July 14, 2025 • 46 mins
Big Ben talks about Milwaukee's Jacob Misiorowski getting an All-Star roster spot despite only having five MLB appearances, reports that there are four teams interested in trading for LeBron James, Maller to the Third Degree, Insta-Advice Line, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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I'd be sorr Lee this hour.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
We're going to start out in Wisconsin, although it's really
at the League office in New York City. The curtain
has come down, pens down, the music has paused, as
it is the All Star break in Major League Baseball,
no more real baseball. The players hate the All Star Game.
They don't want to go to the All Star Game.
(02:25):
They can't stand the All Star Game. But they want
you baseball does to watch the All Star Game.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
More in that in a minute.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So All Star news over the weekend, get the home
run Derby Derby Derby Derby coming up on Monday. All
Star Game on Tuesday days off and then back at
it late in the week So the biggest storyline here
around the All Star Game, and it's happened and developed
over the weekend. The news came out over the weekend,
(02:53):
and then the reaction of anger and rage at Major
League Baseball. So if you haven't heard, perhaps not the
phenom of phenoms. As somebody from Wisconsin said, I wrote
a love letter, miler monologue about the performance I saw
against the Dodgers the other day of the mizz and
he is the story of baseball yet again over the weekend.
(03:14):
Jacob Mazerowski, the six foot seven Brewers flame thrower with
five career starts five career starts, has been added as
an All Star. Yes, five starts, this cat's an All Star,
not five wins. I didn't say five wins. I didn't
(03:35):
say five quality starts. He got lit up by the Mets.
Five starts, period.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Five all Star, five starts, All Star Game. So this
has become a polarizing topic. The Phillies are up in arms.
More on that in a minute. Also, longtime Major League
Baseball broadcaster Ron Darling, not happy, said it's kind of
a joke. Darling said to the game, and it's a
(04:03):
bad choice for baseball.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Close quote from Ron Darley.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So let us discuss a question for the esteem panel,
and you are now on the esteem panel. So the
question Milwaukee Flamethrow Jacob Mazarowski gets All Star nod, the
All Star roster spot, thumbs up or thumbs down on
the Miz making the All Star Games. So I've got
(04:30):
online marketplace, Olivia Rodrigo and Hedonist, and we will combine
these three very random things that have never been combined together,
and we are going to put the biscuit in the basket,
is what we're going to do. So hey, my first
thought to answer the question thumbs up, thumbs down on
the Miz making the All Star team, thumbs down, In fact,
(04:52):
two thumbs down.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I got two thumbs down on this. Now, this one
is simple, all right.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
This is a textbook exam of lowering the standards. And again,
I like the player. I am a I want to
see this turn out to be a great career.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
It would be wonderful.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I like the player, but this a little bit too
much too soon, a little bit too much too soon.
So I'm going thumbs down the standard for all Star
selection is the way to get in.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
There's a couple of ways to get it. Be really
really good, right, really really good.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Or be on a crap team, and then somebody has
to make the All Star team, like play for the
White Sox of the Rockies, they have to have an
All Star which is tradition. But outside of that, and
the Brewers are not a bad team, they're not a
great team.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
They're somewhere in the middle. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
The standard for the All Star selection, which had been
rooted up until a couple of years ago, rooted in
what performance, consistency, reliability, all of those big words.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
That was the credibility that meant something.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
And it reminds me of what they've done in the NFL,
where the Pro Bowl is now tic tac toe and
water balloon toss. Baseball is gonna get to that point,
and they're gonna get there very fast by having someone
in the All Star Game.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
With five starts five five, I mean, my god.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So they're now tossing out All Star bursts like sunflower
seed shells in the dugout. You get an All Star,
you get an All Star, you get an All Star.
And why are they doing is why is Jacob Mazaraski
an All Star? Well, one word marketing, capital M marketing.
That's how right buzz brand engagement. So wow, Milwaukee's a
(06:37):
small market. Why does baseball care about Milwaukee? Well, it's
the story. It's the story. Everyone loves a good story, right,
We learn from stories, with all all human beings learned
from stories. But this is Major League Baseball's latest episode
of look at me and See. The issue is heaven forbid?
Heaven forbid you just allow these things to play themselves
(06:59):
out naturally, have the organic experience. But no, it's about Hey,
it's marking. So you're going to take someone that has
a lot of hype even.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Though they're in a you know, a smaller town in.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Milwaukee, and an undercooked prospect, and a prospect is a
suspect until Brovel lies. But he's got a really sexy
radar gun, you know, I mean, he's one hundred miles
an hour a lot and that's pretty cool. And so
social media likes him, so they'll get some applause on
the social media and all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Now, and so we like the player. We did a
monologue celebrating.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Them is and all that as we said, however, Major
League Baseball here on this one another unforced error by
Rob Manford and his underlings at the league office. Here,
major League Baseball sticking it to the players who have
earned earned the All Star honor through months and often
years of continued service and success on the field. And
(07:57):
so no, and those players, I'm sure there are some,
not all, but some would would would have liked to
have been an All Star. But they get shoved to
the side right there in the background. And the reason
they're in the background is because of the online marketplace
mlbshop dot com. Right, can you sell a few more jerseys?
Can you move the merch? And who's gonna move the merch?
(08:18):
Some nondescript pitcher has been around for a number of years.
Who happens to pitch for? I don't know the Phillies
or the Red Sox or the mizz Oh he's got
the story, right, that's the answer. That's obviously the answer.
Marketing capital, m MLB shop sell some merch, sell some merch.
This is Jacob Mezerowski's moment. Is not supposed to be
his moment. Five starts.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
You don't get your moment.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
The reason it's his moment is because Major League Baseball's
marketing department's horny to sell some merch and create a star.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
They have to create the next.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Big thing brand engagements, engagement farming, engagement from get out
the tractor graham A. It's engagement farming, and we should
not be And the reason that we should not be
surprised if you've been paying attention, this is the same
Rob Manford run organization Major League Baseball that long ago
(09:12):
gave up any of the traditions of the game for
digital impressions. This is what it's all about. Baseball is
convinced they have taken the kool aid. They like the
kool aid when it comes to the matrix of social media,
and that's what it's all about, right, So they go
back and forth or like, in some areas they want
to honor tradition. Of course they can make a buck
(09:32):
on it. They're like, I want to honor tradition, and
then in other areas they want to take a bulldozer
and just drive over the tradition of baseball. But they've
allowed the matrix to form the blueprint on which direction
they're going to go. And miss Arowski stuff comes in,
uh and not I thought five.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Starts was not en off.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
But considering what Baseball's done and the Mizz's story and
all that stuff, it's like, all right, he's so far
as good as advertised.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Did have a stinker against the match, but we'll overlook that. See.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
The thing about it, though, is you would say, if
he's as good as he's supposed to be, his time
will come, his opportunity will come. And baseball's always in
the past. But about letting that greatness unfold over time. Right,
it doesn't happen right away all the time, but right
now in this moment, No, that's not the case.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
That's not how we do things here. Now.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
When there's a meme out there that Rob Manford doesn't
really understand, the internet it gets all excited about.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
He's like, oh man, it's mean, mean meme.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I love the meme, I'm all about it, all about it, right,
and a couple of impressions on social media.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
They get all excited about that.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
But the All Star Game, so okay, much like the
Pro Bowl used to mean something, All Star Game, not
to be fair, the All Star Game.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
This has been a thing which has.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Gone the wrong direction for a long time, like it's
been going a wrong direction for many, many years here,
but is another staged moment by Major League Baseball, right
stage managed for theater. It's a like a Broadway show here,
and baseball is so desperate. They have such low self
(11:12):
esteem at Major League Baseball. They want to look cool.
They do everything they can to look cool, and they
just can't help themselves. They can't because it's all about
being cool. And whether that means they have to erode
things that made the sport what it became valuable for,
it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
It's all about the clickety click clicketty clickty click atty.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Click and he click anny click.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
And those those clips of themz on Instagram are really good.
So five starts, I mean, okay, but that being you'd admit,
those are some good, good looking clips on social media.
Right now, we turned the page. So in the face
of the pushback, and there has been some pushback by
players and the old timers in baseball, the old heads
(11:59):
and base of pushback on adding Jacob Miserawski to the
All Star team after five games. Major League Baseball officials
claim that it's not their fault. They claimed they tried,
they did everything they could in their power to find
someone else, and they told their buddies in the media.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
They said they.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Actually reached out to over a dozen or right around
a dozen. I think the number I saw was a
dozen over the weekend, a dozen pitchers looking to replace.
They needed a replacement for the All Star Game, and
they kept looking and looking and looking and looking until
they finally got to Jacob Zowski.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
He agreed to do it. So do you believe it
or not?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Do you believe it or not that Baseball's like, well, listen,
we tried. We didn't really want to bring this guy,
but we had no other options cuz we went down
in order and we got to him and we had
to go with him because there was nobody else. So
I am not a believer on this. I am not
a believer. This is again a M and a marketing
(13:01):
move is an M and M.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Just own it. Just own it.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Say listen, the guy doesn't really deserve it, but people
like him and we think he's gonna be good, so
we want to see him in the All Star Game.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
And it's an exhibition game, so who cares. That's it.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Now, there's a wider issue here, which is absolutely a
thing and it's the disease is all over, the plague
is all over professional sports. But the marketing move was
why the Miz is in the All Star Game. And
when you piece the when you piece together the puzzle,
you put the jigsaw puzzle together. Here, Major League Baseball,
(13:38):
if they had wanted to, could have found someone else
to go to the All Star Game. Now they might
have had to go down to like twenty pick twenty five.
