February 24, 2020 • 38 mins
Big Ben talks Astros stealing more signs, the Phillies making some changes due to copyright, Maller to the Third Degree, Insta-Advice Line, and more!
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Episode Transcript
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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
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. A variety of things going on over
the weekend, but we continue the most thorough in depth
team coverage of espionage in sports this scandal. Other people
(00:44):
clearly out of touch, not on the pulse of what's
going on in this cheating scandal. Now, the Astros over
the weekend went back to work. They played some spring
training baseball games. Who are attempted to in the Grapefruit
League end? Did you see what happened the very first
game over the weekend? There we had Astros Nationals West
(01:09):
Palm Beach and a sign stealing incident took place in
the very first game. I don't know if you saw
this in another video has gone viral, but a couple
of fans had posters with anti Astro messages. I like
these people. I don't know who they are, but I
liked them. And those signs were confiscated by an evil
(01:30):
security woman taken away at the spring training game in
West Palm Beach. I think we can agree it was
a surreal scene there during the spring training game with Washington,
about six weeks after Major League Baseball rule the twenty
seventeen World Series is forever tainted, forever tainted because the
Astros stole signs their first spring training game. They stole signs,
(01:55):
so it's perfect. It's like, hey, it's twenty twenty. We're stealing,
stealing signs, and it's appropriate because listen, they had that
little fugasy news conference there, the Astros and the little
stupid owner and all those arrogant SOB players one after another,
right line them up. They were not sorry, So it's
appropriate they're still stealing signs all right now. The two
(02:19):
men in they were sitting in National's gear, fans of
the champs, and they were sitting behind the Astro dug out.
Now the Astros and Nationals share the spring training facility,
and these signs ought to go directly to Cooper's town.
I would like to see these sides. Now, these were
not pieces of art. I don't think this was a
Picasso or a rembrandt. Uh these signs here, I saw
(02:42):
photos of them. And now did they have a lot
of profanity? Where they racist? No? No, no, no, no, no,
they weren't. One of the signs read you see my
hate were the question mark in large block letters. Oh
that's vision now. The other one said Houston and then
(03:05):
it had an asterisk with an apostrophe interns. So Houston
asterisk and that was it. That's all it read, suggesting
the twenty seventeen World Series clowder, which anybody, any real
adult educated person, thos is a taint to championship. There's
an asterisk on that. That's it, permanently blemished because of
the cheeny. But that was enough, an asterisk and you
(03:28):
see my hate. And they confiscated the signs. They took
the signs away from the fans. This is the rob
Manford said. The only real punishment was that everywhere time
the asters gone and play game, people are gonna get
a hard time. Well, apparently you can't even do that.
You can't even do that. Baseball. There's such a bunch
(03:49):
of pussy Willows at Major League Baseball. It's ridiculous, all right. Now,
I've kind of revealed how I feel about this, but
to expand on it, We've got rhino skin rubbering and
therapy dogs, and we will combine all of these things
together and we'll make a nice apple pie. Now A
In terms of irony, this is precious, right. It only
(04:11):
took one game for the Astro franchise to be on
brand stealing signs. Right, they've changed it up. Before they
use trash cans, whistles, buzzers. Now they use women to
steal signs. There there, Well, why not bring the ladies
involved in this all inclusive? Here, We'll bring the ladies
into steal pime. No, she was a woman security guard.
(04:32):
She stalled the signe. I saw the video. I saw
the video. All right. Now, the Astro franchise, the bedrock
of this franchise involves this kind of illicit activity, and
they are literally and figuratively blocking expression of speech. Now
you're confiscating signs. Despicable, despicable. Now they're claiming it's just
(04:55):
a ballpark rule, my ass I understand if it was
an offensive signed and there was some kind of profanity
on or something like that. God forbid church going people
see that kind of thing. But an asterisk, an asterisk
that gets you the sign taken away. Come on, my advice,
grow some rhino skid right. Stop driving the mist softy
(05:19):
truck with the Astro logo on it. Stop. You deserve
to be mocked, teazed, humiliated, in shape. Yeah, when the
Astros come to town. This is what's in the background.
There's that kuvan who looks like he should be running
to get an ice cream called at the back of
an ice cream truck. Listen, it's his. Major League Baseball's
(05:40):
leadership does not have the cajones to do anything right.
They are gutless, spineless. They've been neutered, rob Manford's been neutered.
Let the fans persecute, let the fans crucify the bombs.
And by the way, this is all let's be real here,
this is all child play. Right unless an asterisk is
(06:03):
now considered somehow obscene, I guess we'll have to challenge
the Supreme Court. This is just another emasculating day for
Major League Baseball. Shame on you, Shame on you, and
part B of this now it should be a long
painful year for the Astros. But if this is going
(06:23):
to be the way that it goes, that if you
put an asterisk on a sign, it gets taken away,
then how difficult is that. I would like to enjoy
the rubber necking. I'd like to enjoy the rubber necking.
As I've said, I've already overdosed several times on schadenfreud.
I have, and they are in a lot of turbulence,
the Astros a franchise, But it's not that bad if
(06:46):
this is what the situations there were some booing, but
any negative signment an asterisk gets taken away. Listen, if
you're gonna be a wrestling heel, if that's what you
and the Astros have these mixed feelings that part of
the team wants to be rested heels the bad guy.
The other part seems to think they did nothing at
all wrong. But this is supposed to be just an appetizer.
(07:09):
I imagine what's gonna happen when they go to Oakland
or Anaheim with all those raging, lunatic Dodger fans, a
hostile takeover of the Big A from Dodger fans there.
That'll be just man like ravenous dogs. These people are
gonna be to boo thee Astros and some other more
(07:30):
hostile environments down the line. The Astro players and the
franchise in general is as soft as good toilet piper,
not bad toilet paper, good toilet pick. You did the crime,
Embrace the hate that comes along with it. It's part
of the package, all right. Last word. So for me,
the greatest part of the twenty twenty season is going
(07:51):
to be continuing to chronicle what's going on with the Astros,
mainly because of the people that still support the team.
Melting down and getting extremely uptight tight took a syndrome
at every little joke. Now, my inbox has been blowing
up from our listeners on seven ninety on the AM
dial in Houston, which happens to be the home of
the Astros. How lucky you are we to have our
(08:12):
show carried on that radio station. And so I'm getting
these emails. You know all, I've been an Astro fan
for a long time. You're only upset with the Astros
because you're a Dodger fan. You wouldn't care about this
if you were a fan of the you know, the
Blue Jays or the Royals or the Mariners. You wouldn't
care about this. Yeah, okay, so again, weekly healing sessions
(08:32):
with therapy dogs is what these people need here? Man?
Is it entertaining the astro fanboys who are mixing denial
and rage at the same time. A lot of what aboutism? Well,
what about that team they were cheating too? What about
major League Baseball letting them get away? What about is
M wife your ass with? What about ISSM? How about that?
(08:54):
All right? What about the Yankee? What about the dog?
What about that sign stealing? Then the other argument, why
it's not that big a deal. Everyone's doing it. That's
the argument. It's baseball tradition. Why you have a problem
with that? Yeah, just listen, manage your anxiety. I don't
have any anxiety. I have a clear conscience here. I
(09:16):
have nothing. I'm not upset about anything. I'm enjoying this.
I'd like to see some signs be allowed in the
ballpark when the damn asterisk on it. But maybe maybe
they can just like get some some coloring done and
watch episodes of the Office or something like that, kind
of chill out a little bit and relax reruns of
the Office. But now Meanwhile, we have A's pitcher Mike Fires,
who got a very warm reception in the Cactus League
(09:40):
in spring training action for the Oakland Athletics. He's the
whistle blower who, well, everyone of the Astros enjoyed whistle blowing,
but this guy blew the whistle on the sign stealing scandal.
Without him, they'd still be openly doing this. The Edwards
Snowdon of Major League Basement. I think we have some
sound here of Mike Fire. I was hoping he would
(10:01):
say something interesting, but he spoke in nothing but cliches
and platitudes. But we're gonna play it because we have it.
