Roger Clemens, Open Championship Preview With Shane Bacon, Spain To The WC Final, MLB All Star Week + Mt Rushmore Of Stores/Restaurants You Could Live In

13:40Big Cat:He looks... You know what I'm saying. Obviously, he can't hit 30. Like we say, Barry Sanders. I don't know. I still feel like that swings there. I feel that way about Barry Bonds. The way that Barry Bonds talks, he talks like he's still the best ever.

13:57PFT Commenter:And it was cool to see Barry Bonds again. We never see Barry Bonds, so it was cool to see him. Yeah, I don't know if I think that about Ken Griffey because he just – he looks like he enjoys his life in a different way now.

14:12Big Cat:He's got like a little bit of a round face thing going on, but you guys know what I'm saying with Ken Griffey Jr. He's like – he's one of those athletes that you see him and you always think like yeah the kid that swings still there yeah i think of that with

14:23PFT Commenter:barry bonds for sure barry bonds i like he could just he he could show up and just be awesome and take like a million walks because people would fear him um all right mike one complaint i i get it i get what they were doing with the sandlot thing i thought it was like weird how long and it was also just it felt the whole point of the sandlot is you play fireworks under the because there's no lights. They had lights.

14:51Big Cat:Yeah, and it was the 4th of July. Right? This is July 15th. That's a pretty important part of the storyline of the Sandlot. They are puking on themselves at the Tilt-A-Whirl. It's the 4th of July. Yeah, I'll take whatever excuse to listen to that version of that song by Ray Charles. Yes. It's an amazing song. It did feel like we overdid it a little bit with the songs tonight.

15:19PFT Commenter:Hand up, hand up. My first reaction when they started coming out, because I was like, why? You know, there's a lot because they're coming out on bikes. And I just thought like some of the when they zoomed in on a couple of like like Mizorowski, I think, was trying to show like a 12 year old how to throw 105 miles an hour. It's like there's no way this is a real conversation that's happening right now. That one kid almost hit trout in the belly for a brief second. and I was like, oh, fuck. Ray Charles is still alive. And they're like, ah, you're a moron. This is an old video. Tank, you did the same thing?

15:53PFT Commenter:I didn't realize until the end.

15:55Big Cat:I was like, is this a filter? And I was like, oh, yeah, no, he's dead. He's so dead.

16:02PFT Commenter:So, so stupid because I love Ray Charles. And I was like, God damn, was that dumb of me to think that Ray Charles was in the building tonight being like, he's just belting it out at however old he would have been. So, yeah. Really stupid. Overall, good night, though. Good two days. Good job, Philly. And the signing of the lineup card was kind of cool. I thought that was like it's a little cheesy, but I thought that was kind of cool. It was something different. I also like the hats. I thought the hats were pretty good, too. Yeah, and going classic uniforms. Remember we had that stretch where we had different uniforms?

16:38PFT Commenter:That fucking sucked. This is what the All-Star Game should be. You should wear your uniform gray and white.

16:45Big Cat:I'm looking at some videos of Ken Griffey Jr. from last night. He does not look fat. I mean, he's fatter than what he looked in the. Obviously put on a little bit of weight, but for you to be like, oh, Ken Griffey Jr. looks that's absurd to say that Ken Griffey, he looks good.

17:03PFT Commenter:I, he, there are certain athletes that I absolutely am like, yeah, they could still play Ken Griffey Jr. being 56 years old. I do not think he could hit 30 home runs. he's not in that list of me for me personally obviously he's not going to hit 30 home runs but that was what you said so that's why i yeah i just never like there are certain guys though that i look at i'm like yeah that guy could still do everything i've never thought about that with ken griffey jr personally maybe it's just that i want to watch him swing how about that i enjoy and i would love to see him try definitely absolutely that's that's 100 correct and And he's, I mean, yeah, he's got the sweetest swing ever.

17:45PFT Commenter:But yeah, Barry, I think it's because Barry Bonds also like weirdly got like smaller than he was at the end. So I'm like, oh yeah, Barry. And I think we just never see Barry Bonds. So I'm like, oh yeah, he could probably do it because we never see him. And I just assume he could still do it.

18:01Big Cat:You know what? I think that might be a new white whale for part of my take. Barry Bonds? I would love to have Barry Bonds on the podcast. He's done. He so rarely does any sort of media. Everyone's already got their mind made up about the guy. I would love to get Barry Bonds in a room, sit down for like an hour.

18:17PFT Commenter:I'd agree. That would be two hours. How much would he talk about everything is the question.

18:26Big Cat:See, I don't know. I, to be honest with you, I don't know what Barry Bonds, what his personality is right now. Yeah. I know he hates the media at times, but I feel like we need to have the Barry Bonds, like the definitive here's my story from Barry Bonds.

18:40PFT Commenter:Also, the Barry Bonds, the reason why I say that about Barry Bonds, remember there was that story was how many years ago was he the hitting coach for the Marlins and they would do like home run derbies and he would beat everyone. And it was just like, oh, yeah, of course he did. He's just still kicking the shit out of everyone, even though he's been out of the league for a long time. He's that type of dude. All right. Do you want to talk some World Cup? Let's talk some footy. All right. Before we do that, DraftKings, DraftKings, listen, the cup is down to its final matches. We've got two left, actually three, because we get the third place game.

19:15PFT Commenter:One trophy, one champion. DraftKings has you covered for every single one. The DraftKings app is now available in all 50 states and includes all markets, bringing the game straight to your fingertips wherever you are, from Florida to Texas to California. You're in on the excitement at the speed of sports. Follow every clash, every final whistle, every stoppage time moment with everything on the line. Sweat the big matches in the world in real time with a seamless experience built for the world's biggest stage. No matter where you're watching, you're always connected and in the game with one app.

19:49PFT Commenter:New DraftKings customers sign up with code take. Spend five bucks to get 200 in rewards with within 21 days. That's code take in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. Bet with DK Sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 1-800-MY-RESET. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boothill Casino in Kansas, bet tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over. Void in Canada. Event contract trading with DraftKings predictions involves risk of loss. Availability varies. Bet to get bonus bets that expire in seven days. Trade to get$50 in predictions dollars that expire in one year.

20:23Issued every seven days via click-to-claim for 21 days. One non-withdrawable reward redeemable. Predictions offer void in New York and July 19th. Terms at dkng.co slash audio.

20:33PFT Commenter:The unbeatable team has been beaten. Spain absolutely throttled France. And now it feels like it's their tournament to win. What do you think?

20:41Big Cat:Yeah, I mean, France, it turns out they didn't play anybody until they played Spain. So they had Iraq, Senegal. I think they played Norway's backups in the group stage. They played Sweden. They played the biggest bus in the world in Paraguay. and Morocco was, they probably also played probably the Titans, the Raiders, the Jets twice, the Dolphins twice. It was a ridiculous schedule that France had, and they were beating the fuck out of bad teams. But then they ran into a real team today. And, yeah, Spain's attack just, they were too fast up front for him. Yeah, yeah.

21:16PFT Commenter:And it was, I think, Yamal. No respect for Cape Verde. I got it.

21:23Big Cat:You putting Slander on Cape Verde? Spain. Oh, I thought you were saying, I think you said Spain. Did I? I thought it said, because France had an easy schedule.

21:33PFT Commenter:I think he said France. Yeah. The, uh, do you think France played against Jared Stidham? Yeah. You know, and his tail, you know, by the way, I think, I think I saw the stat he's played in Boppe, uh, 13 times, which obviously it's a team sport, but he's won 11 out of 13. So he's, he's the Mbappe stopper. There's nothing you can do about it. Yeah. that's what spain just does they fuck france up spain looked faster up front and boppy's really

22:01Big Cat:fucking good though he's he's he's legit um i hope that we get two more world cups out of him i feel like messi has kind of ruined that for everybody now where now we have to almost expect these guys play until they're 40 um because messi's a freak and he's he's still at the peak of his powers i got one thing to complain about with these games okay why are we playing them at 2 p.m.

22:22PFT Commenter:on a weekday i actually like it but are you saying because yeah i mean i think it's for the rest of the world for you know the the countries that actually care about soccer they want to watch it a regular time so i would assume that's why we're trying to get the european

22:38Big Cat:audience for sure but it's our world cut we're hosting it we should be playing these kickoffs should be at 6 p.m.

22:45PFT Commenter:at the earliest yeah i think they're just doing it for the i again i think it's probably for the rest of the world. I have no problem with it just because we don't have a real job. It's like free sports. I see what you're saying. It is a little weird that it's like the biggest game is being played at 2 o 'clock our time. But yeah, I think they're just trying to get everyone in Europe to be pumped about it because they do care about soccer more than us.

23:11Big Cat:They do. That's a fact. What's the point of hosting the World Cup if you have to be on the rest of the world's time? It was just weird when I saw it. It was like 2 p.m. All right, we can make that work for sure, but there's a lot of people that couldn't watch the game. I did it. I just looked it up. It is 7 o 'clock in London, 8 o 'clock in Paris, so they're just getting the prime time. They're getting prime time. That sucks that we're just giving them prime time. Yeah. No, it's our World Cup. Right. When they host the World Cup, they can kick off at whatever time they want.

23:44PFT Commenter:Yeah, they probably will.

23:45Big Cat:Actually, in Spain, it would probably be at midnight. Yeah, no, they would.

23:48PFT Commenter:Yeah, they'd probably do the we'd probably just get it at two o 'clock, just like we're getting it right now. Yeah. So we're that's the trade off. But yeah, I know. It is a weird time. It's weird. It just it doesn't have the same juice as a nighttime game. I would agree with you on that one where it's like you just two o 'clock in the afternoon is like, all right, I guess we're just playing the game now.

24:10Big Cat:Yeah. So for rooting for matchups, Spain looks awesome. They look really, really good today. I feel like Argentina, Spain, that's what if FIFA is drawing this up in the lab, it's got to be Argentina. Messi one last ride, right?

24:24PFT Commenter:Mm hmm. And Zach is in hell. He's he's he doesn't want this to happen. He's going to be rooting so hard against Messi today as you're listening to this. He's he just wants he wants Messi out of this tournament so, so badly.

24:38Big Cat:I've got nothing but respect for Messi. I just think that Messi just gets a lot of favor sometimes. That's all. I respect Messi as a player. He's unreal. But I don't know if Argentina could be another example of one of those teams, kind of like France, who really didn't have to play too many. I mean, what was it? Cape Verde and Egypt were two of the three. They might be in a situation, too, where just like they didn't really play that level of difficulty. And then they could run into a team like Spain or Harry Kane in England and just get maybe worked. Yeah, I mean, even when they played some of those lesser teams, they didn't look great against them either.

25:11Big Cat:But Cape Verde could have very easily taken that to PKs. I think bailouts are kind of a part of the Argentina story this World Cup. Respectfully. Yeah. We're like$6 trillion. Yeah.

25:23PFT Commenter:Yeah. Did you see our friend Taylor Twelman tweeted out that, speaking of like cupcakes, Spain has played, I think, six out of seven of their games indoors. And that's been a, you know, we've had Argentina's coming off a game playing in Kansas City. England's coming off an extra time game in Miami. Something to think about. Are they getting a little bit of a favorable draw by just playing in air conditioning the whole time? Because I would imagine air conditioning for Europeans hits like crack, like the best crack of all. Hunter Biden crack.

25:55Big Cat:Yeah, that's like when we go over to Spain and we see a nude beach. Like that's that feeling that we get over there is their feeling when they're walking into one of our buildings over here.

26:07PFT Commenter:Yeah. Yeah. there's just like going holy fuck this is incredible yeah yeah um a spanish dude walking into 7-eleven has to be life-changing in the middle of the summer it's got to be it's got to be like they saw god for the first time they probably look at the big gulp and they're like

26:28Big Cat:oh my god this is so big and then their friend comes up and they're like dude that's the small and then they just melt down and it's just yeah it's got to be incredible yeah just think about

26:37PFT Commenter:like yeah i'm just thinking now like an english guy walking into one of our supermarkets and they probably just go to they just directly go to their knees and start weeping and be like i didn't know that we could live like this i didn't know that i could walk i didn't know i could get the shivers when i walked down the frozen food aisle in the middle of july yeah the sides oh my god when they

26:58Big Cat:walk to like the the deli and they see the pre-made sides that you can just walk home with

27:02PFT Commenter:oh oh that's got to freak them out what about movie theater holy fuck they might never leave a movie theater if we have we might have like just a bunch of english dudes we're just peeling them off the movie theater ground in like late august when it's like hey dude it's time to go

27:18Big Cat:home you've been here too long yeah yeah so um i was in i was in providence last night and i was walking through the downtown area and they had still the giant like fifa fan zone set up and it was all for the Portuguese fans so it was like specifically geared towards Portugal because that's where I guess their team was was based out of and uh there was nobody there it was a ghost town it was the saddest thing I've ever seen like all the rides and all the different like inflatable stuff was still very much set up it said like welcome Portugal to Rhode Island and there was nobody there because they all went home Zach did you get anything for Zach no because they didn't There was nobody manning him because it was basically shut down.

28:01Big Cat:Yeah. It's like cross-streamed for country. You hate to see that.

28:04PFT Commenter:It's brutal, Zach. Ronaldo's been gone for so long, I don't even remember him in the World Cup. I think we all can agree. Not very memorable. The entire performance.

28:14Big Cat:You know what I remember most about Ronaldo in this World Cup? Is the German guy that came over here and has avatar as Cristiano Ronaldo and then blocked me on Twitter. He's back, though.

28:26PFT Commenter:He's back. Freddie's back he came he came he did were you saying mean things to him I it might have been

28:35Big Cat:the project paperclip reference that I made I don't know it was probably just all the shit that

28:39PFT Commenter:we talked about Ronaldo no I'm not blocked I've been pro Freddie from the beginning no no he popped back up he said that everyone was being very negative towards him which like come on man that's the internet you can't tweet it you can't say anything on the internet without half the people being like you're the worst person ever hope you get hit by a bus that's just how it works

29:00Big Cat:i mean just objectively speaking he had the best vacation of all time yeah you can't draw this like it beyond his wildest dreams he got to live like a movie star for for three weeks besides his favorite player getting embarrassed and sent home but like besides that he had the best vacation any

29:18PFT Commenter:of us could ever hope for i would i was thinking about that is this is this the like if we did a Mount Rushmore. We should do this Mount Rushmore Sunday scaries. The Europeans who have been here, like, like if you're, you were a Norwegian guy who came for like a month and a half and then you have to go back home after a month and a half of just partying and enjoying the U S and, and having our air conditioning. How brutal is that? We're like, fuck, this is real life again.

29:45Big Cat:I think at some point, especially the Scandinavian countries, you've got to tap out from the sun though.

29:50PFT Commenter:Yeah.

29:50Big Cat:Your body. I need to be indoors. Get me to a fjord.

29:55PFT Commenter:Yeah, but I just was thinking about that. Like these these some of these guys have to have been here for like weeks and weeks and weeks. And I know that in Europe, they just don't work in the summer. That's why Hank loves it over there so much. But it's it's it's like got to be the scariest hours ever to be on your flight back home after not being home for like six weeks. And be like, oh, fuck, I got to work again. I just thought I was my life was eating barbecue and watching soccer in like the south of America. So I had one last thing for you guys. Do you guys think about what your legacy is going to be 100 years from now?

30:33PFT Commenter:Not because we'd be dead. That was weird. So people missed it. There was a there was a reporter at the open who was just asking everyone this. they asked Rory and Scotty like what do you think about your legacy in a hundred years it's actually a trap question because if you say that you care you're the biggest egomaniac ever like we're all gonna die Scotty answered it correctly he's like no offense man but I'll be dead and it doesn't matter after that and that's a fact I like that

31:06Big Cat:it's like no offense but I'm going to be dead yeah that's actually the perfect answer to the question

31:12PFT Commenter:yeah he let him down nicely he was like hey just so you know i want you to start morning now but me scotty scheffler i will one day die so just let's get that out there let's just let's just set the table it's crazy yeah i mean especially to ask like a golfer that because

31:31Big Cat:it's such a such a mental sport they they spend zero time thinking about like during a tournament week they're thinking about the the layout of the course they're thinking about what the weather's going to be like at no point this week is scotty scheffler like i wonder what they're going to say 100 years about me you know like a hundred years 100 years ago who's the most famous person who who has the the strongest legacy from uh 1926 babe ruth you think he's number one i feel i'm pretty confident in babe ruth all right well what is his legacy he ate hot dogs he drank whiskey and

32:06PFT Commenter:fucked and he might be dominican and he might be dominican and people are still hiding that

32:12Big Cat:and that's the best you can hope for that memory that that eulogy that we just gave

32:16PFT Commenter:babe ruth that's the best that you can hope for it was a beautiful eulogy yeah yeah uh candy bar good candy bar that's really what actually that's how you answer it you say hopefully in 100 years

32:28Big Cat:was a candy bar named after me that'd be sick yeah you'd much rather would have a candy bar named after you than an airport yes yes what max would you like to know the most notable athletes

32:39PFT Commenter:in 1926 i just looked it up yeah it's i'm gonna guess it's it's like boxer boxer babe boxing is one of them yep luke there's one other name that's that's notable babe ruth bobby jones okay those are the two names that i've heard of okay who are the other names gene tunny

32:59Big Cat:boxing. Gertrude Ederly swimming. Mule Suttles baseball. Suzanne Langlin tennis. And Patty Driscoll. Mule Suttles. I got to learn more about this Mule Suttles guy. Gertrude's a hot name. Is Gertrude a chick? Gertrude Ederly. Yep. Swimmer. Probably Tidebod.

