March 30, 2023 • 42 mins
Big Ben talks about Lamar Jackson responding to people questioning his injuries, Opening Day in baseball and all the top storylines heading into the season, Maller to the Third Degree, #AskBen, and much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mallers
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(00:23):
This is the best of the Ben Maller Show on
Fox Sports Radio playing Whack them All. That's what you're doing.
Welcome in the beginning of another edition of the Ben
Mallers Show. We're just getting started in the air everywhere, homeboys,
(00:45):
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the way tire buying should beat. So you have locked
in at the beginning. We're just taking off right now
for the full red eye flight through the overnight on
(01:28):
the third shift. And our lead this hour coming from football.
Why when in doubt management says, throw football out. Can't
go wrong, can't go wrong. So let's start out with
our obligatory Mallard monologue on the number one story in
(01:48):
football today. I said there's no number one story. There's
no football till September. Oh yes, there is the parlor
game of football. And our obligatory Mallard monologue on r
Jackson action Jackson. This is it. This is the story
leading the way. It is the pace horse of the
(02:10):
pigskin galaxy. So the malcontent raven quarterback looking for a trade.
You probably knew about that, but have you heard the latest?
Perhaps perhaps not so? A lot of moving and shaking,
And then we say a lot of moving and shaking.
You're just actually treading water. You're shaking, you're moving, You're
treading water. But we'll get you cut up to speed.
So quarterback Lamar Jackson, has he found a team? No,
(02:34):
Lamar Jackson is trying right now to play a game
a whack a mole or in this case, whack a
troll is what he's trying to do. And he's punching,
bobbing and weaving, and he punching against claims that he
is guilty of malingering, putting himself ahead of the team
and not showing up to work when he could have
(02:57):
played and another player would have played. At the end
of last season, now, Jackson recently ranked on social media
that attempting to play injured would have been worse for
the Baltimore football team than not playing at all. Quote.
I'd rather have one hundred percent PCL than go out
(03:19):
there and play horrible, forcing myself to put my guys
in a bad situation. Now that's selfish to make close quote. So,
Lamar was out for Baltimore's final five regular season games,
and the Ravens also played in the playoff game wild
Card weekend against Cincinnati, and he didn't even bother to
(03:41):
show up to that game. And remember, back in January,
he said he had a Grade two PCL sprain and
that his knee was unstable. Unstable, and keep in mind
that was supposed to be a three week injury at
the time it happened. It cost him the end of
the season. So let us discuss the question why why
(04:04):
did Lamar Jackson rush to play whack control and defend
himself from the backlash. I've got honest abe, Charles Manson
and Friday, and we'll tie all of these things together
and we'll throw them against the wall and see which
one sticks to the wall. So a Lamar Jackson is
(04:28):
not helping himself this. I got a big bucket of
popcorn over here, and I'm just enjoying all this. And
it's a good show. It's good theater, it's a nice
soap opera. It's another example, though, of how social media
is a double edged sword and it's not always your
best friend. That's great for us if you're a blowhard
or a gas bag and your deal and the currency
(04:50):
of sports opinionating, it's a wonderful thing. It's great, Mitch,
every day you got something. It's the golden age of
cringeworthy content by athletes. I'm old enough to remember when
athletes were upset when the media told the stories that
I want to I want to control my own narrative.
And now these guys get to control their own narrative,
(05:10):
and you just end up, you end up doing things
you probably shouldn't do. Now, Lamar is fighting, for example,
a battle you cannot win. You cannot when you're like
General Custer at a little bighorn. Never feed the trolls,
never do it. And that's what Lamar's doing, right. Lamar's
trying to fight back against people that are critical of
(05:31):
Lamar Jackson. The other problem is he's on the wrong
side of history, at least this part of his history.
So as honest Abe said, better to remain silent and
be thought a fool than to speak out. And then
you remove all doubt timeless words from our sixteenth President
Abraham Lincoln. But we heard chatter out of Baltimore in
(05:55):
real time from boots on the ground that Lamar Jackson
was exaggerating the injury. That was the belief from those
around the Ravens. And you see guys who have much
worse ailments play every week in that business, but not
Lamar Jackson. Now, what's my evidence? Two words, Patrick Mahomes Mahomy.
(06:18):
Remember he was diagnosed with a high ankle sprain in
Kansas City's playoff game against Jacksonville. I believe that was
the divisional round of the playoffs. Remember correctly that that
was a six to eight week recovery. You know how
many starts Mahomes missed? None? Zero, zip out And what
else did he do? He took a bunch of second
(06:40):
rate wide receivers and helped Kansas City win the championship.
But again, Lamar Jackson, I would be hurting my team
if I played, I'd feel horrible. Well, what about the
term and most of us know this, any who played
sports or anything in life, you know the term decoy?
(07:01):
What about being a decoy? What's wrong with that? All right? Now?
I digress? Now page two here, how would you describe
Lamar Jackson and his free agency approach at this moment
in time? And we have no deal. It's just a
holding pattern at this point, we're just waiting for a
runway to open up. So it is chaotic, that's an
(07:23):
obvious word. Lamar is doing things his way or the highway.
He's going full Charles Manson from Back of the Day.
It's helter skelter, it's topsy turvy. It's unorthodox and only
to be ruined by you meddling NFL owners. It would
have worked if it hadn't been for you meddling NFL
(07:43):
owners rejecting Lamar Jackson's wants and needs because the creepy
quarterback in Cleveland, that pervert Deshaun Watson. It's bizarro world.
A picture, if you will, a world where everything is
the exact opposite of how Lamar Jackson thought it was
going to go. I am convinced that Lamar thought he
(08:05):
was going to get an unbelievable payday, he would be
dealing with multiple teams that were interested. But instead it's
bizarre world. It's up is down, first as last, good
as bad, wrong is right, logical is illogical, and insanity
is now saying in the mind of Lamar Jackson. Not
(08:27):
a single team has made a formal proposal for Lamar Jackson.
And it doesn't sound like the Ravens are all God
God to bring Lamar back. All right, last word here,
So is it true that Lamar Jackson is considering not
reporting to Baltimore. Now, this is a premature trip down
(08:48):
this garden path, but I'm gonna do it. Okay, I'm
gonna do it. So let's address this because it's being
tossed out by some of the more prominent NFL pundits.
Lamar's not gonna throw up to the Ravens. That's the
story that is being passed around the echo chamber by
people who are getting their information from Lamar Jackson's camp. Now,
(09:11):
he doesn't really have a traditional camp, because a traditional
camp is an agent and people underneath the agent and
all that. So he's got his mom and then he's
got the Union. The Union is shadow advising the matriarch
of the Jackson family. Lake and my position, I am
(09:34):
ambivalent about this, with a lean towards a different outcome.
I'll tell you why, all right, you can never get
the money back. You can never get it back. Lebon
Bell missed a season of his career where he would
have made over ten million dollars from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
(09:56):
And what did he gain out of it. He didn't
get that money. He got a contract with the Terrible
Jets team and is now out of the NFL for
all intensive purposes. He's done. But let's be real here.
The thirty two point four million dollar salary which the
Ravens have as a consolation prize if he signs the
(10:18):
transitional franchise tag whatever it's called, whatever the verbiage isn't
there's thirty two point four million. Now, I don't know
how much money you make, and you don't know how
much money I make. You probably think I make a
lot more than I do. But with an ounce of
financial planning, you are set for life. Right if I
told you right now you'll be in your twenties, I'm
gonna give you thirty two point four million. But after taxes,
(10:40):
it's maybe pay the Maryland taxes, the federal taxes. Maybe
that's fifteen million, thirteen millions, something like that. But if
I gave you thirteen million dollars, just say's thirteen million.
You pay have to pay nineteen million in taxes and
fees and whatnot. So let's say it's thirteen million. I
give you thirteen million, and you invest that in a
(11:01):
little real estate and a little Wall Street. You get
some rental properties, things like that. You're done. That's it.
You don't have to work. Generations don't have to work.
But from where I stand, it's much more likely rather
than Lamar turning down the money, Lamar will sign on
the dotted line, he'll cross the t's, he'll dot the eyes,
(11:23):
but he'll pull a Friday, And then that's his way
of screwing the ravens Now what do I mean by that? Well,
the classic movie Friday, it's a scene. We play the
clip on the air quite a bit, the scene from
the liquor store where the guy falls down. He says,
ah my neck, my back, my neck, my back and
all that. So I see that in my crystal ball
(11:48):
for Lamar Jackson that he's already done it. He's already
done it. Pull the Ben Simmons the old tool down strike.
You know what a tool down strike? As you show
up to work, You show up to the facility and
you refuse to actually do the work. You play hooky
while you're getting paid. Chinge, cha, chinge. That's what Ben
(12:09):
Simmons is doing. We'll talk about him later, but that's
what he's doing. He's faking injuries getting paid and that's it.