They would have gotten someone for the All Star Game.
And they should have found someone else. They obviously did not.
They didn't look that hard. My theory is they didn't
look that hard, and if you look at this through
(13:58):
that lens, that they weren't really trying to find someone
other than is they wanted him to be in the
All Star Game. It's like that Olivia Rodrigo song deja vu,
because remember last year we had this similar conversation. Now,
last year Major League Baseball added you rememberhe they added
That's right, Paul Skens, the Pirate's phenom who lit the
(14:20):
baseball world on fire a year ago. Paul Skins. Now
he made the All Star Game. He started the All
Star Game last year as a hot shot rookie eleven
starts into his big league career. So so eleven starts
in fine. Now we supported that. Last year we thought
that was okay. This we did not support.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Now. The reason the difference is y the Robbies. The
average starting.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Pitcher in baseball will make around thirty four starts. Most
of them do not hit that number, but the number
is about thirty four starts per year based on one
hundred and sixty two games that somebody starts. You're supposed
to make if you're in the starting rotation. So eleven
starts out of thirty four works out be thirty two
percent of a full season. Now the numbers even higher,
(15:03):
the percentage even higher if the average number goes down
to thirty. But we'll say it's thirty four. So that's
thirty two percent of a season. The Miz starting five
games for the Brew Crew before the All Star Game,
five that is less than fifteen percent of the full
season of starts, and you make an All Star appearance,
(15:26):
and that's where we are.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
That's where we are now.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Last word, the Fighting Pills very upset that their pitcher
did not make the All Star Game. Instead, Jacob Izerowski
made it. Now one of the outspoken critics a man
that is notorious for hitting the home run at the time,
you shouldn't hit a home run when someone's giving a
grobbling apology on television. Nick Castellanos, Now, he came out
(15:50):
so winging. He came out swinging. The Phillies outfielder was
not happy and he's not happy with the way the
All Star Game is going. He's also one of those
guys that has All Star number. I don't believes on
the All Star team anyway. Nick Castellanos said of the
All Star Game quote, it's turning into the Savannah bananas.
It's turning into the Savannah bananas. Your thoughts, all right?
(16:13):
So my thought on this is that is exactly what
baseball wants.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
That is their wet dream. Am I wrong?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Baseball wants Savannah banana. They want the bananas, They need
the bananas. Baseball loves bananas.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
They do. They're jealous. I'm telling you, I've heard this
from people who work in baseball.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
The people with the League office are jealous of the
Savannah Bananas, who are essentially the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Right, barnstorming group.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
They're on television now, they've got a cult following people
seem to like, and they sell out football stadiums and baseball.
It annoys them. They're like, we've been around for one
hundred and forty something years, what do you do it?
It bothers them. They're annoyed by this. They're jealous of
the attention that in the social media world they are
(17:04):
seen as cool and the bananas are cool. When has
the banana ever been cool? Well, the Savannah Bananas are cool.
Pack stadium, social media content, buzz on social media, television audience.
I don't think it's huge, but people are watching, and
that is the core of Major League Baseball's business plan.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
They don't have to pay the Savannah Bananas. The players
on the team make peanuts. They don't even get paid bananas.
They they get paid peanuts because they're cheaper. They can't
even afford bananas to pay them. They pay them with peanuts.
And major League Baseball is if you look at the
rock and roll element of having fun, you know, which
is what they have when you watch the highlights.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
I've never watched a full.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Savannah Bananas game, so I couldn't tell you, but it
appears they're having fun now furthermore so, Major League Baseball
also concerned about the rash of players who have bailed out.
We mentioned this, players that have bailed out of the
All Star Game. They don't want to show up. And
then the most common re let's see, I'm gonna give
you a phrase to see if you can tell me
where this phraseer is is the most common reason that
(18:07):
Major League Baseball players have opted out of the All
Star Game twenty twenty five. The year of our Lord
is rest and recuperation. Rest and recuperation, all right, So
what is behind? What is behind the Major League Baseball
players skipping the All Star Game for rest and recuperation?
Speaker 4 (18:26):
All right?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So this is a sign of the times. It's the
same brain rot they have in the other sports, and
it's been around for a while, right. These baseball guys,
they see those softy NBA players bitching about back to
back games, like we play like sometimes we'll play two
weeks in a row with no days, Oh my god.
And the basketball players they play one game and they
can play in it. Oh my, that whole thing all right.
(18:47):
So there we're in the age of Hey, I want
the hedonist experience, I want the work life balance is
what they want, and it's it's been building and building
in Billiam Over twenty years ago. I was on these
microphones of Fox Sports Radio. The All Star Game was
in Milwaukee, and the defining moment of Bud Selik, who
(19:09):
overlooked all the steroid guys, but Bud Celick is the commissioner.
They used car salesman there, threw his arms up in
the air everywhere, literally right in the eleventh inning of
a tie game of a tie game, and told the umpires,
he said, listen.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
They're out of pitchers. Tie game.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
And the reason they were out of players was because
now the game entered in a tie. The All Star Game,
the players were leaving the stadium while the game was
going on. They couldn't stand being in Milwaukee. They were
trying to get out of there. They get the airport
hell out of there to go to the Bahamas or
Hawaii or wherever, and said he couldn't wait to get
out of the airport right and Major League Baseball had
(19:49):
this this time It Counts marketing campaign for years after
that where they actually decided the World Series home field
advantage based on who won the All Star Game. To
stick it to the players but here we are again.
The players today are like, Hey, we see what the
NBA guys are doing. We're just as big as cream
puff as those NBA guys. We want that extra time off. No,
(20:10):
I don't care, I promote the game. We're not doing that.
Come we might get hurt. We might get hurt too.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
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Speaker 4 (20:25):
Hey it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of piping hot baseball talk featuring the
biggest names of newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe
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Speaker 1 (20:55):
As Lebron's world turns, I know Bulbrmellia.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
We talk about the stories that are the stories of
the day.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Welcome in the beginning of another hour of The Ben
Malor Show. We are in the air everywhere, preaching to
the choir as we are telling it like it is,
while the rest of our industry is fast asleep.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
They're not hanging out with.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Us coast to coast, border the water and beyond on
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(21:51):
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the Way Tire Buying show me. So our lead this
hour is from the Lebron Files, not to be confused
(22:25):
with some other kind of files. But no, this is
all about Lebron and we are contractually obligated, as it
turns out, for an obligatory malar monologue, much to the
approval of Eugene in Chicago, who is anticipating this spicy
Margarita edition of a Malar monologue on Lebron James and
(22:48):
his life in Times. Here's some new developments over the weekend.
New developments, new developments, new developments. While we were away
from the watchtower guarding the overnight graveyard of sports takes,
there were some new things that took place here. So
if you didn't follow along, don't worry. That's what we're
here for. We got your back. We kept tabs on
what was going on so you would not have to.
(23:09):
So chatter over the weekend, little chit chat over the
weekend that indicated that there are a four pack, four
pack of teams that are attempting to acquire Lebron James.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
No, those teams are.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
In no formal order, the Dallas mav Rex, the Golden
State Warriors, the Cleveland Cadavers, and the Clippers. Supposedly, so
that story came out though those teams have emerged as
possible suitors for Lebron James.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
That happened over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Now, those four teams, if you believe the chatter, if
you believe the Internet chatter, those four teams contacted Lebron's
conciliary right his body.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
There Rich Paul. Who is that. If you want to
talk to the mob as, you gotta go through the
Conticklar area, and that would be Rich Paul. And that
is where we are right now.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
So let us discuss the question for the panel, the
blue ribbon panel. Where are you at on the fearsome,
fursome pursuing Lebron James. All right, so I've got Vintage
Cookie jar, Dali Lama and Philadelphia Original and we will
(24:27):
combine all of these things together and we are gonna
make the Gobaul. We're gonna make the Gobba goal for
our friend in Florida. So number I said number right. Yes,
Now we provide a skeptical eye for the regular guy.
Now I even have buyfocals on, so I have extra
skepticism is what I have on here.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
But this is not the.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Lebron sweep Steaks. It was presented as the Lebron Sweepstakes.
I don't buy that that narrative. I'm not going there.
It's it's more like the Lebron flea market. Now, you
can find a nice thing every now and again at
the flea market, and that's what this is. It's the
Lebron James flea market. And it's like, what's what's going on?
(25:10):
Then what's on the table at the flea market? You're like,
do I want that kind of fade a little bit?
I'm not sure about that, and it was. It is
not the shiny new toy. We're not We're not auctioning
off the shiny new toy. This is Lebron James at
this point is a vintage cookie jar. It's cracked, a
little bit faded now, it still has some value. There's
(25:33):
still some value there. And if you squint hard enough
at the vintage cookie jar and you look at it
and you ignore the fact that the cookies inside turns stale.
Right around the time they got that little Mickey Mouse
bubble ring that doesn't really count back at Disney World,
like a nice little souvenir therey.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
You get a ring, not a real one. Not a
real one. As we learned from the Oklahoma City thunder Guard.
Not everyone.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
So Lebron James the greatest player of his generation, not
the greatest of all time, as he trails Michael Jordan
and others. He's also across the rubicon the Dreaded four.
