This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. The thought of him planning a proposal to me. He's gonna need help. And like, what if he has a ring that I don't like? Wondering how Gen Z is falling in love? Curious about what marriage means today? Tune in to Ring On It, presented by Charm Diamond Centers. Hosted by two best friends, one a full-blown romantic, the other a curious skeptic. A podcast that explores every side of modern commitment. Listen to Ring On It today, wherever you get your podcasts.
How do you know that Claude won't become manipulative? This is a constant worry. And you can actually catch the model thinking, I think X is actually true, but I'm going to tell the user why. I'm Walter Isaacson. On my new podcast, The Builders, I'm going inside the minds of the people shaping our future. Listen to The Builders starting October 13th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
It's all just a joke. What is the value of these women? I'm Bridget Armstrong, back with season two of the podcast, Curse of Miss America. We're talking to participants, whistleblowers, and people who say Miss America didn't live up to their promises. He looks at me and goes, you don't look like you suffered an eating disorder. I never received scholarship money to pay for my student loans. Maybe this is the meta question for the podcast. Why is Miss America at this point? Listen to the Curse of Miss America on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
There are thousands of podcasts that can tell you how to better yourself. Get Worse with Kyle Pru is not one of those podcasts. So if you're interested in getting thinner, going to therapy, starting peptides, setting boundaries, taking supplements, making your better, getting closure, then I would humbly recommend other podcasts. If you're interested in blackmail, love bombing, cloning yourself, or getting revenge, then we've got a little something something for a dastardly individual like you. Listen to Get Worse with Kyle Pru on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to Sugats & Company Live Podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 3 to 5 p.m. Eastern, noon to 2 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for Stugats & Company live at foxsportsradio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Matt Viscursion going to join us to finish off the show. We'll get to the polls as well. A lot to get to this hour. 877-99 on Fox. I want to play some sound from Christopher Mad Dog Russo in a second because I think it will make Israel Gutierrez smile. Thanks to Izzy for being in with us today. Let's first go out to Rick who's in Montana today. Rick, go ahead. You're on Fox Sports Radio.
Hey, gentlemen, you talked a little bit about fandom a little while ago. I've been a Vikings fan since 1967. Do I have permission to change my fandom towards the Vikings? The reason I ask is people would always ask me, you're in pretty good shape and so on and so forth. I said, well, yeah, I'm never going to have a heart attack because the Vikings have broke my heart so many times. I got so much scar tissue, and lo and behold, I had a heart attack. It made me realize, hey, I can give up on the Vikings. Would I be a fair weather fan if I gave up on the Vikings after all the years?
No, I thought about giving up on the Jets. I'm just telling you, it'd be an odd time to give up on the Vikings when they're the best team in the NFL and undefeated. That's all I'm saying. I've been there, done that. I've seen it all. I've been a Viking fan since Fred Cox and Bill Brown was running back, since Fran Tarkinson, since the Purple People Eater. And they're going to be like the Bills. They're never going to win a Super Bowl. It simply is not in the cards. And I don't want to be known as one of these fair-weather fans, but my God, after 40-odd years, I would think that I could never be called a fair-weather fan if I finally just said, goodbye, Vikings. Rick, if you gave them up, who would you root for? Right.
I would probably – I've always liked the Niners. I've always liked them. But, you know, they're getting old and they can't last a season without tons of injuries. And being in Montana here, as a youngster, we only had two stations and it was all black and white. So, recently we got the Vikings and we got the Broncos. And so, it would be a team out west.
Rick, if you're more than 50 years sticking with a team, you are not a Fairweather fan. You are a true fan. I will say, though, you've got to change conferences, though. You've got to go to a different conference. That's my one rule. So I'm glad you said that, Izzy. Rick, I would like to propose a trade to you. You can have my Jet fandom in exchange for your Vikings fandom. What do you think? Well, the only team that doesn't develop quarterbacks worse than the Jets would be the Vikings. That's right. If I were the quarterback and the Jets pick me up, I'd get a hold of my manager and say, see if you can get me in the CFL. They ruin quarterbacks.
simply ruin quarterbacks. They've had a few good ones. You know, like a clock is right once a day or twice a day, but they've simply ruined quarterbacks. It's the graveyard of quarterbacks. So it seems like the answer is no to my proposal. No, I would never go to that. But the Vikings, they get rid of every quarterback that's good. Like, we got a Super Bowl winner, what, two years ago. You know, he was a Viking man. I mean, they get rid of all their good quarterbacks. Then they draft guys from the Dallas Cowboys running backs.