Here's Mike Fires of the A's commenting on a very
warm reception he got, but trying to downplay the whole
thing in his first spring training appearance, trying to put
it behind me, Like, you know, we got to focus
on twenty twenty. Our season's coming off pretty quick, so
we need to focus on baseball and get ready. Like
(10:23):
in the past we've we've started off kind of slow,
and that's kind of halted us, you know, late in
the year because we're always trying to fight from behind.
So right now, the earlier we can get ready better
off we're going to be. It's all about, you know,
going out there and play baseball for everybody, for every team.
Just get back out there, play the game we love
and we'll compete. And yeah, for rest to take care
of yourself. Yeah, hey, Mike, nobody really cares about spring training,
(10:47):
a's baseball or you guys getting off to a slow start.
That's not the story. Don't bear the leadue, maman, don't
bear the lead, all right, dude, So the by Mallar Show,
we'll talk about all that now, the other story and
this we split the maland monologue because I watched the
pay per view fight. I don't know if you saw
it over the weekend. I did not start the show
with this because I figured, you know, not everyone pays
(11:08):
for the fight, not everyone have access to it. Not
everyone goes to the seed corners of the dark web
to find a backdoor link to watch this. So but
I watched it, all right. Tyson Fury absolutely flummixed Deonte
Wilder in Lost Wages, Nevada. This fight was highly anticipated.
It was built on the marquee boxer versus puncher. Yeah
(11:31):
and yeah, had Tyson Fury in a ridiculously dominating situation here,
and you have one guy that's built out of porcelain
and the other guy that's built out of donuts and lard,
and the guy built out of donuts and lard ends
up winning the fight. It's unbelievable. So the heavyweight champ,
Tyson Fury, now, the question is this, and I want
(11:53):
to get into this briefly, is he going to capture
the hearts and minds of the US sports fan with
his seventh round te ko of Deontay Wilder? And you
know my answer is I'm skeptical. I like the story,
but does the story have legs or is this going
to be one of those one off situations because you
(12:13):
had if you go into the to the matter and
I watched the fight all the bas before the fight,
it seemed like the fight was never gonna happen leading
into it. But a couple of thoughts on Tyson Fury,
A until he does this again, it's a novelty act, right,
I put this in the novelty act category. I like
the charisma, I like the showmanship that I saw from
(12:35):
Tyson Fury, and he just bulldozed his competition in the
ring there. But he's like a real life cartoon chard.
You know. It's it's like you think of some of
the guys in the past and boxing, like Butterball. You know,
he's like a butterball turkey out there and he's he's winning.
But we've seen some other fat people in sports have
(12:58):
success here and some fat boxers have success recently. And
then you do karaoke in the ring. That's like a
page out of Manny Pakiau's book, right, pac Man loves
to sing, and there's Tyson Fury doing his thing. Pay
per view the other thing that, like pay per view,
has his limits. This is one of the dying medium's
pay per view, right because a lot of people don't
have the money to spend. A lot of people will
(13:20):
find ways to not have to pay for it to
watch it, whatever it might be. But Tyson Fury also
the other thing is he wraps himself in the wrong flag.
That's a problem. Right. He's a proud Englishman and he
doesn't know patriotism in the US, right. He boxing's a
lot it's much like the Olympics where you're you're talking
about you're from what country people, So you have tribalism
(13:42):
in boxing and so he's wrapping himself in the English flag,
which causes some problems. And then the last thing here
is it's very odd again visually when you have a
boxer who is again chiseled like a Roman statue like Adonis, right,
just porcelain. And then the other guy looks like Homer Simpson,
(14:05):
and the guy that looks like Homer Simpson that is
just drinking and guzzling gallons and gallons of like chocolate syrup,
ends up winning the fight. It's it's crazy, and we
will will see where this leads. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two
am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
(14:29):
the iHeartRadio app. So we paused the typical sports talk
bs for some mascot shenanigans. That's right, mascot shenanigans in
the Grapefruit League. We have some serious legal maneuvering going on. Now.
I have a secret love of mascots. I am a
(14:49):
big supporter of the mascots. I find them amusing, comical,
and a breath of fresh air in many respects. In
many respects I do I enjoy that very much. So
I bring this up because the Philly Fanatic, the mascot
at the very top of the totem pole. Okay of mascots,
(15:12):
the Philly Fanatic has been given a new look. And
why is this? Why is this because of a financial
boondoggle that the Phillies are worried about getting tossed in
the middle of. Actually they've been tossed in the middle
of it. There's an ongoing copyright lawsuit now someone named
Bonnie Ericson and Wayne Wade Harrison. I don't know who
(15:32):
those people are, but they co created the original Philly
Fanatic costume way back in nineteen seventy eight. And this
has been going on. We had mentioned this on the
show a couple of years back. We had mentioned it,
and we had mentioned the fact that there was a
chance the Phillies could lose the Fanatic. And so this
(15:54):
has been going on for a couple of years. But
it's there's this a loophole in federal law law. And
in the loophole, it benefits the people that created the Fanatic.
So the Phillies had purchased a copyright from these people
in nineteen eighty four. So from seventy eight to eighty four,
nothing really going on, and then in nineteen eighty four
(16:15):
they purchased the copyright well under federal law. Who knew
that an artist can renegotiate the rights on a copyright
agreement after thirty five years. While that was in twenty nineteen,
the Phillies they filed the lawsuit to maintain the rights
to the mascot. They argued, Hey, because of our marketing efforts,
the Fanatic is known worldwide as the Phillies mascot. It's
(16:38):
because of us. Well, the court's gonna have to side.
So the Fanatic copyright actually expires June fifteenth of this year,
which means the Philadelphia Phillies could be left without their
mascot on June fifteenth. So the Phillies are prepared to
move forward with a new version of the Fanatic, and
(17:02):
they debuted it on Sunday in the Grapefruit League, and
they're trying to work out a resolution, but if one
is not reached, they hope to be able to keep
the new mascot. And these changes are all in an
effort to avoid the doomsday armageddon scenario of being left
without the beloved mascot of the City of Probably Love.
(17:24):
That would be the nuclear option. So let us discuss
the question what do you think of the Phillies makeover
efforts for the Fanatic. Now, I know this is an
audio platform, it's not a visual so I'll try to
describe here in a second. But I've got blasphemy checkbook
and Seahawks and we will combine all of these things together. Now,
(17:44):
Number one, Newer is not better. You know, just because
something's new doesn't mean it's better. I know human nature
as well. If it's new, it's for me and all
that stuff. Here, Companies are always coming out with new products,
right the iPhone and every few years they got to
come out with a new own. The television business, they've
always got to come up with a new TV every
couple of years. Everyone's trying to come up with the
(18:06):
newest gadget because people are programmed to think that new
is better. But this is not the case. This is
the number one mascot in sports. The Philly Fanatic is
the magnum opus of mascots. All right, this is the
Mother Teresa of mascots. This is the end all be all.
It's an institution and it did not need to evolve.
(18:28):
The Phillies are trying to sell this, and I get it.
The marketing Department's like, well, the mascots evolved. They have
this whole bas story about the Garoppolos Islands the mascots
from and all this nonsense. But there was no plastic
surgery required. So let's cut to the chasers. So what's
different about the Phillies mascot? Let me walk you through this.
If you're blind, I'm gonna tell you as you're a
(18:49):
blind person, what's different about the mascots? So right away
you notice there's a lighter shade of green than the
old Philly fanatic mascot. The snout is smaller, and it's
a bit of a different shape than it had been before.
A couple of other changes. The hands are now away
from the fur. You can actually see the hands away
(19:10):
from the fur. There the green fur of the mascot.
That's different. You have blue stars outlining the eyes, lighter
and fluffier, just the way I like my popcorn, lighter
and fluffier. So that's in there. Yea blue socks it
was red before. Red shoes was green before. Laces are
now drawn on the shoes. The scale that this is
(19:33):
another weird thing under the arms. It looks like it's
got scales. The Philly fanatic has grown scales, which I
think you should go to a doctor and get treated.
