April 8, 2022 • 43 mins
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Ben and his 5th Hour home-slice Danny G. take you behind the scenes, with a fun conversation about a Ginobili fire, an international attack, a termite high, MLB picks and more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kaboom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
week was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants
of the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He
treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the
rich pill poppers in the penthouse. The Clearinghouse of Hot
takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with
(00:23):
Ben Maller starts right now in the air everywhere back
in the Magic podcast do Jo call that from now
In honor of Victor brick Jacobs, who was on last week.
It is another edition of the Fifth Hour with Ben
(00:46):
Mallor and Danny Gen back at it again on a Friday.
Now normally on Friday, over the last few years we've
been doing this podcast, we would bring somebody on to ray,
aunt and rave and give you chills, either positive chills
or bad chills. But we said, you know what, from
(01:08):
time to time, we just wanna make it about us.
It's all about us. And so a rare and appropriate
appearance by Danny G Radio on a Friday. Look at that,
Danny G. Yeah, how are you gonna get fired on
your day off? Bros? Motherfucker. That's that's right. Listen so
(01:29):
we got a lot of stuff going on. It's been
a very busy week. I did not have time nor
did I want to get to some of this stuff
on the terrestrial radio show, for for many reasons, for
many reasons. So the menu on Benny's Bistro, the Friday restaurant,
here's what we're serving up. We've got remember the Alamo
(01:49):
down range and a hardball brain bender. After all, it's
opening weekend a major League baseball And clearly, NYG, we
are both old because we both like baseball, so there
must be something wrong with us. But I love baseball,
(02:11):
and I got very lucky years ago to do stuff
in baseball, which was a lot of fun. And I
always look forward to Opening Day and you hear that music,
you know that that that that that that Dodgers. You know,
(02:31):
it's like that or your your favorite team, just like that.
You got your Brooklyn hat on. And I'm excited to
say that I found a couple of season my tender
Ronie did. Found a couple of seats for Dodgers Opening
Day next Thursday, opening at home at least, yeah, the
home opening home open. But it's a night game, it's
not Yeah, that's why I'm able to go, Okay, well,
(02:54):
let me know how it is. Well, maybe i'll maybe
I'll make a rare and appropriate appearance out there. It's
possible it could happen. So let's get right into it, though,
and we begin. Let me give you a little back
story before we begin here. So, from time to time
on the show, it is an opinion based show. When
opportunity knocks, we take advantage of it on the on
(03:16):
the radio show, in this show, and normally things go
according to plan. Every once in a while we will
have a monologue that resonates and gets an emotional reaction
out of people that happened earlier. Yes, we ruffled, We
ruffled some feathers on the radio show. So at the
(03:37):
beginning of the week. So let's take you back in
the hot Top time machine to the beginning of the week,
and we were coming in. It was a Sunday night
into a Monday. The Final Four had been played on Saturday,
so there was down to two teams the championship game,
Kansas and North Carolina. So he had not going on. Unfortunately,
(03:58):
the NFL news has started to slow down. We knew
at some point this was going to happen. We could
not keep up that pace. We could not keep that
pace up. And so finally things in the NFL have
quieted down. It's the calm before the NFL Draft, which
is later this month, and so fine. So when that
(04:19):
goes on, as you know, Danny from being a longtime
member of the show and being in the business, you've
got to pivot and there's always something to talk about.
It's just not what we normally talk about. So we
have to bend the rules a little bit and find
things to discuss. And so at the beginning of the week,
the story had come out over the weekend that the
Basketball Hall of Fame class had been announced, and so
(04:43):
I actually started getting some messages from our buddy who
does the morning show at the Fox affiliate in San Antoni.
And I don't rely know him that well. I just
know him online a little bit, and he's been doing
the morning show for a number of years. And so
sever years back, when Genoble was done with the Spurs,
(05:04):
I had done a rant about how Jenobley was not
a Hall of Fame player, and I, to be honest,
I completely forgot about it. You know, I remember talking
about it at the time, but it's not something that
was on the front burner. It was in the back burner.
And that's fine. Whatever. This guy was busting my chops,
the morning guy in San Antonio, and then some of
(05:26):
his listeners, some of his minions, we're trying to argue
with me and trying to goof on me and all that. Uh.
And so I said, you know, okay, everything's perfect here.
It's got all the ingredients. There's not a big NFL
news weekend, there's not a whole lot going on in
the NBA. Baseball doesn't start for another week. Okay, you
(05:50):
know what, I will throw red meat into the lions.
Then I'm gonna take the story and come hell or
high water, I'm gonna do it. And so I went
on a rant. I don't even remember what hour it was,
maybe it was Our two or Our three, but I
went on a rant highlighting the sham of Manu Ginobili
(06:10):
getting enshrined into the Hall of Fame and Springfield mass
and I pointed out he was a career back up
with the Spurs and a good player, but not a
Hall of Fame player. If you have any kind of
standards as an NBA player, he was had zero all
NBA first or second teams. He was a backup most
of his career. I don't need to do the whole
monologue again, but I'm just giving some reports. If he
(06:32):
didn't hear it, it's all captain obvious stuff. So and
he was a backup most of his career, only won
won six Man of the Year, and he was good player.
I would not put him in the Hall of Fame. Man,
what about all the international accomplishments. Yeah, well, I don't
watch international basketball, so it don't matter to me. I
(06:52):
watched international basketball during the lyrics. And then the counter
argument was, well, what about the NBA Championships? And you
know Danny how I feel about this. We've gone back
and forth on this over the years. Um, it's it's
a waste of time to fight with me because I'm
not changing my position. I know you're not changing your position.
We're locked in on this. But the championship is a
(07:12):
team award. It's not an individual awards. A team award.
Everyone on the team, whether you're the low man on
the totem pole or the most important player, gets the
same championship ring. It's not like they give a cheap
knockoff phony ring to the guy on the bench that
didn't play, that was outside the rotation. They all get
the same thing. So whether they tear up the dance
(07:33):
floor or not, it doesn't matter anyway. So fine, So
I did my rants. I I go on there. Elijah,
the guy that runs the social media department for Fox
Sports Radio, I send him these videos from my studio
of me doing the rants. I don't pick what he uses.
He just picks whateveryone. Some days he puts all my
(07:54):
monologues up. Some days he only puts one up. Some
days he puts none on. It just happened. Usually Mondays
are kind of slow days around there, so they put
a lot of my stuff up on Mondays. And so
he put the videos up, put a few of them up,
and this genoboy thing took off like a wildfire. I thought,
pop up. I watched it. You were totally animated. Bak
(08:18):
here now, and I was like, uh, I'm not surprised
right now to hear about what's going on. Yeah, So
so I did my thing whatever, you know, I was
into it. I had fun. You know you're gonna do radio.
I was taught do it, do it with passion, do
it with the motion. Otherwise, don't do it, because if
you're gonna listen to an idiot like me or Danny
(08:39):
g you know, professional and uh, you want to hear
somebody that's that's into it, invested in it, you know,
whether that means you're bodacious, whatever your style is. So
this thing hits the internet and all of a sudden
it began rather softly because it begins, it started getting
a little uptick. It's doing pretty well. It's doing better
(09:00):
than most of the videos that I have. Fine, whatever,
And this is important because the company keeps track of
this stuff. And if no one watches, it's bad. If
people watch, it's good. That's what they want. I don't
really care if people watch or not, but they want,
you know, to have people want, So I I do
the thing. And it starts out with the kind of
the casual San Antonio, like the local I've been in
a lot of these local battles, so it was like
(09:22):
normal San Antonio stuff. It kept going, it didn't stop.
Usually it goes for a few hours and the people
move on to the next target. Didn't stop, and so
all of a sudden, now San Antonio, the TV stations
pick up the story. Then the big websites pick up
the story. They were they wanted that. We're now the
floodgates have opened in Now now we're on like Donkey Kong, right,
(09:46):
it is, it is on. I mean, we are just
going for it here. And so that began. Then they
want to hold a war tribune all like the Nuremberg Trials.
For me in the Alamo, my crime was giving an
opinion on an overnight Sports Dark Raider show, which is
so fun. I was gonna kick out of this. Like
(10:07):
of those people online are not listening to the live show.
They don't even know what the live shows. But they
get all worked up into a tizzy and so they're
all upset and they're furious that I did not give
Manu Ginobili the manny and the petty, and so they
they've asked me to shop the fuck up. They've requested
(10:29):
that over and over again. Now that was at this point,
we're just at San Antoni. We're just doing the Alumo.
I can handle that. That's no big deal whatever. I
don't take back what I said. I believe what I said.
The Pro Basketball Hall of Fame is the it's the
easiest Hall of Fame to get into into among the
major professional sports. So at this point I'm like, all right, whatever,
(10:52):
this will calm down a little bit. And and then
I started getting messages from friends of mine that I
know live in the San Antonio area and they're like, well, no,
the is like a story, like this is a thing,
like you're a thing. Like there, it must have been
a slow newsday, Danny in San Antonio. I'm a thing. No,
your take wound up on the national feed for I
(11:13):
Heart Sports. Yeah, it's bind with that viral clip of you.
