October 27, 2020 • 58 mins
The cities make the fans, and the fans make the team. Fans are, without a doubt, the lifeblood of any professional sports team. Most fans would argue that their team's city is the best, and always be right! On this episode, Megan and C.J. welcome Michael Joyce (Doing My Best with Michael Joyce podcast) to the mic to discuss their top 3 greatest sports cities.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Greatest, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello,
and welcome to another episode of The Greatest. I am
Megan Gaily, and I'm joined by my husband and co host. Um.
(00:21):
We're currently sharing a microphone now because we're doing an
in person recording with a very special guests who'll bring
on in just a moment. But when you said welcome
to the Greatest, I was like, that's not the name
of the show, because I was thinking you were saying
welcome to the Bubble, because I watch you record the
Bubble every week. But um, but yeah, that's all I
wanted to say. I'm C J Toldano, and this is
(00:42):
a very fun episode. Oh I don't like this already.
We're sharing a mic back and forth, even though our
guest who lives eight minutes away, so I have mikes.
There we go. I hope you caught C Digo. No. Um,
it's just really hard not to interrupt, and I know
(01:03):
that that's something that I need to work on. So
I guess this episode not only will it be informative,
it'll also be a chance to watch me not interrupt people. Hope.
Boy Um, our guest, very dear friend just launched his
(01:23):
new podcast doing my best. Okay, great, Um, dear friend
originally from Cleveland, I know that's going to come up
by way of Chicago and New York. Give it up
for Mike Joyce. Hello, hello Michael. Also, I don't want
to miss a credit. You co produce a very fun
(01:46):
stand up show. When that existed with me, we were
every Thursday night. Yeah, me, you and Megan go way back.
We started comedy together in Chicago. What what year was this?
Two thousand, two thousand and I'm trying. I moved there
in two thousand and nine, okay, a little before you.
(02:08):
I mean such good friends that when you and your
wife moved from Chicago to New York, you gave me
your open mic and we threw you going away party
where we said that you and your wife were ore
twin Towers and that we would never forget you. Um. Well,
I'm just see you can't say you can't go, Megan, no,
(02:30):
because I have the mic right now. It's almost like
we're in I've never been to marriage counseling despite Michael, Michael,
thank you for being here. You guys are missing so
many I rolls like. It's too bad this is a
podcast format because I just love doing rolls. But Michael,
(02:51):
so you are a father, you are a two very
beautiful children, a lovely wife, beautiful wife, and I got
the whole. We got to take offense. So yeah, but
this is a sports podcast, so I do want to
just like I want to align the audience with where
(03:13):
your allegiance stands. That would be all things Cleveland sports. Um,
I am sort of a psychopath when it comes to that.
I would I would put myself on Megan Gaily Indiana,
I put you, Um, I would put you maybe over
me Wo's that's an honor. But I'm also kind of scared.
(03:36):
I mean, do you think this is a phenomenon that's
kind of like specific Cleveland in some ways? Though I
don't know any passive Cleveland fans. No, I don't either.
We are We're a strange breed. We truly live and
die by it. And I try to get excited for
other sports, but but nothing like I can't get in
(03:58):
the hockey because there's no Cleveland team. It's it's there's
something that's broken in my brain. But um, I don't know.
I mean, yeah, because most of my friends growing up Cleveland,
like for a lot of our friends a lot of
Cleveland fans, and it almost is I guess, uh, Stockholm
syndrome or just like the more they lose, the more
(04:19):
you guys love them and believe in them. Yeah, it's fatalism.
You know. The Browns are five and two right now,
and Cleveland fans don't know how to act. In fact,
they're upset that because we lost two games kind of badly,
but they're like they're angry, and I'm just I feel
like it's the last two years of Lebron. It's like,
can we just enjoy this, like it's not gonna last forever?
(04:40):
Remember how terrible it was? So you I mean, and
and that's sort of like an interesting fan thing where
like I wonder, like next year, if the Jets are
five and two at this point, are their fans gonna
be like, why do we lose those two games? Like
do you? It's almost as though, like psychologically we're not
able to be like this is great because you still
(05:02):
want more. You want to be seven, to know even
though you've been oh and seven many many times. I
think nothing matters to us until the Browns win a
championship and the Indians win a championship. Um for for myself,
I think Lebron and Seen lifted that weight off my shoulders,
and I'm no longer in the Cleveland is now the
(05:22):
city of champions, and that's how I like to approach
my sports now. Um, but that's not I find I'm
in the minority. I I text with all my Cleveland
friends and they're pretty miserable right now. And I just
don't understand what I mean O b J went down.
I was going to ask about so od I mean,
so what I want to first say, I saw that firsthand,
(05:43):
and we had a text thread with our friends Zack
also Cleveland guy, and you were a pretty celebratory I
was like, ce, like I thought, I was, you know,
you inviting you guys to glow, to celebrate a little bit,
and you did a little bit. But then our friends
Zack was just like, no, this is the worst team
I've ever watched, the worst Brown Sees. It's not. It's
(06:04):
by far one of the best teams we've ever watched
since he's he was four years old. So I don't
want to hear it. Zach, how you're listening? But what
is that it is? You know? I don't know. It's
some it's some sort of fatalism. Maybe we enjoy being
losers more than we enjoy being winners. It is it
was happening with Lebron. Like at the last year of Lebron,
(06:25):
there were people on sports radio who would be like,
let's just trade Lebron and get what? And I'm like,
are you kidding me? And I soak up every second
of this because he's the greatest ever to do it
and I want to enjoy myself. So would anyone fall
for that? Would anyone fall for trading for Lebron with
a one year left? I guess it's Lakers, Yeah, the Lakers.
(06:48):
But there was intention. Yeah, it just seems like that
when it was not in cleaning. Yeah, he probably will.
It seems like all those baby Lakers make their way
through there. What's what's the like club and Street, sixth Street,
he'd be at Liquid or whatever. I feel like as
as the King of Cleveland would be amazing. Um. This
(07:11):
kind of brings us to our topic today, which is
greatest sports cities. C J and I were having a
bit of a discussion about this before you got here,
and just sort of like what we were using as
our criteria. My criteria sort of ended up being events
(07:32):
that that city can offer overall vibe, sensitivity to social issue.
I mean, there are there are some cities that I
was like, listen, you're not on the list anymore. Okay,
there's been no I'm saying for my list. There's been
enough UH players on home teams and opposing teams that
(07:53):
have been like I got called this name there so
many times that it's like, I do think that that
you don't get to be on the list. Then if
that's something that's a habitual issue, I mean, um so,
I mean and you hear that across the board, you
hear that hockey, I think it's harder to hear. And
there's not a lot of black NHL players even though
(08:15):
there I think there's gonna be a lot more. But
like in when football probably less too. But in in
basketball and baseball you hear from players that Boston. It's
just I mean, I think it's part of the reason
Mookie is not there anymore. And so that does end
up being an issue for me. If you if you're
not nice to your own players, then I don't think
(08:36):
you're a great sports town. I would agree with that criteria.
I think I took it from more of a like
who's got the best fans kind of and yeah, because
if you're looking from sheer championship volume, that's that doesn't
impress me at all because that just that just means
you have yeah s Meigan's going to say the joke
(08:59):
into the micro phone, Shanaia Twain, baby, that don't impress
you much. Now you don't get it back. I was
once talking to a Boston guy in the airport in
and he's like and we're just like talking sports, and
he's like, yeah, I'm actually rooting for the Calves. I'm like, oh, yeah, why,
he's like Kevin Love's He's like a good white players
(09:19):
hitting me makes sense? Get out mookie well. And I
would just like to say the reason that fans is
fans can be something that takes away from you in
my criteria, but it doesn't really add you. I mean,
sports fans are bad. We're stupid. Were and I'm saying
this is me. I'm stupid, I'm emotional. I don't I'm
(09:41):
not fact based. It's all sort of like how do
I feel and what did my dad tell me? You know, Like,
so it's not you can't even like sports fans are
so bad and so fickle that they don't even get
a voice in my domin in my nominees. Well we
can get up. I just put Michael. I know you said,
(10:03):
that's how you're define define it how you want to
define it. Don't let you know. We're gonna have different
several different reasons, whether it's debate events. Yeah, this is
what the show is, a spirited debate where audience members,
they say, Megan yells at me. Too much spirited debate, spirited. Yeah,
(10:23):
So okay, what are we? How are we on time? Okay?
So temper so well, yeah, let's just go right into it.
How it works. We're gonna have three picks each descending orders.
Still haven't figured out if it's descending or sending, but
you're gonna do your third pick, and they we're all
gonna end on our greatest number one pick. So why
don't you kick us off with your number three pick
for greatest sports city? Okay? Um, well, clearly like New
(10:44):
York Boston, they're all out because they're they're terrible. Yeah. Well, okay,
did you see how many people wore Mets hats who
were formerly Yankees fans when the Mets went to the
World Series. I don't respect that. Uh. I actually to
respect White Sox fans because they've they've they ride hard
well when they should have been Cubs fans, but they aren't.
(11:08):
But yeah, Boston racism. Also, they pretend like there's some
oppressed sports team, but they've won so many in the
last twenty years. It's like that it's over. You guys
are just you know, New York Yankees with like worse accents.
I do like Fever Pitch and The Town, which both
have iconic scenes at fent so I will say that
(11:30):
that's true. Was a Fever Pitch, the one with Jimmy Fallon, Yeah,
where they were like were losers, were losers and then
they won and then they're like we got to reshoot
the end of the movie. He's like, yeah, I remember,
what a what an opportune time. It's almost like, why
didn't Jimmy have a movie career after the Red Sox
one while making a Red Sox movie. Well, I think
(11:52):
Jimmy is okay. I don't know if I think he's okay.
I think he likes this gig. We love you, Jimmy.
Do you know the family at me oh wow, wow, Okay,
now give us your number, So number three, I am
gonna can I go. I kind of want to give
it to you can do whatever you want. Minnesota. I'm sorry,
(12:14):
well then my apologies, but like Minnesota Vikings, you know, yeah, Minneapolis. Um,
and I kind of want to lump in Green Bay
with that because they tailgate very hard when it's cold.
I'm just very impressed with how much they go out
in the cold. The shirts are off. I mean, I'll
(12:37):
give like Chicago honorable mentions for the shirts fat men
in the cold. Um, So I highly respect that. I
feel like you're Joe Biden right now. You're like, I
love Minnesota love. It's like bringing home, not home. Um.
I fully agree and co signed on this. I mean,
(12:59):
Peckers fans own their teeth and that's really cool, very amazing.
And the Twins they always have good attendance, no matter
how bad the team is or how good they are.
They always sell out even when it's cold. Like no
one goes to Cleveland games in in the spring because
it's freezing, but like people show up for Twins games.
So I have a lot of respect for that fan base.
They like jump into ice cold water. It's it's a
(13:20):
lot of weather based things. But but I I do
believe there aren't any fair weather fans up there, and
they're just there. There's no fair weather because there's no
good weather. No. Yeah, Megan and I went to well,
we went there for the Super Bowl Minneapolis, spent a
week there and we went to a Timberwolves game where
a child ran away and Megan, yeah, assaulted. What it
(13:45):
was like? This was this was a toddler was like
running around Is it the target center? I knew it was.
He's like running around the charge. I mean he's too
he had a diaper on, like this is like a
baby toddler, okay, still in a diaper, and he's fully
like I'm like looking around at people being like is
(14:07):
he and no one is coming for him? And so
I start he's just running but he got a little
short baby legs, so I just start following him. And
now we're like eight sections away from where we started.
I mean we're a quarter away around the massive stadium.
So I'm like they're not coming, and so I go up.