He's in the Dreaded forties age range at this particular
point Lebron James, and so you put it all together,
and while he still can put up numbers for you,
(26:23):
and the kind of numbers that if you work over
at ESPN, right, you think Lebron's like the Dalai Lama.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
You do.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
You treat him like the Dalai Lama and all that,
and you can't wait to hear what he has to
say about every effing thing.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
You gotta get to the bottom of Lebron James, all right.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
So the impact is measured now more in a moment's
rather than months of greatness. There's individual moments on a
given night. Lebron can put up some big numbers and
all that stuff. But it's one of those buyer beware
situations for anyone that does business with Lebron James. It
is a buyer beware situation because that cookie jar Lebron
(27:01):
is like the flea market vintage cookie jar Lebron. It
looks okay from a distance on a shelf. You're like,
that's not that bad, and I could buy that. It's
a couple of bucks. I gotta pay cash, no credit card.
It's a couple of bucks and the lids chipped again,
though a little bit and you look at it and
the basis, you get a little closer to see a
little crack there on the base of it, and it
(27:22):
really only opens when it wants to, and so that's
not particularly great and all that stuff, and the four
teams that are supposedly in on this it's a nostalgia play.
It would be a nostalgia play for Lebron, and that's what.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
You're going for at this particular point, and sell some stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
You become in the conversation. You're always in the conversation. Now,
Lebron's camp is trying really.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Hard to control the narrative.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
They are working over time to try to control the
stories about Lebron. And they know how the offseason NBA
world works and so they they're the expert and all that.
So Rich Paul is the one feeding the pipeline. He's
the one out there and in our opinion, Rich Paul's
the one that is the puppet master directing everything here
(28:12):
in terms of media consumption on preferred destinations for Lebron.
James now in order a home cooking with the Cadavers, right,
go back to Ohio for a third time, win one
more championship with the Cavaliers fade to black Boom done right,
And of course that would be like Lebron going back
(28:33):
to Cleveland for a third time. It's like they're the
ex girlfriend that keeps texting you, hey, you up.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
At the three in the morning or whatever. I don't know, but.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
It's nostalgic to go back to Cleveland and do it
again and all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
It's also a bit delusional.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Then I would say the old Geezers Club, which would
be the Golden State Warriors, hang out in San Francisco,
and you got Steph Curry on one side, Draymond Green
on the other, Jimmy Butler, Jimmy Buckets is still there,
and Lebron and Drayman come on, can do podcasts together,
and they can fire Steve Kerr and hire some podcast
guided coach the Golden State Warriors like the Lakers did
for Lebron, and they'll get along good, Lebron and Draymond
(29:11):
Green until they try to hijack the clipboard from whoever
the coach is, that's Steve Kerr or somebody else.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Then it's gonna get ugly. And then you've got the reunited.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
It feels so good with Anthony Davis to go to
Dallas and then stick it to the Lakers as a
mav wreck with Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving and all
those injured guys that are on the Mavericks right now,
and they instead of Taco Tuesday, they can have Tex
Mex Wednesday in Dallas, Anthony Davis and Lebron. How great
would that be? Of course, we all know Lebron would
(29:41):
prefer to play for the Clippers. Who everyone wants to
play for the Clippers. It's hip to clip who wouldn't
want to play for the Clippers. But we're going to
eliminate the Clippers. And here's why. Here's why we're gonna
limit the Clippers, because there's no way the Lakers are
going to allow.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
That to happen.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
There's zero chants like the Clippers have a better owner,
they have a better arena, they a better fan base.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Everyone knows that in town in La. They're not going
to allow.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Lebron to go over there and embarrass the Lakers even
more so, that's not gonna happen, right, So Jeanie Buss,
he's still supposedly in charge, not gonna do that, right,
Not not gonna allow that to happen to go over
to Inglewood in the hood in Inglewood and play for
the Clippers.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
So we'll eliminate them now, page two.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
So we'll go to to Vegas the Summer League, which
is going on over the weekend there, and Lebron was
sitting courtside.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
You see this over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
I glanced at it as Lebron sitting courtside watching his
kid that sucks at basketball play for the Lakers summer
League team because he's a Nepo baby and he won
a sweepstakes raffle to get on the Lakers. So there's
Bronni out there who sucks, but you know it's make
a wish. So he's out there playing for the Lakers,
and Lebron's watching them. They played the I guess the
Pelicans or a version a facsimile of the Pelicans in
(30:54):
the Summer League.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
Now, ESBN invited Lebron. James invited Lebron. You see this.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
They invited Lebron on air to address the speculation which
has been running rampant about where Lebron's gonna go. It
is he upset with this person, that person, the other person.
And so Lebron did he say yes, I will go
on television. I would like to talk B. I have
nothing to say or see no comment. Lebron said, quote,
if you picked B, you win. He said, quote, I
(31:23):
ain't got nothing to talk about. He must have learned
that in high school and acrin, I ain't got nothing
to talk about. So question, why did Lebron James refuse
the opportunity the platform to speak about his situation while
in attendance at the Las Vegas Summerly He had his
sullen look on his face, bad body language from Lebron
(31:46):
as he was sitting courtside there in Vegas. So the
answer is by saying nothing, By Lebron saying nothing, in
passing up the opportunity, Lebron gave a masterclass and I'm
in control control one oh one. By not saying anything
he could have popped on television.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Is true.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
He was given the opportunity, he was given the platform
Lebron to jump over there on television and pretend like
everything's good, and he chose not to do it. He
had ESPN essentially throwing themselves at him and just you
know again, he said, I'm not I'm not doing it.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
I'm not gonna go there, uh, and he missed the
opportunity right, the old Dali Lama line. While he could
have been you know, they treated him like the Dalai Lama.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
But Lebron, he could have taken a fire extinguisher and
put out the fire.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Right, take the fire extinguisher, put out the fire. But
he likes the fire.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
It's like he's warming marshmallows on a stick in the fire.
And so instead he worked to pour some kerosene on
top of the fire.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Burn, baby burn.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
And it's like a cloak and dagger type mission. Have
the useful idiots, You toss out these bread crumbs. He
dropped these little bread crumbs. But you don't do it
if somebody else do it for you. So you dropped
the breadcrumbs out there, and you post cryptic things on
the Gram and all that stuff, and you let the
media do the dirty work the heavy lifting for you
and all that, and so you don't talk because you
(33:13):
don't have to talk. Right, other people are talking. I'm
talking about you. Everyone's talking about you.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Right, the machine, the machine of basketball content is discussing
Lebron James. Now this is the same guy that years
ago had the remember the zero Dark thirty stick and
the playoff run, and of course we know that often
didn't last and work so well, so he stopped doing that,
but he treated it like it was a ritual like
(33:40):
Marty Grass for Lebron before the playoffs there, and so
Lebron chose not to speak. Not the silence was not silence,
it was strategy. That was what what Lebron was doing here.
And by refusing to go on camera and not using
your own voice to get the message out and all
(34:00):
that stuff in Vegas where you want to be seen, right,
you go to Vegas to be seeing the party and
all that stuff, and everything's a show in Vegas, and
Lebron's part of the show, and he knew exactly what
he was doing. Classic passive aggressive behavior.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
By Labron James.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Yet again, let the drama swirl, swirl, swirl, swirl, and
that's what he was doing there, and he just sits
back and watches the speculation and it just is everywhere
there's there's there's a residence, there's a heat. It's like
coming off the blacktop there of on the on the court,
and he's keeping it cool, right, He's sitting there, he's
got his arms fold. He's unbothered, at least he wants
(34:39):
you to believe he's unbothered by everything.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
That's going on now.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Using my Rosetta stone, using my malleor Rosetta stone to
translate Lebron and what he meant in playing English in
layman's terms. When Lebron said, I ain't got nothing to
talk about, that was his quote.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
I ain't got nothing to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
That means I know you're all panicking about where I'm
going to be traded or if I'm going to be traded,
all that, and I'm just watching you squirm, and I've
got an evil laugh.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
Just like that. We know the routine. We all know.
Every man, woman and child knows the routine.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Now the final point, staying in Las Vegas. We talked
earlier on the Overnight show about the brain rot in
professional sports. Out of an abundance of caution, everyone must
do the bare minimum. Do not go above and beyond
the call of duty like previous generations.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
You do the bare minimum.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Another example of that, the Dallas Mavericks have decided we
are shutting down Cooper Flag. The flag is down, yes,
Cooper Flag for the remainder of the NBA Summer League.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
IX nay on.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
The flag A as he has been shut down. I
will not be playing. Only played two games, two, that's it.
So how do you react to the number one overall
pick in the NBA draft only playing two games and
being shut down? So I give this one the old
shoulder shrug. I shrugged my shoulders of this to sign
(36:13):
yet again, much like we talked earlier, sign of the
times in professional sports. And this infestation is everywhere. And
two games, that's it. Two games, one suck bag game
and then one that was okay, and a couple of
glorified scrimmages in Vegas in July and that Vegas heat.
(36:34):
And that's all she wrote. That's all she wrote for
Cooper Flag, the Mavericks new teenage sensation of Maverick Nation.