I got a friend of mine lives in that area
said you're you're the second most despised man in San
Antonio behind Charles Barkley. So I'm like, okay, you know
that's good. And it was real. It was really funny.
I had like women messaging me on Twitter saying I'm ugly.
(11:35):
I'm like, I know that already. You don't need to
tell me that. I had already know that. I always
love the people you're on overnights. You know no one listens. Yeah,
And my position is if you're not a first or
second team in your sport, you're probably not a Hall
of Famer because while you were playing, you were never
recognized as one of the great players, one of the
(11:57):
top ten players, or one of the five best players,
whatever it might be. Uh, And so that that's a
red flag to me. And when I was watching the
Spurs and I watched that, we all watched a lot
of usps. I never thought Jenoboley's all of favorite. Duncan sure,
Tony Parker, sure, I never thought of Genobley as a
Hall of Famer, But I have higher standards in the
Hall of Fame anyway. So, at this point is a
local story, typical tribalism, ripped the hometown team rally around
(12:22):
the washed up former star who's back in the glory days.
And then all of a sudden, things flitted and it
went from just a local San Antonio story all of
a sudden, now it becomes a geo political crisis because
words start spreading back to Argentina, where man Wu is from.
And so now we're on like Donkey Kong in the
(12:45):
country I've never been to, Yeah, and it's it's going
crazy here. So I start getting and I'm not on
social media a lot, but I do check it, you know,
before the show. I'll check it. When I go to bed,
I'll check whatever. So I'm getting messages from random dudes
in Buenos Aires who are attacking me in Spanish, and
(13:10):
I'm using Google Translate to try to, you know, figure
out my Spanish. Isn't that good. It's exactly so, Benito,
I saw they're they're attacking me, and this keeps going
and going. Now the basketball sports bloggers and Argentina get
word of the story and they're ranting and raving, and
(13:31):
they're they're using me as this big boogeyman and all
this stuff, and it was it was quite amusing. I
gotta tell you, I had a cheshire Cat smile from here.
I said, you gotta be kid you you idiots. And
it's like I as you know, Danny, and we just
want people to consume the content how they whether they
(13:52):
like the content or not. We'd sure be more fun
if everyone loved Jen kissed your ass and all that stuff.
But uh, the smell of trouble is not a bad
thing either. Remember that line from the Howard Stern movie.
The people that didn't like Stern listened longer than the
people that liked him because they wanted to hear they
wanted to be upset, and they wanted more things to
be upset about, or something that they wanted to hear
(14:14):
what he was gonna do next, Yeah, exactly. Now, speaking
of that, so this is this comes to I've got
San Antonio, major US city, and I've got Argentina attacking me.
Mentioned the geo political christ has meant a little overboard
on that. But so people in Argentina are circling, circling
the wagons. And I had no idea that man who
was that big a demigod? I had knowed. I knew
(14:35):
it was popular, but my goodness, it's like I'm attacking Jesus. Anyway,
I never underestimate the power of the hero worship of
Manu and it was. And then back in San Antonio,
this was bizarre. This one had never happened before. Danny.
We had this guy like a Ron Burgundy of San
Antonio Television who wanted to go on. He invited himself
(14:59):
on the show and he wanted to debate me on
Janobody's Hall of Fame credentials. What I should have done
is I said, all right, how about this, I'll go
on your TV station and you can get a satellite
hook up and pay me a rate and I'll go
on there. I would have done that. Plus, I don't
think that that Ron Burgundy guy knows. Like when the
(15:21):
show's on, it was hilarious, like I'm the big TV guy.
I'm the big guy. I love the local teams, so
I'm gonna put my teeth and bite into Mallard And
it was hilarious. Now, the TV station that ran with this,
did you hear from their newsroom? Of course not. No,
they took they took the feed. There were it was
(15:42):
multiple TV stations, Dandy, there were multiple TV stations in
San Antonio that ran a similar version of the story.
And it was it was really it was very amusing,
very very amusing. And so we can now add saying
in Tony my first international anger, our friends in Argentina.
(16:05):
By the way, I love Argentinian food. I love some
grilled chicken and the rice and wonderful. It calls for
a new nickname for you, like the Argentinan Disaster or
something to the effect of you really bothering the people there,
the Argentinian Master of Disaster or something like. Yeah, I'm
sure a listener will come up with something along those lines.
(16:26):
But so San Antonio. Over the years, I'm trying to
think of all the different cities We've had kur fluffles with.
We had Phoenix, We've had multiple with Phoenix over alligator arms,
Murray Houston, local media blow ups with the Strows and
former quarterback to Shaun Watson. Cleveland. There was a big
(16:48):
one in Cleveland years ago, got into it with the
the then Cleveland Indian fans right over the CC Sabathia Trade.
I think that was the thing that they got upset about.
We had one with Baltimore. Ray Lewis Todd pods are amazing.
I ripped ray Lewis after the Super Bowl. That got
(17:09):
a lot of places. Have there been a few of these?
There you go. Danny add sant Antonio to the list,
and it still hasn't calmed down. As we are in
the podcast Dojo, I'm still looking at messages of angry
people and it's great because of the time zones, Like
when we record this, it's prime time in Argentina, so
(17:31):
I'm getting a lot of people who are at work
or at school who are just absolutely dropping a bomb
on me, just letting out the emotion and very upset,
screaming at me just like that, and I'm like, wait
a minute, Yeah, but no, it won't. I gotta I
gotta think it ends eventually at some point here. This
(17:53):
is not gonna go on. It's been an entire week,
an entire week of this. It's insane. Well a lot
of people in that country. Yeah, that is true. It's
a big country. Again to nobody I do. It was
a big deal. I didn't realize the level of uh,
the level of love. But I mean, I'm I'm going
(18:14):
on I peak every once in a while. My social
media sounds like this, you know, don't know the power side. Yeah,
I'm like, okay, all right, there you go. So is
that on your list now to go visit to get
your passport? Punch there in Argentina. I'd love to go
to Argentina. It's beautiful. Yeah, they'd give you the red
carpet treatment. I don't know about that. It would assassinate you.
(18:36):
What if I'm gonna do not intererlist not Argentina, Like
I can't. I'm banned from going to the to the
country because the stuff I've I doubt most people like whatever.
So it's a radio get all worked up here. That's wrong.
With you, all right, So we've got down wind, down
wind as we turned the page here, so that this
(18:58):
past week, I had my neighbors at the Mallard Mansion,
the Mallard Zendo as VIC would say, that moved away.
They sold their house. The house was sli sold. That
they're leaving the People's Republic of California. They are moving
to the Free State of Texas. They'll be just north
of Dallas. I know so many people from California that
(19:20):
have moved to Texas in the Dallas area. In particular,
one of my good friends from elementary school works for
the I R S In He lives in Dallas. And
I've had a bunch of other people have radio friends,
some some in Houston, lot in Dallas. The exodus from California.
And so per the sale out the reason I'm bringing
this up, per the sale of the house, the new
(19:41):
neighbors who haven't moved in yet, the people that bought
the house. It's part of the request. A lot of
termites here because we're in the north Woods, and so hey,
you gotta tent the house, kill all the termines. Okay,
So that was going on next door, and on Wednesday
eight I was preparing for the show Crack a Lock lacking,
(20:05):
doing my thing. It was just a normal Wednesday, and
I like to sit outside. It all not son and
I sit in the shade, but I'd like to get
some fresh air, enjoy the great outdoors and all that.
So I'm sitting outside, minding my own. Yeah, I've got
my you know, I got my laptop going. I'm just
kind of checking things out, looking for things that would
(20:27):
inspire me to do a monologue and jot down a
few bullet points and whatnot for the monologue. So I'm
doing my thing, getting ready for the show. It's kind
of it's whatever I get. I got some games on
my laptop. I'll watch from john to time. It's picturesque
day in the north Woods. And so I'm sitting down.
About an hour after I sit down, I start getting
this nasty migraine headache, and it kept getting worse, and
(20:51):
I'm like, what the hell happened. I'm trying to think
that I eat anything. No, I didn't anything unusual. Is
there something going on here? Am I having some kind
medical ailment? And then I had an aha moment and
I realized while I was joined the California son and
the trees and all that. I was down wind, Danny,
(21:13):
as they I guess in the military, they say, down
range from this toxic vapor cloud of turmoite termite poison.
Oh man, that had I leaked out of the house,
I guess, And so yeah, that's what gave me the headache.
So I I hide tailed it out of there. I went,
(21:36):
you have a dabad and get the hell out of there,
and went into scramble mode. And we will see if
the termite, guess ends up messing up the old body anymore.
But so far it's only been a headache, So all
things considered, that's not I can deal with a headache.