If you have scales growing out of your arms after
living since the nineteen seventies without scales, you might want
to go to a doctor because you might be turning
into a serpent or something along those lines. So, yeah,
you have that part of it. And while people will
(19:54):
say most of these things are cosmetic changes, some are
bigger than others. Now the tail and the eyes are
the most ridiculous. That the solid, bright blue tail. Okay,
it looks like a parrot. Not you know that that's
the kind of tail you would see on a parrot. Now,
upon further review, you also noticed the fanatic must be
(20:15):
taking part in some interminute fasting, because the mascot appears
to have lost some weight. Now I don't think it's
a dramatic weight loss, but it's it's noticeable. It's it's
a leaner, meaner Philly Fanatic, which I find is blasphemy. Now,
I think this is all blasphemy because sports mascots at
their peak are are supposed to be morbidly obese. A
(20:35):
great mascot, the jolly chubby mascot, which is generally the
way that that goes. We do not need lean and mean,
I don't. Maybe you do, but I don't. That's for
the players. For the mascot, jolly fat fun, that's what
I want. Bad job by the design team now Segondent.
(20:55):
So the Phillies are taking cheapness to the next level.
And I consider myself a pretty frugal guy. I'm the
guy that will drive to Costco on the weekend just
to eat samples and not buy anything and then walk
out and feel fine, you know, because I pay for
my Costco membership. So I'm like, oh, I'm okay, I
can go there and just eat samples. I'm guessing Colin
Cowherd probably doesn't live the same life I live, but
(21:16):
he's got a little more money than me, so we're
in a different tax bracket, if you know what I'm saying. So,
but I try to save as much as I can. However,
what's going on in the Delaware Valley. I know this
is mostly a local story, but the Philly fanatics beloved
by men, women and children all over North America. This
is in a different galaxy what's going on here. An
iconic part of that franchise has been given a duover
(21:41):
in some of the key areas here, all in the
effort to save a couple of a couple of pasos. Right,
They did all of this to having to avoid paying royalties.
It would be similar if the Mets said, you know what,
mister met we need to evolve and we need to
give mister Meta makeover and instead of a baseball head,
we're gonna have a basketball as his head. But you
(22:04):
know it's still mister Matt. You know it's still mister Matt,
and you pretend like nothing has happened. Now, my advice
to the Phillies is to treat the Philly Fanatic with
the proper appreciation, right, with the proper appreciation. This is
an iconic figure and he's more important. And tell me
I'm wrong on this. To me, the Philly Fanatic is
more important from a marketing standpoint than Ryan Howard, than
(22:27):
Chase Utley, was Jimmy Rollins, Bryce Harper, anybody on the
Phillies right now that the Fanatic has had a bigger impact.
I'll tell you why. Because generations of fans young and old,
fell in love or deeper in love with the Phillies
because of their furry, overweight mascot. The fanatic people do
(22:50):
not like change in general. I don't like it. I
like my routine. I'm guessing you're the same way where
people creatures are habit. But especially when change is not
need and this is a something where you don't need
to do. This is the word is unnecessary. You're better
off just dare I say, opening up your check book
and cutting a check right, work out a deal, get
(23:14):
it done. The fanatic looks more like a baby dragon
with the blue tail, as I said, a parrot. Now
some of these qualities, it appears like they stole some
of the stuff from stuff the Orlando Magic mascots. Stuff
I think that's the name of the mascot of the
Orlando Magic. But don't hold me too that all right,
final point, So the Phillies ought to take a page
(23:36):
out of the Seahawks playbook. Now, a couple of years
ago the Seahawks what are they known for? They're known
for the Twelfth Man. There was an agreement that was
coming to an end between Texas A and M and
the NFL team in the Pacific Northwest, and there was
talk of a trademark infringement lawsuit. A and M has
held the trademark to the phrase twelfth Man since Night
(24:00):
Tea ninety and the Seattle Seahawks were freaking out. They
didn't know if they could work out a deal. They
started to distance themselves from the twelfth Man. Instead, they
were calling their fans simply the twelves, remember cup for
a couple of months about were the twelves? Now? That
was the same bs? They used, the same bs the
Phillies are using about trying to evolve in all this nonsense.
(24:22):
But the Seahawks, for a brief period of time, instead
of saying the twelve men, said the twelve It was lame,
And eventually eventually they realized it was lame and they
worked out a financial agreement and Seahawks cut a check.
I think it's one hundred and forty hundred and fifty
thousand dollars a year that they paid at Texas A
and M for the right to use the mascot. Now,
(24:43):
I don't know how much the people behind the Philly
fanatic this, Bonnie Ericson and Wade Harrison are asking for it,
and maybe they're asking for an outrageous amount. I would say,
the Philly Fanatic is worth a lot of money. And
if you're gonna cut a check for some you know,
two twenty hitting infielder and pay that person five ten
million dollars a year, well why not. The Philly Fanatic
(25:05):
is more valuable than that in the way I look
at the marketing of the Phillies. If the Seahawks can
find a way they get it done, they make tons
of money, just like the Phillies make tons of money
on the Fanatic. The Seattle Seahawks. The business of the Seahawks,
they make a ton of mine. I was listening to
Seattle at the end of last year at a great
time with the Malla militia. Our listeners on kJ are
(25:27):
there in Seattle. But they made that money back. Whatever
they're paying for Texas in them they make back because
they sell t shirts and flags and all these things,
the same thing the Phillies do. You gotta cut a
check for the Fanatic, you'll make it back. Bobble heads, hats, shirts,
coffee mugs, key chains, all the crap that you sell
(25:47):
at the Phillies gift shop with the fanatic logo on it.
Boom that's how it works. So the Bellers show on Fox,
and we go to the phones right now at eight
seven seven nine on Fox eight seven seven nine nine
six six three six nine, brought to you by a
Discovered Card. We treat you like you treat you. We
(26:09):
say hello two. Let's see here fire Lake DJ. He's
cashing a golden ticket. Hello, fire Lake DJ. Blah blah,
biggin Eddie going on my man. How are you guys doing? Man? Well?
(26:29):
I guess they don't. They don't want to talk man,
I'm the only one hig gentleman hire. They're not They're
not interested in what you have to say. They don't.
I'm still digesting monologue. What was wrong with the monolo?
I just disagree with you? You disagree with How do
you disagree with? The monologue about the fanatics an iconic
part of Philadelphia. You're you're right, and it's and it
(26:50):
still will be. The changes aren't drastic enough to prevent
anyone from buying merchandise or whatever. And now they don't
have to pay anything. But first of all, you don't
know if it's gonna work, Coop. That's number one. You
don't know if it's gonna work. Number two, it's unnecessary.
Just cut a check the people created it. Pay the rights.
You know, what's the big deal? They pay them they
this is the pay them, you know, in perpetuity. I mean,
(27:11):
that's that's well, that's a lot. That's the way. So
what you cut a check for these horrible baseball players,
Why not cut a check for the people that created
a mascot which doesn't hit, because that all they have
to do is change a couple of things that I
wouldn't have even noticed had you not brought it up. Well, listen,
you're not as a fan of mascots the way. That's true.
I love the mascots. Okay, I've I've I've hung out
(27:32):
with the fanatic. One night I was at the Phillies game.
We're playing the Dodgers. I was back in Philly, had
a great time with the Fanatic. I've hung out with
mister met Chuck the Condor. I wish Chuck was a
little fatter the Clipper mascot, but he's fat for a Condor.
Benny the Bull is a fat mascot. Chuck E Cheese
is not fat, not a fat mascot. Unfortunately, Ronald, I'm
(27:54):
not done talking here about mascots. Okay, do not inter
robbed me when I am on a roll about mascots.
Do you understand that's the holy Grail, that's the mecca.
Now you can talk. Oh my goodness, So I'm never
(28:21):
going to Choun's Pizza. Things were like the weirdest looking.
It was like an off reading like Chuck Cheese. Weir,
what do you what do you tell you sell? Some
rip off pizza place in Michigan had a Chucky Cheese
rip off logo? Like what there used to be a
place pizza? I don't I've never I've never heard that.
