Best of The Ben Maller Show

Big Ben talks about Dave Roberts and the Dodgers getting swept by the Angels again this season, Jerry Jones saying that the Cowboys are a soap opera 365 days a year, Maller to the Third Degree, #AskBen, and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Mahler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
From the Big Blue Wrecking Crew to Big Blue Peu.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
What stinks Well, Come in not beginning of another night
of the Ben Mahler Show. We are in the air
everywhere like minded patrons, as we are where ideas are
born and where truth is spoken, unless we're not. Coast

(01:08):
to coast, border to border and beyond. On the mast
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(01:32):
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(01:55):
I was gonna start with some football, but I made
an editorial decision based on listener feedback. Play the hit,
small Man, play the hits. One of our bosses used
to stay back in the day, So our lead this
hour is from the big A in Anaheim, the greatest
team in baseball history, the twenty twenty five Dodgers, so

(02:17):
good that no way they can f this up, No
way they can f this up. Well, the sweep complete
the lowly Halos, a pathetic, wretched franchise with the longest
playoff drought active in Major League Baseball. They are the

(02:37):
bad News Bears and Anaheim, and they sent the gutless
Dodgers into base ball Hell. And if you didn't see
the game, probably didn't. Maybe you missed it. Despite Shohei
o'tani starting for the Blue Crew, couldn't bet on that

(02:58):
catcher Logan o'hoppy coming up big late in the game.
He had a two run ribby single in the eighth inning,
and the Angels swept the season Freeway series with a
six to five win over the once proud Dodger franchise.
The sub five hundred Angels somehow, some way, swept both

(03:21):
series against the supposedly immortal Dodgers this season. They have
now won going back to last year's seven straight. That's
a franchise record against the team. They wish they were
maybe the Angels plan Anaheim, which is an Orange county
about thirty five miles or so from LA And they
call themselves the La Angels because they want to be
the Dodgers anyway. Yeah, but it's not about that. Did

(03:44):
you hear the latest pearls of wisdom from Dave Roberts?
Dave Roberts, If you did not see this or hear
about it, maybe not. I watched the news conference postgame
news conference from the Big A. There Dave Roberts trying
to spin in spin bad baseball, bad baseball played by
his team yet again. Roberts said he liked the way

(04:08):
the Dodgers played as they got swept. I'm not making
this up. I'm not, I promise you hand to God,
I'm not making this up, Roberts said across the board,
we did a good job competing, he said. In another quote,
Robert said, in a vacuum we played well. Close quote.

(04:30):
All right, so let us discuss the question what do
you take away from Dave Roberts. As the Dodgers have
now fallen out of first place, the San Diego Padres
are in first place now in the Nation League West,
and the Dodgers get swept by the Angels, and Dave
Roberts says, he says, across the board, we did a
good job competing. In in a vacuum, we played well. So

(04:53):
what do you take away from Dave Roberts saying that
he liked the way the Dodgers played while losing and
getting swept. So observations here, I've got Karen Bass, Dice
and Okie and we will combine all of these things
together and we will cross the pearly gates is where

(05:14):
we're going to go. So number now, it is appropriate
that Dave Roberts mentioned a vacuum. You see, Dave Roberts,
you are the vacuum. You suck the energy out of
the room. Yet that there's no urgency, there's none, And

(05:36):
Dave is the maestro of being tone deaf he is
from back in the day. I really liked him in
that spot. The Dodgers are in the middle of a skid.
They look like they're going through the motions, and they've
looked that way for a couple of months now, and

(05:57):
the manager, plausibly, the one who's the loss of the
team on the field, is essentially saying, hey, don't worry
about the results, guys, just trust us, bro That's what
Dave Roberts is saying. It's like they're allergic to accountability
over there. The players make so much money you can't
criticize them. The Dodgers since July first have played thirty

(06:18):
six games. They're fifteen and twenty one. They're playing four
seventeen baseball. That's the Dodgers. It's pete Dodger arrogance, and
it drives me batty. I'm serious. I family the only
one that cares. I know, like the local LA talks
to those guys. You know, we're Nationals, so it's a

(06:38):
little different. But the local guys it seems like they
just don't care. It's like, and this is the LA
sports version of don't worry, baby, We'll be fine. We
will be fine. While the house. You know what's happening.
Dave Roberts sounds like the mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass,
while she was on a trip to Africa, essentially saying, Uh, listen,

(07:00):
the water supply, the city waterspy, No big deal, folks. Meanwhile,
the pipes are bone dry, the palisades are burning up. Uh,
and the mayor in LA had nothing to worry about here.
It's complacency at its finest, Like I don't want you
to try too hard. Don't try too hard, just do
the bare minimum. That's the Dodger way, that's the dot.