I'm like hi, and he hits me and then I'm
(14:31):
like are you okay? And then he kicked me, and
then another you know, white lady do good or she's
like what's going on over here? And we're both like
trying to find like get a security guard. At one
point he pushed open the door to the outside and
was like leaving, and then some fucking idiot barreled up.
A man, the massive man came up, where have you been?
(14:55):
And just took him by the hand and walked away.
But the man, I'm like, where did you comfret? We were?
We were sitting behind the backboard, and now we are
behind the bench like we've we've traveled around the stadium.
And I think the kid was just so bad. They
weren't They didn't really want him back. Maybe it was
like that Bugs Bunny cartoon where it's actually an old
man dresses a baby who robs banks. Oh yeah, maybe
(15:18):
was he smoking a cigar? Yeah he was. He almost
had teeth that looked like they had been ruined by nicotine,
like his kids looked like he lived hard, alright, That's
why when he hit me, I was like, the fun
I don't even I don't know if you have your shots.
I don't know if you're gonna bite me, like you
seem like they dragged you out of the damn wilderness.
And this is some sort of make a wish. But
(15:39):
just for a little billy bob kids to come and
watching basketball, Oh my god. Not a plus for Milwaukee.
Megan's doing time and between the picks. Um. No, I
did want to add to that. Lombardi leap is maybe
the most like I feel like when people do that
in other stadiums, they still called the Lombardi leap. Right,
It's like such, it's so Lambeau lambe leap. Sorry, why
(16:02):
am I saying why did you let me say that
for so many times? Lambeau? Yeah, my bad, the Lambo leap? Um.
But yeah, it's like it's so iconic. Um. And then
snow snow like Brett Farve and he's not a great person,
but he's Rogers who person. I'm not gonna say anything
(16:23):
about Aaron Rodgers. I'm just gonna give um Michael more evidence.
I also think college sports factor into this, and they
are oh my god, you get a Wisconsin person saying
go Badgers. They love it. They love the Gophers up there.
I mean they ride really hard. My brother lives in Madison,
and it's like that's a great town. They really they
(16:44):
do sports nice up there. I think that's a good
and two states we really need to get back. Okay,
come on, blue baby. Alright. So for my number three pick,
I don't give a funk what anybody says. I'm picking
Indianapolis and here we go. They host said a super Bowl.
For you to even be on the list of cities
to host a super Bowl is a really really big deal.
(17:06):
They have the Pacers, the Colts. They also host the
largest sporting event in the world every single year. I
don't really care about it that much, but two people
come to Indianapolis every year to see a race car thingy,
a race car race. Can you say that? Um? And
I think that that's a huge deal. And sports college wise,
(17:29):
we've got Butler in the city. You've got Purdue an
hour away, You've got i You an hour away. I
mean the Notre Dame isn't two hours away. You are
kind of in like Big ten Heaven there. People ride
really really hard for those teams. The Final Four comes
to Indianapolis every like third year. It's the n C
Double A headquarters. It's the home of basketball. I just
(17:54):
I think any day in in the if you want
to see a sporting event that's like cool and fun
and will be in a venue that is unique. You
have that possibility. Now. I will also say there is
gonna kind of a time when these small markets are
going to have to appeal to athletes, and the way
to do it is not by saying, please shut up,
(18:14):
we don't care about your political views. And I see
a lot of those comments, and it's like, if you
want Victor Ladipot to stay in Indianapolis, you need to
be nicer to Victor Oladipot. Like that's just kind of
common sense. And if we want to have any black
athletes at all in any of these shitty cities, they've
got to start fucking acting nicer to them. So your
(18:36):
number three pick, but your number one thing to ask
them is to not be racist. I'm gonna say that
to every single city that's on my list, because every
single city that's on my list has racist people as
sports fans that are really loud and really annoying and
really hateful and dragged down the rest of the city. Yeah,
I think that's a problem in the entire world. Um
(18:59):
for his sports, it's yeah, and and even in like
you know, soccer and European soccer. There's some horrible things.
I have said a single thing, but but I agree.
Pacers are always good, cults are always good, like they're
good sports, and you're right people from Indiana. I love
college sports. I have mad respect they love high school sports.
(19:20):
Is crazy? What was like, Oh, I was just gonna say,
my other two cities are in blue states, and this
is my This is a blue city in a red state.
And I do think, like, as fans, you've got to
start being more conscious of how the people are just
being treated. These are these are not entities, these are
human beings and you have to be good to them
(19:44):
on a human being level for them to want to
stay in any of these cities. Yeah, it's no longer
we own you. And that just started. I mean it
was probably with with the letter Dan Gilbert wrote yes,
and people are like, oh, thank God. And I've heard
rumors that Lebron and his crew want to buy the
Calves and I pray for that because not only for Lebron,
(20:06):
but for players to end, like you know, still the
prime of their career to like be able to buy
the team, like yes, they made do the money in
the first place, like like the Calves are as big
as an organization operating organization because of Lebron, Like, so
you should have every opportunity to buy that when you
(20:28):
know when he has the money. When he left, he
not only like the dollar amount that the franchise, uh
like was valued at dry I can't remember the exact number,
but it was, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars.
And not only that, it was like the income of
the city, like it is in incalculable because we have
(20:50):
proof because Lebron left and then came back, Like there
are numbers that show, like this, Lebron is worth so
much money to the greater Cleveland area. It was he
was insane. Yeah, alright, my third pick um, I was
having trouble where to put this. Uh it might be
the wrong order, but I'm gonna say, Los Angeles, why
(21:10):
do you say that way? I'm saying that way because
I we live here. I love the sports here. L
A is notoriously a bad sports town. Yeah, I mean
my entry point is basketball. I think it's like, it's basketball,
it's baseball, It's okay, it's the Lakers. And I will
say nice. I'm not gonna say that many nice things
(21:32):
with Lakers. We all know why. You know, it's a
historic franchise, seventeen championships. Um, the best basketball team in
the city. Uh, but the Dodgers to despite the Someone
recommended a book and some some reading about how Dodgers
Stadium is h was bad for the Echo Park community,
and yeah, absolutely bad. Um. But you know, I think
(21:54):
there are a lot of transplants come here from you know,
these these other cities that we're talking about, and they
are able to experience sports, like coming from Erie, Pennsylvania
and living here, like, I love that I can go
to any major sporting event and for the most part,
they've been pretty good. Football, Like I saw the greatest
(22:15):
football game NFL game of like the last ten years,
that Kansas City Rams game, and it was in the Colosseum,
not a great pro football stadium, but incredible and like
the vibes of it was kind of like an even split.
It was like half Rams fans, which maybe every Rams
fan to ever exist l a Rams fan in the Chiefs,
which a lot of transplants from Kansas City. It was
(22:36):
awesome also to a lot of my friends who liked
the Clippers, who weren't basketball fans came here and are
now diehard basketball fans because the Clippers games were affordable
and they have some got season tickets. Some just went
more often, and that team has had some historic lineups.
Lob City, this current one, and also the Olympics. Uh,
(22:58):
the Olympics. We were supposed to have the second it
was it was it the second Yeah, was supposed to
be Oh wait, that's yeah, and then the eighties is
that when the last one was yeah? So yeah. Most
athletes live here in the off season because it's a
mixture of like, you know, the weather is nice, the
(23:18):
top like trainers and doctors are out here. It's just
it's yeah. I mean I think every player is like,
if I'm gonna live and if I can live in
any city, I'm gonna pick Los Angeles. Yeah. We now
have two football teams, and which is wild. It's very
very strange, and I feel bad for San Diego City.
I don't like UM, but I do think it's sucked
(23:40):
up UM. And also the sparks and also the King's
We went to an l a King's Amos. So, I mean,
hockey is people say it's the best sport to see
in person and to be able to see in person
at Staples Center. It's it's cool, Like I do love
seeing hockey in the arenas that we get to see
sort of the Star Sports Center and Staples Center is
(24:03):
really cool. Like the lighting they do, you can tell like, oh,
this is a Hollywood production. It definitely beats Cleveland's laser
light show. You know, we got the flames, but that's
about it, well, they said, And I think it was
the Forum with the Lakers that they lit that thing
like a Broadway play. It was, you know, the court
was the only thing lit and everything else was dim
(24:25):
like a show. And they do some iteration of it
a little bit. Again, like the lighting in my opinion,
is better at the Lakers and the Clippers, but like
a lot of stadiums are adopting that, and I think
it really kind of makes it a real cool experience
for sure. I I would only disagree because there LA
is kind of a ship football fan town, but I
(24:46):
really admire I admire any baseball town, and l A
is a sneaky like I didn't realize how much people
love the Dodgers. It's not just because they're good. Every
year you see kids, little kids in their front yard
playing baseball and don't see that at least. I grew
up in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana. That was all football, basketball,
maybe basketball, you know, some baseball, but like they like
(25:08):
and there's a lot of Major League players who are
from southern California. So the Murals has the best sports
murals we've lived in the other cities. It's like, I
don't never remember seeing a sports mural in Chicago. Biggie
gets all the good murals in New York. Yeah, Chicago.
Chris Farley like raw, Yeah, I want to go make
(25:35):
one of him. Yeah, in a bear like doing the
Bears on the side of Second City. Yeah. You know
what's wild? Suit l A just got this incredible probably
the most beautiful stadium in the world, and we haven't
even seen it yet. I mean I thought of it
because they're playing in it right now Monday football. Like,
I can't wait to go to so Fi. Oh boy,
(25:57):
we're gonna get crunk at so Fi. I can't wait.
Let's take a quick break and then we'll be right back. Okay,
and we are back with our number two picks for
greatest sports cities. Michael, you start us off this round too, Okay,
(26:20):
I am gonna go with Philly. Okay, so they are
terrible people, um, but I admire their passion, right like
you were here the stories about like how you know,
some international soccer team would accidentally score goal on themselves
and then that guy would get murdered. I feel like
(26:41):
if it happened in America, it would happen in Philadelphia.
And I kind of admire that they throw. They throw,
they throw really good riots when they win. Um, their psychic.
Like Charles Barkley is a thick skin, great dude, and
he were like, yeah, Philly fans are assholes, like like
it's so hard to get under Charles barkley skin, and
(27:04):
like so in some you know, and I know I was,
you know, ragging on Boston and New York earlier, but
I don't know, there's I have a respect Philly. They
are delusional, but he also realistic. I think the seventy
sixers are iconic. The Eagles are iconic, and um, and
and even the Phillies you know, yeah, no, they're they're
(27:26):
the Flyers. They definitely that's a great pick. They deserve
to be on this list. Are there fans insane? Yes,
like every truly fan, I know that is their identity,
that is like what their reason for being is. And
it's scary. Like I've you come across Philly fans on Twitter,
it's scary, but like, man, I'm a front runner myself,
(27:48):
and I like, yeah, they've stuck through their teams through
some dark times and yeah when they want, you know,
I'm gonna let Megan bring up which he loves to
bring up. Oh yeah, I mean, my favorite story out
of Philly is the man who ate over the man
who ate horsepoop off the ground. When they were celebrating
(28:08):
the Super Bowl. I felt the thing is, no one
else has ever heard this, so then it's like did
I make it up? But it is my favorite story.