They put him back into bubble wrap and they put
him into storage. That's it, that's all. And they've treated
him like some kind of high end vase they don't
want to break. And they'll put that away in the
(36:56):
garage and they'll take that out when we get back
to the irregular season. The Mavericks, in their infamit wisdom
also known as paranoia, the Mavericks are shutting down Cooper
Flag for the rest of the summer League. Not because
he's hurt, by the way, not because he's hurt, Not
because he asked out saying I can't handle this, I
can't do it. No, they're just being cautious out of
(37:20):
an abundance of caution. They're being careful because God forbid,
God forbid a young athlete who's been I assume playing
aau ball since they came out of the womb there
and that they can't mae, just a couple of extra
games and that's too much, that's too much for the
prodigy out of Maine.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Cannot do it. Cooper Flag.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
I gotta shut him down, Shut him down right now, right,
I mean, that's where we are.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
That is exactly where we are right.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Now, just like the baseball players trying to skip the
All Star Game because oh man, I.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Need my resting realization and recovery. I need oh that.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
So now, the NBA is not just soft. They're not
just soft. They are whipped cream soft.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
Is the NBA. In fact, they're not even just whipped cream.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
If they were a type of cheese, they would be
a Philadelphia original Philadelphia cream cheese.
Speaker 4 (38:16):
That's what they would be the NBA and a little.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Rice cake action on the side there and some cream
cheese and Philadelphia cream cheese. That's where they are there.
And Cooper Flag is just the latest example of that.
They say the Mavericks that he quote showed enough, That's
what they say.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
Please, how did he show enough? Exactly? What does that
even mean? I don't even know what that means? A
vague term.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
So another player that rather than try to get them
up to speed where they settle into the.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
To the grind, right the grind.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Were talking to some old baseball players about that, and like,
and baseball people will complain in the base I know,
crossing the streams here, crossing the sports. But pitchers are
soft in baseball because they've been trained to be soft
well basketball players. Here's an opportunity with Cooper Flag to
be like, you're not gonna be like all the rest.
We're gonna we're gonna train you to not run from
the grind like these other NBA stars, and we're gonna
(39:10):
train you to run towards the grind. And not away
from it. But instead the Mavericks have the opportunity and
with so wing Barra, saw Wing Barra, that's it. So
instead they're sending Cooper Flag the number one, picking the
draft back back to the lab, putting him in a
test tube some cryogenic chamber somewhere in Dallas.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
And he really didn't even get a real whiff of
what it's all about in the in the NBA.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
And so he's I think he's still like nineteen years
old and all that stuff, and they're treating him like
he's a grizzled thirty nine year old veteran with arthritick
hips and his knees are all messed up and he's
he's had double knee replacement surgery and that's what they're
treating him like.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
And he's a teenager.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Uh so, you know again, opportunity here, Am I crazy
to toughen this guy up? And no, it's straight pampers, baby,
It's it's pampers all the way, is what it is
for Cooper Flag. And right from the draft, get the
therapy dog out the whole thing, Get a nice warm
blankeye and a glass of milk, and you load management.
(40:17):
You got to get that trained early on all about
the load management. But it's even more of that. It's
like fear disguised as some kind of science and that
old phrase. We learned that in twenty twenty during the pandemic.
You can get away with almost anything. If you say
out of an abundance of caution, you can convince people
to do almost anything, and they'll do it and people
can't question it, and you just have to go with
(40:38):
it and you just can't question it. So this is
where we are with the NBA and Cooper Flag. It's
a out of an abundance of caution, please, So another
opportunity could have developed, didn't develop, and now they're treating
Cooper Flag like he's in a museum somewhere and you
don't want to, you know, get too violent and have
activity on the court and all that stuff. So we'll
(40:58):
just make sure some no dust gets on him.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Go we got this is one big Ben gets grilled
cup Ball.
Speaker 6 (41:17):
Forty nine Ers fullback Kyle Yuschek told the media over
the weekend that Christian McCaffrey looks quote incredible, and that
he will change everything.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
For the forty nine ers everything.
Speaker 6 (41:26):
Yes, Ben, does a healthy McCaffrey drastically change the outlook
for the Niners?
Speaker 4 (41:30):
No, because it's July. I don't doubt that he's healthy
in July.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Didn't he just announce the other a kid or he
had a kid, Christian McCaffrey, So listen, looking healthy in
July is one thing. McCaffrey was always hurt with Carolina.
That's one of the reasons they got rid of him.
He had a stretch of health through the Niners. The
real Christian McCaffrey is the guy gets hurt all the time.
So it doesn't change the outlook for the Niners because
he's not going to be healthy by the time we
get to reach seven or week eight next.
Speaker 6 (41:55):
So the Los Angeles Angels had the number two pick
in the Umber.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
Oh, yes they had.
Speaker 6 (42:01):
They had the top top rated pitching prospect there on
the board, but they did not take him. Yes, and
said they took Tyler Brenner. Bremner who U nobody had
him ranked even in the top ten. Yeah, Ben, is
this a Is this a.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
GM move or an ownership move. Who's the blame for this?
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Well, the other argument, Coop, is this kid Holidays that
was a top player in the draft.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
The Angels could have drafted him.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
They could have gotten the number one guy at number two. No,
it's it's signability. It's nobody knows anything about the baseball
draft anyway, nobody knows anything about the NFL or the
basketball draft.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
So it's signed.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
But it is odd though, when you take somebody that's
not even projected to be a top ten pick at
the number two pick. Something's gone terribly wrong there for
the Angels. But I think it's a signability thing. They
knew they could sign this guy from Santa Barbara, so
or he's pitching at Santa Barbara next.
Speaker 6 (42:49):
Former All Pro defensive tackle Domakon Sue announced his retirement
on Saturday. He has had an impressive career since being
drafted out of Nebraska. Is it enough to get him
into the Hall?
Speaker 2 (42:58):
No?
Speaker 4 (42:59):
Because he blocked on Twitter.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Remember when he was about to sign with the Rams
and a listener contacted us and told him told us
he was at a hotel and he panicked and domoicon
Sue and blocked me.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
On social media.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Now he's got a Hall of Fame resume, but because
he blocked me, no.
Speaker 4 (43:12):
Hall of fame for you? How did we do? He passed, said,
that's it went by my bar.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
No hall of fame, no hallkame, no halkime.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
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. Hey you sports figure guy or girl?
Speaker 4 (43:39):
Who got here? Was you talking to songs?
Speaker 6 (43:40):
Here?
Speaker 4 (43:41):
Some interesting advice? Hold that thought. No one's paid attention
to me for ten whole seconds. And if you don't
like it, so who needs our advice? The wisdom, the
knowledge of the malord militia.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
So I was gonna do something else, but we've had
so many angry old dudes calling up the show here complaining.
So let's help out. Jerome and Charleston and Mark the
full name guy help them chill out. Any advice to
Jerome in Charleston, bring it home, Jerome and the aforementioned
(44:11):
Mark the full name guy who just called up helping
them chill out?
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Understand? All right, let's go to the phones right.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Now, and let's see who do we have here? We'll
start out with you online one eight seven, seven ninety
nine on Fox. Caller, you're on the air advice to
Jerome and Charleston, Mark the full name guy.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
To chill out in morning time? Look at you. Look
at the mystics.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
They won three in a row.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
All right, that's like Danny DeVito. There is another WNBA guy.
Speaker 4 (44:36):
Hello, I'll call you're on the air.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Caller, your advice to Jerome and Charleston and Mark the
full name guy on how to chill out, Mark.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
And Scott I usually like boobs.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
All right, thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Line number number five is you're toning the Bay area.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
Line five, you're on the airline five. Hello, all right.
Line five is not paying attention. We go to line six,
Line six.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
You're on the air air Line six at eight seven,
seven ninety nine on Fox.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
Hello, line six. More like the miss.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
He's the most mussy WWE superstar. He's proven inside the
ring and outside the ring.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
And he can pitch for the Brewers as well. Hello caller,
you're on the air. Caller.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
We're doing the instant advice line for Jerome and Charleston,
Mark the full name guy helping them chill out.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
Hello, do it biged.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
Okay, just a big bag of weed. That's we're ninety
couldn't even say it. Line four, you're on the air.
Number four Hello, Line four, fire, okay, all right? Line five, Hello,
line five, you're next. It's unscreened callers. Line five, we're
giving advice to Okay, just get some gumbo jumbalai there
(45:49):
from Mark, the full name guy in Jerome and Charleston.
Speaker 4 (45:51):
Line six, you're on the Airline six.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Hello, you used to have a toll glasses dot my
favorite drink.
Speaker 4 (45:56):
Yeah, I don't know about that.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
You got the doctor, Sean the hood got you can
in line number three?
Speaker 4 (46:01):
Hello, line three.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Number Yes, this problem can only be alleviated by betting
on the hot girl on girl Ah.
Speaker 4 (46:11):
Yeah, yes, there's our friend the keg drinking Steve checking in.
It sounds like Line four, Hello, line four.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
How many people have to.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
Tell you to watch the w NBA before you finally alright?
Lines five, you're on the air.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Line five, Hello, amazing bump Okay, Yes, he costs you
some money. Line six, you're on the air. Hello, line six,
just along? Can we just get along? Yes?
Speaker 2 (46:36):
All right?
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Last one last call for Jerome and Charleston. Mark, the
full name guy helping them chill out. Which one cool?
Line five?
Speaker 4 (46:44):
Line number five, Hello, line five, you're on the air.
Speaker 6 (46:47):
Go.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
I don't really care about those two guys, but Shane
in the.
Speaker 4 (46:50):
Mo keep all right, al, he's gonna bury Shane in
the morning right there. But he got saved by the bell,
or Shane did.
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 Benmalers 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 (00:23):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Pause pause, pause, No more baseball, No, not for the
better part of the week. Welcome, no, no real baseball.
Welcome in the beginning of another week for us of
the Ben Mahler Show. We are in the air everywhere, howling.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Into the abyss as we are, not some corporate clones.
