June 14, 2023 • 37 mins
Big Ben talks about the Stefon Diggs situation in Buffalo as the WR misses the first day of minicamp, the Oakland A's fans holding a reverse boycott on Tuesday and if it will make a difference, Maller to the Third Degree, Password: Word Game of the Stars, and much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Malor Show on
Fox Sports.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Radio, where the Buffalo roam Away. Welcome in the beginning
of another edition the Ben Mahlor Show. We are in
the air everywhere, old friends, as we enter a world
(00:48):
of mystery coast the coast, border to border and beyond
all the best and irresistibly powerful microphones of FSR and
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Bob and Weave Audio Haymakers, we are broadcasting live from
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(01:12):
help you get there and unmatched election fast, free shipping,
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stallars tyraq dot com. The way tirebind should be. And
congratulations to the boy A lot of agony being a
LAS Vegas hockey fan. It's been a long time, and
I'm really happy. I mean, I think of all the
(01:32):
grandkids that remember their parents, their great grandparents watching hockey.
They probably visited cemeteries to visit the graves of those
old souls that passed away years ago, the Las Vegas
Golden Night fans from sixty seventy eighty years ago. That
it moved on, unless that didn't actually happen. More on
(01:54):
that later, But I cannot pass off a juicy Scie Lucy,
a juicy NFL story, pig skin Palooza in the month
of June. All right, I'm rubbing my hands together here
because this is such a good story, the story from
the winter Wonderland of Buffalo. Now, I've only been to
(02:15):
Buffalo once, and I was there years ago, and I
was amazed because I went. It was early in the
NFL season, and there were a lot of boats. I
don't think of Buffalo as a boating area, but they
were a fair amount of boat Anyway, somebody out on
a boat in Buffalo would be one of the stars
of the bills if you had not been following the law.
It played out in real time throughout the last twenty
(02:37):
four hour news cycles. So maybe you missed it because
you actually have a life and you don't pay attention
to this stuff. You're not obsessed. Your job is not
to bark into microphones in the middle of the night
about this nonsense. So here's what happened. Let me give
me the inside skin. He just a random day at
Bill's mandatory mini camp and just ran unless unless it
(02:59):
was And so the center of the hullabaloo was about
Stefan Diggs. Stefan Diggs carrying the torch for previous malcontent
wide receivers. You see Stefan Diggs. There was a debate.
Did he show up? Did he not show up? What
was going on? What is this all about? Well, the
(03:21):
head coach of the Buffalo Bills, I believe we have
the audio on this, Sean McDermott addressed the media and
listen to the verbiage from the Buffalo coach. Let's go
to the audio tape. Good morning.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
We'll go ahead and get started.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Take your questions.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Just a question about tennis?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Do what here?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
And knows a lot of questions.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
About Yeah, Steph is not here. Everybody else is here
at the current time.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
How conferred to you about that.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Oh, very concerned, Yeah, very concerned.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
That's the quote right there.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
I'm not going to get into it, and listen, I
respect everyone's questions and what they want to know about
our team right now. I'm just I'm not going to
get into that anymore. So we'll talk about practice. Happy
to do that, Happy to answer those questions, and we'll
move forward from there.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I love when coaches decide what the story. Hey, numb nuts,
you're at a news conference. The reporters can ask whatever
they want. I'm here to talk about practice. Hey, nobody
gives a rats ass about a Buffalo Bill's mini camp practice.
Your star receiver having a temperate toantrum, that's the story.
(04:35):
Don't bury the lead, mom, man, don't bury the lead.
So the quote the money quote, very concerned, How concerned
are you? Very concerned? From Sean McDermott. This is one
of the big teams in the NFL. You look at
the gambling market, one of the teams at the very
top of the board, among the favorites to get the
Lombardi Trophy in Sin City next year. So McDermott said
(04:58):
he was concerned Dixon did not report to the team
facility then Diggs's agent said, yeah, that guy's full of crap.
My client showed up, and then the Bills issued a
prepared statement saying because of the confusion that Stefawn Diggs
actually had reported in the morning and then ended up
leaving before practice. Not a game. Not a game, we're
(05:22):
talking about practice. He took off a quarterback. Josh Allen
was peppered with questions about this the disgruntled receiver, and
Alan literally swore he's the F word when asked about
Stefawn Diggs and said he loves playing with Diggs and
was intentionally vague. Josh Allen, the Madden cover boy, did
(05:45):
not really get into much detail. He mumbled, internally, we're
working on some things. Is the way Josh Allen verbalized that.
He said, it's not football related. He says, he's my guy. Okay,
lot to unpack. Why don't we start with the coach
because we had some good audios, so we'll start with that.
(06:06):
So the question here, Sean McDermott, head coach of your
Buffalo Bills, says he is quote very concerned close quote
for Steven Diggs about Stefan Diggs his absence from the Bills,
mandatory mini camp. How do you appraise the situation in Buffalo?
So I've got opening trailer, ron, Burgundy and jet blue,
(06:32):
and we will combine all of these things together and
we are going to make the chicken wing, which was
not invented in Buffalo, but was mass marketed at the
Anchor Bar in Buffalo. And I've been there, and that
was the birthplace of the mind. The chicken wing used
to be like the worst part of the chicken I
still don't like you. I like the chicken finger. I'm
(06:53):
not a fan of the chicken wing, but nonetheless get
to the point. Please all right, So again the question
Sean McDermott saying he's very concerned about Stefan Diggs's absence
from the mandatory mini camp. How do you appraise the situation? So, ay,
Sean McDermott. Right now, he's looking at the graffiti on
the wall. Okay, he's looking at the graffiti on the wall.
(07:13):
What do I mean by that? He knows he's been
around the NFL game long enough to know that he
is heading to a waterloo moment. There's a fork in
the road in Sean McDermott's coaching career and You can
deny it and say this is not the case, but
the reality is this. The Bills have been a heavyweight
contender in the AFC for several years and they've been
(07:36):
neck and neck with Kansas City and Buffalo in the
perception of the football world. Kansas City's got two super
Bowl trophies in this last stretch of time, and Cincinnati,
while they haven't won Joe Burrow did get an AFC
championship and lost to just a better team, the Alia Rams,
one of the great Super Bowls of all time, the
(07:58):
Rams winning that a couple of years ago. So what
are the Bills have? They have guys jumping onto tables,
shout out Bill's Mafia. That's what they have there. So
what does this mean? It means if there is not
a breakthrough, If the Bills stub their toe again in
the playoffs, they don't break through the glass ceiling, then kabam.
(08:22):
What happens? Right? What happens? The guillotine is rolled in
to the team facility. They literally roll the guillotine in
and Heggs will start to roll and roll and roll
and roll, and the first head would be Sean McDermott's head.
The head coach. Right, Stefan Diggs not being on board
(08:46):
at the start of mini campus, that's a non story.
It's absolutely a story. The fact that coach wouldn't talk
about it tells you how big a story it is, right, Oh,
just sure to talk about practice, the thing nobody cares about.
And so look at this, It's got all the key ingredients.
It's like the opening trailer of a live action remake
(09:08):
of a Greek tragedy. You can see how this all
plays out. Malcontent receiver has melt down, drags several teammates
with him. That is the key ingredient in a season
unraveling and a box office chart topper. Now page two here,
Josh Allen, Let's go back to the quarterback. Josh. He
(09:30):
said it was an internal situation, non football related that
the Bills are working on with Stefan Diggs. How do
you decode that? Can you decode that? So I will
attempt I'm gonna attempt to use my super secret decoder
ring that I got in a box of the Cracker
Jacks years ago. So here's the way I see it.
