End of The Tush Push, NFL Olympians & Why The Sandlot Is The Best Sports Movie Of All Time | EP 140

24:25Can't wait to get down there and see all the Brazil fans and how they get rocking for some American football, man. I was about to say, by the way, we heard everyone from Brazil. So apparently September in Sao Paulo is not hot, so we don't have to worry about that. Let's go! We were assured. There are a lot of Brazil fans that I think were under the impression that we don't like international games. I speak for Travis and I. We both love international games. Shine me up. Don't get me wrong. I love playing in Arrowhead and love playing in America, but I'm down with at least one or two international games.

24:59Get me out of this country. I want to play in front of some new fans, man. We just don't like heat. This thing, I'm wearing two shirts right now. I have, and it's all, it connects. It connects to here and then the back, and then I'm just, I'm a furry son of a bitch. So me and heat just don't do well together. So I apologize if it came off as that I'm not excited about this. I'm still excited. I'm just going to be doing some wardrobe changes throughout the game. Yeah. And I think I mentioned something about Sao Paulo not being my favorite city. Did I mention that? I think you said you liked Rio more because of the World Cup experience.

25:36Well, I went to four cities when I went to the World Cup in 2014. I went to Rio, Brasilia. brazilia is gorgeous architecture rio is like obviously just an incredibly beautiful city it's rocking yeah bello horizonte was awesome as well um i mean i just listen if we're going objectively from beauty sao paulo's just a bunch of concrete i'm not gonna lie but i have heard everybody's reactions on the internet that's so unfair everybody's they're gonna they're already gonna be mad at me again i've heard everybody's reactions everybody's like sao paulo's got a lot of culture in in their defense i only spent one day in sao paulo and did nothing but went to a soccer game so i didn't get to experience the city at all who'd you see play there do you remember oh my gosh i don't remember which game i saw in sao paulo my favorite game was in bello horizonte we saw um brazil play chile in the round of 16 where brazil won in penalty kicks and they were saying any any soccer player from that game uh neymar what you got to see neymar play live Absolutely.

26:41It was awesome. I forget the Chile player that was there. He was having a really good World Cup. But I do remember distinctly thinking how much better at, like, watching soccer Brazilians were than, like, Americans. You go to the World Cup as an American, and they're like, I believe that we can win. I believe that we can win. It's like, what the fuck are we here for? We can get that rocking. You can get that rocking, though. That thing gets rocking. That is the fucking most loser mentality chant I have ever heard in my life. Back in 2015, that was the fucking, it was the shit. Listen, I did it.

27:16I'm an American at the game. I'm going to do it. But I felt like a complete loser saying like, I think that we can win. I believe that. Like, what the fuck? You're acting like, so you're saying that there's people that don't believe it? It's just a weird fucking chant. It's like, this is just a fucking shitty chant. Give me a Brazil. In Brazil? I don't remember it exactly, but they're saying something like, chi chi chi le le le and like and i was like oh and i we asked one of the brazilians i just what does that mean and they said we came here to fuck chilling i was like yeah they're better at it they're better at it there's a different level of we're here to fuck shit up from the brazilians than there is from the it's just the usa soccer is just a little bit too nice and like you know what i'm talking about travis you know exactly what i'm talking there was a there was an interview was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and they were asking him, like, which, like, city he enjoyed the most or, like, which fan base he enjoyed the most or something like that.

28:09Yeah. And he referenced one of the teams he played for, one of the cities he played for, was, like, they had, like, a specific chant after the first time he scored about him, like, being a god and, like, just being the fucking man. And they just sung that the entire time he was there. He was like, that's pretty fucking epic. i mean usa obviously we got usa usa which is like just an epic awesome chant awesome everybody hates it probably which makes me even love it that much more i just think we we have so many great things that we could be chanting rather than i believe that we could like i don't know i'm out on it i'm out on that chant so much it was good it was good back then like you go to like watch like soccer hooligans you watch soccer hooligans like in england and they're just talking shit they're singing songs about talking shit uh the sons of ben in uh i think it's sons of ben in philadelphia for the mls team uh-huh they're fantastic i would expect philly to have some good chance it is here the songs are here in the u.s the national team just needs to take it to another level and i think that that's part of the reason why our national team isn't good we're starting we're too nice we don't have the mentality we came here to fuck you guys that's what the mentality needs to be not like i think that i can win we will we will fuck you like do you know how much of a different mentality is it is than to go to a game and be like oh i think that i can win i believe in myself or it's like i came here to fuck shit up it is just an entirely different level of like like gravitas in brazil i'm just being honest yeah well i mean and i think that that's why they And I think that that's why they beat us.