But who knows the long term effects of spending an
hour breathing termite poison in whether that's gonna affect me
(21:58):
down the line. But the point that's only it's only
a headache. I thought I was far enough away a
b there was a tent on it. But upon further review, Danny,
the tent, you know, those those metal clips, those big
metal clips. They were using the metal clips to tape
(22:20):
the big plastic that they were wrapping the house with together.
So I think that that allowed the poison to get
out because they didn't do a good job on that.
I I think, I don't know. I've never been that
close to it house that was termite wrapped like that,
and hope to never be again. Hope to never be
(22:41):
again that close to a house like that, because it
did not feel particularly good. Well, you have the address
exactly where to drop off your medical bills. Yes, yes,
If I need to sue someone, I'll contact my my
lawyer there and I will immediately I call up Sal.
(23:01):
You better call Sal. Isn't that it's one of those
I don't know. Oh, Saul, there you go, or so
there you go? All right, So we have the baseball
brain buster. It's opening weekend in Major League Baseball and
(23:21):
baseball from Freddie Freeman to Aaron Judge. Oh boy, that
was terrible anyway, I'm sorry, Mr President's bat. Everybody in
southern California is hyped up about that Miller kid throwing
a hundred miles per hour and no viral game against
the Angels with half not even half field Dodger Stadium.
(23:42):
But that was a impressive moment. So the way this
will work, then we'll just kind of go through and
see who we like and who we don't like, and
right it's it's the brainbuster, the baseball brain buster, which
is very exciting. This is this is the kind of
content people need, but they don't realize they needed. It's
(24:04):
like when I used to work with Mike North and
there would be days where Andy Ferman couldn't make it
to the show, and so Mike would just opened up
the old school newspaper and read baseball box scores. So
that is so nineteen nineties, early nineties, late eighties and
early nineties radio. It's huge, game by game, buck score
(24:32):
by buck score. My favorite was Mike Francessa when I
would go to New York to visit my brother, and
you're all excited because w FAN is the biggest sports
radio station in the country, and you're like, Wow, this
is the gold standard. And I want to be just
like those guys on w f And you know, I
was a kid, and so I listen to the station
on my way in from the airport, and to be
(24:52):
Mike Francessa at two o'clock in the afternoon on a Tuesday,
here's the Yankee lineup. You got g in the lead
off spot, and then you got Soho batting say, you know,
he's like, oh my god, sound it's scary. It's just painful.
Make it stop. And this is the guy, this is
the star of New York radio. This is the guy.
(25:13):
This is what he's doing. Brutal anyway, So now, should
we just do a world series? Should we do divisions? Penance?
What are we looking at you? Aren't you afraid it
might go off? Accidentally? I used to have that problem.
What did you do about it? I just think about baseball.
Why don't we just go through the divisions? We have
(25:35):
some time, it's the pods. We have a little bit
of time. We have too much time, all right, So
we'll go through the the odds. I have the odds here,
and we'll each pick, and then at the end of
the baseball season, you can go back and download this
podcast and see what we got right and how we
flet Okay, fair enough, sounds good, all right, So we're
both Dodger fans. So we'll start with the nationally West. Gee,
(25:57):
I wonder what we're gonna pick here. That's a hard one.
Not to me. The most interesting story in the nationally
West of the Giants. I feel like they overachieved tremendously
last year. They're not that good, so they should be
crawling back to reality this year. And the odds indicate
that because the Giants. Back in January, the Giants were
(26:18):
a seven to two pick. They were one of the
favorites to make the playoffs and all that just when
the you know, compete with the division. Now they are
in the red, so their odds have gone down. But yeah,
we're both taking the Dodgers, right, Dodgers for sure. Something
about the Giants, though, they're like cockroaches. They just don't
go away. And they put this rag tag group together
(26:39):
and these these guys who are not big names just
come through. It's crazy. Yeah, And even when the Giants
are bad and the Dodges are good or vice versa,
those games head to head still are very, very closet annoying.
Although the Dodgers did get the ultimate f you to
the Giants way back. If you're old enough to remember,
(27:02):
was that ninety three or ninety two was the early
nineties Giants is before the wild card. Giants won over
a hundred games, And remember they lost the last couple
of games at Dodger Stadium and they didn't make the playoffs.
I do remember that. Ye. Now, any Padre prediction from you, like,
do you think Tat Jr. Will actually play a full
(27:24):
season or well, no, he's always gonna be out for
half the year at least. Yeah, So no, I do
think the Potters still are good enough to make the place.
They added an extra team, and you do the math
on this. I look at the nationally right now, and
I can immedia eliminate on opening weekend the Diamondbacks, Rockies, Pirates,
(27:45):
the Reds. I'm also going to eliminate the Cubs or
up to five teams. I'm gonna eliminate the Nationals and
the Marlins. So that's seven teams. So that means, if
my math is correct, you've got eight teams for six
spots in the nationally a total of six three division winners,
three wild card winners, so the next three records after that,
(28:07):
so yeah, six out of eight, you have a six
out of eight chance if you're just trying. So that
means the Giants. Out of the Giants, Padres, Dodgers, Brewers, Cardinals, Braves, Mets,
and Phillies, six of those eight teams make the plan.
You agree with that, I would push back a little
bit on the Reds. The Reds are terrible if you
(28:29):
see what they've done. But they're horrible. They're horrible, Danny Trained,
anybody you've ever heard of other than Joey Bottom. They
all they're gone. They're all gone. There's no one left.
I feel like they could still be a scrappy bunch. Possibly, No,
I don't see that. I could see the clubs of
that group of also rans. I can see the clubs
(28:50):
being annoying. I mean, I'm thinking of what the Giants
do in our division. I'm wondering if there's a team
that will be like that be comparable to the Giants
of last season. Yeah, well we don't. Yeah, of course
there will be somebody that we're like that team was
supposed to suck. But I'm betting it's not the Reds.
(29:11):
So I've got I think the Braves will actually end
up beating out the Mets in the Nationally East. So
I'll take the Braves. I've got the brew Crew. I
think the brew Crew should run away, although they have
no offense there, but they should run away with the
Nationally Central. The Brewers are actually the favorite that the Cardinals.
(29:31):
They have a couple of stars kind of rag tag.
You some questions about the pitching staff there in St. Louis,
whether there there's some guys long in the tooth. Also
in the lineup, they brought back Albert Poojos. Ye, so
I am going I'm going very chalk here, going very
chalk with Dodgers, Brewers and Braves. I'd like to see
(29:53):
the Mets not make the playoffs because my cousin is
a big Mets fan, and it's always fun when I
can annoy him. Yeah, I don't feel like hearing Jay's
and smith on before you going on and on about
how the Mets are winning, so it would be better
if they lose. Yeah, I agree. All right, So American League,
we'll starting the American Lely West. You got the cheating
(30:14):
as Strows, they're the favorite Angels and Mariners. After that
you got Texas in Oakland. I like Seattle. Actually, I'm
gonna go with Robbie the Mariner fans. This is the year.
This is the year the Mariners were closing in last year.
They didn't have a great offseason. But I'm taking Seattle
to win the American League West. It happens when someone
(30:36):
says they're gonna send us acts that's right, yeah, exactly.
And I need the other thing I need here is
the Angels to be a little bit better because I
want to find a way the Astros don't make the playoffs.
I don't see a way they don't because they're gonna
play the Rangers and the Athletics that are minor league teams. Well,
(30:58):
Corey Seeger they got the Rangers got two or three guys,
that's it. But they're not. What about Syndergard. I mean,
you don't hear much about him being in that red
uniform now because he's an Anahi. They don't. I don't
want the attention to Anna, but I yeah, Syndergard, if
he's healthy. That's the ifs and butts game though, right, Danny,
you don't play the ifs and bucks game. Now. The
(31:19):
American League Central, you got the favorite, the White Sox.
The Twins have actually had their odds improved. They signed
beating Astro Carlos Correa. You got the Tigers who have
actually fallen off a little bit from January. And then
after that the Guardians and my buddies in Kansas City
(31:40):
who stink. But I did, I did talk to my
friends in Kansas City. Actually, Uh, yesterday. It wasn't there,
like that's a great ball I told him it's a
great ballpark. The White Sox are the favorite. The Twins
of the second pick Twin White Sox are are one
to two favorites, the Twins or fifteen to for. I
(32:02):
want to pull for the Twins because of our guys
in Minnesota, but I can't do it with Carlos Correa
right now. I can't. I'm sorry, You're just hateable. Uh.
I like what the Tigers were trying to put together
last season. Yeah, the Tigers have a sneaky good team.
Well not even really sneak. They had a couple of pictures.
They got a hobby bias. I'm not a big hobby
(32:23):
bias guy. He's a good regular season players. So I'm
gonna pull for the Tigers. Yeah, that's what I have
written down on my sheet here, all right. So I
got the Tigers, I got Mariners of West, Tigers in
the Central, and then I'm going shalk in the American
League East, I'm going with the blue Jays. I look
at that Blue Jay team. I think that's a threat
(32:44):
to beat the Dodgers in the World Series. That's a
good blue Jay team right there. That is a team
that is stacked. I've been hearing you talk about Toronto.
