Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / Live from the Longhorn: Eric Nadel's Birthday Bash & Baseball Takes | YDC Special

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Live from the Longhorn: Eric Nadel's Birthday Bash & Baseball Takes | YDC Special · Your Dark Companion Podcast

• Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Ryder, sports talk. Baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball. With the big mic. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it. We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little lightning strike right outside the window. Alright. Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano league teams. Don't wait. You said tip? Yeah. Tip. Okay. With a p. I would Keep jamming. The ticket, colon, nothing but a big Gen X jerk on the second. Is this a cool night or what? I thought somebody would hear that go, bullshit. I'm back, bitches. A little come on, everybody, in the background there. Hey, guess what it is? It is your dark companion. We are on location today because tonight is the Eric Nadel birthday benefit concert. This is coming down at the legendary Longhorn Ballroom and we are here outside the Longhorn Ballroom looking at, who's coming into this place. Maybe we can get them to sit down with us for a little bit, tell us what's on their minds as if we might care, actually. Well, it does say that. I didn't mean that. Anyway, yes. I'm here. Shoopee is here. Hi. Hi, Shoopee. Hi, Shoopee. How are you? Good. Ready to have some fun. You ready for this? I think so. More ready than I was last year. How about that? That's good. Yeah. Now, Shupi is holding the wireless microphone to our left. He is not at the table. But he is at a place where he will be far more useful than any of us. Oh, I think so. I I definitely think so. Grego is here with us tonight. Hello. Grego. Everybody, how are y'all? Look at him. He is in costume today. In all his sartorial splendor. Yes. Red Dead Grego. But now as if all that is not enough, we have dipped into our well of talent, of incredible talent at Stolen Water Medium. And who did we dip out of there but a couple of my favorites? The guys on the clubhouse. This is Rob. Hello, Internet. You've heard Rob with us numerous times before. Usually, when I can't find somebody else to do it, he is first call. When Greg when Greg goes selling chainsaws. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. I'm happy to be here. We're excited for tonight's fourteenth annual and our second. Yes. So we're gonna catch him one day. Now he is joined by his partner on the clubhouse. Indeed. The great Alex. There he is. I thought it was Alex the great. Oh, no. Wait, that's the other guy from that's I mean. Alexander the great. That's your new name. Perfect. I'm gonna I almost said something else. I'm say whatever you not doing that. This is a podcast, you can do whatever. You know I've only been called Alex since I moved to Texas, it's weird, but we're getting used to it. People called you Alexander? I've been assaulted. We have a crutch down. Yeah. Alex Yeah, he is. Now tell us what's wrong with you. What kind of ailment this is? So when you feel like you want to be a younger man and you participate in athletics, you should probably know if there's a hole in front of where you're running because sometimes you can plant your right foot directly in it, it stays, the rest of you goes over top, but that means your knee goes the opposite direction. That doesn't sound like fun. No. It isn't, actually. I was trying to play it off with my crutch of a chair here but. Now, can I can I read the text conversation that happened before this event? Sure. Let's hear this. He has taken up playing with an adult softball league which hey, I don't have the knees or the ankles for it. So more I used to. My text to him Saturday morning at 11:02. Good luck at the game today. And the response was, thank you. The goal is not getting hurt. Everything else is gravy. Whoops. Cursor. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What was the next text? That was after that? Yeah. Uh-oh. The next text, well, because the next text after that was Bobby Cox. Oh, no, no. I mean, from me. Goal failed, hyperextended my knee, stepping in a hole on the field. Seems like they should fill that in. So you didn't meet the goal? Think so. Did you? I failed epically. But it's You still had a couple of RV options. It happen, I'm sure. I'm sure. No. That's that's Sean's favorite part of the story because the field is elevated. There are trees around to protect the homes because it's in the middle of an HOA. She said she saw me running faster than she's ever seen me run. I disappeared behind a tree, and she had no idea where I was and assumed I went to Narni. And down went Frazier. No. No. I went down way faster than Frazier. What are we gonna do about him? Well, you didn't tear an ACL, so you're We don't know that yet. That's the jury might still be the help. Still time. Need to get to the point where we can actually see what It's good for content. So are you on any pills? Or and if so, do you have any? This is evidence, sir. You're not getting me to admit to things. Fine. What about just say allegedly? Oh, we're gonna go back to that. Years if you still haven't Yeah. Learned It works. I was the one saying allegedly all it before you got here. I'm just saying. We even talked about the shirt. Fair enough. What shirt? I don't know. The Pat McAfee allegedly. Oh, yeah. He has the Pat McAfee. I have a shirt that says allegedly as well, but I don't think mine's a McAfee shirt. No. Yours just has the word. Yeah. Alright. Am I We're down the trail. Am I losing out here? Because I've not not watched one episode or one one minute of Pat McAfee. You're not missing anything now. Thing with McAfee. Alex and I have been fans of that man for many, many years going back to his college days. When I met him, he was I've met him or not met him, but knew of him through a radio show that I that I listen to every day. The Pat McAfee of 2026 is not the Pat McAfee of 2014. I don't The difference is what? The answer to all of your questions is money. Well, there's another route about it. He has nobody to tell him no when they should now. But I will say his tribute to to Bob Cavoyan is Absolutely. Fantastic. But it's I mean, the guy's living his best life. There's no denying that. His bit earlier this year with WWE suspect at best. But, you know, who am I who am I to say? The guy's making money. He's got a got it. He's got a complex that he does his show. It's got a full basketball court in it now. I mean He copied that from Dan Patrick. Yep. And it's, you know, he's a guy that's just living his best life and making money. You the big Pat McAfee guy, Greggo? No. He's Ted Dawson with a little athletic ability. That's what he is. He's awful. He just gave the punter athletic He's awful. No. He is he is No. He is very athletic. He's a great athlete in high school. Oh, no. No. Like like I said, I met him when he was 19 and he was at West Virginia. He's just He's always been a nut. We'll put it that way. But he's kind of a fun nut. He's talented and he can talk. But, you know, you remember that dude that that that Pharaoh on the bench? Remember that dude Pharrell on the bench? I can't talk for some reason. Right? Is it? Well, you're here to talk, so you better figure it out. Yeah. You for he's kinda like on the bench. He's kinda like that. Yeah. But Farrell had the sound. You know, that was that straight about getting the sound and talked real fast, jumbled everything together. God, that's pretty good. So just like him. The rich little of our generation. Of course, nobody knows who we're talking about. But We're just gonna give him the Michael Winslow credit on that. Run that out. Shuby's known for his voice impressions. That's right. But he does get good guests. You gotta check have to you have to always check-in and see who he's got on. Well And he will ask a tough question. Very rarely because when the NFL people come on, they're still buddies. So they know that they can go on and not get ambushed. So there is that benefit. And there's the AJ Hawk of it all. Yeah. Oh, well, I was gonna say Rogers comma Aaron. Yeah. That was that was he he I mean he he and Aaron Rogers are. He was a guy that was in the right place at the right time. You are not Ross. Every video of Pat McAfee show is just got AJ Hawk just sitting there blank faced. That's AJ Hawk's That's AJ Hawk's life. Yeah. Hey. Only thing interesting about AJ Hawk is that who has had any success whatsoever in this game was the right guy in the right place at the right time with the right shit. No. That's that's the dream. Yeah. That's it. That's the dream. That's all it is. I'm groups of your dark companion. Yeah. And you you endorse this message? Yeah. Well, let's talk about tonight. Let's do talk about tonight because that's why we're here. Exactly. Eric Nadel's birthday bash every year. It is a benefit to the Grant Halliburton Foundation. You've talked about it quite. You actually had Eric on YDC the other day. Got a little confused. I'm like, did I get the wrong day? But no, I was okay. And as we've said, you've said on YDC multiple times, Eric's taste in music is not your run of the mill mainstream. He likes bands that a lot of people may not have heard of. Yeah, he does not skim the top and tonight we are bringing people together. We got the East Coast and the West Coast coming together because we've got from from the East Side. He's heard we got Sammy Ray and the friends. And then from San Francisco in the Bay Area, Chuck Proffitt and his Kumbia shoes. We just heard them in soundcheck a little while ago. Yes, we do. I'm gonna tell you something. You get you if you don't have tickets, you need to get them and get down here because it's going to be a show tonight and it goes to charity and there's a auction and a live auction. And you get to go inside the legendary Longhorn Ballroom. There it is. The hell, man. And you might be able to bid on some time with Ryder. Oh. Yeah, you can have lunch with Shoopy. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Oh no, a free meal. I don't do lunch. I may bid on that. Yes, you do. Ryan's is going to bid it. So he has to get two lunches and he brings one of them home. I would love it so much though if Greg O won. I may buy. Shoopees just have to sit there and look at Greg O. I know. I may do that. It's not like we haven't done it before, you know. Yeah. We've never had lunch. What's even better is Greggo sitting there going, no, no. We said I had lunch. You sit there. Yeah. And you do it during the OG. There you go. Yes. They just have to sit there looking at each other with microphones on. One time we went five straight days eating restaurant at the same table and eating the same thing. I completely believe that it doesn't have a problem. Yeah. It happy burger? No. It it it was a San Diego Super Bowl. I don't know which one but we walked right across the street to the seafood place, set this Well, if you're in San Diego, you gotta have seafood. I think the Thursday, they give it Y'all want your same table. The the the thing about me, though, is that when I'm in a foreign port like that that I don't know my way around or sometimes even around here, if I find something I like, I stick with it. There's nothing wrong with that. No, I don't think so either. What you and you like what you like. Yeah, I don't think so either yet I catch hell over it. Know, that's actually Well, a that's why you need to employ the chain restaurant theory But of that is a sign of ADHD as well, is you get in food habits where you just want the same thing for a while. I do that all the time. Yeah. I mean, I get on it. Call me ADHD. I'm cool with it. You're ADHD. Hey, Yeah. There was at one point I ate dumplings of various types for three weeks straight because that's what I wanted. And that's okay. You like what you like and you know what you like, you like what you like and why not, why deny yourself joy? But you're always spinning that restaurant wheel when you're on the road. That is true. I mean, you may look at a place like, oh, look at that great home cooking look place, and it just blows. And then you've just then you're still hungry. You gotta find another place to eat. That's why you pull in to just a a chain restaurant Chili's. On the road. A Chili's is good enough. It's not gonna be great, but it's never gonna suck. It's gonna be great. Yeah. Did I ever tell you all that you know what you're gonna get? Know what you're gonna get there. I mean, if you go into Red Lobster, you know what you're gonna get. Spaghetti. You know, you go you go into Olive Garden, you know what you're gonna get. Because when you're there, you're family. You know? Right. You know, you go into mom and pops over here in the strip center, you don't know what you're getting. It's true. It could be the best meal you've ever eaten. That is true. But if it's not, then you're gonna be hunting seven elevens to feed yourself. Oh dear. Get some taquitos. Costco and the hot dogs. Oh hell yeah. I have to. I have heard that seven elevens in Hawaii, like the food is fantastic. Doesn't surprise me. And in other foreign ports, Japan's their whole thing is a big thing. Damn right. Yeah, it's crazy. It's like, it started here like literally in this town. Why can't we have better quality food? So you're telling me in Hawaii Uh-huh. And Japan Uh-huh. Seven seven Eleven ramps up the food game. Absolutely. But they don't do it here. Now Hey. I got Here you're you're you're playing roulette with an egg salad sandwich on a Thursday. Europe. I don't trust egg salad sandwich. What is that tuna looking at me? Europe does the same thing. They don't have all the additives and crappy food we do. They don't have it over there. They pull it out of the ground and cook it and eat it. They don't send it through nine processes. Now don't don't And cover it with some kind of dye. Don't put me through an English breakfast. Because eating on toast is not breakfast. Because that's just gonna fuel you for the rest of the day and not in the cooking. Well, see, I can have an argument with you on that because I don't I don't believe in breakfast food. I believe in eating whatever you want any That's time of right. I mean, if I want an omelet at 07:00 at night, I'm gonna have an omelet. As you should. You know, and if I want to if I want to pee a pizza at 06:30 in the morning for breakfast. But you know what is that's metal stand of breakfast food is a cold pizza when you get up. That's metal Oh, I order one. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. So I just get it right out of the fridge after it sits there all night everything settles in. Gregor shows up. Don't want a pizza. Sir, this is a Wendy's. Yeah, but they have those other places. Or you just go to the QT. They've always got hot pizza out there. Damn right. QT ain't nothing wrong with QT. Nothing wrong with QT. You do a good taco pizza. A big fan of that QT. Interesting. Welcome to gas station food talk. Hey, it's called content. That is true. That's right. Content is content. Nothing more, nothing less. But tonight doors open at 06:30. 07:30 is the show. The the not this show but that show. We were walking around in there. Man, some of the stuff that you can get. We have already talked about a couple of the items. Some of the stuff that's available in there. Whether it's silent auction or actual auction, which will take place between the bands. Which you can find at granthalliburtonfoundation.org. And I will tell you, there is a lot of cool things. I wound up with four or five different things last year. You did? Not on necessarily on purpose, but I was happy to have them. But you didn't do the Dwight Schrute thing. Did you get mad at office where he thought it was just guessing the price of things? Oh, And so he wrote prices on and he won every item in the auction. No. But I will tell you there was a very Yeah. Hi. How you you doing? Come on, But there was a very funny one. On in, man. Come on. Because one of the things that I won was hurdleisms signed by Clint Hertel, which is now sitting next to a picture of Clint Hertel holding me as a baby because my family's known him forever. Did he What are Hurdle's book? It's his book. Clint Hurdle's book. Have a lot of It feels very much trying to be Yogi Berra. Okay. I I can say that. I'll say it to his face too. Okay. Fair enough. No. It's actually really, really insightful. Clint's a good guy. He always has been. Yogi Berra, Ryans would know this. He was an answer on Jeopardy the other night. Yes. Was. He certainly was. One thing you and I are huge fans of. It is the greatness of Jeopardy. It is the last thing I do every night. I don't crash without watching Jeopardy. There's too many Jeopardy's now. Although I would do pop culture Jeopardy in a heartbeat. Yeah, I would too. I don't fear that one. The rest of them I fear. That one I don't. Oh, basic B flat Jeopardy! Like, I don't care how smart you are, you will feel dumb by the end of it. Yes, you will. But you'll learn Yeah, a thing or I guess that's why I like it so much. Yeah. But I've always been nerdy like that. I've always been a Jeopardy nerd even when I was a little kid. I liked it. My parents didn't understand why. I just looked at them and said I wanna be smart. I don't like it. I don't like it. Don't where they do that deal where one word and the clue you have to rearrange the letters. The anagrams are stupid. Where is me out? Those are tough. And boy, it's one of those things where if you're gonna get it, you gotta get it right away. And if I wanted a word puzzle for idiots, I'd watch Wheel of Fortune. It either comes to you or it does not. Yeah. What do you think your lifetime winnings would be, Shoopy? On Jeopardy? Yeah. Very high. I feel like you probably have done pretty well. No. No. Maybe $5. Hey. I can't He'd be woodshedding people left and right. I can't tell you how many times I've been in the room, hotel room with him and that bill on and I'd be over there reading and he'd be in the smarmiest voice answering Greggo, do the voice. Every single question right. I don't think I've ever heard Grego do a Reiner impression. Because I can't. Have heard shooting with Grego. He would sit over there in the bed with his arms folded and just belt out every right answer. But just in his tidy ways? Oh, just Yes. Yes. What is mess No. We What is BVD? No. We had a dolphin rule in our room. I mean, we we didn't run around in our underwear very Things must have changed. He'd sit over there and just What is Windsor Castle? Hi. How you doing? Come on through. Come on. Come on. Welcome to the show. All good. Oh my god. That is the brilliance of this show. Are you kidding me? Oh. Yeah. That's all good. Come on. Come on through there. We're not professional anyway. You got places to go. We're podcast. We're openly unprofessional. Yeah. Look at us. Now you may be wondering exactly what is a podcast doing out here tonight. Holding up the standing roommate. Scared. As a matter of fact, so are we. But people are gonna come walking in here, and maybe we'll get Shoopy or Alex to go over there and talk to him. We'll find some people. We'll get him over to that chair. Yeah. So There will be some famous people here tonight. Oh, there will be. There will be famous people. Lot of dignitaries here tonight. Yes. This is a Dallas who's who. A lot of them will be baseball ilk. Mhmm. So that'll make it, kinda cool too. And go go back and check out the YDCs where you guys had Eric on the last couple of weeks. And He's been a regular the last year or so. Yeah. It's been awesome. And some great baseball talk the last four or five weeks as well. Hell yeah. As we are now into the second, third of the season ish. We're a ball more than a half. Yeah. We're about a Yeah. And here is what I wonder. Who wrote the book of love? That. Okay. You just had to, didn't you? I did. Oh, that was you? That was me. I'm getting blamed for his now. I'm I'm sorry. I'm just getting daggers from Reiner like you son of a I didn't say I don't know these guys well enough to know who is who yet. Whatever. I know. It feels insulting. I love it. It feels a little insulting. In fairness, he has had about three people come up and say hi and he's been like I don't know who that is. Don't worry, I too. That includes Alex and Rob. Look, I'm an old guy that happens. Well, gentlemen, would you like to, play the game that we like to play on our show at this time of year? Which is what? It is a baseball game and we also play it during hockey season as well. Right now as we stand, we've played about 40 games and we do go to North America's favorite game show and this is always the worst team in the league. Greg with worst run differential. No, that's where we're going. Yes, that's the thing. But what is the run differential for the worst team added in the league which right now is the Houston Astros. Yeah, they're awful. Yes. What is their run differential line this particular moment? 