29:47We need the mentality of the U.S. soccer team to be like some of these other countries. We just do. And it can't be, I believe that we can win. It needs to be, I believe that we can fuck you up. I believe that we can fuck you up. That's what the chance should be. I got it. Let me lead the chance next year. The World Cup's coming to Philly. World Cup's coming to Philly. I'll lead the chance. I got it this time, U.S. Go, USA! Don't do that. You can't do that. That was great, man. Way to fucking send it. You went full send there. That was great. Red fish, blue fish, white fish, two fish. One fish, two fish.

30:39Gold fish, bronze fish. What is this? I don't know where you're going with this i was trying to think of a word that rhymed with fuck and i couldn't get it i'll work on it it'll be good though we'll get some good ones yeah jason will be the mascot for uh the american soccer team i'm not a mascot i'm just i just want to lead the the the song section or at least be a part of coming up with chants that better reflect the boisterousness of usa there we go there we go all right let's get up back on track here shout out to everybody down in brazil Can't wait to get down there. Sorry if it came off as I'm not excited because I am.

31:14I am. We've got a huge challenge with the Los Angeles Chargers, baby. Yeah, so we got a bunch of primetime games, and then we don't play in the same slot in consecutive weeks until mid-December. So that'll be fun. Got to make sure you check the schedule, Travis, so you're not late to the game. Is it hard to find a routine when the game day changes so much week to week? No. The routines stay. The routines, depending on when you play, you just slot it in on either like a different day. That is, if you play on a short week on like a Saturday or a Friday, you just push up what you got to get done a few days and then vice versa.

31:56If it's a longer day, then you just get more rest and then you just jump in when the time is right. But no, I don't find it hard at all. Love it. I don't know. I don't have anything else to add. I mean, I'm a fan of playing on all sorts of different days. Yeah, it's changed my routine up, man. I like to have a new fresh routine. When it becomes redundant, it's just the same day, same time. Shit can get fucking boring, man. Yeah, and I'm also just a fan of playing on more primetime times. That's when I'm watching TV, and I like it when football is on television. so let's keep putting good football games on television when everybody's watching.

32:41I mean, I think it's just good for the game. Let's keep taking over all the holidays. We're taking over Thanksgiving, Christmas, NBA. You're fucked. You're never getting that back. I mean, it's the way it is. Are the Chiefs now officially American Seam? Well, I mean, listen, the Cowboys aren't. Did you see what happened to this Cowboys fan? I don't even want to say this. Yeah, dude, he switched it up, man. this is such this is such a Cowboys fan thing to do the city of Dallas is going to fucking kick you in the balls it does make sense I see I hear where you're coming from well the problem is like this guy probably he probably isn't from Dallas he's probably just a guy that was a fan of Dallas around the 90s late 80s they were just really good or he grew up like thinking hey this is the popular team to pick and he picked them and then he had it tattooed across his entire back like it's the coolest thing in the world.

33:36And he's like, oh, these guys suck. How can I get a cool team on my back? Just be loyal to us, baby. Just be loyal to us. Listen, we'll treat you right over here at Chiefs Kingdom. We'll make it so you'll never have to cover up that Chiefs logo, dude. By the way, shout out to the tattoo artist that was able to cover this up very well. But, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if they're American's team. I think Philly's building up a big contingency. Really, what happens, I guess, when you're really good, people just start liking your team. Yeah, so I'm kind of out on just the whole America's team deal.

34:07I don't give a fuck about that shit. I don't think anybody wants to be an America's team. I want to be Kansas City. Exactly. I want to be the Chiefs, man. That's what I want to be. I'm with you. I'm with you on that. I'm going to be the big, bad Chiefs. Come join if you want. But America's team? No, we're Kansas City. I'm cool. I love it. The boys can have that if they want them. Yeah, any other thoughts on the schedule? I will say Eagles fans are finding out with Chiefs fans and Chiefs. The Chiefs have had to deal with the last couple of years. The Eagles play on every day other than two days this year.

34:36They're on a lot of primetime television games. I mean, it's just what happens when your team's really good. Who doesn't want to see? It's a badge of honor. Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley. Play some football. It's a badge of honor. Yeah. Is it harder? Yes. 100%. You're going to have to figure it out. No, it's not any harder than the regular schedule. We're having a fucking blast. I played in three games in 11 days last year. It wasn't that much harder. I think it's definitely harder. And you're also playing better teams. When you finish first, you're going to play the best teams in the ASC and the NFC of those respective conferences.

