July 9, 2025 • 23 mins
What childhood games did you play that should be on ESPN The Ocho? Would they qualify as a sport and you as an athlete? René and Shawn discuss these topics, and hot dogs, in this curveball loaded episode.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to another Curveball production. Much like many other things
this summer, nothing seems to go quite as planned, expect
the unexpected. For instance, we are here poolside, as Sean
likes to refer to as studio p correct because we
were going to go to the Twins game tonight. Got
(00:33):
all excited or the proper Twins attire.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Ish beautiful night for a Twins game, beautiful night.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Sean couldn't figure out why none of his vouchers would work.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I was, I was looking, so I have vouchers for
as a season ticket holder for the Twins, you can
get vouchers, which basically means you can go to pretty
much any game you want. One person, you can have
you know, three or four people, doesn't matter. You turn
these vouchers in. And I was looking at today's game
and there were no vouchers seats available, which happens sometimes.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So we said, oh wow, we can't use any vouchers.
But he said, you know what, honey, it's okay. We're
just gonna buy some tickets. It's a beautiful night for baseball.
We're going to the game. So then he goes, I
can't believe this. It's a Monday night it's against the Cubs,
but it sold out. I can't even buy tick.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I couldn't even I couldn't even find tickets on stub Hub.
And then there's a reason for that.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
What what's the plot twist?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Shop? The plot twist is there are no tickets available
because there is no game, so makes it a little
difficult to go to the game.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
You know what it means. It means we're recording our
podcast a full day early, and we're ordering pizza for
dinner and we're going on a walk.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
That's that's how we roll in these summertime months, because
there's really, as I think everybody knows, not a lot
on TV to sit down and watch. I mean, well, ion,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Well and for us on top or for me, I
should say, I'm always so behind on TV. Didn't we
just watch like the season's finale of Chicago PD, like
last week or something and it had happened like at.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Least a month or two ago after. Yes, yeah, that's
okay though, but uh yeah, summertime, all the major networks
they just you know, do their reruns because they understand
that people are outside doing stuff and not not exactly
hunkered down and enjoying, uh, the enjoying whatever's on TV. Now,
don't get wrong, ourse like Netflix might have some series on,
(02:26):
but generally not much, which led us to the other day.
Uh Tanner who works at a golf course and happened
to be slow time. I think it was raining or something.
Not many people golfing, So he's watching ESPN, and he
switched over ESPN normal to the OCHO. And been a
(02:49):
while since I watched the OCHO.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I didn't even know what the ocho was, except I
did say, hey, ocho means eight in Spanish.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
She did so she could. She contributed, But Tanner was
watching and he was saying that there was some just
some fun stuff on it. So we flipped over to
the OCHO and sure enough we got to watch Dodgeball,
which is very appropriate.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
It was, and I was shocked at how similar it
was to the movie Dodgeball.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yes, they actually played the game quite similarly.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I also thought it was funny that they didn't throw wrenches. Well,
now it's going to sound like we eat it out
all the time because I'm going to reference Buffalo wild Wings,
but we rarely ever eat out oop. Sorry, that was
the lawn chair and we went to Buffalo Wild Wings
and continued to watch the Ocho. Yes, and treated ourselves
to kickball.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yes, we were watching kickball on the O Show, which
I was very unimpressed with because kickball, I guess, the
way you play it competitively, it's more like bunt ball.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
A lot of you know, pop flies like we had
when I was growing up, right, you know, whoever had
the strongest legs would kick the ball the furthest hope
somebody in the outfield didn't catch it right, and then
you'd run the bases just I mean, very similar to
baseball for those of you who don't know what kickball is.
But yeah, there was a lot of bunting. And also
the pitching was unique. It bounces in front of the
(04:21):
plate and then kind of bounces over the plate, so
it's not I don't know, I just remember as a kid,
people would try and roll it to you really fast
and you'd kick it and it was kind of a
timing thing. But this added a new layer of difficulty.
The way they were pitching. Do you call it pitching?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
They did, They called it pitching, and yes, the goal
of the pitcher was to make sure that the ball
had bounced and was kind of in the air when
it got through the kickzone. It's made it more difficult
to get squared up on the ball fair enough, yes,
is what they said.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I will say too that the athletes featured on OCHO
looked more like your run of the hill, run of
the mill, or not run on the hill, but you
might run a hill.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Neighborhood gang. I don't mean gang as in like crips
and bloods. I mean like gang like you know, the
kids in the neighborhood like we did when we were kids.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Which, which is that great segue to what the O.
The next thing we start talking about is why if
they're doing this on the OCHO, because evidently, according to Tanner,
they had competitive window washing. No way, it's what he said,
I must have owned out and he thought that was interesting.