But Philly fans they really scare me there. It's like
so two and the super Bowl that we were at
in Minnesota was Patriots Eagles, and so we were all
rooting for the Eagles whole stadium except for like the
(28:30):
actual Patriots fans there just because you want the Patriots
to lose. But I was like, oh my god, thank
god among these people's side, because they do they we
I mean I went to one Eagles tailgate at an
Eagles game because I was shooting something there and it
was like two weeks after the election, and they saw
like the camera go up and the whole parking lot
started chanting Trump. So it's like, it's not a crew
(28:53):
that I want to hang with. I'm sorry, guys, it's
just not I would wear. I would wear an imposing
team was Jersey pretty much anywhere, but not not not
to a Philly game because I just would not want that. Yeah. No,
I mean we saw what it was a clip last
week of them fighting a Ravens and it's like during
(29:16):
COVID they're still fighting people. They're insane where they wearing
a mask when they thought, yeah, there's no I mean this,
this goes for a baseball and we'll probably go for
basketball since that's coming back too early. Now. It's so
funny that they did everything right and then they're still
gonna That's how long this thing has been going on
if they're coming back too early in their second season
(29:36):
during COVID. But uh yeah, Philly fans are just I
mean iverson, uh just him being kind of this this
outsider like breaking all the rules, which was so cool
to me, like kind of put in like their other
like Edry Brian Dawkins, all the like the best Philly
(29:57):
athletes just reinforced how fucking raising and badass all their
fans have become so so Yeah, I mean Philly is
a great choice, but I'm scared of them. Yeah, they're
they're uh, you know, it's better to be feared than
than loved, you know. Yeah, I think the boxing legacy obviously,
like they excel at other sports that are outside of
(30:19):
the major four too. Okay, great pick. My I'm happy
someone put Philly on the list because it's like, I
really don't want to be murdered in my sleep, you know.
Um My second pick is a change from what I
was going to do. And I'm gonna say the Bay
just as a whole. They ride hard too. I Mean
you see forty Niners stuff everywhere we went to Disneyland
(30:42):
last year. I was like, is Jimmy Garoppolo here, Like
it's the number one football team that I see on
like traveling, and obviously they love the Giants so much. Yeah,
I mean the Warriors were in Oakland when and they
were bad and everyone supported them, and then it sucks
that they would like went back to San Francisco. So like,
(31:06):
I like Oakland's fans a lot better. I think this
season of Last Chance, you like, really gave us a
window into them loving football that I didn't realize. And
they also seem kind of scary, like I wouldn't want
to fuck up the Giants fans Raiders were still the Raiders,
(31:27):
I probably would have put the babe right. And and
them not having it it's horrible. I mean, and you
still see Raiders stuff up there, like they love that team.
They were taken from them. I don't like it, and
Vegas is definitely not gonna make anyone's list. But yeah,
a Raiders fan is the scariest fan you could ever
(31:47):
think of. I think, like those guys that and that,
just the outfits and the change colors, like the silver
and the black like they I think that was a
giant San Francisco Giants. Oh yeah, actually there maybe I'm
thinking of the fight that happened. I believe it was
(32:08):
Dodgers Giants baseball who knew? I mean, life for death?
This ship is crazy, but yeah, I just it's so
beautiful up there and you and maybe it's because I
was there last week with your wife, but you just
see forty Niners stuff everywhere, and you see Warriors stuff everywhere,
and and it's a like a big kind of rich
(32:29):
city is what we think of it as techy and
Silicon Valley esque, but it's like, no, this is like
a gritty, cool ass, badass sports town too. And I
love when they hit home runs the Giants that goes
into the bay and the guys go out in the
canoes to get it. And my uncle, he's a sample,
he's a forty nine fan and he just has an
(32:50):
entire room with forty niners and like he doesn't even
You just like walk in like nothing, no other inclination
in the house. And you walk in and it's like,
you know, a statue of Jimmy Garoppolo and You're like,
what the That's what I want my room to be
with every team Lebron has played for. If you want
to set you of Jimmy Garoppolo in our house, and
I'm all for it. I find you fucking Jimmy statue
(33:15):
of Jimmy Garoppolo. I'm not gonna do anything. I'm gonna
go have the chain on it, have fun. Let the
statue pick up the kids, all right, should do my pick?
So my pick, my second pick was going to be Philly.
So and I'm trying to pick one that I don't
want to steal on your guys, because I know you
could do real research. That's what I was gonna pick.
(33:37):
Actually New York. So Megan said she gave up New
York and is kindly as a is a nice beautiful wife,
gave me New York City or New York. Um New
York as a whole. Well, I mean, okay, so I'm
missa in New York City. But what teams play in
New York City besides the next The Rangers do play there, right, yeah, yeah,
(34:02):
so the Knicks in the Rangers. But yeah, New York.
I'm just gonna say New York. I know it's best cities.
But like in New York they have what the Knicks,
the Rangers, the Giants, and the Islanders which play at
Barclays Now they did they moving it back because people
were not liking it. The Islanders game there in yeah,
(34:25):
which are in Neutral the Nets are in Brooklyn. But
like it's it's historic, Like we have so many famous
athletes now who were born in New York and that
was their life. They have just on like a recreational level,
like if you want to play basketball, you walk two
feet outside your house, there's a court. You come up
on that court like West fourth Rucker all like basketball,
(34:48):
football is big. Like the thing is like none of
these teams have been good. And again it's like filling
all these other teams even though the equals one, like
they are right or die for, you know, And for
the last decade. I apologize that they've had to go
through a lot of this stuff. But yeah, the fact
that like uh Next games still almost sell out and
and I would say MSG is probably when people people
(35:12):
were like before I ever went there, there like it
is like church, and when you walk in it, it
really you just get this feeling. And I was watching
a Bowls uh next game there, which wasn't a good
matchup that year, and it was awesome like this, you
look up at the ceiling, it's beautiful. They have like
the first couple of rows or celebrities, like that's still
a thing, celebrity row, and you walk to it, you
(35:35):
get on the subway. It's a whole experience that like
any sports fan, uh, I hope that they can experience it. Yeah, yeah,
I respect that they still love the Knicks even though
they have been terrible for a long time. It's the
Yankees who really spoil it for me, because I do
not like the Yankees. They do a very loyal fans
they and their fan base is massive. I mean you'll
(35:55):
find Yankees fans all over the world. Mets fans are
extremely loyal, all we know. I feel like I know
more Mets fans than I know Yankees fans, and they're
always like, I don't know why to do this to me,
and then their kids in it, and you're like, oh
ship um. Also, the US Open is there every single year.
I mean, it's a really incredible event. New York throws events,
(36:17):
probably better and in more of a headache fashion than
anywhere else. But yeah, definitely for all of those teams
to exist there and Broadway and music and like every
single thing you could ever want to do is in
that city and the next still draw people. That's fucking insane.
(36:38):
I mean, I feel so bad. This is a whole
another episode, But I was just thinking, in my head,
maybe the greatest sports hat is the Yankees. Maybe that's
not that's not even the sports to me, I would go, yeah,
Yankees in and Dodgers are like the those are the
most recognized where iconic sports, and people get scared aired
(37:00):
of the Yankees just because of their uniforms. I know
that was from Catch Me if you can, but it's
true because like the Indians always get eliminated those pinstripes. Baby, Okay,
we'll take one last break and then we'll be right back. Okay,
and we are back. So now we are up to
(37:21):
our number one pick. I'm worried we're gonna have the same. Um.
I guess I was going to have an honorable mention,
but it was New York, which I was so generously
gifted to c J. And so my number one is Chicago. Okay, okay, sorry,
c J. Well we can share it since we share this, Mike, Um,
(37:44):
I find Chicago sports fans to be totally insufferable. UM
cannot handle them, don't want to be around them. They
annoy me. But I do think when you talk about
the big boys sports, you got the Bears the black Hawks.
You have two baseball teams that are always like in
(38:07):
the news. You know, they're not always winning, but they're
always like kind of important. I wish more people went
to White Sox games. And then do you have the
black clocks. They say them, who are who are an original? Six? Iconic?
The Bears original? I mean Chicago sort of is a
town that is defined by what's happening in their sports
and defined by they're just sports identity. The Bears is
(38:30):
so big. But yeah, I think their fans suck, and
I think where the United Center is, they gotta get
better public transportation to it, and where Soldier Field is,
they gotta get better public transportation to that. Okay, that's
what I was gonna say, Michael, are you going to say, Yeah,
Soldier Field is in the middle of nowhere. I know,
(38:50):
but it's it's huge, and it's beautiful, and it is
beautiful parks there so gorgeous when nobody goes to them.
Why does Us' Field face Indiana and not Chicago? That's
just that's just an architectural thing. I think it's the highway. Yeah,
it's the highway. And it can't be that close to Wrigley.
I'm not talking about moving the location. I'm saying it. Yeah,
(39:14):
it faces into northwest Indiana, which is truly just take
to America, turn and look at a beautiful skyline. But
what do you mean face like a stadium? Can face facing. Okay, yeah,
I was also gonna add to it. I don't think
that about the fans. The fans are wonderful. I mean spoiled. Yes,
(39:38):
the nineties Bulls spoiled everyone. But I just think that
also to like the teams just by again their uniforms.
This is like another episode, but like Iconic Classic, never changes.
Sometimes they do some weird alternates. But the Bulls, the Cubs,
the Socks, the Bears, Blackhawks like well, I don't know,
(40:01):
but I don't know what what the ethics are on that.
I think it's okay because it's the black Hawks and
it's like a specific tribe. But I could be very well,
now people want to I think you're You're probably right.
I'm sure there's some issues, but I know the black
Hawks have come out and said we're not changing yet. Well,
I've been the black Hawks games and they don't usually
(40:22):
have protesters, and I've been to Indians games and there's
usually protesters. Um, but also too, it's just like it's
smack dab in the middle of this country, and you know,
everyone always says you've got a cater to the Midwest,
and I don't know. Yeah, there's something about you know,
you got your your New York versus l A or
(40:43):
even your Boston in New York. But like the fact
that they're in the middle. Like I grew up in
Iowa and we got w g N, which showed all
the Chicago sports, and like I talked to people in
like St. Louis and all this other stuff, and they
all love a lot of people love in the Midwest
just love Chicago sports, and so like they almost make
up for way more of a region than any of
(41:05):
these other teams. So yeah, they're a great sports city. Um.
You mentioned St. Louis, and I just want to make
sure I clarify You're a terrible fucking city St. Louis.
I respect that they like baseball so much because that
doesn't happen a lot. But other than that, Um, but no,
the Cardinals are cute. I like the Cardinals. I just
hate that city. Uh. And I also just Megan made
(41:27):
fun of me because I was gonna say, Erie, this
is an honorable mention. Then we get to your at
number one, Erie, Pennsylvania, because you can root is where
I grew up and you can root for within two hours.
Are the Browns, the Steelers, the bills and yeah, and
then also whatever probably got w g N Chicago is
like the Cubs are so famous because of the g N,
(41:48):
because forty States saw their games growing up. I almost
feel proud of myself that I didn't become a Cubs
fan as a child. I was like, I see you
ramming it down my throat and I don't like it. Um.
One honorable mention that I know that we will want
to both say is Buffalo. That's I mean, they will
go out in a blizzard. They love the Sabers. They
(42:10):
really they invented Buffalo wings. You know, like we we
wouldn't even that's for every sport, every team. We would
think about how bad our lives would be if we
didn't have those start. That's where the Clippers started. Um yeah,
so Buffalo, we love you, and I don't maybe get
(42:31):
another team and then and then you can make the list.
That's it. Nobody can hear you. Okay, Michael, Okay, Michael,
you bring us on with your number one pick. Now
I know what it is. I can't believe I thought
(42:51):
we were going to have oat. Well, you know, I
do respect Chicago, but I I saw a lot of
people hop on the side expandwagon, which rubs me the
wrong way. And I find a lot of them insufferable,
but I do respect how much they love it. And plus,
my wife grew up a block away from Wrigley Field,
and I think it's really cool that there's like the
stadiums like in the city you like, and like that's
(43:14):
very unique. Um, but no, my my number one is Cleveland.