I wouldn't be surprised. They'd have to have some injuries
and some things really break bad for them to uh
poop all over the field in the mound. Yeah, you
look at the projections and a big projection guy or whatever.
(33:04):
But if you you look at that, just the lineup
that the Blue Jays, the projected lineup and the pitching
staff they've got, that is a team that is just
made to win a hundred games. Now the playoffs. As
you know, Danny, We've learned this firsthand over the years
with the Dodgers. You can have the most impressive team
(33:25):
and then you get a pesky, scrappy team with gump
ship like the Atlanta Braves for example this past year,
or the Washington Nationals a couple of years ago. They
end up hijacking your fund and and ruining, ruining the
good times. Vladimir gil Jr. You go down the list there,
(33:45):
Bo Bishette, what's his name, ti Oscar Hernandez. That's not
his name, Jeff d That guy's nobody even knows who
he is outside of the hardcore Blue Jay fans. But
you look at the the roster like, wow, that is
that is something One Blue Jays fan on my Twitter
(34:06):
feed and every day he's highlighting a different player on
the team. So I feel like I'm connected. And they
got our old guy reu Reusing there. He's still hanging
out in Toronto. So I got the Blue Jays and
what else here? We do a few more and uh,
of course we gotta get to the big stuff, which
(34:26):
is on my list. The big stuff is on my list. Uh,
so let's go nationally. We're taking the Dodgers, Uh I think,
Am I right? You're picking anybody but the Dodgers? Okay,
Dodgers Dodgers, and I'm taking Toronto the American League. You
want to pick anybody other that other than the Blue Jays.
You got the word, I can't argue against Toronto, alright,
(34:46):
So we're going chalk on that. Anybody but the Astros,
blank my blank and blank you it's the American League
Championship Series of Toronto is not in and the Astros
are in. I'll take the White Sox, Yankees, raised Blue Jays,
Red Sox, you know, any of those so uh and
to win the World Series Dodgers. Right, yeah, come on,
(35:07):
I mean we're both like. This is like that, you know,
this is like that Saturday Night Live skit with the Bears,
the Bears, Dodgers, Dodgers. Yes, exactly, the Dodgers. I know.
What about the individual stuff, Now, some of these guys
are names were not that familiar with. We'll start with
the American League MVP. The two favorites are show hey,
(35:28):
oh Tony, and a lot of people have Mike Trout
as a co favorite, always coming off an injury. You've
got Byron buckst into the Twins getting a lot of yeah,
a lot of love. I've been reading about him. Uh, yeah,
he's a name that's he's been around for a little bit. Uh.
There's another guy from the Chicago White Sox named Lewis.
(35:51):
Uh is it Robert? Is that it looks like Robert
Perhaps it's some weird way. Uh. He's an outfielder from Cuba.
I don't know anything about him. Yeah, I don't know
much about him either, but he's supposed to be like
a total stud, monster at the plate and all that stuff.
So so he's someone's getting a lot of love from
the the gambling world. Another name the guy came up
(36:13):
last year with Tampa Bay wander Franco Okay, the shortstop
named l Patron from the Dominican Republic, and he's he
got off to a great start last year, so that
he's also Yeah, I remember seeing his highlights last season. Yeah.
So my theory on the m v P is pretty simple.
(36:35):
You gotta be on a good team to win the
m v P. So I'm gonna generally speak. I know
there are exceptions like Otani and whatnot, but I'm gonna
I'm gonna say, you gotta be had a good team.
And the Angels are like a middling team and they
don't really like to give it back to back, belly
to belly. I'm gonna take Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Who was
close last year. So I'm gonna take the Blue Jay's
Vladimir Guerrero. There's also other names on this list. You've
(36:57):
got Raphael Devers of the Red Sox and Judge Bobachter
old Buddy Corey. See you're the Rangers now that cheating
a stro Carlos Carea is on the odds, Gian Carlos Standon,
Jesse Winker who's in Seattle now one of the reasons.
I like the Mariners. Anybody pop there, anyone you want
(37:18):
to go with, you wanna, You're gonna go with Byron Buxton,
all right, sucking up to the people in Minnesota white women. Well,
he was the best player in baseball on a per
game basis last season. I think that with that lineup
around him, he's going to continue to blow things up
there in a good way, all right. Now. In the
(37:38):
National League, the favorite is Juan Soto of the Washington Nationals.
He's got that nattitude. Ronald the Coner Jr. At seven
o one. You've got Bryce Harper at ten to one,
the reigning m v P. And then there's a bunch
of Dodgers after that, Mookie Bets, Freddie free Men, Trade Turner,
(38:03):
you go down. And then then you got the other names.
Francisco Lindor's on their Manny Machado, the Padres, Matt Olsen
of the Braves, Peter Alonso, the Mets. So those are
the top choices for the m v P award. Boy
Mookie Bets has actually not been that great the last
the last year, he didn't play that great. Last year.
He was quietly dealing with a nagging injury. Yeah, so
(38:27):
hopefully he's all the way back healthy. But I could
totally see Freddie Freeman taking this. Yeah, I was leaning
towards Freeman, but back to back. They don't like to
usually go back to back. I'm gonna take I'm gonna
go off the board a little bit. Although he's listed here,
trade Turner mark plug guy, gonna steal some basses. He
(38:48):
hits for a high average. He won the batting title
right last year. I think he did. I believe he
won the batting title last year with the Nationals. Mostly
in a little bit with the Dodgers. Uh so, yeah,
I I I'm going I think Turner is gonna be
a really exciting player. Is a spark plug guy. He
really took a ride on a vomit comment in the
playoffs for the Dodgers, unfortunately. But it's the regular season.
(39:12):
So that's my pick and I'm sticking to it. Cy
Young American League, Cy Young, anybody anybody stand out? You've
got the usual suspects, Garrett Cole, Lucas Giolito, the White Sox,
the Bebe, Shane Bieber of the Guardians, Robbie Ray who's
(39:33):
now on the Mariners, Otani Verlander, I'm gonna toss the
name out. How about Jose Barrio so the Blue Jays,
that's not a bad pick. I'm gonna go Otani here
so you can go Tani. Yeah, there's a lot of
a lot of love for Otani, right, National League, Cy
Young and again usual chalk favorite at the top. You
(39:54):
got Max Scherzer who's the favorite from the Mets. Corbin
Burns very good picture for the brew Where is Jacob
de Gram, Carlos Radon? Uh we have Walker Bueller, Brandon
Woodruff who's the favorite? Um Shures is the favorite? Uh? Man,
oh man? This is Sandy Alcantera of the Marlins is
(40:17):
listed here at fourteen to one. What do you think
about sers health? Do you think he'll be okay throughout
the entire season? No, no, no, always been on pictures
getting hurt. If he's not hurt, I like him there
even as the favorite with the Metropolitans. A you take
Sures or I'm gonna take Corbin Burns the Brewers. This
(40:37):
guy is nasty. And the pitching that's the strength of
the Brewers. They got good starting pitching, which is that
really a big deal these days because starters don't go
the third time through the rotation. So does it really
matter that much? Not really. Yeah, I tend to agree
with you on that. I'm not even gonna do Rookie
the I don't know America. We know Bobby Witt of
(40:58):
the I know him from the Royals. But are you
familiar with Spencer torkleson of the Tigers, Julio Rodriguez and
the marriage. These are guys that will learn about. But
I don't really know much about these guys. And I
don't base any of my opinions off the scouting reports
because they're almost always wrong. Yeah, we just gotta flip
your benny the penny for those, Yeah, exactly. So in
(41:20):
the National League, the well, the favorite was O'Neil Cruz.
It is now someone named C. J Abrams. Oh I
know that, dude. No, I don't. He went to high
school with him bottom in high school probably, Yeah, exactly.
Who is C. J Abrams? C j Abrams. That's the
(41:40):
year Page Dan Page Dan. He's with the San Diego
Padres organized and he is one of the favorites for
the nl A Rookie of the Year. All right, we'll
put the baby to bed and anything you got me
all hyped up for base ball. Right now. I'm looking forward.
(42:01):
I'll be watching. I was watching the last couple of days.
I'll keep watching. It's great to get up. I love
the day games when I wake up from a slumber
and there's a game and like the fourth inning on
the East Coast and I can check it out and
then the West Coast game start. And he didn to
promote Danny any gigs coming up. It's Friday. Anything on
a Friday year going on here? Today is Friday, and
(42:24):
no I have the evening off, thank god. Alright, have
a great rest of your Friday. Don't forget to download
the regular podcast, the Restial Radio Podcast. In addition to
this morning, we'll have an amazing tale I never before
told story on the Saturday podcast. I embargoed it Danny
(42:48):
for the fifth Hour podcast, and I will be ranting
and raving about something that happened to me this week
involving a professional sports franchise showing tremendous disrespect to our
radio show. And I will call on the Mallard Militia
to settle the score, and that will be on the
(43:08):
Saturday podcast. Anyway, have a great rest of your day.