But then you brought up, you know, why don't they
have some games that we did as kids on the OHO?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Well, then that spiral does I'm sure our listeners know
that we like to do. Because I was like, what
is the difference, I mean, what makes it a sport? Right?
And we were looking up the definition of a sport
versus a game, because I said, do they have kicked
the can on Ocho because that was a huge neighborhood
(05:54):
pastime when I was a kid. Shout out to the
kids on seventy fourth court. They had a great time
growing up we.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
As did we. We played kick the can. We played
all sorts of games as kids. Four square like when
you're at school. We played four square.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, we played four square at school. We did not
play it in the neighborhood. We played baseball, kickball, kick
the can. We called it frozen tag. You know, where
you'd play tag and if somebody tagged, you stand with
your arms and legs apart, and somebody would have to
run underneath you to follow you, and then you'd be back,
(06:28):
you know, in the game or whatever. I don't know
if you guys play I think some people called it
freeze tag. I did ask you if you guys played
Kiss Her Kill.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, this is interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
This is not a politically correct game, but.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It fits for where you grew up in the mean
inner streets of Brooklyn Center or Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Park, Brooklyn Park. Sorry, we played kiss Her Kill, and
as I recall, we also played Capture the Flag. Sorry,
I just had a scroll run by in my brain.
But kiss her kill was a unique game. Again, it
was a tag style game and as I recall, if
you were tagged by the person who was it, you
(07:07):
had to choose whether or not you wanted to kiss
or they got to kill you, which was a physical
pain thing like yeah, they'd smack you or punch you.
So you could choose kiss, you could choose kill, or
you could just quit and be a loser like that
was kind of what it was. So you had to
pick because if you wanted to keep playing, you had
(07:28):
to stay in the game. So yeah, depending on who
was it, you had to choose. Yes, if it was
kiss or.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Kill, that would make it very interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
It seems to me that it probably wouldn't be an
acceptable game today to basically choose sexual assault, physical abuse,
or bullying.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah. Plus, then you kind of gets as the person
who got who actually tagged an individual, that the person
who was the tag e would get to choose correct
what they wanted. Yep, And I could understand that where
the tag might get a little butt hurt if the
wrong one was chosen.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Well, many many a budding romance started starting to kiss
and kill and depending on who what the girls seem
to like to play, kiss or Kill more than the
boys because because because now I think that that probably
would have changed had we played it in the high
school years. But this was elementary school, you know, it
was really they started, like I totally forgot this game
(08:32):
existed until we started talking about this. We also played
Capture the Flag.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Already, but that's yeah, okay, yeah we we They in
Bismarck were a little more wholesome. Really, we just well yeah,
I mean that's a given.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
That's also not politically tip.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Once in a while, but no, it was it was
almost limited to to kick the can and then uh
occasion we would venture out to well, we played the
backyard whiffle ball. Okay, I don't know if I told
anybody if I told this story or not, if I did,
too bad, I'm telling it again because my favorite story.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
So well Uncle Sean shares his story.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, there we go. So we're talking probably mid eighties here,
and uh, I was down. We had the twenty first
Street people, and I was down toward the end of
the block on twenty first and there's a group of
kids out on the on the southern end of twenty
first Street. They got they got together in the northern end,
(09:35):
which is where I was at. We got together, but
occasionally the Southern group they would be playing whiffle ball
and I'd kind of venture by, and you know what
you do as a kid, You kind of you kind
of stand off on the side while all the other
kids are playing, and they wait for you to say, hey,
do you want to play? And you stand around there
long enough, just kind of dinking around, not really saying anything. Well,
that was me. So we're down the down the ways
(09:57):
David Saint Peter, if you remember from a pre this podcast,
former president and CEO of the Minnesota Twins who is
now semi retired. He went and he lived down the
street from me, and we were they had a game
of wiffleball going in his backyard. Finally they said, Sean,
do you want to play? I stood around long enough,
(10:18):
probably a good fifteen to twenty minutes, and I said, yep,
I'll play. And they said, okay, here's the rule. The
only rule is there's no sliding. The grass is wet,
so no sliding. So I get up to bat and
of course I pummel one to deep center field. Of course,
I run around first base and I'm headed to second base.
And what do I do going into second base? Slid,
(10:40):
My slid and a big chunk of dirt came out.
I was ever invited back to play wooftball at the
Saint Peter Hi.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I didn't know this, but you have something in common
with my friend Alisha, and I also forgot about this story.