Cleveland everyone. Um, Okay, So I'm just gonna say, we
have all the major sports teams. We got baseball, we
got basketball, we got football. Um, We've been long suffering
(43:35):
and yet we still love our teams. We've had the heartbreak,
which I think makes us kind of lovable. It also
gives us perspective. I've read some study that like, people
who have bad sports teams actually are better at dealing
with problems when they become adults because they've dealt with
with heartbreak. And I've spoken with bulls, like kids who
grew up in the nineties, and well they're just like, oh,
(43:58):
I never, like, I never realized your sports teams loose. Yeah, yeah,
it's gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. It's like no,
you need to cry for five years straight. Yeah, and
oh god, and then that championship was just like it
took a lot off my shoulders. Let me just say, okay,
So there's also I mean the Browns we have, the
dog Pound, we have, I mean, the Browns fans are.
(44:21):
I will put them toe to toe with any insane
fan base, isn't There's something that like there's more Browns
designated bars around the country than any other. That could
also mean a lot of people leave Cleifland. That is
very true, and that it has one thing like the Indians,
we don't have good attendance anymore. In the nineties, we
sold out for like four years straight. You had a
(44:42):
major movie series based on the team. You gotta imagine
that helps sell some tickets. But now, yeah, people have
moved away, but we still but our television ratings are
always like top like five. I'm making that up, but
it's it's it's up there. It's it's up there much higher.
Like we're we are the Cleveland diaspora. Our championship parade
(45:08):
was like insane. Just the sheer amount of people who
like came back, traveled from all places in the world.
Like Trump when he says, like, look, how many people
showed up to Cleveland from my rally. He takes pictures
of that, and they've used it several times. They were
saying for the RNC when it was in Cleveland. And
then everyone's like, why is j R. Smith? Why she
(45:31):
next to Jericho? Why next to Jered Gush? It's just JR.
Kevin Love but zoomed in Yeah, I mean wait, wait
and can I also, I just have to bring up
ten cent beer Night because I don't know if anyone else,
So okay, ten ten cent beer Night. We were, um,
I can't even remember. I think it was the eighties
(45:53):
and maybe the seventies for ten cent beer. So Cleveland
was pretty bad. It was that old Municipal Stadium, which
is was our football stadium and our baseball stadium, so
we could fit way too many people in there for
for baseball, Like it was a terrible like all the
baseball players hated it. And we had actually just gotten
a fight with the Texas Rangers like a week or
(46:14):
two and they started like the Rangers players were like
shifting on Cleveland. So then they had ten cent beer Night.
Rangers were in town. You could they like put a
cap on it like six beers in person, but nobody cared.
We got like ten thousand more fans than typically come
to games. They just came to drink. So like in
between innings, people are running on the field and and
(46:35):
things kind of turned south because, um, we were down
five one, so fans start throwing stuff on the field.
Mike har girl who actually went on to be when
our manager, he was playing first base, he's, he's. He
said that, like people through must must have been like
twelve pounds of hot dogs at him. He there, people
were chucking. He got an empty jug of wine. It
(46:55):
was like thunderbird wine. They threw that at him, right,
They still didn't They still in camp to the game
until the ninth inning, Cleveland actually had tied up five five.
A fan and like a twenty year old, runs onto
the field tries to take the hat off of one
of the Rangers outfielders. But the guy they but the
from the dug out. The Rangers dug out. They thought
he was attacking him, So the fucking the Rangers grabbed
(47:17):
their bats and they run out to like protect this guy.
And then the fans they started ripping out the seats
and they jump on the field and they're like starting
to YouTube videos document it was like worse moments his story.
I mean, you guys also had a river catch on fire. Yeah, okay,
(47:40):
listen Cleveland. There was a lot of rivers that caught
on fire in the in America during that period. But
but you know, Kyahaga was was a big one. So yeah,
it was a great Actually, the Cleveland players went to
defend them and then they like went back in groups
in the clubhouse. Anyways, big riot, And the best part
was the announcers were calling it from the booth. They're like,
this is horrible. I mean, it's like the Palace. Yeah,
(48:04):
and that wasn't even our only one. We have Bottlegate.
That's why they don't. They don't do glass bottles at
stadiums and make someone's going to get it to that
and that. But you know what, those rests deserved it
because they cost us a game and the playoffs. There's
your Cleveland also, I mean, oh god, Ohio State fans,
(48:24):
and nobody rides harder than those people. All you also
hate all of the surrounding states because we have like
rival We're not actually Indiana, I'm sorry, but we yes, um,
but we hate Michigan. They looked down on us. That's
why they don't hate us. Yes, Um, Michigan, we hate
Pittsburgh and then thus most of western Pennsylvania we don't well,
(48:45):
you know, affiliate. But um, but so anyways, that's that's
manually at Lebron Lebron. Yeah, he's coming back for it's
gonna be his feral Season's going to be in Cleveland.
I was gonna ask Michael, because I love hearing when
you when the Cubs and Indians were in the World
Series and I still can't get a read on how
(49:07):
real it got. But your wife again grew up block
and World Series. I mean, two teams that really deserved it. Um,
what can you describe what that week? That was hard?
So my dad is um, he's been a season ticket
(49:27):
holder for you know, a long time. So he gave
me two tickets to the World Series game. So we
were living in New York at the time, and we
had it. We had our very young child. But we're
just like, all right, Caroline, our friend can you watch
watch Frances. We're going We're gonna drive watch the game,
drive home. So I go and yeah, eight to ten
(49:52):
depending on traffic. Um, outside of New York. So we
go and you know, people are was all fun. It
was all fun. You know at the beginning, we were
having a good time, and like, you know, Cleveland people
be like, oh this happened, because it would be like
I was like with my Cubs fan wife and something
happened that day. Well, first of all, the part that
(50:16):
really hurt is that a lot of the Cleveland people
sold their tickets to the Chicago fans because well, Chicago's
just got a lot of money. My my dad sold
two of his tickets and unfortunately, I mean they were
Cleveland guys, but they were like executives. They were looking
at me for for cheering too loudly during the World Series.
(50:37):
I drove them away because I was going insane. That's
on them. It's the World Series. I'm gonna scream until
I have no more voice. But it was I mean,
like you know, Bill, I saw Bill Murray and McConaughey
and like, there's seven games, so it was game it
was game five. Really, I mean, I've been too cults
(51:01):
playoff games where the seats surrounding us have been sold
to Steelers fans and Jets fans, and you're like this
is one game, and what were you getting for a
Jets Cults playoff series? Hundred and four dollars Like the
Cubs people were paying like basically people could pay for
(51:22):
their entire season tickets with by selling like one game's
worth of World Series tickets. So I get it. Cleveland's
not the richest town. So um. And then we lost
that game and went on to lose that World Series.
And let's just say, I don't think I said anything
for that entire eight and a half hour drive back
to New York. I was just very sad. So when
(51:43):
the Cubs won, what was what was that? Like? What
went down? I still don't know if we fully healed
from that. I just don't talk about it, and I
mean it, you know, it was in some ways it
was it was it was fun. I mean like that
game seven was like, I think, one of one of
the great baseball games I've ever watched. Um, But to
(52:06):
be on the losing side of that, and I just
remember as a child losing seven and then I think
it was ninety it was seven when we lost in
the bottom of the ninth, they literally had the champagne
in our locker room. And then Jose Mason starts giving
up like two runs and they're like, oh, we gotta
clean up this year. Like so, so that's the problem
(52:30):
when things start going bad in Cleveland, people Yeah, and
then people just remember it's just we don't we don't
we like to lose in an excruciatingly heartbreaking manner. Even
when we were like the Browns were bad, we would
just like some guy would take his helmet off and
then the other team would get to kick the field
goal again and they win, and like a raff once
threw a flag into our our offensive lineman defensive line blind.
(52:54):
Remember who was I think was it Johnny Manzel who
went like likeell? I mean, that was a fun time.
But when I was reading about Baker today because we
we talked about it earlier, but O'Dell is out torn
a c L maybe the one of the worst injuries
you can get in sports. But would you call it
a bitch ass? As everyone is now making T shirts
(53:18):
and hats and profiting off of my genius. But but
the thing is, like people say, like Baker when he
is he needs to get the peak of the doubt
against him or like have a chip on his shoulder,
And that's when he's at his best and so oddly
I'm like, shit, now he's almost like he lost Odell.
There might be like a little bit of a run here.
(53:38):
I mean my opinion. He had one of his best
games last week. It was against the Bengals. He but
you're right, he he performs the best one his backs
against the wall and Cleveland fans it just can't be happy,
especially Browns fans. Um. So yeah, he will always get
a lot of criticism until he wins a super Bowl.
And he also doesn't like he plays Joe Burrow. He
(54:01):
doesn't like that like Joe Burrows the new hot kid
on the street. So he released from Ohio. You know it?
Burrow is from Yeah, well he he was on Ohio
State for a year or two but then transfer because
but he grew up in Ohio. I can't remember where.
I think they said like an hour and a half
from since So what's that that's like Kentucky. I don't know,
(54:21):
I don't know. I know, I think it's like further
further North Dayton. Yeah, it's a tough divisions. Yeah, it's
the only undefeated team of football is in that division.
So that's tough. That's an uphill battle that you guys
were five and two and we're and we're clearly not
as good as the You gotta win. You have to
get the wild card, and that's tough. But I'll be happy.
(54:44):
We haven't made the playoffs since two thousand. We're all
rooting for it is the Browns median for the postseason.
I I wish the Browns so much success. I would
love for them to make it to the playoffs. I
think they have a better chance of making it the
playoffs if Ohio goes blue. I agree, that's kind of
(55:04):
the important thing. And I will say that we won
our championship. Lebron won the championship on my first Father's
Day ever, so it was like it was just a
big day. So yeah, I mean, I forget what because
now I'm like it doesn't make sense. But like the Lakers,
Lebron winning for some reason is like for me, it's
(55:26):
the first big logical win, like a win that everyone
can get behind. And I feel like that's what we're
looking for right now, is a win we can all
get behind. But then again, I was like, oh yeah, dude,
that's sixteen. That was maybe the last good thing that
happened in the sports. But yeah, we we love we
love Cleveland. We always for Cleveland. I like again, I
(55:48):
once the pandemics over, I really want to visit Cleveland.
That's like in my tops, we really want to go
to Cedar Point. I just started following the great sports there.
You know you can throw empty milk carton. I mean
that's classic sports turkey legs there. Yeah, um yeah, you guys, Michael,
(56:09):
thanks so much for coming by from Yeah plug the pod.
Oh yeah, I got I have a podcast called Doing
My Best with Michael Joyce. Basically, it's it's like a
fun parenting podcast. I get cool people who have kids
or just people with kids in their lives. So you know,
I'm gonna have some some nanny and some maybe some
fun and episodes coming up. But it's it's really fun.
(56:32):
And check it out iTunes, Spotify, you know the deal. Yeah,
what are your handles? Yeah, I am at not Mike
Joyce on Twitter and Instagram and the pod is at
Doing my Best Pod. You can go to Doing my
Best Pod dot com as well. Hell yeah, check that out.
Michael is such a good dude, a good friend fellow
(56:54):
pod member. Um, so you and your family has got
us through a lot of this pandemic. So shut out
to you guys. At you guys, um and and yeah,
I'm at CJ toldno, I'm at Megan Gaily. Is that it? Yeah?
That and you guys were one week away from the election,
very very exciting. All I did yesterday was lay in
(57:16):
bed and get high and root against the Titans and
donate money. So if you have any money to donate,
please act blue. Just you know who I want you
to give it to. So give it to the good
guys and not to the bad guys. Listen. You can
rate this in the review. I don't care, Um, and
(57:37):
be safe. Wear your masks. She's gonna get crazy out there,
so be good to yourself, be good to your family. CJ.