That's why we hide out under the cover of darkness,
coast to coast, border the border and beyond on the
vast and definitely powerful microphones of FSR as.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
We emmate live.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Do it live from the ocean, just a drop in
the audio ocean from the Fox Sports Radio Studios, as
approved by the unhinged lunatic Mark the full name guy
who came out of hiding to send a bunch of
very odd messages go.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Back to hiding.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Now go back behind the refrigerator mark you know what
to do. This portion of the Ben Maller Show made
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Speaker 4 (02:02):
I'd be sorr Lee this hour.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
We're going to start out in Wisconsin, although it's really
at the League office in New York City. The curtain
has come down, pens down, the music has paused, as
it is the All Star break in Major League Baseball,
no more real baseball. The players hate the All Star Game.
They don't want to go to the All Star Game.
(02:25):
They can't stand the All Star Game. But they want
you baseball does to watch the All Star Game.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
More in that in a minute.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So All Star news over the weekend, get the home
run Derby Derby Derby Derby coming up on Monday. All
Star Game on Tuesday days off and then back at
it late in the week So the biggest storyline here
around the All Star Game, and it's happened and developed
over the weekend. The news came out over the weekend,
(02:53):
and then the reaction of anger and rage at Major
League Baseball. So if you haven't heard, perhaps not the
phenom of phenoms. As somebody from Wisconsin said, I wrote
a love letter, miler monologue about the performance I saw
against the Dodgers the other day of the mizz and
he is the story of baseball yet again over the weekend.
(03:14):
Jacob Mazerowski, the six foot seven Brewers flame thrower with
five career starts five career starts, has been added as
an All Star. Yes, five starts, this cat's an All Star,
not five wins. I didn't say five wins. I didn't
(03:35):
say five quality starts. He got lit up by the Mets.
Five starts, period.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Five all Star, five starts, All Star Game. So this
has become a polarizing topic. The Phillies are up in arms.
More on that in a minute. Also, longtime Major League
Baseball broadcaster Ron Darling, not happy, said it's kind of
a joke. Darling said to the game, and it's a
(04:03):
bad choice for baseball.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Close quote from Ron Darley.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So let us discuss a question for the esteem panel,
and you are now on the esteem panel. So the
question Milwaukee Flamethrow Jacob Mazarowski gets All Star nod, the
All Star roster spot, thumbs up or thumbs down on
the Miz making the All Star Games. So I've got
(04:30):
online marketplace, Olivia Rodrigo and Hedonist, and we will combine
these three very random things that have never been combined together,
and we are going to put the biscuit in the basket,
is what we're going to do. So hey, my first
thought to answer the question thumbs up, thumbs down on
the Miz making the All Star team, thumbs down, In fact,
(04:52):
two thumbs down.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I got two thumbs down on this. Now, this one
is simple, all right.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
This is a textbook exam of lowering the standards. And again,
I like the player. I am a I want to
see this turn out to be a great career.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
It would be wonderful.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I like the player, but this a little bit too
much too soon, a little bit too much too soon.
So I'm going thumbs down the standard for all Star
selection is the way to get in.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
There's a couple of ways to get it. Be really
really good, right, really really good.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Or be on a crap team, and then somebody has
to make the All Star team, like play for the
White Sox of the Rockies, they have to have an
All Star which is tradition. But outside of that, and
the Brewers are not a bad team, they're not a
great team.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
They're somewhere in the middle. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
The standard for the All Star selection, which had been
rooted up until a couple of years ago, rooted in
what performance, consistency, reliability, all of those big words.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
That was the credibility that meant something.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
And it reminds me of what they've done in the NFL,
where the Pro Bowl is now tic tac toe and
water balloon toss. Baseball is gonna get to that point,
and they're gonna get there very fast by having someone
in the All Star Game.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
With five starts five five, I mean, my god.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So they're now tossing out All Star bursts like sunflower
seed shells in the dugout. You get an All Star,
you get an All Star, you get an All Star.
And why are they doing is why is Jacob Mazaraski
an All Star? Well, one word marketing, capital M marketing.
That's how right buzz brand engagement. So wow, Milwaukee's a
(06:37):
small market. Why does baseball care about Milwaukee? Well, it's
the story. It's the story. Everyone loves a good story, right,
We learn from stories, with all all human beings learned
from stories. But this is Major League Baseball's latest episode
of look at me and See. The issue is heaven forbid?
Heaven forbid you just allow these things to play themselves
(06:59):
out naturally, have the organic experience. But no, it's about Hey,
it's marking. So you're going to take someone that has
a lot of hype even.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Though they're in a you know, a smaller town in.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Milwaukee, and an undercooked prospect, and a prospect is a
suspect until Brovel lies. But he's got a really sexy
radar gun, you know, I mean, he's one hundred miles
an hour a lot and that's pretty cool. And so
social media likes him, so they'll get some applause on
the social media and all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Now, and so we like the player. We did a
monologue celebrating.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Them is and all that as we said, however, Major
League Baseball here on this one another unforced error by
Rob Manford and his underlings at the league office. Here,
major League Baseball sticking it to the players who have
earned earned the All Star honor through months and often
years of continued service and success on the field. And
(07:57):
so no, and those players, I'm sure there are some,
not all, but some would would would have liked to
have been an All Star. But they get shoved to
the side right there in the background. And the reason
they're in the background is because of the online marketplace
mlbshop dot com. Right, can you sell a few more jerseys?
Can you move the merch? And who's gonna move the merch?
(08:18):
Some nondescript pitcher has been around for a number of years.
Who happens to pitch for? I don't know the Phillies
or the Red Sox or the mizz Oh he's got
the story, right, that's the answer. That's obviously the answer.
Marketing capital, m MLB shop sell some merch, sell some merch.
This is Jacob Mezerowski's moment. Is not supposed to be
his moment. Five starts.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
You don't get your moment.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
The reason it's his moment is because Major League Baseball's
marketing department's horny to sell some merch and create a star.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
They have to create the next.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Big thing brand engagements, engagement farming, engagement from get out
the tractor graham A. It's engagement farming, and we should
not be And the reason that we should not be
surprised if you've been paying attention, this is the same
Rob Manford run organization Major League Baseball that long ago
(09:12):
gave up any of the traditions of the game for
digital impressions. This is what it's all about. Baseball is
convinced they have taken the kool aid. They like the
kool aid when it comes to the matrix of social media,
and that's what it's all about, right, So they go
back and forth or like, in some areas they want
to honor tradition. Of course they can make a buck
(09:32):
on it. They're like, I want to honor tradition, and
then in other areas they want to take a bulldozer
and just drive over the tradition of baseball. But they've
allowed the matrix to form the blueprint on which direction
they're going to go. And miss Arowski stuff comes in,
uh and not I thought five.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Starts was not en off.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
But considering what Baseball's done and the Mizz's story and
all that stuff, it's like, all right, he's so far
as good as advertised.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Did have a stinker against the match, but we'll overlook that. See.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
The thing about it, though, is you would say, if
he's as good as he's supposed to be, his time
will come, his opportunity will come. And baseball's always in
the past. But about letting that greatness unfold over time. Right,
it doesn't happen right away all the time, but right
now in this moment, No, that's not the case.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
That's not how we do things here. Now.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
When there's a meme out there that Rob Manford doesn't
really understand, the internet it gets all excited about.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
He's like, oh man, it's mean, mean meme.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I love the meme, I'm all about it, all about it, right,
and a couple of impressions on social media.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
They get all excited about that.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
But the All Star Game, so okay, much like the
Pro Bowl used to mean something, All Star Game, not
to be fair, the All Star Game.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
This has been a thing which has.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Gone the wrong direction for a long time, like it's
been going a wrong direction for many, many years here,
but is another staged moment by Major League Baseball, right
stage managed for theater. It's a like a Broadway show here,
and baseball is so desperate. They have such low self
(11:12):
esteem at Major League Baseball. They want to look cool.
They do everything they can to look cool, and they
just can't help themselves. They can't because it's all about
being cool. And whether that means they have to erode
things that made the sport what it became valuable for,
it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
It's all about the clickety click clicketty clickty click atty.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Click and he click anny click.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
And those those clips of themz on Instagram are really good.
So five starts, I mean, okay, but that being you'd admit,
those are some good, good looking clips on social media.
Right now, we turned the page. So in the face
of the pushback, and there has been some pushback by
players and the old timers in baseball, the old heads
(11:59):
and base of pushback on adding Jacob Miserawski to the
All Star team after five games. Major League Baseball officials
claim that it's not their fault. They claimed they tried,
they did everything they could in their power to find
someone else, and they told their buddies in the media.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
They said they.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Actually reached out to over a dozen or right around
a dozen. I think the number I saw was a
dozen over the weekend, a dozen pitchers looking to replace.
They needed a replacement for the All Star Game, and
they kept looking and looking and looking and looking until
they finally got to Jacob Zowski.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
He agreed to do it. So do you believe it
or not?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Do you believe it or not that Baseball's like, well, listen,
we tried. We didn't really want to bring this guy,
but we had no other options cuz we went down
in order and we got to him and we had
to go with him because there was nobody else. So
I am not a believer on this. I am not
a believer. This is again a M and a marketing
(13:01):
move is an M and M.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Just own it. Just own it.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Say listen, the guy doesn't really deserve it, but people
like him and we think he's gonna be good, so
we want to see him in the All Star Game.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
And it's an exhibition game, so who cares. That's it.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Now, there's a wider issue here, which is absolutely a
thing and it's the disease is all over, the plague
is all over professional sports. But the marketing move was
why the Miz is in the All Star Game. And
when you piece the when you piece together the puzzle,
you put the jigsaw puzzle together. Here, Major League Baseball,
(13:38):
if they had wanted to, could have found someone else
to go to the All Star Game. Now they might
have had to go down to like twenty pick twenty five.