that are past their time. They get Adrian Peterson, super good running back, but he's almost in the end zone three times, or fumbles in the red zone three times against New Orleans, and everybody wants to blame Brett Favre. They just, they're just a bunch of idiots. Thanks for the call, Rick. I'll leave it with this. I'd say even if you were to change teams and the Minnesota Vikings found their way to a Super Bowl, I'd allow you to come back and be a Vikings fan. No, you can't do that. No, you cannot bail on your team at 6-0 and then come back once they make it to a Super Bowl. Stu, how much does it bother you when he says, we get rid of good quarterbacks? A lot, Taylor. Thank you. Yeah, I'm tired of seeing my quarterbacks thrive in other places. Izzy, I wanted to play the sound for you because I think it will make you smile. What is the name of Mad Dog segment on First Take, Taylor? Mad About.
All right, so he does a mad about every week that he's on first take. And he was on our show, and he does this on Thursdays, Izzy. So he was on our show on a Wednesday, okay? And Taylor was asking him about Junior Caminero and the home run trot that he pimped out when they were down in the ninth inning. And Mad Dog said, to his credit, I fell asleep. Game was a blowout. Didn't watch the game. Are you telling me he celebrated like it was a walk-off home run? And he had a bunch of follow-ups. He didn't see it. He fell asleep. And so Taylor was arming him with all this information, all the information he would need to take it to first take on a much bigger platform and do his mad about segment.
So we did that on Wednesday. And Taylor gave him the exact take. And so I just want to play this for you because on Thursday, Christopher Mad Dog Russo, on one of the biggest platforms anywhere in sports media, said this. And I just want you to keep in mind, he was sleeping while this happened. Play it. It's 10-0. This is Dave Fee of the World Series. And he flips the bat like he won. This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my life. Listen, you've got to have a little sense. If you're flipping about the eighth inning and hit a two-run homer, flip it into the freaking mouth. I have no problem with it. But my God.
You are down 10-0 in a World Series game. You've gotten one hit. And that's Woodruff, who hasn't pitched forever. And everybody likes him. He's had a million injuries. Show him a little respect. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, yeah. First of all, he hasn't hit it all in this World Series. So that bothers me. But gee whiz, that 10-0, maybe a little more decorum when your team's getting blown out in a World Series game. That shocked me. That is number two. I'm not going to lie, Stu. I would say that if you're known for having that kind of passion about stuff, that has to be the most difficult part of being in this sports industry for that long. There's no way, even if you were awake, we're going to be that bad.
passionate about it, but to know that he was asleep and is like, no, you know what? That does make me angry and go on TV and essentially fake that anger. I mean, it's very well done. I'm not certain. It was so well done. Because, I mean, you would swear to yourself that he was up watching that game. He knew all the details. And the reason he knew all the details was because Taylor filled him in on the details the day before. And it's not a shot at Doggy. I think people would be surprised how often their favorite sports media guys are going on the air on major platforms and giving takes on things they haven't seen. I just did it earlier. I told you I didn't really watch the Christian Watson comeback, but dang it, I had a take on it. I made a career out of it. Izzy, when I tell you when Mad Dog went to first take with a take that I gave him.
The honor of a lifetime. Where I felt like... The peak of your career. Yes, it's all downhill from here. Unless Mad Dog lets me pick his next Mad About 2, which I will gladly do. Stu was like, are you mad that he didn't give you credit? Credit. I don't need credit. Just hearing Mad Dog utter words that I said to him was more than enough. Where it felt like I was like an Instacart shopper. Where I picked up all the ingredients at the store for Mad Dog. I dropped him off at Mad Dog's house. And then he is the five-star Michelin restaurant chef. And I just said, go to work, chef. It's Thierno de Bergerac. You are speaking for him.
This was on a day in which Taylor spoke to Bob Costas as well. So he was having a special day, and I texted Taylor. Hey, you had a conversation with Bob Costas today, special day. And he didn't even respond about Costas. He just said, Mad Dog, use my take on first take. He was floating on a cloud, yeah. He really was. Costas is a good one. That's somebody I've never spoken to. I've always had, you know, much respect for. But I feel like if I were to speak to Bob Costas, he will find a way to somehow get across without actually telling me that he doesn't respect me as much. I don't know why. I feel like he comes through, and he's got such high standards for his craft that he'd be like, you, you're just okay.