35:12That's reality. That's reality. It's going to be a hard schedule, and the Eagles have a tough one. It's also constructed oddly in some ways. but I'm excited about it. I'm excited how much they'll be on primetime and I get to see the boys suit up. I get to see them suit up week two, baby. I was about to say, you get to see us suit up against them in week two. The Super Bowl rematch, man. Is that in Kansas City? In Kansas City. In Arrowhead. We also got the Monday night football schedule. We open up Vikings at Bears in week one. Going to be fun after Caleb Williams basically told everybody he wanted to be drafted by the Vikings.

35:55Lions at Ravens. Chiefs at the Jaguars. How about it, baby? Let's go, man. A little week five. Commanders at Chiefs. That'll be a good one. That was one thing I'm not happy with the Eagles schedule. The Eagles and Commanders are probably the two front runners to win the division. And they play each other twice in the last four games or something like that. It's something crazy. What's wrong with that? I just wish that there was a game in the earlier part of the season and then there was a game at the end of the season. I don't like when especially those games are going to come down to be very pivotal for the division, and it's going to be able to swing.

36:33Put them at the end of the year when they're pivotal for the division. No, you put one at the end of the year. If Washington sucked at the beginning of the year and all of a sudden they win the last two games against the Eagles, I think that's bullshit, or vice versa. You're such a... I'm just being honest. I think it's a weird way to – like, what if somebody's hurt at that point in the season? But they're going to be healthy for the playoffs. That's football. I'm just saying. I like it when it's spaced out more. If you want to put us against the Giants late in the year because nobody really expects them to be very good, that's fine.

37:01But, like, to have that kind of – I think it's harder to schedule these things than you think. I think you're probably right, but I also think that I have the right to complain about it. It is tough playing a team, like, twice in, like, three weeks. So, I'll give you that. that's hard right i've done it before that is not a fucking easy feat i also got two eagles games they're gonna be on monday night excited about that we're at lambo in week 10 and at the chargers oh both away damn we couldn't get the eagles a home fucking monday night game i think they saw the last home monday night game and they're like yeah kelsey was a little bit too we gotta we can't let him go back to philadelphia like they almost blew dumpy's knee out like hilarious they're like yeah that's not good for tv we're gonna get away from this that was hilarious that's all right well put all right well we got some uh some rule changes about to be voted on jason yeah yeah proposed rule change the last thing um by the time this airs they will have come to a conclusion on some of this stuff.

38:11The NFL owners are having an annual spring meeting in Eagan, Minnesota. Beautiful Minnesota. It's probably gorgeous there right now. There will be voters on the following, banning the tush push for the one millionth time, changing the playoff seating. That's right. Instead of your division actually mattering during the season. They're just going to pose whoever has the best records, it sounds like. The last one is the Olympic flag football. 2028 debut of flag football in the Olympics is coming up, and we've got to figure out how involved and whether or not the NFL is going to allow the NFL players to play and participate in it.

38:54Where do we want to start with this? Do we want to start with changing the playoff seating? Sounds like you're against it. Why are we playing division? The division isn't going to matter anymore. Well, it still determines if you go to the playoffs. It just determines, like, if you win the division, you're not automatically going to get a home game in the first round, I think is what that means. I thought that was a part of winning the division was like, you get that. I agree, and that's why I'm kind of not in favor of changing it. I think I understand what they're trying to accomplish. Benny's in timeout right now.

39:28Benny, are we okay? You don't like the rule change either? you think the division winner should keep their home game right yeah yeah yeah i think she thinks that benny do you want to help out the rule changes come here sweetie benny she might be the smartest two-year-old ever if she agrees with this she's probably better at deciding all this stuff than everybody else deciding it

39:55benny she's unbiased what do you think about the tush push should the eagles be allowed to do the tush push you're in timeout yeah yeah should the nfl be in timeout for proposing banning the tush push no okay you're not being any fun right now let's just talk about the tush push what do you think about the tush push well i want to let's start with i think we tell me tell me whether you like it or not i want to start with the playoff seed we'll get tush push last playoff seating i understand when it's like an eight and eight team how they all of a sudden get a home game versus a team that was is like 11 and you know six because they got a wild card spot because somebody else was really good in the division but i also kind of like sometimes those division records are low because the divisions are really competitive and those teams fought each other all year round i kind of like the way the thing is structured already i don't like changing things that i think are largely not broken like just play the freaking game i don't know i think it's fine I think it's perfect the way it is.