They would have gotten someone for the All Star Game.
And they should have found someone else. They obviously did not.
They didn't look that hard. My theory is they didn't
look that hard, and if you look at this through
(13:58):
that lens, that they weren't really trying to find someone
other than is they wanted him to be in the
All Star Game. It's like that Olivia Rodrigo song deja vu,
because remember last year we had this similar conversation. Now,
last year Major League Baseball added you rememberhe they added
That's right, Paul Skens, the Pirate's phenom who lit the
(14:20):
baseball world on fire a year ago. Paul Skins. Now
he made the All Star Game. He started the All
Star Game last year as a hot shot rookie eleven
starts into his big league career. So so eleven starts
in fine. Now we supported that. Last year we thought
that was okay. This we did not support.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Now. The reason the difference is y the Robbies. The
average starting.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Pitcher in baseball will make around thirty four starts. Most
of them do not hit that number, but the number
is about thirty four starts per year based on one
hundred and sixty two games that somebody starts. You're supposed
to make if you're in the starting rotation. So eleven
starts out of thirty four works out be thirty two
percent of a full season. Now the numbers even higher,
(15:03):
the percentage even higher if the average number goes down
to thirty. But we'll say it's thirty four. So that's
thirty two percent of a season. The Miz starting five
games for the Brew Crew before the All Star Game,
five that is less than fifteen percent of the full
season of starts, and you make an All Star appearance,
(15:26):
and that's where we are.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
That's where we are now.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Last word, the Fighting Pills very upset that their pitcher
did not make the All Star Game. Instead, Jacob Izerowski
made it. Now one of the outspoken critics a man
that is notorious for hitting the home run at the time,
you shouldn't hit a home run when someone's giving a
grobbling apology on television. Nick Castellanos, Now, he came out
(15:50):
so winging. He came out swinging. The Phillies outfielder was
not happy and he's not happy with the way the
All Star Game is going. He's also one of those
guys that has All Star number. I don't believes on
the All Star team anyway. Nick Castellanos said of the
All Star Game quote, it's turning into the Savannah bananas.
It's turning into the Savannah bananas. Your thoughts, all right?
(16:13):
So my thought on this is that is exactly what
baseball wants.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
That is their wet dream. Am I wrong?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Baseball wants Savannah banana. They want the bananas, They need
the bananas. Baseball loves bananas.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
They do. They're jealous. I'm telling you, I've heard this
from people who work in baseball.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
The people with the League office are jealous of the
Savannah Bananas, who are essentially the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Right, barnstorming group.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
They're on television now, they've got a cult following people
seem to like, and they sell out football stadiums and baseball.
It annoys them. They're like, we've been around for one
hundred and forty something years, what do you do it?
It bothers them. They're annoyed by this. They're jealous of
the attention that in the social media world they are
(17:04):
seen as cool and the bananas are cool. When has
the banana ever been cool? Well, the Savannah Bananas are cool.
Pack stadium, social media content, buzz on social media, television audience.
I don't think it's huge, but people are watching, and
that is the core of Major League Baseball's business plan.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
They don't have to pay the Savannah Bananas. The players
on the team make peanuts. They don't even get paid bananas.
They they get paid peanuts because they're cheaper. They can't
even afford bananas to pay them. They pay them with peanuts.
And major League Baseball is if you look at the
rock and roll element of having fun, you know, which
is what they have when you watch the highlights.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
I've never watched a full.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Savannah Bananas game, so I couldn't tell you, but it
appears they're having fun now furthermore so, Major League Baseball
also concerned about the rash of players who have bailed out.
We mentioned this, players that have bailed out of the
All Star Game. They don't want to show up. And
then the most common re let's see, I'm gonna give
you a phrase to see if you can tell me
where this phraseer is is the most common reason that
(18:07):
Major League Baseball players have opted out of the All
Star Game twenty twenty five. The year of our Lord
is rest and recuperation. Rest and recuperation, all right, So
what is behind? What is behind the Major League Baseball
players skipping the All Star Game for rest and recuperation?
Speaker 4 (18:26):
All right?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So this is a sign of the times. It's the
same brain rot they have in the other sports, and
it's been around for a while, right. These baseball guys,
they see those softy NBA players bitching about back to
back games, like we play like sometimes we'll play two
weeks in a row with no days, Oh my god.
And the basketball players they play one game and they
can play in it. Oh my, that whole thing all right.
(18:47):
So there we're in the age of Hey, I want
the hedonist experience, I want the work life balance is
what they want, and it's it's been building and building
in Billiam Over twenty years ago. I was on these
microphones of Fox Sports Radio. The All Star Game was
in Milwaukee, and the defining moment of Bud Selik, who
(19:09):
overlooked all the steroid guys, but Bud Celick is the commissioner.
They used car salesman there, threw his arms up in
the air everywhere, literally right in the eleventh inning of
a tie game of a tie game, and told the umpires,
he said, listen.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
They're out of pitchers. Tie game.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
And the reason they were out of players was because
now the game entered in a tie. The All Star Game,
the players were leaving the stadium while the game was
going on. They couldn't stand being in Milwaukee. They were
trying to get out of there. They get the airport
hell out of there to go to the Bahamas or
Hawaii or wherever, and said he couldn't wait to get
out of the airport right and Major League Baseball had
(19:49):
this this time It Counts marketing campaign for years after
that where they actually decided the World Series home field
advantage based on who won the All Star Game. To
stick it to the players but here we are again.
The players today are like, Hey, we see what the
NBA guys are doing. We're just as big as cream
puff as those NBA guys. We want that extra time off. No,
(20:10):
I don't care, I promote the game. We're not doing that.
Come we might get hurt. We might get hurt too.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Hey it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of piping hot baseball talk featuring the
biggest names of newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe
in analytics or the I cast, we've got all the
bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, So do yourself
a favor and listen to Inside the Parker with Rob
(20:50):
Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
As Lebron's world turns, I know Bulbrmellia.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
We talk about the stories that are the stories of
the day.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Welcome in the beginning of another hour of The Ben
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while the rest of our industry is fast asleep.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
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Speaker 1 (21:28):
Us coast to coast, border the water and beyond on
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(21:51):
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the Way Tire Buying show me. So our lead this
hour is from the Lebron Files, not to be confused
(22:25):
with some other kind of files. But no, this is
all about Lebron and we are contractually obligated, as it
turns out, for an obligatory malar monologue, much to the
approval of Eugene in Chicago, who is anticipating this spicy
Margarita edition of a Malar monologue on Lebron James and
(22:48):
his life in Times. Here's some new developments over the weekend.
New developments, new developments, new developments. While we were away
from the watchtower guarding the overnight graveyard of sports takes,
there were some new things that took place here. So
if you didn't follow along, don't worry. That's what we're
here for. We got your back. We kept tabs on
what was going on so you would not have to.
(23:09):
So chatter over the weekend, little chit chat over the
weekend that indicated that there are a four pack, four
pack of teams that are attempting to acquire Lebron James.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
No, those teams are.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
In no formal order, the Dallas mav Rex, the Golden
State Warriors, the Cleveland Cadavers, and the Clippers. Supposedly, so
that story came out though those teams have emerged as
possible suitors for Lebron James.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
That happened over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Now, those four teams, if you believe the chatter, if
you believe the Internet chatter, those four teams contacted Lebron's
conciliary right his body.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
There Rich Paul. Who is that. If you want to
talk to the mob as, you gotta go through the
Conticklar area, and that would be Rich Paul. And that
is where we are right now.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
So let us discuss the question for the panel, the
blue ribbon panel. Where are you at on the fearsome,
fursome pursuing Lebron James. All right, so I've got Vintage
Cookie jar, Dali Lama and Philadelphia Original and we will
(24:27):
combine all of these things together and we are gonna
make the Gobaul. We're gonna make the Gobba goal for
our friend in Florida. So number I said number right. Yes,
Now we provide a skeptical eye for the regular guy.
Now I even have buyfocals on, so I have extra
skepticism is what I have on here.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
But this is not the.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Lebron sweep Steaks. It was presented as the Lebron Sweepstakes.
I don't buy that that narrative. I'm not going there.
It's it's more like the Lebron flea market. Now, you
can find a nice thing every now and again at
the flea market, and that's what this is. It's the
Lebron James flea market. And it's like, what's what's going on?
(25:10):
Then what's on the table at the flea market? You're like,
do I want that kind of fade a little bit?
I'm not sure about that, and it was. It is
not the shiny new toy. We're not We're not auctioning
off the shiny new toy. This is Lebron James at
this point is a vintage cookie jar. It's cracked, a
little bit faded now, it still has some value. There's
(25:33):
still some value there. And if you squint hard enough
at the vintage cookie jar and you look at it
and you ignore the fact that the cookies inside turns stale.
Right around the time they got that little Mickey Mouse
bubble ring that doesn't really count back at Disney World,
like a nice little souvenir therey.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
You get a ring, not a real one. Not a
real one. As we learned from the Oklahoma City thunder Guard.
Not everyone.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
So Lebron James the greatest player of his generation, not
the greatest of all time, as he trails Michael Jordan
and others. He's also across the rubicon the Dreaded four.