We'll talk to you then later. Skater gott a murder,
Gotta go.
Kaboom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
week was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants
of the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He
treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the
rich pill poppers in the penthouse. The Clearinghouse of Hot
takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with
(00:23):
Ben Maller starts right now in the air everywhere back
in the Magic podcast do Jo call that from now
In honor of Victor brick Jacobs, who was on last week.
It is another edition of the Fifth Hour with Ben
(00:46):
Mallor and Danny Gen back at it again on a Friday.
Now normally on Friday, over the last few years we've
been doing this podcast, we would bring somebody on to ray,
aunt and rave and give you chills, either positive chills
or bad chills. But we said, you know what, from
(01:08):
time to time, we just wanna make it about us.
It's all about us. And so a rare and appropriate
appearance by Danny G Radio on a Friday. Look at that,
Danny G. Yeah, how are you gonna get fired on
your day off? Bros? Motherfucker. That's that's right. Listen so
(01:29):
we got a lot of stuff going on. It's been
a very busy week. I did not have time nor
did I want to get to some of this stuff
on the terrestrial radio show, for for many reasons, for
many reasons. So the menu on Benny's Bistro, the Friday restaurant,
here's what we're serving up. We've got remember the Alamo
(01:49):
down range and a hardball brain bender. After all, it's
opening weekend a major League baseball And clearly, NYG, we
are both old because we both like baseball, so there
must be something wrong with us. But I love baseball,
(02:11):
and I got very lucky years ago to do stuff
in baseball, which was a lot of fun. And I
always look forward to Opening Day and you hear that music,
you know that that that that that that Dodgers. You know,
(02:31):
it's like that or your your favorite team, just like that.
You got your Brooklyn hat on. And I'm excited to
say that I found a couple of season my tender
Ronie did. Found a couple of seats for Dodgers Opening
Day next Thursday, opening at home at least, yeah, the
home opening home open. But it's a night game, it's
not Yeah, that's why I'm able to go, Okay, well,
(02:54):
let me know how it is. Well, maybe i'll maybe
I'll make a rare and appropriate appearance out there. It's
possible it could happen. So let's get right into it, though,
and we begin. Let me give you a little back
story before we begin here. So, from time to time
on the show, it is an opinion based show. When
opportunity knocks, we take advantage of it on the on
(03:16):
the radio show, in this show, and normally things go
according to plan. Every once in a while we will
have a monologue that resonates and gets an emotional reaction
out of people that happened earlier. Yes, we ruffled, We
ruffled some feathers on the radio show. So at the
(03:37):
beginning of the week. So let's take you back in
the hot Top time machine to the beginning of the week,
and we were coming in. It was a Sunday night
into a Monday. The Final Four had been played on Saturday,
so there was down to two teams the championship game,
Kansas and North Carolina. So he had not going on. Unfortunately,
(03:58):
the NFL news has started to slow down. We knew
at some point this was going to happen. We could
not keep up that pace. We could not keep that
pace up. And so finally things in the NFL have
quieted down. It's the calm before the NFL Draft, which
is later this month, and so fine. So when that
(04:19):
goes on, as you know, Danny from being a longtime
member of the show and being in the business, you've
got to pivot and there's always something to talk about.
It's just not what we normally talk about. So we
have to bend the rules a little bit and find
things to discuss. And so at the beginning of the week,
the story had come out over the weekend that the
Basketball Hall of Fame class had been announced, and so
(04:43):
I actually started getting some messages from our buddy who
does the morning show at the Fox affiliate in San Antoni.
And I don't rely know him that well. I just
know him online a little bit, and he's been doing
the morning show for a number of years. And so
sever years back, when Genoble was done with the Spurs,
(05:04):
I had done a rant about how Jenobley was not
a Hall of Fame player, and I, to be honest,
I completely forgot about it. You know, I remember talking
about it at the time, but it's not something that
was on the front burner. It was in the back burner.
And that's fine. Whatever. This guy was busting my chops,
the morning guy in San Antonio, and then some of
(05:26):
his listeners, some of his minions, we're trying to argue
with me and trying to goof on me and all that. Uh.
And so I said, you know, okay, everything's perfect here.
It's got all the ingredients. There's not a big NFL
news weekend, there's not a whole lot going on in
the NBA. Baseball doesn't start for another week. Okay, you
(05:50):
know what, I will throw red meat into the lions.
Then I'm gonna take the story and come hell or
high water, I'm gonna do it. And so I went
on a rant. I don't even remember what hour it was,
maybe it was Our two or Our three, but I
went on a rant highlighting the sham of Manu Ginobili
(06:10):
getting enshrined into the Hall of Fame and Springfield mass
and I pointed out he was a career back up
with the Spurs and a good player, but not a
Hall of Fame player. If you have any kind of
standards as an NBA player, he was had zero all
NBA first or second teams. He was a backup most
of his career. I don't need to do the whole
monologue again, but I'm just giving some reports. If he
(06:32):
didn't hear it, it's all captain obvious stuff. So and
he was a backup most of his career, only won
won six Man of the Year, and he was good player.
I would not put him in the Hall of Fame. Man,
what about all the international accomplishments. Yeah, well, I don't
watch international basketball, so it don't matter to me. I
(06:52):
watched international basketball during the lyrics. And then the counter
argument was, well, what about the NBA Championships? And you
know Danny how I feel about this. We've gone back
and forth on this over the years. Um, it's it's
a waste of time to fight with me because I'm
not changing my position. I know you're not changing your position.
We're locked in on this. But the championship is a
(07:12):
team award. It's not an individual awards. A team award.
Everyone on the team, whether you're the low man on
the totem pole or the most important player, gets the
same championship ring. It's not like they give a cheap
knockoff phony ring to the guy on the bench that
didn't play, that was outside the rotation. They all get
the same thing. So whether they tear up the dance
(07:33):
floor or not, it doesn't matter anyway. So fine, So
I did my rants. I I go on there. Elijah,
the guy that runs the social media department for Fox
Sports Radio, I send him these videos from my studio
of me doing the rants. I don't pick what he uses.
He just picks whateveryone. Some days he puts all my
(07:54):
monologues up. Some days he only puts one up. Some
days he puts none on. It just happened. Usually Mondays
are kind of slow days around there, so they put
a lot of my stuff up on Mondays. And so
he put the videos up, put a few of them up,
and this genoboy thing took off like a wildfire. I thought,
pop up. I watched it. You were totally animated. Bak
(08:18):
here now, and I was like, uh, I'm not surprised
right now to hear about what's going on. Yeah, So
so I did my thing whatever, you know, I was
into it. I had fun. You know you're gonna do radio.
I was taught do it, do it with passion, do
it with the motion. Otherwise, don't do it, because if
you're gonna listen to an idiot like me or Danny
(08:39):
g you know, professional and uh, you want to hear
somebody that's that's into it, invested in it, you know,
whether that means you're bodacious, whatever your style is. So
this thing hits the internet and all of a sudden
it began rather softly because it begins, it started getting
a little uptick. It's doing pretty well. It's doing better
(09:00):
than most of the videos that I have. Fine, whatever,
And this is important because the company keeps track of
this stuff. And if no one watches, it's bad. If
people watch, it's good. That's what they want. I don't
really care if people watch or not, but they want,
you know, to have people want, So I I do
the thing. And it starts out with the kind of
the casual San Antonio, like the local I've been in
a lot of these local battles, so it was like
(09:22):
normal San Antonio stuff. It kept going, it didn't stop.
Usually it goes for a few hours and the people
move on to the next target. Didn't stop, and so
all of a sudden, now San Antonio, the TV stations
pick up the story. Then the big websites pick up
the story. They were they wanted that. We're now the
floodgates have opened in Now now we're on like Donkey Kong, right,
(09:46):
it is, it is on. I mean, we are just
going for it here. And so that began. Then they
want to hold a war tribune all like the Nuremberg Trials.
For me in the Alamo, my crime was giving an
opinion on an overnight Sports Dark Raider show, which is
so fun. I was gonna kick out of this. Like
(10:07):
of those people online are not listening to the live show.
They don't even know what the live shows. But they
get all worked up into a tizzy and so they're
all upset and they're furious that I did not give
Manu Ginobili the manny and the petty, and so they
they've asked me to shop the fuck up. They've requested
(10:29):
that over and over again. Now that was at this point,
we're just at San Antoni. We're just doing the Alumo.
I can handle that. That's no big deal whatever. I
don't take back what I said. I believe what I said.
The Pro Basketball Hall of Fame is the it's the
easiest Hall of Fame to get into into among the
major professional sports. So at this point I'm like, all right, whatever,
(10:52):
this will calm down a little bit. And and then
I started getting messages from friends of mine that I
know live in the San Antonio area and they're like, well, no,
the is like a story, like this is a thing,
like you're a thing. Like there, it must have been
a slow newsday, Danny in San Antonio. I'm a thing. No,
your take wound up on the national feed for I
(11:13):
Heart Sports. Yeah, it's bind with that viral clip of you.