(09:50):
On this side of the microphone, Digs is your buy
the book, Prima Donna that's it. It's not that hard,
it's not that deep. Stefan da prima data and Josh
Allen is playing the role of Ron Burgundy from the
classic movie Anchorman. Well, that escalated quickly. Man really got
(10:12):
out of hand, right, I mean, that's how I interpret it.
And then you could also use the classic glass house
of emotion to describe Stefan Diggs. You know, Digs run
He's like a hot woman at a bar wearing a red,
form fitting cocktail dress and has all the attention in
the world, but is still desperate to get more attention.
(10:35):
That seems to be the mo on. Stefan Diggs certainly
appears that way, and for him, drama is like riding
a bike. It really is. For Stefan Diggs, this guy's
got a skill forget being a great receiver, his ability
when it comes to the drama. O rama is next level.
(10:56):
It is next level. What's my case? What's my point
on this? Making me some evidence on it and explained.
So let's go back in the hot, tough times. She
remember when Buffalo got blown out at home by Cincinnati
and the AFC Playoffs playoffs? Remember that? Yeah, I remember
that we were on the air after that game. It
was a lopsided game and Stefan Dicks had a conniption fit,
(11:19):
very public connition fit. How do I know that it
was broadcast on CBS. They put it on television. He
got into it with Josh Allen. They downplayed it. Then
we heard Stefan Dicks was so upset after his sideline confrontation.
How abseet was he? Well, he attempted to leave the
locker room and we imagined the stadium prior to the
(11:41):
coaches even arriving from the field. He was that upset.
And then they downplayed it. But this follows the woe
is me attitude. He goes on a social media rant.
I just and he did the same thing. Also, he
had another social media complaint. He was ranting about that.
But what did this is? And the agent's like, well,
he reported it's not that big a deal. Of course,
(12:04):
the agent's gonna say that you're an advocate for your client.
But what this is is what's known as a tool
down strike. It's a tool and what is a tool downstrike?
A tool down strike is where you show up to work.
It's the type of strike you go to work and
you show up to your office in this case the
locker room, and as usual, and you take your seat
(12:24):
at your locker and you don't pick up a tool.
He just leave the tool down and then you end
up looking like a toolbag if you're a Stefan Diggs.
And that's the case. He did stay around briefly before
he left. All right, last word here, So how should
the Bills? How should the Bills handle Stefan Diggs going forward?
You have come to the right place. The Malard think
(12:45):
tank has been activated. And here's what I do, free advice,
unsolicited advice in the middle of the night to the
Buffalo Bills. Trade his ass. You send him to the
airport Jet Blue stand by and say you're on standby.
You're getting out of town. I'm telling you as a
(13:06):
toa showst I love Stefan Diggs, but if I was
running a football team, no, no way, I don't want
this guy. I would rather have a lesser receiver, a
lesser receiver who I can rely on in my fox
hole than Stefan Diggs. So let's make a deal, all
right now. I'm gonna assume the Bills will not trade
Stefan Diggs to an AFC team, so we'll eliminate the
(13:30):
entire AFC. They're all put So let's go to the NFC.
How about Washington for Terry McClaren, and you'd have to
get some other stuff. But Terry McLaren's not as good
as Stefan Diggs, but he's reliable. If not him, call
the Lions up and say, hey, we'll trade you Stefan Diggs,
but we would like Amon Ross Saint Brown. We'll take
(13:53):
him in exchange in a trade. Let's work that out.
How about that. Now, the money's a problem because Diggs
got paid when he left Minnesota to go to Buffalo.
But if not the Lions, you just keep going down.
How about Tampa Tampa Bay's gonna suck. They are going
to be like rotting eggs in the middle of the
street in the summer. Terrible. So they've got some receivers
(14:14):
we've heard of. See if Chris Godwin or Michael Evans
will go there. Call the forty nine ers up, see
if they're willing to trade Deebo Samuel for Stefan Digs.
There are players out there you can get. There are
trades that can be made. And do this shock and awe.
Do the shock and awe, make that move less talented
guy you can rely on.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Filling Up the Ballpark. They filled up the Ballpark. Welcome
in the beginning of another hour of the Ben mal Show.
We are in the a everywhere kindred spirits as we
do our home home, work, coast to coast, border the border,
and beyond all the mast and gigantically powerful microphones of
(15:09):
fsr AMM neating live from the market, the Smoke Market,
oh Man on a newby Night, Hot takes on a
newby Night and a night that Vegas has crowned the
champions of hockey. Wel come in as we are broadcasting
live from the ti iraq dot com studios. Tyraq dot
com will help you get there in unmatched selection, fast
(15:32):
free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand
recommended installars tyraq dot com. The way tire buying shit
be so a lot going on. You ever seen that
show at like halftime of a basketball game where they're
spinning plates. We're spending a lot of plates we have
(15:52):
a disgruntled deva wide receiver, Stefon Diggs. We talked about that.
If you missed it full Mallard monologue, it's available on
the podcast. We had a guy from Vegas call up
on a newby Night celebrating. I'm sure we'll get some
more calls, hopefully. I saw some other people on hold.
I guess they're gone now out celebrating in Vegas as
the Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup and so they
(16:12):
are the champions of hockey. But our lead this hour
coming from the Bay Area, where the next Las Vegas
sports franchise is apparently located. The Major League Baseball's top
team coming into the night, the Tampa Bay Rays taking
on the worst team in baseball heading into the night,
the Athletics formerly of Philadelphia, formerly of Kansas City, and
(16:36):
soon to be formerly of Oakland, or maybe not, maybe not.
Just a lazy Tuesday night in Oakland. But why was
this night different than all other nights? Because it is
worthy of a full Malor monologue. A Oakland A's team
that makes the bad news Bears look so good, so
(16:57):
so good, And that is ourly story, a last ditch effort,
a ground swells of support for one night to try
to send a message to those evil desk spot executives
at Major League Baseball to stop the Athletics from fleeing
northern California and heading to southern Nevada. And if you
(17:21):
didn't see this, we talked about it in a previous episode,
but maybe you were not listening. Bad job by you,
But it does happen anyway, get to the point, please,
So a group of enraged but passionate Oakland Backers baseball
fans came out in droves to unite a united front
(17:41):
for this scrooge evil owner John Fisher, who didn't earn
a dollar. He inherited old money. That's old family money
John Fisher inherited, and he figures the way to make
more money from old family money is to relocate the team.
So anyway, the message was simple, one word, sell eat
l L sell sealaty And I checked this out. It
(18:05):
was pretty cool to see because I am old enough
to remember when the A's actually had crowds and they
actually had good teams, and they were good every year,
and it seemed like every year. That was a long
time ago, but still back in their salad days, of
Oakland A's baseball. So you saw thousands of impassioned, heartbroken
(18:26):
A's fans, A lot of them liquored up an act
of solidarity at the coliseum there in Oakland or whatever
it's called these days. I can't imagine they have a
corporate sponsor. No one goes to those games other than
feral cats and rats. But anyway, all right, so this
reverse boycott. There were seven thousand shirts they passed out
(18:48):
with the words So that's good market They tell you
in marketing, just have your messaging has got to be short,
one or two words, that's it. That's the message. Nike's
got three words, just do it. That's their mark. But
it's short, right, keep it short and keep it simple.