He's in the Dreaded forties age range at this particular
point Lebron James, and so you put it all together,
and while he still can put up numbers for you,
(26:23):
and the kind of numbers that if you work over
at ESPN, right, you think Lebron's like the Dalai Lama.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
You do.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
You treat him like the Dalai Lama and all that,
and you can't wait to hear what he has to
say about every effing thing.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
You gotta get to the bottom of Lebron James, all right.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
So the impact is measured now more in a moment's
rather than months of greatness. There's individual moments on a
given night. Lebron can put up some big numbers and
all that stuff. But it's one of those buyer beware
situations for anyone that does business with Lebron James. It
is a buyer beware situation because that cookie jar Lebron
(27:01):
is like the flea market vintage cookie jar Lebron. It
looks okay from a distance on a shelf. You're like,
that's not that bad, and I could buy that. It's
a couple of bucks. I gotta pay cash, no credit card.
It's a couple of bucks and the lids chipped again,
though a little bit and you look at it and
the basis, you get a little closer to see a
little crack there on the base of it, and it
(27:22):
really only opens when it wants to, and so that's
not particularly great and all that stuff, and the four
teams that are supposedly in on this it's a nostalgia play.
It would be a nostalgia play for Lebron, and that's what.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
You're going for at this particular point, and sell some stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
You become in the conversation. You're always in the conversation. Now,
Lebron's camp is trying really.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Hard to control the narrative.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
They are working over time to try to control the
stories about Lebron. And they know how the offseason NBA
world works and so they they're the expert and all that.
So Rich Paul is the one feeding the pipeline. He's
the one out there and in our opinion, Rich Paul's
the one that is the puppet master directing everything here
(28:12):
in terms of media consumption on preferred destinations for Lebron.
James now in order a home cooking with the Cadavers, right,
go back to Ohio for a third time, win one
more championship with the Cavaliers fade to black Boom done right,
And of course that would be like Lebron going back
(28:33):
to Cleveland for a third time. It's like they're the
ex girlfriend that keeps texting you, hey, you up.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
At the three in the morning or whatever. I don't know, but.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
It's nostalgic to go back to Cleveland and do it
again and all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
It's also a bit delusional.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Then I would say the old Geezers Club, which would
be the Golden State Warriors, hang out in San Francisco,
and you got Steph Curry on one side, Draymond Green
on the other, Jimmy Butler, Jimmy Buckets is still there,
and Lebron and Drayman come on, can do podcasts together,
and they can fire Steve Kerr and hire some podcast
guided coach the Golden State Warriors like the Lakers did
for Lebron, and they'll get along good, Lebron and Draymond
(29:11):
Green until they try to hijack the clipboard from whoever
the coach is, that's Steve Kerr or somebody else.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Then it's gonna get ugly. And then you've got the reunited.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
It feels so good with Anthony Davis to go to
Dallas and then stick it to the Lakers as a
mav wreck with Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving and all
those injured guys that are on the Mavericks right now,
and they instead of Taco Tuesday, they can have Tex
Mex Wednesday in Dallas, Anthony Davis and Lebron. How great
would that be? Of course, we all know Lebron would
(29:41):
prefer to play for the Clippers. Who everyone wants to
play for the Clippers. It's hip to clip who wouldn't
want to play for the Clippers. But we're going to
eliminate the Clippers. And here's why. Here's why we're gonna
limit the Clippers, because there's no way the Lakers are
going to allow.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
That to happen.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
There's zero chants like the Clippers have a better owner,
they have a better arena, they a better fan base.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Everyone knows that in town in La. They're not going
to allow.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Lebron to go over there and embarrass the Lakers even
more so, that's not gonna happen, right, So Jeanie Buss,
he's still supposedly in charge, not gonna do that, right,
Not not gonna allow that to happen to go over
to Inglewood in the hood in Inglewood and play for
the Clippers.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
So we'll eliminate them now, page two.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
So we'll go to to Vegas the Summer League, which
is going on over the weekend there, and Lebron was
sitting courtside.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
You see this over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
I glanced at it as Lebron sitting courtside watching his
kid that sucks at basketball play for the Lakers summer
League team because he's a Nepo baby and he won
a sweepstakes raffle to get on the Lakers. So there's
Bronni out there who sucks, but you know it's make
a wish. So he's out there playing for the Lakers,
and Lebron's watching them. They played the I guess the
Pelicans or a version a facsimile of the Pelicans in
(30:54):
the Summer League.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
Now, ESBN invited Lebron. James invited Lebron. You see this.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
They invited Lebron on air to address the speculation which
has been running rampant about where Lebron's gonna go. It
is he upset with this person, that person, the other person.
And so Lebron did he say yes, I will go
on television. I would like to talk B. I have
nothing to say or see no comment. Lebron said, quote,
if you picked B, you win. He said, quote, I
(31:23):
ain't got nothing to talk about. He must have learned
that in high school and acrin, I ain't got nothing
to talk about. So question, why did Lebron James refuse
the opportunity the platform to speak about his situation while
in attendance at the Las Vegas Summerly He had his
sullen look on his face, bad body language from Lebron
(31:46):
as he was sitting courtside there in Vegas. So the
answer is by saying nothing, By Lebron saying nothing, in
passing up the opportunity, Lebron gave a masterclass and I'm
in control control one oh one. By not saying anything
he could have popped on television.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Is true.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
He was given the opportunity, he was given the platform
Lebron to jump over there on television and pretend like
everything's good, and he chose not to do it. He
had ESPN essentially throwing themselves at him and just you
know again, he said, I'm not I'm not doing it.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
I'm not gonna go there, uh, and he missed the
opportunity right, the old Dali Lama line. While he could
have been you know, they treated him like the Dalai Lama.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
But Lebron, he could have taken a fire extinguisher and
put out the fire.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Right, take the fire extinguisher, put out the fire. But
he likes the fire.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
It's like he's warming marshmallows on a stick in the fire.
And so instead he worked to pour some kerosene on
top of the fire.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Burn, baby burn.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
And it's like a cloak and dagger type mission. Have
the useful idiots, You toss out these bread crumbs. He
dropped these little bread crumbs. But you don't do it
if somebody else do it for you. So you dropped
the breadcrumbs out there, and you post cryptic things on
the Gram and all that stuff, and you let the
media do the dirty work the heavy lifting for you
and all that, and so you don't talk because you
(33:13):
don't have to talk. Right, other people are talking. I'm
talking about you. Everyone's talking about you.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Right, the machine, the machine of basketball content is discussing
Lebron James. Now this is the same guy that years
ago had the remember the zero Dark thirty stick and
the playoff run, and of course we know that often
didn't last and work so well, so he stopped doing that,
but he treated it like it was a ritual like
(33:40):
Marty Grass for Lebron before the playoffs there, and so
Lebron chose not to speak. Not the silence was not silence,
it was strategy. That was what what Lebron was doing here.
And by refusing to go on camera and not using
your own voice to get the message out and all
(34:00):
that stuff in Vegas where you want to be seen, right,
you go to Vegas to be seeing the party and
all that stuff, and everything's a show in Vegas, and
Lebron's part of the show, and he knew exactly what
he was doing. Classic passive aggressive behavior.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
By Labron James.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Yet again, let the drama swirl, swirl, swirl, swirl, and
that's what he was doing there, and he just sits
back and watches the speculation and it just is everywhere
there's there's there's a residence, there's a heat. It's like
coming off the blacktop there of on the on the court,
and he's keeping it cool, right, He's sitting there, he's
got his arms fold. He's unbothered, at least he wants
(34:39):
you to believe he's unbothered by everything.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
That's going on now.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Using my Rosetta stone, using my malleor Rosetta stone to
translate Lebron and what he meant in playing English in
layman's terms. When Lebron said, I ain't got nothing to
talk about, that was his quote.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
I ain't got nothing to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
That means I know you're all panicking about where I'm
going to be traded or if I'm going to be traded,
all that, and I'm just watching you squirm, and I've
got an evil laugh.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
Just like that. We know the routine. We all know.
Every man, woman and child knows the routine.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Now the final point, staying in Las Vegas. We talked
earlier on the Overnight show about the brain rot in
professional sports. Out of an abundance of caution, everyone must
do the bare minimum. Do not go above and beyond
the call of duty like previous generations.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
You do the bare minimum.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Another example of that, the Dallas Mavericks have decided we
are shutting down Cooper Flag. The flag is down, yes,
Cooper Flag for the remainder of the NBA Summer League.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
IX nay on.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
The flag A as he has been shut down. I
will not be playing. Only played two games, two, that's it.
So how do you react to the number one overall
pick in the NBA draft only playing two games and
being shut down? So I give this one the old
shoulder shrug. I shrugged my shoulders of this to sign
(36:13):
yet again, much like we talked earlier, sign of the
times in professional sports. And this infestation is everywhere. And
two games, that's it. Two games, one suck bag game
and then one that was okay, and a couple of
glorified scrimmages in Vegas in July and that Vegas heat.
(36:34):
And that's all she wrote. That's all she wrote for
Cooper Flag, the Mavericks new teenage sensation of Maverick Nation.
