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April 15, 2025 • 40 mins

Big Ben talks about Mike Budenholzer getting fired by the Suns, Nolan Arenado explaining why he turned down the Astros, Maller to the Third Degree, Maller's Mountain of Money: Chris Stapleton Edition, and much more!

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Not wasting any time at all.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Welcome in not beginning of another night of the Benmahler Show.

Speaker 4 (00:42):
We are in the air.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Everywhares we come out. Swing it we do. We unlock
the power of sound. All we have is sound coast
to coast, border to border and beyond on the mast
eh sharply powerful microphones of FSR emminating live from the position.

(01:05):
We are in the pole position broadcasting live from the
ti raq dot com studios. Tyraq dot com will help
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(01:29):
that tire buying. Sure, so we're back at it again,
hanging out side by side.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
Here and we will be here on the full.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Red Eye flight, not part of the Red Eye flight,
the full journey on the Red Eye flight all night long.
And the story that caught my attention, you kind of
knew it was coming, but it happened. It's from pro
Bouncy Ball, and the guillotine has fallen down, down, down,
down down. Now, the regular season ended on Sunday. There

(02:00):
was nothing basketball wise on Monday, and there's really nothing
until the playoffs start this weekend. And list you're into
the F. Gasey Playing Tournament, which is ridiculous, that will
be going on starting on Tuesday. But the wings of
change howling, and we start out in the Grand Canyon

(02:20):
State where everything under the sun is in play at
this point, everything under the sun. And if you have
not been following the game of musical Chairs, by chance
here maybe not. The Suns decided to whack. They played
whack a mole. They got rid of their coach, Mike Budenhozer.
Coach Bud gone see you later. Persona Mangrada excommunicated from

(02:46):
the team Phoenix, missing the playoffs when everyone gets in
the play suck bag teams getting the playoffs, and the
Suns could even get in the play in tournament, and
so they're out now.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
In a prepared.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Statement released by some empty suit for the organization in Arizona,
they said that competing at the highest level remains our goal,
and we failed to meet expectations this season. Our fans
deserve better. Change is needed close quote, which is a

(03:18):
nice way of saying, we have no idea what we're doing.
This didn't work, so we'll try something else. We're gonna
keep throwing pasta against the wall until something sticks. Okay,
So third consecutive, third consecutive offseason that Matt Ishbia, the
very wealthy owner of the Phoenix pro bouncy ball team,
is in the business of trying to hire a coach,

(03:40):
So let us discuss. And before we look ahead, we
must look back. So did Mike Budenhozer get a raw
deal in Phoenix? Only there for one year and was
in Milwaukee when they won the championship. And when you
win a title, you get that tag of having the
championship pedigree and all that, and so that's why the

(04:03):
Suns brought him in and he lasted one year and
then he's kicked out. So I've got tug boat, Beverly Hills,
and Budweiser, and we will combine all of these things together,
every single thing together, and we are going to make
a cactus, which is what the Suns through, Mike Budenholzer
on a cacti is what they did right there, all

(04:26):
the prickly cactus, little parts of it.

Speaker 4 (04:28):
Enjoy all that.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
So number there we go. So you got to start
up the band. Earlier, I said, numb burn. Well you
know what this is. Okay, you know what season this is?

Speaker 4 (04:43):
Now?

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Somebody's no, no, it's not the number one. Some would
say it's spring, right spring, that time of the year
and all that stuff. I would say, it's the season
of no as in, uh no. This was not a
raw deal, not a raw deal, not a raw deal. No, no, no, no, no.
And here's why, all right, this is the opposite of

(05:04):
a raw deal. What this is for Mike Budenholzer is
the American dream. It is the American dream. It is
a sweetheart deal. It is it's a sweetheart deal. Me
explain why. Because he is holding the winning lottery numbers
to the Arizona lottery. He's got him. And he didn't

(05:24):
buy a lottery ticket. He just happened to get the ticket.
Somehow it popped into his hand, it did. Budenholzer accepted
a five year contract for fifty million dead presidents last offseason,
so a year ago, less than a year ago. Now,

(05:45):
he attempted to agree, signed the docu sign there, got
the fifty million.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
Dollar contract, and he's gone after one year. That's it.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
And unlike most regular jobs, where if you have a
deal and you're done, that's it. You don't get a
bunch of money and you're gone and goodbye. In the
cartoonish world of pro bouncy ball and professional sports, what
happened here in a landlocked state of Arizona. Mike Budenholzer