I got a friend of mine lives in that area
said you're you're the second most despised man in San
Antonio behind Charles Barkley. So I'm like, okay, you know
that's good. And it was real. It was really funny.
I had like women messaging me on Twitter saying I'm ugly.
(11:35):
I'm like, I know that already. You don't need to
tell me that. I had already know that. I always
love the people you're on overnights. You know no one listens. Yeah,
And my position is if you're not a first or
second team in your sport, you're probably not a Hall
of Famer because while you were playing, you were never
recognized as one of the great players, one of the
(11:57):
top ten players, or one of the five best players,
whatever it might be. Uh, And so that that's a
red flag to me. And when I was watching the
Spurs and I watched that, we all watched a lot
of usps. I never thought Jenoboley's all of favorite. Duncan sure,
Tony Parker, sure, I never thought of Genobley as a
Hall of Famer, But I have higher standards in the
Hall of Fame anyway. So, at this point is a
local story, typical tribalism, ripped the hometown team rally around
(12:22):
the washed up former star who's back in the glory days.
And then all of a sudden, things flitted and it
went from just a local San Antonio story all of
a sudden, now it becomes a geo political crisis because
words start spreading back to Argentina, where man Wu is from.
And so now we're on like Donkey Kong in the
(12:45):
country I've never been to, Yeah, and it's it's going
crazy here. So I start getting and I'm not on
social media a lot, but I do check it, you know,
before the show. I'll check it. When I go to bed,
I'll check whatever. So I'm getting messages from random dudes
in Buenos Aires who are attacking me in Spanish, and
(13:10):
I'm using Google Translate to try to, you know, figure
out my Spanish. Isn't that good. It's exactly so, Benito,
I saw they're they're attacking me, and this keeps going
and going. Now the basketball sports bloggers and Argentina get
word of the story and they're ranting and raving, and
(13:31):
they're they're using me as this big boogeyman and all
this stuff, and it was it was quite amusing. I
gotta tell you, I had a cheshire Cat smile from here.
I said, you gotta be kid you you idiots. And
it's like I as you know, Danny, and we just
want people to consume the content how they whether they
(13:52):
like the content or not. We'd sure be more fun
if everyone loved Jen kissed your ass and all that stuff.
But uh, the smell of trouble is not a bad
thing either. Remember that line from the Howard Stern movie.
The people that didn't like Stern listened longer than the
people that liked him because they wanted to hear they
wanted to be upset, and they wanted more things to
be upset about, or something that they wanted to hear
(14:14):
what he was gonna do next, Yeah, exactly. Now, speaking
of that, so this is this comes to I've got
San Antonio, major US city, and I've got Argentina attacking me.
Mentioned the geo political christ has meant a little overboard
on that. But so people in Argentina are circling, circling
the wagons. And I had no idea that man who
was that big a demigod? I had knowed. I knew
(14:35):
it was popular, but my goodness, it's like I'm attacking Jesus. Anyway,
I never underestimate the power of the hero worship of
Manu and it was. And then back in San Antonio,
this was bizarre. This one had never happened before. Danny.
We had this guy like a Ron Burgundy of San
Antonio Television who wanted to go on. He invited himself
(14:59):
on the show and he wanted to debate me on
Janobody's Hall of Fame credentials. What I should have done
is I said, all right, how about this, I'll go
on your TV station and you can get a satellite
hook up and pay me a rate and I'll go
on there. I would have done that. Plus, I don't
think that that Ron Burgundy guy knows. Like when the
(15:21):
show's on, it was hilarious, like I'm the big TV guy.
I'm the big guy. I love the local teams, so
I'm gonna put my teeth and bite into Mallard And
it was hilarious. Now, the TV station that ran with this,
did you hear from their newsroom? Of course not. No,
they took they took the feed. There were it was
(15:42):
multiple TV stations, Dandy, there were multiple TV stations in
San Antonio that ran a similar version of the story.
And it was it was really it was very amusing,
very very amusing. And so we can now add saying
in Tony my first international anger, our friends in Argentina.
(16:05):
By the way, I love Argentinian food. I love some
grilled chicken and the rice and wonderful. It calls for
a new nickname for you, like the Argentinan Disaster or
something to the effect of you really bothering the people there,
the Argentinian Master of Disaster or something like. Yeah, I'm
sure a listener will come up with something along those lines.
(16:26):
But so San Antonio. Over the years, I'm trying to
think of all the different cities We've had kur fluffles with.
We had Phoenix, We've had multiple with Phoenix over alligator arms,
Murray Houston, local media blow ups with the Strows and
former quarterback to Shaun Watson. Cleveland. There was a big
(16:48):
one in Cleveland years ago, got into it with the
the then Cleveland Indian fans right over the CC Sabathia Trade.
I think that was the thing that they got upset about.
We had one with Baltimore. Ray Lewis Todd pods are amazing.
I ripped ray Lewis after the Super Bowl. That got
(17:09):
a lot of places. Have there been a few of these?
There you go. Danny add sant Antonio to the list,
and it still hasn't calmed down. As we are in
the podcast Dojo, I'm still looking at messages of angry
people and it's great because of the time zones, Like
when we record this, it's prime time in Argentina, so
(17:31):
I'm getting a lot of people who are at work
or at school who are just absolutely dropping a bomb
on me, just letting out the emotion and very upset,
screaming at me just like that, and I'm like, wait
a minute, Yeah, but no, it won't. I gotta I
gotta think it ends eventually at some point here. This
(17:53):
is not gonna go on. It's been an entire week,
an entire week of this. It's insane. Well a lot
of people in that country. Yeah, that is true. It's
a big country. Again to nobody I do. It was
a big deal. I didn't realize the level of uh,
the level of love. But I mean, I'm I'm going
(18:14):
on I peak every once in a while. My social
media sounds like this, you know, don't know the power side. Yeah,
I'm like, okay, all right, there you go. So is
that on your list now to go visit to get
your passport? Punch there in Argentina. I'd love to go
to Argentina. It's beautiful. Yeah, they'd give you the red
carpet treatment. I don't know about that. It would assassinate you.
(18:36):
What if I'm gonna do not intererlist not Argentina, Like
I can't. I'm banned from going to the to the
country because the stuff I've I doubt most people like whatever.
So it's a radio get all worked up here. That's wrong.
With you, all right, So we've got down wind, down
wind as we turned the page here, so that this
(18:58):
past week, I had my neighbors at the Mallard Mansion,
the Mallard Zendo as VIC would say, that moved away.
They sold their house. The house was sli sold. That
they're leaving the People's Republic of California. They are moving
to the Free State of Texas. They'll be just north
of Dallas. I know so many people from California that
(19:20):
have moved to Texas in the Dallas area. In particular,
one of my good friends from elementary school works for
the I R S In He lives in Dallas. And
I've had a bunch of other people have radio friends,
some some in Houston, lot in Dallas. The exodus from California.
And so per the sale out the reason I'm bringing
this up, per the sale of the house, the new
(19:41):
neighbors who haven't moved in yet, the people that bought
the house. It's part of the request. A lot of
termites here because we're in the north Woods, and so hey,
you gotta tent the house, kill all the termines. Okay,
So that was going on next door, and on Wednesday
eight I was preparing for the show Crack a Lock lacking,
(20:05):
doing my thing. It was just a normal Wednesday, and
I like to sit outside. It all not son and
I sit in the shade, but I'd like to get
some fresh air, enjoy the great outdoors and all that.
So I'm sitting outside, minding my own. Yeah, I've got
my you know, I got my laptop going. I'm just
kind of checking things out, looking for things that would
(20:27):
inspire me to do a monologue and jot down a
few bullet points and whatnot for the monologue. So I'm
doing my thing, getting ready for the show. It's kind
of it's whatever I get. I got some games on
my laptop. I'll watch from john to time. It's picturesque
day in the north Woods. And so I'm sitting down.
About an hour after I sit down, I start getting
this nasty migraine headache, and it kept getting worse, and
(20:51):
I'm like, what the hell happened. I'm trying to think
that I eat anything. No, I didn't anything unusual. Is
there something going on here? Am I having some kind
medical ailment? And then I had an aha moment and
I realized while I was joined the California son and
the trees and all that. I was down wind, Danny,
(21:13):
as they I guess in the military, they say, down
range from this toxic vapor cloud of turmoite termite poison.
Oh man, that had I leaked out of the house,
I guess, And so yeah, that's what gave me the headache.
So I I hide tailed it out of there. I went,
(21:36):
you have a dabad and get the hell out of there,
and went into scramble mode. And we will see if
the termite, guess ends up messing up the old body anymore.
But so far it's only been a headache, So all
things considered, that's not I can deal with a headache.
But who knows the long term effects of spending an
hour breathing termite poison in whether that's gonna affect me
(21:58):
down the line. But the point that's only it's only
a headache. I thought I was far enough away a
b there was a tent on it. But upon further review, Danny,
the tent, you know, those those metal clips, those big
metal clips. They were using the metal clips to tape
(22:20):
the big plastic that they were wrapping the house with together.