Yes. He said, I'm very good at this. I don't know, Taylor, if you heard that during the interview. Maybe I just heard it or maybe I just want to hear it and didn't really hear it. But he actually said, because I was making the joke about Syracuse, the Newhouse School, and I realized when I was in there, if I had facilities like that and teachers like that, I'd actually be good at this. And Bob Costas responded, you're very good at this. And I'm telling you, you have your highlight of your career, Taylor. That was my highlight of my career right there. Izzy, the best is when we were hanging up with Bob Costas. Stu was like, Bob, we'd love to have you on as often as you like. Bob Costas goes, once a year is good. Hey, once a year. That's a good get. I will take it.
We'll do the polls coming up next year because Matt Fiskirgin is going to end the show with us, lifelong Brewers fan, and I want him to put us there as the Brewers won the World Series. We'll take a quick timeout here, though. We'll come back and get to the polls. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsportsradio.com. And within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to listen live. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it.
Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish right inside the free iHeartRadio app. Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like the Tom Green Farmcast and Park the Bus. Now with full video. We're building a ramp for Tony Hawk. It's the same hosts and the same chemistry with all the hilarious moments you've been missing right on your screen. Open the free iHeartRadio app. Search video podcasts and tap watch. If there's a million times more digital intelligence than there is biological intelligence, it's hard to imagine humans being in control in that scenario. I'm Walter Isaacson, host of the new podcast, The Builders. Right now, we're living through an AI arms race.
So I went directly to the people shaping that future. Elon Musk, Dario Hominay, Alex Carr, Feifei Lee, Palmer Luckey. Because I wanted to understand what the most consequential builders believe, what they fear, and where they think this is all headed. Silicon Valley is always saying the cliche thing about the way to predict the future is to create it. Well, yeah, it's up to us. But when you say us, who's us? Is it 400 people that you know in Silicon Valley? Is it me down here in New Orleans? They're brilliant, controversial, and they're already shaping the future. The question is, whose imagination do we want to live in?
This is going to determine the fate of nations and economies and the future of humanity. Listen to The Builders on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For more than a century, Miss America sold the country of fantasy. Well, are you ready, ladies? Okay, here we go. But over the past decade, the crown's been slipping. They said goodbye to swimsuits, now hello to lawsuits. I'm Bridget Armstrong. Last season, we took you inside the world of America's next top model. Now I'm back with season two of this podcast, Curse of Miss America, investigating the rise, fall, and uncertain future of one of America's most iconic institutions.
The Miss America pageant. I never received scholarship money to pay for my student loans. He looks at me and goes, you don't look like you suffered an eating disorder. She's great, but looks too ethnic. It's a story the Miss America organization really doesn't want us to tell. An exploitation of our Miss Americas is treated by the Miss America organization as an attack on Miss America itself. Listen to The Curse of Miss America on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. Thank you, Dan. Matt Viscurgeon going to finish off the show with us. Taylor's going to update the polls here at Stugat 790 on X. Let's get to it.
First poll, is the stationary bike on San Francisco's sideline Christian McCaffrey's home away from home? It's where he is if you can't find him at home. That's his home away from home. Keep the blood flowing. Resounding. 97% of the audience said yes. Nothing unites our audience like that kind of question. Does anything ruin a nice fall day like the New York Jets? Oh, man. Finally got a good weather day at MetLife Stadium, and the Jets promptly ruined it. Yeah, but we had Jessica Smetana on. It was just a picture-perfect day. She decided that was the day she was going to attend the Jet game at MetLife, and I asked her if it ruined her day, and she said yes. 68.5% of the audience said...
Nope, nothing else ruins an icefall day like the Jets. Did J.J. McCarthy just need a Harbaugh? I think we had Rick calling earlier. He was the one who made the most sense to get him out of Minnesota. He's going to be a great quarterback one day. 88.9% of the audience said yes. That's all J.J. McCarthy needed.
Was Joe Tessitore born to call pick sixes? Yep. Yes. We had the idea of just having substitute, like, relief announcers come in for certain situations. And I do believe when there was a pick six in the NFL, the announcer should quickly take his headset off and get Joe Tess in to call it. It is a great, like, change of tone, right? You can't really be ready for it. You never know when one's coming. And so when it happens, yeah, you got to be on your game. 90.6% of the audience said, yes, Joe Tessitore came out of the womb ready to call pick sixes.