And Lamar Jackson's I can totally do that. And if
you pick the right ailment, no one can criticize you.
If you if you're if you're strategic, and you pick
something that is taboo to criticize, you can get away
(12:32):
with it. Nobody'll criticize you because I'll be called names,
and who wants to be called names? Be sure to
catch live editions of the Ben Maller Show weekdays at
two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the iHeartRadio app. Batter Up. Welcome in the beginning
of another hour of The Ben Maller Show, and one
(12:55):
after another. We are in the air everywhere Bestie is.
We are hanging out at the smoke deck, those smoking
hot takes coast to coast, Port of Order and beyond
on the vast and stratophyerically powerful microphones of fs are
emanating live from the hour the overnight Amateur Hour. We
(13:20):
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fast free shipping, free road hazard protection and over ten
thousand recommended installers ti iraq dot com the Way tire
buying shop date and don't bury the lead, my man
(13:41):
or leave. This hour comes from the start of the
long winding road, a journey of one hundred and sixty
two miles, or in this case, games which will reward
those of you that finish the journey. Some of you
will go and play more. The curtain goes up in
just hours. On the twenty twenty three Major League Baseball
(14:04):
season play ball from the Atlantic to the Pacific. We
have hardball action, fifteen matchups. Everyone's playing, everyone's playing today
on a Thursday, and there are two games that get
to jump on the schedule at just after one o'clock
Eastern time. I'll be fast asleep. Maybe I'll get up
(14:25):
and watch the first pitch. I used to do that
back in the day, but now I'm old and boring.
The Atlanta Braves will play the Washington Nationals, who no
longer have that natitude in DC. That's Max Freed and
Patrick Corbin. The other game that starts just after one
o'clock the Giants and the Yankees and the Boogie Down
Bronx as Arson Judge and the Yankees taking on his
(14:47):
old team, the Giants at least a corner John Hayman,
Logan Webb versus Garrett Cole in that matchup, and then
shortly after that, there'll be a munch of other games
all the way up to the West Coast games and
the rest of course follow usually how that works one
after another. So let us discuss the question what is
your level of interest on the twenty twenty three Major
(15:08):
League Baseball season as it gets started? So the way
we measure these things is very scientifical. We use the
Mallar scale of interest one to ten, with ten being amazed. Balls,
that's a ten. I'm at a seven. I'm at a
that's a high score. I'm at I think that's a
(15:28):
good score. Seven. I don't know where you are, but
on the Mallar scale of interest, I'm at a seven
one to ten, I'm out of seven. I got catwalk,
kiss and Berlin Wall. And we will lock all of
this together, and we are going to make a wonderful, wonderful,
stomach filling ballpark meal with the hot dog. You gotta
(15:50):
have the nachos, all that, a couple of beers, the
whole thing. So number one, we're not gonna sit here
and pretend that we are not unbashed baseball fans. We
love baseball, right, we love baseball. There is something magical
about the start of the year. And typically it's great
(16:12):
for like a week or so, and then the dopamine
hit wears off. But we're in the beginning, so we
can enjoy the dopamine hit. You walk out if you
go to a game. You're lucky enough to live in
a city that has a team. You go out there
and you're in the city, the concrete jungle, and then
you go out and you see that massive prairie of
bright green grass, and the sights, the sounds, the smells,
(16:34):
the taste, the touches of baseball, everything everything about it.
I love it. I don't love everything. I mean, I
think the commissioners a douchebag, and I don't work for
Major League Baseball. But the yummy food right wafting through
the air, wafting whatever we're going through the air. And
now my favorite ballpark food my go to soft pretzel
(16:56):
with the nacho cheese and just go with a nacho
with the pretzel on the side. You can mix an
little popcorn cracker Jacks, which is popcorn with sugar on top.
And then I used to love when I was a kid.
I don't really do this much anymore, but remember those
Sundays with the souvenir batting helmet. I love those. They said,
oh man, that was my daughter loves those things. Yeah,
and that'll cost you, I think, Roberto one hundred and
(17:18):
sixty six dollars, Yeah, buying all that, buying a pretzel, nachos,
popcorn cracker Jackson, a Sunday. Yeah, exactly so, but sign
me up? Why not? Once? It rare and appropriate, rare
and appropriate. So now the thing we are the things
we are anticipating most, right, the things we are anticipating
most this season. My level of interest is seven on
(17:41):
a scale of one to ten. But I am looking
forward to the chaos of the universe. That's the first
thing I'm looking forward to. Because as smooth as spring
training went with the pitch clock, I am confident, and
I would bet a lot of funny money. I bet
my own money that there are going to be some
epic malfunctions of the pitch clock, which will mean meltdowns.
(18:08):
Meltdowns right Hindenburg kaboom. Pitchers will be upset because they
will be given a short stick on the mound, they
will not throw the ball fast enough, and there will
be a ball awarded to the hitter. The hitter will
be upset because they will not be paying attention and
they will be called for a strike. And then the
manager is gonna go ballistic, and there will be games
(18:30):
that will be lost and one because of the pitch clock.
During the regular season, it's one thing for these things
to take place in spring training we know they already have,
but in a regular season environment early on where people
are still trying to figure it out to one thing.
But then when we get to the dog days of
the summer and we get to the pennant stretch of
the baseball season, holy crap, is that going to be
(18:50):
interesting to see how people react and it's not going
to be good. Also, the other stuff that we're looking
forward to as always a new baseball season. It's musical chairs,
it's on the catwalk, through the pirouett change the laundry.
We love the old faces and new places. For example,
I think Jacob deGrom is as soft as cool whip,
(19:11):
but he's a hell of a pitcher when he pitches.
And now he's on the Texas Rangers. And then I
look at a guy like Xander Bogart's who was a
good player for the Red Sox for a long time.
But I always ask the question those guys coming out
of Finway, is he a product of Finway? Or can
he do it in a different environment? And now he's
going to the Pod squad. You had Dan's by Swanson
who said bye bye to the Braves to go to
(19:33):
the Cubs, the Cardinals, finally got rid of Yaddi Era Molinas,
so he retired, So Wilson Contreras is their catcher. My
old Dodger guy, Trey Turners now in Philly. And you
got JD. Martinez who's wearing Dodger blue, assuming he's not
washed up. And then you got a bunch of ex
cheating astros who are on the move, like Justin Verlander
(19:55):
who's with the Mets, that cheater, Carlos Carea, that scumbag
who resigned with the Mints so to Twins, although he
technically did agree to a contract with the Giants and
the Mets before he went back to the Minnesota Twins.
You have the racist ex astro Juley Guriel who's now
in Miami, and the team that is part of the
den of an equity in Houston. They added Jose Abreu,
(20:17):
who's a good name from the White Sox, although he's
thirty six years old. Typically when you're that old, you're
not that productive and you get hurt a lot. We'll
see if they have some magic Beans and Houston left
over from the past few years to see if they
can give those two a brave Now, page two, the
reason that Major League Baseball did the clock was because
(20:40):
they have been told they have to get a younger audience.
So will Major League Baseball's new rules attract younger fans. No,
I'm shaking my head. No, that is wishful thinking. All
professional sports, all of them, are fighting the good fight. Now.
I love it. I'm of the age I grew up
when sports took care of kids and wanted to cultivate
(21:02):
a young audience. It ain't like that anymore. They've all
gone from fun for all ages to pricing out the
people that are on a short income or a middle
class income, that do not have a lot of disposable money.
The industrial complex of greed in sports systematically, they got
(21:24):
carried away and they they're like, hey, we can get
people that are corporate people to buy these tickets, and
we can charge more and more and more and more
and more and more. It seemed like a good idea.
It's the boiling frog. You just raised the prices a
little bit every year, and then eventually they get so
high in a lot of places. I say this, in
a lot of places. There are places in baseball like that.
(21:44):
We mentioned the Cleveland Guardians the other day. I was
told from one of our listeners. In Minnesota, the Twins
have this and a few other teams. Well, they'll get
you in for forty nine bucks to stand up and
watch a game, which I think is fair, but I
know I live in Los Angeles. The Dodgers do not
do that. They stick it to their fans, so that
in out of the Red Sox of the same way.
In Boston, the Mets, the Yankees, those big market teams
(22:05):
just stick it to their fans. So you do have
to keep up with the times. And baseball's done a
lot to bring in corporate people and as a result,
they have not had as many fans go to their
younger fans go to those games. And I became a
fan of baseball because my dad took me to baseball
games and my mom liked the Dodgers when I was
a kid, and so I became a baseball fan because
(22:26):
that was kind of the thing. It was a big
game or whatever. But major League Baseball has changed, and
so they're trying to get back to that. They're playing catchup.
And I will be the adult in the room on this.
Like the younger generation, I think the youngest generation is
called Generation Alpha. There was like a little kids. They're
not going to consume your product because of a clock
(22:48):
that is poppy cock, is what that is? Right, you
have to win the hearts, minds, and souls of younger fans.