I love you, Michael, I love you. Go Colts, go Browns,
Go Dodgers. Okay, we'll see you next week. Bye bye.
The Greatest is a production of I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart
(57:59):
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Welcome to the Greatest, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello,
and welcome to another episode of The Greatest. I am
Megan Gaily, and I'm joined by my husband and co host. Um.
(00:21):
We're currently sharing a microphone now because we're doing an
in person recording with a very special guests who'll bring
on in just a moment. But when you said welcome
to the Greatest, I was like, that's not the name
of the show, because I was thinking you were saying
welcome to the Bubble, because I watch you record the
Bubble every week. But um, but yeah, that's all I
wanted to say. I'm C J Toldano, and this is
(00:42):
a very fun episode. Oh I don't like this already.
We're sharing a mic back and forth, even though our
guest who lives eight minutes away, so I have mikes.
There we go. I hope you caught C Digo. No. Um,
it's just really hard not to interrupt, and I know
(01:03):
that that's something that I need to work on. So
I guess this episode not only will it be informative,
it'll also be a chance to watch me not interrupt people. Hope.
Boy Um, our guest, very dear friend just launched his
(01:23):
new podcast doing my best. Okay, great, Um, dear friend
originally from Cleveland, I know that's going to come up
by way of Chicago and New York. Give it up
for Mike Joyce. Hello, hello Michael. Also, I don't want
to miss a credit. You co produce a very fun
(01:46):
stand up show. When that existed with me, we were
every Thursday night. Yeah, me, you and Megan go way back.
We started comedy together in Chicago. What what year was this?
Two thousand, two thousand and I'm trying. I moved there
in two thousand and nine, okay, a little before you.
(02:08):
I mean such good friends that when you and your
wife moved from Chicago to New York, you gave me
your open mic and we threw you going away party
where we said that you and your wife were ore
twin Towers and that we would never forget you. Um. Well,
I'm just see you can't say you can't go, Megan, no,
(02:30):
because I have the mic right now. It's almost like
we're in I've never been to marriage counseling despite Michael, Michael,
thank you for being here. You guys are missing so
many I rolls like. It's too bad this is a
podcast format because I just love doing rolls. But Michael,
(02:51):
so you are a father, you are a two very
beautiful children, a lovely wife, beautiful wife, and I got
the whole. We got to take offense. So yeah, but
this is a sports podcast, so I do want to
just like I want to align the audience with where
(03:13):
your allegiance stands. That would be all things Cleveland sports. Um,
I am sort of a psychopath when it comes to that.
I would I would put myself on Megan Gaily Indiana,
I put you, Um, I would put you maybe over
me Wo's that's an honor. But I'm also kind of scared.
(03:36):
I mean, do you think this is a phenomenon that's
kind of like specific Cleveland in some ways? Though I
don't know any passive Cleveland fans. No, I don't either.
We are We're a strange breed. We truly live and
die by it. And I try to get excited for
other sports, but but nothing like I can't get in
(03:58):
the hockey because there's no Cleveland team. It's it's there's
something that's broken in my brain. But um, I don't know.
I mean, yeah, because most of my friends growing up Cleveland,
like for a lot of our friends a lot of
Cleveland fans, and it almost is I guess, uh, Stockholm
syndrome or just like the more they lose, the more
(04:19):
you guys love them and believe in them. Yeah, it's fatalism.
You know. The Browns are five and two right now,
and Cleveland fans don't know how to act. In fact,
they're upset that because we lost two games kind of badly,
but they're like they're angry, and I'm just I feel
like it's the last two years of Lebron. It's like,
can we just enjoy this, like it's not gonna last forever?
(04:40):
Remember how terrible it was? So you I mean, and
and that's sort of like an interesting fan thing where
like I wonder, like next year, if the Jets are
five and two at this point, are their fans gonna
be like, why do we lose those two games? Like
do you? It's almost as though, like psychologically we're not
able to be like this is great because you still
(05:02):
want more. You want to be seven, to know even
though you've been oh and seven many many times. I
think nothing matters to us until the Browns win a
championship and the Indians win a championship. Um for for myself,
I think Lebron and Seen lifted that weight off my shoulders,
and I'm no longer in the Cleveland is now the
(05:22):
city of champions, and that's how I like to approach
my sports now. Um, but that's not I find I'm
in the minority. I I text with all my Cleveland
friends and they're pretty miserable right now. And I just
don't understand what I mean O b J went down.
I was going to ask about so od I mean,
so what I want to first say, I saw that firsthand,
(05:43):
and we had a text thread with our friends Zack
also Cleveland guy, and you were a pretty celebratory I
was like, ce, like I thought, I was, you know,
you inviting you guys to glow, to celebrate a little bit,
and you did a little bit. But then our friends
Zack was just like, no, this is the worst team
I've ever watched, the worst Brown Sees. It's not. It's
(06:04):
by far one of the best teams we've ever watched
since he's he was four years old. So I don't
want to hear it. Zach, how you're listening? But what
is that it is? You know? I don't know. It's
some it's some sort of fatalism. Maybe we enjoy being
losers more than we enjoy being winners. It is it
was happening with Lebron. Like at the last year of Lebron,
(06:25):
there were people on sports radio who would be like,
let's just trade Lebron and get what? And I'm like,
are you kidding me? And I soak up every second
of this because he's the greatest ever to do it
and I want to enjoy myself. So would anyone fall
for that? Would anyone fall for trading for Lebron with
a one year left? I guess it's Lakers, Yeah, the Lakers.
(06:48):
But there was intention. Yeah, it just seems like that
when it was not in cleaning. Yeah, he probably will.
It seems like all those baby Lakers make their way
through there. What's what's the like club and Street, sixth Street,
he'd be at Liquid or whatever. I feel like as
as the King of Cleveland would be amazing. Um. This
(07:11):
kind of brings us to our topic today, which is
greatest sports cities. C J and I were having a
bit of a discussion about this before you got here,
and just sort of like what we were using as
our criteria. My criteria sort of ended up being events
(07:32):
that that city can offer overall vibe, sensitivity to social issue.
I mean, there are there are some cities that I
was like, listen, you're not on the list anymore. Okay,
there's been no I'm saying for my list. There's been
enough UH players on home teams and opposing teams that
(07:53):
have been like I got called this name there so
many times that it's like, I do think that that
you don't get to be on the list. Then if
that's something that's a habitual issue, I mean, um so,
I mean and you hear that across the board, you
hear that hockey, I think it's harder to hear. And
there's not a lot of black NHL players even though
(08:15):
there I think there's gonna be a lot more. But
like in when football probably less too. But in in
basketball and baseball you hear from players that Boston. It's
just I mean, I think it's part of the reason
Mookie is not there anymore. And so that does end
up being an issue for me. If you if you're
not nice to your own players, then I don't think
(08:36):
you're a great sports town. I would agree with that criteria.
I think I took it from more of a like
who's got the best fans kind of and yeah, because
if you're looking from sheer championship volume, that's that doesn't
impress me at all because that just that just means
you have yeah s Meigan's going to say the joke
(08:59):
into the micro phone, Shanaia Twain, baby, that don't impress
you much. Now you don't get it back. I was
once talking to a Boston guy in the airport in
and he's like and we're just like talking sports, and
he's like, yeah, I'm actually rooting for the Calves. I'm like, oh, yeah, why,
he's like Kevin Love's He's like a good white players
(09:19):
hitting me makes sense? Get out mookie well. And I
would just like to say the reason that fans is
fans can be something that takes away from you in
my criteria, but it doesn't really add you. I mean,
sports fans are bad. We're stupid. Were and I'm saying
this is me. I'm stupid, I'm emotional. I don't I'm
(09:41):
not fact based. It's all sort of like how do
I feel and what did my dad tell me? You know, Like,
so it's not you can't even like sports fans are
so bad and so fickle that they don't even get
a voice in my domin in my nominees. Well we
can get up. I just put Michael. I know you said,
(10:03):
that's how you're define define it how you want to
define it. Don't let you know. We're gonna have different
several different reasons, whether it's debate events. Yeah, this is
what the show is, a spirited debate where audience members,
they say, Megan yells at me. Too much spirited debate, spirited. Yeah,
(10:23):
So okay, what are we? How are we on time? Okay?
So temper so well, yeah, let's just go right into it.
How it works. We're gonna have three picks each descending orders.
Still haven't figured out if it's descending or sending, but
you're gonna do your third pick, and they we're all
gonna end on our greatest number one pick. So why
don't you kick us off with your number three pick
for greatest sports city? Okay? Um, well, clearly like New
(10:44):
York Boston, they're all out because they're they're terrible. Yeah. Well, okay,
did you see how many people wore Mets hats who
were formerly Yankees fans when the Mets went to the
World Series. I don't respect that. Uh. I actually to
respect White Sox fans because they've they've they ride hard
well when they should have been Cubs fans, but they aren't.
(11:08):
But yeah, Boston racism. Also, they pretend like there's some
oppressed sports team, but they've won so many in the
last twenty years. It's like that it's over. You guys
are just you know, New York Yankees with like worse accents.
I do like Fever Pitch and The Town, which both
have iconic scenes at fent so I will say that
(11:30):
that's true. Was a Fever Pitch, the one with Jimmy Fallon, Yeah,
where they were like were losers, were losers and then
they won and then they're like we got to reshoot
the end of the movie. He's like, yeah, I remember,
what a what an opportune time. It's almost like, why
didn't Jimmy have a movie career after the Red Sox
one while making a Red Sox movie. Well, I think
(11:52):
Jimmy is okay. I don't know if I think he's okay.
I think he likes this gig. We love you, Jimmy.
Do you know the family at me oh wow, wow, Okay,
now give us your number, So number three, I am
gonna can I go. I kind of want to give
it to you can do whatever you want. Minnesota. I'm sorry,
(12:14):
well then my apologies, but like Minnesota Vikings, you know, yeah, Minneapolis. Um,
and I kind of want to lump in Green Bay
with that because they tailgate very hard when it's cold.
I'm just very impressed with how much they go out
in the cold. The shirts are off. I mean, I'll
(12:37):
give like Chicago honorable mentions for the shirts fat men
in the cold. Um, So I highly respect that. I
feel like you're Joe Biden right now. You're like, I
love Minnesota love. It's like bringing home, not home. Um.
I fully agree and co signed on this. I mean,
(12:59):
Peckers fans own their teeth and that's really cool, very amazing.
And the Twins they always have good attendance, no matter
how bad the team is or how good they are.
They always sell out even when it's cold. Like no
one goes to Cleveland games in in the spring because
it's freezing, but like people show up for Twins games.
So I have a lot of respect for that fan base.
They like jump into ice cold water. It's it's a
(13:20):
lot of weather based things. But but I I do
believe there aren't any fair weather fans up there, and
they're just there. There's no fair weather because there's no
good weather. No. Yeah, Megan and I went to well,
we went there for the Super Bowl Minneapolis, spent a
week there and we went to a Timberwolves game where
a child ran away and Megan, yeah, assaulted. What it
(13:45):
was like? This was this was a toddler was like
running around Is it the target center? I knew it was.
He's like running around the charge. I mean he's too
he had a diaper on, like this is like a
baby toddler, okay, still in a diaper, and he's fully
like I'm like looking around at people being like is
(14:07):
he and no one is coming for him? And so
I start he's just running but he got a little
short baby legs, so I just start following him. And
now we're like eight sections away from where we started.
I mean we're a quarter away around the massive stadium.
So I'm like they're not coming, and so I go up.
I'm like hi, and he hits me and then I'm
(14:31):
like are you okay? And then he kicked me, and
then another you know, white lady do good or she's
like what's going on over here? And we're both like
trying to find like get a security guard. At one
point he pushed open the door to the outside and
was like leaving, and then some fucking idiot barreled up.