(07:23):
The sword is rolling over his grave right now, do
the bare minimum. Make sure you collect that paycheck though,
And that line in a vacuum that is chef's kiss,
chef's kids. That's just like managers speak for, ignore the scoreboard,
ignore the standings. Yeah, we're looking up at the Tuckers

(07:44):
to the Podreys, right. It doesn't matter. Yeah, see, Dave,
For some people, I know, not a lot, but for
some people like it actually does matter, like they and
the standings do matter. And your guys look flat. They
have been outplayed by clearly inferior team and instead of
trying to light a fire under them. It appears you're

(08:05):
handing out juice boxes, is what you're doing. Now. There
was a guy, and I don't know if Lorena can
find the sound by, but there was a manager of
the Maryners named John McLaren, and he went on a
rant when the seattle he was like a temporary manager
of the marriage. But he went on a rant. You know,
sick and tired of losing. I'm sick of I want
a manager to be that manager I want. I would

(08:27):
love to have Dave Roberts come out and just explode
like John McLaren and say I'm sick and tired of losing.
These guys are sick and tired of losing and just
going on and on. That's what I want. I don't
want in a vacuum. We played well. I don't need that.
I don't want that. Don't say that. Never say that
you suck. Your team blows right now? You know, well

(08:49):
I thought we compete it. Yeah, I mean, come on,
it's ridiculous, all right, this is what this is. A
guy named John McLaren. You have no idea who that is.
I want Roberts to sound like this stay a list.

Speaker 4 (09:02):
We're playing ours off every day and got nothing to
show for it.

Speaker 5 (09:05):
I'm tired of losing.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
I'm trying to get my ax beating.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
And so those guys, we're gonna change this around and
get after it.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
And only we can do it.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
The fans are pissed off, and I'm pissed off, and
the players are pissed off. And that's the way it is.
There's no easy way out of this. Can't feel sorry
for ourselves. Gotta buckle it up and get after it.
Tired of damn losing is every night and we bust her.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
It's gotta be a toe team.

Speaker 5 (09:33):
Never turn this thing around.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
And that's it.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, that's what I want. I want that I don't want. Hey,
we did a good job competing in a vacuum. We
played well, that's Dave Robert. I want the other I
want the other guy. That's what I want. It's like
they think that Dodgers think the playoffs are an automatic birthright,
and they keep adding wild card teams and all that stuff.
So it's like they just have this mindset. Well, we'll
flip the switch when we need to. Now, the other

(09:57):
issue I have, since we're aaron grievous, this here is
the Dodger fan. I watched some of that Angel Dodger game.
It was eighty five ninety Dodger fans. There are no
Angel fans, right, it was like Dodger Stadium in Anheim,
and they're so used. The Dodger fans so used this
generation of dominance in the regular season, and you know,

(10:19):
it's just meaningless platitudes and it's like, well, get to
the playoffs and all that stuff. It's like, it just
drives me nuts. It does. I think I've made that clear.
It drives me freaking nuts. Art moving on from that,
other things that I observed while I was perusing the
Sporting World trying to get ready for this talk show,
I was watching some of the Yankee Twins game from

(10:42):
the Bronx. That's where we're going to go. The reason
I watched this game maybe I had a financial investment in,
maybe I didn't. But the other thing I was watching
was it was a rain delay game, so it was
like a two hour rain delay, so the game started
a little later than normal, and for some reason I
had this game on. Somebody stood out, So what was
your reaction to Twins starter Joe Ryan screaming if you

(11:08):
saw this or not screaming the F word after multiple
pitches in his start against the Yankees. Joe Ryan's the
guy that was supposedly traded to the Red Sox, although
it didn't actually happen. And he's like one of two guys.
It's Joe Ryan and Byron Buxton and a bunch of
Bush League players on the Minnesota Twins. Anyway, Joe Ryan