But using the Mather think, take what is the golden
rule of business? The golden rule of business is go
where your customers are. It's one of the golden rules.
(23:09):
And you have to go where they are. And so
you do that multiple rates. Now Baseball is attempting some
things that are different here. They're trying to reach out
to influencers. They think that Instagram, TikTok until it's banned
by the United States government and all those other social
media platforms are the way to go. So go to
(23:30):
their sandbox and play nice. But I say go with
the kiss method. Keep it simple, stupid. The key to
this we all have short attention spans. You've got to
grab people's attention. If I'm working for Major League Baseball marketing,
you have to transform what is perceived to be by
people that aren't baseball fans a boring product and turn
(23:52):
it into something that stands out. And you can do
that multiple rays. You can do that with sizzle reels.
You know, highlights of vible moments. And there's there's all
the things that you can make it more enjoyable. And
the final point final point going a little long here,
but the final point, which storyline or which story lines
are you most anticipating as we get ready for the
(24:13):
opening day festivities in just hours today. So I am
looking forward to what I call the downfall of the
Berlin Wall, Baseball's Berlin Wall, the cheating Astros. Now they
will not win the American League West. We will get
on take they are not winning me American League West.
(24:36):
They'll get off to a slow start. Jose, check me
for the buzzer. Hey, I'll check it for the buzzer now,
Tuve he's out for the first two months. Jose at
Bray who was old. The lineup is lacking the wow
fact of the starting rotation. There's some weak spots there.
I don't trust Franbur Valdez to do it again. He'll regress.
They lost for Lander, they didn't replace him. The bullpen
(24:57):
also has some holes. And the team that wins the
Americ West. And no, I'm not sucking up to crying
Craig and Robbie the Mariner fan, but they are in
the Pacific Northwest. And since there's only one team in
the Pacific Northwest, I'm going with Jay Rod, Julio Rodriguez
and the Mariners will use that trident to stab the
(25:17):
Astros right in the gut. And mister what's her two
hundred ten million dollar guy forty million? Whatever the contracts like,
minimum two hundred million from Seattle. And as Ronald Reagan
said back in the day, mister Rodriguez teared down that
wall in Houston, the cheating wall. America is depending on
Jay Rod to take down the den of inequity and Seattle.
(25:40):
I don't know if you've been paying attention here, but
that's that's a team that's got wagon ability there. They
got solid starting pitching led by Luis Castile. They picked
up last year the top three Robbie Rays had some
big years in the in the major leagues. Logan Gilbert's
in the middle of that. The lineup appears to be
pretty deep. They got the superstar and Julio Rodriguez in
the making, and then you look around the American League West,
you got the The Angels are an average team. The
(26:01):
Rangers appear to be about the same as the Angels.
Middling teams, and you have a Pacific Coast League team
of minor league gout fit in Oakland, the Athletics, who
are a joke. But Major League Baseball has twelve postseason teams,
six in the American League and six in the National League.
So baseball has got twelve postseason teams. The reality is,
what have I told you that seven of those slots
(26:24):
are already accounted for before a pitch is thrown in
the twenty twenty three season. How do I know a
distant relative? I am of Nostre Damas, and friend of
Nostre Damas, I have mystical powers. Are you ready spoiler alert?
I will get on to you. The following teams are
in the baseball postseason this year. You can cross them
(26:47):
off your list right now. The teams in the National League,
the Dodgers, the Mets, the Atlanta Braves, and the San
Diego Padres will all be in the postseason, all right.
They're all in the American League. You can put the
Yankees in the postseason right now. They're in the Toronto
Blue Jays are going to make the postseason, and the
(27:08):
Seattle Mariners. So that means you have one hundred and
sixty two games to decide. Three spots in the American
League and two spots in the National League that are
up for grabs. Keep in mind, I believe the Central
Division in both the American and National League is somewhat
wide open. I realize there's a lot of bad baseball
being played in the central part of the country in
(27:29):
the National League shout out Pittsburgh Cincinnati, for example. So
and then the Brewers appear to have gotten worse. So
you might say the Cardinals are a lock, but I'm
not going to completely just hand things over to the
Cardinals in that division. The Cubs are a little bit
better this year. And then the American League, the Guardians
of the Hip pick in the Central, but that's not
a guarantee that team could fall apart. And the Chicago
(27:50):
White Sox have a lot of talent. And then you
got the the a Holes, the Astros, and the Tampa
Bay Race. All right. Meanwhile some of the other stuff.
Real quick, you've got Shohail Tani. Is that his last
dance at the Big A. Does he become a five
hundred million dollars man? We'll go on and on. There's
some of the thoughts I have on the baseball season.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
(28:10):
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Hi,
this is Jay Glazer. And you may know me for
the world of football or fighting or even shows like
HBO's Ballers. Well you don't know is for my entire life.
I have lived in something I refer to as the
gray depression anxiety. So now I'm coming out with a
new podcast, Unbreakable, a mental health podcast with Jay Glazer,
(28:32):
where each week while we talk about mental health, I
hope to describe it, give it words. Listen to Unbreakable
with Jay Glazer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you get your podcasts. It's Meller. How about that
to the third degree? This is one big band gets grilled.
(28:54):
All right, here we go and we bring in the
coupe daloop. Mike McCarthy told him on Tuesday that he
set a goal for Dak Prescott to play twenty games
in the twenty twenty three season. Now, Ben, this would
obviously have him playing every game, including at least an
NFC title game. If you're to put an over under
on the actual number of games Dak will play in
(29:15):
next season. What would you set it at? So Mike
McCarthy should put the cheeseburger down. The overunder is at
fifteen and a half, and I'll take the under. You
figured Dak's gonna miss three or four games during the
regular season, then the Cowboys will play wildcard weekend and
then they'll get eliminated. But Dak has not exactly been
an ironman. He was early in his group, but the
last three years Dak Prescott has missed sixteen games. He's
(29:38):
also turning thirty this summer, which is not old. But
in sports, when you're a football player, there's a lot
of scratches, dance imperfections that start popping up on your body.
And I know what McCarthy's doing. He's peddling paradise and
Jerry's world, and that's what all these coaches do. They
remind me of politicians making election promises and they're telling
(29:59):
their fan base, well, I promise you we're going to
do this then and the other thing, and they're on
the campaign trail and we all forget about it by
the time the season comes around next There was a
report that surfaced this week that at one point this season,
Rockets coach Stephen Silas broke down in tears because he
just couldn't get through to the team ben the Rockets.
The Rockets have been really bad, and Silas is near
(30:21):
three seasons as head coach. How much of the blame
does he deserve? All Right? So a couple of things.
Number One, that report about Silas the crying game was
retracted by Brian Windhorse. Now that means coop. Either it's
true and he's trying to get a different scoop, so
he retracted the story, or something worse. Somebody's out to
(30:43):
bury Stephen Silas in Houston and they leaked the fake
story and it got reported. But either way, it's not good.
I'll say there's a fifteen percent blame. Fifteen percent blame
on Stephen Silas. I don't think NBA coaches for the
most part, do very much. They're mostly just kind of
massaging ego and all that. But the doomsday clock is
a ticking and the Rockets haven't even trying the last couple.
(31:05):
You're gonna start trying again. They're gonna get James Harden
back next. Draymond Green said during an episode of his
podcast that he wants to face the Kings in the
first round of the playoffs because the travel would be easy.
Oh please, Ben, how do you how do you think
a King's Warriors playoff series would go? Coo? Can I
get in my soapbox? I briefly travel with a team
before it got even better than it is today. It's
even better, you know when they travel by stagecoach, the
(31:28):
Golden State Warris Is that why they're so bad on
the road? Are they gonna get the Spanish flue? They
travel on luxury planes, trains and automobiles. They stay at
five star resort hotels. What the hell is he talking about? No,
the Warriors will win that series, though, Come on, Draymond,
how do we do it? Passes editions that Swiner I
won the guy I went the game. Fox Sports Radio
(31:52):
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com
and within the iHeart Radio app. Search f SR to
listen live Now time four time four hor hoey ask
bad Twitter? Is this your questions? On Twitter? Now Sports
(32:12):
for The Ben Mallace Show, brought you by Progressive Insurance.
Progressive makes Buntley easy and affordable getting multi policy discount
by combining your motorcycle, RB boat, ATV and more all
your protection in one place, Pundle and save at Progressive
dot com and we say hello to the Cooper Loop,
the master of ceremonies. We have a little appetize here
(32:33):
and then a big block of questions. But let's get
this started right now, and justin Cooper all right. This
question is from Miguel on fire. He wants to know
from the crew. Have any of you ever had a
warehouse or manufacturing slash production job? No? No, I have
mostly worked in radio. I got started when I was
nineteen years old in the radio business. So those are
(32:55):
most of the jobs I've had. I worked at my
parents business when I was growing up to Za count
and I delivered newspapers and that's pretty much it, Eddie,
I actually did. Uh. It was a very small warehouse
and it was a I was the only one in there. Uh.