So how many people showed up? Get to the point place,
all right, I'll get to the The attendance the announced
(19:08):
attendants was twenty seven thousand, seven hundred and fifty nine,
although there are some that believe that the athletics actually
low counted, that there were actually more people there, but
the A's short change the crowd count. I was not there,
so I do not know. All I know is I
believe the night before the A's drew less than five
(19:30):
thousand fans. So they went from less than five thousand
on a Monday in their last home game, and then boom,
they were up to twenty seven almost twenty eight thousand fans,
And that's above the average, we are told than twelve
other Major League teams. The twenty seven thousand fans that
were there, Oakland's got the worst attendance in baseball. And
(19:50):
normally the only time they sell tickets is when the
Giants are there to play the A's or the Dodgers
come to play the A's, and then randomly there'll be
some other team that will come in that will have
some some famias. So let's discuss the question Oakland fans
the reverse boycott to change the narrative. Will this resonate
with the powers that be at corporate Major League Baseball.
(20:13):
So I've got Hobgoblin, sponge, and hail Mary, and we
will combine all of these things together and we are
going to make We're gonna make the Bay Bridge, which
is are they and I guess they won't go over
the Babridge. They're going in the other directions, so they
will not travel down the Bay Bridge when they leave Oakland.
They'll go okay anyway? All right, So first of all,
I would love to say yes, absolute major League Baseball.
(20:37):
These these people at corporate Baseball, they've got a heart,
you know, deep down when you pull back all the
corporate bull crap and all that, they're actually human beings.
But that's a lie. That would be a lie, right, Yes,
What should happen is customer Customer relations matter. That without
the loyal, ravid fan, which you are. If you went
(20:58):
to that game and you're trying to send a message,
you're a loyal, passionate fan, that should matter more than
anything because when you take everything away, if you get
rid of the fan, all you have left is Beer
League Baseball. That's it. You've got a bunch of young
adults playing baseball and no one gives a rats ass
(21:20):
about what's going on on the field. So Rob Manford
what he should do. If you had a real commissioner
that wasn't a sock puppet, Rob Manfred would hold a
news conferency. You know what. I had a come to
Jesus moment watching that A's game, and I'm gonna grow
some hair in my chest is what I'm going to do.
And unlike when I had a chance to punish the
(21:42):
cheating asstros I did nothing when the fans demanded I
did nothing. Now I'm going to do something a real boss.
And then and then I wake up, and then I
realize none of that is going to happen. What will
Rob Manford do? Uh, he will do nothing. There's a
(22:03):
better chance of elephants that A's mascot with the other
the elephant flying through the air. All right, there's a
better chance of that happening than Rob Manford doing what
I just said. Major League Baseball has made it perfectly
clear time and again under this administration and this era
that the fan doesn't matter. You are a rube. You are.
(22:27):
That's how they treat you. They keep raising the prices,
they keep sticking it to you, and you just say more,
more and more and more and more and more and more,
give me more, scream and shout let it all out,
because deep down, Rob Manford, I am now convinced, is
not only the commissioner of baseball, he is a hob goblin.
Rob Manford hob goblin as the face of Major League Baseball.
(22:51):
And he's also got bad hearing. And I believe blind
Emmett the Seahawks fans sees better than Rob Manford. You know,
he's just like your typical Weasley politician with some election
promises that you don't actually go for. He's an empty suit,
all right. And I loved the rhythmic chanting. I think
that was wonderful. It was like a religious revival. I
(23:12):
don't even get. I don't hate. I've never been an
A's fan. I got no skin in the game, but
I was like, that's pretty cool. I loved it. Good
planning there. Here's the problem though, in my life, the
people I've talked to who are executives in sports, the
message I've got is the thing that scares people in
sports is apathy. It's not caring. And the people that
(23:35):
showed up care. It matters to them that the A's
are going to move, and you know that typically doesn't
move the need. And the odd thing is the A's
have mastered the art of apathy and yet that didn't
do anything. Now, Secondly, are the athletic fans getting short
changed here because of an irresponsible owner? And I would say,
(23:56):
absolutely say his fans haven't shown up. But I don't
think you should be a sucker though. If the product
is bad and just continue to go. I don't agree
with that. I think that the product's bad, you shouldn't go.
And so I'm not gonna rip them for not showing up,
but that the owner of the Athletics, Jan Fisher, has
been guilty of negligence with the team and the moneyball
(24:18):
I've had a theory on the A's for years. The
moneyball thing was a double edged sword. It was a
blessing and a curse. That whole moneyball era because so popular.
The A's had reinvented baseball with their analytics, and they
found a way to win on the cheap. And now
that's like expectator. You that's the expectation you're supposed to
win on the cheap. And Billy Bean and what he
(24:40):
was able to do, they made a movie with it.
Brad Pitt was in the movie. For God's sakes, they
made a Hollywood movie on a strew shoestring budget for
the Athletics and they've continued that. That's how they operate. Meanwhile,
San Francisco, the San Francisco Oakland market, I'm in the
media business. That's the sixth biggest market in the United States.
It's big than Boston. Okay, there's more people there, and
(25:02):
yet they operate the a's like they're one miss check
away from hanging out with that guy Chaz that called
last hour at the soup kitchen. Uh. I mean, that's
it's that situation. And Saint Louis Is Market twenty one,
San Diego's market twenty eight, and they spend a lot
of money compared to that. And so John Fisher, the owner,
(25:24):
the screwoge owner, essentially took the sponge, tossed the sponge away,
said it's too hard. Well, you can't get public money.
We you know, the giants won't let us go to
San Jose and so screw everybody. We're just gonna go
to Vegas. Meanwhile, there's a there's another option which no
one considered with John Fisher. Build your own stadium. Build
(25:44):
your own stadium, you numb nuts, all right? Do it?
Come on your knick kompoop built. You get the money,
finance it, that's what That's what most people have to do.
Of course, sports teams finance it on the public doles.
What they do. It's ridiculous. He could he could have
worked it out. There's a way to get it done
without having to get taxpayer money and off. You really
(26:06):
wanted to stay there and make it work. You could
have built a beautiful small ballpark. You could have figured
out a way to get it done, and you chose
the easy path, as most human beings do. They choose
the easy path, all right. The final thought on this
dire tribe, what are the chances the A's don't move
to Vegas? So I've already told you that to me,
(26:27):
apathy's the way to go. That didn't work. Now they
showed that they care the A's fans, so we'll see
if that works. I don't think it will. But since
Vegas is the mecca of gambling and also the mecha hockey,
as they've just celebrated the Stanley Cup Championship there in Vegas,
I will use some gambling lingo. The Vegas group is
(26:50):
holding the Ace of space. In fact, they have a
royal flush. They've got the Ace, the King, the Queen,
the Jack, the ten, all of the same suit there,
the space aids and they're in good shape. Nevada politicians
they started to implow to stick a dynam It's not
done yet, but they have greenlighted over three hundred amost
(27:12):
four hundred million dollars to get that stadium done. It
still has to be signed by some other people before
it all becomes kosher in Vegas, but it's heading that direction. Now,
what could change this right? What could change the path
that we're on? Okay, I'll answer the question because there's
one thing that can happen and it is what I
(27:33):
call the ultimate hell Mary to save the athletics from
leaving Oakland and going to Las Vegas. And that is
a massive bill that is delivered to Rob Manford's office
and everyone's gonna have to chip in to pay the bill.
And I don't think. I don't support this, by the way,
because I don't think government gets involved in this stuff.