(28:41):
What's the There used to be a place called Bullwinkles Pizza.
I think that was a chain. I don't know if
that was national or local bit thing. Yeah, they had
some animal animonic or whatever they call what's the term.
They're the characters who animatronic animatronic there's the word I
was doing for you? Yeah, okay, all right, any house. Yeah,
(29:01):
I just want to talk about that fight, man. That
the whole prelude to the fight. That thing lasted like
four hours. Are you talking about the undercard and all
the lead up to the main event? Yeah? Yeah, it
was ridiculous. That's not always that's always ridiculous. I mean,
this is come on, you've watched fights before. They drag
it out and they melk it as long as they can't.
(29:24):
They feel like people want their money's worth. But that fight,
what time of that fight? It started after midnight on
the East coast? Right, yeah? Yeah, pretty much? Yeah yeah.
And then the one guy coming out and just saying
black dists and black dists and black thatt and if
it was on the other shoes, another person said, white
dis and white that he be crucified. But I don't
(29:44):
really care. But that's Those are the rules of society though.
That's how the society has set it up there where
you're allowed to do it one way but not the other.
But that's just how it works. All right, Hey, thank
you what Firelight DJ. I didn't make the rules, but
those are the rules. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two I'm Eastern
eleven pm Pacific. All right, let's get too come on,
we gotta go to a duptop jopp J to the
(30:06):
third degree step. This is one big man gets squirreled.
Brought to you by Discover Card we treat you like
you would treat you. Believe well, Johnny manziel sent out
a tweet on Friday to Oliver Luck, the XFL's commissioner,
that if he wants to boost ratings to another level,
to send him a contract tomorrow. Well. Then hours later,
he deleted his entire Twitter account. Ben Manziel's previously said
(30:30):
he has no interest in the XFL. What do you
think's going on here? Well, hey, I think Johnny manziel
is bored and his feelings were hurt. He figured his
phone would ring and he would get an opportunity. He
wants to play football for somebody, and his phone is
not ringing, and he expected the XFL to be begging
for his services. They have decided to reject him, and
(30:51):
he's upset. Now. Manzielle is a very proud guy, number
two and despite failing in the NFL, the CFL, the AAF,
he like another swinging the batter's box here. Now. He
did bring his Twitter account back, He did delete it,
but it's back now. He says, you don't want to
play football. Manzilla's zero interest in playing football now, but
(31:12):
I guarantee you if the XFL wanted him he would
suddenly have interest in playing football, So I think that's
BS al right. Next, Greg Popovich signed a three year
extension with the Spurs just this past April, but a
report says that there's a wide belief within the NBA
that he's operating on a year to year basis. How
much longer do you think pop has to see around?
So here's how I see this playing out. As a
distant relative of Nostre Damas and friend of no Scrudinas,
(31:35):
I will give Popovitch one more season, all right now?
To begin with, Popovich is the oldest coach in the
NBA seventy one. This is a young person's business. More importantly,
san Antonio is heading the wrong direction this. You know,
Tim Duncan's not walking through that door as a player,
neither's Genoble or Tony Park or any of those guys.
(31:55):
The Spurs have a losing record, they're slipping into irrelevancy
in the Western Conference, and they're going the wrong way.
And furthermore, Gregg Popovitch, who is mister woke mcwoke, He
has been grooming Becky Hammond to replace him as coach
of the Spurs. You want a conspiracy theory. How about
this Popovich planning to come back another year, and then
(32:16):
right before the start of an NBA season, he says,
you know what, I've decided I don't want to coach anymore,
and the Spurs are forced to hire Becky Hammond as
the coach. There. How about that first female head coach
in the NBA, that would be Popovich? He would love that,
all right. Next, Derek Carr caused much speculation over the
weekend by tweeting a picture of him in former teammate
(32:38):
Khalil Mack together something that he was hinting at a
possible reunion in Chicago. That's Roberto, by the way, His
brother David just said that Derek was trolling everyone. What
do you think, Ben? All right? So, first of all, listen,
Derek Carr can see the riding on the wall. The
Raiders have made it very obvious they are not in
love with Derek Carr, and John Gruden has been leaking
(33:00):
ries to the media about a mating dance with Tom Brady,
so it's obvious what's going on here, And saying, listen,
Derek Carr could do worse than the ending up in Chicago.
The NFC North is a tough division, but the Bears
have a pretty good defense. They just need decent quarterback
play and the foundation is there to get back into
the playoffs. My theory is that this was a subliminal
(33:21):
message to the Chicago Bears, just to see you know,
it's like fishing. You turn it out ice fishing. You're
hoping somebody catches on. All right there, it is Mallard
of the third degree? How did we do? Ben? You
pass again? Another win? Take that azzi about him? What
a great way, What a glorious way to start the
(33:42):
wink another victory. Win win win, win, win win win
win win win win win win win win win win
win win win. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the iHeart
Radio apps. Search f SR to listen live. Hey you
(34:05):
sports figure, guy or girl, will you talking to sons?
Here's some instant advice. Hold that thought. No one's paid
attention to me for ten whole seconds, and if you
don't like it, then no ware we go. It's the
instant advice line on the screen or radio, brought to
you by Discover Card. We treat you like you, to
treat you in a way. We go who needs our
(34:26):
advice this? We had several possibilities people that could use
our advice here, Tyson Fury on how to handle his success,
Deontay Wilder on how to handle defeat. Those are possibilities
here a number of people in the NBA, But it
seems the militia have all decided that I'm the person
that needs advice. I revealed in the Fifth Hour podcast,
(34:49):
which is available right now for download, all the all
the details about my unfortunate circumstance which happened last week
involving not quite can get in time to the toilet.
So what is your advice to me? Your advice to
me on how to avoid this situation? And eight seven
(35:10):
seven ninety nine on Fox line one, you're on the
airline one. Your advice to me? These are unscreened calls.
Hello line one, Oh, line two, actually no, line two
is not working. Line three, you're on the ear Hello
line three, eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox Line three, Go,
I'm coronavirus. All right, well you sound like it. All right,
(35:33):
let's go to you over here. You're next. It's the
instant advice. Line eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox.
What's your advice? Line five, I would say, all right,
that's Joe and san Antonio. Random line Hello, random line
learning things as a communist. That was justin and Cincinnati.
(35:54):
I couldn't understand what he was saying, though it was
just good. Line one, you're on the air eight seven
seven ninety nine on Fox. Hello, Line one, don't poop
your parents? Thank you. Line six, you're on the air. Hello,
I think you need to sit down, crack open the
beer and puck her right in the All right, thank
you for that. Let's go over there. Line yes, you
(36:17):
got that. All right, let's go to you on the
line at four. Line four, you're on the air. Might
as well shave Ron Jeremy. No, I'm good, I'm good.
Line one, instant advice, go ahead, yes, Line one, No,
it's going very well. Yes. If I was Cody Millinger,
(36:37):
I could sider cheating after striking out seventeen times, you're
fake it? All right? That was that. Line three, you're
on the Airline three, advice to me to avoid a
misfortunal diarrhea situation. Hello, Line three, destroy the state of Kansas.
All right, Well, thank you for that. Line five, Hello,
(36:57):
line five smoke, oh blue Yeah. Line six, you're on
the air giving advice to me. Hello, line six, Oh,
thank you man. How are you doing? I'm good. Line
one you're on the air. Hello. I'm having a hard
time tying this into the Patriots. But nice job sitting yourself.
Oh you can't. It's over your moron, You're dumb ass,
(37:23):
in made, You're dope, all right now. You completely butchered
the whole damn thing, and you ruin the invis advice line.
And I hope the Patriots win the next seven Super
Bowls just for that jackass, because now Roberto is completely flummix.