33:26PFT Commenter:Mule Suttles? mule mule subtles oh yeah mule subtles rocks okay uh mule subtles george mule subtles

33:39Big Cat:it was uh it was a dominant force in the negro league and hit an estimated 425 with 21 triples for the 425 425 is pretty damn oh shit he was

33:54PFT Commenter:511 weighed 195 pounds used a 50 ounce bat beast that's awesome dude what are guys using today like like what max 37 37 yeah 37 is heavy yeah like 36 34 50 ounce bad that's a fucking tree trunk he was swinging a tree trunk he all right this is about mule settles he hit he uh he saw uh what is it all right so he flew over a 60 foot high center field fence and landed in the ocean he had a one in tropicana park in tampa he hit this damn ball so far it looked like we were playing in a lot it didn't look like no ballpark it was because of subtle strength that he got his nickname in games when a big hit was needed, his teammates would encourage him with cries of, kick mule, kick.

34:56Big Cat:That's awesome. The heaviest bat used in the MLB today is Bryce Harper at 35 ounces.

35:02PFT Commenter:Oh, shit. I was off by a couple. Damn. 15 more ounces? Oh, my God. That's incredible. kick mule kick everyone just screaming that they actually asked mule about his legacy before he

35:19Big Cat:died and what'd he say to go full circle he said i don't know don't think about me too much maybe just have a nice thought about me all right well hey so there you go what yeah mule should have

35:32PFT Commenter:just been like hey someday i hope there's this thing called podcast and these fucking idiots happened to just stumble upon my name and when I get one last kick, we will kick. Yeah.

35:46Big Cat:His direct quote about his legacy is when I die, have a little thought for my memory, but don't mourn me too much. You got it. Mule. I love it.

35:55PFT Commenter:I did it. We did check thought done, but I actually, you don't have it. Mule. I'm going to be thinking about mule settles tonight. When I go to bed, I'm going to read some more about mule settles. So he's, he unfortunately is now, he's getting more than a thought from me. I'm just going to be honest. Kick mule. Kick mule. He was a coal miner in Louisiana. Dude, these guys were just, think about these guys back in the day. I know we're going along. We got to kick it back to ourselves for our great interviews in Mount Rushmore. These guys were like, what, 50 times, 100 times more men than us? Like, it's not even – we're not even the same species.

36:39PFT Commenter:They were so much more manly that they would just be a coal miner for the winter, and then they'd pick up a 50-ounce bat, and everyone would yell, kick, mule, kick, and they would be playing, like, the third game in a day. He'd be playing his 27th inning, and then he hit a ball so far that it scraped the moon.

36:58Big Cat:Mm-hmm. And what do we do? Well, we have to work with Mincy, so let's not act like we're walking the park.

37:06PFT Commenter:Oh, my God. What a legend. I need to learn more about Mule Suttles. Okay. Thank you, Max. Good call there. Good producing. Good showmanship to add that in. All right. Let's kick it to ourselves. We got Hot C Cool Throne. We've got Mount Rushmore. And then we got both our interviews and guys on checks. Okay. Hot C Cool Throne back in studio brought to you by TickPick, the good guys at ticketing. TickPick is the no-nonsense ticket app that always has been and always will be. Fan first. Let's talk about ticket fees for a second. Every other ticket site charges them service fees, processing fees, whatever the label.

37:44PFT Commenter:It's fees everywhere. It's an extra$20,$30 a ticket. TickPick doesn't do that. TickPick has never charged fans a service fee. Not when they started in 2011. Not now. Not ever. And no fees means simple math. The exact same seat costs less on TickPick. Same section. Same row. Smaller price. and every order is backed by their buyer trust guarantee. 100 % authentic tickets delivered on time. Don't take my word for it. Fans really trust TickPick. Check the reviews yourself. That is a TickPick guarantee. We love TickPick. You can make sure that you're getting the best price possible. Making those memories like Zach and Memes going to watch the Knicks win the championship.

38:21PFT Commenter:So why overpay for the exact same seat? Download the TickPick app and never pay another service fee again. And for new TickPick customers, take$20 off your first order with promo code PMT20 in the TickPick app. Terms apply. That's PMT20 at checkout for$20 off your first order. Okay, hot seat, cool throne. Henry.

38:39Big Cat:My hot seat are people who hate on athletes partying after they lose. I can get with this. Erling Haaland obviously was like, you know, one of the top stories of the World Cup. I feel like everyone that has social media was just getting fed Haaland, Haaland, Haaland stuff. And he was like pretty universally loved. I became a huge fan. I'm definitely one of those people.

39:00PFT Commenter:Look at you letting soccer sink its teeth into you.

39:03Big Cat:I'm into it. I'm into it. I like the stars. He likes to party. Yeah. But then him and his teammates went to live, I guess. It came out like, oh, here's Erling Haaland walking to live after Norway lost. And there was people being like, oh, he doesn't even care. The fans care more than the players. What is he supposed to do? They lost. They were going back probably the next day. they had just made the World Cup for their country for the first time in like 30 years. It was a big accomplishment. It's the last time you're going to be with this group anyway. Everyone's going back to their separate teams or separate ways.

39:38Big Cat:Why would you not go out in Miami? Maybe I haven't seen the same reaction that you have, but I feel like Norway is still very, very happy with Holland. Norway is, but I think it was more just people being like, oh, this is what's wrong with players today. They don't care. The fans care more than the players. Look at this. Well, maybe back in the guys who were complaining today, They didn't get invited to like a semi nude nightclub after they lost the world cup, but I guarantee you they would have taken that opportunity.

40:01PFT Commenter:It's fully nude.

40:03Big Cat:11.

40:03PFT Commenter:Yeah. I've never been to 11. This all falls apart when you see the parade that they threw for the players in Norway. Right. Which is, I see it as loser energy just because it's like, you're basically saying this is the best that we'll ever get, but that's fine. It might be the best that Norway will ever get. But yeah, they did a parade. They did a whole rowing parade where everyone was out and celebrating. That's fine. Celebrate it. But you can't then say, oh, he's not allowed to party.

40:30Big Cat:Is the row celebration the best thing to come out of this World Cup? I love watching it. Did you see? They bang that drum and then everybody's at it all at once. I did see an MLS team trying to, like, copy it. Oh, this is where we can't do this. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't be that guy that tries to. You saw a cool celebration. That doesn't mean that the Columbus crew or whatever should adopt the Norway row. Because the Norway row, when they took over Times Square and you had like 100 ,000 Norwegians rowing in unison, that was fucking cool.

41:01PFT Commenter:Did you see the one Norwegian fan that refused to row? I love that guy. He's like, I don't row? No, he said it was historically inaccurate. Oh, well, yeah. He said they rowed in the fjords, but if they were traveling across the Atlantic, which Norway did to go to play in the World Cup in America, they would have sailed. Yep. And it was funny. He did an interview super serious, and he had two oars behind him. And he's like, I just refused to do it. He's like, it's not what our history is. We sailed.

41:28Big Cat:Between that and ignoring the new Christopher Nolan movie, that guy has had a hell of a week.

41:32PFT Commenter:Yeah.

41:32Big Cat:And I loved the Viking row. I want to see more of it. I'm not upset at Holland. He was the best player on his team by far. They wouldn't have gotten that far without him. And if you have any doubts as to how cool of a guy Holland is, he just went back to Norway with like three different taxidermy to animals that are drinking beer that was his that was his big purchase that he made in the United States some people go to like Saks Fifth Avenue some people go pick up some nice bags no Erling Haaland got like three raccoons stuffed and then they're holding these liquor bottles so they look like they're getting hammered and that's his prized possession that's his his uh one memory that he's going to keep from this World Cup yeah is those animals that will live on his shelf until he gets married I'm sure his wife would be like you have to do something about these stupid fucking records put them in the garage they're not funny early people don't love england but them having oasis is tough to beat like them just being able to sing oasis yeah like those videos are probably one of my favorite

42:29PFT Commenter:parts i was we had a hypothetical on uh wake up barstool today because t-bob was like we can't let england win the world cup in america on the 250th anniversary i don't care that doesn't bother

42:42Big Cat:me i would prefer not to be england use yeah usa dude yeah i just i'm not i'm not i don't get them we suck at soccer i don't care no bigger than the world cup's bigger than sports listen i got i got two teams that i root for on uh the 250th anniversary of america it's the u.s and

42:58PFT Commenter:whoever's playing england okay but hold on i i agree with you i'd prefer if you told said who would you like to win it would not be england they would be the fourth team but will it will it like ruin your Sunday? No, probably not.

43:11Big Cat:Yeah, that's where the I don't care. If I'm being honest, it's probably not going to ruin my son. It's because they've got the stink of being a loser for so long. Like if they were a dominant team, if it was like a team that had actually won World Cups recently. Right. Then I'd be like, no, not not on our two. What do you call it? Sesquicentennial semi.

43:27PFT Commenter:I don't know.

43:28Big Cat:Whatever. 250.

43:29PFT Commenter:Also, they were cowards. They didn't play us in the World Cup.

43:31Big Cat:Yeah, they ducked us because they knew we'd tie the fuck out of them. Just like we did in Qatar.

43:37PFT Commenter:Facts.

43:38Big Cat:uh and then my cool throne is i also had just technology and mount rushmore but i'm assuming we'll get to that before the mount rushmore uh my cool throne is the guy from the bison video yeah we weren't sure when we recorded like i i had seen some things saying like he's in serious critical condition just a couple broken bones said he was joking with the uh the like the photographer that took the video like as he's waiting for the ambulance old guy I think he has to get a surgery, but he's good. Absolute stunt. That's great. I was as funny because I didn't want to say how funny the video was. It was the funniest.

44:15Big Cat:I felt bad because it was like he's in serious condition. It was like, all right, if this guy dies, I don't want to be joking. It's the funniest video I've seen in a long time. He was a cartoon character. Yeah. It's so funny. He went so high in the air. I was afraid when we showed the video that he might die. Yeah, that's right. I brought it up because it was a great video, but I was like, I don't want to say how funny I thought it was because I didn't know if he was like dead.

44:39PFT Commenter:Titus pointed out he did the ridiculousness logo. Like upside down in the air.

44:46Big Cat:Yeah. I'm trying to think of what NFL players, when they get hit, flail like that. Like who have the most cartoonishly hilarious violent hits when they take a hit? Because for me, there's one guy, RG3. When he got hit, he got hit. Yeah. It was like the, maybe you could say maybe Jaden when he was at LSU, the Looney Tunes cartoon. Yeah, Looney Tunes 1. But not anymore.

45:07PFT Commenter:Yeah. All right. Good hot seat, cool throne, Hank. Thanks. Good job, Hank. Bison guy. We can laugh. He laughed. What a stud. He's got a story forever. Like, that's awesome. He's just like, hey, check this out. I got fucking. I'm the guy who got bought. And he was there.

45:22Big Cat:He took his grandson there, like his little grandson. So it's like his grandson will now probably have that picture framed in his house being like, yeah, it's my grandpa. His grandson has to kill a bison. He's got it for the family. He's got it. We've had a feud against the Bison going back. He's got to go to South Dakota State. Yep. Okay. My hot seat is the Philadelphia 76ers. Oh, no. Yeah. Hank, have you read the reports? I have. I have. Oh, no. What's going on here? I know Hank is not going to like this because I know that you're a fan of Jalen Brown no matter what. I am. You're sad to see him go.

45:58Big Cat:You love him. Apparently, he hasn't spoken with Joel Embiid since he got traded to the Sixers. Oh, boy. Who's this report from? Wait, hang on, Max. I'm just wondering, like, are they okay? Joel Embiid and Jalen Brown, are they on good terms? Because it feels like there's something weird there.

46:12PFT Commenter:Can I ask a follow-up question? Has Joel Embiid watched? Well, Jalen Brown probably hasn't shouted at anyone.

46:17Big Cat:Yeah, but has... Oh. Oh, yeah. Well, Tracy McGrady said that specifically Embiid and Jalen Brown haven't talked.

46:23PFT Commenter:Has Joel Embiid watched any of Jalen Brown's Twitches, though? Because that's kind of like talking. Is he a lurker? I don't know.

46:30Big Cat:If he was a commenter... That would be talking. because then Jalen's like hey chat under the chat umbrella Joel Embiid is included in that I saw him talking about how he's excited to play with Maxie and he's talked to those guys yeah like when he did his stream he shouted those guys out and he didn't say Embiid's name he did not Max? gotta get him in the room the season doesn't start for months I'm not worried about whether they've talked in July I feel like you'd like them to talk Joel Embiid's a pretty active guy on social media. Not anymore.

47:04PFT Commenter:Let me ask a question.

47:06Big Cat:He hasn't tweeted since Joel Embiid got traded. He tweets about soccer.

47:10PFT Commenter:PFT, the Wizards haven't hung out together or anything as a team.

47:15Big Cat:What was crazy was the entire Washington Wizards set courtside for AJ DeBant. Yeah, let's get our Wizards stock in. Let's make sure that we get our Wizards stock in today. Hey, Max, Big Cat asked me a question. I know. I'm just saying to both of you, let's make sure we get our Wizards stock in. Okay, good. That's good producing on your part. Check it off the list. Also unnecessary because Big Cat already asked me before you said that. So we're already done with it. Yeah, no, I'm just letting everyone know I'm happy that we're getting our Wizards talk.

47:39PFT Commenter:Okay, and you're not worried at all about the fact that Jalen Brown not only has not talked to Joel Embiid but has also not shouted him out.

47:48Big Cat:I'm really upset about the not shouting him out.

47:50PFT Commenter:A shout-out takes no effort. Yeah, shout-out Joel Embiid.

47:53Big Cat:Let's let him get on the court together. Shout-out Tyree Spaxi.

47:57PFT Commenter:Hank, you want to do your big shout-out?

48:01Big Cat:you know big man no dog should have hooped i osama would have been they're free he would have been a force in that sixers front court shout outs are free hank is proving that what do you call it when you run two bigs at the same time no we don't okay we won't do that i mean they're right they were rivals for a lot for years so i'm sure it's going to be a little bit of adjustment period for them to you know be buddy buddy so is tyree smaxie no no years

48:29PFT Commenter:Multiple years? Not nearly as long as Embiid and Jalen Brown have been. When you said years, when you put an S on years, how many years? All right. I got the all right, dude. The all right, dude, means we're out.

48:42Big Cat:Max, it's got to concern you a little bit. Let them play together. It makes sense if two guys that have hated each other for a very long time, they're going to have to grow into a relationship for them to – it makes sense. It makes sense to me. What if you got traded to the Kelsey podcast And you went out of your way To only shout out Travis That just wouldn't happen You would like the new addition To say something right I don't know I guess I'm just more into ball In a perfect world I wish that they were all kumbaya From the start but I get why Maybe it wouldn't be From day one and that relationship Will grow together Okay okay uh your cool throne i'm glad we got to the bottom of that uh my cool throne is going to the bathroom with the boys oh hitting hitting the head hitting the loo with the boys is back it's also on the cool throne because uh i don't know if you guys saw this but every year in australia in rugby league they do the state of origin series and it's like the biggest series back and forth between the two biggest provinces in australia and at the game on uh on i think it was last Wednesday night there were two players from a local uh Australian rules football team that went to the game like superstar players named uh Jamara Oogley Hagan and Mac Andrew so they go to the game together to support the squad and uh somebody films them walking out of the individual family bathroom together okay and they walked out looked like they were having a good time okay um and so that that clip made the rounds and so everyone's wondering like hey are they going to be disciplined for using the uh bathroom to get what could they have been doing playing swords in that bathroom together the beauty is we don't know what went on behind the scenes but i actually love what they're doing because the team their team or the bathroom was disabled it was a disabled bathroom can't walk oh i thought i thought i was reading it saying like the bathrooms weren't even working no the bathroom uh the bathroom was able-bodied but the the idea for the bathroom is it should be for handicapped people got it that need different accommodations got it i don't know if um having an addiction to nose beers follows under that accommodation this is sexist yeah women go to the bathroom all the time together i agree good point hank so the gold coast sons they're the team they said yeah you know what boys will be boys uh we're not looking into it we talked to them we've accepted their explanation so we're gonna move on i love that so i i love that i love it too yeah if they're stars they don't want to get bothered they're going together kind of have some strength and it's it's the same as when women do it exactly it's also it's also like i said you play swords with your boys yeah so i'm glad i'm glad that common sense has prevailed and in australia

51:37PFT Commenter:they still know how business is done i like that a lot yeah uh okay bathroom with my my best cunt my uh my hot seat is uh mlb reporter chicago reporter bruce levine because uh oh boy we haven't had one of these in a long time if you missed it bruce covers the white socks and the he does radio hits on 670 the score here uh in chicago and uh last night he tweeted out a tweet that uh i believe was meant to be a dm or a text and what he said was you and the other coaches have been the stars of the team being 12 games over 500 let's hope twinkle d and twinkle dumb don't sell you guys out like the 2025 enjoy the family time pal whoops uh twinkle d and twinkle is he talking about tweedle d and tweedle dumb he is and he's specifically talking about jed hoyer and carter hawkins our gm so uh he now people thought initially it was maybe to craig council i actually don't think it was to craig council i think it was probably to one of the other coaches on staff uh and yeah this we haven't had one of these in a long ass time this is like remember when tweet to text was a thing people would do this you know i'm getting there all that stuff uh it's just good to be like a little throwback here and he he left it up for like 20 minutes and then deleted it but yeah he's talking it's it's the double whammy of he's talking shit about jed hoyer and carter hawkins and also kind of trying to suck up and it's the lamest like suck up ever and it's so funny that he tweeted it it is very funny um has he apologized i have not seen it we we invited him on wake up barstool this morning he did not reply okay i was shocked to find out that he uh he did not uh no looks like his last tweet is still the home run derby winner receives one million dollars uh yeah i love this it's just it's just real old school shit and now he has to go sit in like the Cubs press conferences.