(11:30):
is out there, so my reaction. So, Joe Ryan's out
there dropping F bombs like it's a Scorsese movie. And uh,
and it seemed like every other pitch in the middle
and that's I think it was the fifth of the
sixth inning. You clearly I was on the Amazon feed.
You clearly heard f I can't say clear as day.
The Amazon broadcast Mike's picked it up and every syllable

(11:53):
was hilarious. I was texting my buddies, take turn on
the Yankee game. This is great. Joe Ryan is out there.
He's like that old comedian and Andrew dice Clay from
back in the day on the my ound. He works
blue the diceman with the fastball. And then you got
Michael Kay in the booth trying to gaslight the audience.
Kind of pretending like, yeah, you're not really hearing what
you think you're hearing. Good. He even he kind of

(12:15):
gave up on that after a while, like, well, Joe,
Ryan's out there saying shucks. No, he's not saying shocks.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Now.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
I don't hate this, by the way, I don't hate this.
The guy's intense. He's got a weird thing, borderlines spectrum.

Speaker 6 (12:32):
Me.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
There's not that many guys like that left in baseball,
and I enjoyed it. You know, he missed a pitch
by an inch and boom, you know f word, you know,
kick kick a trash can. Doesn't appear to be a
heck of a heck of a pitcher, but he's he's
also got this we he's like a tennis player. Tennis
players like the grunt and curse and all that stuff.

(12:53):
And we just talked about the Dodgers who look lifeless
and the Twins are a pathetic team. But it's refreshing
when you see a player that has that competitive spirit
and doesn't look like a lifeless zombie. You enjoy that
the raw emotion that they get. So I thought that
was pretty cool. Now, our final point, we're going to
stay with the Twins. Several of you who listen to

(13:16):
us in the Twin Cities in the great state of Minnesota,
you got to talk about this here. You should talk
about this. It's a big story. Uh So, after announcing
that they were going to sell the baseball team, the
pole Aad Family, the group that owns the baseball team
called the Twins, they did an about face this week
and they said in a prepared statement that they quote

(13:39):
explored a wide range of potential investment and ownership possibilities.
But you know what that means. They will remain the
controlling owners moving forward of the Minnesota Twins. So how
should Twins fans handle the pole Aad family deciding not
to sell the Twins at after all? All right, so

(14:02):
the Minnesota baseball team just pulled a fast one worthy
of like Ocean's eleven, except instead of robbing a casino,
they robbed the fan of hope. Because there was hope.
There was like, okay, this is all gonna be okay.
The pole Led family, they had the Twins fans thinking
they were about to hit the power ball. They started

(14:23):
clearing the books. They sold off all the entire bullpen
of the Twins. Trader of way half the big league roster.
It was like a clear and sale a big lots.
They were getting rid of everything, and you're thinking, Okay,
finally these tight wads in Minnesota are cashing out. They've
got a lot of debt, they're getting rid of contracts,
and they're gonna move on, sell the team that you

(14:45):
put up with it. You put up with it because
you thought this would lead to the sale of the
team and a new owner who might even think, hey,
we can build the world serious team. It's not just
a rumor, but no psych the old okie do they
did the Oki doky one second. It's like the Gene
Wilder scene from Willie Walker. Right, they're walking with a

(15:06):
limp and then the cane and then the cobblestone and
then you know, next thing you know, they fall. They're
about to fall, hop back up and strut in right
to the bank with your ticket deposit and just kidding you, peasants,
you even peasants, we're keeping the team. You'll take your
seventy eight win season and you're gonna like it. Of course,

(15:28):
the team has been treading water. The twins in the
kiddie pool for got at least a decade, probably longer
than that. And every time you think they're going to
open the deep end of the pool, they toss in
another pool noodle and a little floating flamingo and they say, well,
it's competitive balance. And as I have said in previous

(15:48):
episodes of the show, it is going to take fan
apathy to change things. Until then, enjoy the baseball version
of Groundhog Day, where every year it's the same, they'll well,
we're gonnay, this will be the year we spend some
money to underspend and then blame the blame the weather,
the blame something else, or the blame the Dodgers, the