(27:54):
I don't. I don't like when government gives tax payer
money out. I don't like when government puts more red
tape out. But there's a cons woman from northern California
named Barbara Lee. I have no idea who that is,
but she has introduced what's called the Moneyball Act, and
that would not be ironic. That could be the thing
(28:14):
that saves the Athletics from leaving Oakland. Now the act,
here's what it states, The Moneyball Act. It says here
that require teams that leave their hometown in Major League
Baseball to compensate the communities they are departing. All right now,
it is I mean specifically, the Act states that any
Major League Baseball team that goes to a new location
(28:36):
more than twenty five miles from its previous one must
provide compensation. How much compensation not less than the state, local,
or tribal tax revenue levied in the ten years before
the date of relocation. So that would mean that if
the A's are planning on moving in twenty twenty seven,
(28:57):
let's say they would have to go back twenty sixteen
and all the taxes they paid, they'd have to cut
a check for that total amount. Now, just between me
and you and the wall which is over in front
of me, I'm looking get a wall here. It's got
windows on each side, but there's a wall in the
middle there. A lot of the teams don't pay that
(29:20):
much in taxes. They big businesses find a way around
paying taxes. But that's still going to be a lot
of money. And the threat is that if these teams
don't pay the money, they would get rid of the
special exemption, the anti trust exemption, which Baseball has had
for over one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Hey, this is Tom Berducci from Fox Sports, MLB Network
and Sports Illustrated.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
And I'm Joe Madden.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
We're going to be around to talk a little bit
about managerial decisions and what may have occurred to that
I got maybe in the nineteen eighties. It's the book
of podcast. I can't wait for this, Joe.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
We're gonna dive into what goes on in the dugout
and behind the scenes in Major.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
League Baseball, cars, wind, whatever else we want to talk about.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Yeah, well there are no boundaries, right. Listen to the
Booker Joe Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Y'all, let's get it. We can get it.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
We can do this, maller. How about that to the
third degree? Get jup.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
It is being reported that Baker Mayfield is a clear
favorite in the Tampa quarterback competition and that Kyle Trask
would have to do something extraordinary in order to leap
frog Mayfield on the depth chart. But do you think
that Mayfield could have enough success to hold off Trass
the entire season.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
No. In fact, the Buccaneers will play four quarterbacks this year.
Baker Mayfield looks great in practice, he sucks in games.
I think Bucko Bruce is gonna start their mascot three
games this year next.
Speaker 5 (30:52):
There was a report on Tuesday that said the Warriors
are considering major offseason changes and that no player on
Golden State's roster is off limits, aside from Steph kerr Ben.
Which players do you think will still be on the
team come next season?
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah, here's who I think will be on the team.
I think Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green will
be on the team. They'll change, they'll get rid of
anybody else. And these stories, I don't believe it. I'll
believe it when I see one of those guys going
out of the Bay Area, out of San Francisco. I
don't buy it. This is clickbait. And as long as
Steve Currs the coach, they're gonna ride this jalopy until
(31:24):
the wheels fall off there and then these guys are
getting older for the Warriors, and so that's gonna happen.
So next.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
Lebron James said in a recent interview that he never
entered the slam Dunk Contest because it simply wasn't something
that he wanted to accomplish in his career. Ah, Ben,
are you buying that explanation? No, listen, that's pinocchio, is
what that is from Lebron. Here's the deal with that.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Nobody who the heck starts their career by the way,
saying Mike dream is to win the slam dunk Cutters,
Lebron didn't enter the slam Dunk Contest because he didn't
need to enter the slam Dunk contest. He was already
as big as he could possibly get. He had already
at his high school. I was doing a website. I
was writing about this guy's a It's a different era.
The slam dunk contest helped catapult Michael Jordan and others,
(32:07):
and Lebron. He was so big, he had nothing to gain.
He had a lot to lose. You imagine if he
butterfingered a wind meal dunk like he did for the Lakers,
how embarrassing that would have been. There it is malon
the third degree, with time to spare, How did we
do now you fell I won the game in my headphones. No,
he told me I won in my headphones. He said,
I won.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live. Attention everyone, and the password is password, you idiot,
password the word Game of the Stars. Here's Ben Meller
(32:49):
on a newbie night.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
We'll have some new contestants. That's kind of the bit,
that's the gimmick. And I want to thank everyone that called.
And some of you didn't get on the air. Most
of you got on the air, but thank you. It's
been a fun night. We really need to do this
every month. We keep forgetting, I keep forgetting bad job by,
but I mean that's welcome in our contestants. We have
Joe in North Carolina, just down from Tobacco Road. Hello, Joe,
(33:16):
what's welcome in? Joe? You ready to go here on
a newbie night? All right? And Joe, what are you
doing right now? Why are you calling in?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Just waking up? Man? Good back? Ready for work?
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Getting ready for work? Are it's starting your day? Nice?
We're ending ours. You're starting yours. And we also have
the number one stealer freak. Hello, number one stealer freak.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
Big man, I'm went over the road trucks driving us
two o'clock this morning.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Oh I've been talking since two o'clock this morning, so
I know I'll listen to you guys every day. God
bless you, sir, Thank you. And you're based you're based
in West Virginia or you're in West Virginia.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Oh no, I'm going.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Through wet Virginia. Oh God, yes, all right, Well that's
a great ringing endorsement for West Virginia. Okay, let's play
the game here, Joe, who do you want to partner
up with? Joe, Let's go Coop all right, Cooper Loop
(34:20):
and Joe and number one steal a freak. We'll just
call you the freak. Who do you want to partner
up with?
Speaker 5 (34:28):
I'll go with Eddie.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
All right, that's the matchup. Gotta go the Pirates fans
got together. Just don't have Eddie pick a cookie good
looking cookie, because he doesn't know what he's talking about. Anyway,
let's play the game right now. We have a list
of words one to ten, and Joe, you were on
the air. First, please pick a number seven. All right,
(34:51):
number seven, you're up, coop number seven. We start out
with ten points, go to nine, eight, seven, six, and
then we usually throw the word out around five.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
All right, let's excuse me. Let's try to excavate. Yeah,
oh Joe, you shocked, tope that you got that right.
And we go over to the creek.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
The number one steeler freak driving his truck right now,
trying to get out of West Virginia, and pick a
number there, Steeler freak out number number eight. All right, Eddie,
number eight. Um, let's go with. Take as much time
(35:37):
as you want. Yeah, thank you, Um boy, um, is
that the clue, Eddie? That's quite the clue. Now, let
me let me try a Mallard maneuver. Are you familiar
with the Mallard maneuver? Oh? I know what. I know
what Eddie's doing here? All right, let's go. Let's go
with this. Unsolved. No, he's not familiar with that, Eddie.
(36:03):
He drives his I am I'm trying to No, I'm
thinking i'msolved.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Unsolved.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
It's the mal of maneuver.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
Sin.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
He doesn't know, I don't know what. I don't know
what hot potato.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
What.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
No, that's a That was a good attempt, Eddie. But
the guy drives the truck. He's not watching TV.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
But all right, Joe, I think you may have been
able to get it from Eddie's clue, but I'm gonna
go with enigma.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Oh very high brow. Oh man, he doesn't know either, mystery. Yeah,
are you continuing, Eddie? Eddie Garcia is giving off and
just like that, great, all right, he said, he said, Mystery.
(36:52):
I didn't hear. No, you damn you didn't heard anyone
hear mystery.
Speaker 5 (37:00):
You did.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Nobody heard that, your pinocchio. Your nose is growing? How
dare you
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for the Benmathers Show at Foxsports Radio dot com.