(06:14):
was given a tugboat. It was a golden tug boat,
and that golden tugboat to escape a sinking franchise, the
Pathetic Suns. And he was given forty million, forty million
to not coach a bunch of Prima donna a whole players,

(06:35):
and that was his gift. Does that sound like he
got a rod? Do you If I said, listen, you
got to put up for one year. You got to
put up with this, We'll get We'll get you forty million,
and you don't have to put up with it anymore
and you can do whatever you want. You're good as
long as you don't trash the team. You get the
forty million done, done, And but wait, there's more, as

(06:56):
every great infomercial says, but wait, there's more. So Additionally,
when he left the Bucks, he had he didn't leave
the Bucks. He got let go by the Bucks. He
had sixteen million that the Bucks owed him approximately, So
that means, based on just buyouts from the Milwaukee and
Phoenix basketball team, Budenholzer, by the time this deals up

(07:17):
in Arizona will have made fifty six million to not
coach pro bouncy ball, fifty six million to sit on
your ass and get hemorrhoids and not coach. Budenholzer is
financially as snug as a bug in the rug.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
He is good to go now page two.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
So when you have a coaching change in the NBA,
it always goes back to the players. There has never
in the modern era been a coaching change that was
not based on recommendations by the players. It doesn't happen
the players are the ones that drive the bus in
that business, and so which player shoulders the most blame

(08:02):
for Mike Budenholzer not working out there a quick departure
from the Suns. Now, the rumors for the last couple
of months were that it was Kevin Durant, that Durant
was the schmuck and he was the problem. Now we
have a plot twist, and what is the plot twists?
Things thicken up here. So the plot twist is the

(08:23):
whispers indicate that the palace intrigue is not focused on
Kevin Durant. No, no, no, that this was an issue with
Devin Booker. The plot thickens, Yeah, Devin Booker. Supposedly. Now
Budenholzer had issues connecting with the locker room this season,
which is really just some of the players didn't like

(08:44):
the way he was talking. That's how that goes, and
he did not resonate, did not motivate them to go
out there and do things that you were supposed to do,
that you shouldn't need be to be told what to do.
But nonetheless, so apparently his charismatic I said that with

(09:04):
a winking or not. His charismatic approach did not did
not win the room. So Budenholzer's main flaw, the biggest
issue the Komodo dragon in the room for Mike Budenholzer
was his inability to get on the same page with
Devin Booker. And he had the hutzba, as my grandfather

(09:26):
used to say, the hutzpa to try to tell Devin
Booker to.

Speaker 4 (09:29):
Ix nay on the talk a just tone it down.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
A couple of decibel points. Just tone it down a
little bit and we'll be good to go. And you
would have thought that Mike Budenholzer had said, why don't
we cut off your right foot and that'll make the
team better, And Devin Booker said, I like my right foot.

Speaker 4 (09:49):
I don't want to.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Get rid of my right foot. I'd like to keep
my right foot, So why don't we not do that?
And then there was a problem. So there you go.
And it does remind me that this cartoon image in
my head, it's not a cartoon.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
It's actually a real movie.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
There's old movie Beverly Hills cop back in the day,
and I think of that when I think of this,
like the coach of the Sons going up to Devin Bookers, Hey,
you know I'm here. I want to make this thing work.
I just need you to to not talk that much
and kind of tone it down a little bit, be
one of.

Speaker 4 (10:17):
The leaders on the team.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
And then and then Devin Booker's like the character of
Eddie Murphy in that movie, the old movie Beverly Hills
Cop and he physically physically blocks blocks the ears with
his fingers and says, la.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
La la la la la la la la la la
la la la. I'm not here. I can't hear you.
La la la la la la la la la like that,
just like that. Uh, there you go.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
And Devin, you are what your record says you are.
This guy is one of the epic coach killers. In
the end, is very bigger coach kill. We talk about
Lebron James as a coach killer, but Devin Booker not
in a big media market. But Devin Booker, you talk
about toxic. If you're a head coach, holy crap. Oh man,

(11:03):
if you're even in the same room with this guy
as a coach, you're in jeopardy of being fired. With
Devin Booker, my god, it's unreal. The math on this
Seven coaches in ten years and most of the last well,
the last part of that seven years or so, Devin
Booker's been a headliner for the Suns, and so he's