(16:11):
Yankees one of the teams that actually tries to spend money.
And of course, now the good news is the Twin
fan can trade notes with the Angel fan because Artie Marino,
who has done nothing but put incompetent teams on the
field in Anaheim, Artie Marino attempted to do the same thing.
I'm gonna sell the team, you umb a couple of
years ago, as I got and all the Angel fans

(16:32):
all they got all horny, they got all excited. All right,
we're gonna get real owner. Somebody wants to compete be
a big, big market owner. And then Artie Marino he said, psych,
I'm doing the Oki donkey, and now the twins have
done the Oki dog. Everyone do the oke okie dogy
because I'm more of the hokey pokey. That's more my
that's more my jam.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
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Speaker 1 (16:59):
HI, this is Check.

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I'm the producer of the Paul an Toni Fusco Show.
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Speaker 1 (17:14):
Are you doing in our studio? Get him Paulli. Ignore
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Three hundred and sixty five. That is the number. Remember
that number. Welcome in the beginning, another another hour of

(17:38):
the Ben Mahler Show. We are in the air everywhere
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(18:00):
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(18:24):
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(18:46):
tire iraq dot Com, The Way Tire Buying Show. It'd
be so our lead. This hour is from Jerry's World.
The Gift that keeps on giving Baby ever day he
cooks up a Smorgasborg. He does. And if you haven't
the latest on this man, wonderful, good stuff, good stuff

(19:10):
yet again, So the Cowboy owner Jerry Jones has yet
again poked the fan. He's annoyed the fan. A percentage
of the fan base appears to be annoyed. Here. Now,
what did Jerry do? Now? He admitted the team is
a quote soap opera three hundred and sixty five days
a year by design. Jerry, commenting during a recent red

(19:34):
carpet interview. Might remember we mentioned in a previous episode
of the show there is a Netflix documentary on the
Cowboys which is dropping in a few days. The Cowboys
is a quote from Jerry Jones. The Cowboys are a
soap opera, three hundred and sixty five days a year.
And he said, when it gets slow, I stir it up.

(19:55):
Quote continues, and so it's wonderful, Jones said, to have
the great athletes, have the great players. But there's something
more there. There's sizzle, there's emotion, and if you will,
there's controversy. That controversy is good stuff in terms of
keeping and having people's attention. All right, so let us

(20:18):
discuss the question, how did Jerry Jones comm and I
just gave you the comment. How did Jerry Jones commentary
here about the Cowboys being a soap opera three hundred
and sixty five days a year sound to you. So
I've got triple Baconator, the Wolf of Wall Street, and
Secret Handshake, and we will combine all of these things together,

(20:42):
put them. We get boom, just like boom, just like that,
and we'll see what happens. So a The first thought
I had was self absorbed, which is rather obvious. You
don't need me to tell you that Jerry has made
himself the story. Say what you want. However, Jerry Jones
is a maestro of business. He's also transparent on this one.

(21:05):
Wouldn't it be great if more of our politicians were
transparent like the Cowboys are a soap op Of course
there I talk about it more than anybody. They suck
the Cowboys three hundred and sixty five days a year.
And as he said, when it gets slow, he stirs
it up. He said that before. This is not new,
and you know again it's not me paraphrasing. That was
the quote. When he gets slow, I stir it up,

(21:27):
and three hundred sixty five days a year. He just
flat out admits it, like if you don't like it,
you can't handle the truth. That famous line from Jack Nichols,
you can't handle the truth. Few good men. So Jerry
is proud of turning his team into the young and
the restless. And it's all by design, you know. Jerry
Jones cracked the code. He got the It's like figuring

(21:51):
out DNA. He figured out the code. And he slow
walks contract extensions. Whether it was DAK and Ceedee Lamb
in years past, what's going on right now, it doesn't matter.
He drags him out. A bunch of media dopes complain, Oh,
Jerry's costing the Cowboys millions of dollars. What's he doing? Well?