He's trying to figure out the time. He can't figure
out the time at all, completely screwed off. Ironic that
(37:43):
we had to do double dumps. Yeah, you know, there
are a bunch of all the words for the s
words you stoopid idiots. You could say poop, you could
say crap. There's all kinds of words. You guys can't
help yourself. You're Dude's another one. It's a bad job
by you, Eddie and these guys, why wait by by
me or not? But because these guys are idiots. See,
(38:04):
we just walked into a brick wall. No,
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. A variety of things going on over
the weekend, but we continue the most thorough in depth
team coverage of espionage in sports this scandal. Other people
(00:44):
clearly out of touch, not on the pulse of what's
going on in this cheating scandal. Now, the Astros over
the weekend went back to work. They played some spring
training baseball games. Who are attempted to in the Grapefruit
League end? Did you see what happened the very first
game over the weekend? There we had Astros Nationals West
(01:09):
Palm Beach and a sign stealing incident took place in
the very first game. I don't know if you saw
this in another video has gone viral, but a couple
of fans had posters with anti Astro messages. I like
these people. I don't know who they are, but I
liked them. And those signs were confiscated by an evil
(01:30):
security woman taken away at the spring training game in
West Palm Beach. I think we can agree it was
a surreal scene there during the spring training game with Washington,
about six weeks after Major League Baseball rule the twenty
seventeen World Series is forever tainted, forever tainted because the
Astros stole signs their first spring training game. They stole signs,
(01:55):
so it's perfect. It's like, hey, it's twenty twenty. We're stealing,
stealing signs, and it's appropriate because listen, they had that
little fugasy news conference there, the Astros and the little
stupid owner and all those arrogant SOB players one after another,
right line them up. They were not sorry, So it's
appropriate they're still stealing signs all right now. The two
(02:19):
men in they were sitting in National's gear, fans of
the champs, and they were sitting behind the Astro dug out.
Now the Astros and Nationals share the spring training facility,
and these signs ought to go directly to Cooper's town.
I would like to see these sides. Now, these were
not pieces of art. I don't think this was a
Picasso or a rembrandt. Uh these signs here, I saw
(02:42):
photos of them. And now did they have a lot
of profanity? Where they racist? No? No, no, no, no, no,
they weren't. One of the signs read you see my
hate were the question mark in large block letters. Oh
that's vision now. The other one said Houston and then
(03:05):
it had an asterisk with an apostrophe interns. So Houston
asterisk and that was it. That's all it read, suggesting
the twenty seventeen World Series clowder, which anybody, any real
adult educated person, thos is a taint to championship. There's
an asterisk on that. That's it, permanently blemished because of
the cheeny. But that was enough, an asterisk and you
(03:28):
see my hate. And they confiscated the signs. They took
the signs away from the fans. This is the rob
Manford said. The only real punishment was that everywhere time
the asters gone and play game, people are gonna get
a hard time. Well, apparently you can't even do that.
You can't even do that. Baseball. There's such a bunch
(03:49):
of pussy Willows at Major League Baseball. It's ridiculous, all right. Now,
I've kind of revealed how I feel about this, but
to expand on it, We've got rhino skin rubbering and
therapy dogs, and we will combine all of these things
together and we'll make a nice apple pie. Now A
In terms of irony, this is precious, right. It only
(04:11):
took one game for the Astro franchise to be on
brand stealing signs. Right, they've changed it up. Before they
use trash cans, whistles, buzzers. Now they use women to
steal signs. There there, Well, why not bring the ladies
involved in this all inclusive? Here, We'll bring the ladies
into steal pime. No, she was a woman security guard.
(04:32):
She stalled the signe. I saw the video. I saw
the video. All right. Now, the Astro franchise, the bedrock
of this franchise involves this kind of illicit activity, and
they are literally and figuratively blocking expression of speech. Now
you're confiscating signs. Despicable, despicable. Now they're claiming it's just
(04:55):
a ballpark rule, my ass I understand if it was
an offensive signed and there was some kind of profanity
on or something like that. God forbid church going people
see that kind of thing. But an asterisk, an asterisk
that gets you the sign taken away. Come on, my advice,
grow some rhino skid right. Stop driving the mist softy
(05:19):
truck with the Astro logo on it. Stop. You deserve
to be mocked, teazed, humiliated, in shape. Yeah, when the
Astros come to town. This is what's in the background.
There's that kuvan who looks like he should be running
to get an ice cream called at the back of
an ice cream truck. Listen, it's his. Major League Baseball's
(05:40):
leadership does not have the cajones to do anything right.
They are gutless, spineless. They've been neutered, rob Manford's been neutered.
Let the fans persecute, let the fans crucify the bombs.
And by the way, this is all let's be real here,
this is all child play. Right unless an asterisk is
(06:03):
now considered somehow obscene, I guess we'll have to challenge
the Supreme Court. This is just another emasculating day for
Major League Baseball. Shame on you, Shame on you, and
part B of this now it should be a long
painful year for the Astros. But if this is going
(06:23):
to be the way that it goes, that if you
put an asterisk on a sign, it gets taken away,
then how difficult is that. I would like to enjoy
the rubber necking. I'd like to enjoy the rubber necking.
As I've said, I've already overdosed several times on schadenfreud.
I have, and they are in a lot of turbulence,
the Astros a franchise, But it's not that bad if
(06:46):
this is what the situations there were some booing, but
any negative signment an asterisk gets taken away. Listen, if
you're gonna be a wrestling heel, if that's what you
and the Astros have these mixed feelings that part of
the team wants to be rested heels the bad guy.
The other part seems to think they did nothing at
all wrong. But this is supposed to be just an appetizer.
(07:09):
I imagine what's gonna happen when they go to Oakland
or Anaheim with all those raging, lunatic Dodger fans, a
hostile takeover of the Big A from Dodger fans there.
That'll be just man like ravenous dogs. These people are
gonna be to boo thee Astros and some other more
(07:30):
hostile environments down the line. The Astro players and the
franchise in general is as soft as good toilet piper,
not bad toilet paper, good toilet pick. You did the crime,
Embrace the hate that comes along with it. It's part
of the package, all right. Last word. So for me,
the greatest part of the twenty twenty season is going
(07:51):
to be continuing to chronicle what's going on with the Astros,
mainly because of the people that still support the team.
Melting down and getting extremely uptight tight took a syndrome
at every little joke. Now, my inbox has been blowing
up from our listeners on seven ninety on the AM
dial in Houston, which happens to be the home of
the Astros. How lucky you are we to have our
(08:12):
show carried on that radio station. And so I'm getting
these emails. You know all, I've been an Astro fan
for a long time. You're only upset with the Astros
because you're a Dodger fan. You wouldn't care about this
if you were a fan of the you know, the
Blue Jays or the Royals or the Mariners. You wouldn't
care about this. Yeah, okay, so again, weekly healing sessions
(08:32):
with therapy dogs is what these people need here? Man?
Is it entertaining the astro fanboys who are mixing denial
and rage at the same time. A lot of what aboutism? Well,
what about that team they were cheating too? What about
major League Baseball letting them get away? What about is
M wife your ass with? What about ISSM? How about that?
(08:54):
All right? What about the Yankee? What about the dog?
What about that sign stealing? Then the other argument, why
it's not that big a deal. Everyone's doing it. That's
the argument. It's baseball tradition. Why you have a problem
with that? Yeah, just listen, manage your anxiety. I don't
have any anxiety. I have a clear conscience here. I
(09:16):
have nothing. I'm not upset about anything. I'm enjoying this.
I'd like to see some signs be allowed in the
ballpark when the damn asterisk on it. But maybe maybe
they can just like get some some coloring done and
watch episodes of the Office or something like that, kind
of chill out a little bit and relax reruns of
the Office. But now Meanwhile, we have A's pitcher Mike Fires,
who got a very warm reception in the Cactus League
(09:40):
in spring training action for the Oakland Athletics. He's the
whistle blower who, well, everyone of the Astros enjoyed whistle blowing,
but this guy blew the whistle on the sign stealing scandal.
Without him, they'd still be openly doing this. The Edwards
Snowdon of Major League Basement. I think we have some
sound here of Mike Fire. I was hoping he would
(10:01):
say something interesting, but he spoke in nothing but cliches
and platitudes. But we're gonna play it because we have it.