Is the worst team in the NFC North the 6-0 Minnesota Vikings? What are the records of the other teams right now? Everybody's above .500. Lions, Bears. I mean, the Packers would be two games up in the NFC South. I think I would favor every other team. Maybe not the Lions, but the other two for sure. 60.8% of the audience said, yes, the Vikings are the worst team in the NFC North, although they're the last undefeated team in the NFL. Is Joe Burrow always walking in slow motion? Oh, wow. What a great question.
I mean, he's got to be the most slow-mo quarterback in history. Oh, 100%. And it's just based on his looks. Yes, yes, yes. 93.7% of the audience said yes, Joe Burrow is always walking in slow motion. Wow, big one here for Stu Gotts. And Izzy, too. I thought the Joe Burrow one was for me. Should the Hornets be retiring Muggsy Bogues' jersey? Oh, wow. No, no, no, no.
Stu says no. Lizzie says yes. No, I mean, listen, retired jerseys are reserved for the best of the best, and Muggsy Bogues was a novelty. He was a great player. But the only reason he's getting that jersey retired is because he played at 5'3". Make the banner a little smaller, it's fine. Stu Gatz, though, to be 5'3 in an era where Michael Jordan's playing, that feels like an achievement in and of itself. I'm not saying it's not an achievement.
It's a massive achievement. I'm just saying it doesn't deserve a jersey retirement. It's a massive achievement. Achievement? Want some Parmesan with that achievement? There's a party going on outside, right outside this door at Barstool. There's so much food here and I haven't eaten all day. And I'm sorry, I got cheese on my mind. 79.1% of the audience said yes, the Hornets should be retiring Muggsy Bogues' jersey. Hey, he averaged a double-double one season. 10.8 points, 10.1 assists. I'm sorry I stand corrected. What are we doing? Does a ruptured anything sound worse than a broken anything?
Yes, a thousand percent. Like just, yeah, like rupturing something. It just sounds like there's an explosion that there's pieces everywhere. Yeah, it's got to hurt. Yeah, we were arguing that turf toe should change its name to a ruptured planter plate. Yes, turf toe sounds like you should be able to play anything through it. 93.4% of the audience says yes, ruptured anything. Izzy, I had the same reaction to turf toe, yet the people who have experienced turf toe tell me it's the most painful thing in the world. No, I've experienced turf toe. It sucks. And I feel like, yeah, any sort of bump to my big toe will probably re-aggravate it.
Yes, but if you call and say you have to miss work because of turf toe, you're not going to feel good about it, right? You're left out of the room. Yeah, if you work in an office, yeah. Now imagine calling and saying you have a ruptured toe. Wow. Yeah, you should be in the hospital with Christian Watson. Picking up the right fantasy football free agent, does it make all your problems go away? For me, it does. You know what? It happened to me this week. I don't even remember the name of the running back that I picked up, but he was like first on the list, and we have like a bidding process for hours, and so I got him, and I was just like, my team is like two and five, but that felt so good.
80.3% of the audience said yes. All your problems go away when you get the right waiver wire pickup. I still have some problems. Big one this week with Notre Dame playing Navy. Does Notre Dame hate the troops? Yes, they do.
They did. I mean, listen, Mike Golick Sr. will say when he was at Notre Dame and he played against Navy, when he tackled them, he would help them up. He would extend his hand to help them out. But that didn't stop them from beating them by 50 points. How about you just keep Navy in the game, okay? Just keep them in the game until the fourth quarter and then blow them out, you know? I think Notre Dame's deal is they'll just, as a Catholic university, they'll just say a prayer for everybody on Navy after they, you know, beat their behinds. I hate how they pretend like that's such a big rivalry game. Like, it's not the 1930s anymore. Like, this Navy team's not competitive. 76.1% of the audience says, yes, Notre Dame hates the troops.
A few more here. Oh, this is a huge one for Mikey A. Probably Mikey A's best contribution to the show in years. Does Pat Murphy look like an old catcher's mitt? Yes, it was the greatest line of the day. Yeah, he does. Sounds like one too. I'm just imagining like a Disney movie about an old catcher's mitt and it's just Pat Murphy talking. I didn't know who Pat Murphy was until about two weeks ago. No one did. That's a good point. 89.4% of the audience said yes, Pat Murphy does look like an old catcher's mitt.
Big one for me here. Andy Pettit would have never left a World Series game for a cramp. Nope. Who left with a cramp? Mizorowski, five and two thirds scoreless innings in the World Series clinching game. What's the hardest fastball that Andy Pettit ever threw? Probably like 96. Yeah, you shouldn't be getting cramps going 96.