And I would like this guy owned this, um what
(33:16):
do what do you call it? A? Oh my god,
and drawing a blank like when you water the fields?
What do you call that? The irrigation irrigation? He owned
it like an irrigation valve company. And we would sell
these irrigation valves of various sizes, and I would I
was in charge of taking orders and like packaging them
(33:37):
and like mailing them off. And I was the only one.
I was the only one working in this in this warehouse.
It wasn't that big. But uh yeah, very interesting summer job.
When I was in high school, I got you what
about you, Robert to negative negative? All right? Cooloo. Yes,
Before I was a ink Salemen, I worked in the warehouse,
(34:02):
packing and shipping the orders. Oh all right, very cool.
So that is an appetizer the main event though. For
the rest of the hour, I see a great question
from Ryan and man hopefully that who picks that one?
And a bunch of other questions here. Ask Ben Your
Questions are Answers. Keep them coming hashtag ask Ben on
Twitter for the rest of the hour. Be sure to
(34:24):
catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at
two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the iHeartRadio app. We continue Ask Ben Your Questions
Are Answers to the rest of the hour, brought you
by Progressive Insurance. This portion the show Progressive makes Bundley
easy and Affordable. Get a multi policy discount by combining
your motorcycle, RV, boat, ATV and more all your protection
(34:48):
in one place. Bundle and save at Progressive dot com.
You want your voice heard, easy to do. Follow me
on Twitter at Ben Maller used to hashtag ask Ben
and Friends back to Cooper Loo. All right, this question
is from Andy the comic book guy. Uh, he wants
to know. He says, you're in the cereal aisle. What
is one cereal you were absolutely not buying? Uh? You know,
(35:14):
I hate just playing like cheerios or whatever. I don't
I need. I need sugar. I don't know. My dad
used to eat that. I need the sugar, so that
would be the one. What about you, Eddie? Yeah, when
I was a kid, we used to have corn flakes,
and I hated corn flakes, so I would say corn flakes. Yeah,
alright sorry? And am I my house when I was
(35:35):
getting it was total? Yes, that my house too. My
dad would love total give me that frosted flakes and sugar.
I don't want that total crap. Yeah, the cereal is
supposed to be filled with sugars, sugar for breakfast. That's
what it's supposed to be. That's next. Um, let's see.
Uh So, I saw the question that you saw from Ryan.
I don't know, why do you think it's a great question?
(35:56):
But question I don't think so it is um he says.
I know it's legal in California, not legal here in Maine.
But does lane splitting on a motorcycle freak you out
as a driver on It's one of the worst things.
And I think we could save lives of motorcycle drivers
if we stop that. It's I can't say how many
times I've almost hit a motorcycle who's zooming in bumper
(36:20):
to bumper gridlock and they're driving like fifty miles an
hour in between lanes. It's it's insane that that's still allowed.
I love that they don't allow that in the great
state of Maine. As Ryan says, it is a huge
pain in the behind. I saw I was driving on
the two ten freeway here in la a couple of
years ago, and I saw a motorcycle, motorcyclist with a
(36:44):
he died because he was splitting lanes and he crashed
in the back of a van. And I will not
And then then they complained that they were hit by
a car. Yeah, exactly, exactly so you agree with me, Roberto,
agree with Eddie. I mean, it doesn't freak me out
because I'm in a car and uh, you know, trust me,
(37:04):
and if they hit you, it's not Yeah, it's all
on your ass. I hear you. But it seems to me,
if if you're going to have a motorcycle in Los
Angeles with all the traffic, that's the major perk of
doing it is to be able to avoid that traffic
has squeezed through all the cars. So if you survive, yeah,
(37:26):
well it's dangerous. It's riding a motorcycle is dangerous to
begin with. So all right, they can do what they want.
Who doesn't want to answer the question? He's protesting, So
I don't didn't say I wouldn't answer. I just I mean,
Eddie shocked me. I thought this was a given that
it's you know, I thought everybody's answer was gonna be yeah.
So that's why I said it was a bad question.
I I tell my fiance to open the door. That's
(37:49):
a that's a dicordating move. I saw a motorcycle later
once was upset that somebody was kind of too close,
and he punched the side mirror and broke it off,
and I was like, damn, Yeah, I have been tempted
when I see somebody from a distance behind and I'm stuck.
I can't move kind of moving over just a little
(38:11):
into the side, you know, the kind of so they
can't go past you. I thought about that many times.
So anyway, what is next year? Kubert's asked, Ben, your
questions are answers for the rest of the hour. Donkey
Sausage would like to know, now we're getting serious, Donkey Sausage,
what do you use in the shower bar soap, body
wash or one of them all in one soaps? What's
(38:33):
what's an all in one Like? It's like it's a
shampoo and body wash all in one, so you just
lather up your hair and then your entire body. I
didn't know that was the thing. So at different points
in my life I've used everything. I've used all um
shower products and all that. I also, what's the thing
I'm forgetting the name of it? The you put the
soap on lufah. Yeah, I'm a loofa man uh and
(38:55):
I like those. And I've talked about this in the
past and people get upset because they say the loof
is like the dirtiest thing, and you soul so we
get rid of the lufa and they're dirty and all that.
But I love the lufa. It's a bubbly I'm a
fan of the lufa, so I use that. And bubble
so was not bubble soap, just regular soap. He gets
so bubbly. What about you, eddie U? Lufa and body
wash as an adult, I'm sure as a kid I
had to use the bar soap because we didn't add
(39:15):
the body washback then. Yeah, yeah we did not, So
two for la loofa yeah, and body was all right,
that's three for the loofa coopa loop and body washed
used to be dove bar soap though. When I was
a kid growing up, Irish spring, yes, Irish spring. My
(39:37):
father zan zest fully clean. My grandfather had so much
Irish spring when he passed away. You had Irish spring
for like for like two years. He did. He had
gone to those warehouses and guy Irish blocks of I
was unbelievable. So this guy's got like a lifetime supply
(39:58):
Irish springs. Not right, my grandfather, Now it's yours, I know,
well not anymore. It's gone now all right? What is
next Coopa loop. All right, uh rob aka goat man,
I go man, he says, an honor of Opening Day.
It's estimated that twenty five million hot dogs are consumed
in stadiums during the MLB regular season. Yeah, how many
(40:19):
are you putting away when you attend a game? Well,
I'm not going to a game on Opening Day, at
least not today. Back back in the day, the dodge
a dog. I don't really like the dodge dog. I
think it is boiled. I don't like. Well, you gotta
get the one that's grilled though the grill. I can
eat a grilled dog. I can't eat a boiled dog.
I need my dog burn. And I used to know
(40:39):
of a chef at Dodger Stadium used to burn them
up for me. Oh it was great, But I don't.
I don't eat any hot dogs these days. I love.
If I like a hot dog, I'll eat like three
of them during a game. But no, I haven't had
a hot dog at a game in a while. What
about you, Eddie. I never ever eat food at a stadium.
Never I eat before or I eat after. I'm not
(41:03):
spending all that money on that crap food. That's a
smart Actually, a smart smart it is, but it's it's
also part of the experience. I don't. I don't we
tell Get like when we go to the Charger games,
we tell Get or assest Man we eat high on
the Hog. But it's before the games that's different. Yeah, well,
I don't go to baseball games anymore. That's fair. Oh yeah.
(41:24):
It was one of our listeners, Phil from from Boston.
He would send these Finnway Franks. He's monster. If I
went to Fenway, I would have a Fenway Frank in
a couple of weeks. Good more than one. The Monster dogs.
The way to go at Finway that's even better than
the Finway Frank. But they're good either way. You can't
go wrong on that. I don't. I don't have the
(41:47):
Dodge Dog anymore. I don't like this to think I
rode a farmer. John not the same I used to
have too, like every game, but not anymore. Zero would
you like bite the ends off first? Yeah? Yeah, so
Coop does have but I have like four today at home?
All right, Coop hot dogs any um? I am. I'm
also cheap, so I've never had more than one hot
dog just because I don't want to pay for it,
(42:09):
but I could. I could eat too easily. All right,
real quick, we have to have for a quick question here,
Cooper Loop. I'm putting Coop on the spot. He does
not like this, courtesy Flesher. So does any of the
crew regularly wear regularly wear tied eye? Oh absolutely not.
That's the ugliest seventies, nineties and seventies about time ago whenever. Yeah,
(42:36):
and we're done with that. I know we're bell bottoms
anymore either. I
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mallers
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for the Ben Mathers Show at Fox Sports Radio
dot com. You can find it there or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
(00:23):
This is the best of the Ben Maller Show on
Fox Sports Radio playing Whack them All. That's what you're doing.