(22:13):
Why do they do it? Because it creates tension. What
does tension lead to? It leads to engagement, It creates
talking points. It's a self fulfilling prophecies. The vortex, the
Cowboys vortex. It creates content. Content is what it's all about.
Content is king. The Cowboys are never quiet. It's like
if Vince McMahon owned an NFL team back in his

(22:36):
heyday and professional wrestling visically Man of the NFL only
Jerry does not have the muscles and he doesn't take
chairs to the head and there's no die there. Jerry's
had some work done, but that's fine. And a little
Pt Barnum in there too, you know. Step right up,
Step bride up, Come one and all fun for all ages.
The amazing Cowboys under the Big Top. You can watch

(22:59):
them collapse in the playoffs if we make it. Tickets
on sale now. Every every news conference with Jerry Jones
reminds me of being a kid watching the Macho Man
Randy Savage and Hal Cogan and I'm waiting for me
and gene Oakerland to pop in there. It's like a
wrestling promo. Come see the Dallas Cowboys appearing at your

(23:19):
local arena on this Saturday morning. Every delay on a
contract is a storyline, it is. And when there's no story,
Jerry just make one up. It's make it up. I
don't figure it out. And you know what, it's free marketing.
It is whatever costs. Right. There's actual money because they

(23:40):
don't sign the players right away. You save money if
you send them right. But he figures, listen, I'm gonna
make that back on media coverage and spoiler alert he
is franchise value. Cowboys are number one. They're right, Yeah,
you know how many NFL teams get wall the wall

(24:00):
television and radio coverage year round? One A one team.
That's the Dallas Cowboys. The Eagles won the Super Bowl,
and is anyone yapping about the Eagles? They get mentioned
now and again. They won, They had the winning recipe.
The Cowboys have the formula to get attention. Jerry has
basically turned the NFL's most valuable franchise into his own

(24:24):
reality show. It's very primal. The other thing I've noticed
about this, talking about it three or four times a week,
is how primal it is. The cowboy fan, the cowboy
fan hardwired to eat this up right, they are. It's
like fast food for the brain. It's like going to
Windy's and you get that triple bacon eater back in
the day and the frosty and high drama. In this case,

(24:47):
there's a lot of salt. It's actually terrible for you
in the long run, but you keep going back for more.
Now unpopular opinion. Other teams should be copying with the
cow doing and Jerry's getting up there. He's not gonna
be around that much longer. And if you want to
be relevant, and you want to increase value and all

(25:07):
that you want attention, you can copy the Ravens or
Ravens have good teams every year. The Bills have been
really good for the last six seven years or so.
Maybe more like the Cowboys. Though, you create the drama,
you stir the pot. It's a little messy, it's a
little sticky, little human. In Jerry's world, the ratings and
the franchise value that is much more important than the

(25:29):
Super Bowl trophy. It just is now page two. Staying
with this theme, if you will, staying with this theme.
So Michael Parsons was spotted this week watching Cowboy practice,
not taking part watching, and he was only a couple
of feet away from Jerry Jones, the afore mentioned Jerry
Jones who liked the Cowboys so much he bought the

(25:50):
team and then became the GM, and he's been the
gym longest tenure GM in the NFL. So Jerry Jones
and Michael Parsons are standing just feet away from each
other on the sidelines, but nothing has changed regarding the
long contract negotiation between the two sides. So Jerry Jones
was asked what is preventing the sides from talking? And

(26:10):
Jerry Jones said really. He then paused and said nothing.
Nothing again he said nothing would be that, Jones said,
and we might or we might not talk, and the
rest of that gets into what we do every day.

(26:31):
All right, Well, confusing there, but close quote Parsons declining
to comment as he sashaded his way off the practice field.
There for the cowboys. So let's do a fill in
the blank question. Fill in the blank. I'm gonna go first.
Then you can go if you want and call in
and send a message in cowboys hitting the pause button,

(26:52):
hitting the pause button on the remote controls like that
hitting the pause button in Micah Parson's negotiation is blank.
Fill in the blank. So my word on this is premeditated.
That is my word premeditated. Again. My position is that
Jerry Jones is going to take this to the buzzer,

(27:13):
right to the buzzer, like every good Bond movie where
there's the diet sticks of dynamite wrapped in tape, there's
there's weird wires, and you gotta figure out how you
cut the blue wire the red wire, and you got
to do it right before the clock strikes, you know,
zero zero and all that stuff. And so that's what's
gonna happen here. Choreograph choreographed chaos. As I learned from
the Wolf of Wall Street, it's all for Gayzy or