You can find it there or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Malor Show on
Fox Sports.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Radio, where the Buffalo roam Away. Welcome in the beginning
of another edition the Ben Mahlor Show. We are in
the air everywhere, old friends, as we enter a world
(00:48):
of mystery coast the coast, border to border and beyond
all the best and irresistibly powerful microphones of FSR and
Monay live from the Bob and the Weave as we
Bob and Weave Audio Haymakers, we are broadcasting live from
the tire iraq dot com studios. Tyraq dot com will
(01:12):
help you get there and unmatched election fast, free shipping,
free road hazard protection and over ten thousand recommended in
stallars tyraq dot com. The way tirebind should be. And
congratulations to the boy A lot of agony being a
LAS Vegas hockey fan. It's been a long time, and
I'm really happy. I mean, I think of all the
(01:32):
grandkids that remember their parents, their great grandparents watching hockey.
They probably visited cemeteries to visit the graves of those
old souls that passed away years ago, the Las Vegas
Golden Night fans from sixty seventy eighty years ago. That
it moved on, unless that didn't actually happen. More on
(01:54):
that later, But I cannot pass off a juicy Scie Lucy,
a juicy NFL story, pig skin Palooza in the month
of June. All right, I'm rubbing my hands together here
because this is such a good story, the story from
the winter Wonderland of Buffalo. Now, I've only been to
(02:15):
Buffalo once, and I was there years ago, and I
was amazed because I went. It was early in the
NFL season, and there were a lot of boats. I
don't think of Buffalo as a boating area, but they
were a fair amount of boat Anyway, somebody out on
a boat in Buffalo would be one of the stars
of the bills if you had not been following the law.
It played out in real time throughout the last twenty
(02:37):
four hour news cycles. So maybe you missed it because
you actually have a life and you don't pay attention
to this stuff. You're not obsessed. Your job is not
to bark into microphones in the middle of the night
about this nonsense. So here's what happened. Let me give
me the inside skin. He just a random day at
Bill's mandatory mini camp and just ran unless unless it
(02:59):
was And so the center of the hullabaloo was about
Stefan Diggs. Stefan Diggs carrying the torch for previous malcontent
wide receivers. You see Stefan Diggs. There was a debate.
Did he show up? Did he not show up? What
was going on? What is this all about? Well, the
(03:21):
head coach of the Buffalo Bills, I believe we have
the audio on this, Sean McDermott addressed the media and
listen to the verbiage from the Buffalo coach. Let's go
to the audio tape. Good morning.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
We'll go ahead and get started.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Take your questions.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Just a question about tennis?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Do what here?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
And knows a lot of questions.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
About Yeah, Steph is not here. Everybody else is here
at the current time.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
How conferred to you about that.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Oh, very concerned, Yeah, very concerned.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
That's the quote right there.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
I'm not going to get into it, and listen, I
respect everyone's questions and what they want to know about
our team right now. I'm just I'm not going to
get into that anymore. So we'll talk about practice. Happy
to do that, Happy to answer those questions, and we'll
move forward from there.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I love when coaches decide what the story. Hey, numb nuts,
you're at a news conference. The reporters can ask whatever
they want. I'm here to talk about practice. Hey, nobody
gives a rats ass about a Buffalo Bill's mini camp practice.
Your star receiver having a temperate toantrum, that's the story.
(04:35):
Don't bury the lead, mom, man, don't bury the lead.
So the quote the money quote, very concerned, How concerned
are you? Very concerned? From Sean McDermott. This is one
of the big teams in the NFL. You look at
the gambling market, one of the teams at the very
top of the board, among the favorites to get the
Lombardi Trophy in Sin City next year. So McDermott said
(04:58):
he was concerned Dixon did not report to the team
facility then Diggs's agent said, yeah, that guy's full of crap.
My client showed up, and then the Bills issued a
prepared statement saying because of the confusion that Stefawn Diggs
actually had reported in the morning and then ended up
leaving before practice. Not a game. Not a game, we're
(05:22):
talking about practice. He took off a quarterback. Josh Allen
was peppered with questions about this the disgruntled receiver, and
Alan literally swore he's the F word when asked about
Stefawn Diggs and said he loves playing with Diggs and
was intentionally vague. Josh Allen, the Madden cover boy, did
(05:45):
not really get into much detail. He mumbled, internally, we're
working on some things. Is the way Josh Allen verbalized that.
He said, it's not football related. He says, he's my guy. Okay,
lot to unpack. Why don't we start with the coach
because we had some good audios, so we'll start with that.
(06:06):
So the question here, Sean McDermott, head coach of your
Buffalo Bills, says he is quote very concerned close quote
for Steven Diggs about Stefan Diggs his absence from the Bills,
mandatory mini camp. How do you appraise the situation in Buffalo?
So I've got opening trailer, ron, Burgundy and jet blue,
(06:32):
and we will combine all of these things together and
we are going to make the chicken wing, which was
not invented in Buffalo, but was mass marketed at the
Anchor Bar in Buffalo. And I've been there, and that
was the birthplace of the mind. The chicken wing used
to be like the worst part of the chicken I
still don't like you. I like the chicken finger. I'm
(06:53):
not a fan of the chicken wing, but nonetheless get
to the point. Please all right, So again the question
Sean McDermott saying he's very concerned about Stefan Diggs's absence
from the mandatory mini camp. How do you appraise the situation? So, ay,
Sean McDermott. Right now, he's looking at the graffiti on
the wall. Okay, he's looking at the graffiti on the wall.
(07:13):
What do I mean by that? He knows he's been
around the NFL game long enough to know that he
is heading to a waterloo moment. There's a fork in
the road in Sean McDermott's coaching career and You can
deny it and say this is not the case, but
the reality is this. The Bills have been a heavyweight
contender in the AFC for several years and they've been
(07:36):
neck and neck with Kansas City and Buffalo in the
perception of the football world. Kansas City's got two super
Bowl trophies in this last stretch of time, and Cincinnati,
while they haven't won Joe Burrow did get an AFC
championship and lost to just a better team, the Alia Rams,
one of the great Super Bowls of all time, the
(07:58):
Rams winning that a couple of years ago. So what
are the Bills have? They have guys jumping onto tables,
shout out Bill's Mafia. That's what they have there. So
what does this mean? It means if there is not
a breakthrough, If the Bills stub their toe again in
the playoffs, they don't break through the glass ceiling, then kabam.
(08:22):
What happens? Right? What happens? The guillotine is rolled in
to the team facility. They literally roll the guillotine in
and Heggs will start to roll and roll and roll
and roll, and the first head would be Sean McDermott's head.
The head coach. Right, Stefan Diggs not being on board
(08:46):
at the start of mini campus, that's a non story.
It's absolutely a story. The fact that coach wouldn't talk
about it tells you how big a story it is, right, Oh,
just sure to talk about practice, the thing nobody cares about.
And so look at this, It's got all the key ingredients.
It's like the opening trailer of a live action remake
(09:08):
of a Greek tragedy. You can see how this all
plays out. Malcontent receiver has melt down, drags several teammates
with him. That is the key ingredient in a season
unraveling and a box office chart topper. Now page two here,
Josh Allen, Let's go back to the quarterback. Josh. He
(09:30):
said it was an internal situation, non football related that
the Bills are working on with Stefan Diggs. How do
you decode that? Can you decode that? So I will
attempt I'm gonna attempt to use my super secret decoder
ring that I got in a box of the Cracker
Jacks years ago. So here's the way I see it.