A man, the massive man came up, where have you been?
(14:55):
And just took him by the hand and walked away.
But the man, I'm like, where did you comfret? We were?
We were sitting behind the backboard, and now we are
behind the bench like we've we've traveled around the stadium.
And I think the kid was just so bad. They
weren't They didn't really want him back. Maybe it was
like that Bugs Bunny cartoon where it's actually an old
man dresses a baby who robs banks. Oh yeah, maybe
(15:18):
was he smoking a cigar? Yeah he was. He almost
had teeth that looked like they had been ruined by nicotine,
like his kids looked like he lived hard, alright, That's
why when he hit me, I was like, the fun
I don't even I don't know if you have your shots.
I don't know if you're gonna bite me, like you
seem like they dragged you out of the damn wilderness.
And this is some sort of make a wish. But
(15:39):
just for a little billy bob kids to come and
watching basketball, Oh my god. Not a plus for Milwaukee.
Megan's doing time and between the picks. Um. No, I
did want to add to that. Lombardi leap is maybe
the most like I feel like when people do that
in other stadiums, they still called the Lombardi leap. Right,
It's like such, it's so Lambeau lambe leap. Sorry, why
(16:02):
am I saying why did you let me say that
for so many times? Lambeau? Yeah, my bad, the Lambo leap? Um.
But yeah, it's like it's so iconic. Um. And then
snow snow like Brett Farve and he's not a great person,
but he's Rogers who person. I'm not gonna say anything
(16:23):
about Aaron Rodgers. I'm just gonna give um Michael more evidence.
I also think college sports factor into this, and they
are oh my god, you get a Wisconsin person saying
go Badgers. They love it. They love the Gophers up there.
I mean they ride really hard. My brother lives in Madison,
and it's like that's a great town. They really they
(16:44):
do sports nice up there. I think that's a good
and two states we really need to get back. Okay,
come on, blue baby. Alright. So for my number three pick,
I don't give a funk what anybody says. I'm picking
Indianapolis and here we go. They host said a super Bowl.
For you to even be on the list of cities
to host a super Bowl is a really really big deal.
(17:06):
They have the Pacers, the Colts. They also host the
largest sporting event in the world every single year. I
don't really care about it that much, but two people
come to Indianapolis every year to see a race car thingy,
a race car race. Can you say that? Um? And
I think that that's a huge deal. And sports college wise,
(17:29):
we've got Butler in the city. You've got Purdue an
hour away, You've got i You an hour away. I
mean the Notre Dame isn't two hours away. You are
kind of in like Big ten Heaven there. People ride
really really hard for those teams. The Final Four comes
to Indianapolis every like third year. It's the n C
Double A headquarters. It's the home of basketball. I just
(17:54):
I think any day in in the if you want
to see a sporting event that's like cool and fun
and will be in a venue that is unique. You
have that possibility. Now. I will also say there is
gonna kind of a time when these small markets are
going to have to appeal to athletes, and the way
to do it is not by saying, please shut up,
(18:14):
we don't care about your political views. And I see
a lot of those comments, and it's like, if you
want Victor Ladipot to stay in Indianapolis, you need to
be nicer to Victor Oladipot. Like that's just kind of
common sense. And if we want to have any black
athletes at all in any of these shitty cities, they've
got to start fucking acting nicer to them. So your
(18:36):
number three pick, but your number one thing to ask
them is to not be racist. I'm gonna say that
to every single city that's on my list, because every
single city that's on my list has racist people as
sports fans that are really loud and really annoying and
really hateful and dragged down the rest of the city. Yeah,
I think that's a problem in the entire world. Um
(18:59):
for his sports, it's yeah, and and even in like
you know, soccer and European soccer. There's some horrible things.
I have said a single thing, but but I agree.
Pacers are always good, cults are always good, like they're
good sports, and you're right people from Indiana. I love
college sports. I have mad respect they love high school sports.
(19:20):
Is crazy? What was like, Oh, I was just gonna say,
my other two cities are in blue states, and this
is my This is a blue city in a red state.
And I do think, like, as fans, you've got to
start being more conscious of how the people are just
being treated. These are these are not entities, these are
human beings and you have to be good to them
(19:44):
on a human being level for them to want to
stay in any of these cities. Yeah, it's no longer
we own you. And that just started. I mean it
was probably with with the letter Dan Gilbert wrote yes,
and people are like, oh, thank God. And I've heard
rumors that Lebron and his crew want to buy the
Calves and I pray for that because not only for Lebron,
(20:06):
but for players to end, like you know, still the
prime of their career to like be able to buy
the team, like yes, they made do the money in
the first place, like like the Calves are as big
as an organization operating organization because of Lebron, Like, so
you should have every opportunity to buy that when you
(20:28):
know when he has the money. When he left, he
not only like the dollar amount that the franchise, uh
like was valued at dry I can't remember the exact number,
but it was, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars.
And not only that, it was like the income of
the city, like it is in incalculable because we have
(20:50):
proof because Lebron left and then came back, Like there
are numbers that show, like this, Lebron is worth so
much money to the greater Cleveland area. It was he
was insane. Yeah, alright, my third pick um, I was
having trouble where to put this. Uh it might be
the wrong order, but I'm gonna say, Los Angeles, why
(21:10):
do you say that way? I'm saying that way because
I we live here. I love the sports here. L
A is notoriously a bad sports town. Yeah, I mean
my entry point is basketball. I think it's like, it's basketball,
it's baseball, It's okay, it's the Lakers. And I will
say nice. I'm not gonna say that many nice things
(21:32):
with Lakers. We all know why. You know, it's a
historic franchise, seventeen championships. Um, the best basketball team in
the city. Uh, but the Dodgers to despite the Someone
recommended a book and some some reading about how Dodgers
Stadium is h was bad for the Echo Park community,
and yeah, absolutely bad. Um. But you know, I think
(21:54):
there are a lot of transplants come here from you know,
these these other cities that we're talking about, and they
are able to experience sports, like coming from Erie, Pennsylvania
and living here, like, I love that I can go
to any major sporting event and for the most part,
they've been pretty good. Football, Like I saw the greatest
(22:15):
football game NFL game of like the last ten years,
that Kansas City Rams game, and it was in the Colosseum,
not a great pro football stadium, but incredible and like
the vibes of it was kind of like an even split.
It was like half Rams fans, which maybe every Rams
fan to ever exist l a Rams fan in the Chiefs,
which a lot of transplants from Kansas City. It was
(22:36):
awesome also to a lot of my friends who liked
the Clippers, who weren't basketball fans came here and are
now diehard basketball fans because the Clippers games were affordable
and they have some got season tickets. Some just went
more often, and that team has had some historic lineups.
Lob City, this current one, and also the Olympics. Uh,
(22:58):
the Olympics. We were supposed to have the second it
was it was it the second Yeah, was supposed to
be Oh wait, that's yeah, and then the eighties is
that when the last one was yeah? So yeah. Most
athletes live here in the off season because it's a
mixture of like, you know, the weather is nice, the
(23:18):
top like trainers and doctors are out here. It's just
it's yeah. I mean I think every player is like,
if I'm gonna live and if I can live in
any city, I'm gonna pick Los Angeles. Yeah. We now
have two football teams, and which is wild. It's very
very strange, and I feel bad for San Diego City.
I don't like UM, but I do think it's sucked
(23:40):
up UM. And also the sparks and also the King's
We went to an l a King's Amos. So, I mean,
hockey is people say it's the best sport to see
in person and to be able to see in person
at Staples Center. It's it's cool, Like I do love
seeing hockey in the arenas that we get to see
sort of the Star Sports Center and Staples Center is
(24:03):
really cool. Like the lighting they do, you can tell like, oh,
this is a Hollywood production. It definitely beats Cleveland's laser
light show. You know, we got the flames, but that's
about it, well, they said, And I think it was
the Forum with the Lakers that they lit that thing
like a Broadway play. It was, you know, the court
was the only thing lit and everything else was dim
(24:25):
like a show. And they do some iteration of it
a little bit. Again, like the lighting in my opinion,
is better at the Lakers and the Clippers, but like
a lot of stadiums are adopting that, and I think
it really kind of makes it a real cool experience
for sure. I I would only disagree because there LA
is kind of a ship football fan town, but I
(24:46):
really admire I admire any baseball town, and l A
is a sneaky like I didn't realize how much people
love the Dodgers. It's not just because they're good. Every
year you see kids, little kids in their front yard
playing baseball and don't see that at least. I grew
up in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana. That was all football, basketball,
maybe basketball, you know, some baseball, but like they like
(25:08):
and there's a lot of Major League players who are
from southern California. So the Murals has the best sports
murals we've lived in the other cities. It's like, I
don't never remember seeing a sports mural in Chicago. Biggie
gets all the good murals in New York. Yeah, Chicago.
Chris Farley like raw, Yeah, I want to go make
(25:35):
one of him. Yeah, in a bear like doing the
Bears on the side of Second City. Yeah. You know
what's wild? Suit l A just got this incredible probably
the most beautiful stadium in the world, and we haven't
even seen it yet. I mean I thought of it
because they're playing in it right now Monday football. Like,
I can't wait to go to so Fi. Oh boy,
(25:57):
we're gonna get crunk at so Fi. I can't wait.
Let's take a quick break and then we'll be right back. Okay,
and we are back with our number two picks for
greatest sports cities. Michael, you start us off this round too, Okay,
(26:20):
I am gonna go with Philly. Okay, so they are
terrible people, um, but I admire their passion, right like
you were here the stories about like how you know,
some international soccer team would accidentally score goal on themselves
and then that guy would get murdered. I feel like
(26:41):
if it happened in America, it would happen in Philadelphia.
And I kind of admire that they throw. They throw,
they throw really good riots when they win. Um, their psychic.
Like Charles Barkley is a thick skin, great dude, and
he were like, yeah, Philly fans are assholes, like like
it's so hard to get under Charles barkley skin, and
(27:04):
like so in some you know, and I know I was,
you know, ragging on Boston and New York earlier, but
I don't know, there's I have a respect Philly. They
are delusional, but he also realistic. I think the seventy
sixers are iconic. The Eagles are iconic, and um, and
and even the Phillies you know, yeah, no, they're they're
(27:26):
the Flyers. They definitely that's a great pick. They deserve
to be on this list. Are there fans insane? Yes,
like every truly fan, I know that is their identity,
that is like what their reason for being is. And
it's scary. Like I've you come across Philly fans on Twitter,
it's scary, but like, man, I'm a front runner myself,
(27:48):
and I like, yeah, they've stuck through their teams through
some dark times and yeah when they want, you know,
I'm gonna let Megan bring up which he loves to
bring up. Oh yeah, I mean, my favorite story out
of Philly is the man who ate over the man
who ate horsepoop off the ground. When they were celebrating
(28:08):
the Super Bowl. I felt the thing is, no one
else has ever heard this, so then it's like did
I make it up? But it is my favorite story.