(27:36):
for Gazi. Uh you know, for Gayzy is though. Uh
it's fake, that's what it is. So it's all it's
that's what it is, all right. Now, last word, we
move from Jerry's world and we go to the land
of the insert Petsburg Steelers. That is where, of all people,
Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison. Yes, that Niko. Yes, that's

(28:02):
the same guy, Nico Harrison. So the Mavericky of Nico
Harrison was spotted meeting at Steeler training camp with Aaron Rodgers,
among others. Now, how do I know this? How am
I aware of this? Because the picture that they took
sitting at a table has gone viral And maybe you

(28:22):
saw it, maybe you heard about it. Maybe you didn't
hear about it, Maybe you didn't see it.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
That's your your life. But I saw it, and if
I hadn't seen it, I had people sending to me,
did you see this? Ah my god, you gotta talk
about this Oh my god. Okay, I don't know that
I have to talk about this, but I am talking
about it. I am talking about So I did a
little investigating and it's like, well, how does Nico Harrison
end up at a table with Aaron Rodgers. It seems

(28:48):
very bizarre to me. So it turns out that one
of the good friends of Nico Harrison, one of the
good friends of Nico Harrison, is Steeler's coach, My Tomlin.
Their besties their besties. That's an odd tearing, isn't it? Like?
How did they become buddies? That seems odd. There must

(29:09):
be some story there. I don't know what the story
is anyway. So Tomlin and Nico Harrison are buddies, and
apparently Nico Harrison was at training camp the last couple
of years. Of course, nobody knew who he was. Nobody
cared about Nico Harrison. Now, of course that story has
changed dramatically. So question on this one, question on this one.
Why why do you think the picture of Nico Harrison

(29:33):
and Aaron Rodgers created such a visceral reaction? So I'll
give my psychobabble and then you can chime in and
just my reaction seeing the photo of the Mavericks GM
and then the NFL's resident evangelist of the Ayahuasca, Aaron Rodgers,

(29:54):
it felt like you were ease dropping in on something
that you weren't supposed to see. It looked like there
was some kind of secret handshake that was going on.
You know, they were like shaking hands, like a couple
of Bond villains. To use the bond reference there, a
couple of Bond villains. It was a snapshot so surreal

(30:15):
that you were like, whoa, I mean, what's going on?
I mean, there they were. Harrison the man who traded
Luka Doncik, not really a trade. He just gave Luka
Doncik to the Lakers for a bag of Orville Reddenbacker popcorn,
a stale bag of Orville Reddenbacker popcorn. And I think
he got invited to like a Laker chat, like an

(30:35):
online chat, not in person online. And then you've got
Aaron Rodgers best he's with Joe Rogan, right, the quarterback
treats every conversation like he's doing a Ted talk about
quantum consciousness and all that stuff. And together side by
side at a table with others, with others at Steelers

(30:56):
training camp, looking like they were plotting some kind of
cross sport coup a coup d'eta. And you had Harrison
there was he trying to recruit Rogers. Hey, Aaron, how
would you like to be the offensive coordinator of the Mavericks. Well, Nico,
whether you guys don't have an offensive corner, I don't care,
We'll make you one. And as Rogers probably I'm imagining.

(31:17):
He's like, Oh, listen, Nico, I know there's there's a
way now you can break down teams based on the
holistic abilities. Forget analytics, go with holistic analytics, which is
a different thing. And it's it's we'll bring in Andrea
from Berkeley. We'll bring Andrew in, the astrology insider, and

(31:37):
she'll base what moves we make on the cycle of
the moon. You know, is it is it going to
be a wolf moon? What is it going to be? Uh?
You know, we'll look at the Farmers Almanac, we'll figure
it out and we'll just do things on gut feelings
and uh. And then Nico's like, well, I don't know
if we should do that. I don't I don't know

(31:57):
about that. Or maybe they were just bonding Rogers and
Nico over the shared love they have for alienating sports
fans and redefining dysfunction dysfunction. But listen, whatever it is
that the photo, it was like this rogue asteroid seeing