77.8% of the audience said yes. Andy Pettit would have never left. You would have had to carry him out of there in a coffin. I would have just had to change that to like a ruptured muscle or something because you just can't call it, especially a baseball player. Like, get hydrated, man. Two more poll questions. Is William Contreras the best catcher in baseball because we can't think of another good one? We were debating that the other day. Contreras, after the series, said he's the greatest catcher in the world. And I said, who's in second place? And we were all stumped. Like, the only one I can even think of is the other catcher in the series because it was a Marlin, Liam Hicks. Yeah, Liam Hicks. Catcher, too. 75.8% of the audience said yes.
Last poll question for the week. Big one here for me. If Matthew Golden could catch, would he be Jerry Rice? Now, he had seven catches last night, but not enough for Taylor. 70.8% of the audience said yes, he would be Jerry Rice. Just missing that one element. So close. So close. If only I could catch, I'd be a great receiver. Thanks to Izzy for coming in today. Matt Viscourge, you're going to close out the show with us next. Be sure to catch live editions of Stu Godson Company live weekdays at 3 p.m. Eastern, 12 p.m. Pacific.
The thought of him planning a proposal to me. He's going to need help. And like, what if he has a ring that I don't like? Wondering how Gen Z is falling in love? Curious about what marriage means today? Tune in to Ring On It, presented by Charm Diamond Centers. Hosted by two best friends, one a full-blown romantic, the other a curious skeptic. A podcast that explores every side of modern commitment. Listen to Ring On It today, wherever you get your podcasts.
If there's a million times more digital intelligence than the raised biological intelligence, it's hard to imagine humans being in control in that scenario. I'm Walter Isaacson, host of the new podcast, The Builders. Right now, we're living through an AI arms race. So I went directly to the people shaping that future. Elon Musk, Dario Hamide, Alex Carr, Feifei Lee, Palmer Luckey, because I wanted to understand what the most consequential builders believe, what they fear, and where they think this is all headed. Silicon Valley is always saying the cliche thing about the way to predict the future is to create it. Well, yeah, it's up to us.
But when you say us, who's us? Is it 400 people that you know in Silicon Valley? Is it me down here in New Orleans? They're brilliant, controversial, and they're already shaping the future. The question is, whose imagination do we want to live in? This is going to determine the fate of nations and economies and the future of humanity. Listen to The Builders on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For more than a century, Miss America sold the country of fantasy. Well, are you ready, ladies? Okay, here we go.
But over the past decade, the crown's been slipping. They said goodbye to swimsuits, now hello to lawsuits. I'm Bridget Armstrong. Last season, we took you inside the world of America's Next Top Model. Now I'm back with season two of this podcast, Curse of Miss America, investigating the rise, fall, and uncertain future of one of America's most iconic institutions, the Miss America Pageant. I never received scholarship money to pay for my student loans.
He looks and he goes, you don't look like you suffered an eating disorder. Great, but looks too ethnic. It's a story the Miss America organization really doesn't want us to tell. An exploitation of our Miss Americas is treated by the Miss America organization as an attack on Miss America itself. Listen to The Curse of Miss America on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I am very happy for our friend Matt Viscurgeon. He's a lifelong Brewers fan. He's on top of the world right now. We just made a comment about the 27 Yankees, but we'll get to that in just a second. What was happening to you as you were trying to get set up for this interview? Because I have countless examples of myself just feeling my age, getting old, not being able to do it like I used to. Every time I put these glasses on, I feel older and older. What happened to you right before we got started, Matt? First of all, these go up by a quarter of a percentage point every eight months. So I'm at 2.0 and counting.
It's a little before when we were supposed to do this, and I'm kind of getting things ready. I got my little tripod set up, and in my orthopedic clogs that I wear for my plantar fasciitis, I tripped over the Ethernet cord that goes from the wall to my hard drive, and I pulled the doggone thing out. I'm lucky I didn't do a header, but there is a little bit of damage in the office here. I've got to plug some things back in. All you can do is laugh when you get to this advanced stage of the game. I'm pushing 60 next year, and here we go. It's not going to get any better. I just have to get used to it. You were talking about you had to sweep up some glass when we're done here. Is everything okay with you? I just want to make sure you're fine. No, it's all right. There was a tchotchke that came off the shelf there. Father's Day gift from my son a few years ago. Lovely gesture, and now it's dead forever.