(09:50):
On this side of the microphone, Digs is your buy
the book, Prima Donna that's it. It's not that hard,
it's not that deep. Stefan da prima data and Josh
Allen is playing the role of Ron Burgundy from the
classic movie Anchorman. Well, that escalated quickly. Man really got
(10:12):
out of hand, right, I mean, that's how I interpret it.
And then you could also use the classic glass house
of emotion to describe Stefan Diggs. You know, Digs run
He's like a hot woman at a bar wearing a red,
form fitting cocktail dress and has all the attention in
the world, but is still desperate to get more attention.
(10:35):
That seems to be the mo on. Stefan Diggs certainly
appears that way, and for him, drama is like riding
a bike. It really is. For Stefan Diggs, this guy's
got a skill forget being a great receiver, his ability
when it comes to the drama. O rama is next level.
(10:56):
It is next level. What's my case? What's my point
on this? Making me some evidence on it and explained.
So let's go back in the hot, tough times. She
remember when Buffalo got blown out at home by Cincinnati
and the AFC Playoffs playoffs? Remember that? Yeah, I remember
that we were on the air after that game. It
was a lopsided game and Stefan Dicks had a conniption fit,
(11:19):
very public connition fit. How do I know that it
was broadcast on CBS. They put it on television. He
got into it with Josh Allen. They downplayed it. Then
we heard Stefan Dicks was so upset after his sideline confrontation.
How abseet was he? Well, he attempted to leave the
locker room and we imagined the stadium prior to the
(11:41):
coaches even arriving from the field. He was that upset.
And then they downplayed it. But this follows the woe
is me attitude. He goes on a social media rant.
I just and he did the same thing. Also, he
had another social media complaint. He was ranting about that.
But what did this is? And the agent's like, well,
he reported it's not that big a deal. Of course,
(12:04):
the agent's gonna say that you're an advocate for your client.
But what this is is what's known as a tool
down strike. It's a tool and what is a tool downstrike?
A tool down strike is where you show up to work.
It's the type of strike you go to work and
you show up to your office in this case the
locker room, and as usual, and you take your seat
(12:24):
at your locker and you don't pick up a tool.
He just leave the tool down and then you end
up looking like a toolbag if you're a Stefan Diggs.
And that's the case. He did stay around briefly before
he left. All right, last word here, So how should
the Bills? How should the Bills handle Stefan Diggs going forward?
You have come to the right place. The Malard think
(12:45):
tank has been activated. And here's what I do, free advice,
unsolicited advice in the middle of the night to the
Buffalo Bills. Trade his ass. You send him to the
airport Jet Blue stand by and say you're on standby.
You're getting out of town. I'm telling you as a
(13:06):
toa showst I love Stefan Diggs, but if I was
running a football team, no, no way, I don't want
this guy. I would rather have a lesser receiver, a
lesser receiver who I can rely on in my fox
hole than Stefan Diggs. So let's make a deal, all
right now. I'm gonna assume the Bills will not trade
Stefan Diggs to an AFC team, so we'll eliminate the
(13:30):
entire AFC. They're all put So let's go to the NFC.
How about Washington for Terry McClaren, and you'd have to
get some other stuff. But Terry McLaren's not as good
as Stefan Diggs, but he's reliable. If not him, call
the Lions up and say, hey, we'll trade you Stefan Diggs,
but we would like Amon Ross Saint Brown. We'll take
(13:53):
him in exchange in a trade. Let's work that out.
How about that. Now, the money's a problem because Diggs
got paid when he left Minnesota to go to Buffalo.
But if not the Lions, you just keep going down.
How about Tampa Tampa Bay's gonna suck. They are going
to be like rotting eggs in the middle of the
street in the summer. Terrible. So they've got some receivers
(14:14):
we've heard of. See if Chris Godwin or Michael Evans
will go there. Call the forty nine ers up, see
if they're willing to trade Deebo Samuel for Stefan Digs.
There are players out there you can get. There are
trades that can be made. And do this shock and awe.
Do the shock and awe, make that move less talented
guy you can rely on.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Filling Up the Ballpark. They filled up the Ballpark. Welcome
in the beginning of another hour of the Ben mal Show.
We are in the a everywhere kindred spirits as we
do our home home, work, coast to coast, border the border,
and beyond all the mast and gigantically powerful microphones of
(15:09):
fsr AMM neating live from the market, the Smoke Market,
oh Man on a newby Night, Hot takes on a
newby Night and a night that Vegas has crowned the
champions of hockey. Wel come in as we are broadcasting
live from the ti iraq dot com studios. Tyraq dot
com will help you get there in unmatched selection, fast
(15:32):
free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand
recommended installars tyraq dot com. The way tire buying shit
be so a lot going on. You ever seen that
show at like halftime of a basketball game where they're
spinning plates. We're spending a lot of plates we have
(15:52):
a disgruntled deva wide receiver, Stefon Diggs. We talked about that.
If you missed it full Mallard monologue, it's available on
the podcast. We had a guy from Vegas call up
on a newby Night celebrating. I'm sure we'll get some
more calls, hopefully. I saw some other people on hold.
I guess they're gone now out celebrating in Vegas as
the Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup and so they
(16:12):
are the champions of hockey. But our lead this hour
coming from the Bay Area, where the next Las Vegas
sports franchise is apparently located. The Major League Baseball's top
team coming into the night, the Tampa Bay Rays taking
on the worst team in baseball heading into the night,
the Athletics formerly of Philadelphia, formerly of Kansas City, and
(16:36):
soon to be formerly of Oakland, or maybe not, maybe not.
Just a lazy Tuesday night in Oakland. But why was
this night different than all other nights? Because it is
worthy of a full Malor monologue. A Oakland A's team
that makes the bad news Bears look so good, so
(16:57):
so good, And that is ourly story, a last ditch effort,
a ground swells of support for one night to try
to send a message to those evil desk spot executives
at Major League Baseball to stop the Athletics from fleeing
northern California and heading to southern Nevada. And if you
(17:21):
didn't see this, we talked about it in a previous episode,
but maybe you were not listening. Bad job by you,
But it does happen anyway, get to the point, please,
So a group of enraged but passionate Oakland Backers baseball
fans came out in droves to unite a united front
(17:41):
for this scrooge evil owner John Fisher, who didn't earn
a dollar. He inherited old money. That's old family money
John Fisher inherited, and he figures the way to make
more money from old family money is to relocate the team.
So anyway, the message was simple, one word, sell eat
l L sell sealaty And I checked this out. It
(18:05):
was pretty cool to see because I am old enough
to remember when the A's actually had crowds and they
actually had good teams, and they were good every year,
and it seemed like every year. That was a long
time ago, but still back in their salad days, of
Oakland A's baseball. So you saw thousands of impassioned, heartbroken
(18:26):
A's fans, A lot of them liquored up an act
of solidarity at the coliseum there in Oakland or whatever
it's called these days. I can't imagine they have a
corporate sponsor. No one goes to those games other than
feral cats and rats. But anyway, all right, so this
reverse boycott. There were seven thousand shirts they passed out
(18:48):
with the words So that's good market They tell you
in marketing, just have your messaging has got to be short,
one or two words, that's it. That's the message. Nike's
got three words, just do it. That's their mark. But
it's short, right, keep it short and keep it simple.