But we have a pretty close neighborhood when our kids
were young growing up, and there got to be a
number of kickball games in the backyard that pretty much
the adults dominated, the kids pretty much got pushed off
to the side, and all us neighbor parents played.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Oh things are starting again. You really start coming together
your childhood and with the games you played and didn't
play well.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Actually, the weekend this happened, I was up at the cabin,
so I missed this. Got it, But they were playing
kickball in the backyard that included my backyard, and my
friend Alicia slid into second accidentally and broke her ankle
totally sideways. Got it during a friendly neighborhood game of
kickball sometime during the I don't know some probably like
(11:38):
around twenty ten, twenty twelve, and she had to get
a plate and a whole bunch of screws put in
her ankle.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
That's a tough sport.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
It is a tough sort. While the grass was slippery,
probably because the neighbor guy ran a sprinkler too much,
because he's got the perfect lawns. I live in one
of those neighborhoods and h no, it was really fun times.
But I was quite shocked to find out she needed
major surgery because of that old right, well, she wasn't
(12:06):
that old. She's younger than me, so I forget how
old we were, but old enough to know better.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
The as we're then talking about different sports and what
was a sport. One of the reason of the other
things the genesis of this particular podcast idea was it
came to me as as on a run on July fifth,
and on July fourth was the which is has been
for years now, the Nathan's hot Dog Competition, most you
(12:36):
can eat thing about Jiggy.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
That's how we started talking to about what is a sport?
Is a hot dog eating contest a sport?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
And they they went, uh, they went a good on
ESPN Radio, a good I would say, twenty minutes discussing whether.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Or not.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Competitive eating was actually actually a sport. And we're competitive eaters,
actually athletes.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
What was the verdict?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
They never really came to a verdict. I think I
think they threw it out to the audience, and the
audience was about fitty fitty. But they were talking about
how the winner of this year, the who won the
men's competition, and again, my bad, I was supposed to
research who won the women's competition.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
I did not do that.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
But the winner of the men's competition, Yeah, exactly, Joey Chestnut,
which is from an athlete's name, if as far as
an athlete's name goes perfect.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Actually, I do have information about the winner. So you
keep chatting and I'm going to something I read.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Anyway, So they're talking about Joey Chestnut and how he
you know, he trains for these events and he's in
good shape and you just can't be a fat, overweight
dude and expect to chow down seventy one hot dogs
and however long it took him to do it. So
there were a couple of people saying, yes, an athlete,
(13:59):
and then they delved into what we're you know, what's
a sport and what is and so you said, you know,
an athlete is you got sport. Is it where you
you know, you have to run or you have to
have strength or something, which caused a lot of a
lot of turmoil within the ranks because then you start
(14:20):
talking about golf, which always comes up. Is golf actually
a sport? All you doing is walking and hitting the ball?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
And I think golfers would say that it is a sport.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I agreed. I mean, they brought up all sorts of
things that you don't have to run or be strong.
Skeet shooting, are archery? Would those be sports? What else
did they bring up that was a little controversial? Bowling?
Bowling a sports?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, billiards. I mean, there's so many things.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Right, but I think what they kind of said was
there are things that are sports, but you don't You
do not necessarily need to be an athlete in order
to play them.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
I do remember, and I think I mentioned this on
the podcast a long time ago, that when I was
in high school, dance team was considered an art not
a sport, right, And one of the years I was
on dance team in high school, they lobbied to put
it in the Minnesota State High School League sports category.
So they changed the shape of our letters so we
(15:26):
had an athletic A because of the high school I
went to started with an A and anyway, so they
then deemed that dance wasn't just an art form at
that point, but it was indeed a competitive sport.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Because more of a competition than anything else.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
But that we were athletes. And I remember during the drama,
we'd like challenge the wrestling team to all sorts of
like athletic activities to prove and yeah, we stomped all
over them. I mean, we can't beat anybody up, but
we get out run them and out you know, all
that kind of stuff. I do want to get back
to the hot dog eating thing, because Miss as Gold,
(16:02):
it really is.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
So apparently this year a gal by the name of
Madison Barone I think is her name? Hang on, uh,
she won the ladies event. However, Miss Barone was disqualified
because she experienced urges contrary to swallowing after the contest,
(16:26):
but before the conclusion of presentations and the awarding of places.