53:39PFT Commenter:And knowing Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins, I think they'll lean into it. They might dress up like him. They should do the propeller hats. Yeah, they might dress up like him and be like, Bruce, what's your first question?

53:47Big Cat:Propeller hats would be... Twinkle D and Twinkle Dumb here. Also, I'm more concerned the fact that he thinks the names are Twinkle D and Twinkle Dumb. Yeah. Yeah, is it Tweedledee? Tweedledee, Tweedledum. Yeah.

53:57PFT Commenter:Twinkle D and Twinkle Dumb.

53:59Big Cat:That might also be an autocorrect. He might have gotten double whammied on it.

54:02PFT Commenter:What are Tweedledee and Tweedledum from? They're like the, aren't they twins?

54:09Big Cat:Humpty Dumpty.

54:11PFT Commenter:Like Snow White or something? Yeah, they're little fat twins. Yeah, look at those guys. What are they from? That's really, that might be the oldest thing you could do. Oh, Lewis Carroll.

54:22Big Cat:So it was Alice in Wonderland through the looking glass.

54:25PFT Commenter:So he hit the cycle for old shit. Yeah. Accidentally tweeting something while also referencing something

54:31Big Cat:from like a thousand years old and misspelling it probably due to autocorrect that he didn't

54:36PFT Commenter:check i just uh he i really wish i had a live cam on him because again he's a long time reporter and he now has to go face these guys knowing that like he's the type of guy who would just talk shit behind your back and be a total suck up to the coaches the coach is also a little bit like what has that coach been saying to be in a conversation that it's okay to say that it

54:59Big Cat:sounds pretty familiar they sound like uh this is something that you don't just throw that out there to a coach it's gonna be awkward about their boss without knowing that it's going to be received

55:08PFT Commenter:in a certain way right right um so yeah that was a fun one uh from bruce from good old bruce all right my cool throne is uh the first is we have new stella blue coffee in uh four packs four cans so you can buy it at cell blue coffee.com saving dogs we're trying to save a thousand dogs this year if we used to sell them in 12s we still sell them in 12 but if you're just trying you know want to try it out buy the four pack it's great there and then my other cool throne is uh qb lists because we have our first top 10 qb list of the year second pete second that's right frisco yeah so espn uh released a qb list with their uh rankings from coaches execs and i believe players and PFT and Max, you guys are no longer on the top 10.

55:55PFT Commenter:That's fine. Did not expect it this year.

55:58Big Cat:I spent all last offseason policing, watching like a hawk. I'm glad that my watch is in temporarily.

56:04PFT Commenter:Yeah. So when Josh Allen won Mahomes to. Oh, no, that's not it. Wait, Josh Allen won Mahomes to Stafford three, Joe Burrow for Lamar Jackson, five, Dak Prescott, six. What? Justin Herbert, seven. Drake May, eight. Jared Goff, nine. Caleb Williams, ten. Hank, we're on the top ten.

56:23Big Cat:They must have seen that picture of Dak Prescott.

56:25PFT Commenter:Yeah. I like being ten. Ten's a nice spot because it's just like, hey, there's still a lot of work to be done.

56:31Big Cat:Ten's a good spot. Dak's too high. Dak's too high. I'm just going to say Dak's way too high. Herbert's too high.

56:37PFT Commenter:I mean, Herbert, it is pretty crazy because he still hasn't won anything.

56:44Big Cat:I want to know what he was last year. Was he even lower than seven? Did he improve?

56:48PFT Commenter:I'm using this as motivation because the way I look at this QB list, if you pull it back up, the guys on the left side, the top five guys, those are guys that are like that's MVP or Super Bowl guys, right? So that's where it's like this is the meat of it. Six through, it should just be six through 15 because it feels like those can be interchangeable like Jalen Hurts and Jaden Daniels being in it last year than being out of it this year. So you got to get yourself to the left-hand column. So I'm using it as motivation.

57:16Big Cat:You get to the left-hand column, and then it's hard to get knocked out of the left-hand column.

57:19PFT Commenter:Yeah, the 6 through 10 is like that's a fluid situation.

57:23Big Cat:Jared Goff should be higher, too.

57:24PFT Commenter:You had a good year. I agree. That's disrespectful to Jared Goff. Jared should be where Dak is.

57:28Big Cat:Yeah. Jared should be 6. Yeah, Jared Goff, if you look at his stats since he's joined the Lions outside that very first year, but his recent stats, he's been one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. You can't really make an argument otherwise.

57:38PFT Commenter:But we will do our QB list in the next couple of weeks, official QB list. are you were you guys surprised or were you like fuck it we're work to be done

57:50Big Cat:now Jalen Hurts is the most disrespected player in the NFL and he plays at his best when he's like this oh so you're happy yeah 100 % Jalen Hurts is gonna have an MVP year this year MVP 100 % he's gonna win

58:02PFT Commenter:MVP or MVP year

58:03Big Cat:he'll be in the conversation

58:06PFT Commenter:well we're having it right now correct so he's in it so check he doesn't have to play this year he'll be in the

58:13Big Cat:conversation at the end of the year. Oh, okay. I'm not upset that Jayden's not. He should be on it after last year. I'd be delusional to say that he had a top 10 year where I would expect to see him on this list. His rookie year, yeah, I was looking at the top 10s, making sure that JD5 was up there. But no, I'd have to get my head examined if I was standing on a table being like, Jaden Daniels should be a top 10 quarterback going into this year.

58:38PFT Commenter:Zach, are you upset if Baker Mayfield's not on there? I guess I could to ask the same for you memes gino is it gino it is gino uh he had a bad year last year he's got to

58:47Big Cat:prove everybody uh wrong yeah yeah biggest pushing through a lie injury last year now he's all healthy should be good okay i saw an interesting stat big cat yeah um our good friend now zach this isn't it's not so much about you it's mostly about our our friend steven che that likes to tell us how the tampa bay bucks have been the best team in the 2000s uh 2020s sorry okay so since 2010 no he's i know i know but since 2010 um the cleveland browns have the most fourth place division finishes with 10 in second place is the jets with eight in third place with seven it's me it's you the cardinals and the bucks pretty crazy yeah i did not i i hadn't i guess There's some lean years in there.

59:36Big Cat:How bad they were. The Dirk Cutter years or whatever. Yeah. They had some tough season in Tampa Bay in the 2010s.

59:42PFT Commenter:Yeah. But they're one of the best franchises in the last six years. Yeah, that's true. That's pre-COVID. You know, that's ancient history. Right. Right. But you did win a COVID Super Bowl, for being fair. The disease was out there, yeah.

59:59Big Cat:Yeah. It was out there. It's always. I mean, it's amongst us now. You never know. Yeah, it's true. It still is out there. Great win. What a win. Long COVID, yeah.

1:00:05PFT Commenter:Every Super Bowl here forward is a COVID Super Bowl.

1:00:08Big Cat:Yep. That's what scientists are saying. Mm-hmm.

1:00:11PFT Commenter:All right.

1:00:11Big Cat:Your hot seat, Cool Throne, Zach? My hot seat this week is going to be toilets. Did you guys see we have a parasitic intestinal disease sweeping the nation? Yeah. And it started in Michigan. I think it did start in Michigan. They have 8 ,000 confirmed cases right now. Yeah. It's just diarrhea. But it's explosive. It's a long diarrhea.

1:00:28PFT Commenter:What does that mean?

1:00:29Big Cat:You have it for a long time. Oh. It's like hospitalization diarrhea, though. It's a term I just made up. It's - Yeah. So do I have it? We might have it. I'm on day two right now. Gestation period, a couple days to a couple weeks. Okay. I've had a bad day today, but I don't know if that's just food related. What worries me is that there's diarrhea. It's got to be really bad if this many people are going to the ER for diarrhea.

1:00:55PFT Commenter:But what doesn't worry me -

1:00:56Big Cat:No one gets diarrhea and is like, oh, this might be a problem. It must be insane amounts of diarrhea.

1:01:02PFT Commenter:What doesn't bother me is that if you had to say there's one thing this entire room is well-versed in, it'd be diarrhea. Like, we're hardened soldiers. That's a good point. You know what I mean?

1:01:18Big Cat:I need to see the clientele that's going into the ER because Michigan feels like diarrhea state.

1:01:24PFT Commenter:Okay, give me your top four diarrhea states. It's all around Wisconsin, Michigan.

1:01:29Big Cat:Oh, no. Too much cheese in Wisconsin. What about Mississippi? Arkansas. Texas. Arkansas might be a diarrhea state. Arkansas, yeah. Big time diarrhea state. But like Midwest, Midwest feels like they should know how to handle their diarrhea. Oklahoma, sneaky diarrhea state. South Carolina is a diarrhea state. Yeah. Louisiana has to be one.

1:01:47PFT Commenter:Oh, Louisiana is maybe the number one diarrhea state. Like gumbo? Yeah.

1:01:51Big Cat:It's wet. Yeah, Louisiana is. It's just wet. Yeah. Yeah. Let's put that on a graphic.

1:01:56PFT Commenter:Top diarrhea states. You think Ohio? Ohio's diarrhea?

1:02:00Big Cat:Yeah, well, Ohio, they were one. It was Michigan and Ohio. Yeah, and Chile. Yeah, are you kidding me? Yeah, it just runs right through you. It looks the same. But what I'm saying is, Ohio especially, you think that the people of Ohio know how to handle a little bit of diarrhea. If they're going to the ER for diarrhea, it must be serious.

1:02:20PFT Commenter:If it was like, oh, we have reports of some Californians going to the ER for diarrhea, it's like tough enough. Nothing. Nothing. What are you doing?

1:02:28Big Cat:It's like, yeah, it was a little, you had a floater. Michigan and Ohio are football states.

1:02:32PFT Commenter:Those are football states and diarrhea states are synonymous. Yes.

1:02:36Big Cat:Big 10 country. Yeah. Oh, Missouri is a diarrhea state. Oh, yeah. Big time. Yeah. St. Louis, diarrhea city. Big time. That might be number one diarrhea city. We should break it down by city, too. Baltimore might be a diarrhea city. Oh, yeah. The crabs.

1:02:52PFT Commenter:Yeah, right on the bay. Old Bay. Yeah, right there, right in the harbor. Yeah, that just smell in the air. Philly. Smell in the... Oh, yeah. Philly's diarrhea. Pittsburgh.

1:03:02Big Cat:Actually, Pennsylvania is big time diarrhea state. I'm kind of thinking Pennsylvania might be top five, Max. Yeah. Yeah, we know how to handle the Rhea for sure. We need a map.

1:03:12PFT Commenter:We need Max's map on states that can handle diarrhea.

1:03:15Big Cat:I am worried about this explosive diarrhea stuff because it sounds like Max says. It's sending some hardened buttholes to the ER. I'm not.

1:03:23PFT Commenter:It sounds like a free diet.

1:03:25Big Cat:I like that angle where it's like you could lose a quick five. Right. But if it's like shitting to near death, how long can you be on the throne?

1:03:33PFT Commenter:Oh, forever, dude. We could do the podcast from the bathroom. I could play Euchre and Cribbage on my phone forever.

1:03:37Big Cat:If this podcast got it and we just had to do Zoom episodes from the shitter. It would work. It would work. We've made two. People would tune in. People would definitely tune in for those episodes. Yeah. Do you play against somebody when you play Euchre or Cribbage? It's just computer. It's just computer. I just signed up on chess.com. Nice. And I've been on a real chess kick for the last 24 hours. Yeah. It's a problem.

1:04:01PFT Commenter:I'm a big card game guy. It's fun. Just past the time. I play Euchre during the day. I play Kruge at night right before I go to bed. Kind of just exhaust all the mental energy right before I go to bed. You guys are playing Rummy? Jen Rummy? Yeah. Great game. Great game. Great game. All right, your cool throne? My cool throne this week is going to be Adrian Bronner,

1:04:19Big Cat:former four-time boxing belt fighter, world belt contender. Adrian Bronner is 36 now. He says he's got one more shot. I know this didn't go well the other day with Connor at 38. Adrian Bronner is 36. he's going to lock himself in to a warehouse 45 days straight on live and just get back right and try to see if he can win another title fight I'm going to say no I will, that's a good guess but I will say it's impressive the muscle memory these guys have because he's on like day 7 it looks like he's lost 55 pounds

1:04:50PFT Commenter:fighters have to fight and their prime is their prime and then you walk away, it's over especially if you have money it's the whole like You can't do road work in silk pajamas. You can mark right where Conor McGregor's career took a nosedive. This is when he made$100 million fighting Floyd Mayweather.

1:05:08Big Cat:I think Bronner might be back hungry because I don't know if he has the most money anymore. Got it. Okay. So then, yeah, that could make the hunger. Yeah, it just seemed pretty impressive. I don't know.

1:05:17PFT Commenter:He's just doing a live stream for 40 days? He's doing 45 days straight. So this is just boxing is now just Mr. Beast?

1:05:24Big Cat:Kind of, sort of, but not to the same scale. I would assume Mr. B stated that boxing ring would be in a big bubble.

1:05:30PFT Commenter:That's just a warehouse. Just two days of quitting alcohol. This is why I kind of wish I drank more so I could just quit it and lose weight. I seriously think about that all the time. I doubt that that's all this guy did, though. Yeah.

1:05:43Big Cat:But if that's two, three days, it looks like he dropped 40 pounds. I'm just so jealous of people.

1:05:48PFT Commenter:I'm so jealous of people like, oh, yeah, I went sober for a month. I dropped 30 pounds. I don't have that. I still got that in my bag. I'd have to quit ice cream, and I'm not going to do that. Right. That's the problem. Yeah. Okay.

1:06:02Big Cat:I've done that for like the last six days, and I've just been waking up pissed off.

1:06:04PFT Commenter:Ice cream? Yeah. Why'd you quit ice cream?

1:06:06Big Cat:I got to lock in for at least 90 days.

1:06:08PFT Commenter:Oh, it had nothing to do with the fact the ice cream machine that I bought was down for two weeks? We're all the way back up, though. I got you ice cream.

1:06:14Big Cat:You just hope I never mentioned it. That's not what it was. We're back up. Okay. We got you. Dialed. Two flavors. Oh, also, today, Wednesday, I'm the guest host for the Geo Sports game. Oh, nice. So go play it online. I wrote all the questions today. So if you know anything about me, you'll probably be able to get some of them right. I love that.

1:06:35PFT Commenter:That's sick. Okay, let's do our Mount Rushmore. Then we have Roger Clemens. Great interview with Roger Clemens and Shane Bacon, our good friend Shane Bacon, to talk about the Open that's starting this weekend. Listen, I keep thinking of it like, oh, we're in the dead time. But we're getting World Cup Final in the open. Yeah. It's a good weekend.

1:06:54Big Cat:No, this is one of the good summers. Yeah. There are some bad summers where you really have to try to care about the WNBA. Yeah. This is not one of those years.

1:07:02PFT Commenter:Yeah. Okay, so today's Mount Rushmore is brought to you by Kraken, the official crypto exchange supporter of the FIFA World Cup 2026 and the official crypto trading platform of Barstool Sports. Kraken is giving away up to one full Bitcoin, which, unless you've somehow been living under a rock for the last decade, is a pretty good prize. Here's the play. Download the Kraken app, opt in to the Here We Go sweepstakes. It takes about 30 seconds. And every$1 you trade gets you another entry. It's honestly one of those situations where if you're already trading, you'd be kind of crazy not to opt in.

1:07:33PFT Commenter:You're already doing the thing. You might as well have a chance to win a Bitcoin while you're doing it. Somebody's going to win. It could be you. It could also be the guy who replies first to every tweet. Don't let him win. The sweepstakes runs through July 20th, so you've got a little time, but don't overthink it. Download the Kraken app and roll in the here we go sweepstakes and start stacking entries. Disclaimer, terms apply. No purchase necessary to enroll. Crypto trading involves risk and is offered to U.S. customers excluding New York and Maine through Payward Interactive Inc. See the official rules in the Kraken app.

1:08:05PFT Commenter:Okay, Mount Rushmore time. Mount Rushmore of stores slash restaurants that we could live the rest of our life in. So the prompt here is basically you get four places and you have to live it. You can't leave. And these are the four stores. The updated standings, Max, Memes and I won by 2%. 0.2%. 0.2%. But the poll says we had 40%. Yeah, but the desktop is always what we go off because it actually gives you decibels.

1:08:38Big Cat:Yeah, it gives you the full. We know that.

1:08:40PFT Commenter:Hank, you know that.