Welcome in the beginning of another edition of the Ben
Mallers Show. We're just getting started in the air everywhere, homeboys,
(00:45):
as we are your dining companion if you're eating late
night here coast to coast, border to order and beyond
on the past and superabundantly powerful microphones of FSR MMA
knee live from inside the Theater, the Theater of the Mind.
We are broadcasting live from the ti irac dot com
(01:06):
studios ti irac dot com. We'll help you get there
in unmatched selection, fast free shipping, free road hazard protection,
and over ten thousand recommended installers. Ti iraq dot com
the way tire buying should beat. So you have locked
in at the beginning. We're just taking off right now
for the full red eye flight through the overnight on
(01:28):
the third shift. And our lead this hour coming from football.
Why when in doubt management says, throw football out. Can't
go wrong, can't go wrong. So let's start out with
our obligatory Mallard monologue on the number one story in
(01:48):
football today. I said there's no number one story. There's
no football till September. Oh yes, there is the parlor
game of football. And our obligatory Mallard monologue on r
Jackson action Jackson. This is it. This is the story
leading the way. It is the pace horse of the
(02:10):
pigskin galaxy. So the malcontent raven quarterback looking for a trade.
You probably knew about that, but have you heard the latest?
Perhaps perhaps not so? A lot of moving and shaking,
And then we say a lot of moving and shaking.
You're just actually treading water. You're shaking, you're moving, You're
treading water. But we'll get you cut up to speed.
So quarterback Lamar Jackson, has he found a team? No,
(02:34):
Lamar Jackson is trying right now to play a game
a whack a mole or in this case, whack a
troll is what he's trying to do. And he's punching,
bobbing and weaving, and he punching against claims that he
is guilty of malingering, putting himself ahead of the team
and not showing up to work when he could have
(02:57):
played and another player would have played. At the end
of last season, now, Jackson recently ranked on social media
that attempting to play injured would have been worse for
the Baltimore football team than not playing at all. Quote.
I'd rather have one hundred percent PCL than go out
(03:19):
there and play horrible, forcing myself to put my guys
in a bad situation. Now that's selfish to make close quote. So,
Lamar was out for Baltimore's final five regular season games,
and the Ravens also played in the playoff game wild
Card weekend against Cincinnati, and he didn't even bother to
(03:41):
show up to that game. And remember, back in January,
he said he had a Grade two PCL sprain and
that his knee was unstable. Unstable, and keep in mind
that was supposed to be a three week injury at
the time it happened. It cost him the end of
the season. So let us discuss the question why why
(04:04):
did Lamar Jackson rush to play whack control and defend
himself from the backlash. I've got honest abe, Charles Manson
and Friday, and we'll tie all of these things together
and we'll throw them against the wall and see which
one sticks to the wall. So a Lamar Jackson is
(04:28):
not helping himself this. I got a big bucket of
popcorn over here, and I'm just enjoying all this. And
it's a good show. It's good theater, it's a nice
soap opera. It's another example, though, of how social media
is a double edged sword and it's not always your
best friend. That's great for us if you're a blowhard
or a gas bag and your deal and the currency
(04:50):
of sports opinionating, it's a wonderful thing. It's great, Mitch,
every day you got something. It's the golden age of
cringeworthy content by athletes. I'm old enough to remember when
athletes were upset when the media told the stories that
I want to I want to control my own narrative.
And now these guys get to control their own narrative,
(05:10):
and you just end up, you end up doing things
you probably shouldn't do. Now, Lamar is fighting, for example,
a battle you cannot win. You cannot when you're like
General Custer at a little bighorn. Never feed the trolls,
never do it. And that's what Lamar's doing, right. Lamar's
trying to fight back against people that are critical of
(05:31):
Lamar Jackson. The other problem is he's on the wrong
side of history, at least this part of his history.
So as honest Abe said, better to remain silent and
be thought a fool than to speak out. And then
you remove all doubt timeless words from our sixteenth President
Abraham Lincoln. But we heard chatter out of Baltimore in
(05:55):
real time from boots on the ground that Lamar Jackson
was exaggerating the injury. That was the belief from those
around the Ravens. And you see guys who have much
worse ailments play every week in that business, but not
Lamar Jackson. Now, what's my evidence? Two words, Patrick Mahomes Mahomy.
(06:18):
Remember he was diagnosed with a high ankle sprain in
Kansas City's playoff game against Jacksonville. I believe that was
the divisional round of the playoffs. Remember correctly that that
was a six to eight week recovery. You know how
many starts Mahomes missed? None? Zero, zip out And what
else did he do? He took a bunch of second
(06:40):
rate wide receivers and helped Kansas City win the championship.
But again, Lamar Jackson, I would be hurting my team
if I played, I'd feel horrible. Well, what about the
term and most of us know this, any who played
sports or anything in life, you know the term decoy?
(07:01):
What about being a decoy? What's wrong with that? All right? Now?
I digress? Now page two here, how would you describe
Lamar Jackson and his free agency approach at this moment
in time? And we have no deal. It's just a
holding pattern at this point, we're just waiting for a
runway to open up. So it is chaotic, that's an
(07:23):
obvious word. Lamar is doing things his way or the highway.
He's going full Charles Manson from Back of the Day.
It's helter skelter, it's topsy turvy. It's unorthodox and only
to be ruined by you meddling NFL owners. It would
have worked if it hadn't been for you meddling NFL
(07:43):
owners rejecting Lamar Jackson's wants and needs because the creepy
quarterback in Cleveland, that pervert Deshaun Watson. It's bizarro world.
A picture, if you will, a world where everything is
the exact opposite of how Lamar Jackson thought it was
going to go. I am convinced that Lamar thought he
(08:05):
was going to get an unbelievable payday, he would be
dealing with multiple teams that were interested. But instead it's
bizarre world. It's up is down, first as last, good
as bad, wrong is right, logical is illogical, and insanity
is now saying in the mind of Lamar Jackson. Not
(08:27):
a single team has made a formal proposal for Lamar Jackson.
And it doesn't sound like the Ravens are all God
God to bring Lamar back. All right, last word here,
So is it true that Lamar Jackson is considering not
reporting to Baltimore. Now, this is a premature trip down
(08:48):
this garden path, but I'm gonna do it. Okay, I'm
gonna do it. So let's address this because it's being
tossed out by some of the more prominent NFL pundits.
Lamar's not gonna throw up to the Ravens. That's the
story that is being passed around the echo chamber by
people who are getting their information from Lamar Jackson's camp. Now,
(09:11):
he doesn't really have a traditional camp, because a traditional
camp is an agent and people underneath the agent and
all that. So he's got his mom and then he's
got the Union. The Union is shadow advising the matriarch
of the Jackson family. Lake and my position, I am
(09:34):
ambivalent about this, with a lean towards a different outcome.
I'll tell you why, all right, you can never get
the money back. You can never get it back. Lebon
Bell missed a season of his career where he would
have made over ten million dollars from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
(09:56):
And what did he gain out of it. He didn't
get that money. He got a contract with the Terrible
Jets team and is now out of the NFL for
all intensive purposes. He's done. But let's be real here.
The thirty two point four million dollar salary which the
Ravens have as a consolation prize if he signs the
(10:18):
transitional franchise tag whatever it's called, whatever the verbiage isn't
there's thirty two point four million. Now, I don't know
how much money you make, and you don't know how
much money I make. You probably think I make a
lot more than I do. But with an ounce of
financial planning, you are set for life. Right if I
told you right now you'll be in your twenties, I'm
gonna give you thirty two point four million. But after taxes,
(10:40):
it's maybe pay the Maryland taxes, the federal taxes. Maybe
that's fifteen million, thirteen millions, something like that. But if
I gave you thirteen million dollars, just say's thirteen million.
You pay have to pay nineteen million in taxes and
fees and whatnot. So let's say it's thirteen million. I
give you thirteen million, and you invest that in a
(11:01):
little real estate and a little Wall Street. You get
some rental properties, things like that. You're done. That's it.
You don't have to work. Generations don't have to work.
But from where I stand, it's much more likely rather
than Lamar turning down the money, Lamar will sign on
the dotted line, he'll cross the t's, he'll dot the eyes,
(11:23):
but he'll pull a Friday, And then that's his way
of screwing the ravens Now what do I mean by that? Well,
the classic movie Friday, it's a scene. We play the
clip on the air quite a bit, the scene from
the liquor store where the guy falls down. He says,
ah my neck, my back, my neck, my back and
all that. So I see that in my crystal ball
(11:48):
for Lamar Jackson that he's already done it. He's already
done it. Pull the Ben Simmons the old tool down strike.
You know what a tool down strike? As you show
up to work, You show up to the facility and
you refuse to actually do the work. You play hooky
while you're getting paid. Chinge, cha, chinge. That's what Ben
(12:09):
Simmons is doing. We'll talk about him later, but that's
what he's doing. He's faking injuries getting paid and that's it.