40:58If you want a higher seed, win your division and have the best record. I'm with you on that. Olympic flag football, 1 ,000 % in favor of the owners allowing NFL players to participate. 2 ,000%. One thing that I think we both probably speak on behalf of every NFL player, one of the things that has always sucked about football is that there's no way to represent your country. Well, now that flag football will be in the Olympics, there officially is a way to represent the country on the largest stage possible. I know that the current USA flag football team has a lot of things to say. I believe, I can't remember the quarterback's name.

41:36He has been stated as saying he's better than Patrick Mahomes. I believe that's verbatim. I think we should find out. Yeah. And the style he plays is suited for flag football. I mean, listen, I respect him. I like watching him play. I just think he's out of his mind if he thinks he's a better quarterback to Patrick Mahomes. That's fine. We'll find out. I think we should actually just play a game and figure out who qualifies to represent the United States of America. Yeah. Also, if you de-cleat somebody by accident, do you get kicked out of the game? I don't know what the official rules are. Because if you strike some fear in them, boys.

42:18Oh, whoops. All of a sudden. Yeah. Games are a little more dicey. You want to be the bad boys. You're bringing that Detroit Pistons mentality, Broad Street Bullies mentality to flag football. That's what I'm talking about right there. I can dig it. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, I'm in a huge favor of this. I think that everybody in the United States wants to see this, or at least the opportunity to compete, to be able to represent your country. And let's face it, football is America's game. It's one of the few games that is uniquely American. And the fact that it's going to be on display in this form on the world stage is awesome.

43:00And I think as Americans, we should all want the biggest names that are able to be a part of it. A part of it. And then lastly, obviously, there's the Tush Push, which they are voting on banning. It feels like this is the most legitimate chance it's had since they've been voting on it to be banned. I'll say this. I'm actually going to Minnesota. I was asked, what? So there were some things said at the last owners meeting, essentially saying that some of the owners and coaches hinted that the reason I stopped playing was because of the tush push and that I got hurt on the tush push frequently. What the fuck?

43:40So I'm really just going to - What is dad out here telling reporters this? I'm just going to answer any questions people have about my partaking in this play. I really don't, and I mean this with all sincerity, I don't care whether it gets banned or not. I think that at the end of the day, this is why you vote on things. And if they vote to ban the Tush Push, the Eagles are still going to run quarterback sneak at a very high percentage. 92%, exactly. We were very successful quarterback sneak before it was the Tush Push or brotherly shove. And I just think that the players are very good at executing that play in particular.

44:20Is it marginally better with the push? I think so. But I also like if everybody's fed up with it and everybody does feel that it's either a threat to player safety or they want to go back to the old rule that you can't assist runners, we're all going to vote on. I don't want to like try and persuade. Although I do think that like the health thing, there's not any data to suggest that it's less healthy or that it's more unsafe. Matter of fact, I think a regular short yardage play is probably more unsafe than a tush push. The assisting the runner has never made sense to me because defensive players are allowed to gang tackle running backs.

44:55Why are they allowed to stop a running back with four defensive players, but I can't help my running back out? Well, because life isn't fair, Jason. That's a good point. And that's why somebody's going to vote on this, and the fairness will be determined by the owners and the committee. But I'm just going to offer any type of like, if anybody has any questions about the tush push or whether I retired because of the tush push, I'll tell you this right now. I'll come out of retirement today if you tell me all I got to do is run 80 tush pushes to play in the NFL. I'll do that gladly. It'll be the easiest job in the world, and it'll be like 80-some snaps.

45:29I think it's the overall ability to play the game and some of the plays that are a lot harder than that to execute. I don't know. It feels weird going there. I don't even know if I should, but I was invited. No, dude. You're in. You're in. I can't wait to see a picture of you with a fucking poster that says pro tush push. I'm not, listen, I'm okay with it. Push, keep the push, push my tush, push my.

45:58Do you think it's weird that I'm going? Should I go? Should I not go? No, I think this is very, this is very, uh, I think you're doing, um, Philadelphia and the Eagles organization, right? By going in here and representing that it's not what people are making it out to be. I think you're doing, I think you're being a good teammate and a good player of the organization or former player. No, Jason, I have an honest pitch. You should have all the owners line up and run a tush push. No. No, this is my job. This is my job. Make them run it. They'll know it's fine. It's not a bad idea. Jerry, get under center.