80. Well, you're going to want to make it negative. I'm just going to tell you. Oh, yeah, negative 80. I will say it can't be that high. It can't be a 40 games. I'm gonna go minus 32. All right. Oh. Rhynes? All right. I will go minus 53. Okay. Holy crap. I will go very flappy. You're about to tack up. I will go minus 40 and try and thread the needle. Alright. The actually and Houston not currently last in the division. They are ahead of law by a half a game. To clarify, that's why I wanted to jump in about the run differential because it's not always the team with the worst record. Right. Although the Chicago White Sox did exist for a while, a couple of years ago. They went bell to bell two years ago. Yes, they did. Right now, Houston seventeen and twenty eight. They're ten and thirteen at home seven and fifteen on the road, three and seven in their last 10. Closest without going over right now on May 14 in the year of our Lord 2026 is Alex because currently Houston Houston Houston has a run differential of minus 48. Jeez. Wow. I'm not gonna lie. Most of the time I just think about how many games have been played and just ballpark it around that. Yeah. In Smart. In retrospect Tampa Bay is currently two games back in the AL East. They're at a plus 69. Giggity. Atlanta, my beloved Braves, currently at a plus 93. Damn. Leading the NL East. Without Acuna You do know what you just said, don't you? That we lead the NL East. That Tampa Bay is in first place in the American League East. They are indeed. And you know that means who's not in first place in the American League East. Would be the hated empire. Yes, it is. The rest of the division. That's right. And that makes me very happy. I mean But I don't know how I feel about what's going on in the National League Central right now. When everybody's above 500? No. Everybody's below 500. In the n l in the in the AL Central. No. In the National League Central, they're out they're all below 500, aren't they? No. Everybody's above five. Only one only one team is below 500. It's the reds. Pittsburgh Oh, yeah. That's right. And 20. And at one point, a few days ago, everybody was above 500. Yeah. That's right. I don't have my shit together on this. That's alright. Yes. We got your back, dude. Yes. They are they are all above 500. And I don't think I've ever in fact, I know I I've never seen that before at this stage of the season in baseball. I mean, you look at Cincinnati who's twenty three and twenty one. In any other division, they're not in last place. I told you they're not playing a lot of division games. Yeah. In the in the AL. They're beating everybody outside the division. In the AL West, they'd almost be in first, which is insane to think about. It's crazy. Maybe a game back in the Central In the AL East, they'd be middle of the pack ahead of Baltimore. Yep. And the another thing is, there are way more teams below 500 than above right now all throughout baseball, Either league, any division you want, you got more below 500 than you do above. Seven in the National League. One, two, three, four, five, six, and nine in in the American League. So nine on each side of the fence. I don't think I've ever seen that before either. And Swizz Swizz is on a four game heater, and they're at 500. Yeah. Yeah. So weird things going on in the great game, man. Weird things, but you know what? I kinda like it. Parody is good thing. Yes. It is. And this is kind of another example of form not holding, and I don't think form necessarily needs to hold in the great game all the time. I mean, the opposite side of that coin, you've got the New York Knicks who I think they could stop playing right now and still have enough points to win the NBA finals. They have been racking it up. My friend Daryl, he's a huge fan. I texted him like, are you guys just gonna hang 150 in every game? You know what? His response was, I have prayed for this day. No. I I do send him a picture of Dan Hausen every time they win. Ah, very nice, very evil. And Dan Hausen did lift the curse and they've not lost the game. Dan has lost since. Well, if you wanna get into the NBA finals, this is very much man bites dog there too. There are no Celtics. There are no Lakers. What are we gonna do? I mean, is this do we even bother to play this thing? Needs to be an audience. Are the no. Well, the audience is the real problem. But see, also the aspect of as the person who dogs on the NBA relentlessly because it's garbage, this is what I want to see. I want to see parody. I want to see other teams. Yeah, I do too. I don't want to see LeBron playing fifteen minutes and just finishing a game. I do too. I'm enjoying this quite a bit. Give us the new stars, even if it is Dylan Brooks hater of the year under the basket. That is a great meme. That was hilarious. Oh my God. Okay. See. Camera pull out everything Magical. I remember when we first started our show and I said, give Oklahoma City a couple of years and they're going to own this league and they did and then they didn't and now they did again. I mean, well, funny thing is none of the players that you when you said that, none of the players that are still there when they've really succeeded. Because Durant was gone, the beard was gone, Westbrook was gone and they never really got a chance to take off. They had all those draft picks. They had not only did they have all those draft picks, they had a guy who knew how to do it. Yes, sir. And that he is not Ted Stepien. That's why they are where they are because they hired good people. They let them do their thing. And that's it. Well, that's really what you should have. The Mavericks have that guy right now. They got it. And then it was last week, wasn't it? That they hired Yeah. They announced that hire? Yeah. Uriah. Yeah. I mean, and the guy's got a great mind. If you believe everything you hear Got a decent resume. Man, he's got a great resume. Well, is it he don't Respected by anybody. I haven't read hardly any negative things about him. And he was the one that put Toronto together when they had that run. He was. Yeah. He was indeed. Now in view of something that happened yesterday, I wonder if the Mavericks wish they had a do over on this. Would you rather have him or should they have just waited a few weeks for Daryl Morey to get fired from the 76ers? How many titles has Daryl Morey won? Not many. I I I think the answer might be zero. It might be. It might be. I mean, at least somebody has a one. Yeah. But among among big name general managers, he's certainly that. For whatever reason. He he would He got it built in Houston? Let me yes. He did. Yeah. He did. He built Houston. He helped with Phoenix with the coaching aspect. But here's the other thing. He might have fit too perfectly with Dallas because he was always able to get a good record, but no trophy. Yeah, but Dallas could say they've got there's trophies in the case. That is very true. We have won. Know. And Maury, no championships. What are going to do about this? That's right. Hey, everybody's doing something to be said about getting there. I'm just throwing that out there. No, it is the old adage. Would you rather have a team that's bad for eight years, goes to the finals one year, wins a championship another year, or would you rather have a team that's in the playoffs all ten years but doesn't do anything? As a Marlins fan? Yeah. I can answer that. I know. Twice. Yeah. Twice. And as a Marlin fan, what did you think about the Rangers managerial hire when it was made? You know what? I've got no issue with it. I mean, this is a guy that that that's very popular with the players. He knows what he wants and he goes after Marlin's gonna Marlin. And we I mean, we haven't done anything. We haven't even made any noise in the division in forever. You know, which which is why it's okay for me to be a Braves fan too, the Braves have seniority. They had a good year with him though. Yeah. But did he want manager of the year there? Then he left because they decided to change up the managerial structure above him. Yes. Yeah. Got rid of the GM and brought in that other guy or moved him up and. There were the little rangers saying, hey. Y'all come on in. Come over here. We'll put you into work upstairs just for a year. Boats is probably not coming back, we don't think. But when he does, if he doesn't come back, you're our guy. And here he is. I I feel like baseball is the sport that Baseball and hockey are the two that are most paramount that you need somebody who has played the game. Somebody who understands what the players are going through and that's exactly what he is. That's exactly what Skip does. Well, and that's I think that to further your point there, those are the two sports that the player mentality, especially baseball from a strategic standpoint. What's left of strategic? Well, that's also fair. But, you know, that's why you can get guys in the NFL as a Dolph fan, I can attest to this that don't have much to go with the game and can run a team or are given a team. You liking this hire, Grego? Yes. I absolutely like it. I mean, he there's been a couple questionable moves, but show me a manager that never had will move. Especially in a 162 games. I I just like it that that there's been points where this team could have, you know, could have flared off and they haven't so far. And they're But it's still so early. But they're still staying competitive. You wanna know what their run differential right now