And Lamar Jackson's I can totally do that. And if
you pick the right ailment, no one can criticize you.
If you if you're if you're strategic, and you pick
something that is taboo to criticize, you can get away
(12:32):
with it. Nobody'll criticize you because I'll be called names,
and who wants to be called names? Be sure to
catch live editions of the Ben Maller Show weekdays at
two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the iHeartRadio app. Batter Up. Welcome in the beginning
of another hour of The Ben Maller Show, and one
(12:55):
after another. We are in the air everywhere Bestie is.
We are hanging out at the smoke deck, those smoking
hot takes coast to coast, Port of Order and beyond
on the vast and stratophyerically powerful microphones of fs are
emanating live from the hour the overnight Amateur Hour. We
(13:20):
are broadcasting live from the Tirac dot Com studios tirac
dot com. We'll help you get there and unmatched selection,
fast free shipping, free road hazard protection and over ten
thousand recommended installers ti iraq dot com the Way tire
buying shop date and don't bury the lead, my man
(13:41):
or leave. This hour comes from the start of the
long winding road, a journey of one hundred and sixty
two miles, or in this case, games which will reward
those of you that finish the journey. Some of you
will go and play more. The curtain goes up in
just hours. On the twenty twenty three Major League Baseball
(14:04):
season play ball from the Atlantic to the Pacific. We
have hardball action, fifteen matchups. Everyone's playing, everyone's playing today
on a Thursday, and there are two games that get
to jump on the schedule at just after one o'clock
Eastern time. I'll be fast asleep. Maybe I'll get up
(14:25):
and watch the first pitch. I used to do that
back in the day, but now I'm old and boring.
The Atlanta Braves will play the Washington Nationals, who no
longer have that natitude in DC. That's Max Freed and
Patrick Corbin. The other game that starts just after one
o'clock the Giants and the Yankees and the Boogie Down
Bronx as Arson Judge and the Yankees taking on his
(14:47):
old team, the Giants at least a corner John Hayman,
Logan Webb versus Garrett Cole in that matchup, and then
shortly after that, there'll be a munch of other games
all the way up to the West Coast games and
the rest of course follow usually how that works one
after another. So let us discuss the question what is
your level of interest on the twenty twenty three Major
(15:08):
League Baseball season as it gets started? So the way
we measure these things is very scientifical. We use the
Mallar scale of interest one to ten, with ten being amazed. Balls,
that's a ten. I'm at a seven. I'm at a
that's a high score. I'm at I think that's a
(15:28):
good score. Seven. I don't know where you are, but
on the Mallar scale of interest, I'm at a seven
one to ten, I'm out of seven. I got catwalk,
kiss and Berlin Wall. And we will lock all of
this together, and we are going to make a wonderful, wonderful,
stomach filling ballpark meal with the hot dog. You gotta
(15:50):
have the nachos, all that, a couple of beers, the
whole thing. So number one, we're not gonna sit here
and pretend that we are not unbashed baseball fans. We
love baseball, right, we love baseball. There is something magical
about the start of the year. And typically it's great
(16:12):
for like a week or so, and then the dopamine
hit wears off. But we're in the beginning, so we
can enjoy the dopamine hit. You walk out if you
go to a game. You're lucky enough to live in
a city that has a team. You go out there
and you're in the city, the concrete jungle, and then
you go out and you see that massive prairie of
bright green grass, and the sights, the sounds, the smells,
(16:34):
the taste, the touches of baseball, everything everything about it.
I love it. I don't love everything. I mean, I
think the commissioners a douchebag, and I don't work for
Major League Baseball. But the yummy food right wafting through
the air, wafting whatever we're going through the air. And
now my favorite ballpark food my go to soft pretzel
(16:56):
with the nacho cheese and just go with a nacho
with the pretzel on the side. You can mix an
little popcorn cracker Jacks, which is popcorn with sugar on top.
And then I used to love when I was a kid.
I don't really do this much anymore, but remember those
Sundays with the souvenir batting helmet. I love those. They said,
oh man, that was my daughter loves those things. Yeah,
and that'll cost you, I think, Roberto one hundred and
(17:18):
sixty six dollars, Yeah, buying all that, buying a pretzel, nachos,
popcorn cracker Jackson, a Sunday. Yeah, exactly so, but sign
me up? Why not? Once? It rare and appropriate, rare
and appropriate. So now the thing we are the things
we are anticipating most, right, the things we are anticipating
most this season. My level of interest is seven on
(17:41):
a scale of one to ten. But I am looking
forward to the chaos of the universe. That's the first
thing I'm looking forward to. Because as smooth as spring
training went with the pitch clock, I am confident, and
I would bet a lot of funny money. I bet
my own money that there are going to be some
epic malfunctions of the pitch clock, which will mean meltdowns.
(18:08):
Meltdowns right Hindenburg kaboom. Pitchers will be upset because they
will be given a short stick on the mound, they
will not throw the ball fast enough, and there will
be a ball awarded to the hitter. The hitter will
be upset because they will not be paying attention and
they will be called for a strike. And then the
manager is gonna go ballistic, and there will be games
(18:30):
that will be lost and one because of the pitch clock.
During the regular season, it's one thing for these things
to take place in spring training we know they already have,
but in a regular season environment early on where people
are still trying to figure it out to one thing.
But then when we get to the dog days of
the summer and we get to the pennant stretch of
the baseball season, holy crap, is that going to be
(18:50):
interesting to see how people react and it's not going
to be good. Also, the other stuff that we're looking
forward to as always a new baseball season. It's musical chairs,
it's on the catwalk, through the pirouett change the laundry.
We love the old faces and new places. For example,
I think Jacob deGrom is as soft as cool whip,
(19:11):
but he's a hell of a pitcher when he pitches.
And now he's on the Texas Rangers. And then I
look at a guy like Xander Bogart's who was a
good player for the Red Sox for a long time.
But I always ask the question those guys coming out
of Finway, is he a product of Finway? Or can
he do it in a different environment? And now he's
going to the Pod squad. You had Dan's by Swanson
who said bye bye to the Braves to go to
(19:33):
the Cubs, the Cardinals, finally got rid of Yaddi Era Molinas,
so he retired, So Wilson Contreras is their catcher. My
old Dodger guy, Trey Turners now in Philly. And you
got JD. Martinez who's wearing Dodger blue, assuming he's not
washed up. And then you got a bunch of ex
cheating astros who are on the move, like Justin Verlander
(19:55):
who's with the Mets, that cheater, Carlos Carea, that scumbag
who resigned with the Mints so to Twins, although he
technically did agree to a contract with the Giants and
the Mets before he went back to the Minnesota Twins.
You have the racist ex astro Juley Guriel who's now
in Miami, and the team that is part of the
den of an equity in Houston. They added Jose Abreu,
(20:17):
who's a good name from the White Sox, although he's
thirty six years old. Typically when you're that old, you're
not that productive and you get hurt a lot. We'll
see if they have some magic Beans and Houston left
over from the past few years to see if they
can give those two a brave Now, page two, the
reason that Major League Baseball did the clock was because
(20:40):
they have been told they have to get a younger audience.
So will Major League Baseball's new rules attract younger fans. No,
I'm shaking my head. No, that is wishful thinking. All
professional sports, all of them, are fighting the good fight. Now.
I love it. I'm of the age I grew up
when sports took care of kids and wanted to cultivate
(21:02):
a young audience. It ain't like that anymore. They've all
gone from fun for all ages to pricing out the
people that are on a short income or a middle
class income, that do not have a lot of disposable money.
The industrial complex of greed in sports systematically, they got
(21:24):
carried away and they they're like, hey, we can get
people that are corporate people to buy these tickets, and
we can charge more and more and more and more
and more and more. It seemed like a good idea.
It's the boiling frog. You just raised the prices a
little bit every year, and then eventually they get so
high in a lot of places. I say this, in
a lot of places. There are places in baseball like that.
(21:44):
We mentioned the Cleveland Guardians the other day. I was
told from one of our listeners. In Minnesota, the Twins
have this and a few other teams. Well, they'll get
you in for forty nine bucks to stand up and
watch a game, which I think is fair, but I
know I live in Los Angeles. The Dodgers do not
do that. They stick it to their fans, so that
in out of the Red Sox of the same way.
In Boston, the Mets, the Yankees, those big market teams
(22:05):
just stick it to their fans. So you do have
to keep up with the times. And baseball's done a
lot to bring in corporate people and as a result,
they have not had as many fans go to their
younger fans go to those games. And I became a
fan of baseball because my dad took me to baseball
games and my mom liked the Dodgers when I was
a kid, and so I became a baseball fan because
(22:26):
that was kind of the thing. It was a big
game or whatever. But major League Baseball has changed, and
so they're trying to get back to that. They're playing catchup.