46:32Let's run a tush push right now. You and me, Jerry. Let's figure out how dangerous this thing is. Yeah, they'll be banned in a heartbeat. Are you kidding me? All right, let's get out of this thing. Can't wait to see what happens in old Minnesota with the new rule changes. Jason, I think it's time to get to one of our favorite segments. Yeah, baby. Yeah. It's time. It's time. How do you – for the New Heights Film Club, can you do, like, the projector sound? It's time. The projector time. brought to you by Reese's and their new peanut butter and jelly cups for this installment of new heights film club we are reviewing the cult classic childhood favorite potentially greatest dare i say kids movie of all time ah damn there were so many good ones in the 90s too man i don't know i don't know i think this one is definitely up for it to argue yeah it's up it's up there the 1993 classic oh 93 was a good year man what happened in 93 uh michael jordan won his third uh nba championship in 1993 nice nice nice well they also released uh the sandlot i don't know we re-watched it i love watching kids movies again at a later time because you think about the movie different especially being a dad now i thought about the whole relationship of Smalls and the stepdad and kind of what Smalls is going through in a much different light than I had ever thought of the movie.

48:13But Trav, what were your initial thoughts as an adult? As a parent, would you ever like, I feel like, do kids even go outside anymore and like fucking go to the park and play baseball? We used to do that like at least once a week. Well, I don't know that we did it once. We did a lot. We would go to Fairfax. Dude, I went to Cortland Oval and played almost every week. It was insane. First of all, this movie takes place in a different time where parents just let their kids do whatever they want. They just let them go outside. And then you said to come back when the street, you had to come back once the streetlights come on.

48:50That was the rule. Or you got a good old ass whooping. And we were around right for kind of the start of that going away a little bit. like i think there was a whole scare in the 90s that everybody was trying to kidnap your kids as if anybody wants these fucking things nobody wants your fucking kid what person in their right mind wants a fucking kid it's a fucking biggest goddamn burden you could like if that thing wasn't biologically associated with me well i would adopt to actually if i'm if i'm being honest i love kids but let's be sensitive to the people that actually have gotten their kids kidnapped Okay, that's fair.

49:28That's fair. The best line ever is that Kelsey's saying, they bring you right back. Yeah, right? If they got kid out there, they bring you right back. I ain't worried about that one. Oh, gosh. I just remember that don't take candy from a stranger. Like, if anybody comes up to you and offers you candy, don't take it in my head. I'm like, I'm definitely taking candy. If somebody offers it to me, are you fucking an idiot? I'm definitely taking that candy. Free candy? I'm in. There's definitely a push. I think that scared a lot of parents from letting their kids go out. Dad definitely let us go out, but he always knew where we were at.

50:05And I don't know if you know this, but I would see him riding his... Drive by. He would drive by and he would make sure everything was alright every once in a while. I mean, definitely we could have been kidnapped for sure. But it was the thought. The real question is, was he just doing that for us or was that an excuse to get out of the house, stop at the wings down the street as he's coming back home. Yeah, sweetie, don't worry. They're all good. They're up at the park. Where'd you get the wings at? So good. Yeah, I mean, I think it's so good for kids to go out and just play unaccompanied by adults, to be honest with you.

50:45Yeah, you grow up. Yeah. And there's so many awesome moments in this movie that it's kind of, I don't know if it would be classified as like a coming of age movie, but it's definitely catches Smalls at a part in his life where he's moved into a new city. He doesn't have any friends. He doesn't have a father figure that's worth a shit. He's got a good group of guys helping him see the light of day, man. His mom encourages to go outside and make friends and the friends make fun of him and bully him a little bit. But it's the best. But Benny tells him like, hey, fuck those guys, man, whatever. Just go.

51:18And like, there's so many positive ways of dealing with like people making fun of you to like not having friends just go get out of the house get the fuck out of the house you're having a little rough day get the fuck out you're gonna go find somebody that you're gonna get along with i promise you just get the fuck out the house but there's just so many great moments of like positive mental relationships and um kind of like how to cope with uh you know maybe maybe being somebody with a single parent who's now in a new relationship um and i think that the whole backdrop of baseball is just perfect like like baseball is the sport i wrote this down because i it really stood out more watching it as an adult like this whole movie is really about legend right and the sport of baseball is about legend legend because it's so old there's these stories of like shulish joe jackson and the babe but part of it like the reason it's so much kind of like folklore is because cameras weren't around and like it's just like word of mouth like all we know about it there's no more legends anymore there's no more legends everything is on video everything exactly everything but like all of these baseball stories and these figures are larger than life and then within the movie itself you have Hercules and the Beast and Wendy Peppercorn, the highly sought after unicorn.