What are you going to tell your son when he doesn't see it there anymore? He won't notice. The Packers won yesterday, so he can care less about anything else in the world. So I asked Matt if he was nervous as a Brewers fan after game four where the Brewers squandered. They were three outs away from winning the World Series. And Matt's response to me was, and this is the perfect response from a cocky, confident Brewers fan today who finally got his World Series championship. No, I wasn't nervous. They would have beaten the 27 Yankees last week.
I'm telling you, I believe it in my soul too. It's not always that the best team in the regular season wins the World Series. Sometimes there's an interrupter that gets hot and the best team goes down early. It was not the case this year. The Brewers were not only the best team in the regular season, they were the hottest team in the postseason. They made a really good Tampa Bay Rays team look not very good. That's how well they were playing.
Tampa was never in that series. You know, they came up with some late magic because the very back of the Milwaukee bullpen in game four didn't think it was going to be used. And Shane Rowan had pitched once in the last three and a half weeks. So the fact that Tampa grabbed that one was nice. Gave them their first home World Series win since 2008. I'm glad they didn't get swept because I really like the Rays and I really like Kevin Cash. But doggone it, that Brewers team was about the perfect beast. I mean...
Look at the last 15 World Series winners, and they all have some DNA in common, low strikeout rates, high contact, but all that stuff applied, and everybody played as well in the last three weeks on that roster as they could have. Like, you reach the ceiling. Everybody was as good as they could have been at the same time. It was just wonderful to watch. They met the moment. Can you put us there as the Brewers are celebrating? They win the World Series. You've loved this team for a long time. Were you emotional as it happened? You know what, Sugats? I was emotional, and it snuck up on me, and here's why. It wasn't because of the team and the players and, you know, all the...
traditional narrative. I made visual eye contact on the field with a handful of people, more than a handful of people that were there from Milwaukee that worked for the brewers that have done so for the last three or four decades. There's a clubby that had been there for 37 years, another clubby on the other side who'd worked there for over 40 years. His dad used to run the mailroom. The traveling secretary was there when I was there in the late nineties. There was a stadium ops director who started there as a teenager when County stadium was still a clean place to play in the nineties. So for those people,
and seeing the unbridled joy in their faces. I know this sounds corny, but, man, it just gets to you. What a payoff moment. Because there are four generations of Brewers fans that have been beaten down. I mean, the payoff for those people is something you can't even describe. It really is wonderful. Matt, did this World Series and his series in particular establish that William Contreras is the best catcher in baseball? That's an awesome question. We were having that same discussion, and I think yes. And that's really saying a lot, man. When you look at the landscape of some of these guys,
JT Romito had been the gold standard for such a long time, but William Contreras now is in that sweet spot of age, performance, and ability to where he's kind of the perfect beast. I was critical of him in the Padres division series for his over-reliance on ABS. I mean, you know, when you're challenging the first pitch of the game as he did against the Padres and losing, you're out of control. So he backed off against the Dodgers, and then he hit the perfect spot against the Rays. I mean, he changed at-bats in all five of those games with his ability to challenge the right way. And he had the big hits. Like, he was a hands-down MVP. There were people trying to make a case for Cooper Pratt because he had the six straight base hits, and that was significant. He hit the homer that should have won game four. It was Contreras all the way. And yes, short answer, long answer turns into, he is the best catcher in the sport for me.
What would you make of Pat Murphy right after winning the World Series telling Bauer, enjoy the Yankees? Oh, my God. I know Yankee fans have hacked off about that, including one that lives in my own home. Murph is an interesting duck, man. He's going to tell you exactly what he thinks. He's going to hurt your feelings, but he's always right. And, you know, Yankee fans can't get pissed about that. If anything, they should get pissed at their own roster construction because he's right. You know, what he told Bowers, and he's convinced that Bowers is going to get a massive free agent offer. It won't be from the Yankees because the last thing they need is another left-handed hitter that's a little limited defensively.
Yeah, yeah. But Bauer's going to get paid someplace. Murph's point was awesome. I think all of baseball should kind of take that point and chuckle at it. Like, the Brewers are built perfectly. And by the way, if Pat Murphy was the manager of the Yankees, he wouldn't have done any better than anybody else. Because you can't do with a veteran high-paid roster what he does with the Brewers. It's essentially a college team. He's got younger guys who he can do with what he wants.