(32:17):
these two figures that you know, again, I don't know
about you, but for me, I'm a little too into
the weeds here in this job. And I've talked a
lot about Nico Harrison over the last year, and I've
talked for years about Aaron Rodgers. I mean, we I
go so far back that here at Fox Sports Radio,
I did a show with this guy named Chris Landry
on the weekends in the early days of Fox Sports Radio,
and we used to have Aaron Rodgers on after games

(32:40):
he played at Cal. And I always thought, well, he
must not that be be that good because he's coming
on our show. And then, you know, if he's a
big star, he's not going to come on a radio
show half an hour after Cal played Arizona State or
whatever back in the day. But he did. He came on,
He's fine, he was nice, and that was it. And
then he's gone on and this this amazing polarizing run

(33:02):
in the NFL with all these different teams. But if
Nico Harrison and Airon Rogers are the architects of chaos,
I then that means that you and I those of
us that either know about the photo if you're blind,
or saw the photo if you're not blind, we are
all just spectators. And this is like the demolition Derby.

(33:24):
That's what it is.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
Here we go, it's Mallard. How about here we go
a third degree? This is one big Ben gets grilled
poler all Right.

Speaker 5 (33:42):
The Atlanta Falcons have the second longest playoff drought in
the NFL, and they are actually a popular bet to
end that drought this season. Ben, how do you feel
about that?

Speaker 1 (33:51):
Yeah, I'm not on board. Raheem Morris a good coordinator.
I know he's a very good coach. And I'm not
completely sold on Michael Pennix junior. And you gotta have
a quarterback. I'm not you know, he can prove me
wrong here. I'm not buying it. The reason people were
picking the Falcons, it's a wide open division, right, Carolina sucks.
The Saints are gonna be the worst team in the NFL,
so it's really between Atlanta and Tampa Bay. Next.

Speaker 5 (34:14):
Jose Ramirez and the Cleveland Guardians are heating up at
the right time last night. Notwithstanding, they have gone twenty
two to nine over the last thirty one games, put
themselves into position for a wild card spot. Ben, do
you think they could ride this way two a division title?

Speaker 1 (34:28):
Well? Whould they? Yes? I mean, listen, the Tigers are
a better team. The problem with the team, like the Guardians,
is they just don't hold up in a playoff environment.
They don't give you nightmares, they don't give you a
sleep panic. There's no boogeyman there. It's just like a
regular season team. The playoffs are going to be a
debacle next.

Speaker 5 (34:48):
When the cruiz Beck family sold the Celtics in March,
it was reported that wit grus Beck would stay on
as the Celtics CEO and governor through the twenty seven
twenty eighth season. Now that's no longer the case, and
new owner of Bill Chisham will take over once the
sales final. Same thing happened to Mark Cuban when he
stole the MAVs. You think Genie Buss could be pushed
out early as well.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Yeah, so the gross back thing because he didn't own
fifteen percent. He can't be the you know, the person
at the table. But yeah, Genie Bush, this should be out.
How do we go? Ass?

Speaker 2 (35:15):
I guess 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.

Speaker 5 (35:29):
It's now time for time for honey, Honey, wait.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
Ask Ben Twitter?

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Send us your questions on Twitter.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
Now and oh ware we go is ask Ben? Your
questions are answers for the rest of the hour. These
are actual questions by actual listeners who are building castles
in the air, and for the reading of the questions,
I go to Justin Cooper.

Speaker 5 (35:53):
All right, Ben, We're gonna start with one from Ryan here.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Hi.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Ryan.

Speaker 5 (35:59):
He wants to know for everyone, could any of you
finish the nine to nine to nine challenge? It is
apparently nine dogs, nine beers, nine innings.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Yeah, so the hot dog thing I don't believe would
be a problem now. It might be, but back in
the day. Yeah, I yah, it's harder now. I think
that's harder now because baseball games are quicker. Back in
the old back in the old days, Red Sox game
be five hours, Dodger game will be four hours. Now,
you've got about two and a half hours. So could

(36:30):
you eat nine hot dogs and drink nine beers into Yeah,
it's close. I think I could do it, Lorena.