1:08:40Big Cat:Yeah, I could tell that you didn't even mean that protest. Yeah, you knew that. You knew that when you said it. You filed a protest because you kind of had to, but...

1:08:48PFT Commenter:You threw a red flag that was out of frustration.

1:08:52Big Cat:Yeah, I just saw 40%, and you guys had 39%, and it didn't make sense to me.

1:08:57PFT Commenter:We won by 0.2%, very tight one, and now we're going to do Mount Rushmore with stores slash restaurants you can live the rest of your life in. Hank and Zach are up first, then PFT, then Max, Memes, and I.

1:09:11Big Cat:This is either going to go really bad or okay. I'm probably bad because when I don't know between the two it's not the best one we're going to go with Costco

1:09:20PFT Commenter:that's a great pick thank god

1:09:23Big Cat:that makes you feel better it has everything if you're living in there for the rest of your life they have activities, they got trampolines they got lazy river

1:09:32PFT Commenter:we had it as our 1-1 you feel good about yourself

1:09:36Big Cat:I don't know why you weren't that was the obvious one I know but I never know Max, when you lose as much as we do You can't trust yourself. Food galore. Yeah. Space. Space. You guys are seeing ghosts. Clothes. Yes. Everything's in Costco. Supplements. We're winning polls and still losing. Like, you know, what are you supposed to do? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay, good pick. They got really good alcohol there, too. Yeah. Shout out Costco brand alcohol. Hop on a bike. Just ride around Costco. Get your exercise. They got exercise equipment, too. Mm-hmm. So it's me? Yeah. All right. I'm going to go with Magic City.

1:10:06Big Cat:Oh. Okay. Strip club with great food. Okay. Okay. Be pretty good. Pretty good place to wind down the old lifespan. I don't hate it. Okay. It's a good pick.

1:10:17PFT Commenter:What do we do here, boys? Two. Two and the one we talked about? Yep. Okay. So we were going to go Costco. So good pick, Hank. We'll go with similar. Walmart has everything. Everything.

1:10:32Big Cat:It has food. It has TVs. It has the games. You can watch games. It has video games.

1:10:38PFT Commenter:It has everything. Yeah. It's in the dollar hot dogs. They do have subways attached, I believe. It comes with subways. Yeah, it comes with subways. Eye doctor, yeah.

1:10:48Big Cat:We got it all closed. You should have a butthole doctor if there's a subway in there. Yeah.

1:10:51PFT Commenter:You want to fish? Yeah. You want to pitch a tent?

1:10:54Big Cat:It's in there.

1:10:55PFT Commenter:And then our second pick was, we were very excited about this because we thought of it late. Dave and Buster's will be our second pick. Okay, good pick. Because you can just stay in there forever.

1:11:03Big Cat:You got an arcade. You got food. You got booze. A restaurant. Yep.

1:11:08PFT Commenter:Yeah. It's an adult restaurant. It's a restaurant and arcade and a bar.

1:11:13Big Cat:It's exactly what you want if you're staying in a place forever. All right. Got my number two overall still on the board. Dick's Sporting Goods. Or Sporting Goods. That's where we were going before we thought of. Yeah. David Buster's. It would rock. You could do any activity you wanted in there. Yeah, we never run out of stuff to do.

1:11:32PFT Commenter:We had Dick's on our list. Then we thought of Dave and Buster's. Like, shit. Dave and Buster's. If you were stuck at a Dave and Buster's, that'd be a lot of fun.

1:11:38Big Cat:Yep. But Dix is a great pick. The smell, too. If you have new sneakers, run around. I feel like the smell is going to be a big part of where you'd want to spend the rest of your life. And that's a great smell.

1:11:52Big Cat:Zach. Got the ball, Zach. We like to take the win.

1:11:57PFT Commenter:Oh, the casino. I don't think that counts. Is it a store or restaurant? You can take it.

1:12:04Big Cat:You can take it. No, you can take it. I'm okay with that because you just lose all your money. Yeah. What? You can take it. Like the casino? You can take it. Your first pick was a strip club. Yeah. I didn't pick a strip club. No, I'm saying, if you're saying we would lose all our money, you also would lose all your money. No, but that's an investment, Hank. You'd actually be getting something for... We could actually win.

1:12:24PFT Commenter:But that's just a hotel. You have to pick a specific spot. Thoughts on the wind pool bar.

1:12:30Big Cat:You got the wind. It's excellent. You got the wind. You guys take a snap out of a pick. The wind looks terrible. Okay. We'll take the pool bar, though. No, no, you got the wind. I was just trying to follow the rules. You got to win the win.

1:12:43PFT Commenter:Furnimax and memes. They keep saying, you got it. You got it. I was going to fight it, but yeah. All right. They got it. It's fine.

1:12:50Big Cat:And then this is, yeah, I don't know. I'm thinking because I'm thinking we have the different places. Like we already have Costco. We already have everything in a Costco. We got gambling. I'm going to take Carbone Miami.

1:13:06PFT Commenter:Oh, good restaurant.

1:13:07Big Cat:Good restaurant, good scenery, lots of beautiful women in there. It'd be a good place to eat dinner every night for the rest of your life. Okay. A lot of great looking women with all their clothes on there. Good pick. But like an actual menu, it's not just wings. Yeah. I mean, Magic City, they got a menu. Do they? Yeah. Hank, I said it was a good pick. Thank you. It's a really good pick. Is it my turn? Yeah. All right, I'm going to go Sam's Club.

1:13:35PFT Commenter:Okay. Sam Costco, similar to Walmart. Yep. Yeah. It's the brother of Costco. Yep. Yeah. Okay. You guys feel good about those last two?

1:13:47Big Cat:I like 13 and the one that you said.

1:13:50PFT Commenter:Okay. All right. Which one do you want to go first?

1:13:54Big Cat:13. All right. Can't believe Hank let it slip.

1:14:00Big Cat:You say it. PJ Superstore. Oh, yeah.

1:14:02PFT Commenter:It would be very fun to have forever.

1:14:06Big Cat:If you got all these things right now, we got grocery store, bar, restaurant, video games, golf. I'll say it. If I was stuck inside for the rest of my life, like, I don't know, golfing on a simulator would not. I don't know how much time I'd be doing. It would just be choice of golfing on a simulator and not golfing. But like, no, no. Costco has clubs. They got nets. You could do...

1:14:35PFT Commenter:I would like to see you try to do that in a net over and over.

1:14:40Big Cat:You'd have fun with that? That's what a simulator is, essentially. Okay. Nice part about Dick's Sporting Goods is they have golf simulators in a lot of them. We should get rid of the simulator in our office and just make it a net. I mean, a simulator is better, but it's good for when you can't golf. But in this scenario, you can't golf. So, like...

1:14:59PFT Commenter:All right. What's our last pick? What are we thinking? Talk it out.

1:15:03Big Cat:I like the one that you texted.

1:15:06PFT Commenter:I think it's up to 8, 12, and 18 would be my picks. Memes, help us out.

1:15:16Big Cat:12 is good. 12 is really good. 12 is good. 12 is fun. I think it's 12.

1:15:21PFT Commenter:12 is fun. 12 is fun. 12 is fun. All right. We'll do a Bass Pro Shop. Okay? Yeah. You got everything in there. Good pick. Here's some water. You can swim with the fishes. Yeah. You just go fishing. I love our list. You get naked. I love our list. Just go fishing.

1:15:34Big Cat:Remember that naked guy in the Bass Pro Shop? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Guy was hung. The tiniest dick. Yeah. My last pick, I'm going Mattress Firm. Yep. That's what we were. Nice place to fall asleep there. You got your pick of the most luxurious mattresses. None of these other places have a real solid place to fall asleep. So I feel like Mattress Firm, get the pillow top going. You can even spice things up, like mix up your mattresses week to week. Yep. Mattress Firm.

1:16:03PFT Commenter:Yep.

1:16:05Big Cat:Hank?

1:16:07PFT Commenter:Zach?

1:16:07Big Cat:We would like to take AMC Theaters.

1:16:10PFT Commenter:Oh, that's a good pick.

1:16:11Big Cat:That is a good pick. That is a good pick. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good pick. That's a good pick.

1:16:16PFT Commenter:That's great value.

1:16:17Big Cat:That's a good pick. I didn't think about that, but that's a very good pick.

1:16:21PFT Commenter:Yeah. Similar to that, Shane, maybe the worst answer ever. What do you say? Shane just threw it out there. We didn't ask for his help. He just threw it. He said Blockbuster. Oh, God. I actually don't know how. There's one, right? Not only that, but even if you did the peak blockbuster, they didn't have TVs that you could just sit there and watch a movie. They didn't have furniture that you could sit on. You could just get Best Buy. Yeah. Best Buy is there.

1:16:46Big Cat:One tiny TV that was in the upper right-hand corner that didn't have a good picture. There was something wrong with it. Just a terrible, terrible pick. You could look at a lot of discs. Because we're not from Shane's region, as we learned with the tuna.

1:16:58PFT Commenter:I'm sure his blockbuster had a bunch of TVs.

1:17:01Big Cat:had every video game.

1:17:03PFT Commenter:All right, so let's do honorable mentions. Target was also kind of the... People are going to be pissed that Target wasn't picked. Everyone had their... Yeah, we all had our big store. We all had our super store. Sam's Club, Costco, and Walmart.

1:17:16Big Cat:I had Cabela's on the list just because of the firearm situation there. Yeah. And then Spencer's Gifts. Ooh, okay. Spencer's Gifts. They probably got some stuff you could fuck. Yeah. We were going back and forth between Bass Pro Shops and Bed Bath & Beyond, which is similar. similar to your for that reason that's a good smelling store

1:17:36PFT Commenter:are those are those are those are those are those are those are those are those are those are those are those are those are those no I think Bed Bath & Beyond I think there's I know

1:17:41Big Cat:I think a lot of them may have closed down

1:17:43PFT Commenter:yeah Cheesecake Factory would have been the restaurant just because the menu is so so big Chili's Max and I both said Chili's right away which

1:17:51Big Cat:yeah it's been out of business for three years

1:17:53PFT Commenter:oh wow

1:17:54Big Cat:R.I.P. wait still have a website

1:17:56PFT Commenter:oh it's still on

1:17:57Big Cat:oh maybe it's only online now yeah so yeah Yeah, good thing we didn't pick it.

1:18:02PFT Commenter:What'd you guys think about Ikea? No, fuck that. You'd have to assemble all the stuff.

1:18:07Big Cat:Well, some of it's assembled. A lot of it's already assembled. Yeah, but those are all the display. But you also get the food court. Yeah, you get the meatballs. Yeah, but if you go to the bathroom, you have to go back through the whole maze. True. Good point. Good point.

1:18:21PFT Commenter:Just a regular diner would be cool. Diner would be good. Yeah. Be a regular there. Wawa. Wawa. We had Buc-ee's, Wawa, Buffalo Wild Wings. Would be awesome.

1:18:33Big Cat:Buffalo Wild Wings circa 2007.

1:18:36PFT Commenter:With the trivia?

1:18:37Big Cat:Yeah, that would rock.

1:18:38PFT Commenter:Yeah. This is going to age us PFT, but I threw this one out there and I got no response. But Sharper Image would be kind of cool.

1:18:47Big Cat:They got cool shit there, yeah.

1:18:49PFT Commenter:You just sit in a massage chair and just play with gadgets all day? Like Brookstone?

1:18:52Big Cat:Yeah. Yeah.

1:18:52PFT Commenter:Yeah, you could spend a lot of time in Sharper and not get bored.

1:18:56Big Cat:I feel like we should have taken Topgolf.

1:18:59PFT Commenter:Topgolf would have been a good pick.

1:19:01Big Cat:Yeah. Then you do get the outside golf. Yeah. And you at least get some air.

1:19:08PFT Commenter:Yeah.

1:19:09Big Cat:Topgolf would have been good.

1:19:10PFT Commenter:Yeah. Okay. Good Mount Rushmore. We feel good about it?

1:19:13Big Cat:Yeah. I loved Zach. Zach pulled AMC at the end. That was a huge pull. AMC was a great pull. AMC was a great pull. Made up for the win.

1:19:19PFT Commenter:Yeah.

1:19:20Big Cat:What's wrong with the win in Las Vegas? It's a great place. It might be the most niche place that you could possibly pick. A casino? You said The Win.

1:19:30PFT Commenter:The Win. Casino? No, you said The Win. You said The Win. What's in the lobby of The Win? You said The Win. The pick is The Win.

1:19:37Big Cat:Okay. Oh, gotcha. I mean, they do have... They've got very comfortable rooms. I just don't think it's... I just don't think very many people have been to The Win. Casinos, they got restaurants, they got a pool. It's not a bad pick. Yeah. No. I think in terms of logic, it is a very good pick. I don't know how it's going to play, but I guess that's why we did the pool. Would Amazon Warehouse have played? Hmm. Or is that? No bathrooms, though. But can the public go in? Like, can the public just go in? You just be in the way the whole time? Like, just be dudes driving past you with forklifts? Yeah.

1:20:20Big Cat:Yeah. They do. You would have everything that you need there. Did you guys ever see that movie with Channing Tatum that did this? He escaped from jail, and then he went to and lived in a Toys R Us for like four months. That's pretty sick. That's an elite movie. You guys should watch it if you haven't seen it. Yeah, it's a good movie. So good. Yeah. Okay.

1:20:38PFT Commenter:Yeah, I was trying to think. There's not much. I guess you could do Planet Fitness and just get jacked. Yeah. That would actually. If you had Planet Fitness with a basketball court, that's a miss.

1:20:49Big Cat:Dick's Sporting Goods, you could do that. They got weights. They got weights. What about SoFi Food Court? Would you have been able to get the field? You're just taking a stadium? If you take the food court at SoFi, you get the field too? I think if you take the food court, you probably just get the food court. You just get the food court? Yeah. If you say, I'm taking the SoFi Food Court. I think you could have taken a stadium. You could have said the SoFi Stadium. SoFi Stadium. But I think you get everything if you get. Yeah. I don't know why you would specify the food floor.

1:21:21PFT Commenter:The move would be to take a baseballs because you get more entertainment. You know, 81 games. You know what I mean? That would have been a good pick, honestly. Wrigley? Yeah. Down there, you can.

1:21:34Big Cat:Yeah.

1:21:35PFT Commenter:But I'm just saying, like, it's still operating normally. You only get, whatever, nine Sundays. Part of me thought these places were empty.

1:21:43Big Cat:That's on me. I thought we were going in like we're the only one in there.

1:21:45PFT Commenter:Yeah, I guess that is true. We are the only. That's how I was operating, too. I don't know why I changed it there.

1:21:50Big Cat:Magic City probably wouldn't be the best place if no one was in there. Yeah. Good point. Good point. Fair point. Good point. I'm going to need those titties. Yeah.

1:21:58PFT Commenter:Okay. Let's get to our interview. We got Roger Clemens and then Shane Macon talking about the Open Championship.

1:22:04Big Cat:Before we get to the Rocket, he's brought to you by our great friends over at Twisted Tea. It's a great summer with Twisted Tea. Get involved. Twisted Tea. They got the party packs with the Twisted Lemonade, which are absolutely delicious. I took a 12-pack of the Twisted Teas out onto the course with me the other week. Really great drinking outside drinks. Twisted Tea, no carbonation. You can drink a lot of them. They don't fill you up. It's a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea, 5 % alcohol. So check out the Summer Party Pack with brand new Twisted Lemonade. It's a real refreshing hard lemonade made with real lemons.

1:22:40Big Cat:It's only available in the new party pack. So grab it while you can. Whether you're hanging out at the bar, hitting the lake, hitting the beach, if you're day drinking with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. Keep the good times going all day long and all summer long. Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today. And Roger Clemens is also brought to you by our great friends over at Morgan & Morgan. They are America's number one and largest injury law firm. over 30 billion dollars recovered for over 500 000 clients morgan morgan has a proven track record of fighting to get you full and fair compensation they're america's largest injury law firm hiring the wrong people can be disastrous don't make that mistake hire morgan and morgan the fee is free unless you win in florida a client recently received 6.1 million after the insurance company's best offer was just$100 ,000.

1:23:35Big Cat:And in Georgia, another client received$29.5 million. In Nashville, another client got$10.6 million. If you're injured by the negligence of another, you deserve to be paid. If you're ever injured, check out Morgan & Morgan. The fee is free unless they win. For more information, go to forthepeople.com slash PMT or poundlaw, pound 529 from your cell. That's forthepeople, F-O-R-thepeople.com slash PMT or poundlaw, pound 529. This is a paid advertisement. And now here's Roger Clemens.

1:24:05PFT Commenter:Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is seven-time Cy Young winner, Roger Clemens, the Rocket, here, American Century Championship, ready for the golf tournament. Does it ever get old having someone say seven-time Cy Young winner? Not at all. That's pretty insane. Yeah, keep saying it. It's awesome. Yeah. I tell people anybody can win one, right? Right. Yeah, I could win one. Sure. Was there a moment? Was there a moment? Yeah. Was there a moment when you were on like four or five, you're like, that's probably it for me? Well, with the four boys, a little pressure now because the first one went to Kobe, my oldest, and then I won the next one.

1:24:41It went to Corey. And then I said, you know, I can't stop here because the next thing you know, I got two other young ones. And the youngest one, as you guys may or may not know, is with the Minnesota Twins. Yep. So I'm going to make you guys push super hard. We had a guy get injured, and he's kind of being talked to go to Philadelphia. I know you guys know all the GMs. So make some phone calls.

