's most important. Congratulations. Hey,
why is any so quick quick on the clock? How
are you complaining? You just want easily man enjoy your victory.
I gotta redeem myself another time. It's all good man,
(41:22):
we'll get him next time. Let's sit on the toilet.
Just go to an Elvis convection. Have a peanut butter
and mayo sandwich. Is all you have to do. Oh,
who's the Mayo sandwiches? Dyala and Hart Junior loves the mayos.
You ever had a mayo sandwich? No? No, I've never
had one either. Huh.
Host
Ben Maller
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