(11:23):
obviously somebody is not easy to work with, and it's
it's one of those things. But your main job as
a coach is just to lick the toes of the
star players. That's how you keep the job. Coaches are
completely irrelevant, yet they make it's such a weird juxtaposition
the NBA, because everyone agrees coaches.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
Don't matter, they don't do anything, yet they get.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
Paid ten million dollars in some cases more than that
per year, and yet they're easily replaceable.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
Like it's not like, well, you get rid of your
top player. It's a big problem.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Every once give rid of the coach, bring some other
nerd in, Like it's the Nuggets at Michael Malone, who
most people thought was a pretty good coach. They hired
this beta Poindexter nerd who's a NEPO baby as the
interim coach, and then we'll figure it out.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
You know.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
It's like, it's like so bizarre that why would you
bother paying them that much. It's like the NFL determined
running backs don't need to get paid a lot of money,
so like, only two or three running backs get paid
any money.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
Everyone else gets paid peanuts.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
It's very bizarre, and congratulations to Matt Ishbia, you have
assembled the worst team that money could buy. NBA version
the Phoenix Suns the highest payroll in NBA history this
past season. They totaled out at four hundred and forty
two million. How is that possible? Well, the payroll for
the actual player salaries was two hundred nineteen million. And

(12:47):
then because all the cheap, tightwad, small market pathetic owners
complained and said, oh man, it's not fair.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
So they put all.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
These taxes, these tariffs if you will, on the big
money teams in sports, and so in the NBA. So
they ended up paying one hundred and eighty four million
dollars in luxury tariff penalties, if you will, and they
couldn't even make the playing tournament. Mike got all right, now,
final point to the big easy. There were some other changes.

(13:16):
There were other changes in the NBA. The Pelicans, which
is I think a team that's there so the other
teams have someone to play.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
They're one of those spam teams. How dumb is that named?
The Pelicans? Anyway? The New Orleans Pelicans. We don't talk
about that much. Why would we? Why would we?

Speaker 1 (13:34):
They fired the executive named David Griffin, a media favorite,
a media darling, and he has been given the walking papers.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
Get out of here, you're done.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Griffin spent the past six seasons putting bad basketball teams
together as the head of basketball ops in New Orleans,
and the Pelicans have said bye bye, You're out of here.
So how much blame does David Griffin does he get
for the New Orleans struggle? So Griffin could write a book,

(14:09):
he's not qualified also to teach a class, like a
web based class on how to keep getting gigs and
not being very good at your job and last a
good amount of time. It's wild right. Griffin failed horse
trading one oh one long ago. He allowed Anthony Davis

(14:32):
to trade himself to the Lakers. That was under the
Griffin watch. And then the winning of the lottery. Will
sometimes be careful what you wish for the New Orleans Pelicans, Remember,
they won the lottery and David Griffin thought that the
team was drafting a thoroughbred that could win the Triple
Crown or at least the Kentucky Derby, and instead they

(14:54):
ended up drafting a player who is much more like
a Budweiser Clydesdale in in Zion Williamson, a Clydesdale with
three legs.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
And there you go. What an enigma? What an enigma?

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Now, I don't have an issue with them drafting Zion
WM say I would have done the same thing. The
issue is you knew the guy just doesn't have it,
that he's lacking that genis aquah, whatever that is.

Speaker 4 (15:18):
He didn't have it.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
The guys, he's just not into it and he's never
gonna be that guy. And you signed him to another deal,
you signed him to an extension. When you knew you
had a problem, you doubled down on the problem. And
that's that's malfeasance, is what that is. That's embarrassing. And
drafting Zion Williamson was not again the issue, but the

(15:39):
fact that you tied yourself to that anchor that's the
issue here. And again, Griffin's one of these guys got
much like Darryl Morey in Philadelphia, has got a lot
of opportunities because he's a bit of a carpetbagger.

Speaker 4 (15:53):
He's got the good personality and all that he's.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Allows the executive but when you think about his career,
he was in Cleveland for a while, and you tell
me about being the beneficiary of circumstance. He went, he
was the GM. Lebron went back to Cleveland. Does anybody
raise her head? Is anyone in the building here raise
her hand if you think Lebron went back to Cleveland
because David Griffin was the GM, or that was always

(16:15):
Lebron's intention to eventually go back to Cleveland.