1:25:02Big Cat:Yeah, I'll do my best on that one. One thing I think Big Cat left out, maybe your most important accolade, you had the longest twilight of any career. Thank you so much. You guys aren't messing around today. This is going to be a good one. We're going to let it fly on this one. Yeah, Duquette wanted his own team, and everybody's like, oh, you left Boston. I said, guys, I didn't leave Boston. I was ready to go. And I think I had my second 20 strikeout game was my second to last start with the Red Sox. So I was really washed up. I only punched out 20 guys. I guess I was supposed to punch out 27.

1:25:34Yeah, the sun was setting. Yeah. And then the cat says, good luck in the twilight of your career. And it was a frigging long twilight. Yeah. Yeah. You're one of those guys that could. Darker circle. Just like, yeah. Yeah.

1:25:44PFT Commenter:You could convince me like tomorrow if I saw a press release being like, Roger Clemens is going to come back again. I'd be like, he probably can. What could you throw right now? Well, they're only going four innings. Yeah, I know. That's right. I want to talk about that. But what could you throw right now? No, I need ice. The worst mistake I made in the last three years, believe it or not, boys, I'm going to be 60 frigging four this year. But the worst mistake I made was pitching for the Savannah Bananas. Oh, no. My whole body hurt, man. I was just supposed to throw out the first pitch, and I told Jesse, give me an old man's wig and a rocker, and I'll go out there and rip it off.

1:26:16Fans will go crazy, and I'll throw you one in there about 80. And he goes, that would be awesome, but I'd really like for you to pitch. And I go, are you, you know what, crazy? And so I did it, got through it, but I had to sit in an ice tank for three days. My whole body hurt.

1:26:29Big Cat:How many innings did you go? I went one. One? So Max went two? Yeah, against Savannah Bananas. Tell me how bad your elbow hurt.

1:26:39PFT Commenter:I had a catch for him. Tell me how bad that elbow hurt. Yeah.

1:26:46Big Cat:I was pitching like a position player at the end of the game where I was just trying to get strikes. You were throwing the air cutter. Oh, yeah. I like that. That gets people out. I didn't – I got a lot of – well, my defense wasn't the best. It was a lot of the guys here. But I got a lot of – what would have been outs. A lot of errors, but – No, it was good that you went out there. That's showing me something right there. I love that.

1:27:08PFT Commenter:All right, so what's a cockier move, being a pitcher named the Rocket or naming all your sons with the first letter K? Well, it's got to be with the Rocket because the boys give me grief. They say, Dad, you named us all with the letter K. We're all hitters. Yeah, that's true. you kind of screwed him what are you gonna do so did you think about naming any of them with a backwards k would that even be allowed that you know that would have been sick i think my next grandkid backwards k i might have to tell my son who just had uh one of my uh clyde wait so are they are they sticking with it's clyde with a c oh no okay i know okay because he might be a hitter who knows yeah but you know we that i'm that's a great idea i mean you can do anything with names these days anything yeah and put a jaw yeah in it right yeah backwards k exactly so did you ever walk around like calling yourself the rocket in a third person i when bruce hurst gave me my nickname in 86 when i struck out 20 for the first time and uh another one that anybody can do once right yep yeah one time you did it twice yeah one time's pretty easy yeah and it might be the show yeah no problem they said i'm i don't know about that but they say i'm pretty nasty on there yeah It's a fact.

1:28:14PFT Commenter:Is Mr. Splitty still making an appearance? It is a little bit, yeah. So, I mean. So, you tell the story. He gave you a nickname. Yeah, so, yeah, my bad, jumping around. So, Hurst, so I punch out 20. Hurst gives me, Bruce Hurst, left-handed pitcher on our staff, gives me the nickname, The Rocket. And he looked at me and he goes, I don't think you understand. Your life just changed tonight, and ours did too. He said, you know, in Boston here, pitching was kind of a second-class citizen until you came along. But, yeah, I answer to the kids now. They yell it out here. if they yell my name I hardly turn around but they yell Rocket I turn around you introduced yourself as Rocket which is awesome yeah that's what I'm saying well you guys know I'm preaching to the choir here but would you ever be on Bono, Cher you know come on would you ever be on the mound being like alright Rocket let's go come on like dig deep here Rocket I don't know if I've ever really got I locked in on myself out there mentally I was like I might have said you suck a few times to myself but I don't think it was, come on, Rocket.

1:29:11PFT Commenter:Yeah, well, if you say you sucked yourself, that's Roger. Yeah. But if it's Rocket, like, come on, Rocket's not fucking around. Yeah, I would never say that then.

1:29:18Big Cat:You also hit a home run in the majors. What was that like? I'm not sure where you went on the internet, but I get ridiculed for never hitting a home run. You never hit a home run? I read your question. Wait a minute, wait a minute. So I got to tell you the close ones at least. Shea Stadium, right center field, hit it good. I got it lower fence, almost missed first base because I was eyeballing it. had to hustle back to first so i got a long single and then colorado of course yeah you know they got the wall that goes up high if i'd hit it freaking one foot to the left i'd have had one but i got a double out of that one and of course all the guys are cheering me up because here i am like 44 years old and i made contact and so they're cheering me up and i'm giving it back to them and all of a sudden i realize it's got i can't breathe man i'm trying to i'm bent over I'm saying, please, I know the camera's on, man.

1:30:07I can't freaking breathe. But there are some good stats, hitting stats out there, though. There really are. I mean, I got the highest batting. Ted Williams at Fenway Park. I got the highest batting average at Fenway, not Ted. I'm one for one. I'm batting 1 ,000. Yeah, there you go. Our DH ran his head into the green monster and had to come out of the game, so the pitcher had to hit, so that was me. And then another good trivia my buddy brought up was I got to bang my chest a little bit boys because I got my the boys are going to be well all my boys are gonna be watching this and anytime I talk to my boys about hitting they look at me and go hey pops stay in your lane the only thing you know about hitting you're a good bunner that counts for something yeah hey part of the game small ball I love this yeah I'm gonna stay here long you guys I might have to

1:30:53PFT Commenter:make a comeback I got I got a stat for you since we're gonna we're gonna do some good stats uh did you know that in the 2005 season I think that was your last Cy Young year right pretty close yeah 2005 season, you never finished a game with an ERA higher than 1.89. Man. That's pretty insane. Okay, do you want to be my agent? But tell me about that. If we come back, I want you to listen. You're going in the room to negotiate. Yeah, I'll get the binder ready. Fuck Scott Boris. We got this for you. Right. But in that season, did you just feel it all season? We were like, I'm in the zone. And I just know.

1:31:26PFT Commenter:Was it partially that you just seen the game for so long, you knew what to do? No, I was with the Astros, National League. Yeah. So I don't want to jam on my teammates, but pretty much if I gave up one, I'm getting a no decision. Yeah, yeah. We had some good hitters, and I'd tease them. We had some guys that were allergic to leather, too. They had a hard time catching the ball.

1:31:46Big Cat:That's true. That helps ERA. Yeah, that's true. You played on some amazing teams, too, some of the best teams. Is there one that you still think back, like, that was probably the best team that I've ever seen? Well, the political answer would be when they asked me about teams I played on, I'd tell them Longhorns, Texas. You know, playing at Texas was awesome. I kind of, you know, you learned how to win there. We didn't rebuild. We reloaded at Texas. Kind of like what the Dodgers are doing. Was Augie Garrido, was he the coach then? He coached my son. He's the winningest coach. I played for the winningest coach, Cliff Gustafson, at that time.

1:32:16All right. Lost to Miami when I was a sophomore. Came back my junior year. I beat Alabama. Then I get drafted by Boston. Probably one of the better teams. I'm trying to think. It comes up a lot with my boys. As they said, probably the best game that I've ever pitched was, and I think Bob Costas was calling it, because when I did some work last week for NBC Sunday Night Baseball, Costas brought it up. The game I pitched in Seattle against a Mariners team, I think won 114 games, something like it crazy. So they were pretty solid, and they were rolling pretty good. So I pitched one of my best playoff games ever against those cats.

1:32:53But, yeah, I mean, it was – I mean, there's – you know i i i feel real blessed and fortunate man so i i played 24 years so i faced guys like i mean i hope you guys remember some of dom baylor kingman luszinski fisk george brett cow ripken i mean i've faced ripken so many times he's got eight different batting stances and and i there's nothing i can throw one out man on third and i'm trying to get him to punch out or hit a ground ball next thing you know he spreads out and so you're paying attention to detail and my catchers same thing I asked them to do pay attention to detail when guys make a little adjustment and then go all the way through to guys like pool holes and you know all these other dudes I put I end up facing at the tail end of my career so it was it was pretty cool to face my favorite uh to face I wanted to make it to the big leagues face Reggie Jackson yeah yeah and uh you know Reggie was my guy and I got to face him I didn't even want to make eye contact with him when he came to play at half shell helmet and glass he had a handkerchief in his back pocket and I'm telling you I was sitting at about like 90 my arm was a little underwater sitting about 93 94 Reggie steps in now batting number 44 Reggie and 98 98 punch out 98 and at one point Reggie pulled out his handkerchief I threw my threw that crap by him rips his glasses off and he starts cleaning I said hey he can't see me and so but I tell the story Reggie knows the story how fond I am of him and great player.

1:34:21And, of course, my guys on the mound was I watched Nolan Ryan being from Houston. We still live five, six miles from my high school. So watching Nolan, you know, I snuck in the dome to watch him. You know, he's throwing 95, but in the Astrodome it sounds like 105. And then, of course, I got the privilege to play with Tom Seaver. We traded for Tom Terrific, who I think is the ultimate power pitcher. I'm a power pitcher. I don't throw. And Seaver was the best at that. I like that.

1:34:46Big Cat:You don't throw. I don't throw, I pitch. How fast do you think the new radar guns would have you at? Because they've changed. Yeah, well, there's two guns. It's juiced. Yeah, back when I was getting it, I threw over 100 a bunch of times, but I never pitched at that speed because you make mistakes. And for the most part, guys, my youngest one, he loves that gas. And for the most part, the big league guys can, when I say, put wood on a bullet. I mean, they're that good. Pitching is like buying property or house. Location, location, location. You've got to locate. Then you want your movement. Velocity is great.

1:35:16It's last. And these guys throw 100. I mean, that Miz kid in Milwaukee, good Lord.

1:35:20PFT Commenter:Yeah. I mean, it's ridiculous. And you just hope some of their body can sustain that. Right. Well, we're kind of losing the prototype that you were, the Haas. The guy who's like, he's a big guy. He's an intimidating guy. He goes up on the mound. He throws eight innings. He's just going to shove. It feels like, yeah, like Scooble's still that guy. But there's not a lot. Is there a certain guy that you love watching pitch now? Scherzer was that guy. Yep. Big time. If the pitching coach came out to the mound in the seventh to get you, you've got the ball tucked under your arm, so what the hell are you doing out here?

1:35:51Get back in the dugout. But, yeah, complete gains, I think. I don't know if there's going to be a 300-game winner. A lot of that holds true. But there are some bulldogs out there still that are trying to finish. But your mechanics are so important. If you're a reliever, you can come out of the bullpen for 12, 15 pitches. And I tease them, some of our relievers, they're coming at you with elbows and knees. They look like a blender with the lid off of it. You know what I mean? They can sidearm here and there and do whatever they want, but they only have to do a short period of time. If I tried that, I would be on my way to see Doc Andrews fix my elbow.

1:36:25PFT Commenter:What would you say if we're – so let's role play. We're your managers, and you're in the height of your career, and we say, hey, listen, Rocket, we're going to try this new thing. We're going to have an opener for you. Yeah, I said unless he's opening a pop can for me, that's all he's opening. Okay, all right, I figure that. Yeah, yeah. No, but hey, wait, wait.

1:36:42Big Cat:As co-manager, let me just step in and explain it to you. The analytics say that if he throws for one inning, it's going to be better. They're going to score less runs against us over the course of 100 games that we might go out there for the course of the summer. And we appreciate everything you've done for the team, but you're more of a second through seventh inning guy for us. You want me to respond? Yeah. And I'd say, listen, Mr. Propellerhead, in front of your computer, Yeah. When's the last time you had to punch out, you know, Reggie Jackson or or Mike Trout or Pujols? Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, I get it.

1:37:16I still think, you know, I'm not. And again, it doesn't have to do with money, but I'll say it. I got a guy out there I'm paying I'm paying twenty two million. And in the sixth inning, I'm trying to get him through the lineup the third time. Yeah. I'm going out to have an eye on a heart test. I'm going to come out and see you. Now, if you tell me, I say you got these next two dudes. And if you tell me, I think so, you're out. I'm going to the pen. Right. I don't want to hear. I think so. But if you're looking at me, I'm looking. I know your heart, and I'm looking at you in the eye and say, I got it, Skip.

1:37:39Yeah. So let's go. Come look at the spreadsheet. Yeah. Are you smarter than a computer?

1:37:43PFT Commenter:Is that what you're saying? A hundred percent. What's – in terms of today's game, is there something that if you could fix or like how it goes, maybe it's the opener, maybe it's the fact that, like you said, there's guys that are getting pulled in the fourth, fifth inning. I love the changes. I was pitch comm before pitch comm. I called about 90, 95 % of my pitches from the mound with my looks. So that's what I tell you, too. I had some great catchers. I love my catchers over the 24 years I played because they had to pay attention to detail. You fouled a ball off, you're fixing your batting gloves, getting the sign from third base coach, I'm putting my next pitch into play.

1:38:17And here we go instead of pressing a button or here. And I warn not only the AAA guys going to the big leagues, but some of the big leagues pitchers who, when they adopted pitch calm, you get on the mound and you hear a fastball away. And all you do is grab it and heave it. You don't have a purpose. You understand what I'm saying? I know how I know what I'm going to throw you your first two pitches and by what you do or how you react. I know how I'm going to try and get you out if I need a punch out ground ball, whatever I might need. So there's you know, there's a lot going on there with and you're going with what stuff that you have.

1:38:49I mean, if my splits nasty, I might throw you. You know, I remember throwing George Brett in a big game, one nothing man on third one out. And I threw him seven straight splits, I think, to get him out. And they were all cussing me from the dugout. That was back in the day when they challenged somebody. Yeah, I don't need it. challenge you're getting throwing this junk yeah you're getting mr nasty yeah that's that's an

1:39:08Big Cat:awesome story so you're uh when you would when you call your own pitches what how many different signals would you have to go like rotate through over the course so since i'm probably not and i don't know am i coming back i mean you guys are making me feel good about well yeah i had an idea what you get paid for four innings but i'm going to give you my pitches so i haven't done this in a while but sometimes i catch the ball back and when i kind of just hitch my pants like i'm trying to hitch my pants up that was split nobody knew it nobody knew but that's crazy that's all i did now we had a guy i study pitchers a lot and i still do it with the guys now they'll send me stuff uh their video of their bullpens and i'll tell them about their shoulder tilt and a few things that are hot it's not it's too complex some guys get too complex but we had a guy that i got that when he threw his change up he would show his teeth to his catching we got him and you don't tell him until unless a guy gets traded you go over there say hey man yeah i'm gonna let you know we had your pitches and I geez why don't you tell me he goes well you're I'm gonna be facing you yeah right other guys that's why I tell the young kids or college or minor league guys when I talk to them when you throw your bullpen practice perfect because when you get where the lights are the brightest and a little more pressure no different you guys preparing for what you guys do you're very good at what you do the guy this guy was going fastball easy for him to get right at his nose but to get his hook it took him a little longer and he came up and covered his logo we got you it makes it makes a a 250 hitter a 350 hitter in our game yeah and just just it's your habits that's why you see guys get flimsy gloves they fan because to go get their split or their change up that your hand goes into more so we're watching you and we're paying it we're paying it paying attention what you're doing i had to start wearing uh short sleeves even when it was cold because i was throwing some nasty splitters early in my career to this team i was told the pitching coach i said man keep an eye on me see if i'm tipping if i'm fanning my glove or whatever and he goes no They couldn't figure it out.

1:40:58So I started watching my film. And on fastball, I was here. I was here. I had the long sleeve or whatever. Fastball was here. And my split, I had to get it like this. So you're seeing two more inches of skin. Yeah. And guys are spitting on, like, I was showing nasty splitters, bottom zone where you'd be hacking like crazy, and they were spitting on them. Yeah. So this was a splitter? That was that. My lips, that was curveball. Wait, wait, wait. I missed that curveball. That's all it is. Just kissing? Yeah. And I threw in a 120-pitch game. I might throw eight hooks because my slider, I had a tight slider and what they call a sweeper.

1:41:30Now it's not a sweeper. It's just a slur. It's a little bit tighter slider. Yeah. And then my, my two fastballs, but basically when I would get on the mound, nobody on or whatever, and I'm looking straight down Broadway. If I look straight down Broadway, you know, it's curve or split because that's what I'm aiming in the middle. So if he goes split, I mean, if he goes, you know, for a split and he knows I don't come, then he knows it's hooked. so he'll just do this. What also that helps doing is if you're in the stretch and you do that, you've got a guy on second and the hitter calls timeout. It's because my catcher did this.

1:42:01He didn't give a sign. So now we knew that something was going on. They were trying to relay signs. So that's how somebody gets hurt real easy. That's crazy. I had no idea about that. Yeah, there's all kinds of stuff going. While you're having your popcorn and peanuts and talking trash, yeah, we're getting it done. That's the game of the game.