Here's Mike Fires of the A's commenting on a very
warm reception he got, but trying to downplay the whole
thing in his first spring training appearance, trying to put
it behind me, Like, you know, we got to focus
on twenty twenty. Our season's coming off pretty quick, so
we need to focus on baseball and get ready. Like
(10:23):
in the past we've we've started off kind of slow,
and that's kind of halted us, you know, late in
the year because we're always trying to fight from behind.
So right now, the earlier we can get ready better
off we're going to be. It's all about, you know,
going out there and play baseball for everybody, for every team.
Just get back out there, play the game we love
and we'll compete. And yeah, for rest to take care
of yourself. Yeah, hey, Mike, nobody really cares about spring training,
(10:47):
a's baseball or you guys getting off to a slow start.
That's not the story. Don't bear the leadue, maman, don't
bear the lead, all right, dude, So the by Mallar Show,
we'll talk about all that now, the other story and
this we split the maland monologue because I watched the
pay per view fight. I don't know if you saw
it over the weekend. I did not start the show
with this because I figured, you know, not everyone pays
(11:08):
for the fight, not everyone have access to it. Not
everyone goes to the seed corners of the dark web
to find a backdoor link to watch this. So but
I watched it, all right. Tyson Fury absolutely flummixed Deonte
Wilder in Lost Wages, Nevada. This fight was highly anticipated.
It was built on the marquee boxer versus puncher. Yeah
(11:31):
and yeah, had Tyson Fury in a ridiculously dominating situation here,
and you have one guy that's built out of porcelain
and the other guy that's built out of donuts and lard,
and the guy built out of donuts and lard ends
up winning the fight. It's unbelievable. So the heavyweight champ,
Tyson Fury, now, the question is this, and I want
(11:53):
to get into this briefly, is he going to capture
the hearts and minds of the US sports fan with
his seventh round te ko of Deontay Wilder? And you
know my answer is I'm skeptical. I like the story,
but does the story have legs or is this going
to be one of those one off situations because you
(12:13):
had if you go into the to the matter and
I watched the fight all the bas before the fight,
it seemed like the fight was never gonna happen leading
into it. But a couple of thoughts on Tyson Fury,
A until he does this again, it's a novelty act, right,
I put this in the novelty act category. I like
the charisma, I like the showmanship that I saw from
(12:35):
Tyson Fury, and he just bulldozed his competition in the
ring there. But he's like a real life cartoon chard.
You know. It's it's like you think of some of
the guys in the past and boxing, like Butterball. You know,
he's like a butterball turkey out there and he's he's winning.
But we've seen some other fat people in sports have
(12:58):
success here and some fat boxers have success recently. And
then you do karaoke in the ring. That's like a
page out of Manny Pakiau's book, right, pac Man loves
to sing, and there's Tyson Fury doing his thing. Pay
per view the other thing that, like pay per view,
has his limits. This is one of the dying medium's
pay per view, right because a lot of people don't
have the money to spend. A lot of people will
(13:20):
find ways to not have to pay for it to
watch it, whatever it might be. But Tyson Fury also
the other thing is he wraps himself in the wrong flag.
That's a problem. Right. He's a proud Englishman and he
doesn't know patriotism in the US, right. He boxing's a
lot it's much like the Olympics where you're you're talking
about you're from what country people, So you have tribalism
(13:42):
in boxing and so he's wrapping himself in the English flag,
which causes some problems. And then the last thing here
is it's very odd again visually when you have a
boxer who is again chiseled like a Roman statue like Adonis, right,
just porcelain. And then the other guy looks like Homer Simpson,
(14:05):
and the guy that looks like Homer Simpson that is
just drinking and guzzling gallons and gallons of like chocolate syrup,
ends up winning the fight. It's it's crazy, and we
will will see where this leads. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two
am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
(14:29):
the iHeartRadio app. So we paused the typical sports talk
bs for some mascot shenanigans. That's right, mascot shenanigans in
the Grapefruit League. We have some serious legal maneuvering going on. Now.
I have a secret love of mascots. I am a
(14:49):
big supporter of the mascots. I find them amusing, comical,
and a breath of fresh air in many respects. In
many respects I do I enjoy that very much. So
I bring this up because the Philly Fanatic, the mascot
at the very top of the totem pole. Okay of mascots,
(15:12):
the Philly Fanatic has been given a new look. And
why is this? Why is this because of a financial
boondoggle that the Phillies are worried about getting tossed in
the middle of. Actually they've been tossed in the middle
of it. There's an ongoing copyright lawsuit now someone named
Bonnie Ericson and Wayne Wade Harrison. I don't know who
(15:32):
those people are, but they co created the original Philly
Fanatic costume way back in nineteen seventy eight. And this
has been going on. We had mentioned this on the
show a couple of years back. We had mentioned it,
and we had mentioned the fact that there was a
chance the Phillies could lose the Fanatic. And so this
(15:54):
has been going on for a couple of years. But
it's there's this a loophole in federal law law. And
in the loophole, it benefits the people that created the Fanatic.
So the Phillies had purchased a copyright from these people
in nineteen eighty four. So from seventy eight to eighty four,
nothing really going on, and then in nineteen eighty four
(16:15):
they purchased the copyright well under federal law. Who knew
that an artist can renegotiate the rights on a copyright
agreement after thirty five years. While that was in twenty nineteen,
the Phillies they filed the lawsuit to maintain the rights
to the mascot. They argued, Hey, because of our marketing efforts,
the Fanatic is known worldwide as the Phillies mascot. It's
(16:38):
because of us. Well, the court's gonna have to side.
So the Fanatic copyright actually expires June fifteenth of this year,
which means the Philadelphia Phillies could be left without their
mascot on June fifteenth. So the Phillies are prepared to
move forward with a new version of the Fanatic, and
(17:02):
they debuted it on Sunday in the Grapefruit League, and
they're trying to work out a resolution, but if one
is not reached, they hope to be able to keep
the new mascot. And these changes are all in an
effort to avoid the doomsday armageddon scenario of being left
without the beloved mascot of the City of Probably Love.
(17:24):
That would be the nuclear option. So let us discuss
the question what do you think of the Phillies makeover
efforts for the Fanatic. Now, I know this is an
audio platform, it's not a visual so I'll try to
describe here in a second. But I've got blasphemy checkbook
and Seahawks and we will combine all of these things together. Now,
(17:44):
Number one, Newer is not better. You know, just because
something's new doesn't mean it's better. I know human nature
as well. If it's new, it's for me and all
that stuff. Here, Companies are always coming out with new products,
right the iPhone and every few years they got to
come out with a new own. The television business, they've
always got to come up with a new TV every
couple of years. Everyone's trying to come up with the
(18:06):
newest gadget because people are programmed to think that new
is better. But this is not the case. This is
the number one mascot in sports. The Philly Fanatic is
the magnum opus of mascots. All right, this is the
Mother Teresa of mascots. This is the end all be all.
It's an institution and it did not need to evolve.
(18:28):
The Phillies are trying to sell this, and I get it.
The marketing Department's like, well, the mascots evolved. They have
this whole bas story about the Garoppolos Islands the mascots
from and all this nonsense. But there was no plastic
surgery required. So let's cut to the chasers. So what's
different about the Phillies mascot? Let me walk you through this.
If you're blind, I'm gonna tell you as you're a
(18:49):
blind person, what's different about the mascots? So right away
you notice there's a lighter shade of green than the
old Philly fanatic mascot. The snout is smaller, and it's
a bit of a different shape than it had been before.
A couple of other changes. The hands are now away
from the fur. You can actually see the hands away
(19:10):
from the fur. There the green fur of the mascot.
That's different. You have blue stars outlining the eyes, lighter
and fluffier, just the way I like my popcorn, lighter
and fluffier. So that's in there. Yea blue socks it
was red before. Red shoes was green before. Laces are
now drawn on the shoes. The scale that this is
(19:33):
another weird thing under the arms. It looks like it's
got scales. The Philly fanatic has grown scales, which I
think you should go to a doctor and get treated.