So that is the technical disqualification. She experienced urges contrary
to swallowing, got it, which I'm pretty sure means she hurled, Yeah,
why wouldn't you just say that she vomited so something.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Okay, so go back to that then, so that was
happened after she finished eating, but before the awarded prizes.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Correct. I think you have to get through the awards
ceremony without and I don't know like how long. I mean, again,
I don't watch this honestly. I don't even really like
hot dogs much at all. Right, I mean a little
bit out of the game, maybe over at campfire, but anyway,
so I don't know much about it. I just thought
that the wording of that was.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Going, yes, that is that is awesome.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Urges contrary to swallowing.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Okay, and so now we have that as far as
things you didn't know, things you didn't know you needed
to know, or things you don't care about knowing that
you find out just by listening to the podcast.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I also think that it'd be great if you're ill
and you need to call in sick to work, if
you just you know, let your boss know that you're
gonna have to stay home today because you're experiencing urges.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I fine, contrary to swallowing, that's that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Right now, that's just gross. It almost sounds worse than
what it is.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
And we can now probably put that one to bed.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yeah, I think I've beat that one.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Okay. So so anyway back to back to what are
sports and what or not? And then because one of
the things that they had brought up was you know,
different things that in different sports that people can do
that others can't and whether or not that makes them
athletes and it makes them So one of the things
(18:19):
I said was, you know, if you're faster than somebody else,
then you know, and you can run fast, then running
is a sport. This is when they brought up archery
and they said, well, archery isn't I mean, it isn't
a sport because you don't really do anything except pull
back on a bowl and shoot an arrow.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I think, I don't know. I feel like I feel
like fishing is considered a sport. Archeries, trap shooting. I agreed,
and mean, like, you know, there's gamesmanship there.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
And those were things where they finally they conceded that
you know, you take somebody who's really Usain Bolt, who's
really really fast, and you ask Usain Bolt to shoot
a bow and arrow probably would not be very good
at it. I could be wrong. Maybe Usain Bold is
just a phenomenal archer. I have no idea. I really
(19:10):
don't assume that if if he was, that he would
not and as an archery person, you would be a
better competitor, a better athlete than Usain Bold in that particular.
So that's how they kind of trust me. They went
around in circles with this, and it helps me love.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
This is so much like the way our world is now.
Everyone's a winner. You know what, Sean, We're all athletes.
I mean, if you can if you can eat you know,
a full rack of ribs, maybe two, you're an athlete.
You're in training.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
If you can do something competitively better than somebody else,
then it's a sport, and which makes you an athlete.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
I feel like to some degree this word sport is
being used in quotation marks. Right, Well, it's like the
sport of hot dog eating.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Right and and it and even I mean, what is
the sport? Is chess the sport of kings? Or is
horse racing the sport?
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Do I look like somebody who playschoxing the sport of kings?
I don't know one of these.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
There's a sport of kings, and then there's maybe maybe chess.
Just has kings. I think that's a sport of kings.
I don't know. I did not research that into this
particular podcast, but like horse racing comes into play a
lot because is that I mean, are those are they
jockeys athletes? I would have to say, yes, I've been
to there.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
What about dog trainers who do agility dog competitions? Is
that's why you keep hearing the lawn chair because she
keeps dropping her tennis ball near and around me because
she's obsessive, right.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
And she's been it's been a good day since she's
had a good tennis ball throw, right, So we have
to So is that a sport?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I don't know, That's what I'm saying. I mean, if
a horse jockey is a sport, why wouldn't the person
running alongside their dog through the tunnels.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And the what is the one the dog show the
Westminster the Westminster Dog Show? Yeah, would those dogs be
athletes or would the trainers running beside them?
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Well, that's what we were talking about with horse racing.
Are the horses the athletes or are the jockeys the athlete?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
That's a great question. I would have to think I
would give it to the horses. Yeah, I would give
it to the horses. They're the ones that do all
the work.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Well, yeah, and or no. I mean I think you
have to be pretty physically fit to be a jockey
and quite diminutive in size.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Agreed, But I would have to say that the horse
probably is. When a horse wins, the horse does I
would say ninety to ninety five percent of the work.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
This weekend, we were on a jet ski together or
a wave runner, and we were going quite speedy. Would
that be a sport because I know people who used
to race jet skis. What about auto racing, motorcycle motocross, Yeah,
wave runners or jet skis. I mean, I do know that.
We said if we were going to race the other
jet skis out in the lake, because the one we
were on was twenty years old, we decided that we
(22:01):
were going to put my mom on it because she's
only topping out around eighty one pounds these days, and
we feel like with both of our weights and the
jet ski it did slow her down a little bit.
So we'd put the lightest person on the cabin at
the cabin to win.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I think next time. But then yeah, we'd have to
give her we'd have to ask her about that, knowing
your mom should be game.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
She used to love going on the jet ski. I
don't think she'd be up for it now.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Probably not. Well, we always ask.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
I just was like, I want to ask her. I'm
going to ask her one of these days, because when
we had our jet skis. Currently the only one left
is my dad's because mine went. Both of ours went kerpluey.
But one of the best parts of just going sixty
miles an hour across the lake and then stopping is
to let out a blood curdling scream that no one
(22:47):
can hear. Oh, it's very liberating.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (22:51):
It really helps with stress. I highly recommend it. But
I wonder if my mom ever felt that way, that
she just needed to let out a good yelp.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
And then that's why she got on the jet ski.
Got it? Maybe I'm guessing that probably is. That's probably
close to the truth. Maybe anyway, that's all we got.
We might now go into competitive pizza eating and see
how many we can how many slices we could put
in the belly.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Let's be honest, we're just excited we get to have
vegetables on it. Because none of the kids are here.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Correct, we get to order our own adult pizzas. It's
gonna be awesome.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
This has been another Curveball production.