Speaker 4 (16:18):
And these two things are not related, yes, exactly.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
And so now they're going to bring in some other Jabroni,
whether it's Joe Dumars who's the early favorite, or somebody else.
And the first thing that person will do is get
rid of Zion Williamson. They'll be like, all right, this
guy blows. We'll get rid of this guy for pennies
on the dollar and a lot of dollars, a lot
of dollars.

Speaker 4 (16:40):
All right.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
It is the Ben Mahler Show. And the only reason
they paid Zion Williamson was fomo the fear of missing out.
They were, ah, my god, we got to pay him.
We don't pay him, Oh my god. They had to
pay him anyway, how'd that work out?

Speaker 2 (16:54):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm pis on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
So our lead this hour is from baseball. Now, as
you know, I have my routine. We are all creatures
of habit and then normally when I'm futxing around getting
ready for the show, got my laptop open, looking around,
and I'm watching some games, and I have all the
games available to me. And there were some really bad gays,
like there were some total no shows in Major League Baseball,

(17:27):
and leading the way the Boston Red Sox, who were
just god off, just god even why they even show
up to the ballpark there in Tampa. Uh so, Ronald
got their tail kicked. There were a bunch of blowouts
all over the place. Philly got swished by the Hgantes,
although that was somewhat closed for a while, somewhat close
for a while. But our lead this hour is not

(17:48):
from those games. It is not a game that was
also lopsided. Some more dirt, some more intel coming out
of the Heartland and involves a red bird that stayed
in the nest. A red bird that stayed in the
nest It was one of the bigger stories of the
baseball offseason, and it has new life because the player

(18:11):
that was going to be traded that rejected the trade.
He moved tumboed the trade and said, no, I'm not going.
There has spoken. If you didn't see this, you have
no idea what I'm talking about. He said, why are
you talking pig Latin? What's wrong with you? Have you
lost your mind?

Speaker 4 (18:26):
Let me explain. So, the Cardinals have a third baseman.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
Making a lot of money named Nolan Aernado, and they
got him years ago from the Rockies, and he's hit
a lot of home runs, a lot of meaningless empty stats.

Speaker 4 (18:38):
Team doesn't win in Saint Louis.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
So the Cardinals wanted to unload Nolan Aernado, and they
had agreed to a trade and it was all worked out,
and then Aeronado said I ain't going and he didn't
have to go because he had a no trade clause.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
Nolan Aernado has.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Now confirmed one of the reasons why he said, not
over my dead body am I going to use my
no trade clause. I'm not going to Houston. I don't
want to play for the cheating as one one thousand
two one thousand holes don't want to do it. And

(19:17):
he said the reason that he rejected the trade is
because the Houston baseball team had traded all star outfielder
by the name of Kyle Tucker to the Cups. And
he say, an, that's not going to work. You're not
trying to win. The quote from Aeronauto. He said, Tucker
is one of the best players in the game. He grumbled.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
Aeronauto. He said, when you see a team trade.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
Him, a ninety nine out of one hundred players would
probably be wondering, what does that mean?

Speaker 4 (19:50):
What does that mean? That's the question I asked myself. Now.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Aeronauto ended up blocking the trade to the cheating a
holes in in December, five days, five days after the
deal that sent Tucker to the North Side of Chicago
had been announced. So let us discuss the question. Cardinals
third baseman Nolan Aernado confirming that he said no to

(20:16):
play for the cheating Asstros after altfieler Kyle Tucker had
been traded away made him a little uncomfortable. So how
does that one hit you? How does that one hit you?
So I'll go first here, I got Buckey's family guy
and dodgeball, and we will combine all of these things

(20:38):
together and we are going to make toasted ravioli, which
is wonderful, delicious, and it's a tradition in Saint louis
now much better than the skyline ChIL of Cincinnati. Uh,
talk about cities that have signature foods. Toasted ravioli, which
is the food of Saint louis much much higher up

(20:58):
on the big board, not only not a list, a
big board of signature dishes known in a certain locations.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
So all right, first of all, I totally get it.
I totally get it.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
You don't need to preach on and on if you're
knowing Aeronauda on this the reasoning is on point.

Speaker 4 (21:17):
It is on point here. You're preaching to the choir,
is what you're doing on this one.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
And it's essentially if if you're an Aeronauta, you're like, listen,
I'm not a plumber. I don't own a plunger. I
don't want to. I don't want to sit on a
clogged toilet. And the Houston baseball team is a clog toilet.
So why would you sign up when you know if
you wait, you're gonna have other options down the line,
and Aeronauto is I know he didn't go to Ohio State, right,

(21:45):
He's not.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
He's not a.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
Traditional buck guy, but in many ways he is a
buck guy, blood guy. He's a buck guy's blood guy
because much like the Ohio State Marching Band, he dotted
the eye on this one.