And I will be the adult in the room on this.
Like the younger generation, I think the youngest generation is
called Generation Alpha. There was like a little kids. They're
not going to consume your product because of a clock
(22:48):
that is poppy cock, is what that is? Right, you
have to win the hearts, minds, and souls of younger fans.
But using the Mather think, take what is the golden
rule of business? The golden rule of business is go
where your customers are. It's one of the golden rules.
(23:09):
And you have to go where they are. And so
you do that multiple rates. Now Baseball is attempting some
things that are different here. They're trying to reach out
to influencers. They think that Instagram, TikTok until it's banned
by the United States government and all those other social
media platforms are the way to go. So go to
(23:30):
their sandbox and play nice. But I say go with
the kiss method. Keep it simple, stupid. The key to
this we all have short attention spans. You've got to
grab people's attention. If I'm working for Major League Baseball marketing,
you have to transform what is perceived to be by
people that aren't baseball fans a boring product and turn
(23:52):
it into something that stands out. And you can do
that multiple rays. You can do that with sizzle reels.
You know, highlights of vible moments. And there's there's all
the things that you can make it more enjoyable. And
the final point final point going a little long here,
but the final point, which storyline or which story lines
are you most anticipating as we get ready for the
(24:13):
opening day festivities in just hours today. So I am
looking forward to what I call the downfall of the
Berlin Wall, Baseball's Berlin Wall, the cheating Astros. Now they
will not win the American League West. We will get
on take they are not winning me American League West.
(24:36):
They'll get off to a slow start. Jose, check me
for the buzzer. Hey, I'll check it for the buzzer now,
Tuve he's out for the first two months. Jose at
Bray who was old. The lineup is lacking the wow
fact of the starting rotation. There's some weak spots there.
I don't trust Franbur Valdez to do it again. He'll regress.
They lost for Lander, they didn't replace him. The bullpen
(24:57):
also has some holes. And the team that wins the
Americ West. And no, I'm not sucking up to crying
Craig and Robbie the Mariner fan, but they are in
the Pacific Northwest. And since there's only one team in
the Pacific Northwest, I'm going with Jay Rod, Julio Rodriguez
and the Mariners will use that trident to stab the
(25:17):
Astros right in the gut. And mister what's her two
hundred ten million dollar guy forty million? Whatever the contracts like,
minimum two hundred million from Seattle. And as Ronald Reagan
said back in the day, mister Rodriguez teared down that
wall in Houston, the cheating wall. America is depending on
Jay Rod to take down the den of inequity and Seattle.
(25:40):
I don't know if you've been paying attention here, but
that's that's a team that's got wagon ability there. They
got solid starting pitching led by Luis Castile. They picked
up last year the top three Robbie Rays had some
big years in the in the major leagues. Logan Gilbert's
in the middle of that. The lineup appears to be
pretty deep. They got the superstar and Julio Rodriguez in
the making, and then you look around the American League West,
you got the The Angels are an average team. The
(26:01):
Rangers appear to be about the same as the Angels.
Middling teams, and you have a Pacific Coast League team
of minor league gout fit in Oakland, the Athletics, who
are a joke. But Major League Baseball has twelve postseason teams,
six in the American League and six in the National League.
So baseball has got twelve postseason teams. The reality is,
what have I told you that seven of those slots
(26:24):
are already accounted for before a pitch is thrown in
the twenty twenty three season. How do I know a
distant relative? I am of Nostre Damas, and friend of
Nostre Damas, I have mystical powers. Are you ready spoiler alert?
I will get on to you. The following teams are
in the baseball postseason this year. You can cross them
(26:47):
off your list right now. The teams in the National League,
the Dodgers, the Mets, the Atlanta Braves, and the San
Diego Padres will all be in the postseason, all right.
They're all in the American League. You can put the
Yankees in the postseason right now. They're in the Toronto
Blue Jays are going to make the postseason, and the
(27:08):
Seattle Mariners. So that means you have one hundred and
sixty two games to decide. Three spots in the American
League and two spots in the National League that are
up for grabs. Keep in mind, I believe the Central
Division in both the American and National League is somewhat
wide open. I realize there's a lot of bad baseball
being played in the central part of the country in
(27:29):
the National League shout out Pittsburgh Cincinnati, for example. So
and then the Brewers appear to have gotten worse. So
you might say the Cardinals are a lock, but I'm
not going to completely just hand things over to the
Cardinals in that division. The Cubs are a little bit
better this year. And then the American League, the Guardians
of the Hip pick in the Central, but that's not
a guarantee that team could fall apart. And the Chicago
(27:50):
White Sox have a lot of talent. And then you
got the the a Holes, the Astros, and the Tampa
Bay Race. All right. Meanwhile some of the other stuff.
Real quick, you've got Shohail Tani. Is that his last
dance at the Big A. Does he become a five
hundred million dollars man? We'll go on and on. There's
some of the thoughts I have on the baseball season.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
(28:10):
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Hi,
this is Jay Glazer. And you may know me for
the world of football or fighting or even shows like
HBO's Ballers. Well you don't know is for my entire life.
I have lived in something I refer to as the
gray depression anxiety. So now I'm coming out with a
new podcast, Unbreakable, a mental health podcast with Jay Glazer,
(28:32):
where each week while we talk about mental health, I
hope to describe it, give it words. Listen to Unbreakable
with Jay Glazer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you get your podcasts. It's Meller. How about that
to the third degree? This is one big band gets grilled.
(28:54):
All right, here we go and we bring in the
coupe daloop. Mike McCarthy told him on Tuesday that he
set a goal for Dak Prescott to play twenty games
in the twenty twenty three season. Now, Ben, this would
obviously have him playing every game, including at least an
NFC title game. If you're to put an over under
on the actual number of games Dak will play in
(29:15):
next season. What would you set it at? So Mike
McCarthy should put the cheeseburger down. The overunder is at
fifteen and a half, and I'll take the under. You
figured Dak's gonna miss three or four games during the
regular season, then the Cowboys will play wildcard weekend and
then they'll get eliminated. But Dak has not exactly been
an ironman. He was early in his group, but the
last three years Dak Prescott has missed sixteen games. He's
(29:38):
also turning thirty this summer, which is not old. But
in sports, when you're a football player, there's a lot
of scratches, dance imperfections that start popping up on your body.
And I know what McCarthy's doing. He's peddling paradise and
Jerry's world, and that's what all these coaches do. They
remind me of politicians making election promises and they're telling
(29:59):
their fan base, well, I promise you we're going to
do this then and the other thing, and they're on
the campaign trail and we all forget about it by
the time the season comes around next There was a
report that surfaced this week that at one point this season,
Rockets coach Stephen Silas broke down in tears because he
just couldn't get through to the team ben the Rockets.
The Rockets have been really bad, and Silas is near
(30:21):
three seasons as head coach. How much of the blame
does he deserve? All Right? So a couple of things.
Number One, that report about Silas the crying game was
retracted by Brian Windhorse. Now that means coop. Either it's
true and he's trying to get a different scoop, so
he retracted the story, or something worse. Somebody's out to
(30:43):
bury Stephen Silas in Houston and they leaked the fake
story and it got reported. But either way, it's not good.
I'll say there's a fifteen percent blame. Fifteen percent blame
on Stephen Silas. I don't think NBA coaches for the
most part, do very much. They're mostly just kind of
massaging ego and all that. But the doomsday clock is
a ticking and the Rockets haven't even trying the last couple.
(31:05):
You're gonna start trying again. They're gonna get James Harden
back next. Draymond Green said during an episode of his
podcast that he wants to face the Kings in the
first round of the playoffs because the travel would be easy.
Oh please, Ben, how do you how do you think
a King's Warriors playoff series would go? Coo? Can I
get in my soapbox? I briefly travel with a team
before it got even better than it is today. It's
even better, you know when they travel by stagecoach, the
(31:28):
Golden State Warris Is that why they're so bad on
the road? Are they gonna get the Spanish flue? They
travel on luxury planes, trains and automobiles. They stay at
five star resort hotels. What the hell is he talking about? No,
the Warriors will win that series, though, Come on, Draymond,
how do we do it? Passes editions that Swiner I
won the guy I went the game. Fox Sports Radio
(31:52):
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com
and within the iHeart Radio app. Search f SR to
listen live Now time four time four hor hoey ask
bad Twitter? Is this your questions? On Twitter? Now Sports
(32:12):
for The Ben Mallace Show, brought you by Progressive Insurance.
Progressive makes Buntley easy and affordable getting multi policy discount
by combining your motorcycle, RB boat, ATV and more all
your protection in one place, Pundle and save at Progressive
dot com and we say hello to the Cooper Loop,
the master of ceremonies. We have a little appetize here
(32:33):
and then a big block of questions. But let's get
this started right now, and justin Cooper all right. This
question is from Miguel on fire. He wants to know
from the crew. Have any of you ever had a
warehouse or manufacturing slash production job? No? No, I have
mostly worked in radio. I got started when I was
nineteen years old in the radio business. So those are
(32:55):
most of the jobs I've had. I worked at my
parents business when I was growing up to Za count
and I delivered newspapers and that's pretty much it, Eddie,
I actually did. Uh. It was a very small warehouse
and it was a I was the only one in there. Uh.