52:50Just because you watch the movie and everybody got on our ass, it'll be Wendy Peppercorn forever. And like Benny the Jet, Pickling. It's all just these larger-than-life stories and folklore. And I don't know. It just makes you – it was so well done with the sport of baseball, why everybody loves baseball, how kids associate things. This kid lacks a father figure, lacks friends. And so many of us as young kids and boys or girls, you look for these like role models in your life and you are drawn to these larger than life characters and the athletes of the time and you make friends. And I just think it was a, it was a, it was a really just awesome depiction of the importance of sports, the importance of friendship, the, uh, specialness and the ability to learn from sports like Babe Ruth.

53:55Heroes are forgotten, but legends never die. Like all of these things that like, there was a bit of like the, the, the magicalness of like hope and, and like, and you find that camaraderie and that like that chemistry with with your friends and like especially it being like new friends or like something that you you you all are encountering for the first time and getting through that dude that scene where benny's getting chased by the dog is one of the most epic like i forgot how epic that fucking scene was where he's like literally getting chased all throughout the entire city like imagining that as a kid oh my god right right it's so good dude insane and the dog being this like mate like magical beast the entire movie and benny's the one eventually who gets the better of it you know like like smalls going being terrible at baseball to the point that everybody's laughing at him and instead of like some teacher coming up and being like hey don't make fun of smalls like smalls fucking ends up benny's like hey fuck those guys go out there i'm gonna hit you this fly ball just put your glove up right he catches it he throws it and then everybody loves smalls and it's like there's a there's a beauty in smalls taking care of that with the help of his friend rather than like some authority figure like assisting this kid you know i mean if there's like a different level of like coping with some of these dynamics that i think a lot of the times we get nervous to put our kids in these situations or that our kids are going to experience these.

55:33But in reality, they're all really important for kids to go through this. And this writer, I'm sure was writing from a lot of personal experience. These end up being like cemented into your brain is like huge pivotal moments. Right. And I don't know. It was just really well done. I don't know. That's all I got from that. Yeah. Yeah. And also, if you're not making fun of your friends, like you're doing friendship wrong. like that watching that movie i'm like dude this is exactly what my friendship group is today like we still have that little kid in us that is just like i'm gonna fucking roast my friend and he's gonna probably get me back in some form or some way and it's just it's just gonna be hysterical for everybody to be a part of and it's also gonna show like hey it doesn't matter what you look like you know where you come from what you do everybody can have fun making fun of each other and still find that love and appreciation for each other at the same time yeah and it i like that small like smalls doesn't listen he gets discouraged a little bit by the guys but then he listens to the guy that's uplifting him benny yeah exactly he's like all right i'll fuck with this guy this guy's on my side and he's hitting the ball and there's a lot of like really good positive themes of like relationships mentally how to cope with adversity and new scenarios and trying to achieve new tasks, leaning into your strengths.

57:00He makes the erector set because he's a smart kid to try and get the baseball back. And it's all backdrop by maybe one of the best soundtracks I've ever been a part of. I mean, every single song is just like is so good. I was going to say, it's crazy that that that we're just as far away from that movie as that movie was from the year it was depicted in the film. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. So 1962 was the year it was depicted. It came out in 93. We are now 32 years from 1993. And those 62 and 93 were 31 years apart. That's crazy. That is nuts. Yeah. That is a great fun fact. I think the scene with the fireworks and Ray Charles saying, America the beautiful.

57:51America. it's fucking magical oh okay yeah man um the fireworks going off they're just the sounds of the fireworks and how dude is epic did you uh have you ever tried uh chew i've had dip i don't know that i think i would have tried chew one time my one buddy jeremy gatta i shouldn't even say one of my buddies was big into chew for a little bit grown-ass adults yeah that's true you're like i don't know jeremy jeremy might get in trouble with his parents my guy jeremy was he used to chew a little bit gatta what's up boy yeah yeah shout out shout out to all the gattas man chew didn't really do much have you ever done chew no i haven't i've done dip one time chew didn't do much dip i did twice i did it up at all the higher ground but Go ahead.

58:44Dip made me super loopy and I threw up. Dude, every time. I tried it like three times. I never got into it. Every time. I was like, all right, well, my body's just not into this. I never got into that one. Which Sandlot character? Well, Travis is Benny the Jet. Listen, I had PF Flyers growing up, man. Let's go. I will say you were also the magnetic person. You know what I mean? Like not just saying that to you. you were always like the character that everybody like came to for like encouragement. Like that was your personality within like the friend groups. It felt like. Yeah. I mean, I'll take, I'll take that.