is? The Rangers are breakeven. Yeah. I I would say about They are breakeven literally. They're only a game out of first behind Seattle and the transients. Such transients. The the team with no home. So, I mean, to me at this point in the season, if the Rangers can just hold on and stay right in that 500 pocket, get to the All Star break and then get hot right after that. This team is is built to make some noise. And I think they can. But they've got to play at a level of consistency that we all want them to. Man, for them to get where you're saying, they're gonna have to find some bats. Don't have they don't have anybody. I mean, they they got too many streakers and not enough grinders. And they've got to get some consistency in that lineup. Yeah. I mean, there's a perfect way to put it. I mean, Seeger looks completely lost. The only team that has scored less runs at in the AL at this point than the Rangers is Boston, and it's by two. And when's the last 62? Boston hang a big number. And Boston's going nowhere. Yeah. I mean, they're in this they're 10 games out now. They've got a GM that played. That's been kind of he's apparently the most robotic GM of all. That Craig Breslow. Yeah. You have to be able to score runs. And if you don't have the big boppers, then you gotta be able to play station to station. And right now, the rangers, they don't have that component where they can mesh those two together. Well Because they're just not a lot of just great hitters. They don't have anybody that falls out of their bed and can go, you know, three for five. They don't have that. Yeah. Well, and it's it's one of those comparisons that you I've heard somebody say, you can't win a World Series if you have an entire team of Barry Bonds, but you can win a World Series with an entire team of Craig councils. And have. Exactly. Maybe not nowadays. Ladies and gentlemen, the man of the hour, the tower of power who's who's sweet and never sour. That's right. Here he is. The reason why we are all here tonight walking up just as we broke into a nice big fat round of ranger talk, the great Eric Nadel. Eric. Ladies and gentlemen. How's everybody doing? Good. How are you? I'm doing man of the hour tonight. Now that I'm here. What matters is how you're doing. Yep. I feel like I'm 50 to 50 years old. I'll have whatever you're having. I'll hold you to that when you come inside. Well, everything here is up and running. Everything's set. Looks like check has come down, and and we're set to proceed. Are we not? Yeah. I understand the sound check was incredible. I was off doing a channel eleven appearance while it was all going on. But Sounds like great from out here. Insiders insiders say. Yes. Sobriety says boffo, man. Yeah. Yeah. Apparently, Sammy Ray, like, blew the roof off during sound checking. We were vibing out here. It all sounded great. Yeah. We were feeling the Cumbia shoes out here. Oh, the shoes, like, the shoes were actually crossing the street, going to the barbecue place across the street when I came driving up. I almost hit them. Oh, jeez. That'd been tragic. That would be front page, Nick. But they were out at the ballpark last night, and they stayed to the very end. I'm so proud of those guys. They had just gotten in. They literally got in, dropped their backs at the hotel, went right to the ballpark, got there in time for the game, and stayed till the bitter end. And As one should. As one should. Chuck's been a big baseball fan his whole life. He grew up in Cleveland, and he's lived in San Francisco most of his life. So he's primarily a Giants fan, but that's okay. If you live there, you you should be rooting for him. So he upgraded. So you run into them in the Bay Area? I've never seen them in the Bay Area, but I've seen them three times at the thirty a music festival in Destin, Florida that I go to every January. And then I got really lucky this year. The opening series of the season for the Rangers was in Philadelphia. And on opening day, they were playing at the, Artmore Music Hall just outside Philadelphia, and we had a day game that day. So I actually got to see him, got to go backstage and hang out with the boys for a while before the show. It was like a nice little prelude for tonight. Before we get too deep, is it just that cool to be you? I just gotta know. Believe you're both Yes. Yeah. Definitive. Yeah. Sometimes. I what I really dig about the way you do this thing every year, though, like, last year, we had the axe out, and I went and sought those bands out afterwards. Even found a couple of CDs just out in my travels. Do you get a lot of feedback from the bands that play this show of, hey, you know, that gave us a really nice bump after we played your show? Yeah. We always do. The audiences are really appreciative. And one of the things I was hoping to do when I started this whole thing fifteen years ago was to introduce bands to people who were unaware of these bands that are favorites of mine. Now some of these bands, of course, have played at the Kessler before, but that doesn't mean that a large percentage of the people in the DFW area have heard them or know who they are. And some of these bands, like Sammy Ray and Chuck Proffitt, you know, haven't played in this area for many years, if at all. And this year is a great opportunity for me to introduce two bands who I absolutely love to an audience that, you know, probably at least 90% of them have never seen these bands before or even heard of them. It's one of the things that makes you the coolest guy in the room Indeed. No matter what. Well, I'm willing to try, you know, any form of music that anybody sends me. And I've got a pretty good network of people around the country now who when they hear a band they like or they go to a show and they see the opener who nobody had heard of before and they like them, they they send it to me. And that's how I discover a lot of these bands. Sammy Ray and the Friends, I discovered because they've been opening a lot of shows for Lake Street Dive, which One of your personal favorites. It's probably my number one favorite band. And Sammy Ray and the Friends is one of a chain of bands who have opened for Lake Street Dive who were sensational. I've never seen a Lake Street Dive show where I didn't love the opener, and that's how I discovered Sammy Ray and the friends. You have you have so so much passion for baseball, you know, and it always comes through in your in your calls. Mhmm. Do you think if you hadn't gone down that baseball road that you would have been associated somehow in music? Because you have the same passion for music that you do baseball. It would have been either baseball or hockey. But if neither one of those have worked out No no no sports. If broadcasting hadn't worked out, and it very well, you know, might not have. You know, when I got out of college, I had one job offer. If I hadn't gotten that one job offer in Muskegon, Michigan, I would have been looking for other things to do, and that certainly would have been something that would have interested me. I even think about, you know, if and when I actually do retire, and I don't really see that happening anytime real soon, I'd like to be involved in music somehow. But the things that I think would be fun to do, they don't give you five months off. You know, I've I've thought about a disc jockey shift. You know, I'd I'd love to work at KXT, you know, and get to play the super cool music that they play or work for a venue and book talent for a venue or maybe set up tours for an artist, you know, be be an agent. I think all those things would be fun to do, but they're year round jobs. But is that something when you were younger that you could have seen a future? Not really. Really? I never really thought of it that way. I didn't know anything about the music business. I was just a consumer. Did you have a passion as a youngster? I loved it, you know, from the time my sister brought home the first Elvis Presley record. Who were some of your favorite? Well, way back then, it was Buddy Holly. Buddy Holly was probably my first favorite. That was the first album that I ever owned. And then all of the Motown groups, especially the girl groups. What kind of record parties you have? I had a really cheap one. My sister had a nice one. She had a nice console thing, a nice wooden console thing. But I had this plastic thing in my in my room that had a couple of little plastic speakers that vibrated, you know, if you turn the volume up. Yeah. But it still worked. More than three, but but it did work. And I was really into, like, the chiffons, the charelles, the creams, the help you sound? The changrelas. I loved all of those. Yeah. Man, they were tough. You know, give me sweet talking guy or you're so fine, any of those, and, I'm a happy man. Well, what was it when the the British invasion hit? I mean, what we Yeah. That changed everything. But but but for you And I loved it. Growing up in New York and Yeah. When the Beatles came and, you know, it was a big deal when they arrived, you know, at at the airport in New York and went to the Plaza Hotel and, you know, they had to cordon off streets for blocks, around the Plaza Hotel and then they were on Ed Sullivan. Then before you knew it, had the Rolling Stones, and you had the Hermits and Hermits and the Dave Clark Five, and more and more, know, the kinks and the hollies and the Animals. The animals. It was Who's among your collection of people that you've seen? Like mine mine's Elvis and Led Zeppe. Well, I've got Elvis. I saw Elvis in Oklahoma City. Actually, it was the year that he died. A few months before he died, I saw him at the Myriad in Oklahoma City. I saw Frank Sinatra, two different times. Those are probably the two most famous that I've seen. You know, as far as rock and roll groups, you know, I've seen Springsteen many times. I've now seen the Eagles at the Sphere three different times, and I plan to see them Saturday at at Globe Life Field. And you guys go into the Eagles? You go in Reins? Or you I don't have plans to, but it could happen. It's tough to follow-up that sphere show. That's Yeah. I I wanted to ask about that because I heard I want I listened