1:42:17Big Cat:Yeah, you're working hard. Yeah. One of the one of the best things I think you ever did was that episode of Simpsons loved Homer at the bat. Did you know that that was, you know, I signed when I do little signings, I signed more Simpson lithos than I do of my bubble gum car. Yeah. When they turn me into the chicken. That was fun. Well, I wanted to go out to L.A. to do that in the studio. And I didn't realize that Bart was a female, her voice. Yeah. Yeah. And so I got to meet her. That was cool. And then, yeah, they put me in a booth and I had to do about eight variations. of right did you know when you were recording that it was going to be it was going to be something you'd be asked about no no it's like years no it was good it still wasn't as bad as uh the the the the fairly brothers you know i was i was supposed to be in dumb and dumber and uh the team wouldn't let me go i couldn't get away to go do it it was only going to film a day like in reno or wherever they were filming whatever and my name in that was pretty cool it was uh sea bass yeah that's yeah And so I couldn't do it, so I got Cam Neely.

1:43:15Cam jumped in, and he became sea bass. But the only problem was the lines were written for a Texas twang. I'm going to kill them, son of a bitch, you know, stuff like that. But so he had to do it. And so it was funny seeing a Canadian, you know, who's the dead man hitting me with the salt shaker? So the brothers, Peter and Bobby, they're like, wait, we're going to get you. We want you in one-hour movie because you're going to do this. And I go, all right, man. So off-season November, they said, all right, we're doing this other one and you're gonna we're gonna fly into reno it's gonna take a couple hours but we're gonna film from midnight to two in the morning you and woody harrelson blah blah blah we're gonna do all this i go i ain't going anywhere boys until you tell me what my nickname or whatever it is what's my name in the movie they go well rock if you tell you well you ain't gonna come i go is it that bad and they go what is it they go you're skid mark so i was skid mark in in the movie kingpin if you watch kingpin yes great i'm the i'm the shit kicking truck driver that comes into the bar and randy quaid's dancing with my girl i got tattoos and earrings and yeah so that was that was you know that that's i couldn't i couldn't use that name as one of my aliases yeah you know i could use sea bass i was at i was wider for a couple years nobody could figure that out i was mr walking through the lobby and then uh me and another teammate the best one i had it worked for about four years for anybody picked up on it i was justin time and he was just in case so we We rode with that for a few years.

1:44:41I love that.

1:44:42PFT Commenter:Do you have any good George Steinbrenner stories, the boss? I love the boss, man. We've lost those type of figures kind of in sports. You know, I was lucky. I had him when he wasn't, you know, as gritty or – It's firing people every day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got him – he went to 75s, you know. Yeah. But he did. He came to Houston twice to get me, and the second time he came and said, listen, I've been trying to get you for three years. You want to be a damn Yankee here, don't you? But the funny story was, you know, he's in his turtleneck, white turtleneck and blue blazer and we're on the second level of my house and i've got a little bitty weight room off there it's got some leg equipment a ham we're one of them hamstring machines and it's got a couple machine uh exercise machines you can get on and out of nowhere he sees my he looks over and he sees my my machine and he goes rocket i'm just going to tell you i my age i still work out he's taking start taking his jacket i'm looking at my agents i'm like what's going on and he takes his jack up lays it off and goes over and it's you know it's the it's the hamstring where you got to lay down yeah and and i know there's seven or eight plates on there from the morning workout that we did there's no way he's going to tear his hamstrings off the bone if he tries this i don't know what his age was and uh so we're looking he goes yeah i still work out and he lays down and he grabbed those things now the rest of the family and friends they know he's in he's he's at the house so i've got a pretty good 13 14 people down in the kitchen area right below where he's getting ready to lift these weights and he gets that thing up and it's heavy so he can't get it but four or five inches up and he lets it go and it hits bam and he goes bam and then third one after third one hit i got the wife and everybody else at the door in the game room upstairs they think somebody fell down and had a heart attack and they said one of the light fixtures that popped out of the and he got up like nothing because yeah I still love to work out I'm like this guy he is that when you signed were you like I got a complete Yankee right then

1:46:37Big Cat:right then did you go back and forth over at it was you added 22 extra dollars to it yeah I think somebody put that in there at the end yeah for it was good luck man it worked out it did end up working out I think I read somewhere you were you a rice bucket guy I started I was digging at rice for my ligaments in my elbow it's a good little drill you know it's that's a good little drill there's some other ones for the guys I show them to you know hopefully I was lucky again for my elbow 24 years I was I was lucky man these guys some of these guys put some torque on their boat yeah I was gonna say like was it was it that type of workout or what was it just luck what do you think the reason was that was one of my warm-ups I got another one that I do a super seven drill with a bat or I got this hammerhead that I do I still do them now so at my age I can still throw a pretty good bp to the boys or guys guys come over to the house in January to throw or hit that was going to be my suggestion it's like we could make a call to a gm big cat or i could or you could say like i'll throw my son home run derby balls if you let him in the derby well i think i think my number three son casey and coach cody with the minnesota twins they're big fans they said because when i told him i was coming to see you guys they're like dad they're awesome do it i go i'm locked in man i'm gonna do the best i can but uh you know casey He'd be the one that he's trying to get me to do a fun little thing.

1:47:54And if it is, I'm going to get you guys in on it because I'm going to have a celebrity stand in. But his deal is, you know, DeChambeau did that deal with the president breaking 50. We're going to do one if a 64-year-old can break 90. So I'm going to start training. I love that. I think I can hit 80 right now. I don't know if I can get to 90 and not run my shoulder. You're coming back. This is all just you coming back. You're coming back. Oh, yeah. I'm going to do this new series. We're going to have – I've got a couple guys that are – I've got a movie star friend that you guys will see, and they're going to stand in why I'm trying to do this.

1:48:27You get Kevin Millard in. And if it gets away from them a little bit, we've got ice because I'm a little bit wild.

1:48:31PFT Commenter:I was going to say, I do not want to do that. I don't want to stand in for you throwing as hard as you can. I'd like to opt out as well. I'll watch. Everybody's leaving me.

1:48:40Big Cat:I've seen you pitch inside enough to know that I do not want that smoke, I will tell you. Yeah, it only stings for a minute.

1:48:48PFT Commenter:So when you came back with the Yankees and you did the whole, you know, Roger, he's in Georgia's box. How did that come together? I mean, it's an all-time. Susan Walton. Yeah, I see Susan a lot. She's crying. Oh, she's great. So, yeah, so I'm 45 years old. This is 2007. I'm in my garage messing around. I watched the Yankees. I think they just got swept in Cleveland or something. And Deb comes out in the garage and says, Joe Torrey and Cashman are on the phone and want to talk to you. And I was like, what? She goes, that's them. I just got done visiting with them. So I get on there and Skip's, you know, Joe's the best.

1:49:23He's like, Rocket, how you doing? We're chatting it up, chatting it up, chatting it up. And about 30 seconds in, Cash dries over. He goes, how long will it take you to get ready? And I go, what? He goes, I need you in my fourth or fifth hole, but I need you in the locker room too. Get everybody on the same page. I go, Cash, I'm 45. Now, I run, I walk, jog three times a week at Memorial Park, this park by the house at home in Houston. And I said, man, you know, I'm not going to go out there and embarrass myself, Cash. He goes, we're going to send a plane for you to go to Tampa. I said, you're not doing anything.

1:49:52Give me two weeks, and I'll get after it hard for two weeks, and I'll let you know. So I got after it. I got my legs. My legs felt pretty good. My arm was feeling good. Split was starting to work. I was throwing some pins behind the scenes, nobody knowing. And I called Cash. He goes, all right, we're sending a plane for you. You've got to go to Tampa for another two weeks. He goes, but we're going to send you to the stadium first. It's a surprise because nobody knows this. and even my closest friends on the team. I go, no, I'm not doing a dog and pony show. We're going straight to Tampa, and you guys want me to work with a couple pitchers there.

1:50:23I'll tell them to put the headset on. We'll start getting three miles in in that heat around the Tampa football stadium. We'll get after it. And he goes, nope, you've got to come to Yankee Stadium first. I was like, good Lord. I had no idea what I was going to say. But, yeah, they marched me out in George's box, and I'm like, okay. And when I got marched out, Susan, I didn't see it until later. Susan was like, oh, my God.

1:50:43Big Cat:Of all the theatrics. Roger's back. I said, guys, hey, they came and got me out of Texas, and I'll be talking to you all soon or something. I said something like that. It was awesome. Yeah. And the car was still running in the players' parking lot. Got in the car playing. I was in Tampa working out later that day, and we got to the playoffs. It was good. Yeah. It was a good deal. You said something really interesting there, and it's something I'd never thought about given your career, that they needed you in the clubhouse to straighten everything out. I can see that just by talking to you. Like you are, you would probably be a great teammate to have that would also kind of like demand accountability out of everybody.

1:51:19Big Cat:What was it about, like, how would you go into a situation like that? And if things looked like they were a little too lax or in disarray, like how would you be the force that would turn that around? Yeah, well, we policed each other really well. And, you know, and guys took it, they didn't take it personal. But, you know, when I got to the Yankees, they found out real quick, DJ and I, who I was battling against all the time. Derek, you're cut from the same cloth, as they say. You want to win. I mean, coming out of Texas and then getting to the World Series, losing against the Mets, you're talking about an emotional World Series in 86.

1:51:52We're down to one strike against the California Angels going home, hit a couple big homers. Next thing you know, we're in the World Series, and we're one strike away from winning the World Series there. So it's super emotional. But I always said, you know, where I came from, my background, and you've got to know the guy's background. I was telling some guys out here, my pops passed away when I was nine. And so I was raised by my mother and my grandmother, two strong-willed ladies. My mom worked three jobs in Houston. So I could have a badass pair of cleats and a glove. So when I hear people say, oh, you million-dollar, are you silver-spooned athletes?

1:52:23I said, hold up a damn minute. It pisses me off because my mom sat in high school with her hands in her head with her electricity getting turned off three times. So, I mean, it gets real, you know what I'm saying? So when I took advantage of my first two years of pro ball, I wanted to make some money because I wanted to pay her townhome off and get her a new car. And then after that, it was back to winning championships again, and that's all you focus on. But I was lucky. Again, my career that I had was wonderful. Being in the locker room with the Yankees, I played with two of the most historic teams in ballparks.

1:52:55I mean, Fenway Park and Old Yankee Stadium. Old Yankee Stadium, we had ghosts running around that place, man, the comeback wins we had. New Yankee Stadium is cool. It's like going to a mall and there's a frigging baseball field there. but it's not it's not a way to sell it yeah it ain't yeah it ain't old yankee stick yeah

1:53:11PFT Commenter:no that that is true um what happened with the piazza uh bat did you just black out no if you watch the replay i had impeccable fielding form man the bat broke i mean what's the what's the luck of the bat taking two bounces and it came perfectly in my lap right to you you talking about pfp i mean it was like fielding practice and then i took i had no idea it was running the guy's like oh you threw it i go guys he was 15 feet if i wanted to hit him with i've thrown it through him and i said i just winged it crap on the on deck circle and he was jogging he said he didn't broke the bat in four pieces and the reason i said it was the ball because immediately i thought it was a line drive at me that's why it broke down but it was the head broken four pieces shattered that crap in four pieces but mike was like the same thing as reggie i mean i think i was sitting at about 94 and he got in the box and i was whistling 98 on his thumbs and that's what we had to do this it's like when they asked me in spring training was down for the Yankees how I'd pitch judge and I said are you kidding me I said uh I was in the movie Ty Cobb got to play Chrissy Matheson and one of the famous uh lines in there with uh Tommy Lee Jones played Ty Cobb he said at one point he said my sister Florence could hit the ball at a right field in Yankee Stadium and so why would you pitch judge over there or Piazza away and we had that we were almost to get fined, but he said, we're going to pitch him in, and we're going to pitch him further in, and we're going to pitch him in.

1:54:35I said, well, I got no problem with that.

1:54:37PFT Commenter:Yeah. Because he's hit every – I think he hit every breaking ball that I threw to him. That's how good a hitter he was. Yeah. I liked that. In, further in, and in. They're like, oh, you threw – I said, it was good TV. That's why I went to the umpire. I said, give me another damn ball so we can get this at bat that everybody wants to see over with. Yeah. Because it was getting bigger than the World Series itself.

1:54:54Big Cat:Yeah. You said I thought it was the ball. Yeah. And I think deep down, tell me if I'm way off, you were a little bit upset that he had the audacity to break his bat and almost hit you with his bat. And you had to send it back to him. Yeah, no, no. I just – I filled it perfectly and whistled it on the on-deck circle. I didn't want that crap out there. But, yeah, no, it was – when I first, like I tell people, they don't understand, when I let go of the ball, I'm 53 feet away from the hitter. And when that bat shattered, at first I thought I was getting a line drive. Of course, once the bat hit the ground bounce, I knew it was the bat, and I chunked it.

1:55:29But they're like, oh, he just thought his ball.

1:55:30Big Cat:Yeah. And what about that game, the legendary game against the Red Sox? Just everyone – I know that you threw inside. Was it – who was it against? Was that against – that might have been against Millar, right? Threw him a little – You're talking about the Pedro game? When Don Simmer? Yeah, no, that was Manny, and it was not inside at all. It was actually, if you look at the replay, it's a strike in the game today. If you look at the – you'd be doing this. Yeah. You would be my catcher. You'd be challenging that for me. You went high and tight against Millar a couple times, though. Gave me some chin music.

1:55:59Yeah, I may have. I pitched 25, like I said, who knows. There were games that you had to clean up. That's the ugly part of it. And I hated doing it because sometimes it fell to the pitcher that was pitching before me and they didn't clean it up. But I know that that's half my family in there and respect. I mean, when I get a guy that comes sitting next to me on a bench, what they really don't do when I'm pitching, and finally I know he's sitting there for a reason. And once they say something, I say, what's up? you got a problem with this guy and he goes yeah i got a problem with this guy he's got me three times i said well i'll handle it you're gonna get you got the magic bullet which in that game i did and yes manny was going to eat one yeah you know but and that's why he and he pretty sure he knew he's going to eat one that's why he went out he won't cry through it like a 95 mile an hour fastball just up high right wasn't near him and he went ballistic yeah and then we saw then we saw you know zim yeah you know he's a baseball that's my guy i mean i had zim in boston and with the The Yankees, I love him, miss him.

1:56:53I don't think he's another guy that didn't catch a check outside the game of baseball. Yeah. But he got pissed off and ran out there, and Pedro gave him the ole, and I'm like, what is going on? What's going on with that?

1:57:04Big Cat:That's what I loved about those games, though, is because I could sense that every fan could sense, like, you guys didn't like each other. And that's what we like about sports. Well, both teams are competitive. You've got to understand, when I was with the Red Sox in the mid-'80s, late-'80s, the Yankees really weren't a rival for us. But they kind of – I mean, they had a Donnie ball game, and they weren't – the team was the Blue Jays. Late 80s, and, of course, they won World Series in the 90s. And then when I went to New York, when I got traded to New York and Red Sox changed ownership, it got competitive again.

1:57:35You know, it was great because you're playing for one trophy then. You know what I'm saying? Money doesn't even matter. You're playing for the trophy. Now, it wasn't as crazy as the 70s, 75 guys sliding into second trying to blow your knee out. Or who was it, Nettles or somebody fissling into third or Hobson, and he pops up, and it's a hockey match. But I laugh at that, too. You know, you watch the sports highlights, and it's hockey time, and they're showing three fights just good, just beating the crap out of everybody. And then they go to one of us, and we have a little push-half brawl, and it's like, oh!

1:58:04The whole bullpen comes out just to kind of chest out to each other. What's your number? I don't have your cell number. And meanwhile, 30 seconds later, they're showing hockey and guys just wearing each other. All right, where are we at with the Hall of Fame? Old news. Yeah, I mean, yeah, after year one, we quit paying attention because you have no control over it. So, you know, that's been the, you know, the most of it. Like I said, I didn't play to make the Hall of Fame. I played to change the dynamics of my family's life and win championships. I think it's a selfish thing anyway, because most of my teammates that made me who I am and all these awards I won, they'll never have the opportunity to get in there.

1:58:41So, but yeah, it's. Do you think, though, it's a little – we're now gotten to a point,

1:58:48PFT Commenter:and there's obviously the late 90s, early 2000s baseball things happen, and it's like we've gotten to a point, though, where we've just kind of erased some of the most historic guys from the game when it comes to the Hall of Fame, and you and Barry Bonds, and some of these guys, how are we telling the history of baseball without these guys? Their deals are totally separate. They haven't erased me from anything. I mean, they still have some of my stuff in Cooperstown. When somebody like my late, great Toby Keith goes up there with his band, he always gets my stuff and he goes, Rock, you know this stuff's here.

1:59:21And that stuff's on loan as far as I'm concerned because I want my boys to have it one day. And it's on loan for the fans to go see. But again, the haul is not going to change me one way or the other. As a person, as a player, how I went about my work. And bottom line is I proved my case not once but twice. We beat their ass. And we finally got in a setting where only facts matter. so I can't worry about what writers like you or don't like you or being a beauty contest or something like that so I had some guy didn't vote for Derek Jeter I know it's crazy some of the writers and I don't think you have to wait 10 years I think you're either a Hall of Famer or you're not it should be peers

2:00:05PFT Commenter:it should be guys in the Hall of Fame voting for more guys in the Hall of Fame because they know what it takes to be a Hall of Famer not the writers that's really what it should be Yeah.