Welcome to another Curveball production. Much like many other things
this summer, nothing seems to go quite as planned, expect
the unexpected. For instance, we are here poolside, as Sean
likes to refer to as studio p correct because we
were going to go to the Twins game tonight. Got
(00:33):
all excited or the proper Twins attire.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Ish beautiful night for a Twins game, beautiful night.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Sean couldn't figure out why none of his vouchers would work.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I was, I was looking, so I have vouchers for
as a season ticket holder for the Twins, you can
get vouchers, which basically means you can go to pretty
much any game you want. One person, you can have
you know, three or four people, doesn't matter. You turn
these vouchers in. And I was looking at today's game
and there were no vouchers seats available, which happens sometimes.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So we said, oh wow, we can't use any vouchers.
But he said, you know what, honey, it's okay. We're
just gonna buy some tickets. It's a beautiful night for baseball.
We're going to the game. So then he goes, I
can't believe this. It's a Monday night it's against the Cubs,
but it sold out. I can't even buy tick.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I couldn't even I couldn't even find tickets on stub Hub.
And then there's a reason for that.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
What what's the plot twist?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Shop? The plot twist is there are no tickets available
because there is no game, so makes it a little
difficult to go to the game.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
You know what it means. It means we're recording our
podcast a full day early, and we're ordering pizza for
dinner and we're going on a walk.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
That's that's how we roll in these summertime months, because
there's really, as I think everybody knows, not a lot
on TV to sit down and watch. I mean, well, ion,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Well and for us on top or for me, I
should say, I'm always so behind on TV. Didn't we
just watch like the season's finale of Chicago PD, like
last week or something and it had happened like at.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Least a month or two ago after. Yes, yeah, that's
okay though, but uh yeah, summertime, all the major networks
they just you know, do their reruns because they understand
that people are outside doing stuff and not not exactly
hunkered down and enjoying, uh, the enjoying whatever's on TV. Now,
don't get wrong, ourse like Netflix might have some series on,
(02:26):
but generally not much, which led us to the other day.
Uh Tanner who works at a golf course and happened
to be slow time. I think it was raining or something.
Not many people golfing, So he's watching ESPN, and he
switched over ESPN normal to the OCHO. And been a
(02:49):
while since I watched the OCHO.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I didn't even know what the ocho was, except I
did say, hey, ocho means eight in Spanish.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
She did so she could. She contributed, But Tanner was
watching and he was saying that there was some just
some fun stuff on it. So we flipped over to
the OCHO and sure enough we got to watch Dodgeball,
which is very appropriate.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
It was, and I was shocked at how similar it
was to the movie Dodgeball.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yes, they actually played the game quite similarly.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I also thought it was funny that they didn't throw wrenches. Well,
now it's going to sound like we eat it out
all the time because I'm going to reference Buffalo wild Wings,
but we rarely ever eat out oop. Sorry, that was
the lawn chair and we went to Buffalo Wild Wings
and continued to watch the Ocho. Yes, and treated ourselves
to kickball.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yes, we were watching kickball on the O Show, which
I was very unimpressed with because kickball, I guess, the
way you play it competitively, it's more like bunt ball.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
A lot of you know, pop flies like we had
when I was growing up, right, you know, whoever had
the strongest legs would kick the ball the furthest hope
somebody in the outfield didn't catch it right, and then
you'd run the bases just I mean, very similar to
baseball for those of you who don't know what kickball is.
But yeah, there was a lot of bunting. And also
the pitching was unique. It bounces in front of the
(04:21):
plate and then kind of bounces over the plate, so
it's not I don't know, I just remember as a kid,
people would try and roll it to you really fast
and you'd kick it and it was kind of a
timing thing. But this added a new layer of difficulty.
The way they were pitching. Do you call it pitching?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
They did, They called it pitching, and yes, the goal
of the pitcher was to make sure that the ball
had bounced and was kind of in the air when
it got through the kickzone. It's made it more difficult
to get squared up on the ball fair enough, yes,
is what they said.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I will say too that the athletes featured on OCHO
looked more like your run of the hill, run of
the mill, or not run on the hill, but you
might run a hill.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Neighborhood gang. I don't mean gang as in like crips
and bloods. I mean like gang like you know, the
kids in the neighborhood like we did when we were kids.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Which, which is that great segue to what the O.
The next thing we start talking about is why if
they're doing this on the OCHO, because evidently, according to Tanner,
they had competitive window washing. No way, it's what he said,
I must have owned out and he thought that was interesting.
But then you brought up, you know, why don't they
have some games that we did as kids on the OHO?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Well, then that spiral does I'm sure our listeners know
that we like to do. Because I was like, what
is the difference, I mean, what makes it a sport? Right?