to an interview with Walsh, and he said that they don't like using IEMs in ear monitors, but they have to in there because the acoustics are so different that they they wouldn't be able to do the show. So they have to use images. As a spectator, I've I mean, I've I've been next to it. You know, I've I've I've seen it. I know what it looks like. But being inside there with the technological advances and seeing a band like that or, like, right now with no doubts playing there, what kind of a different level of experience is that as a fan? It's just all immersive. You really feel like you're in the middle of everything because there are speakers all around you. There's speakers in the chairs. There's speakers in the floor. There's thousands and thousands of speakers. Not to mention the show is all around you as well. It's completely different from any concert experience that that you've had anywhere else. I found myself having to remind myself over and over again that, hey, you're inside here. You know? Because it really seems like you're outside. It it seems like it's an outdoor venue, but it's not. Yeah. They give you those shots early in the show that make you think you're outside. Yeah. Yeah. They they give you the setup. Right. They make you appreciate, you know, what's going on in the sphere that you're really not outside, but it it's hard sometimes to actually have it register with you that you actually are inside a building. When you're watching 18 k video like, I've seen some of the YouTube footage and when they do where the streets have no name and the and the sunrise comes up. I'm like, my my brain would be like, why am I still up? I should be asleep. But going back to tonight, we we mentioned earlier how you got a ban from the East Coast. You got a ban from the West Coast. When you're putting this together, do you think of it regionally? Not really. Just kind of happen that way like it did this year? It just kinda happened this year. You know, we had talked last year about possibly going after Lake Street Dive, which is a band from Brooklyn. And as it turned out, they're, you know, they're much too big now. They sold out Madison Square Garden last year. So that, you know, to ask them to come and play before a thousand people or 600 people is, you know, it's a bit of a stretch. Well, I was one of the guys that made that happen. Could just say that I helped you get there. But but, Sami Ray and the friends, you know, maybe they're maybe it's Lake Street dive light. So, you know, they were I was kinda concentrating on him. I've been I've been talking to Chuck Proffitt and his people for a few years. And, you know, when Chuck started doing this come via thing, I was really excited about, you know, getting him on there. And it just happened to work out perfectly. And the thing I really appreciate about both bands is this show is not part of a Texas run for either one of these bands. They're not going and playing in Houston tomorrow and Austin the next day. They came here to this and I really, really appreciate that. It's it's really nice of them. You know, they came a long way. Sam B. Ray's got a huge band. And, you know, for them to have gone out of their way to do this is, you know, it's really kind to them. I I'm really thankful. To get that to do that, how far in advance do you have to book that date in a case like this where they're not going between two cities in Texas? Yeah. I think I think Sammy Ray got booked toward the end of last year, maybe October or November. Chuck Proffitt, we weren't able to nail down until January or February. Wow. To to answer your question even better, we already have offers out for next year. And next year is so problematic to come up with a date. Normally, I wait for the baseball schedule to be released. But the baseball schedule that gets released in July, if in fact one does get released, may bear no resemblance to the schedule they actually play given the labor situation and the possibility of a strike or a lockout. So I've just chosen the Thursday closest to my birthday for next year, which is May 13. And I've been talking to artists about playing on May 13. And we've got offers out already to a couple of artists and should know within probably within a week or two, you know, if they're gonna be able to do it. And both of the we've appealed to do want it to be part of a Texas run. They are trying to set up, you know, two or three other dates in Texas to coincide with this. Well, alright. Everybody's looking forward to it tonight. We appreciate the visit with you as Thanks so much for being here. Glad to be here. Glad to help you out any way we can. Thanks for thanks for doing the lunch. You can bid on lunch with Ryan's at Eddie's. Go to 44834 and text text ENBB, lowercase e n b b, to 44834. You do not have to be here to win. But you do have to feed me. And there are tickets at the door. If you'd like to come see the show, they're they start at $25. You can just walk up to the door at the Longhorn Ballroom. Chuck Bradford will come on at 07:30 tonight, and then Sammy Ray and the friends around 09:30. In between, we'll have our live auction, which is another whole extravaganza. There's some amazing items there. I heard you talking about on YDC the other day. Yeah. We've got, Chris Young doing a dinner at, Nick and Sam's. Chad Hauser of Cafe Momentum coming to your house to do a dinner for ten. We have the home plate suite, the owner's suite behind home plate, which you can bid on and trips to Napa and a trip to Houston. See the rangers play there with VIP stay at the Four Seasons Hotel in Houston. Those are our live items today. Now if I don't have 10 friends, could he just come and make the food for 10 people? Absolutely. Then I can just keep it for the rest of the week? Just freeze it, and you're set for a while. Great idea. Solutions oriented, my friend. Yes. Alright. The great Eric Nadel there. Thank you. Give it up. Yes, sir. It is his birthday benefit tonight out here at the Longhorn Ballroom presented by Haynes Boone. Ashley with the save. Yes. Kick save and a beauty. Very nicely done. Yes. With Sami Ray of the friends and Chuck Probat and his Kumbia shoes. Now we are out here doing the red carpet thing. I would imagine people are going to start coming by here directly. We have Robin, Alex from the clubhouse here. Shoopy is here. Gregor is here. I am here. And we are prepared to roll forward until things get going. We got a buddy, Mike Palucci from D Magazine, if you'd like to talk to him. Think we've ever had him on the show, but Certainly. Yeah. Right over there, Mike. Come on, gentlemen. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. And a fellow Jesuit great. Alright. They're way more proud of him than they are me. You doing, Mike? Yeah. How's it going, fellas? It's going good. How are you? I'm Rob. Rob. Pleasure to meet you, sir. Greg Williams. How you doing, Let's get headset on you. Yeah. Let's talk a little bit. Let's do it, boys. Alright. Mike, the editor. Is that right? No. That's that's a little I feel like Tim Rogers still gets the editor titles. Oh, yeah. That's right. That's right. He does. Yeah. Somehow, I'm the senior editor, but he's the editor, but he seems to have way more power. Alright. Wait a minute. We got this. There we go. How about here we go. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was like, I know Mike's more professional than that. Right. So he's not the editor. Good cover. Tim Rogers is the editor. He's gonna kill me for that. Yeah. You know, he'll he'll he'll get in your ear about something. No. I'm the I'm the senior editor. I was the sports editor. Now I'm the senior editor, but I still do the sports stuff. So, you know, a little bit of Yeah. Yeah. You're not that old. LOL. Not yet, but we're getting there. You see my hairline. Come on now. Yeah. Fair enough. Hey. But you got a lot darker in the beard than I do, so I've got nothing to do with I feel like we all, you know, get this bargain that we don't get to pick one side of. It's either you keep the hair and you go white sooner or you lose the hair, but you keep the you keep the color. I'm keeping the color, but I'd rather have your book you're part of the deal, man. Yeah. But you haven't seen from the backside. So there it is. There it is. There it is. That's why sometimes I gotta wear a hat because there's just I don't like this conversation at all. No. Yeah. That's You look great. This is not the best material we can cover. I should've left my hair long. It's really not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Dee is kicking ass, man. I appreciate it, brother. Always. We're still here? Yeah. You're not only are you still here, you're you're making stuff happen out there. Oh, I appreciate it, man. You know, mean, look. It's I've worked a lot of places, and I've been fortunate to have a few lives in this business. And part of why I came here and why I love being here is the first question is everything we do is is it good? And if it's good, then we worry about the rest after that. But Yeah. Is it good is the first thing and fewer fewer places in the world that lead with that and do the rest later. That should be job one in anything. Like here at YDC, our first question is always, is it good? Yep. If the answer is no, we do it anyway. Yeah. How do you think we got it? I'm not saying that just speaks to my knowledge of answer. But but you but you start with the Longhorn Ballroom. You do. Which, you know, something goes on there that's gotta automatically be on your radar. Yeah. Absolutely. You know? And then I know Eric and I know these shows. I mean, I'm always amazed when I talk to him at how many the just the depth and the breadth of the music the guy knows. He knows everything, and he likes everything. I know. Yeah. I mean, it's mind boggling. Yeah. You can't hit him down. I I know people who spend many hours every day Yep. On music. Mhmm. And they don't know as much as he does. No. I know. Yeah. It's crazy. And he's got a baseball game to call at night. Well, and the other thing too that always floors me is that, like, a lot of people who love music like he's he do you know, he does, they played for a long time. And he didn't. He found this organically. He just loved it so much. And, you know, it's, yeah. It's cool. So I'm excited tonight. It'll be a good show. I mean, I'm a guy who plays music and I've been a DJ for since I was 16. And he still comes up with bands. I'm like, how do I not know what this is? What is your voodoo? How do you do this I mean, like as we were talking about, we were listening to Soundcheck. Yeah. And it Soundcheck was Tupperware tight. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I can only imagine what I'm stealing Tupperware tight in my next feature. I remember that was literally right off the dome. I can't lie. That's tough. I've been doing, I've known him for ten years. I've never heard him say that. So I can only imagine what it's gonna sound like in an hour. I know. Well, and it's he and I his favorite band is a band I'm very fond of too, which is Lake Street Dive. I'm sure he talked about it because he loves Lake Street Dive. So he was telling me that Sammy Ray, he's like, you know, I've I've got a budget for this show. I don't have Lake Street Dive budget, but Sammy Ray is Lake Street Dive as close as I can get on my budget. So I'm excited about that one. So Eric Nadel's budget should be get somebody in the car and drive them to Cooperstown and show them that plaque. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then and then a few zeros go on that budget. F and Nadel. Let's don't talk budget. Yeah. Do you know who I am? Yep. If you start off with the is it good, you also have the why not? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta try some stuff. Right? Yes. Can I tell you who I am? That's it. Yeah. That should be it. Yeah. So D Magazine has undergone quite an not an innovation, but a more reimagining, I guess, might be the word. Evolution maybe. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. Call it that. Yep. And it's become more sports oriented. Yeah. Think And that's a you thing, I assume. That is. Yeah. It's a me thing. It's not just a me thing. It's a Tim thing. It's a it's a late great Zach Crane thing. You know, I'd when I was freelancing, I had to stretch, you know, because like every writer, you gotta work at some point. And when I was freelancing for a minute there between gigs, I did something for the magazine, and Zach was my editor, and we hit it off, and we go get beers from time to time. And sat the athletic for a while, wanted to make a change. And I I win. I called Zach up and I said, listen. I think I feel like you guys do everything in the city better than everybody else, but you don't do sports. Is there ever a chance? And the beauty of what we do is we're one of the last family owned media companies out there. And so you're not dealing with a board. You're not dealing with red tape. I'm dealing with people. And so had a few conversations with the right people, and they said, I I just wanted to start writing again. But they said, no. We gotta build a whole thing. So that's what kind of started the beginning of this. And, you know, I've been around a minute, and I've got a lot of talented friends and try to get the right people in the building, you know, try to get a Jake Kemp around and a Jamie Newberg and a Sean Shapiro and a Brian Damaris and all kinds of different folks to come in. And we created a cool little ecosystem over here, man. It's fun. It's a good time. And Well, I've always said that the most popular thing in North Texas is sports. Oh, yeah. It's more popular than politics, more popular than music, than entertainment, than family. Yep. Then It amusement parks. That's it. Yeah. And when the morning news really took off was when they upgraded their sports department. Yeah. And they made it the the best one, you know, one of the best ones Absolutely. In the country. And it was always sports driven and that they used to always be the joke that they sold a lot more papers when the Cowboys won. Yeah, I mean, listen, I don't know if this is a healthy reflection on our society, but how many things in our world are cultural unifiers anymore, right? We walk down the street, you know how many people Eric Nadel's favorite band is Lake Street Dive. How many people's favorite band is Lake Street Dive? Probably nobody else here, but I'm sure a plenty of us could talk about the Rangers or the Cowboys or the Mavs or all this stuff. Brings us together. That's what we care about around here, and so I try to put a fun spin on it of, Okay, well, you know what? How do we make this about the teams and the games, but also the city and the culture and things like that? Yeah, you know, trying to write about bigger picture things. And, you know, look, I mean, the the work that's been done in that magazine well before I got there enables me to be the one that it makes sense when city of the stars and the Mavs are suing each other. Alright. Well, there's a good d column to be written about that whole deal that plays there in a way that might not play in a different publication. You know what I mean? So it's cool. It's a lot of fun, and, you know, we've been doing it well enough. And then, you know, stumble into things like being able to hang out with Dirk and make him dress up like Ron Burgundy and put him on the cover and do that. So it's been a it's been a good gig. It's been a great gig, man, and it's neat to see you guys doing it. I think, I don't know if this is as a result of what you're doing. It's probably not. It's probably just one of those things and goes back to what you were talking about a minute ago. But it seems like we see other media becoming more and more sports oriented all the time. I mean, look at what Channel eight's doing now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. You know what? Just look at the top 100, TV shows of all time. Mhmm. 70% of them are are NFL games. Right. Absolutely. And so, you know, for us now we're trying to evolve it further and Mike Marshall, who I'm sure you guys have run into time. Yep. So Mike and I are doing a YouTube show now and getting that whole space that you guys have been doing and doing that about six-seven months and trying to take it from alright. Well, what are the magazine sensibilities? How could we turn that into a video product too? And so we're having a good time with it. It's a, you know, it's good. And now my next challenge is they just made me kind of part of the whole magazine ecosystem is alright, well, how do I learn all these other things to do this other stuff? And so we've got a, you know, we got a cool culture issue coming out in June. I'm editing music and I'm editing all kinds of stuff. And that's the fun part of it too is how can I not be just a one trick pony or anything like that? Well, you're not a one trick pony. I promise you. I'm trying. Fake it till you make it. Right, guys? Yeah. Well, thanks for dropping by, Yeah. Thanks for joining me. Enjoy the show. It's really nice to talk to you. We're nice to I don't if we ever we were mad. Once a while back. Yeah. I wore my all and me and a few other folks. We're up with you at the liquid landing years ago right before you were kinda sore. It was the asshole. Don't remember. Yeah. Say no more. Yeah. Alright, gentlemen. I appreciate you guys. Thanks for bumping around with me for few minutes. Appreciate you. Don't forget the hand. Alright, fellas. There he is. The great Mike Pelucci of D Magazine there. Oh, all right. All right, let's see what time is it getting to be here? It is twenty five after six. And we got to go to when? About five minutes, I believe. I believe that was the signal for five. We got five minutes. Yeah. What are we gonna do? I don't know. We could put our head down on our desk and have quiet, John. Could always do And that's seven up. I was about to say the same. I ain't been quiet in forty two years. You think that's gonna start now? No. Alright. Make some noise. Oh gosh. I'll fall and just start screaming. That'll work. Do the Peter Griffin. Well, what I was trying to jump in when he was talking about how do I get into music? I was like his musical taste fits perfectly to a music consultant for film TV because they're looking for those obscure ones This that aren't gonna would be perfect because he'd only have to work maybe three weeks at a time. That'd be a good gig for him. Oh, I was waiting my turn but there was a lot of record talk. I don't I don't wanna I don't wanna take it off the Ranger beat. He's he's he's good right where he is. Ranger baseball is not ranger baseball without the great Eric Madell. Absolutely. But I'll you, you talked about that that VIP suite behind home plate. Alex and I sat in that section once. And it was a night that Chuck Morgan went into the Rangers Hall of Fame. And when you sit in that section and you get access to the Speakeasy The glory that is That will change your religion, that place. When when they tell you, you can be in here for forty five minutes and you know why because when you get in there, the quality of the food and everything is just through the roof. So you're telling me that in the owner's suite, it's different from what is at the concession stand? Little masses. Maybe a little. Maybe a little. Little bit. I mean, is concessions available down there, but why would you pay for it when you have the other? With the new with the new bar and the rangers have upgraded the food. They absolutely have. I was I was watching a video of these guys. They're called Jolly. They're from England. And they went to the ranger game for the food. And they saw the hot dog side side. They saw that stand. And it's funny when people that don't understand the bit, like, why do you spell it that way? And it's like, bro, if you don't know, I ain't got time to explain this to Yeah, it's about 30 year old bit. Guy's not with us anymore, but it's a whole thing. But they watching these guys try and it's like, you're kind of ruining yourself on ballpark food by starting here. All right, very quickly, new ballpark, Great or no? Love it. It's aesthetically terrible from the outside, but it is the best ballpark I've been in on the inside. Shoopy, you like I love it. It grew on me pretty quick. It helped