2:00:12Big Cat:Oh, that's I'll say it's it's bullshit. Yeah, it's bullshit that you're not in it. Yeah, I appreciate it. But like I said, it's, you know, I got a lot of people to thank, you know, which I do all the time when I whether I do it through my foundation or I do it when I speak. I'm going to do like, you know, I was fortunate when a Thurman Munson award and a couple of really cool awards. I'm going to go out and give that out. I'm going to do something. I think it's really cool. That's I hold dear to my heart. You guys are going to see it this summer. It's going to happen in a couple of months what I'm going to do.

2:00:40So I have to you guys have to pay attention to that. It's going to be really cool. Oh, that was a cliffhanger. I love that. It's going to be really cool what I'm going to do. So I've been wanting to do it for a long time. I'm actually doing an appearance in the Northeast where this is going to take place.

2:00:52PFT Commenter:Okay. All right. Well, we got one last question. Zach, come on up here. This has been awesome. Thank you so much, Rocket. You're always welcome on. I appreciate it.

2:00:59Big Cat:We'll have you on back to talk some more ball. The funniest part of Rocket coming into this room, Zach was standing kind of in front of him, and Roger went up to Zach to shake his hand, stuck his hand, and Zach was so nervous that he was in the way. he turned around and ran away. Come on, Zach. I thought it was in the way he was trying to go to the corner. It is.

2:01:16PFT Commenter:Listen, I'll say, Zach, Roger Clemens walking in and saying, hey, I'm Rocket. It's an intimidating thing. It feels like he's throwing 99 at your head. I can agree. Yeah, you're backing off the plate a little. All right, so the Roback question, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com, promo code TAKE. 20 % off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, Roback.com, promo code TAKE. Go, Zach. Let's go with that. How are you doing today, sir?

2:01:38Big Cat:I do have a quick question for you. 24 years in the MLB, quite the career, a lot of accolades, a lot of contribution to the game. I was curious if there was like outside of like the World Series and the awards, is there like a is there a small moment that may have left a big impact on you as a player through your career? Yeah, great question. I mean, you know, it has to do with my my mom and my grandmother, my family, you know, and then having my four boys and showing them the best way. I love it that my my boys all, you know, all played professionally. but the younger two graduated from McCombs Business School.

2:02:12My mom was a stickler on education, too. And so I think getting drafted, you know, realizing you're going to get in high school. And I tell the kids it's a story, but it was me. So that's when I see these young kids out here. I was one of them. And, you know, I was the third best pitcher on my high school team. I threw strikes. I had a little Bugs Bunny curve and threw about 85 miles an hour. but the two 19 year old veterans threw hard and we get in the playoffs they wet the bed and coach would bring me in at those strikes and I was probably better first baseman first baseman than I was pitcher and better defensive end and but then all of a sudden and I knew the only way I was going to further my education or go to a major school like the University of Texas was by scholarship and so because we you know we didn't my mother you know and she wanted me to keep going, but we didn't have the money.

2:03:03So all of a sudden I go to San Jacinto, and there there was a football lifting program, and they didn't have a baseball program to do that. I matured. My body grew. I took classes and graduated early at 17. So when I went to the JUCO, did really well there, and then I ended up at Texas. We lifted with the football players there too. I got strong. Fastball started jumping, and then these scouts, I'm like, wow, I got a chance to get drafted. So it was pretty cool going to Omaha. So that's kind of how everything set itself up for my path to continue forward. Now, I had bumps along the way. I mean, there was times where I didn't think I was going to make it through Major League Baseball a few times, too.

2:03:40But just to persevere and, like I said, I go through three. When I talk to the guys, I go through three long answer here. I go through progressions. Physically, you're in charge of how you feel in your body and the core work. I mean, in between starts, I'm doing close to 600 ab work just because that's where I get that in long toss. That's where you continue to be able to have your fastball. The second part, the mental part of the game, like the guys know mentally, I'm going to freaking crush you. I'm locked in. I'm trying to, you know, I've got my blinders on. I mean, I'm so detailed. I got the guy that mows the grass that our groundskeeper mounds about 17 inches wide.

2:04:16He mows the grass right down Broadway his last trip. So I got it's like being in a bowling alley. So now I got my gears and I can, you know, I know where I'm going if I'm missing. So there's all kinds of detailed stuff going on. I could be here another hour with you guys telling you some of the crazy stuff. Last are emotions. I think about my mother being sick. She passed away in 05 at the World Series. I had to pitch that night. One of the hardest games I had to pitch. They wanted to send an airplane. My mom was in Austin. I was in Houston. They wanted to send an airplane for me. I said, no, I need two hours to drive to clear my mind if I'm going to pitch.

2:04:45And my mom would want me to pitch. And so my sisters were there when she took her last breath. So I think about things like that. When I'm lethargic on the mound, I'll think about my grandmother passing or being. I'll try and just pull stuff in there, or I'll try and punch a guy out early in the game and get the crowd into it. And then that elevates my game a little bit. So there's nothing worse than going out. Like with the Red Sox driving in from my house in Framingham, seeing all the different license plates from the different states coming to watch you pitch because they counted every fifth day.

2:05:14And then I go out there and lay an A, get knocked out of the game in the third inning or something. There's not a worse feeling, I'm just telling you. So when you ask me that question, a lot of motion. come you know pass through my mind that the reason why i'm here able to talk to you guys on your show yeah all right sounded like in high school you had an opener uh the way you described it you're like the guy would come in and i would come in yeah yeah so if if they looked a little nervous i i never really got nervous you had an opener but i didn't you know i had yeah nerds went again yeah i mean have you ever thought about how great your career would have been you would have been the best setup man of all time yeah yeah maybe i mean i i played with i played with one that's pretty good.

2:05:52Yeah, that's true. Hey, if I had Mariano rear moker, I'd have 500, 400 wins. Yeah, sure. No, we're busting

2:05:58Big Cat:balls. I think maybe one of the best pitchers, maybe the best power pitcher of all time. Is that fair to say? I appreciate it. Would you consider yourself to be the best? I let other people do that, talking, you know. I think when you guys see me like behind the scenes like now, I mean, you see me on the mound behind the glove, that's one thing, but another thing I do is you guys do it. I'm going to actually be singing over here tonight. And I'll be kicking it off with, like I said, one of my friends He stayed with me while he was battling that damn C word, Toby Keith. And I miss him yesterday.

2:06:26It was Toby's birthday. So I'll kick it off with a Toby song. But I DJ at night, too. I do some DJing stuff. I love that. So I have to get you guys in the music room. I've got 1 ,600 songs, and it's better than karaoke. It's a program where I can faintly put Bono or Madonna, you know, whoever it is, Adele. And once the girls see that they're scared to come to the mic, Like once they realize I can pull the voice out and put her in the background, you sing over top of her. It's game on. Yeah, I like that. There you go. It's game on. Yeah.

2:06:59PFT Commenter:Well, Rocket, thank you so much, man. We really appreciate it. Yeah, appreciate you guys having me. Thanks.

2:07:05Big Cat:This show is brought to you by BetterHelp. We talk about mental health more openly now, but asking for help can still feel hard, and BetterHelp's latest research confirms it. BetterHelp's 2026 State of Stigma Report surveyed 2 ,000 Americans. It revealed that 85 % of Americans believe getting support is wise, yet 74 % say that society discourages people from doing so. With BetterHelp, they have over 30 ,000 therapists. They are the world's largest online therapy platform. They've served over 6 million people globally, and it works, with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews.

2:07:40Big Cat:BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct. They're fully licensed in the U.S. BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. Don't let stigma stand in the way of support. Start therapy with BetterHelp. Sign up, get 10 % off at betterhelp.com slash PMT. That's betterhelp.com slash PMT. Shane Bacon is brought to you by our great friends over at Mountain Dew. Summer's coming. I cannot wait to drink some Mountain Dew at Camp Barstool with the fellas. Nothing goes better with hanging outside and chilling with your friends than the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew.

2:08:14Big Cat:Mountain Dew was proudly born in the foothills of Tennessee. Enjoy the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew, an American original. Grab a Dew, tasting great since 48. And now here's Shane Bacon.

2:08:26PFT Commenter:Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is our good friend, Shane Bacon. We're talking the Open Championship. You can see Shane updates all week in the CBS studio. He also has some interviews coming out with Wyndham Clark and Charles Barkley, two recurring guests to this show. Shane, it is time for the fourth major. Not as a, you know, like, hey, it's the fourth major, but it actually is the fourth major in the calendar year. So tell us everything. I honestly, this is my least favorite major just because of the time zones, but the Open Championship, Royal Birkdale. What the hell is going on with Royal Birkdale?

2:09:06PFT Commenter:Give us the whole course, you know, download. big cat this could be your quickest flip ever it's gonna go from your least favorite major to your favorite major because of one thing and one thing only i follow you on all your social accounts as you know friends do yeah i'm assuming all your other friends do it as well i know you're a big donut guy with the kiddos yeah uh burkdale the host this week has a donut bunker on the seventh hole that's what they call it there's a all right i think i sent it to max um that he can show you as well at some point but there there is in fact a bunker they call the donut bunker it's got like a little grass yeah the whole central area like the donut hole yeah so i'm again now you're an open guy now you're a burkdale guy i would try to hit it there and i would miss but that would probably mean i made a good shot because i'd missed the bunker but okay so i'm a burkdale guy how what is the this course in terms of lynx golf is it uh you know towards a more difficult What is this course layout going to be like?

2:10:06Yeah, so 11th time, Burkdale's hosting the Open for the 11th time. It's kind of got hitters only that have won here. A guy named Peter Thompson, who won five Opens, won his first and his last. At Burkdale, Arnold Palmer, ever heard of him? He won here. Trevino won. Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Ian Baker Finch, who I know you guys have heard on the broadcast for a long time. He won here. Marco Mira in 98 won here when he was like palling up with Tiger and then got good. Won two majors that year, Podrick Harrington and Jordan Speed. So that's the list of winners here. A lot of big names, obviously.

2:10:40It's an interesting Lynx golf course. There's not as much wind factor. There's not as much undulation in the fairways. It's a pretty flat golf course, all things considered, for a Lynx-style golf course. Right now, extremely dry in the area. Expected to be the case all week. Very firm. But they've got these massive dunes you know you remember jordan speed back in 2017 when he hit it like literally 100 yards yes right on the 13th hole yes and he had to get the drop by the driving range trucks and all that stuff he hit it on one of those dunes these dunes are huge and if you hit it out of play or out of position you could find yourself in a really sketchy position but if you find the fairways uh this is a little bit more accuracy and hit it straight than it is overpower the golf course and the greens in terms of a links golf course are about the flattest you will ever see in terms of a major championship.

2:11:30It's like you get on these greens, you feel like you can make kind of any putt of any distance. So it's scoring. We're going to score this weekend. Yeah. Not, not a lot of wind in the forecast golf course. The balls are going to run forever. Like I think you're going to see some pretty low scoring.

2:11:45Big Cat:Okay. So in looking at this course, it's got the donut bunker. I see that. What is there like one particular hole that this is, it's got like a burn or like the lead. What's the history behind this course that we should, we should know. Yeah, I mean, one of the kind of really cool things about this golf course, I guess if you're watching, is the par fives come late. You don't get a par five until the 14th, and then you get 14 and 17. So, you know, you think about going out and playing golf, and you're, you know, us three are collectively five or six over through a couple holes. You're kind of looking on the scorecard for a par five.

2:12:17Yeah. Not the case at Birkdale. It is like your favorite player's favorite links course. I mean, guys have talked so much about this. Rory called it one of the best ever. the players this week you'll hear glowingly talk about it like high reviews on the golf course because again it's penal it's got a boatload of bunkers I think there's 108 bunkers on the golf course none are deep of the greens they're all kind of in that front portion surrounding like the entryways if you will to the greens not a lot over these greens but if you place the ball in the right spot you can get around this place so again you know you think back to 2017 Brennan Gray shoot 62 there.

2:12:55I believe that was the first 62 we ever seen in a major championship. It is a place where you could rip it up if you hit, let's say, 11, 12 fairways over the course of a day and the winds are expected to stay, like the forecast says, like 10, 11, 12 miles per hour the first three rounds.

2:13:10Big Cat:I want to get in some names that you think have a chance this weekend. But before we do that, there's one name that will not have a chance this weekend. I can't believe we missed this story. Maybe you can tell us more about what happened. Sergio, Sergio Garcia will not be playing in the Open Championship, he missed qualifying, and he missed because he ate lasagna? Is that what happened? Yeah. He had a mid-round lasagna. I mean, if we were going to do Mount Rushmore of foods not to eat in the middle of a 36-hole day in the middle of a summer, I feel like lasagna's high. Max is picking that second or third, you know?

2:13:44Big Cat:That's a good Mount Rushmore. We might have to do that. We might have to do that. But, yeah, that's terrible decision-making on Sergio's part. like a full plate of lasagna after the first 18 holes before the second 18 holes. And he did he have to poop or what? He just got sick. Yeah, just just just just didn't sit well, didn't play well. Like, let me ask you guys a question, because you guys talk a lot about food. I'll start with Big Cat here in terms of eating when it's really hot. Is there food off the table for you? Like, is there something if it's 105 or you're in Phoenix in the middle of the summer that you're like, I don't really feel like I'm going to eat that.

2:14:19or you kind of game for all foods, all temps?

2:14:21PFT Commenter:No, I mean, that would be a question for like a European who doesn't have air conditioning because I'll eat any food. Like you give me a chicken pot pie in the middle of July. Guess what? I'm eating it because in my house it's 62 degrees. So I'm eating the chicken pot pie. It's the best thing we do. Yeah, I'm eating a chicken pot pie with a hoodie on. No, but there are definitely some comfort foods. Like I'm a big believer. I love chili. Love, love, love chili. I'm a big believer that I don't do chili in the middle of the summer. there's like a specific time where chili season begins and i try to respect that so yeah i think there's definitely some summer foods that you wouldn't touch lasagna is on the top of the list

2:14:58Big Cat:i think lasagna would be up there now on the other side if it's winter time i actually enjoy like a nice iced coffee in the winter time i like lean into the season i don't i don't need to get hot but yeah in the summer i'll try to steer away from if it's like you know hot coffee hot chocolate or most soups you can go with a gazpacho served chilled if you want. But, yeah, soup overall, it, you know, it wanes a little bit in the summertime. I do think, hey, by the way, Max, what did we have at our wedding? What was our food? Is Max there? Can you talk about it? We did buffet style. What were we serving?

2:15:30Big Cat:We did buffet style. There was a couple salads, and then we got to the meats. There was mahi-mahi, chicken and ribs, flank steak. It was a good spread. Hank can attest. Great mahi-mahi. Did you eat any of the salad, Max? I did a tomato mozzarella salad.

2:15:46PFT Commenter:Oh, nice. Okay.

2:15:47Big Cat:So, no. Yeah, that's not salad. Cheese and tomato. Wait, wait, wait.

2:15:50PFT Commenter:So, wait. Back up. You had a deconstructed pizza. Correct. I got to quit. Wait. So, Sergio, like, he's not still sick. He just didn't qualify. Is that what happened? Right. Right. Okay. All right. Correct. I thought maybe he was like. He's good. The lasagna was so bad, I'm not playing in six days. No. It's not like COVID lasagna. Yeah, yeah. Like, we are past it. Yeah. We have passed that. Got it. So he just had a bad round and just blamed the food. Bad preparation. I believe, and I'd have to double check on this, I believe he played well in the morning and then had lasagna. So it was actually like you went out there and kind of did your job in the morning and then leaned into the lasagna for your lunchtime, which is, again, it's so weird.

2:16:33These golfers, I feel like, are obsessed with eating these days in terms of clean eating. I cover the Corn Fairy Tour. where all those KFT guys are obsessed with their diet, and the fact that a guy that's been out on tour for, what, 25 years, 30 years, is just pounding a lasagna mid-round?

2:16:50Big Cat:Yeah, almost self-sabotage. When I first saw it, I was like, oh, well, there's Sergio making more excuses, but then I read more about what the excuse was. I was like, okay, that actually sounds valid. There's no chance that you can put together a good round after a full lunch of lasagna.

2:17:04PFT Commenter:I got a question for you, Shane. Stupid question, but I've never played over in Europe. I've never played Lynx golf. What makes it more difficult? What makes it, what is like a defining quality? Are you hitting different shots or shots going different distances? Like give me the Lynx golf 101. Yeah. Well, one thing a lot of people don't tell you about is at the turn, they force lasagna down your throat. So it's like, you know, they don't do that in America, but then, you know, in Europe they're, they're really heavy on that. I mean, it's like, it's a lot of unpredictable golf. I mean, it is, you know, like I was thinking about major championships and, you know, I was thinking about the four majors in men's golf and like what they are, right?