So I think that that allowed the poison to get
out because they didn't do a good job on that.
I I think, I don't know. I've never been that
close to it house that was termite wrapped like that,
and hope to never be again. Hope to never be
(22:41):
again that close to a house like that, because it
did not feel particularly good. Well, you have the address
exactly where to drop off your medical bills. Yes, yes,
If I need to sue someone, I'll contact my my
lawyer there and I will immediately I call up Sal.
(23:01):
You better call Sal. Isn't that it's one of those
I don't know. Oh, Saul, there you go, or so
there you go? All right, So we have the baseball
brain buster. It's opening weekend in Major League Baseball and
(23:21):
baseball from Freddie Freeman to Aaron Judge. Oh boy, that
was terrible anyway, I'm sorry, Mr President's bat. Everybody in
southern California is hyped up about that Miller kid throwing
a hundred miles per hour and no viral game against
the Angels with half not even half field Dodger Stadium.
(23:42):
But that was a impressive moment. So the way this
will work, then we'll just kind of go through and
see who we like and who we don't like, and
right it's it's the brainbuster, the baseball brain buster, which
is very exciting. This is this is the kind of
content people need, but they don't realize they needed. It's
(24:04):
like when I used to work with Mike North and
there would be days where Andy Ferman couldn't make it
to the show, and so Mike would just opened up
the old school newspaper and read baseball box scores. So
that is so nineteen nineties, early nineties, late eighties and
early nineties radio. It's huge, game by game, buck score
(24:32):
by buck score. My favorite was Mike Francessa when I
would go to New York to visit my brother, and
you're all excited because w FAN is the biggest sports
radio station in the country, and you're like, Wow, this
is the gold standard. And I want to be just
like those guys on w f And you know, I
was a kid, and so I listen to the station
on my way in from the airport, and to be
(24:52):
Mike Francessa at two o'clock in the afternoon on a Tuesday,
here's the Yankee lineup. You got g in the lead
off spot, and then you got Soho batting say, you know,
he's like, oh my god, sound it's scary. It's just painful.
Make it stop. And this is the guy, this is
the star of New York radio. This is the guy.
(25:13):
This is what he's doing. Brutal anyway, So now, should
we just do a world series? Should we do divisions? Penance?
What are we looking at you? Aren't you afraid it
might go off? Accidentally? I used to have that problem.
What did you do about it? I just think about baseball.
Why don't we just go through the divisions? We have
(25:35):
some time, it's the pods. We have a little bit
of time. We have too much time, all right, So
we'll go through the the odds. I have the odds here,
and we'll each pick, and then at the end of
the baseball season, you can go back and download this
podcast and see what we got right and how we
flet Okay, fair enough, sounds good, all right, So we're
both Dodger fans. So we'll start with the nationally West. Gee,
(25:57):
I wonder what we're gonna pick here. That's a hard one.
Not to me. The most interesting story in the nationally
West of the Giants. I feel like they overachieved tremendously
last year. They're not that good, so they should be
crawling back to reality this year. And the odds indicate
that because the Giants. Back in January, the Giants were
(26:18):
a seven to two pick. They were one of the
favorites to make the playoffs and all that just when
the you know, compete with the division. Now they are
in the red, so their odds have gone down. But yeah,
we're both taking the Dodgers, right, Dodgers for sure. Something
about the Giants, though, they're like cockroaches. They just don't
go away. And they put this rag tag group together
(26:39):
and these these guys who are not big names just
come through. It's crazy. Yeah, And even when the Giants
are bad and the Dodges are good or vice versa,
those games head to head still are very, very closet annoying.
Although the Dodgers did get the ultimate f you to
the Giants way back. If you're old enough to remember,
(27:02):
was that ninety three or ninety two was the early
nineties Giants is before the wild card. Giants won over
a hundred games, And remember they lost the last couple
of games at Dodger Stadium and they didn't make the playoffs.
I do remember that. Ye. Now, any Padre prediction from you, like,
do you think Tat Jr. Will actually play a full
(27:24):
season or well, no, he's always gonna be out for
half the year at least. Yeah, So no, I do
think the Potters still are good enough to make the place.
They added an extra team, and you do the math
on this. I look at the nationally right now, and
I can immedia eliminate on opening weekend the Diamondbacks, Rockies, Pirates,
(27:45):
the Reds. I'm also going to eliminate the Cubs or
up to five teams. I'm gonna eliminate the Nationals and
the Marlins. So that's seven teams. So that means, if
my math is correct, you've got eight teams for six
spots in the nationally a total of six three division winners,
three wild card winners, so the next three records after that,
(28:07):
so yeah, six out of eight, you have a six
out of eight chance if you're just trying. So that
means the Giants. Out of the Giants, Padres, Dodgers, Brewers, Cardinals, Braves, Mets,
and Phillies, six of those eight teams make the plan.
You agree with that, I would push back a little
bit on the Reds. The Reds are terrible if you
(28:29):
see what they've done. But they're horrible. They're horrible, Danny Trained,
anybody you've ever heard of other than Joey Bottom. They
all they're gone. They're all gone. There's no one left.
I feel like they could still be a scrappy bunch. Possibly, No,
I don't see that. I could see the clubs of
that group of also rans. I can see the clubs
(28:50):
being annoying. I mean, I'm thinking of what the Giants
do in our division. I'm wondering if there's a team
that will be like that be comparable to the Giants
of last season. Yeah, well we don't. Yeah, of course
there will be somebody that we're like that team was
supposed to suck. But I'm betting it's not the Reds.
(29:11):
So I've got I think the Braves will actually end
up beating out the Mets in the Nationally East. So
I'll take the Braves. I've got the brew Crew. I
think the brew Crew should run away, although they have
no offense there, but they should run away with the
Nationally Central. The Brewers are actually the favorite that the Cardinals.
(29:31):
They have a couple of stars kind of rag tag.
You some questions about the pitching staff there in St. Louis,
whether there there's some guys long in the tooth. Also
in the lineup, they brought back Albert Poojos. Ye, so
I am going I'm going very chalk here, going very
chalk with Dodgers, Brewers and Braves. I'd like to see
(29:53):
the Mets not make the playoffs because my cousin is
a big Mets fan, and it's always fun when I
can annoy him. Yeah, I don't feel like hearing Jay's
and smith on before you going on and on about
how the Mets are winning, so it would be better
if they lose. Yeah, I agree. All right, So American League,
we'll starting the American Lely West. You got the cheating
(30:14):
as Strows, they're the favorite Angels and Mariners. After that
you got Texas in Oakland. I like Seattle. Actually, I'm
gonna go with Robbie the Mariner fans. This is the year.
This is the year the Mariners were closing in last year.
They didn't have a great offseason. But I'm taking Seattle
to win the American League West. It happens when someone
(30:36):
says they're gonna send us acts that's right, yeah, exactly.
And I need the other thing I need here is
the Angels to be a little bit better because I
want to find a way the Astros don't make the playoffs.
I don't see a way they don't because they're gonna
play the Rangers and the Athletics that are minor league teams. Well,
(30:58):
Corey Seeger they got the Rangers got two or three guys,
that's it. But they're not. What about Syndergard. I mean,
you don't hear much about him being in that red
uniform now because he's an Anahi. They don't. I don't
want the attention to Anna, but I yeah, Syndergard, if
he's healthy. That's the ifs and butts game though, right, Danny,
you don't play the ifs and bucks game. Now. The
(31:19):
American League Central, you got the favorite, the White Sox.
The Twins have actually had their odds improved. They signed
beating Astro Carlos Correa. You got the Tigers who have
actually fallen off a little bit from January. And then
after that the Guardians and my buddies in Kansas City
(31:40):
who stink. But I did, I did talk to my
friends in Kansas City. Actually, Uh, yesterday. It wasn't there,
like that's a great ball I told him it's a
great ballpark. The White Sox are the favorite. The Twins
of the second pick Twin White Sox are are one
to two favorites, the Twins or fifteen to for. I
(32:02):
want to pull for the Twins because of our guys
in Minnesota, but I can't do it with Carlos Correa
right now. I can't. I'm sorry, You're just hateable. Uh.
I like what the Tigers were trying to put together
last season. Yeah, the Tigers have a sneaky good team.
Well not even really sneak. They had a couple of pictures.
They got a hobby bias. I'm not a big hobby
(32:23):
bias guy. He's a good regular season players. So I'm
gonna pull for the Tigers. Yeah, that's what I have
written down on my sheet here, all right. So I
got the Tigers, I got Mariners of West, Tigers in
the Central, and then I'm going shalk in the American
League East, I'm going with the blue Jays. I look
at that Blue Jay team. I think that's a threat
(32:44):
to beat the Dodgers in the World Series. That's a
good blue Jay team right there. That is a team
that is stacked. I've been hearing you talk about Toronto.