But Philly fans they really scare me there. It's like
so two and the super Bowl that we were at
in Minnesota was Patriots Eagles, and so we were all
rooting for the Eagles whole stadium except for like the
(28:30):
actual Patriots fans there just because you want the Patriots
to lose. But I was like, oh my god, thank
god among these people's side, because they do they we
I mean I went to one Eagles tailgate at an
Eagles game because I was shooting something there and it
was like two weeks after the election, and they saw
like the camera go up and the whole parking lot
started chanting Trump. So it's like, it's not a crew
(28:53):
that I want to hang with. I'm sorry, guys, it's
just not I would wear. I would wear an imposing
team was Jersey pretty much anywhere, but not not not
to a Philly game because I just would not want that. Yeah. No,
I mean we saw what it was a clip last
week of them fighting a Ravens and it's like during
(29:16):
COVID they're still fighting people. They're insane where they wearing
a mask when they thought, yeah, there's no I mean this,
this goes for a baseball and we'll probably go for
basketball since that's coming back too early. Now. It's so
funny that they did everything right and then they're still
gonna That's how long this thing has been going on
if they're coming back too early in their second season
(29:36):
during COVID. But uh yeah, Philly fans are just I
mean iverson, uh just him being kind of this this
outsider like breaking all the rules, which was so cool
to me, like kind of put in like their other
like Edry Brian Dawkins, all the like the best Philly
(29:57):
athletes just reinforced how fucking raising and badass all their
fans have become so so Yeah, I mean Philly is
a great choice, but I'm scared of them. Yeah, they're
they're uh, you know, it's better to be feared than
than loved, you know. Yeah, I think the boxing legacy obviously,
like they excel at other sports that are outside of
(30:19):
the major four too. Okay, great pick. My I'm happy
someone put Philly on the list because it's like, I
really don't want to be murdered in my sleep, you know.
Um My second pick is a change from what I
was going to do. And I'm gonna say the Bay
just as a whole. They ride hard too. I Mean
you see forty Niners stuff everywhere we went to Disneyland
(30:42):
last year. I was like, is Jimmy Garoppolo here, Like
it's the number one football team that I see on
like traveling, and obviously they love the Giants so much. Yeah,
I mean the Warriors were in Oakland when and they
were bad and everyone supported them, and then it sucks
that they would like went back to San Francisco. So like,
(31:06):
I like Oakland's fans a lot better. I think this
season of Last Chance, you like, really gave us a
window into them loving football that I didn't realize. And
they also seem kind of scary, like I wouldn't want
to fuck up the Giants fans Raiders were still the Raiders,
(31:27):
I probably would have put the babe right. And and
them not having it it's horrible. I mean, and you
still see Raiders stuff up there, like they love that team.
They were taken from them. I don't like it, and
Vegas is definitely not gonna make anyone's list. But yeah,
a Raiders fan is the scariest fan you could ever
(31:47):
think of. I think, like those guys that and that,
just the outfits and the change colors, like the silver
and the black like they I think that was a
giant San Francisco Giants. Oh yeah, actually there maybe I'm
thinking of the fight that happened. I believe it was
(32:08):
Dodgers Giants baseball who knew? I mean, life for death?
This ship is crazy, but yeah, I just it's so
beautiful up there and you and maybe it's because I
was there last week with your wife, but you just
see forty Niners stuff everywhere, and you see Warriors stuff everywhere,
and and it's a like a big kind of rich
(32:29):
city is what we think of it as techy and
Silicon Valley esque, but it's like, no, this is like
a gritty, cool ass, badass sports town too. And I
love when they hit home runs the Giants that goes
into the bay and the guys go out in the
canoes to get it. And my uncle, he's a sample,
he's a forty nine fan and he just has an
(32:50):
entire room with forty niners and like he doesn't even
You just like walk in like nothing, no other inclination
in the house. And you walk in and it's like,
you know, a statue of Jimmy Garoppolo and You're like,
what the That's what I want my room to be
with every team Lebron has played for. If you want
to set you of Jimmy Garoppolo in our house, and
I'm all for it. I find you fucking Jimmy statue
(33:15):
of Jimmy Garoppolo. I'm not gonna do anything. I'm gonna
go have the chain on it, have fun. Let the
statue pick up the kids, all right, should do my pick?
So my pick, my second pick was going to be Philly.
So and I'm trying to pick one that I don't
want to steal on your guys, because I know you
could do real research. That's what I was gonna pick.
(33:37):
Actually New York. So Megan said she gave up New
York and is kindly as a is a nice beautiful wife,
gave me New York City or New York. Um New
York as a whole. Well, I mean, okay, so I'm
missa in New York City. But what teams play in
New York City besides the next The Rangers do play there, right, yeah, yeah,
(34:02):
so the Knicks in the Rangers. But yeah, New York.
I'm just gonna say New York. I know it's best cities.
But like in New York they have what the Knicks,
the Rangers, the Giants, and the Islanders which play at
Barclays Now they did they moving it back because people
were not liking it. The Islanders game there in yeah,
(34:25):
which are in Neutral the Nets are in Brooklyn. But
like it's it's historic, Like we have so many famous
athletes now who were born in New York and that
was their life. They have just on like a recreational level,
like if you want to play basketball, you walk two
feet outside your house, there's a court. You come up
on that court like West fourth Rucker all like basketball,
(34:48):
football is big. Like the thing is like none of
these teams have been good. And again it's like filling
all these other teams even though the equals one, like
they are right or die for, you know, And for
the last decade. I apologize that they've had to go
through a lot of this stuff. But yeah, the fact
that like uh Next games still almost sell out and
and I would say MSG is probably when people people
(35:12):
were like before I ever went there, there like it
is like church, and when you walk in it, it
really you just get this feeling. And I was watching
a Bowls uh next game there, which wasn't a good
matchup that year, and it was awesome like this, you
look up at the ceiling, it's beautiful. They have like
the first couple of rows or celebrities, like that's still
a thing, celebrity row, and you walk to it, you
(35:35):
get on the subway. It's a whole experience that like
any sports fan, uh, I hope that they can experience it. Yeah, yeah,
I respect that they still love the Knicks even though
they have been terrible for a long time. It's the
Yankees who really spoil it for me, because I do
not like the Yankees. They do a very loyal fans
they and their fan base is massive. I mean you'll
(35:55):
find Yankees fans all over the world. Mets fans are
extremely loyal, all we know. I feel like I know
more Mets fans than I know Yankees fans, and they're
always like, I don't know why to do this to me,
and then their kids in it, and you're like, oh
ship um. Also, the US Open is there every single year.
I mean, it's a really incredible event. New York throws events,
(36:17):
probably better and in more of a headache fashion than
anywhere else. But yeah, definitely for all of those teams
to exist there and Broadway and music and like every
single thing you could ever want to do is in
that city and the next still draw people. That's fucking insane.
(36:38):
I mean, I feel so bad. This is a whole
another episode, But I was just thinking, in my head,
maybe the greatest sports hat is the Yankees. Maybe that's
not that's not even the sports to me, I would go, yeah,
Yankees in and Dodgers are like the those are the
most recognized where iconic sports, and people get scared aired
(37:00):
of the Yankees just because of their uniforms. I know
that was from Catch Me if you can, but it's
true because like the Indians always get eliminated those pinstripes. Baby, Okay,
we'll take one last break and then we'll be right back. Okay,
and we are back. So now we are up to
(37:21):
our number one pick. I'm worried we're gonna have the same. Um.
I guess I was going to have an honorable mention,
but it was New York, which I was so generously
gifted to c J. And so my number one is Chicago. Okay, okay, sorry,
c J. Well we can share it since we share this, Mike, Um,
(37:44):
I find Chicago sports fans to be totally insufferable. UM
cannot handle them, don't want to be around them. They
annoy me. But I do think when you talk about
the big boys sports, you got the Bears the black Hawks.
You have two baseball teams that are always like in
(38:07):
the news. You know, they're not always winning, but they're
always like kind of important. I wish more people went
to White Sox games. And then do you have the
black clocks. They say them, who are who are an original? Six? Iconic?
The Bears original? I mean Chicago sort of is a
town that is defined by what's happening in their sports
and defined by they're just sports identity. The Bears is
(38:30):
so big. But yeah, I think their fans suck, and
I think where the United Center is, they gotta get
better public transportation to it, and where Soldier Field is,
they gotta get better public transportation to that. Okay, that's
what I was gonna say, Michael, are you going to say, Yeah,
Soldier Field is in the middle of nowhere. I know,
(38:50):
but it's it's huge, and it's beautiful, and it is
beautiful parks there so gorgeous when nobody goes to them.
Why does Us' Field face Indiana and not Chicago? That's
just that's just an architectural thing. I think it's the highway. Yeah,
it's the highway. And it can't be that close to Wrigley.
I'm not talking about moving the location. I'm saying it. Yeah,
(39:14):
it faces into northwest Indiana, which is truly just take
to America, turn and look at a beautiful skyline. But
what do you mean face like a stadium? Can face facing. Okay, yeah,
I was also gonna add to it. I don't think
that about the fans. The fans are wonderful. I mean spoiled. Yes,
(39:38):
the nineties Bulls spoiled everyone. But I just think that
also to like the teams just by again their uniforms.
This is like another episode, but like Iconic Classic, never changes.
Sometimes they do some weird alternates. But the Bulls, the Cubs,
the Socks, the Bears, Blackhawks like well, I don't know,
(40:01):
but I don't know what what the ethics are on that.
I think it's okay because it's the black Hawks and
it's like a specific tribe. But I could be very well,
now people want to I think you're You're probably right.
I'm sure there's some issues, but I know the black
Hawks have come out and said we're not changing yet. Well,
I've been the black Hawks games and they don't usually
(40:22):
have protesters, and I've been to Indians games and there's
usually protesters. Um, but also too, it's just like it's
smack dab in the middle of this country, and you know,
everyone always says you've got a cater to the Midwest,
and I don't know. Yeah, there's something about you know,
you got your your New York versus l A or
(40:43):
even your Boston in New York. But like the fact
that they're in the middle. Like I grew up in
Iowa and we got w g N, which showed all
the Chicago sports, and like I talked to people in
like St. Louis and all this other stuff, and they
all love a lot of people love in the Midwest
just love Chicago sports, and so like they almost make
up for way more of a region than any of
(41:05):
these other teams. So yeah, they're a great sports city. Um.
You mentioned St. Louis, and I just want to make
sure I clarify You're a terrible fucking city St. Louis.
I respect that they like baseball so much because that
doesn't happen a lot. But other than that, Um, but no,
the Cardinals are cute. I like the Cardinals. I just
hate that city. Uh. And I also just Megan made
(41:27):
fun of me because I was gonna say, Erie, this
is an honorable mention. Then we get to your at
number one, Erie, Pennsylvania, because you can root is where
I grew up and you can root for within two hours.
Are the Browns, the Steelers, the bills and yeah, and
then also whatever probably got w g N Chicago is
like the Cubs are so famous because of the g N,
(41:48):
because forty States saw their games growing up. I almost
feel proud of myself that I didn't become a Cubs
fan as a child. I was like, I see you
ramming it down my throat and I don't like it. Um.
One honorable mention that I know that we will want
to both say is Buffalo. That's I mean, they will
go out in a blizzard. They love the Sabers. They
(42:10):
really they invented Buffalo wings. You know, like we we
wouldn't even that's for every sport, every team. We would
think about how bad our lives would be if we
didn't have those start. That's where the Clippers started. Um yeah,
so Buffalo, we love you, and I don't maybe get
(42:31):
another team and then and then you can make the list.
That's it. Nobody can hear you. Okay, Michael, Okay, Michael,
you bring us on with your number one pick. Now
I know what it is. I can't believe I thought
(42:51):
we were going to have oat. Well, you know, I
do respect Chicago, but I I saw a lot of
people hop on the side expandwagon, which rubs me the
wrong way. And I find a lot of them insufferable,
but I do respect how much they love it. And plus,
my wife grew up a block away from Wrigley Field,
and I think it's really cool that there's like the
stadiums like in the city you like, and like that's
(43:14):
very unique. Um, but no, my my number one is Cleveland.