59:22If you're going to say it, I will say for sure. I think there was a little, there's a little bit of all of us in the, in there. I think you were, I think you were squints. You were a fucking nerd. You were a nerd growing up. Sneak, sneak kissing Wendy peppercorn. You knew it was the only way you're getting one. bold move I mean listen it's a good thing squints was so young because you pull that move as a child it's kind of like oh that was kind of you're good ballsy move ballsy move oh silly silly you do that it's like the same age you're older let alone that you're gonna be arrested getting arrested son all right come here give you a good talking to you can't be doing this type of shit out here iconic though was there a cleveland heights version of sand there there was one on there was 100 i mean i'm all the guy all the guys that i played baseball with and it wasn't just baseball but all the guys i played travel baseball with um a lot of jay zoo kids a lot of saint ann's kids a lot of a lot of heights kids we all would go up to court lenovel or saint ann's or fairfax forest hills yeah fairfax as well we used to go up there we would always find a way to go up there with a ball and a bat and a glove and just you know have some fun um until we lost the ball because we hit into somebody's yard.

1:00:38It's literally that. That's one of the reasons it's so beautiful. And the fence in particular. At Fairfax, the left side of outfield is completely open. But the right side of outfield was a fence just like that. And if you hit it over that fence, the game was over. There wasn't another ball. And there was no climbing this fence. This fence was like the Great Wall of China. It was fucking enormous. The only difference was there wasn't like a dog that everybody's afraid of. But it was the end of the game. Yeah, nobody was going in the family's backyard. And we also played other sports. We played roller hockey at Roxborough Elementary.

1:01:15They had an old basketball caged in court where they had cut the basketball hoops off at like four foot and for some reason left the posts in the ground. Oh, yeah. And we would go up there, roller hockey, and we would play posts. And if you hit the post, it was a goal. And we would play two on two, three on three, however many guys came up. The majority of the Sandlot games that we played, though, I would always play like two-on-two or three-on-three football up at St. Anne's. Yeah. We would play it on like the thinner part of grass. And if you got close, we would play, if you were on grass, we would play tackle.

1:01:50But if you got close to the cement, you had to do two-hand touch. I remember that. Yeah, you weren't allowed to tackle close to the cement. Good rule. Nobody wanted to go home fucked up and have to explain to your mom you got fucked up. What else? Yeah, be nice to the dorky kid who can't throw a baseball. No, don't be nice to him. That's the whole point of the movie. You make fun of the kid until he learns to throw the baseball. Yeah, but there was one guy that, you know, saw it. No, that didn't. That realized it was getting too far. This guy has no confidence now. So we got to, you know. Build him back up.

1:02:22Yeah, we got to build him back up, baby. You know what I mean? That's the best part about being a friend. You build somebody up just to chop them down at the knees about two minutes later. I'm just going to be honest. without the kids making fun of him, then he doesn't feel like he accomplishes anything. There you go. You're right. You know what I mean? You need that. You need your friends. You need it. You need your friends to cripple you with just like. And you need your parents to cripple you. You need your parents to embarrass the shit out of you. What else do we got? MVP of the movie. All right.

1:02:55Who are we going? MVP of the movie. We got Squints, Ham Porter. I think Porter's got to be the. Porter's like my guy Patty Banks, man. He reminds me so much of Patty Banks. He walks in and everybody's just happier because Porter's in the house. He's going to say something just off the walls that nobody's like... Alright, and you can tell how Porter talks to everybody. Bacon has been talking to grown-ups like he talks to them now since he was five years old. Why the fuck? Why are we running like this? He's a talk to Our lacrosse coach. All right. How about you guys run since I'm the goalie? Benny the Jet, definitely the MVP of the movie.

1:03:41I think – I mean, he saves the day, saves the ball, saves Smalls. 100%. All right. I take it back. Wendy Peffercorn was – I mean, she was pretty good looking. Thank you. I'll be honest. I'll be honest. Thank you. I'll take that loss. I think it's just like the old school, like clothing and hairstyle is just not for me, but she was pretty good. All right. I love the American nostalgia, just like the pure American-ness of the movie. Dude, it's so good, man. It's just beautiful. They did such a good job of getting all these different ethnicities in there. And, you know, baseball really brings us all together type feel.