Speaker 4 (21:58):
The AHHHH.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
Franchise is built on a hill of marshmallows, a hill
of marshmallows.

Speaker 4 (22:06):
At this point, it is counterfeit.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
They've accomplished nothing, and Aeronado knows that, and he wanted
no part of that. And you can't fault the player.
It's his right. He had a no trade clause and
he realized, why would I want to go there? I
want nothing to do with that, right. I mean, everything
they've done there is that we get a buzzer over here,
you got a trash can over there, and those little
pieces of metal. That's not my words, that's what Rob

(22:31):
Manford said. He thinks the World Series trophy is just
a piece of metal, so it's not worth a warm
bucket to spit. It's not worth a warm bucket to spit,
and I get it. Aeronado knows if he plays all
right for the Cardinals. He had a home run in
the game on Monday, and if he plays okay, then
Aeronauto he'd rather spend a little more time in the

(22:53):
outhouse that is the Cardinals. But the Cardinals are so bad.
No one's even going to the games. Even when the
Cardinals were bad, people just go to the games. I
was watching the Cardinal game and there was like nobody there.
It was like I thought I was watching the old
Cleveland Indians back in the day. There was like ten
people at the ballpark. Wild They have sucked so long
and been so bad in Saint Louis now, even the
greatest fans at baseball they've turned their back on the cars.

Speaker 4 (23:16):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
That's the only way you get ownership to make changes
is if you just ignore the team. You gotta have apathy,
and the Cardinal fans are showing apathy. But anyway, listen,
that's where we are. And if you just wait, if
you're Nolan Aeronato, you can hand pick and end up
in a better situation. Now turn the page. We head
to Denver, but not not for nugget Tucks. It's come

(23:39):
to my attention, It has come to my attention that
there is a great thief in the night that is
getting no negative publicity, but is one of the great
heists of our time in professional sports. And it's going
on right under our nose, and it involves those unlovable

(24:00):
losers from Colorado who were making some headlines here. If
he saw this or not, The Rockies announced they have
placed their big free agent pickup a couple of years ago,
Chris Bryant, on a ten day They call it injured list.
We used to call it d L back in the day,
disabled list. Then the Wolchsters and Baseball said no, no, no,

(24:21):
it's injured. It's injured. But they say that he's got
a degenerate disc disease. He's got a degenerate problem with
his back. That sounds like a problem. Yeah, that sounds
sounds like a problem there.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
And I'm not a doctor, but I can play one
the radio.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
So what is the word to describe Chris Bryant and
his tenure with the Rockies. This guy at one point
was on as they say, im polker. He was on
the coup with the Cubs. And we talked earlier about
the Cubs winning the World Series. And it's been almost
a decade or So since the Cubs won the World
Series and they thought they had the next great dynasty,

(24:59):
and you look at what a bunch of turds most
of those guys in the Cubs turned out to be.
They all made a lot of money, but in terms
of successful, big time, productive careers, a lot of frauds.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
A lot of frauds. And this is one of these.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
You bet on these young players, and a lot of
these guys do not have the longevity do it for
a couple of years. Chris Bryant's on that short list.
But to answer the question, what is your word for
Chris Bryant's tenure with the Rockies, My word is it's
from family guy quagmire. It's a quagmire is what it
is here. It's a hot mess. And instead of quagmire,

(25:34):
how about q Q quiet quitting. That is what Chris
Bryan has done. And say I just said it. And
here's the thing. There's this loser in Anaheim that named
Anthony Rendon who said the quiet part out by the
guy hates baseball.

Speaker 4 (25:48):
Baseball hates him.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
The Angels are so stupid they gave him like two
hundred and forty five million dollars. The guy is a
total malcontent, doesn't play, doesn't even pretend like he wants
to play.

Speaker 4 (25:59):
Just a loser, right. I mean, everything you hate.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
About professional sports is summed up in Anthony Rendolin. And
the difference between Chris Bryant and Anthony Rendon is a
little more money, right, actually a lot more money. But
the other thing is that Chris Bryant you never hear.
You don't know whether he hates baseball or anything like that.
He just doesn't play. He just sucks when he plays,

(26:21):
and you don't hear about it. And this guy was
at breakout star for the Chicago Cubs years ago, and
he is currently floating on the lazy river. He might
as well be on disability with the With the Rockies
at this particular points, he's played about one season, but
he's been there three plus years.