If you have scales growing out of your arms after
living since the nineteen seventies without scales, you might want
to go to a doctor because you might be turning
into a serpent or something along those lines. So, yeah,
you have that part of it. And while people will
(19:54):
say most of these things are cosmetic changes, some are
bigger than others. Now the tail and the eyes are
the most ridiculous. That the solid, bright blue tail. Okay,
it looks like a parrot. Not you know that that's
the kind of tail you would see on a parrot. Now,
upon further review, you also noticed the fanatic must be
(20:15):
taking part in some interminute fasting, because the mascot appears
to have lost some weight. Now I don't think it's
a dramatic weight loss, but it's it's noticeable. It's it's
a leaner, meaner Philly Fanatic, which I find is blasphemy. Now,
I think this is all blasphemy because sports mascots at
their peak are are supposed to be morbidly obese. A
(20:35):
great mascot, the jolly chubby mascot, which is generally the
way that that goes. We do not need lean and mean,
I don't. Maybe you do, but I don't. That's for
the players. For the mascot, jolly fat fun, that's what
I want. Bad job by the design team now Segondent.
(20:55):
So the Phillies are taking cheapness to the next level.
And I consider myself a pretty frugal guy. I'm the
guy that will drive to Costco on the weekend just
to eat samples and not buy anything and then walk
out and feel fine, you know, because I pay for
my Costco membership. So I'm like, oh, I'm okay, I
can go there and just eat samples. I'm guessing Colin
Cowherd probably doesn't live the same life I live, but
(21:16):
he's got a little more money than me, so we're
in a different tax bracket, if you know what I'm saying. So,
but I try to save as much as I can. However,
what's going on in the Delaware Valley. I know this
is mostly a local story, but the Philly fanatics beloved
by men, women and children all over North America. This
is in a different galaxy what's going on here. An
iconic part of that franchise has been given a duover
(21:41):
in some of the key areas here, all in the
effort to save a couple of a couple of pasos. Right,
They did all of this to having to avoid paying royalties.
It would be similar if the Mets said, you know what,
mister met we need to evolve and we need to
give mister Meta makeover and instead of a baseball head,
we're gonna have a basketball as his head. But you
(22:04):
know it's still mister Matt. You know it's still mister Matt,
and you pretend like nothing has happened. Now, my advice
to the Phillies is to treat the Philly Fanatic with
the proper appreciation, right, with the proper appreciation. This is
an iconic figure and he's more important. And tell me
I'm wrong on this. To me, the Philly Fanatic is
more important from a marketing standpoint than Ryan Howard, than
(22:27):
Chase Utley, was Jimmy Rollins, Bryce Harper, anybody on the
Phillies right now that the Fanatic has had a bigger impact.
I'll tell you why. Because generations of fans young and old,
fell in love or deeper in love with the Phillies
because of their furry, overweight mascot. The fanatic people do
(22:50):
not like change in general. I don't like it. I
like my routine. I'm guessing you're the same way where
people creatures are habit. But especially when change is not
need and this is a something where you don't need
to do. This is the word is unnecessary. You're better
off just dare I say, opening up your check book
and cutting a check right, work out a deal, get
(23:14):
it done. The fanatic looks more like a baby dragon
with the blue tail, as I said, a parrot. Now
some of these qualities, it appears like they stole some
of the stuff from stuff the Orlando Magic mascots. Stuff
I think that's the name of the mascot of the
Orlando Magic. But don't hold me too that all right,
final point, So the Phillies ought to take a page
(23:36):
out of the Seahawks playbook. Now, a couple of years
ago the Seahawks what are they known for? They're known
for the Twelfth Man. There was an agreement that was
coming to an end between Texas A and M and
the NFL team in the Pacific Northwest, and there was
talk of a trademark infringement lawsuit. A and M has
held the trademark to the phrase twelfth Man since Night
(24:00):
Tea ninety and the Seattle Seahawks were freaking out. They
didn't know if they could work out a deal. They
started to distance themselves from the twelfth Man. Instead, they
were calling their fans simply the twelves, remember cup for
a couple of months about were the twelves? Now? That
was the same bs? They used, the same bs the
Phillies are using about trying to evolve in all this nonsense.
(24:22):
But the Seahawks, for a brief period of time, instead
of saying the twelve men, said the twelve It was lame,
And eventually eventually they realized it was lame and they
worked out a financial agreement and Seahawks cut a check.
I think it's one hundred and forty hundred and fifty
thousand dollars a year that they paid at Texas A
and M for the right to use the mascot. Now,
(24:43):
I don't know how much the people behind the Philly
fanatic this, Bonnie Ericson and Wade Harrison are asking for it,
and maybe they're asking for an outrageous amount. I would say,
the Philly Fanatic is worth a lot of money. And
if you're gonna cut a check for some you know,
two twenty hitting infielder and pay that person five ten
million dollars a year, well why not. The Philly Fanatic
(25:05):
is more valuable than that in the way I look
at the marketing of the Phillies. If the Seahawks can
find a way they get it done, they make tons
of money, just like the Phillies make tons of money
on the Fanatic. The Seattle Seahawks. The business of the Seahawks,
they make a ton of mine. I was listening to
Seattle at the end of last year at a great
time with the Malla militia. Our listeners on kJ are
(25:27):
there in Seattle. But they made that money back. Whatever
they're paying for Texas in them they make back because
they sell t shirts and flags and all these things,
the same thing the Phillies do. You gotta cut a
check for the Fanatic, you'll make it back. Bobble heads, hats, shirts,
coffee mugs, key chains, all the crap that you sell
(25:47):
at the Phillies gift shop with the fanatic logo on it.
Boom that's how it works. So the Bellers show on Fox,
and we go to the phones right now at eight
seven seven nine on Fox eight seven seven nine nine
six six three six nine, brought to you by a
Discovered Card. We treat you like you treat you. We
(26:09):
say hello two. Let's see here fire Lake DJ. He's
cashing a golden ticket. Hello, fire Lake DJ. Blah blah,
biggin Eddie going on my man. How are you guys doing? Man? Well?
(26:29):
I guess they don't. They don't want to talk man,
I'm the only one hig gentleman hire. They're not They're
not interested in what you have to say. They don't.
I'm still digesting monologue. What was wrong with the monolo?
I just disagree with you? You disagree with How do
you disagree with? The monologue about the fanatics an iconic
part of Philadelphia. You're you're right, and it's and it
(26:50):
still will be. The changes aren't drastic enough to prevent
anyone from buying merchandise or whatever. And now they don't
have to pay anything. But first of all, you don't
know if it's gonna work, Coop. That's number one. You
don't know if it's gonna work. Number two, it's unnecessary.
Just cut a check the people created it. Pay the rights.
You know, what's the big deal? They pay them they
this is the pay them, you know, in perpetuity. I mean,
(27:11):
that's that's well, that's a lot. That's the way. So
what you cut a check for these horrible baseball players,
Why not cut a check for the people that created
a mascot which doesn't hit, because that all they have
to do is change a couple of things that I
wouldn't have even noticed had you not brought it up. Well, listen,
you're not as a fan of mascots the way. That's true.
I love the mascots. Okay, I've I've I've hung out
(27:32):
with the fanatic. One night I was at the Phillies game.
We're playing the Dodgers. I was back in Philly, had
a great time with the Fanatic. I've hung out with
mister met Chuck the Condor. I wish Chuck was a
little fatter the Clipper mascot, but he's fat for a Condor.
Benny the Bull is a fat mascot. Chuck E Cheese
is not fat, not a fat mascot. Unfortunately, Ronald, I'm
(27:54):
not done talking here about mascots. Okay, do not inter
robbed me when I am on a roll about mascots.
Do you understand that's the holy Grail, that's the mecca.
Now you can talk. Oh my goodness, So I'm never
(28:21):
going to Choun's Pizza. Things were like the weirdest looking.
It was like an off reading like Chuck Cheese. Weir,
what do you what do you tell you sell? Some
rip off pizza place in Michigan had a Chucky Cheese
rip off logo? Like what there used to be a
place pizza? I don't I've never I've never heard that.
(28:41):
What's the There used to be a place called Bullwinkles Pizza.