And we were looking up the definition of a sport
versus a game, because I said, do they have kicked
the can on Ocho because that was a huge neighborhood
(05:54):
pastime when I was a kid. Shout out to the
kids on seventy fourth court. They had a great time
growing up we.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
As did we. We played kick the can. We played
all sorts of games as kids. Four square like when
you're at school. We played four square.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, we played four square at school. We did not
play it in the neighborhood. We played baseball, kickball, kick
the can. We called it frozen tag. You know, where
you'd play tag and if somebody tagged, you stand with
your arms and legs apart, and somebody would have to
run underneath you to follow you, and then you'd be back,
(06:28):
you know, in the game or whatever. I don't know
if you guys play I think some people called it
freeze tag. I did ask you if you guys played
Kiss Her Kill.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, this is interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
This is not a politically correct game, but.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It fits for where you grew up in the mean
inner streets of Brooklyn Center or Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Park, Brooklyn Park. Sorry, we played kiss Her Kill, and
as I recall, we also played Capture the Flag. Sorry,
I just had a scroll run by in my brain.
But kiss her kill was a unique game. Again, it
was a tag style game and as I recall, if
you were tagged by the person who was it, you
(07:07):
had to choose whether or not you wanted to kiss
or they got to kill you, which was a physical
pain thing like yeah, they'd smack you or punch you.
So you could choose kiss, you could choose kill, or
you could just quit and be a loser like that
was kind of what it was. So you had to
pick because if you wanted to keep playing, you had
(07:28):
to stay in the game. So yeah, depending on who
was it, you had to choose. Yes, if it was
kiss or.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Kill, that would make it very interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
It seems to me that it probably wouldn't be an
acceptable game today to basically choose sexual assault, physical abuse,
or bullying.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah. Plus, then you kind of gets as the person
who got who actually tagged an individual, that the person
who was the tag e would get to choose correct
what they wanted. Yep, And I could understand that where
the tag might get a little butt hurt if the
wrong one was chosen.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Well, many many a budding romance started starting to kiss
and kill and depending on who what the girls seem
to like to play, kiss or Kill more than the
boys because because because now I think that that probably
would have changed had we played it in the high
school years. But this was elementary school, you know, it
was really they started, like I totally forgot this game
(08:32):
existed until we started talking about this. We also played
Capture the Flag.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Already, but that's yeah, okay, yeah we we They in
Bismarck were a little more wholesome. Really, we just well yeah,
I mean that's a given.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
That's also not politically tip.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Once in a while, but no, it was it was
almost limited to to kick the can and then uh
occasion we would venture out to well, we played the
backyard whiffle ball. Okay, I don't know if I told
anybody if I told this story or not, if I did,
too bad, I'm telling it again because my favorite story.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
So well Uncle Sean shares his story.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, there we go. So we're talking probably mid eighties here,
and uh, I was down. We had the twenty first
Street people, and I was down toward the end of
the block on twenty first and there's a group of
kids out on the on the southern end of twenty
first Street. They got they got together in the northern end,
(09:35):
which is where I was at. We got together, but
occasionally the Southern group they would be playing whiffle ball
and I'd kind of venture by, and you know what
you do as a kid, You kind of you kind
of stand off on the side while all the other
kids are playing, and they wait for you to say, hey,
do you want to play? And you stand around there
long enough, just kind of dinking around, not really saying anything. Well,
that was me. So we're down the down the ways
(09:57):
David Saint Peter, if you remember from a pre this podcast,
former president and CEO of the Minnesota Twins who is
now semi retired. He went and he lived down the
street from me, and we were they had a game
of wiffleball going in his backyard. Finally they said, Sean,
do you want to play? I stood around long enough,
(10:18):
probably a good fifteen to twenty minutes, and I said, yep,
I'll play. And they said, okay, here's the rule. The
only rule is there's no sliding. The grass is wet,
so no sliding. So I get up to bat and
of course I pummel one to deep center field. Of course,
I run around first base and I'm headed to second base.
And what do I do going into second base? Slid,
(10:40):
My slid and a big chunk of dirt came out.
I was ever invited back to play wooftball at the
Saint Peter Hi.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I didn't know this, but you have something in common
with my friend Alisha, and I also forgot about this story.
But we have a pretty close neighborhood when our kids
were young growing up, and there got to be a
number of kickball games in the backyard that pretty much
the adults dominated, the kids pretty much got pushed off
to the side, and all us neighbor parents played.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Oh things are starting again. You really start coming together
your childhood and with the games you played and didn't
play well.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Actually, the weekend this happened, I was up at the cabin,
so I missed this. Got it, But they were playing
kickball in the backyard that included my backyard, and my
friend Alicia slid into second accidentally and broke her ankle
totally sideways. Got it during a friendly neighborhood game of
kickball sometime during the I don't know some probably like
(11:38):
around twenty ten, twenty twelve, and she had to get
a plate and a whole bunch of screws put in
her ankle.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
That's a tough sport.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
It is a tough sort. While the grass was slippery,
probably because the neighbor guy ran a sprinkler too much,
because he's got the perfect lawns. I live in one
of those neighborhoods and h no, it was really fun times.