They put him back into bubble wrap and they put
him into storage. That's it, that's all. And they've treated
him like some kind of high end vase they don't
want to break. And they'll put that away in the
(36:56):
garage and they'll take that out when we get back
to the irregular season. The Mavericks, in their infamit wisdom
also known as paranoia, the Mavericks are shutting down Cooper
Flag for the rest of the summer League. Not because
he's hurt, by the way, not because he's hurt, Not
because he asked out saying I can't handle this, I
can't do it. No, they're just being cautious out of
(37:20):
an abundance of caution. They're being careful because God forbid,
God forbid a young athlete who's been I assume playing
aau ball since they came out of the womb there
and that they can't mae, just a couple of extra
games and that's too much, that's too much for the
prodigy out of Maine.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Cannot do it. Cooper Flag.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
I gotta shut him down, Shut him down right now, right,
I mean, that's where we are.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
That is exactly where we are right.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Now, just like the baseball players trying to skip the
All Star Game because oh man, I.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Need my resting realization and recovery. I need oh that.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
So now, the NBA is not just soft. They're not
just soft. They are whipped cream soft.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
Is the NBA. In fact, they're not even just whipped cream.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
If they were a type of cheese, they would be
a Philadelphia original Philadelphia cream cheese.
Speaker 4 (38:16):
That's what they would be the NBA and a little.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Rice cake action on the side there and some cream
cheese and Philadelphia cream cheese. That's where they are there.
And Cooper Flag is just the latest example of that.
They say the Mavericks that he quote showed enough, That's
what they say.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
Please, how did he show enough? Exactly? What does that
even mean? I don't even know what that means? A
vague term.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
So another player that rather than try to get them
up to speed where they settle into the.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
To the grind, right the grind.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Were talking to some old baseball players about that, and like,
and baseball people will complain in the base I know,
crossing the streams here, crossing the sports. But pitchers are
soft in baseball because they've been trained to be soft
well basketball players. Here's an opportunity with Cooper Flag to
be like, you're not gonna be like all the rest.
We're gonna we're gonna train you to not run from
the grind like these other NBA stars, and we're gonna
(39:10):
train you to run towards the grind. And not away
from it. But instead the Mavericks have the opportunity and
with so wing Barra, saw Wing Barra, that's it. So
instead they're sending Cooper Flag the number one, picking the
draft back back to the lab, putting him in a
test tube some cryogenic chamber somewhere in Dallas.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
And he really didn't even get a real whiff of
what it's all about in the in the NBA.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
And so he's I think he's still like nineteen years
old and all that stuff, and they're treating him like
he's a grizzled thirty nine year old veteran with arthritick
hips and his knees are all messed up and he's
he's had double knee replacement surgery and that's what they're
treating him like.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
And he's a teenager.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Uh so, you know again, opportunity here, Am I crazy
to toughen this guy up? And no, it's straight pampers, baby,
It's it's pampers all the way, is what it is
for Cooper Flag. And right from the draft, get the
therapy dog out the whole thing, Get a nice warm
blankeye and a glass of milk, and you load management.
(40:17):
You got to get that trained early on all about
the load management. But it's even more of that. It's
like fear disguised as some kind of science and that
old phrase. We learned that in twenty twenty during the pandemic.
You can get away with almost anything. If you say
out of an abundance of caution, you can convince people
to do almost anything, and they'll do it and people
can't question it, and you just have to go with
(40:38):
it and you just can't question it. So this is
where we are with the NBA and Cooper Flag. It's
a out of an abundance of caution, please, So another
opportunity could have developed, didn't develop, and now they're treating
Cooper Flag like he's in a museum somewhere and you
don't want to, you know, get too violent and have
activity on the court and all that stuff. So we'll
(40:58):
just make sure some no dust gets on him.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Go we got this is one big Ben gets grilled
cup Ball.
Speaker 6 (41:17):
Forty nine Ers fullback Kyle Yuschek told the media over
the weekend that Christian McCaffrey looks quote incredible, and that
he will change everything.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
For the forty nine ers everything.
Speaker 6 (41:26):
Yes, Ben, does a healthy McCaffrey drastically change the outlook
for the Niners?
Speaker 4 (41:30):
No, because it's July. I don't doubt that he's healthy
in July.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Didn't he just announce the other a kid or he
had a kid, Christian McCaffrey, So listen, looking healthy in
July is one thing. McCaffrey was always hurt with Carolina.
That's one of the reasons they got rid of him.
He had a stretch of health through the Niners. The
real Christian McCaffrey is the guy gets hurt all the time.
So it doesn't change the outlook for the Niners because
he's not going to be healthy by the time we
get to reach seven or week eight next.
Speaker 6 (41:55):
So the Los Angeles Angels had the number two pick
in the Umber.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
Oh, yes they had.
Speaker 6 (42:01):
They had the top top rated pitching prospect there on
the board, but they did not take him. Yes, and
said they took Tyler Brenner. Bremner who U nobody had
him ranked even in the top ten. Yeah, Ben, is
this a Is this a.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
GM move or an ownership move. Who's the blame for this?
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Well, the other argument, Coop, is this kid Holidays that
was a top player in the draft.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
The Angels could have drafted him.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
They could have gotten the number one guy at number two. No,
it's it's signability. It's nobody knows anything about the baseball
draft anyway, nobody knows anything about the NFL or the
basketball draft.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
So it's signed.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
But it is odd though, when you take somebody that's
not even projected to be a top ten pick at
the number two pick. Something's gone terribly wrong there for
the Angels. But I think it's a signability thing. They
knew they could sign this guy from Santa Barbara, so
or he's pitching at Santa Barbara next.
Speaker 6 (42:49):
Former All Pro defensive tackle Domakon Sue announced his retirement
on Saturday. He has had an impressive career since being
drafted out of Nebraska. Is it enough to get him
into the Hall?
Speaker 2 (42:58):
No?
Speaker 4 (42:59):
Because he blocked on Twitter.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Remember when he was about to sign with the Rams
and a listener contacted us and told him told us
he was at a hotel and he panicked and domoicon
Sue and blocked me.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
On social media.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Now he's got a Hall of Fame resume, but because
he blocked me, no.
Speaker 4 (43:12):
Hall of fame for you? How did we do? He passed, said,
that's it went by my bar.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
No hall of fame, no hallkame, no halkime.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
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. Hey you sports figure guy or girl?
Speaker 4 (43:39):
Who got here? Was you talking to songs?
Speaker 6 (43:40):
Here?
Speaker 4 (43:41):
Some interesting advice? Hold that thought. No one's paid attention
to me for ten whole seconds. And if you don't
like it, so who needs our advice? The wisdom, the
knowledge of the malord militia.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
So I was gonna do something else, but we've had
so many angry old dudes calling up the show here complaining.
So let's help out. Jerome and Charleston and Mark the
full name guy help them chill out. Any advice to
Jerome in Charleston, bring it home, Jerome and the aforementioned
(44:11):
Mark the full name guy who just called up helping
them chill out?
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Understand? All right, let's go to the phones right.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Now, and let's see who do we have here? We'll
start out with you online one eight seven, seven ninety
nine on Fox. Caller, you're on the air advice to
Jerome and Charleston, Mark the full name guy.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
To chill out in morning time? Look at you. Look
at the mystics.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
They won three in a row.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
All right, that's like Danny DeVito. There is another WNBA guy.
Speaker 4 (44:36):
Hello, I'll call you're on the air.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Caller, your advice to Jerome and Charleston and Mark the
full name guy on how to chill out, Mark.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
And Scott I usually like boobs.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
All right, thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Line number number five is you're toning the Bay area.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
Line five, you're on the airline five. Hello, all right.
Line five is not paying attention. We go to line six,
Line six.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
You're on the air air Line six at eight seven,
seven ninety nine on Fox.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
Hello, line six. More like the miss.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
He's the most mussy WWE superstar. He's proven inside the
ring and outside the ring.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
And he can pitch for the Brewers as well. Hello caller,
you're on the air. Caller.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
We're doing the instant advice line for Jerome and Charleston,
Mark the full name guy helping them chill out.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
Hello, do it biged.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
Okay, just a big bag of weed. That's we're ninety
couldn't even say it. Line four, you're on the air.
Number four Hello, Line four, fire, okay, all right? Line five, Hello,
line five, you're next. It's unscreened callers. Line five, we're
giving advice to Okay, just get some gumbo jumbalai there
(45:49):
from Mark, the full name guy in Jerome and Charleston.
Speaker 4 (45:51):
Line six, you're on the Airline six.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Hello, you used to have a toll glasses dot my
favorite drink.
Speaker 4 (45:56):
Yeah, I don't know about that.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
You got the doctor, Sean the hood got you can
in line number three?
Speaker 4 (46:01):
Hello, line three.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Number Yes, this problem can only be alleviated by betting
on the hot girl on girl Ah.
Speaker 4 (46:11):
Yeah, yes, there's our friend the keg drinking Steve checking in.
It sounds like Line four, Hello, line four.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
How many people have to.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
Tell you to watch the w NBA before you finally alright?
Lines five, you're on the air.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Line five, Hello, amazing bump Okay, Yes, he costs you
some money. Line six, you're on the air. Hello, line six,
just along? Can we just get along? Yes?
Speaker 2 (46:36):
All right?
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Last one last call for Jerome and Charleston. Mark, the
full name guy helping them chill out. Which one cool?
Line five?
Speaker 4 (46:44):
Line number five, Hello, line five, you're on the air.
Speaker 6 (46:47):
Go.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
I don't really care about those two guys, but Shane
in the.
Speaker 4 (46:50):
Mo keep all right, al, he's gonna bury Shane in
the morning right there. But he got saved by the bell,
or Shane did.
Host
Ben Maller
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