that I got to see it, you know, from the inside out pretty early on, but Yes, I love I work for the Rangers. I don't know if you knew that. I do, but I'm giving you. You on board, Rob? I love the new barn. Not a bad seat in the whole place. It's the parking still sucks. But if you if you've ever wanted to tour a ballpark, it's a that ballpark tour is fantastic. I I did it a couple years ago, it's just amazing. Especially if you get John Blake. No. Yeah. He's he's been given tours lately. He's serious. That's amazing. It's awesome. What about it, Greg? I hate I hate indoor baseball, but I get it. In this day and time, you have to do it. Yeah. That ballpark is completely different when the roof is open. Yeah. I don't like it but you know what? You have to understand why the Rangers did what they did. Because, know, going down the, they were looking down the road. They're being very farsighted in this and they must be given credit for it. Hey, Gregor. What's your opinion of what everything has gone up around it? Does that enhance the I can't believe it because they've been saying it forever and ever and ever. And I didn't think it would ever happen. That place is fabulous. I mean, it's it's tremendous what they've done. Well, Rangers were looking down the road and they determined that in the years to come, people are not going to be willing to pay what they have to pay, sit out in 98 degree heat, look up at the scoreboard and see that they're in the bottom of the fourth inning and it's seven seven. And they still got five innings to go and the thermometer is reading 96 degrees. You're not wrong. They're not gonna be willing to do that. Hence, the new ballpark. Now, look who we got here. You. We got you. You're in big Get underneath there. You are in big You are the great Bradsham. The last fellow who tried to say that to me, I had to take care of. Get underneath there. That's I don't take that from just anybody. I'll let you know. Only from the old gray wolf. How are you, sir? Pretty good. Thank you. How are you? Well, glad you're here. Me too. Where else would I be? Did this a year ago at this time. Yes. Yes. Got your back again. Yeah. Well, you know, I'm I'm always gonna be here for Eric. Gotta be here for Eric. Absolutely. Absolutely. Eric says show up, you show up, and that's that. No questions asked. Those guys. No questions asked. No questions needed. Announces these bands. Are you somebody that does research on said bands before the show, or do you just wanna go in cold? I trust Eric. Okay. And and we one time, I found a musical act that he already knew about but had never told me about. And I thought and it's Morgan James who is just have you ever heard Morgan James? I don't think so. Oh my god. She's she is she bills herself as a an r and b singer. Mhmm. She's a little about a five foot five pixie powerhouse. Now she and her husband and Erica become really good friends now. And she can do everything from r and b, and she sounds like an African American singer. She can do jazz. She can do standards. She she's unbelievable. So I found her somewhere, and I said to and this is many years ago. I said, do you know about Morgan James? He said, yeah. Morgan yeah. Everybody else that that, I've found, he's already known about. And he always finds he says, go see this person. Go see that person. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And the other one He's just that way. Yeah. The other one that I that I found and loved before I even talked about it was Lake Street Dive. Yeah. Which might be his favorite band in mind too. He just told us mere minutes ago that it isn't There's the answer. Yeah. So but in answer to your question, no. I and now some of sometimes I'll have heard of them, and I hadn't heard of both of these. I've heard of the headliner. But no. I'm Eric says this is what we're doing, and it's gonna be good. Well, the thing about Eric is he does not skim the top. You know, he is, more knowledgeable let me just think if I really wanna say this. He I think he might be more knowledgeable well, he might care more about music than baseball right now. He might. Yeah. He just he just and he's equally knowledgeable about both. And I really think that music is a great passion for him. Yeah. Now and as you know, you reach a certain age where if you can find a passion for anything, please indulge yourself in it. Yes. You got to. Yeah. Yeah. The meter's running, you know? Tick tock, baby. Tick tock. That's what we do around here. Tick tock. Cured up for, football yet? Or Well, I mean, let's It's May. Okay. You know, it's it's May, but still. If they if they said we're leaving for Oxnard next week, I wouldn't be disappointed. But, I mean, there's a long way to go. Yeah. There there is. But I'm I'm I'm anxious to get to know these young coaches. I'm anxious to see these players, the veterans that they've brought in who are gonna have a chance to maybe play bigger roles than they have played in places before. I'm interested to see what they can do with it. I'm interested to see if the offense can be as good as it was. Everybody says, well, the defense just has to be a little bit because we know the offense is good. Well, the offense was good last year. Yeah. Now the running back didn't miss a game until the last one when they kinda let him not play. Mhmm. And, things don't always go smooth. I don't know if you ever noticed that. And in any of the As matter of fact Things Things don't always go as smooth as you think they will go. As a matter of fact, I'm very familiar with the concept of year to year. Yeah. You know? Exactly. So, but I think that's all that's all part of the challenge. And, I'm let's say this. I'm looking much more forward to this upcoming season than I was last year because last year, I just didn't think they had devoted resources in the off season to, having the right players. And I I I believed in Eberflusz because I'd seen him coach, but I didn't think he had the horses. And then, of course, that turned out to not work out very well. And I'm very excited about Christian Parker, and I'm very excited about the the young players they have. So there's a lot to be excited about. I'm fired up. But in the meantime, you know, we're just we're still in May. It's you know, the rangers are not hitting a lick, and they can see the top of the division. And you go through if you're a team like the Rangers, and as you know, I'm I'm a big Cubs fan, and they've got guys all banged up, and this is just how how great is baseball? They had two ten game winning streaks before Mother's Day. Only the second time in their history there were only like four teams have done that. Right? And now they are coming out of the second 10 game winning streak, having been shut out twice here and then gone had a day off gone to Atlanta, got one hit. And then, last night, it was one one in the eighth, and their, patchwork bullpen fell apart. So they've now got a four game losing streak, and and they're in the woods. That's baseball. You've got to really be patient and stick it out, and you can't get too excited. There's all the good stuffs to come. Yeah. And we were talking earlier. I'm seeing a lot of things that I've never seen before in baseball right now. Like? Like Besides the ABS. That. But, which I don't mind that. No. I like that. Yeah. We're gonna have a world series end on that. I mean, we could. And nobody's and nobody's gonna like it. No. No. No. They'll all lose their damn mind. Well, half oil. Depending on which side it is. Well, no. I yes. Well, that's right. But I mean, I think that there are lot of people who say, well, Some umpires gonna make a call of a ball and and and it's gonna be the winning run on third base to walk in and they're gonna have to go to it and it's it's gonna go silent. They're gonna show it and make the call. So for all the stat nerds, and I only know this because I I watch the Cubs play a lot, and the the their catcher's Carson Kelly, veteran guy. Well, he is the highest right so this is a new statistic. He's the highest ranked catcher at make it challenging It's a whole new cottage industry. He's like 18 of 20. Yep. It's it's gonna be a cottage industry on on who makes the calls, when they do it No doubt. What inning they do it. Now do you like do you guys like, all the newfangled statistics? I'm kind a stat nerd myself. Okay. What which ones do you like? I don't know that I have a specific stat that I like. Are there any you don't like? I don't like when it's like when it's an odd Thursday of an even month and the temperature's between eighty five and eighty seven. No. You perfect. Yeah. What about you? I question hard hit percentage. Know? Exit velocity. Yeah. Exit velocity. Or or or just Barrels. Yeah. Barrels. I have gone round and round with Jamie Newberg, dear friend on this. You know, if you if you hit a ball a 102 miles an hour right at the shortstop, that's not as good as hitting it 40 miles an hour and having it drop into a little pool of space between people. So I do see where that's a valuable tool for teams. Look Yeah. Look back as you go into a series. Alright. Well, this guy now, he's he's only three for his last 22, but he's his average exit velocity is a 100 miles an hour, so he's making contact. Yeah. That's valuable for them, but I don't need it No. When I'm consuming the reportage of the game. Yes. Teams can look at that. They can see who's making contact, what kind of contact they're making. That's right. But we don't need to No. No. Be fed. Gregor, what about you? Is there a statistic you hate or love? I've got a rule. I call it my baseball card rule. Yep. Go ahead. The stats don't appear on the baseball card, they're of no use to me. I think you see What what is a war? I have no idea. I I don't either, and I don't wanna know, and I don't like it. War? What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again. Do there is one that I thank you. You're welcome. Three three people get that. I Oh, more than that, kid. As as Dale Hansen used to say, we do some of this for our own amusement. Yeah. I'll tell you the one I like. At Little YDC, we do it all for our own amusement. I I tell you the one I like, whip. Yeah. And