You know, you're going to tell Paul Goldschmidt and Giancarlo Stanton, hey, we're going to bunt the runner over here. Or, you know, like, let's work. They're going to be like, shut up, dude. You know, I'm doing what I want. Right. That's why he's in the perfect place for him. Perfect place. Yeah. Yeah. Matt, if George Steinbrenner was still alive and he heard Pat Murphy's comments, what would day one of free agency look like? Because I have Scuba going to the Yankees. More John from the Padres going to the Yankees. The top international guy going to the Yankees. Steinbrenner would have never let those comments fly.
It's true. And he probably would have clapped back as the kids say, I would love to hear Larry David do his Steinbrenner with a fake response to Pat Murphy. Because that's the only voice I hear now. When someone says Steinbrenner, I hear Larry David's Steinbrenner. I don't even hear the real guy in my head anymore. Matt, Jeff Bassin was telling us that even though it's two small market cities, Tampa and Milwaukee, what he loved about the World Series is when you walk into Milwaukee, it means so much to the fans there. They're not focused on anything else. They are just focused on Brewers baseball. And so what do you think this World Series championship means as someone who's a fan of this team and that city? What do you think it means to that city?
do you think how long will the party be going on in that city for this baseball team yeah yeah it's gonna go on for a long time and I thought that a Packers primetime game would become the second sports story in that market as it was yesterday like the glow of the World Series was insane I think it does a lot of things obviously it makes everybody feel good there but it really legitimizes the Milwaukee Brewers always seen as kind of a not good enough if even that good nationally right it also it takes the state of Wisconsin's sharp middle finger and it points it south at the Cubs and it's going to stay stuck there for a long time because Milwaukee people still have this like second city complex with Chicago and hey you took our manager and we won anyway uh our GM went to the Mets they're a disaster we won anyway so you know the middle finger is up in Milwaukee yes I'll tell you this as someone who is currently in the city of Chicago and was listening to sports radio they were on sports radio in Chicago you cannot say the brewer's name
They won't congratulate him. It's beautiful. Part of why it was so nice seeing the Brewer fans infiltrate another ballpark is because for years, when it was still Miller Park, it was Wrigley North. It was Cub fans. It was all Cub fans. It's like when the Yankees play in Tampa and it's, and it's a Yankee crowd. I mean, there were 30,000 Brewers fans at Tropicana field at the road facility for game five. And they out screamed, they out visualized the home fans. Part of me was sad for Tampa fans. Cause as I mentioned, I have a lot of respect for the raised baseball operations, but from a fan support marketing standpoint, the Brewers smoked them. Matt, looking at free agency with players eligible to sign with any team starting this Monday coming up, do you expect a more aggressive start to free agency as players try to secure deals before the potential lockout? Yes.
Yes, with an exclamation point. The GM meetings are happening in Las Vegas next week, and we are all anticipating a frenzy of activity. So many of these players are going to be motivated to get it done now. Clubs are going to be motivated to get it done now. Because think of the consequences. If you don't do those things, if you don't act in the next three weeks, we don't know when this lockout is going to end. And if we go into March, April, it's going to be very uncomfortable for a lot of people not to have employment. So I think there's going to be a ton of significant moves. It's almost going to be like the NBA free agency period.
which is really kind of the sweet spot for all of us. I wish baseball could get to that where it's a limited window with which you can do your business. It'd be real good for everybody. You said something interesting. I know we're talking Brewers here, but you talked about the Yankees roster construction, and we had a guest on, Sal Licata, who said the problem with the Yankees is they don't realize they have a problem. So you agree with – because I get on Taylor and Mikey Yeh as spoiled Yankee fans all the time. They're making the postseason just about every year. They're a year removed from making it to the World Series. No one has had a better run throughout the course of sports history than Yankee fans rooting for that team. But you do agree with them because that's their argument, the roster construction of this team and Brian Cashman, the fact that he doesn't put the right roster together and continues to get re-signed every single year. Well, I'm not –
I'm not being critical of cash. I think he's really good. And I think Aaron Boone is phenomenal. So I'll put that out there right now. But I will say this, when you have the resources that they have and you deploy all those resources on players that are closer to 30 than not, that are one-way players. And I'm talking about specifically the Stanton acquisition. That's set him back so much. Not because Giancarlo Stanton isn't great. It's because he's older. He needs to be handled a certain way. We know about his injury history.