So how many people showed up? Get to the point place,
all right, I'll get to the The attendance the announced
(19:08):
attendants was twenty seven thousand, seven hundred and fifty nine,
although there are some that believe that the athletics actually
low counted, that there were actually more people there, but
the A's short change the crowd count. I was not there,
so I do not know. All I know is I
believe the night before the A's drew less than five
(19:30):
thousand fans. So they went from less than five thousand
on a Monday in their last home game, and then boom,
they were up to twenty seven almost twenty eight thousand fans,
And that's above the average, we are told than twelve
other Major League teams. The twenty seven thousand fans that
were there, Oakland's got the worst attendance in baseball. And
(19:50):
normally the only time they sell tickets is when the
Giants are there to play the A's or the Dodgers
come to play the A's, and then randomly there'll be
some other team that will come in that will have
some some famias. So let's discuss the question Oakland fans
the reverse boycott to change the narrative. Will this resonate
with the powers that be at corporate Major League Baseball.
(20:13):
So I've got Hobgoblin, sponge, and hail Mary, and we
will combine all of these things together and we are
going to make We're gonna make the Bay Bridge, which
is are they and I guess they won't go over
the Babridge. They're going in the other directions, so they
will not travel down the Bay Bridge when they leave Oakland.
They'll go okay anyway? All right, So first of all,
I would love to say yes, absolute major League Baseball.
(20:37):
These these people at corporate Baseball, they've got a heart,
you know, deep down when you pull back all the
corporate bull crap and all that, they're actually human beings.
But that's a lie. That would be a lie, right, Yes,
What should happen is customer Customer relations matter. That without
the loyal, ravid fan, which you are. If you went
(20:58):
to that game and you're trying to send a message,
you're a loyal, passionate fan, that should matter more than
anything because when you take everything away, if you get
rid of the fan, all you have left is Beer
League Baseball. That's it. You've got a bunch of young
adults playing baseball and no one gives a rats ass
(21:20):
about what's going on on the field. So Rob Manford
what he should do. If you had a real commissioner
that wasn't a sock puppet, Rob Manfred would hold a
news conferency. You know what. I had a come to
Jesus moment watching that A's game, and I'm gonna grow
some hair in my chest is what I'm going to do.
And unlike when I had a chance to punish the
(21:42):
cheating asstros I did nothing when the fans demanded I
did nothing. Now I'm going to do something a real boss.
And then and then I wake up, and then I
realize none of that is going to happen. What will
Rob Manford do? Uh, he will do nothing. There's a
(22:03):
better chance of elephants that A's mascot with the other
the elephant flying through the air. All right, there's a
better chance of that happening than Rob Manford doing what
I just said. Major League Baseball has made it perfectly
clear time and again under this administration and this era
that the fan doesn't matter. You are a rube. You are.
(22:27):
That's how they treat you. They keep raising the prices,
they keep sticking it to you, and you just say more,
more and more and more and more and more and more,
give me more, scream and shout let it all out,
because deep down, Rob Manford, I am now convinced, is
not only the commissioner of baseball, he is a hob goblin.
Rob Manford hob goblin as the face of Major League Baseball.
(22:51):
And he's also got bad hearing. And I believe blind
Emmett the Seahawks fans sees better than Rob Manford. You know,
he's just like your typical Weasley politician with some election
promises that you don't actually go for. He's an empty suit,
all right. And I loved the rhythmic chanting. I think
that was wonderful. It was like a religious revival. I
(23:12):
don't even get. I don't hate. I've never been an
A's fan. I got no skin in the game, but
I was like, that's pretty cool. I loved it. Good
planning there. Here's the problem though, in my life, the
people I've talked to who are executives in sports, the
message I've got is the thing that scares people in
sports is apathy. It's not caring. And the people that
(23:35):
showed up care. It matters to them that the A's
are going to move, and you know that typically doesn't
move the need. And the odd thing is the A's
have mastered the art of apathy and yet that didn't
do anything. Now, Secondly, are the athletic fans getting short
changed here because of an irresponsible owner? And I would say,
(23:56):
absolutely say his fans haven't shown up. But I don't
think you should be a sucker though. If the product
is bad and just continue to go. I don't agree
with that. I think that the product's bad, you shouldn't go.
And so I'm not gonna rip them for not showing up,
but that the owner of the Athletics, Jan Fisher, has
been guilty of negligence with the team and the moneyball
(24:18):
I've had a theory on the A's for years. The
moneyball thing was a double edged sword. It was a
blessing and a curse. That whole moneyball era because so popular.
The A's had reinvented baseball with their analytics, and they
found a way to win on the cheap. And now
that's like expectator. You that's the expectation you're supposed to
win on the cheap. And Billy Bean and what he
(24:40):
was able to do, they made a movie with it.
Brad Pitt was in the movie. For God's sakes, they
made a Hollywood movie on a strew shoestring budget for
the Athletics and they've continued that. That's how they operate. Meanwhile,
San Francisco, the San Francisco Oakland market, I'm in the
media business. That's the sixth biggest market in the United States.
It's big than Boston. Okay, there's more people there, and
(25:02):
yet they operate the a's like they're one miss check
away from hanging out with that guy Chaz that called
last hour at the soup kitchen. Uh. I mean, that's
it's that situation. And Saint Louis Is Market twenty one,
San Diego's market twenty eight, and they spend a lot
of money compared to that. And so John Fisher, the owner,
(25:24):
the screwoge owner, essentially took the sponge, tossed the sponge away,
said it's too hard. Well, you can't get public money.
We you know, the giants won't let us go to
San Jose and so screw everybody. We're just gonna go
to Vegas. Meanwhile, there's a there's another option which no
one considered with John Fisher. Build your own stadium. Build
(25:44):
your own stadium, you numb nuts, all right? Do it?
Come on your knick kompoop built. You get the money,
finance it, that's what That's what most people have to do.
Of course, sports teams finance it on the public doles.
What they do. It's ridiculous. He could he could have
worked it out. There's a way to get it done
without having to get taxpayer money and off. You really
(26:06):
wanted to stay there and make it work. You could
have built a beautiful small ballpark. You could have figured
out a way to get it done, and you chose
the easy path, as most human beings do. They choose
the easy path, all right. The final thought on this
dire tribe, what are the chances the A's don't move
to Vegas? So I've already told you that to me,
(26:27):
apathy's the way to go. That didn't work. Now they
showed that they care the A's fans, so we'll see
if that works. I don't think it will. But since
Vegas is the mecca of gambling and also the mecha hockey,
as they've just celebrated the Stanley Cup Championship there in Vegas,
I will use some gambling lingo. The Vegas group is
(26:50):
holding the Ace of space. In fact, they have a
royal flush. They've got the Ace, the King, the Queen,
the Jack, the ten, all of the same suit there,
the space aids and they're in good shape. Nevada politicians
they started to implow to stick a dynam It's not
done yet, but they have greenlighted over three hundred amost
(27:12):
four hundred million dollars to get that stadium done. It
still has to be signed by some other people before
it all becomes kosher in Vegas, but it's heading that direction. Now,
what could change this right? What could change the path
that we're on? Okay, I'll answer the question because there's
one thing that can happen and it is what I
(27:33):
call the ultimate hell Mary to save the athletics from
leaving Oakland and going to Las Vegas. And that is
a massive bill that is delivered to Rob Manford's office
and everyone's gonna have to chip in to pay the bill.
And I don't think. I don't support this, by the way,
because I don't think government gets involved in this stuff.