Speaker 4 (26:42):
In Colorade, He's played one hundred.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
And seventy games and the Rockies he has a minus
one point six war wins above replacement.

Speaker 4 (26:51):
Which means the Rockies are tangibly worse with Chris Bryan.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
On the field, all right, And he's in the middle
of a year, one hundred and eighty two million dollar
contract with the Colorado baseball team. And again, now you
crunch the numbers on this, He's now in his fourth
year as a member of the Rockies and he has
not played over eighty games. He has not passed eighty

(27:17):
games in any of those campaigns. And the latest appearance
now his one superpower, the one area where Chris Bryant
is elite as a Rocky is ending up on what
we used to call this able list. This is not
his first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth. How
about his ninth trip to the injury list since joining

(27:38):
the Rockies. That is impressive. And oh, by the way,
but wait, there's more. The Rockies will be paying him
eighty one million to sit on his ass and not play.
And then when he does play, go up there in
back two forty four with mediocre numbers across the board,
You could have gotten a guy out of the Mexican
League that would have put up those numbers. But I digress.

(28:00):
All right, now final thought, we now go to Chicago.
There was a story that this was sent in actually
by listener named Steve, who says he is he's in
the suburbs of Chicago, but he's up Ladies nocturnal and
he listens to our show. So thank you Steve for
sending this my way, and we'll give you a couple
of minutes on this. So some developments from the Friendly Confines.
The Cubbies enjoying a West coast trip here early in

(28:23):
the season, and we learned recently the Cubs tried to
sign outfielder Pete crow Armstrong. That's a mouthful, Pete crow
Armstrong to an extension. They offered him a relatively large extension,
seventy five million dollars seventy five million dollars. He said, no,

(28:45):
I reject your seventy five million dollars. I don't want
your seventy five million. I don't need your seventy five million.
I'm not going to accept your seventy five million. So instead,
I'm going to counter that offer and I'm going to
ask for something else where. The offer was not accepted
by the Rockies, so they have decided to table the
contract talks, which is a polite.

Speaker 4 (29:06):
Way of saying we're not paying you. Go away. That's it.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
He's twenty three years old and he's in his third
major league season.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
Now.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
The guy did hit some bombs against the Dodgers over
the weekend, And how do you digest this was the
big prize the Cubs got in the Hobby bayas trade.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
Another one of those.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Can't miss young Cub players who blows he's terrible anyway,
how do you digest Pete Krohl Armstrong turning down seventy
five million from the Cubs and then off trying to
get even more out of him in the Cub said no, so,
as I learned from Dodgeball back in the day, that

(29:46):
is a bold strategy. Cotton is what that is. Let's
see if it pays off. We will find out. I'm
betting on it won't pay off. Now, Krol Armstrong is
so far when you turn about his offense. He did
some home runs recently, but you talk about his offense
and it's a lot of sizzle. His game in general

(30:07):
not a lot of steak. Like, not a lot of
steak there. He's got some speed, good defensive player, and
his bat has been like the band Limp biscuit, just
a lot of limp, a lot of limp in the
bat there. And he's yet to get his sea legs
underneath him at this particular point. Does not have that,

(30:27):
and he's making I love how it used to be
when you were on a rookie contract. Boy, you really
got to get a job selling cars or you know,
cleaning up trash in the offseason. But this guy's making
seven hundred and seventy one thousand dollars as a third
year player. So where I come from, that's a good
amount of money. Seven hundred thousand dollars. However, it's not

(30:49):
seventy five million.

Speaker 4 (30:51):
It's not that. And here's the other thing.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
He's not arbitration eligible till twenty twenty eight, so he's
not going to get the big, big, big money until
at least twenty twenty eighth.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
That's three more years.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
And if this guy goes out there in bat's two
thirty every year and doesn't hit enough, he's not going
to get to that point and get the big money.
Seventy five million is generational wealth. He's betting on himself.
We'll see if it works out. You know, seventy five
million with a good investment portfolio of some real estate

(31:22):
and some investments in commodities and whatnot, you are set up.
You're good to go, and generations of your family are
good to go. But he's going for the big, big Big,
Big Money.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
Here we go, Here we go, Here we go, Here
we go, Here we go, Here we go, Here we go.