Speaker 7 (36:37):
Absolutely, I could. I eat so much food it's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
That is true. And you don't get any weight, which
really annoys me.

Speaker 5 (36:46):
What about you, Kooperloo, there's a zero chance the rain
I could.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
Do that, and she'd take one bite of every hot right.

Speaker 5 (36:54):
Exactly what counts. I would not be able to do it.
I could do the nine dogs, but nine yours I
would not be able to.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Nine years and two and a half hours, you'd be
laying on the ground. What's me? You know what?

Speaker 5 (37:07):
Lee?

Speaker 1 (37:08):
Lee calls that a Tuesday.

Speaker 5 (37:13):
I guess, I guess this one's just for Lorena. It
is from a GABS and they say, why did Loraina
join a sports show if she doesn't know anything about sports?
Why not a music radio station?

Speaker 7 (37:26):
Well, it's funny they hire board ops wherever because technically
they don't all talk on the air.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
But I do.

Speaker 7 (37:33):
I like sports. I'm getting better, but I do prefer
music radium to be honest.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
Oh, body blow, body blow body celebrities. But you know what,
I think athletes are celebrities.

Speaker 7 (37:45):
I'm finding a nice niche between celebrities and sports with
their dating. So it's it's kind of a nice little window.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
And yes, LORAINI just to now she's not happy? All right,
what's next? Where are we at here? What I said,
that's what it sounded like to me. I don't know.

Speaker 5 (37:58):
Alf the alien opineer. This one is just for you, Ben,
He says, do you know what LARP is?

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Larp?

Speaker 5 (38:06):
Yeah, it's an achrona.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
No, what is it like? Uh?

Speaker 5 (38:11):
He doesn't give the answer, but I know that it's
live action role play. Oh like people battle.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yes, like godsplay or like yeah, like they like.

Speaker 5 (38:20):
They pretend that they're like Civil war.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
Oh yeah, yeah, you know. I was actually at Gettysburg.
I visited the Gettysburg site and they had it was
pretty cool and there were some people doing that.

Speaker 5 (38:32):
I mean, I think the one he's referring to is
more as like the nerdy kind where you pretend you're
like you're a wizard or a Star Wars guy. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
but no that's not. But they're all live action role
play anyway, all right.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
But whatever gets you through the day. If you want
to dress like a furry, it just don't bother me,
do you think?

Speaker 3 (38:50):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (38:50):
I believe this one's probably just for uh so, I guess.
I guess Lorena, you could you could use it for
with your with your baby daddy. I forty ian would
like to know did your in laws like you when
you first met, and did your folks like your significant
significant other the first time they met?

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah? Yeah, absolutely, I I have had my in laws.
I get along with everybody. There's only one. I hate
everyone else in school and uh yeah, my mom and
my dad loved when I met my wife, they loved her.
And I was very worried about that, my mom. But yeah,
what about you cool?

Speaker 5 (39:27):
Uh you know, I get along with them. Oh no,
I mean her her dad is just like the complete
opposite of me, like politically.

Speaker 8 (39:39):
And oh more like Justin and Cincinnati worse worse, oh
worse than the Oh yeah, uh but I mean it's
still it's it's fine, you know, it's good.

Speaker 5 (39:50):
And and my my family all love her.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
Yeah they're cool. I mean they're not like not really
sports people, So they asked me the awkward who's gonna
win the World service, Who's gonna win?

Speaker 5 (40:00):
Like that?

Speaker 1 (40:01):
Lorraino.

Speaker 7 (40:01):
Yeah, I've always had a great connection with my baby
daddy's parents. I still call his mom mom. We still
talk and say I love you and stuff.

Speaker 5 (40:08):
It's nice.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
That's cool, that's nice. All right, what's next, we'd ask
Ben quickly.

Speaker 5 (40:12):
Ferd Dog wants to know what is the therm set
set to in the studio, And you know in your studio, man.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
It is at sixty two degrees because it won't go
lower than that. Oh my god, yeah.

Speaker 7 (40:23):
I think we're at seventy right now.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
Oh, come on, seventy.

Speaker 7 (40:27):
I need a blankets.

Speaker 5 (40:28):
No, sixty two is an ice box.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
No it's not. I want a colder. The damn air
condition won't go below sixty