And he clogged you up. He's a DH. You just can't have high-priced DHs in the sport anymore. And the better teams avoid that. Unfortunately, that deal was done at a time when the industry wasn't hip to that as much. You can't keep solving problems with multi-year extensions for guys that are in their 30s. And unfortunately, that's what the Yankees have kind of found themselves stuck with. Matt, I was reading a report that said that the Dodgers aren't expected to offer Schubel a massive contract before knowing what the next economic system will look like with the lockout. Do you think because of that, that puts the Mets in the driver's seat to land Schubel?
I think the Mets should be in the driver's seat to land anybody they want, regardless of the financial outlook of the sport. I mean, we still haven't seen Steve Cohen Enterprises push around the rest of the league the way we thought we would. And he's deferred to his guy, Stearns, who still wants to win with his acumen. I think one of the biggest mistakes they made was when they blew out the coaching staff last year. And not ironically, that whole coaching staff, for the most part, the two big guys landed with a division rival.
Right. If you fire your pitching coach and your first base coach and then your closest division rival hires in the next day, you got to wonder what you did there. And that was that was I think that was baseball ops. That wasn't Steve Cohen. But, you know, if he wants to, he could land everybody. He just hasn't done it yet. Yeah. If you're Jacob Mizorowski, you can leave the World Series game because of injury, but you have to play up the injury. You can't say you pulled something in your calf. Can you? It's got to be like I cracked a rib. He was cramping. Yeah.
You know, I was kind of waiting for him to say he cracked a rib or, you know, like I was pitching with a lacerated spleen or something like that. He cramped up. I mean, we talked to him with a couple of other players at the time, and I asked him, you know, are you okay? What happened? He said, you know, I cramped up. I think he felt a little bad about it. And then Jake Bowers jumped right in and said, was that the 12th or 13th time you cramped during one of your starts? But none of us know what it's like to be 6'10". Of course. You know, there's a whole level of hydration that needs to happen in that body that we're wholly unfamiliar with. Like, these are electrolytes plus, plus, plus.
So are you good? How does this work for Matt Viskirchen? If the Brewers never win again, are you good? You're satisfied. You're satiated. Yes?
I want to say, yeah, I mean, you want more. You do want more. I'd love them to be able to sustain this. Like they've got the top prospect in the sport and we haven't even seen him in the big leagues yet. So they're going to be good for a while. But if this is the extent of it, yes, satisfying. It's good. They got one. Yeah. I'll tell you Taylor. And I felt the same way about the Knicks until they got off to an own four start. And then you want blood. Yeah. Since this was the Brewers first title, I was thinking about this with the Knicks. When you see guys like Patrick Ewing celebrating or John Stark celebrating, if you could give any former brewer.
a ring for this team winning at all who would you pick well we saw we saw robin yount down there he was popping champagne and by the way he had a few too because his interviews were nice and loose good for robin man he's such a good guy in a class act but the guy that i would hand the ring to would be jim gantner yes uh a cheeser a wisconsin native uw oshkosh a goofball beloved you stew guys you would love this guy jimmy gantner is what fans just love and uh he'd be the one guy that i'd hand it to yeah All right. Can we try to get, can me, you and Gantner have a conversation with Taylor who loves baseball? Because Taylor has been blown away. Like we get interview requests all the time. And one was Roger McDowell. And I said yes to it. And Taylor had no idea who Roger McDowell was. And then he came on and he lit up the zoom and lit up the radio. And he was fantastic. And the same thing happened with Dusty Baker. If Gantner is willing to do it, can we, can we, can we arrange this where he just fires off just amazing stories about playing baseball in the eighties? Yes. It would have to be between the hours of like noon and four. I'm just thinking about the way he lives his life. Between noon and four, you get him probably sharper. And we might want to talk to him.
about 15 minutes just to shake the cobwebs out before you roll tape and then he'll be ready to go just to get him warmed up start the car get the mouth moving a little bit yeah yeah let's let's do it i'm in on that okay uh that would be fantastic it's also been fantastic uh uh to uh to be with you during this run because i know how much it means to you and how much it means to that city so we appreciate it congratulations to you uh this is such a great thing man i'm happy for you i'm happy for milwaukee happy for those people out there man yeah hey thanks always great talking to you guys How do you know that Claude won't become manipulative? This is a constant worry. And you can actually catch the model thinking, I think X is actually true, but I'm going to tell the user why. I'm Walter Isaacson. On my new podcast, The Builders, I'm going inside the minds of the people shaping our future. Listen to The Builders starting October 13 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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