I think that was a chain. I don't know if
that was national or local bit thing. Yeah, they had
some animal animonic or whatever they call what's the term.
They're the characters who animatronic animatronic there's the word I
was doing for you? Yeah, okay, all right, any house. Yeah,
(29:01):
I just want to talk about that fight, man. That
the whole prelude to the fight. That thing lasted like
four hours. Are you talking about the undercard and all
the lead up to the main event? Yeah? Yeah, it
was ridiculous. That's not always that's always ridiculous. I mean,
this is come on, you've watched fights before. They drag
it out and they melk it as long as they can't.
(29:24):
They feel like people want their money's worth. But that fight,
what time of that fight? It started after midnight on
the East coast? Right, yeah? Yeah, pretty much? Yeah yeah.
And then the one guy coming out and just saying
black dists and black dists and black thatt and if
it was on the other shoes, another person said, white
dis and white that he be crucified. But I don't
(29:44):
really care. But that's Those are the rules of society though.
That's how the society has set it up there where
you're allowed to do it one way but not the other.
But that's just how it works. All right, Hey, thank
you what Firelight DJ. I didn't make the rules, but
those are the rules. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two I'm Eastern
eleven pm Pacific. All right, let's get too come on,
we gotta go to a duptop jopp J to the
(30:06):
third degree step. This is one big man gets squirreled.
Brought to you by Discover Card we treat you like
you would treat you. Believe well, Johnny manziel sent out
a tweet on Friday to Oliver Luck, the XFL's commissioner,
that if he wants to boost ratings to another level,
to send him a contract tomorrow. Well. Then hours later,
he deleted his entire Twitter account. Ben Manziel's previously said
(30:30):
he has no interest in the XFL. What do you
think's going on here? Well, hey, I think Johnny manziel
is bored and his feelings were hurt. He figured his
phone would ring and he would get an opportunity. He
wants to play football for somebody, and his phone is
not ringing, and he expected the XFL to be begging
for his services. They have decided to reject him, and
(30:51):
he's upset. Now. Manzielle is a very proud guy, number
two and despite failing in the NFL, the CFL, the AAF,
he like another swinging the batter's box here. Now. He
did bring his Twitter account back, He did delete it,
but it's back now. He says, you don't want to
play football. Manzilla's zero interest in playing football now, but
(31:12):
I guarantee you if the XFL wanted him he would
suddenly have interest in playing football, So I think that's
BS al right. Next, Greg Popovich signed a three year
extension with the Spurs just this past April, but a
report says that there's a wide belief within the NBA
that he's operating on a year to year basis. How
much longer do you think pop has to see around?
So here's how I see this playing out. As a
distant relative of Nostre Damas and friend of no Scrudinas,
(31:35):
I will give Popovitch one more season, all right now?
To begin with, Popovich is the oldest coach in the
NBA seventy one. This is a young person's business. More importantly,
san Antonio is heading the wrong direction this. You know,
Tim Duncan's not walking through that door as a player,
neither's Genoble or Tony Park or any of those guys.
(31:55):
The Spurs have a losing record, they're slipping into irrelevancy
in the Western Conference, and they're going the wrong way.
And furthermore, Gregg Popovitch, who is mister woke mcwoke, He
has been grooming Becky Hammond to replace him as coach
of the Spurs. You want a conspiracy theory. How about
this Popovich planning to come back another year, and then
(32:16):
right before the start of an NBA season, he says,
you know what, I've decided I don't want to coach anymore,
and the Spurs are forced to hire Becky Hammond as
the coach. There. How about that first female head coach
in the NBA, that would be Popovich? He would love that,
all right. Next, Derek Carr caused much speculation over the
weekend by tweeting a picture of him in former teammate
(32:38):
Khalil Mack together something that he was hinting at a
possible reunion in Chicago. That's Roberto, by the way, His
brother David just said that Derek was trolling everyone. What
do you think, Ben? All right? So, first of all, listen,
Derek Carr can see the riding on the wall. The
Raiders have made it very obvious they are not in
love with Derek Carr, and John Gruden has been leaking
(33:00):
ries to the media about a mating dance with Tom Brady,
so it's obvious what's going on here, And saying, listen,
Derek Carr could do worse than the ending up in Chicago.
The NFC North is a tough division, but the Bears
have a pretty good defense. They just need decent quarterback
play and the foundation is there to get back into
the playoffs. My theory is that this was a subliminal
(33:21):
message to the Chicago Bears, just to see you know,
it's like fishing. You turn it out ice fishing. You're
hoping somebody catches on. All right there, it is Mallard
of the third degree? How did we do? Ben? You
pass again? Another win? Take that azzi about him? What
a great way, What a glorious way to start the
(33:42):
wink another victory. Win win win, win, win win win
win win win win win win win win win win
win win win. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the iHeart
Radio apps. Search f SR to listen live. Hey you
(34:05):
sports figure, guy or girl, will you talking to sons?
Here's some instant advice. Hold that thought. No one's paid
attention to me for ten whole seconds, and if you
don't like it, then no ware we go. It's the
instant advice line on the screen or radio, brought to
you by Discover Card. We treat you like you, to
treat you in a way. We go who needs our
(34:26):
advice this? We had several possibilities people that could use
our advice here, Tyson Fury on how to handle his success,
Deontay Wilder on how to handle defeat. Those are possibilities
here a number of people in the NBA, But it
seems the militia have all decided that I'm the person
that needs advice. I revealed in the Fifth Hour podcast,
(34:49):
which is available right now for download, all the all
the details about my unfortunate circumstance which happened last week
involving not quite can get in time to the toilet.
So what is your advice to me? Your advice to
me on how to avoid this situation? And eight seven
(35:10):
seven ninety nine on Fox line one, you're on the
airline one. Your advice to me? These are unscreened calls.
Hello line one, Oh, line two, actually no, line two
is not working. Line three, you're on the ear Hello
line three, eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox Line three, Go,
I'm coronavirus. All right, well you sound like it. All right,
(35:33):
let's go to you over here. You're next. It's the
instant advice. Line eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox.
What's your advice? Line five, I would say, all right,
that's Joe and san Antonio. Random line Hello, random line
learning things as a communist. That was justin and Cincinnati.
(35:54):
I couldn't understand what he was saying, though it was
just good. Line one, you're on the air eight seven
seven ninety nine on Fox. Hello, Line one, don't poop
your parents? Thank you. Line six, you're on the air. Hello,
I think you need to sit down, crack open the
beer and puck her right in the All right, thank
you for that. Let's go over there. Line yes, you
(36:17):
got that. All right, let's go to you on the
line at four. Line four, you're on the air. Might
as well shave Ron Jeremy. No, I'm good, I'm good.
Line one, instant advice, go ahead, yes, Line one, No,
it's going very well. Yes. If I was Cody Millinger,
(36:37):
I could sider cheating after striking out seventeen times, you're
fake it? All right? That was that. Line three, you're
on the Airline three, advice to me to avoid a
misfortunal diarrhea situation. Hello, Line three, destroy the state of Kansas.
All right, Well, thank you for that. Line five, Hello,
(36:57):
line five smoke, oh blue Yeah. Line six, you're on
the air giving advice to me. Hello, line six, Oh,
thank you man. How are you doing? I'm good. Line
one you're on the air. Hello. I'm having a hard
time tying this into the Patriots. But nice job sitting yourself.
Oh you can't. It's over your moron, You're dumb ass,
(37:23):
in made, You're dope, all right now. You completely butchered
the whole damn thing, and you ruin the invis advice line.
And I hope the Patriots win the next seven Super
Bowls just for that jackass, because now Roberto is completely flummix.
He's trying to figure out the time. He can't figure
out the time at all, completely screwed off. Ironic that
(37:43):
we had to do double dumps. Yeah, you know, there
are a bunch of all the words for the s
words you stoopid idiots. You could say poop, you could
say crap. There's all kinds of words. You guys can't
help yourself. You're Dude's another one. It's a bad job
by you, Eddie and these guys, why wait by by
me or not? But because these guys are idiots. See,
(38:04):
we just walked into a brick wall. No,
Host
Ben Maller
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