Cleveland everyone. Um, Okay, So I'm just gonna say, we
have all the major sports teams. We got baseball, we
got basketball, we got football. Um, We've been long suffering
(43:35):
and yet we still love our teams. We've had the heartbreak,
which I think makes us kind of lovable. It also
gives us perspective. I've read some study that like, people
who have bad sports teams actually are better at dealing
with problems when they become adults because they've dealt with
with heartbreak. And I've spoken with bulls, like kids who
grew up in the nineties, and well they're just like, oh,
(43:58):
I never, like, I never realized your sports teams loose. Yeah, yeah,
it's gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. It's like no,
you need to cry for five years straight. Yeah, and
oh god, and then that championship was just like it
took a lot off my shoulders. Let me just say, okay,
So there's also I mean the Browns we have, the
dog Pound, we have, I mean, the Browns fans are.
(44:21):
I will put them toe to toe with any insane
fan base, isn't There's something that like there's more Browns
designated bars around the country than any other. That could
also mean a lot of people leave Cleifland. That is
very true, and that it has one thing like the Indians,
we don't have good attendance anymore. In the nineties, we
sold out for like four years straight. You had a
(44:42):
major movie series based on the team. You gotta imagine
that helps sell some tickets. But now, yeah, people have
moved away, but we still but our television ratings are
always like top like five. I'm making that up, but
it's it's it's up there. It's it's up there much higher.
Like we're we are the Cleveland diaspora. Our championship parade
(45:08):
was like insane. Just the sheer amount of people who
like came back, traveled from all places in the world.
Like Trump when he says, like, look, how many people
showed up to Cleveland from my rally. He takes pictures
of that, and they've used it several times. They were
saying for the RNC when it was in Cleveland. And
then everyone's like, why is j R. Smith? Why she
(45:31):
next to Jericho? Why next to Jered Gush? It's just JR.
Kevin Love but zoomed in Yeah, I mean wait, wait
and can I also, I just have to bring up
ten cent beer Night because I don't know if anyone else,
So okay, ten ten cent beer Night. We were, um,
I can't even remember. I think it was the eighties
(45:53):
and maybe the seventies for ten cent beer. So Cleveland
was pretty bad. It was that old Municipal Stadium, which
is was our football stadium and our baseball stadium, so
we could fit way too many people in there for
for baseball, Like it was a terrible like all the
baseball players hated it. And we had actually just gotten
a fight with the Texas Rangers like a week or
(46:14):
two and they started like the Rangers players were like
shifting on Cleveland. So then they had ten cent beer Night.
Rangers were in town. You could they like put a
cap on it like six beers in person, but nobody cared.
We got like ten thousand more fans than typically come
to games. They just came to drink. So like in
between innings, people are running on the field and and
(46:35):
things kind of turned south because, um, we were down
five one, so fans start throwing stuff on the field.
Mike har girl who actually went on to be when
our manager, he was playing first base, he's, he's. He
said that, like people through must must have been like
twelve pounds of hot dogs at him. He there, people
were chucking. He got an empty jug of wine. It
(46:55):
was like thunderbird wine. They threw that at him, right,
They still didn't They still in camp to the game
until the ninth inning, Cleveland actually had tied up five five.
A fan and like a twenty year old, runs onto
the field tries to take the hat off of one
of the Rangers outfielders. But the guy they but the
from the dug out. The Rangers dug out. They thought
he was attacking him, So the fucking the Rangers grabbed
(47:17):
their bats and they run out to like protect this guy.
And then the fans they started ripping out the seats
and they jump on the field and they're like starting
to YouTube videos document it was like worse moments his story.
I mean, you guys also had a river catch on fire. Yeah, okay,
(47:40):
listen Cleveland. There was a lot of rivers that caught
on fire in the in America during that period. But
but you know, Kyahaga was was a big one. So yeah,
it was a great Actually, the Cleveland players went to
defend them and then they like went back in groups
in the clubhouse. Anyways, big riot, And the best part
was the announcers were calling it from the booth. They're like,
this is horrible. I mean, it's like the Palace. Yeah,
(48:04):
and that wasn't even our only one. We have Bottlegate.
That's why they don't. They don't do glass bottles at
stadiums and make someone's going to get it to that
and that. But you know what, those rests deserved it
because they cost us a game and the playoffs. There's
your Cleveland also, I mean, oh god, Ohio State fans,
(48:24):
and nobody rides harder than those people. All you also
hate all of the surrounding states because we have like
rival We're not actually Indiana, I'm sorry, but we yes, um,
but we hate Michigan. They looked down on us. That's
why they don't hate us. Yes, Um, Michigan, we hate
Pittsburgh and then thus most of western Pennsylvania we don't well,
(48:45):
you know, affiliate. But um, but so anyways, that's that's
manually at Lebron Lebron. Yeah, he's coming back for it's
gonna be his feral Season's going to be in Cleveland.
I was gonna ask Michael, because I love hearing when
you when the Cubs and Indians were in the World
Series and I still can't get a read on how
(49:07):
real it got. But your wife again grew up block
and World Series. I mean, two teams that really deserved it. Um,
what can you describe what that week? That was hard?
So my dad is um, he's been a season ticket
(49:27):
holder for you know, a long time. So he gave
me two tickets to the World Series game. So we
were living in New York at the time, and we
had it. We had our very young child. But we're
just like, all right, Caroline, our friend can you watch
watch Frances. We're going We're gonna drive watch the game,
drive home. So I go and yeah, eight to ten
(49:52):
depending on traffic. Um, outside of New York. So we
go and you know, people are was all fun. It
was all fun. You know at the beginning, we were
having a good time, and like, you know, Cleveland people
be like, oh this happened, because it would be like
I was like with my Cubs fan wife and something
happened that day. Well, first of all, the part that
(50:16):
really hurt is that a lot of the Cleveland people
sold their tickets to the Chicago fans because well, Chicago's
just got a lot of money. My my dad sold
two of his tickets and unfortunately, I mean they were
Cleveland guys, but they were like executives. They were looking
at me for for cheering too loudly during the World Series.
(50:37):
I drove them away because I was going insane. That's
on them. It's the World Series. I'm gonna scream until
I have no more voice. But it was I mean,
like you know, Bill, I saw Bill Murray and McConaughey
and like, there's seven games, so it was game it
was game five. Really, I mean, I've been too cults
(51:01):
playoff games where the seats surrounding us have been sold
to Steelers fans and Jets fans, and you're like this
is one game, and what were you getting for a
Jets Cults playoff series? Hundred and four dollars Like the
Cubs people were paying like basically people could pay for
(51:22):
their entire season tickets with by selling like one game's
worth of World Series tickets. So I get it. Cleveland's
not the richest town. So um. And then we lost
that game and went on to lose that World Series.
And let's just say, I don't think I said anything
for that entire eight and a half hour drive back
to New York. I was just very sad. So when
(51:43):
the Cubs won, what was what was that? Like? What
went down? I still don't know if we fully healed
from that. I just don't talk about it, and I
mean it, you know, it was in some ways it
was it was it was fun. I mean like that
game seven was like, I think, one of one of
the great baseball games I've ever watched. Um, But to
(52:06):
be on the losing side of that, and I just
remember as a child losing seven and then I think
it was ninety it was seven when we lost in
the bottom of the ninth, they literally had the champagne
in our locker room. And then Jose Mason starts giving
up like two runs and they're like, oh, we gotta
clean up this year. Like so, so that's the problem
(52:30):
when things start going bad in Cleveland, people Yeah, and
then people just remember it's just we don't we don't
we like to lose in an excruciatingly heartbreaking manner. Even
when we were like the Browns were bad, we would
just like some guy would take his helmet off and
then the other team would get to kick the field
goal again and they win, and like a raff once
threw a flag into our our offensive lineman defensive line blind.
(52:54):
Remember who was I think was it Johnny Manzel who
went like likeell? I mean, that was a fun time.
But when I was reading about Baker today because we
we talked about it earlier, but O'Dell is out torn
a c L maybe the one of the worst injuries
you can get in sports. But would you call it
a bitch ass? As everyone is now making T shirts
(53:18):
and hats and profiting off of my genius. But but
the thing is, like people say, like Baker when he
is he needs to get the peak of the doubt
against him or like have a chip on his shoulder,
And that's when he's at his best and so oddly
I'm like, shit, now he's almost like he lost Odell.
There might be like a little bit of a run here.
(53:38):
I mean my opinion. He had one of his best
games last week. It was against the Bengals. He but
you're right, he he performs the best one his backs
against the wall and Cleveland fans it just can't be happy,
especially Browns fans. Um. So yeah, he will always get
a lot of criticism until he wins a super Bowl.
And he also doesn't like he plays Joe Burrow. He
(54:01):
doesn't like that like Joe Burrows the new hot kid
on the street. So he released from Ohio. You know it?
Burrow is from Yeah, well he he was on Ohio
State for a year or two but then transfer because
but he grew up in Ohio. I can't remember where.
I think they said like an hour and a half
from since So what's that that's like Kentucky. I don't know,
(54:21):
I don't know. I know, I think it's like further
further North Dayton. Yeah, it's a tough divisions. Yeah, it's
the only undefeated team of football is in that division.
So that's tough. That's an uphill battle that you guys
were five and two and we're and we're clearly not
as good as the You gotta win. You have to
get the wild card, and that's tough. But I'll be happy.
(54:44):
We haven't made the playoffs since two thousand. We're all
rooting for it is the Browns median for the postseason.
I I wish the Browns so much success. I would
love for them to make it to the playoffs. I
think they have a better chance of making it the
playoffs if Ohio goes blue. I agree, that's kind of
(55:04):
the important thing. And I will say that we won
our championship. Lebron won the championship on my first Father's
Day ever, so it was like it was just a
big day. So yeah, I mean, I forget what because
now I'm like it doesn't make sense. But like the Lakers,
Lebron winning for some reason is like for me, it's
(55:26):
the first big logical win, like a win that everyone
can get behind. And I feel like that's what we're
looking for right now, is a win we can all
get behind. But then again, I was like, oh yeah, dude,
that's sixteen. That was maybe the last good thing that
happened in the sports. But yeah, we we love we
love Cleveland. We always for Cleveland. I like again, I
(55:48):
once the pandemics over, I really want to visit Cleveland.
That's like in my tops, we really want to go
to Cedar Point. I just started following the great sports there.
You know you can throw empty milk carton. I mean
that's classic sports turkey legs there. Yeah, um yeah, you guys, Michael,
(56:09):
thanks so much for coming by from Yeah plug the pod.
Oh yeah, I got I have a podcast called Doing
My Best with Michael Joyce. Basically, it's it's like a
fun parenting podcast. I get cool people who have kids
or just people with kids in their lives. So you know,
I'm gonna have some some nanny and some maybe some
fun and episodes coming up. But it's it's really fun.
(56:32):
And check it out iTunes, Spotify, you know the deal. Yeah,
what are your handles? Yeah, I am at not Mike
Joyce on Twitter and Instagram and the pod is at
Doing my Best Pod. You can go to Doing my
Best Pod dot com as well. Hell yeah, check that out.
Michael is such a good dude, a good friend fellow
(56:54):
pod member. Um, so you and your family has got
us through a lot of this pandemic. So shut out
to you guys. At you guys, um and and yeah,
I'm at CJ toldno, I'm at Megan Gaily. Is that it? Yeah?
That and you guys were one week away from the election,
very very exciting. All I did yesterday was lay in
(57:16):
bed and get high and root against the Titans and
donate money. So if you have any money to donate,
please act blue. Just you know who I want you
to give it to. So give it to the good
guys and not to the bad guys. Listen. You can
rate this in the review. I don't care, Um, and
(57:37):
be safe. Wear your masks. She's gonna get crazy out there,
so be good to yourself, be good to your family. CJ.
I love you, Michael, I love you. Go Colts, go Browns,
Go Dodgers. Okay, we'll see you next week. Bye bye.
The Greatest is a production of I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart
(57:59):
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com