(27:54):
I don't. I don't like when government gives tax payer
money out. I don't like when government puts more red
tape out. But there's a cons woman from northern California
named Barbara Lee. I have no idea who that is,
but she has introduced what's called the Moneyball Act, and
that would not be ironic. That could be the thing
(28:14):
that saves the Athletics from leaving Oakland. Now the act,
here's what it states, The Moneyball Act. It says here
that require teams that leave their hometown in Major League
Baseball to compensate the communities they are departing. All right now,
it is I mean specifically, the Act states that any
Major League Baseball team that goes to a new location
(28:36):
more than twenty five miles from its previous one must
provide compensation. How much compensation not less than the state, local,
or tribal tax revenue levied in the ten years before
the date of relocation. So that would mean that if
the A's are planning on moving in twenty twenty seven,
(28:57):
let's say they would have to go back twenty sixteen
and all the taxes they paid, they'd have to cut
a check for that total amount. Now, just between me
and you and the wall which is over in front
of me, I'm looking get a wall here. It's got
windows on each side, but there's a wall in the
middle there. A lot of the teams don't pay that
(29:20):
much in taxes. They big businesses find a way around
paying taxes. But that's still going to be a lot
of money. And the threat is that if these teams
don't pay the money, they would get rid of the
special exemption, the anti trust exemption, which Baseball has had
for over one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Hey, this is Tom Berducci from Fox Sports, MLB Network
and Sports Illustrated.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
And I'm Joe Madden.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
We're going to be around to talk a little bit
about managerial decisions and what may have occurred to that
I got maybe in the nineteen eighties. It's the book
of podcast. I can't wait for this, Joe.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
We're gonna dive into what goes on in the dugout
and behind the scenes in Major.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
League Baseball, cars, wind, whatever else we want to talk about.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Yeah, well there are no boundaries, right. Listen to the
Booker Joe Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Y'all, let's get it. We can get it.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
We can do this, maller. How about that to the
third degree? Get jup.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
It is being reported that Baker Mayfield is a clear
favorite in the Tampa quarterback competition and that Kyle Trask
would have to do something extraordinary in order to leap
frog Mayfield on the depth chart. But do you think
that Mayfield could have enough success to hold off Trass
the entire season.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
No. In fact, the Buccaneers will play four quarterbacks this year.
Baker Mayfield looks great in practice, he sucks in games.
I think Bucko Bruce is gonna start their mascot three
games this year next.
Speaker 5 (30:52):
There was a report on Tuesday that said the Warriors
are considering major offseason changes and that no player on
Golden State's roster is off limits, aside from Steph kerr Ben.
Which players do you think will still be on the
team come next season?
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah, here's who I think will be on the team.
I think Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green will
be on the team. They'll change, they'll get rid of
anybody else. And these stories, I don't believe it. I'll
believe it when I see one of those guys going
out of the Bay Area, out of San Francisco. I
don't buy it. This is clickbait. And as long as
Steve Currs the coach, they're gonna ride this jalopy until
(31:24):
the wheels fall off there and then these guys are
getting older for the Warriors, and so that's gonna happen.
So next.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
Lebron James said in a recent interview that he never
entered the slam Dunk Contest because it simply wasn't something
that he wanted to accomplish in his career. Ah, Ben,
are you buying that explanation? No, listen, that's pinocchio, is
what that is from Lebron. Here's the deal with that.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Nobody who the heck starts their career by the way,
saying Mike dream is to win the slam dunk Cutters,
Lebron didn't enter the slam Dunk Contest because he didn't
need to enter the slam Dunk contest. He was already
as big as he could possibly get. He had already
at his high school. I was doing a website. I
was writing about this guy's a It's a different era.
The slam dunk contest helped catapult Michael Jordan and others,
(32:07):
and Lebron. He was so big, he had nothing to gain.
He had a lot to lose. You imagine if he
butterfingered a wind meal dunk like he did for the Lakers,
how embarrassing that would have been. There it is malon
the third degree, with time to spare, How did we
do now you fell I won the game in my headphones. No,
he told me I won in my headphones. He said,
I won.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live. Attention everyone, and the password is password, you idiot,
password the word Game of the Stars. Here's Ben Meller
(32:49):
on a newbie night.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
We'll have some new contestants. That's kind of the bit,
that's the gimmick. And I want to thank everyone that called.
And some of you didn't get on the air. Most
of you got on the air, but thank you. It's
been a fun night. We really need to do this
every month. We keep forgetting, I keep forgetting bad job by,
but I mean that's welcome in our contestants. We have
Joe in North Carolina, just down from Tobacco Road. Hello, Joe,
(33:16):
what's welcome in? Joe? You ready to go here on
a newbie night? All right? And Joe, what are you
doing right now? Why are you calling in?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Just waking up? Man? Good back? Ready for work?
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Getting ready for work? Are it's starting your day? Nice?
We're ending ours. You're starting yours. And we also have
the number one stealer freak. Hello, number one stealer freak.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
Big man, I'm went over the road trucks driving us
two o'clock this morning.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Oh I've been talking since two o'clock this morning, so
I know I'll listen to you guys every day. God
bless you, sir, Thank you. And you're based you're based
in West Virginia or you're in West Virginia.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Oh no, I'm going.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Through wet Virginia. Oh God, yes, all right, Well that's
a great ringing endorsement for West Virginia. Okay, let's play
the game here, Joe, who do you want to partner
up with? Joe, Let's go Coop all right, Cooper Loop
(34:20):
and Joe and number one steal a freak. We'll just
call you the freak. Who do you want to partner
up with?
Speaker 5 (34:28):
I'll go with Eddie.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
All right, that's the matchup. Gotta go the Pirates fans
got together. Just don't have Eddie pick a cookie good
looking cookie, because he doesn't know what he's talking about. Anyway,
let's play the game right now. We have a list
of words one to ten, and Joe, you were on
the air. First, please pick a number seven. All right,
(34:51):
number seven, you're up, coop number seven. We start out
with ten points, go to nine, eight, seven, six, and
then we usually throw the word out around five.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
All right, let's excuse me. Let's try to excavate. Yeah,
oh Joe, you shocked, tope that you got that right.
And we go over to the creek.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
The number one steeler freak driving his truck right now,
trying to get out of West Virginia, and pick a
number there, Steeler freak out number number eight. All right, Eddie,
number eight. Um, let's go with. Take as much time
(35:37):
as you want. Yeah, thank you, Um boy, um, is
that the clue, Eddie? That's quite the clue. Now, let
me let me try a Mallard maneuver. Are you familiar
with the Mallard maneuver? Oh? I know what. I know
what Eddie's doing here? All right, let's go. Let's go
with this. Unsolved. No, he's not familiar with that, Eddie.
(36:03):
He drives his I am I'm trying to No, I'm
thinking i'msolved.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Unsolved.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
It's the mal of maneuver.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
Sin.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
He doesn't know, I don't know what. I don't know
what hot potato.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
What.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
No, that's a That was a good attempt, Eddie. But
the guy drives the truck. He's not watching TV.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
But all right, Joe, I think you may have been
able to get it from Eddie's clue, but I'm gonna
go with enigma.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Oh very high brow. Oh man, he doesn't know either, mystery. Yeah,
are you continuing, Eddie? Eddie Garcia is giving off and
just like that, great, all right, he said, he said, Mystery.
(36:52):
I didn't hear. No, you damn you didn't heard anyone
hear mystery.
Speaker 5 (37:00):
You did.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Nobody heard that, your pinocchio. Your nose is growing? How
dare you
Host
Ben Maller
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