Speaker 4 (31:44):
This is one Big Ben gets grilled a coopol.

Speaker 5 (31:50):
It was reported a couple of weeks ago that the
Chiefs wanted to become a permanent fixture on Christmas Day,
much like the Lions and the Cowboys are on Thanksgiving. However,
we recently learned that the NFL currently doesn't have any
plans to make anyone a permanent host on Christmas. Ben,
would you like to see a permanent Christmas team?

Speaker 4 (32:06):
I would.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
I grew up, we all grew up with the Cowboys
and the Lions on Thanksgiving.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
That's just what you came to know.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
And in the NBA it's always your annoying Lakers and
the Celtics usually would play on Christmas. They'd have the
high profile teams there every year, and it's just it's
part of the circle of life. You know, when the
holidays come up, you're going to see at least you
know one of the teams is going to be playing there.
I say, why not? The Chiefs have been pretty good.
They're not gonna be good forever. At some point they'll

(32:34):
suck again. But I have no problem with it. Make
to me, it makes sense that I have that one
signature team that you know, you associate the holiday with.

Speaker 4 (32:42):
I don't see what the problem is.

Speaker 5 (32:43):
Next, Alex Sar recently just became only the third rookie
ever to have one hundred three pointers made, one hundred
plus blocks, and one hundred plus assists. Ben, do you
think Sarr has locked up Rookie of the Year award?

Speaker 4 (32:54):
Well not, according to the gambling market.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
According to the gambling market's the odds are not actually
in his favor. That the the numbers indicate the gamby
market that says, Stephen Castle, the Spurs is the.

Speaker 4 (33:07):
Overwhelming favorite, like he's going to win.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
It, and uh, you know the Hawks are in the
playing thing here, the Spurs they've got their own.

Speaker 4 (33:16):
They're also in the plane. But yeah, he's not the favorite.

Speaker 5 (33:19):
Next, there are five teams that have ten percent or
more of a chance to land the number one overall
pick in the NBA lottery. Yeah, aka the Flag Sweepstakes.
Are the Jazz, Wizards, Hornings, Pelicans, and seventy six ers. Yeah,
and if one of them were guaranteed to get the
number one pick, Philly's got to be the best landing
spot for Flag, right.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
Uh, Joe, Now, because Joel Embiad's a hot mess, I'm
market wise, Yeah, I feel it. If by the way,
I'm gonna simulate the lottery right right now, Cooplo, I'm
on tankaphon right now, I'm gonna simulate the lottery.

Speaker 4 (33:46):
Oh my god, the Charlotte Hornets have won the lottery.
Oh he's good. I know he's from Maine. But Flag
is going to Charlotte.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
I've just I've just run, I put I did sim
lottery on Tankafon. Send that out, Coop. We are now
reporting that they're Charlotte Hornets. The nineteen win Hornets have
won the lottery. They've moved up two spots. Philadelphia got
the second bick. But no, if this guy's the real deal,
I have my questions. But Brooklyn would not be bad. Right,

(34:16):
They don't have much of a chance. But Brooklyn's in
the lottery. That's the New York market. Philadelphia something better
than Toronto or Utah or San Antonio. There it is
Malard only third degree how did we know he passed
the second?

Speaker 4 (34:29):
I passed the raft, I got a degree. I passed.
Let's test.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
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. Now, Malor's Mountain of Money? Do you have
what it takes to get to the top?

Speaker 4 (34:56):
Probably not an away? We go time now for Malor's
Mountain Money? And who do we have here? We've got
Li's eeny meanie miney mo. We've got Tyler in Boston.
Who's gonna play?

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Hello?

Speaker 4 (35:09):
Tyler? Welcome on, Benny? Yeah, what's up? Do you want
to play well with me?

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Ben?

Speaker 4 (35:14):
You got koober Loop? Who do you want to partner
up with you? Tyler?

Speaker 2 (35:18):
All right, Benny, Let's let's take this one.

Speaker 4 (35:20):
All right? We got it? Tyler? Very good? All right?

Speaker 1 (35:22):
Hold on a second, and then uh let's see therraina
picked door number door number one or door number two.

Speaker 4 (35:28):
Number two? Okay, fly Scott is uh hey, is this
Tyler brilliant?

Speaker 1 (35:36):
Boston?

Speaker 4 (35:36):
I don't think he's brilliant. You're already attacking Tyler. Yeah,
you're already attacking him. Come on, no fun.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
I'm a real Boston and I'm out here building bridges
and stuff, so you can get around that.