But I was quite shocked to find out she needed
major surgery because of that old right, well, she wasn't
(12:06):
that old. She's younger than me, so I forget how
old we were, but old enough to know better.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
The as we're then talking about different sports and what
was a sport. One of the reason of the other
things the genesis of this particular podcast idea was it
came to me as as on a run on July fifth,
and on July fourth was the which is has been
for years now, the Nathan's hot Dog Competition, most you
(12:36):
can eat thing about Jiggy.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
That's how we started talking to about what is a sport?
Is a hot dog eating contest a sport?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
And they they went, uh, they went a good on
ESPN Radio, a good I would say, twenty minutes discussing whether.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Or not.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Competitive eating was actually actually a sport. And we're competitive eaters,
actually athletes.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
What was the verdict?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
They never really came to a verdict. I think I
think they threw it out to the audience, and the
audience was about fitty fitty. But they were talking about
how the winner of this year, the who won the
men's competition, and again, my bad, I was supposed to
research who won the women's competition.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
I did not do that.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
But the winner of the men's competition, Yeah, exactly, Joey Chestnut,
which is from an athlete's name, if as far as
an athlete's name goes perfect.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Actually, I do have information about the winner. So you
keep chatting and I'm going to something I read.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Anyway, So they're talking about Joey Chestnut and how he
you know, he trains for these events and he's in
good shape and you just can't be a fat, overweight
dude and expect to chow down seventy one hot dogs
and however long it took him to do it. So
there were a couple of people saying, yes, an athlete,
(13:59):
and then they delved into what we're you know, what's
a sport and what is and so you said, you know,
an athlete is you got sport. Is it where you
you know, you have to run or you have to
have strength or something, which caused a lot of a
lot of turmoil within the ranks because then you start
(14:20):
talking about golf, which always comes up. Is golf actually
a sport? All you doing is walking and hitting the ball?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
And I think golfers would say that it is a sport.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I agreed. I mean, they brought up all sorts of
things that you don't have to run or be strong.
Skeet shooting, are archery? Would those be sports? What else
did they bring up that was a little controversial? Bowling?
Bowling a sports?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, billiards. I mean, there's so many things.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Right, but I think what they kind of said was
there are things that are sports, but you don't You
do not necessarily need to be an athlete in order
to play them.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
I do remember, and I think I mentioned this on
the podcast a long time ago, that when I was
in high school, dance team was considered an art not
a sport, right, And one of the years I was
on dance team in high school, they lobbied to put
it in the Minnesota State High School League sports category.
So they changed the shape of our letters so we
(15:26):
had an athletic A because of the high school I
went to started with an A and anyway, so they
then deemed that dance wasn't just an art form at
that point, but it was indeed a competitive sport.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Because more of a competition than anything else.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
But that we were athletes. And I remember during the drama,
we'd like challenge the wrestling team to all sorts of
like athletic activities to prove and yeah, we stomped all
over them. I mean, we can't beat anybody up, but
we get out run them and out you know, all
that kind of stuff. I do want to get back
to the hot dog eating thing, because Miss as Gold,
(16:02):
it really is.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
So apparently this year a gal by the name of
Madison Barone I think is her name? Hang on, uh,
she won the ladies event. However, Miss Barone was disqualified
because she experienced urges contrary to swallowing after the contest,
(16:26):
but before the conclusion of presentations and the awarding of places.