I wouldn't be surprised. They'd have to have some injuries
and some things really break bad for them to uh
poop all over the field in the mound. Yeah, you
look at the projections and a big projection guy or whatever.
(33:04):
But if you you look at that, just the lineup
that the Blue Jays, the projected lineup and the pitching
staff they've got, that is a team that is just
made to win a hundred games. Now the playoffs. As
you know, Danny, We've learned this firsthand over the years
with the Dodgers. You can have the most impressive team
(33:25):
and then you get a pesky, scrappy team with gump
ship like the Atlanta Braves for example this past year,
or the Washington Nationals a couple of years ago. They
end up hijacking your fund and and ruining, ruining the
good times. Vladimir gil Jr. You go down the list there,
(33:45):
Bo Bishette, what's his name, ti Oscar Hernandez. That's not
his name, Jeff d That guy's nobody even knows who
he is outside of the hardcore Blue Jay fans. But
you look at the the roster like, wow, that is
that is something One Blue Jays fan on my Twitter
(34:06):
feed and every day he's highlighting a different player on
the team. So I feel like I'm connected. And they
got our old guy reu Reusing there. He's still hanging
out in Toronto. So I got the Blue Jays and
what else here? We do a few more and uh,
of course we gotta get to the big stuff, which
(34:26):
is on my list. The big stuff is on my list. Uh,
so let's go nationally. We're taking the Dodgers, Uh I think,
Am I right? You're picking anybody but the Dodgers? Okay,
Dodgers Dodgers, and I'm taking Toronto the American League. You
want to pick anybody other that other than the Blue Jays.
You got the word, I can't argue against Toronto, alright,
(34:46):
So we're going chalk on that. Anybody but the Astros,
blank my blank and blank you it's the American League
Championship Series of Toronto is not in and the Astros
are in. I'll take the White Sox, Yankees, raised Blue Jays,
Red Sox, you know, any of those so uh and
to win the World Series Dodgers. Right, yeah, come on,
(35:07):
I mean we're both like. This is like that, you know,
this is like that Saturday Night Live skit with the Bears,
the Bears, Dodgers, Dodgers. Yes, exactly, the Dodgers. I know.
What about the individual stuff, Now, some of these guys
are names were not that familiar with. We'll start with
the American League MVP. The two favorites are show hey,
(35:28):
oh Tony, and a lot of people have Mike Trout
as a co favorite, always coming off an injury. You've
got Byron buckst into the Twins getting a lot of yeah,
a lot of love. I've been reading about him. Uh, yeah,
he's a name that's he's been around for a little bit. Uh.
There's another guy from the Chicago White Sox named Lewis.
(35:51):
Uh is it Robert? Is that it looks like Robert
Perhaps it's some weird way. Uh. He's an outfielder from Cuba.
I don't know anything about him. Yeah, I don't know
much about him either, but he's supposed to be like
a total stud, monster at the plate and all that stuff.
So so he's someone's getting a lot of love from
the the gambling world. Another name the guy came up
(36:13):
last year with Tampa Bay wander Franco Okay, the shortstop
named l Patron from the Dominican Republic, and he's he
got off to a great start last year, so that
he's also Yeah, I remember seeing his highlights last season. Yeah.
So my theory on the m v P is pretty simple.
(36:35):
You gotta be on a good team to win the
m v P. So I'm gonna generally speak. I know
there are exceptions like Otani and whatnot, but I'm gonna
I'm gonna say, you gotta be had a good team.
And the Angels are like a middling team and they
don't really like to give it back to back, belly
to belly. I'm gonna take Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Who was
close last year. So I'm gonna take the Blue Jay's
Vladimir Guerrero. There's also other names on this list. You've
(36:57):
got Raphael Devers of the Red Sox and Judge Bobachter
old Buddy Corey. See you're the Rangers now that cheating
a stro Carlos Carea is on the odds, Gian Carlos Standon,
Jesse Winker who's in Seattle now one of the reasons.
I like the Mariners. Anybody pop there, anyone you want
(37:18):
to go with, you wanna, You're gonna go with Byron Buxton,
all right, sucking up to the people in Minnesota white women. Well,
he was the best player in baseball on a per
game basis last season. I think that with that lineup
around him, he's going to continue to blow things up
there in a good way, all right. Now. In the
(37:38):
National League, the favorite is Juan Soto of the Washington Nationals.
He's got that nattitude. Ronald the Coner Jr. At seven
o one. You've got Bryce Harper at ten to one,
the reigning m v P. And then there's a bunch
of Dodgers after that, Mookie Bets, Freddie free Men, Trade Turner,
(38:03):
you go down. And then then you got the other names.
Francisco Lindor's on their Manny Machado, the Padres, Matt Olsen
of the Braves, Peter Alonso, the Mets. So those are
the top choices for the m v P award. Boy
Mookie Bets has actually not been that great the last
the last year, he didn't play that great. Last year.
He was quietly dealing with a nagging injury. Yeah, so
(38:27):
hopefully he's all the way back healthy. But I could
totally see Freddie Freeman taking this. Yeah, I was leaning
towards Freeman, but back to back. They don't like to
usually go back to back. I'm gonna take I'm gonna
go off the board a little bit. Although he's listed here,
trade Turner mark plug guy, gonna steal some basses. He
(38:48):
hits for a high average. He won the batting title
right last year. I think he did. I believe he
won the batting title last year with the Nationals. Mostly
in a little bit with the Dodgers. Uh so, yeah,
I I I'm going I think Turner is gonna be
a really exciting player. Is a spark plug guy. He
really took a ride on a vomit comment in the
playoffs for the Dodgers, unfortunately. But it's the regular season.
(39:12):
So that's my pick and I'm sticking to it. Cy
Young American League, Cy Young, anybody anybody stand out? You've
got the usual suspects, Garrett Cole, Lucas Giolito, the White Sox,
the Bebe, Shane Bieber of the Guardians, Robbie Ray who's
(39:33):
now on the Mariners, Otani Verlander, I'm gonna toss the
name out. How about Jose Barrio so the Blue Jays,
that's not a bad pick. I'm gonna go Otani here
so you can go Tani. Yeah, there's a lot of
a lot of love for Otani, right, National League, Cy
Young and again usual chalk favorite at the top. You
(39:54):
got Max Scherzer who's the favorite from the Mets. Corbin
Burns very good picture for the brew Where is Jacob
de Gram, Carlos Radon? Uh we have Walker Bueller, Brandon
Woodruff who's the favorite? Um Shures is the favorite? Uh? Man,
oh man? This is Sandy Alcantera of the Marlins is
(40:17):
listed here at fourteen to one. What do you think
about sers health? Do you think he'll be okay throughout
the entire season? No, no, no, always been on pictures
getting hurt. If he's not hurt, I like him there
even as the favorite with the Metropolitans. A you take
Sures or I'm gonna take Corbin Burns the Brewers. This
(40:37):
guy is nasty. And the pitching that's the strength of
the Brewers. They got good starting pitching, which is that
really a big deal these days because starters don't go
the third time through the rotation. So does it really
matter that much? Not really. Yeah, I tend to agree
with you on that. I'm not even gonna do Rookie
the I don't know America. We know Bobby Witt of
(40:58):
the I know him from the Royals. But are you
familiar with Spencer torkleson of the Tigers, Julio Rodriguez and
the marriage. These are guys that will learn about. But
I don't really know much about these guys. And I
don't base any of my opinions off the scouting reports
because they're almost always wrong. Yeah, we just gotta flip
your benny the penny for those, Yeah, exactly. So in
(41:20):
the National League, the well, the favorite was O'Neil Cruz.
It is now someone named C. J Abrams. Oh I
know that, dude. No, I don't. He went to high
school with him bottom in high school probably, Yeah, exactly.
Who is C. J Abrams? C j Abrams. That's the
(41:40):
year Page Dan Page Dan. He's with the San Diego
Padres organized and he is one of the favorites for
the nl A Rookie of the Year. All right, we'll
put the baby to bed and anything you got me
all hyped up for base ball. Right now. I'm looking forward.
(42:01):
I'll be watching. I was watching the last couple of days.
I'll keep watching. It's great to get up. I love
the day games when I wake up from a slumber
and there's a game and like the fourth inning on
the East Coast and I can check it out and
then the West Coast game start. And he didn to
promote Danny any gigs coming up. It's Friday. Anything on
a Friday year going on here? Today is Friday, and
(42:24):
no I have the evening off, thank god. Alright, have
a great rest of your Friday. Don't forget to download
the regular podcast, the Restial Radio Podcast. In addition to
this morning, we'll have an amazing tale I never before
told story on the Saturday podcast. I embargoed it Danny
(42:48):
for the fifth Hour podcast, and I will be ranting
and raving about something that happened to me this week
involving a professional sports franchise showing tremendous disrespect to our
radio show. And I will call on the Mallard Militia
to settle the score, and that will be on the
(43:08):
Saturday podcast. Anyway, have a great rest of your day.
We'll talk to you then later. Skater gott a murder,
Gotta go.
Host
Ben Maller
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