the reason I like that and and and now these these these, television networks that are throwing the stats up and even in ballpark some places, they're showing me a relief pitcher's ERA. What's less telling about a guy's effectiveness than a relief pitcher's ERA? Yes. It could be it could be nine, and he could be good. He could this guy's left on base, but somebody isn't. But Whip walks and hits per innings pitch. And I was saying this to a buddy of mine. I was at the at the ranger game with a week or so ago. Just look. If if so here's Degrom for instance. And I said walks and hits per innings pitch. It's particularly interesting for starters, but his his whip is like o 90 something. And then by he he was so good on Sunday that by the end of his tour in that game, it was down to o 80. So well, that's pretty good. That tells me something. Not sure I've ever seen him better than he was on Sunday. No. No. No. He was great. But that's the only newfangled statistic I like. So I like the ABS because it doesn't take long. Yeah. About OPS? You like ops? It's it's not unuseful. I don't hate it. It and and I was at the game. In fact, I was just thinking with my brother, and he was asking me, okay. What what is why is that good? And I said, well, it's it's a little more indicative of some degree of success than batting average because it's it's on base percentage plus slug. And batting average does not take into account that the guy walked four times Sure. Or that he was that he even that he reached on an error. What Ted Williams to get that changed? Because he didn't have enough play he walked too much, didn't have enough plate appearance. Exactly. So I don't mind I don't mind OPS. I don't I don't hate it. I I could live without it, but I don't that's it's okay. I can live with that. I think it's a good indicator of how effective an offensive player is. Yes. You know you know where all of that came from? Arbitration. We had all these agents. They had to come up with these made up stats that, well, look at my guy in this situation. And so they make up these stats, and then it gets in the it gets in the the vernacular. Had a lot to do with it. And Yeah. And then the money ball error. Crazy. That and Bill James. And Bill James. You know? Exactly right. You get all that that that that harmonic You stat nerds. That harmonic convergence. Yeah. All that together. Exactly right. You get all the The Venn diagram of nasty, of baseball ruination. I could care less on exit velocity Thank you. And launch angle. Thank you. What is a launch angle? I'll tell you what I think Elon Musk just wants be free or another. You you know, you know, they're they're teaching these guys to pull for a high launch angle. But why don't you teach them to hit like Rod Carrue or Tony Oliva? Slap the ball around. Just showing off their new toys where they can measure stuff now. Oh. Where they got all this measuring No. No. I think it's I think it's like the change measure it. I think it's like the change in basketball. Three is better than two. So take a lot of threes. Yeah. Two is better than zero. Take a good shot. If you're a really good three point shooter and you've got an open shot, take some. But don't take it just because someone told you three is more than two. You know? A rump? Yeah. It's true. I mean, I wish I could come on here and and bash all this stuff. The the the pitch clock, I hate that. But Oh, it works. It works. No. I don't I don't mind that. And Eric will tell you that Ghost runners and all that. Oh, no. No. No. Now stop there. Stop there. The the I don't hate it, and I should hate it. Oh, you should hate it. I should hate But And I don't like the word should. Because I still hate the DH. Oh, no. I like the DH. Yeah. I I didn't How do you how do you hate the DH? Because I know. It's been around so long. And I've been to it now. Griping about it since 1970 And when they brought it in and the rangers were able to sign Rico Cardi and we could watch man could heat. And we could He he will hit the ball. Big man could heat. He'll hit the ball. The big boy. He Big boy. And you So you're gonna see a late in his career Orlando Cepeda. Would you rather see that than a pitcher who's hitting one twenty? No. What I'm gonna have is a pitcher that can hit. That you can't find him? Yes. You can. No. You can't. Where are they? I'll tell you exactly where they They're hanging out with the throwbacks. No. Where they're at, they're in high school right now. And when they're identified as a pitcher, they say you can't hit anymore. Until then, they're the best hitter on the team. Until then Until then. They're the best hitter on the team. But I have said, do they have the DH in high school? Yes. Yes. Yeah. And it it it's just crazy, and it takes strategy out of game. Pictures, it's gonna be phased out of the game entirely. I I do not agree that it takes strategy out of the game. It sure does. No. It's so so you have to decide That's where double switch comes in. Yeah. But you have to decide strategically differently, but it doesn't mean that there's no strategy. We'll we'll agree to disagree on that one. I'm convinced that a manager could try double switch and players would think they're cheating. Well They've never heard of it. Well They've never heard of a double Do do you do you remember, what was that little receiver's name from Texas that the Cowboys drafted many years ago? Gosh. Was Quan Cosby? No. No. Ray Alexander? No. I can't remember his name. But he made the team. Johnny Lamb Jones? No. No. He he made the team, Garrity. Wayne Garrity. I remember him. Little bitty guy. W a n e. Yeah. And he could run and he could catch and he made the team. And, this is like the double switch and they think you're cheating. So Wayne Garrity, makes the team. And this one particular week, he's inactive. And then on Monday, I was talking to him, and he was just as down as he could be. What's the matter? Said, well, he thought he'd been cut because he was inactive. So they they They don't know the rules. So well, they know what they have to know. Now I will I will go to my grave, which could be anytime now, objecting to the ghost runner. I think it's a biblically horrific move. I think it's a crime I get it on. Because you can't account for it in a box score. No. That's not why. Well It's not baseball. You should be able to account for everything. The only reason they brought it in is because they think it they thought it was going to speed up the game. They thought it was gonna keep games from going on too long. That's true. Yeah. But that's baseball. That's strategy. You better use your roster right because you gotta you know, you got a game tomorrow. Yeah. It's yeah. Those are the rules. You better. Yeah. I heard ghost runner and thought we were back at the sand lot. Yeah. It's terrible. It I was like, I'm sorry. We're doing what? That that's and I wish now you wanna turn the clock back, and this is an impossibility. I long for the days when you're the starter. Here's the ball. Mhmm. Check with me in three hours. Let's see how you're doing. And now you're praying for six innings out of a guy, and and you're automate you have to carry 13 pitchers. And who who do you wanna see the twelfth and thirteenth pitcher, or would you rather see a position player who might be able to do something to affect a game every day? So I don't like that part of it. But, but I I'm I'm fine with pitch. The pitch clock has been It's kept Eric Nadel announcing Ranger games. I'll promise you. He was he was getting to a point where it was really Yeah. The pace of the game was eating at him, and he's told me that that it has it actually revitalized his love for the game. And if it kept Eric Nadel in the game longer It's saved Well, you know what it does? It flows like games used to flow Correct. Before TV gotten involved Correct. So much. It has saved the game. Yeah. It has. In many ways, it has. Yeah. Sure. I shudder to think where baseball might have gone had they not done that. And the and the another thing about the pitch clock, you know, I love Mike Hargrove. God rest him. But, you know, he he he was he was his plate appearance lasted a week. Yeah. I mean, when when I was Human rain delay. The human rain delay. When I was working with Eric in the in the middle nineties, and Mike Messina was pitching for the Orioles and or the Yankees, and that was a three and a half hour game. He would walk behind that mound forever. He's like he it's like he's doing a real estate survey out there. And that wasn't good. So that this has made it better. So there's some of the changes that are good. But all of these stats, whip I like whip. That's it. Yeah. I like whip. I like ops. Yeah. Ops is fine. Well, Brad Shem, thank you for popping on with us. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. We must have you on YDC again very soon. You you know where I am. I do know where you are. And I as you know, I that happen. I respond to messages. And we will make that happen. Alright. Thank you, boys. Alright, we are getting this. Getting the high sign? We are getting the high sign. Which means we gotta get on down with it. So But do we have to go home? No, we don't have go We don't to go do we? Yeah, we can stay here. Yeah. You know, whatever whatever we wanna do, we can do it. But anyway, thank you all for being by the channel here today. Thank you all for dropping by. Listen, we are your dark companion. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts on Spotify, on YouTube, on, I don't know, all the rest of those places. You know where they are better than Just get Spotify, that's all you need in live. That's That and water, that's all you need. Water and Spotify. Just find us on there and join us again because we do this couple times a week with various colleagues and friends that we have been fortunate enough to become acquainted with in the medium in our years in the game. So, yeah, check us out if you haven't already. Again, thanks to all of you out there for dropping by. We appreciate it. Everybody enjoy the show tonight. Bye. Bye. Bye. Alright. I'm gonna go take your pants off. You're Dark Companion is a stolen water media presentation.