So that is the technical disqualification. She experienced urges contrary
to swallowing, got it, which I'm pretty sure means she hurled, Yeah,
why wouldn't you just say that she vomited so something.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Okay, so go back to that then, so that was
happened after she finished eating, but before the awarded prizes.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Correct. I think you have to get through the awards
ceremony without and I don't know like how long. I mean, again,
I don't watch this honestly. I don't even really like
hot dogs much at all. Right, I mean a little
bit out of the game, maybe over at campfire, but anyway,
so I don't know much about it. I just thought
that the wording of that was.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Going, yes, that is that is awesome.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Urges contrary to swallowing.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Okay, and so now we have that as far as
things you didn't know, things you didn't know you needed
to know, or things you don't care about knowing that
you find out just by listening to the podcast.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I also think that it'd be great if you're ill
and you need to call in sick to work, if
you just you know, let your boss know that you're
gonna have to stay home today because you're experiencing urges.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I fine, contrary to swallowing, that's that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Right now, that's just gross. It almost sounds worse than
what it is.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
And we can now probably put that one to bed.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yeah, I think I've beat that one.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Okay. So so anyway back to back to what are
sports and what or not? And then because one of
the things that they had brought up was you know,
different things that in different sports that people can do
that others can't and whether or not that makes them
athletes and it makes them So one of the things
(18:19):
I said was, you know, if you're faster than somebody else,
then you know, and you can run fast, then running
is a sport. This is when they brought up archery
and they said, well, archery isn't I mean, it isn't
a sport because you don't really do anything except pull
back on a bowl and shoot an arrow.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I think, I don't know. I feel like I feel
like fishing is considered a sport. Archeries, trap shooting. I agreed,
and mean, like, you know, there's gamesmanship there.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
And those were things where they finally they conceded that
you know, you take somebody who's really Usain Bolt, who's
really really fast, and you ask Usain Bolt to shoot
a bow and arrow probably would not be very good
at it. I could be wrong. Maybe Usain Bold is
just a phenomenal archer. I have no idea. I really
(19:10):
don't assume that if if he was, that he would
not and as an archery person, you would be a
better competitor, a better athlete than Usain Bold in that particular.
So that's how they kind of trust me. They went
around in circles with this, and it helps me love.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
This is so much like the way our world is now.
Everyone's a winner. You know what, Sean, We're all athletes.
I mean, if you can if you can eat you know,
a full rack of ribs, maybe two, you're an athlete.
You're in training.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
If you can do something competitively better than somebody else,
then it's a sport, and which makes you an athlete.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
I feel like to some degree this word sport is
being used in quotation marks. Right, Well, it's like the
sport of hot dog eating.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Right and and it and even I mean, what is
the sport? Is chess the sport of kings? Or is
horse racing the sport?
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Do I look like somebody who playschoxing the sport of kings?
I don't know one of these.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
There's a sport of kings, and then there's maybe maybe chess.
Just has kings. I think that's a sport of kings.
I don't know. I did not research that into this
particular podcast, but like horse racing comes into play a
lot because is that I mean, are those are they
jockeys athletes? I would have to say, yes, I've been
to there.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
What about dog trainers who do agility dog competitions? Is
that's why you keep hearing the lawn chair because she
keeps dropping her tennis ball near and around me because
she's obsessive, right.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
And she's been it's been a good day since she's
had a good tennis ball throw, right, So we have
to So is that a sport?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I don't know, That's what I'm saying. I mean, if
a horse jockey is a sport, why wouldn't the person
running alongside their dog through the tunnels.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And the what is the one the dog show the
Westminster the Westminster Dog Show? Yeah, would those dogs be
athletes or would the trainers running beside them?
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Well, that's what we were talking about with horse racing.
Are the horses the athletes or are the jockeys the athlete?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
That's a great question. I would have to think I
would give it to the horses. Yeah, I would give
it to the horses. They're the ones that do all
the work.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Well, yeah, and or no. I mean I think you
have to be pretty physically fit to be a jockey
and quite diminutive in size.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Agreed, But I would have to say that the horse
probably is. When a horse wins, the horse does I
would say ninety to ninety five percent of the work.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
This weekend, we were on a jet ski together or
a wave runner, and we were going quite speedy. Would
that be a sport because I know people who used
to race jet skis. What about auto racing, motorcycle motocross, Yeah,
wave runners or jet skis. I mean, I do know that.
We said if we were going to race the other
jet skis out in the lake, because the one we
were on was twenty years old, we decided that we
(22:01):
were going to put my mom on it because she's
only topping out around eighty one pounds these days, and
we feel like with both of our weights and the
jet ski it did slow her down a little bit.
So we'd put the lightest person on the cabin at
the cabin to win.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I think next time. But then yeah, we'd have to
give her we'd have to ask her about that, knowing
your mom should be game.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
She used to love going on the jet ski. I
don't think she'd be up for it now.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Probably not. Well, we always ask.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
I just was like, I want to ask her. I'm
going to ask her one of these days, because when
we had our jet skis. Currently the only one left
is my dad's because mine went. Both of ours went kerpluey.
But one of the best parts of just going sixty
miles an hour across the lake and then stopping is
to let out a blood curdling scream that no one
(22:47):
can hear. Oh, it's very liberating.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (22:51):
It really helps with stress. I highly recommend it. But
I wonder if my mom ever felt that way, that
she just needed to let out a good yelp.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
And then that's why she got on the jet ski.
Got it? Maybe I'm guessing that probably is. That's probably
close to the truth. Maybe anyway, that's all we got.
We might now go into competitive pizza eating and see
how many we can how many slices we could put
in the belly.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Let's be honest, we're just excited we get to have
vegetables on it. Because none of the kids are here.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Correct, we get to order our own adult pizzas. It's
gonna be awesome.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
This has been another Curveball production.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.