And I would like this guy owned this, um what
(33:16):
do what do you call it? A? Oh my god,
and drawing a blank like when you water the fields?
What do you call that? The irrigation irrigation? He owned
it like an irrigation valve company. And we would sell
these irrigation valves of various sizes, and I would I
was in charge of taking orders and like packaging them
(33:37):
and like mailing them off. And I was the only one.
I was the only one working in this in this warehouse.
It wasn't that big. But uh yeah, very interesting summer job.
When I was in high school, I got you what
about you, Robert to negative negative? All right? Cooloo. Yes,
Before I was a ink Salemen, I worked in the warehouse,
(34:02):
packing and shipping the orders. Oh all right, very cool.
So that is an appetizer the main event though. For
the rest of the hour, I see a great question
from Ryan and man hopefully that who picks that one?
And a bunch of other questions here. Ask Ben Your
Questions are Answers. Keep them coming hashtag ask Ben on
Twitter for the rest of the hour. Be sure to
(34:24):
catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at
two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the iHeartRadio app. We continue Ask Ben Your Questions
Are Answers to the rest of the hour, brought you
by Progressive Insurance. This portion the show Progressive makes Bundley
easy and Affordable. Get a multi policy discount by combining
your motorcycle, RV, boat, ATV and more all your protection
(34:48):
in one place. Bundle and save at Progressive dot com.
You want your voice heard, easy to do. Follow me
on Twitter at Ben Maller used to hashtag ask Ben
and Friends back to Cooper Loo. All right, this question
is from Andy the comic book guy. Uh, he wants
to know. He says, you're in the cereal aisle. What
is one cereal you were absolutely not buying? Uh? You know,
(35:14):
I hate just playing like cheerios or whatever. I don't
I need. I need sugar. I don't know. My dad
used to eat that. I need the sugar, so that
would be the one. What about you, Eddie? Yeah, when
I was a kid, we used to have corn flakes,
and I hated corn flakes, so I would say corn flakes. Yeah,
alright sorry? And am I my house when I was
(35:35):
getting it was total? Yes, that my house too. My
dad would love total give me that frosted flakes and sugar.
I don't want that total crap. Yeah, the cereal is
supposed to be filled with sugars, sugar for breakfast. That's
what it's supposed to be. That's next. Um, let's see.
Uh So, I saw the question that you saw from Ryan.
I don't know, why do you think it's a great question?
(35:56):
But question I don't think so it is um he says.
I know it's legal in California, not legal here in Maine.
But does lane splitting on a motorcycle freak you out
as a driver on It's one of the worst things.
And I think we could save lives of motorcycle drivers
if we stop that. It's I can't say how many
times I've almost hit a motorcycle who's zooming in bumper
(36:20):
to bumper gridlock and they're driving like fifty miles an
hour in between lanes. It's it's insane that that's still allowed.
I love that they don't allow that in the great
state of Maine. As Ryan says, it is a huge
pain in the behind. I saw I was driving on
the two ten freeway here in la a couple of
years ago, and I saw a motorcycle, motorcyclist with a
(36:44):
he died because he was splitting lanes and he crashed
in the back of a van. And I will not
And then then they complained that they were hit by
a car. Yeah, exactly, exactly so you agree with me, Roberto,
agree with Eddie. I mean, it doesn't freak me out
because I'm in a car and uh, you know, trust me,
(37:04):
and if they hit you, it's not Yeah, it's all
on your ass. I hear you. But it seems to me,
if if you're going to have a motorcycle in Los
Angeles with all the traffic, that's the major perk of
doing it is to be able to avoid that traffic
has squeezed through all the cars. So if you survive, yeah,
(37:26):
well it's dangerous. It's riding a motorcycle is dangerous to
begin with. So all right, they can do what they want.
Who doesn't want to answer the question? He's protesting, So
I don't didn't say I wouldn't answer. I just I mean,
Eddie shocked me. I thought this was a given that
it's you know, I thought everybody's answer was gonna be yeah.
So that's why I said it was a bad question.
I I tell my fiance to open the door. That's
(37:49):
a that's a dicordating move. I saw a motorcycle later
once was upset that somebody was kind of too close,
and he punched the side mirror and broke it off,
and I was like, damn, Yeah, I have been tempted
when I see somebody from a distance behind and I'm stuck.
I can't move kind of moving over just a little
(38:11):
into the side, you know, the kind of so they
can't go past you. I thought about that many times.
So anyway, what is next year? Kubert's asked, Ben, your
questions are answers for the rest of the hour. Donkey
Sausage would like to know, now we're getting serious, Donkey Sausage,
what do you use in the shower bar soap, body
wash or one of them all in one soaps? What's
(38:33):
what's an all in one Like? It's like it's a
shampoo and body wash all in one, so you just
lather up your hair and then your entire body. I
didn't know that was the thing. So at different points
in my life I've used everything. I've used all um
shower products and all that. I also, what's the thing
I'm forgetting the name of it? The you put the
soap on lufah. Yeah, I'm a loofa man uh and
(38:55):
I like those. And I've talked about this in the
past and people get upset because they say the loof
is like the dirtiest thing, and you soul so we
get rid of the lufa and they're dirty and all that.
But I love the lufa. It's a bubbly I'm a
fan of the lufa, so I use that. And bubble
so was not bubble soap, just regular soap. He gets
so bubbly. What about you, eddie U? Lufa and body
wash as an adult, I'm sure as a kid I
had to use the bar soap because we didn't add
(39:15):
the body washback then. Yeah, yeah we did not, So
two for la loofa yeah, and body was all right,
that's three for the loofa coopa loop and body washed
used to be dove bar soap though. When I was
a kid growing up, Irish spring, yes, Irish spring. My
(39:37):
father zan zest fully clean. My grandfather had so much
Irish spring when he passed away. You had Irish spring
for like for like two years. He did. He had
gone to those warehouses and guy Irish blocks of I
was unbelievable. So this guy's got like a lifetime supply
(39:58):
Irish springs. Not right, my grandfather, Now it's yours, I know,
well not anymore. It's gone now all right? What is
next Coopa loop. All right, uh rob aka goat man,
I go man, he says, an honor of Opening Day.
It's estimated that twenty five million hot dogs are consumed
in stadiums during the MLB regular season. Yeah, how many
(40:19):
are you putting away when you attend a game? Well,
I'm not going to a game on Opening Day, at
least not today. Back back in the day, the dodge
a dog. I don't really like the dodge dog. I
think it is boiled. I don't like. Well, you gotta
get the one that's grilled though the grill. I can
eat a grilled dog. I can't eat a boiled dog.
I need my dog burn. And I used to know
(40:39):
of a chef at Dodger Stadium used to burn them
up for me. Oh it was great, But I don't.
I don't eat any hot dogs these days. I love.
If I like a hot dog, I'll eat like three
of them during a game. But no, I haven't had
a hot dog at a game in a while. What
about you, Eddie. I never ever eat food at a stadium.
Never I eat before or I eat after. I'm not
(41:03):
spending all that money on that crap food. That's a
smart Actually, a smart smart it is, but it's it's
also part of the experience. I don't. I don't we
tell Get like when we go to the Charger games,
we tell Get or assest Man we eat high on
the Hog. But it's before the games that's different. Yeah, well,
I don't go to baseball games anymore. That's fair. Oh yeah.
(41:24):
It was one of our listeners, Phil from from Boston.
He would send these Finnway Franks. He's monster. If I
went to Fenway, I would have a Fenway Frank in
a couple of weeks. Good more than one. The Monster dogs.
The way to go at Finway that's even better than
the Finway Frank. But they're good either way. You can't
go wrong on that. I don't. I don't have the
(41:47):
Dodge Dog anymore. I don't like this to think I
rode a farmer. John not the same I used to
have too, like every game, but not anymore. Zero would
you like bite the ends off first? Yeah? Yeah, so
Coop does have but I have like four today at home?
All right, Coop hot dogs any um? I am. I'm
also cheap, so I've never had more than one hot
dog just because I don't want to pay for it,
(42:09):
but I could. I could eat too easily. All right,
real quick, we have to have for a quick question here,
Cooper Loop. I'm putting Coop on the spot. He does
not like this, courtesy Flesher. So does any of the
crew regularly wear regularly wear tied eye? Oh absolutely not.
That's the ugliest seventies, nineties and seventies about time ago whenever. Yeah,
(42:36):
and we're done with that. I know we're bell bottoms
anymore either. I
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Ben Maller
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