1:04:18Baseball being America's sport as well. Yep. I'm a big fan of the ragtag Sandlot guys beating the travel baseball team and their fresh new bikes and uniforms. I'm always a fan of Silver Spoon fucks getting their asses handed to them by working class people. Shout out to the public schools, baby. Yeah, exactly. Playing, how about the way they're all just playing baseball in blue jeans? Could you think of a more uncomfortable, like, piece of equipment to play a sport in than... They didn't have Dick's sporting goods back then, dude. They didn't have just like... These dudes just chafing their asses off.

1:04:58They got to be just like Jungle Rod out the fucking wazoo. 60s were a different day and age. Yeah, man. Yeah, they must really love baseball. They're playing baseball in blue jeans. Yeah, but you got to love baseball. You did everything in fucking blue jeans back in the day. All right, let's give it a little Film Club PFF grade for the movie. Jason, what we got? The plot. The plot. One out of 10. What we got? Well, PFF is out of 100, right? Yeah, we're going plot. All right, plot. We're going out of 10. We've been doing all the other ones out of 100. is that right i thought we've been doing them all a lot of like 8.5 or like it's been like 80 like 83 i promise you i promise it's all the same it will end up being the exact same plot i'm gonna say i think the i don't know that you can have a better plot of a movie for like a kids movie and like teaching like tools and ways to cope with all these like different things and the legend, the continual theme of these larger-than-life figures.

1:05:59I just thought it was all just... It's all beautiful. I'm going... It's up there. I mean, I hate to give 100, but we got to give it like an Aaron Donald level. I got to go like 90. It's got to be like a 95. It's got to be like, this thing should be Defensive Player of the Year type plot, right? I'm down with it. I'm down with it. I don't know a movie that has a better plot, so I'm going 99. Let's go 99. We'll give it the great... What's it called? The great one. 99 out of 100. Acting for a kids movie? Fucking incredible, if I'm being honest with you. I thought it was unreal. Yeah, I'm with you.

1:06:34And then you got James Earl Jones. Gosh. Just one of the best actors of our entire lives. If we're being honest, he plays a blind man better than Stevie Wonder.

1:06:50Hey, he's not the only one with these accusations. Shout out to Stevie. All right. Acting. I mean, for a bunch of kids, I got to go 99 again. I'm going the great one again. We can go 99. I love this movie, so. All right. How well it holds up? Still holds up. I mean, to me. I might be a little biased. I might be biased. Did you have the girls watch it? I tried to. I mean, the girls are at an age. Wyatt is the only one that's really going to sit down and watch a movie like this. Yeah. Ellie kind of at times. she got a little bit scared at like uh the hercules like when they're squints is telling the story in the tree house and stuff like that but to me it holds up 99 but i think to to the regular people to like the regular public probably isn't a 99 but screw the rate i mean we're the ones rating it so 99 it's nostalgia for me baseball i mean 99 this is the essence of baseball Yeah, I don't think there is a better baseball movie.

1:07:49It really hits it like the beauty of baseball. It has Americana. It has like legend and heroes and like the folklore embedded within the story itself. And it combines it with like Henry Aaron and Babe Ruth. And like, it's just all just so it gets to the essence of what makes baseball so incredible. Yeah. Wendy Peffercorn. Listen, she was better than I thought, but I'm not giving Wendy Peffercorn a 99. I'm just not giving her a 90. She was hot. I can't go 90. I can't give her a 9 out of 10. We'll be in the middle. What is it? I'll go 80. Let's give her 85. 85. So 87. 87 is a good number. I like it.

1:08:35No, I'm giving her 80. Oh, you're giving her 80. Alright, so 85. What do we got? What's the official PFF grade for drum roll. Looks like it's a

1:08:5199.2. What? There's no way that's the average. Somebody did the math wrong. Dude, that is so wrong. So wrong. How did you get more than 99? How on earth did he get more than 99 when there's not a single This is good. This is quick, quick, quick average math by Travis Kelsey has disclosed. Brandon's error. 96.2 the wave. Was it the wave? It was 10137. 1037 the wave. Or 1073. 96.2. I think it's a pretty solid rating. And that does it for New Heights Film Club. I appreciate you guys giving us another film to review. And that was a fun one to watch. New Heights Film Club is brought to you by Reese's and their new PB &J Cups.

1:09:54Ooh. All right, and that wraps up another episode of New Heights. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube to the New Heights channel and follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of New Heights early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Once again, New Heights, a wondery show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment and brought to you by Giraffe Kings. The crown is yours. Don't forget to follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with one S for fun clips throughout the week.

1:10:23And thanks to our production and crew. We're going to need you for this one. Thanks to all the 92 percenters. We love you guys. See you next time or on some bonus stuff.

1:10:41We'll be right back.