Speaker 4 (35:48):
Look at that. This guy's a real man. I'd like you,
bly Scott. Did you fix that?

Speaker 2 (35:53):
Tom Bridge? Man?

Speaker 4 (35:54):
It took you like five years? All right? I can't
you pick number one? She picked him up. She got
to play the guy. We gotta play the game. One
of the categories hurry up? Hurry up?

Speaker 5 (36:02):
Are you? This is the Chris Stapleton addition. He turns
forty seven today. Categories are tennessee, whiskey, traveler, was it
twenty six?

Speaker 4 (36:10):
And either way?

Speaker 5 (36:11):
All right?

Speaker 4 (36:11):
Which one you want? Tyler? Traveler? What do you say? Traveler? Yeah,
all right, what do you want? Blind Scott? I'll take
the other one? All right, So we're gonna go to
the bullpen. We hadn't even played yet. Number He hasn't
even played. Hurry up, you're wasting time, Anthony. Do you
want to play? Yes, sir? All right? What do you want?

Speaker 5 (36:34):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (36:34):
Tennessee, whiskey? Was it twenty six? Or either way?

Speaker 6 (36:39):
All right?

Speaker 4 (36:40):
All right?

Speaker 2 (36:41):
Very good?

Speaker 1 (36:41):
And Tyler, we're on the board and here we go.
You picked a traveler. These athletes all played for seven
or more teams. Are you ready to go?

Speaker 4 (36:51):
All right?

Speaker 1 (36:51):
Here we go, first and last name, running back known
as he was an MVP for the Minnesota Vikings.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
Beat up a kid, bounced around the na effect. Yes,
the Tyler only time.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
He was a center for the Orlando Magic not not shack,
not won, Yes, that is true, all right. Known as
Aeric Canada for the Raptors. One of the great slam
dunk artists of all time. Yes, mister big shot for
the Detroit Pistons, though he was picked you know, he
was picked by the Celtics.

Speaker 4 (37:25):
Actually a guard. Yes, let's see here.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Senator Michael Jordan drafted him out of high school. Was
a disaster, threw a cake when he was with the.

Speaker 4 (37:36):
Local No, no, Klawn Brown got all right, go ahead, cool?
One hundred points. That's what all right? Anthony? We've got?
Was it twenty six? Right, that's the one he chose? Yeah,
all right?

Speaker 5 (37:50):
These athletes all wore or where number twenty six? I
need the first and last name, Anthony? All right, forty
five seconds, let's begin. He just rushed for over two
thousand yards for the Eagles. Yes, this guy was the
lead running back for the Steelers, he held out for
an entire season. Oh all right, this guy, yes, that's correct,

(38:17):
all right, all right, so this guy here, this guy
was a defensive back for the Raiders.

Speaker 4 (38:24):
Us a bold clue. Hall of Famer.

Speaker 5 (38:32):
No, all right, Litsten Well, hall of fame, third basement
for the Red Sox and then the later the Tampa
Bay Raised.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
Don't answer, Tyler. Oh that was bad.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
That was that was on me?

Speaker 4 (38:46):
All right, terrible job. How many points is that? Lore?
Thirty thirty? Anthony were back up? Do you want Tennessee
whiskey or either way.

Speaker 6 (38:56):
Whiskey?

Speaker 5 (38:56):
All right, let's go these athletes cheering for them for you, Jesus,
heats were all born in Tennessee. For forty five seconds,
let's begin. Current quarterback for the Jaguars, Trevor Lawrence. Yes,
he is the center field for the Dodgers. He used
to be on the Red Sox, came over to trade, yes, whatever.

(39:18):
The current The current coach for the Lakers, Garbingham.

Speaker 6 (39:25):
Oh no, no, I didn't even know the Lakers, all right, No, no, no, no,
shut up? What he didn't I need to hear his answer.
He's not answering, he's googling.

Speaker 4 (39:37):
Oh my God, you're cheating. I win the game. You
went to the bullpit.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Okay, you cheated by going to the bullet you're disqualified.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
I went job. Anthony, you got a golden take.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
You're a real man out there building a bridge. Tyler,
you're a stunt unlike.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
These other losers. The guy's actually out there building a bridge.
Tyler wings. You gotta goal the teck. You gotta goll
the teck galled. Anthony gets the golden ticket. Anthony wins.
Tyler
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Ben Maller

Ben Maller

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