2:17:44The Masters and not to bring up Max again, but the Masters is kind of the wedding if you're an adult, right? It's beautiful. It's planned out. Everybody looks pretty. I'm sure Max looks hot. I'm sure Hank can attest, look great at his wedding. U.S. Open is kind of like childbirth, right? I mean, you have your first kid. There's a lot of stress. It can be taxing, exhausting, not necessarily for us. but you're kind of happy it's over. You just kind of want to get through it, and there are times where you do it once. You go, I don't necessarily want to do it again. I think the PGA is like that fifth wedding in a busy wedding season where you don't necessarily want to go, but when you go, you might have fun.

2:18:21You might have a lot of fun. Maybe you meet somebody. You stay an extra day. It can be fun. I just don't think you're necessarily that excited. The Open's like the anniversary honeymoon of all this stuff. You're going to an exotic land. You're playing a different style of golf. You've got to hit different style shots, keep it on the ground. You know, Todd Hamilton famously won an open championship and was hitting his hybrid as like the bump and run club, you know, the entire week. I mean, beat Ernie Els in a playoff doing it. You can hit different shots. But I think the idea of throwing out your quote unquote stock number is a big thing that the modern pro battles with because when they play American style golf, your wedge goes 151, right?

2:19:02Or 146. And when you get to Scotland, yeah, it might fly a certain number, but it might bound forward 30 feet. You know, the wind might be howling. You know, drives might go 430 yards if it's as firm as it's expected to be this week. There's just a lot of unpredictability. And then with the pot bunkers and the bunkering at these golf courses, the more the ball rolls, the more opportunity there is for it to go into a bunker. And the difference in American golf and in link style golf is bunkers are true penalties. The sand's a little thicker, harder to spin out of. and also you get lifts where you have to hit it backwards.

2:19:35Like Johnson Wagner, who we do the CBS show, was talking about playing at Muirfield in the Open one time, having to hit putter out of a bunker twice. Like he had it once, and it went a little far. He had to hit it again, and then he could hit a wedge out. So just some of that stuff, like I think it's just more unpredictable. Guys are kind of kept on their toes a little bit more.

2:19:53Big Cat:That's fun. I like it, yeah. It does seem – it's always fun to watch because it looks noticeably different from any style of golf that we have in America. I was looking at the Scottish Open. I watched some of that this weekend. And I think we've asked you this before. Is there a curse? You don't want to win the Scottish Open because then you don't win the Open Championship the next week? No. Well, the schedule's changed over time. It's not always back-to-back. It hasn't always historically been the exact tournament right after it. But no, I don't think guys, like the par-3 contest, I don't think there's a big fear of, I don't want to play well here.

2:20:25I mean, got her up last year, won the Scottish Open, and nearly won the Open Championship the next week. So, I mean, again, I think in the modern game, You're just trying to take home any trophy you can. And the fact that the Scottish is elevated, I think, helps that.

2:20:35Big Cat:So can we look at what happened this week? It's the Genesis Scottish Open. So Tom Kim won, right? And then Min Raul Lee came second. Robert McIntyre. Bobby Mack came in third. Can we look at the results for that? Did we learn anything about what might happen this upcoming week? Yeah. I mean, I've kind of got my five storylines for the week, if you want me to hit you with those. And with those, I think there's some of that in here. Um, so it's been a bit of a strange men's major year is my first thing. And the question is, will that continue? You know, you think about Rory winning at Augusta. I think the story, you know, a little bit more muted after obviously what happened last year.

2:21:14He didn't play excellent golf that week as well. Obviously here in Rye, um, a bit out of nowhere wins at Aronimic and kind of runs away with it late. Wyndham Clark, much of the same at the U.S. Open. I just feel like the winners have been a bit random. And also it hasn't been necessarily the most exciting golf at the end on a Sunday, you know, when most people are tuned in. I was going through the 2000s major championship seasons thinking about what was the weakest because we've been on this incredible run as of late. 03 wasn't great. Weir, Furyk, Sean McKeel, Ben Curtis. 09 was Anel Cabrera, Glover, Y.

2:21:47Yang, Stewart Sink. And then you had 2016 was Willett, Dustin Johnson, Jimmy Walker, and Henrik Stinson. I mean, there have been seasons. There are going to be major seasons that are not the most exciting. That can obviously change if you get some Scotty Bryson John Rom duel this week at the Open Championship. But the question is, will it be just four random strange events or will we have something that makes a little bit more sense and kind of keeps the tradition going at Birkdale with with the awesomeness of their past champions? Also, something that I didn't realize is and this is my next thing.

2:22:19Can the run of first time open winners continue? you we're on a run of 12 straight winners that have won the open their first time and and only time to this point um going back to phil in 2013 so you think about like a tommy fleetwood a john rama matt fitzpatrick all those guys kind of fit that mold in terms of somebody that haven't won an open but could continue the run and we've been on where the open winner has not won an open before um did you guys know that bryson is on the um miscut slam did you guys are you guys aware of this he stinks at golf uh-huh i did you see that punty hit the other day oh on live yeah no no

2:22:54Big Cat:it was youtube yeah no i think it was live it might have been live the camera setup was identical it was maybe was it co-sanctioned i heard you guys talking about that yeah we got it was an interesting video yeah yeah i think we all were i don't think anybody knows his true answer he was excited yeah he seemed to be having a fun time out there but what's up with him like what what's

2:23:12PFT Commenter:going on is he just is he is he just cooked is he a youtube golfer now i don't think he's cooked i I just don't think he's playing like the high level of golf that we saw a couple of years ago in the majors. I mean, the iron play continues, Big Cat, to be an issue for this guy. And yet he won't make any change. I mean, I've talked a lot about this this year. He uses these single length irons. You guys know that, right? They're all the same length. And when pro golfers try out stuff and it works, people follow and do the same thing. I mean, if you're using a putter that works, people are going to go pick up that putter.

2:23:46Like Wyndham Clark right now is using that pink putter. right that apparently the tour truck got flooded by guys coming in asking for a level a model of that to go try out if there's a seven wood or a nine wood something like that that works pros use it nobody's using single length irons except bryce he's been doing it for i don't know 15 years i just think he's got to get away from that and at least try something different with the irons because the iron play to your point big cat is just not good enough right now to win major championships and i mean now he's not winning them he's not even making it to saturday yeah how many

2:24:18Big Cat:How many strokes would Marty Fish have to give Bryson right now? Man, I mean, it sounds like you just created his next YouTube video. I mean, I would say it's – I'd say I'd still like Bryson there. But Marty can play. Marty can play, yeah.

2:24:31PFT Commenter:Did Marty win? Yeah, he won. Did Marty win the Tahoe?

2:24:33Big Cat:He won by like eight points. I think we're close to a dynasty here that's three in six years. Yeah. I'm telling you, these guys with the hip – all the athletes with the quick hips. It's like kickers, quarterbacks, tennis players, hockey. These guys are all such freaking good golfers. It's so annoying.

2:24:49PFT Commenter:Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Are we at four? I think so. Yeah. Does that sound right? Yeah. Maybe. Bryson's going in for the slam for missed cuts. For the missed cut slam. So if he misses the cut at the open, he's missed all four this year. And I want Bryson to know this right now because I know he listens to every episode. If that does in fact happen, we will create a banner for him and raise it in our office. Love a parade, Bryson. Yeah, we will. has he been on the podcast no no no i would he would he be on i think we missed the window i think the window when he still had a pr person um he could have maybe done it now that he no longer has a pr person and went back to being just so hateable uh i think he'd struggle on the podcast yeah two he was when his window was two and a half years ago yeah exactly exactly like a perfect window yeah yeah it was like right after he won at pioneers yep um this is now i'll say this the year the comeback 2026 this is the year the comeback in professional golf anthony kim gary woodland um even in terms of golf like wyndham clark hovland tom kim morikawa to start the year i think justin rose would fit that mold well this week at this open championship uh you go back to the first open he played in 1998 he was an amateur hold out on the last had this great finish.

2:26:07Everybody was excited about Justin Rose. He's been close, obviously, at the Masters the last couple years. Didn't play great at Birkdale in 2017, but has played well at the Open, looking for his first Open Championship. I think he kind of fits the year of the comeback storyline, if you will, in professional golf. And my last one, since I think this is five, maybe six, who knows, I can't count, is which guy saves his season. There are a lot of dudes this year that we talk about in golf a lot that haven't even won. I mean, you think about Xander, you think about Ludwig, Fleetwood, Justin Thomas.

2:26:39I mean, there are so many big names that haven't won a single event this season. And I feel like the FedEx Cup playoffs obviously offer players an opportunity to have something good happen at the end of the year. But this is your last, you know, real crack at like a monumental victory. And so it'll be interesting to see if one of those guys that haven't won anything finally get a win this year.

2:26:57PFT Commenter:Can we throw Scotty in there? Because I know he's won this year, but like it does feel like a lost year in Scotty's, you know this would be his prime right now and if he goes over in the majors and over in kind of like some of these big events like it would be it would feel like it was a disappointing year again this is all context because he there's probably what 130 guys that would trade years for with what scotty's done this year hey i think a big week you know for scotty and john rom i mean i think about two dudes that i'm really paying attention to this week at burkdale scotty to your point big cat i mean you know he runs through the majors last year wins two he hadn't won before everybody's looking at shinnecock this year gotta complete the career grand slam it just the floor has lowered for scotty his floor was so high for so long that even when he played mediocre golf he'd hang around i mean i think about the pga championship last year even on sunday he played pretty poor on that front nine makes the turn and just goes absolutely you know fire emoji on everybody and takes home that thing even over John Rahm this year the floor has been lower the iron play at times departs the driver hasn't been as good this year the putting he missed a couple really shorties at the Scottish Open on the way to that miscut I just feel like to your point that the Scotty thing is important because if he doesn't win this you have that full year of nothing really going and you might be able to save it with I don't know a FedEx Cup Tyler or something like that But it's not going to do much for the fans of Scotty Scheffler after this year.

2:28:29And then for Jon Rahm, if he doesn't win this Open Championship, it is 14 majors since his last win. I think, to me, this is the biggest week for Jon Rahm over everybody else.

2:28:38Big Cat:Okay. That actually, you saying Jon Rahm made me think about a possibility that could happen on Sunday. I believe Sunday is the World Cup final. It could be, theoretically, Spain against England. Spain versus pretty good. And you could have Jon Rahm maybe dueling it out with Tommy Fleetwood. That would be something. Justin Rose. I don't think an Englishman has won the Open since 92. So, I mean, you talk about a lot of history there as well, which is an interesting little nugget in terms of one of these guys finally trying to get over that hump. Yeah, that would line up to be potentially the most heartbreaking day in English history all around.

2:29:19Big Cat:They can't win the World Cup, can they, PFT? No, they can't. I mean, I think they're going to lose to Argentina in the Falkland Island Bowl. But if they do win, then I'm just saying that Sunday, with the Open Championship happening at the same time, that would be a crazy day in British sports. Yeah, a lot of one seeds in the Final Four. Big Cat, do you have a rooting interest in the Final Four? Did you put a bet on anybody yet? Just messy.

2:29:42PFT Commenter:I'm a messy guy. I don't even care if you just put messy on any of the other teams, I'd root for that team. It's actually kind of nice to pick a sport where you can almost be like a LeBron sexual, where it's like, I don't care where he goes. I'm just going to root for that guy. Like, no allegiance is whatsoever. Just following the team. Yeah. It's like a fun experience. Yeah. You're just like, if Argentina loses, I'm going to be like, fuck those bums. They let down my guy. Like, you can't. You know what I mean? And if they win, it's like, yeah, he carried these losers, these plumbers to the World Cup title.

2:30:15what if what if messi went to the four aces big cat are you going to be a are you going to be a

2:30:20PFT Commenter:four aces guy yes honestly he could go anywhere okay yeah he i would just root for him check maybe not the packers like i would be maybe too far but like i would still be like damn he really is good i'd be like respect messi's you know game over the middle i want him to start ring chasing i want

2:30:36Big Cat:messi to like if argentina loses be like messi come to us we'll treat you right we'll get you your passport yeah just become you live here anyway do you guys battle with this you guys are like a year younger than me do you guys battle with this whole like the legacy sports fan stuff I feel like I'm in the like at this point in my life I just want to see guys or girls out of their legacy I feel like I care way less about the young players getting their first ring and I just want to see like Steph or even I mean even Djokovic I found myself at Wimbledon kind of rooting for him to get it done. Do you guys battle that at all?

2:31:11Big Cat:I like asking the question of what it means for people's legacy. I think it's a fun question to ask repeatedly. But no, I think there is something to that because I just – and I think it's us not wanting to admit that we're old. Yeah, no, it's the age thing. Yeah, if Djokovic is out there still winning, then we can be like, you know, we're not that far out of our primes either. We can probably still get out there and do it. It's almost the same age as me.

2:31:30PFT Commenter:Yeah, I think when you get to a point in age where you start seeing guys come and go to – you know what I mean? I remember when he was drafted, and now he's retiring. Oh, fuck. And like, oh, I remember now his son. We had Larry Fitzgerald on Friday, and his son's playing for Notre Dame. It's like, what? How does that make sense?

2:31:47Big Cat:That's why I never wanted Tom Brady to retire. LeBron is the one. Yeah, LeBron is the one.

2:31:53PFT Commenter:LeBron is the same. He's kind of the one. He's one month older than me and PFT. Yeah. Once he retires, I think we might have to shut down the idea that we could ever be in the pros. Yeah. That's it. I know. I know like our it's it's really our window that's closing if you think about it it's not their window that's closing it's more our window that's closing like big cat my son asked me the other day I think Djokovic was on and my son who's seven asked me is am I older than him and I was like I was like well yeah like like everybody on tv now yeah it's like it's it's you don't really even have to ask that anymore no it's not even like the coaches I'm older than

2:32:28Big Cat:all the coaches now too when LeBron's son got drafted that's for me I was kind of like okay Time to hang it up. That one's tough. But yeah, Big Cat's right. The second LeBron retires, that means that me and Big Cat are officially old.

2:32:40PFT Commenter:Officially old.

2:32:40Big Cat:Yeah, we have to retire. I guess we still have Ronaldo.

2:32:42PFT Commenter:He's going to play in every single World Cup. That's right. Yeah. All right. So who can win this tournament? Who do we – and by the way, I don't know if you know this, Shane, but the U.S. Open, you are so, so close to never coming back on this show. Because Colin Morikawa – Who did I say? Colin Morikawa, when we asked who could not win this tournament, You're like, Colin Morikawa cannot win this tournament. And he was like, there was that stretch where he was like fourth or fifth. On Saturday, he was looking really good. And I was like, this motherfucker. Didn't win, though. Did he win? No, he didn't win.

2:33:12You're right. But you were close. Didn't win. No. Didn't win. We don't talk about third quarters, baby. We talk about all four days at all. That's true. Just like we do everywhere else. You were on now. Right again. I got some names for you. You know, kind of I'll start outsider into more of like the favorite names. Andrew Putnam is a name I like. a little bit, maybe like a top 10, top 20 bet, drives it really straight. I'm going to say this a lot. You hit fairways at Birkdale. I'm going to like your chances. So Putnam has played really solid golf this year and looks like he's playing more comfortable golf in the bigger events, which has been nice.

2:33:46Seen some good finishes from him, like in signature events, things like that. Russell Henley, also a name I like, leads the PGA Tour in driving accuracy. And I think that's going to be big. Matt Kuchar, if you remember back in 2017, was battling with Jordan Spieth. Kuchar not the longest guy in the world and never has been but as a guy that can find a lot of fairways you think about Marco Mira back in 98 you know he was kind of quote-unquote past his prime but just hit it in the fairway got it around Tommy Fleetwood's going to be an extremely popular name you're going to hear a lot this week grew up in the area he's had five straight top 14 finishes coming into this open championship talking about lost years feels like it's been a bit of a lost year for Tommy Fleetwood after that win at the end of the season this could change a lot of that Bobby Mack, another name, another guy I like, just liked the golf course fit for him, played well at the Scottish.

2:34:35Three top tens in his six starts at the Open. So he's a name. And I also like Tyrell Hatton. I mentioned the Englishman drought at the Open Championship. He has played really, really good as of late. Got to win it on Liv a month ago. Played well at the U.S. Open. Played well at the Scottish. T11, T20, T16, and three of his last four Open starts. But my pick is going to be Victor Hovland. I just think Vic has found something with the driver. He was actually PFT. He was trying to gain distance off the tee, and he somehow lost distance off the tee. That's like, you know, you're like, I'm going to go to the gym and get stronger, and then you get more out of shape, which is hopefully not the goal of doing something like that.

2:35:19Big Cat:Did he get more accurate? No. Oh. No. Yeah, bad. He should probably fire his trainer. Well, here's the good news. He's gotten better. This was like a department he lived in when he was playing great golf, like strokes getting off the tee, things like that. He was down in the high 80s, low 90s before the last couple of weeks, and he has been great with the driver. He was top 10 in the department in the Scottish Open. I just like the way Victor's played, got the win over Scotty Scheffler. That's got to help the confidence up there in Connecticut. And he's played well at the Open Championship, had a chance in 2022, played alongside Rory at St.

2:35:55Andrews, played well in 2023 three top 15s and five career starts at the open championship i think victor hovland has found something he's the guy that rides the confidence wave as well all right uh

2:36:05PFT Commenter:you kind of glossed over something here which should have been your number one story because listen i'm i i don't know golf very well i'm i'm looking for storylines tommy fleetwood used to sneak on royal burkdale and practice with his dad when he was growing up yeah you have to bet him I didn't realize he grew up that close to Royal Birkdale.

2:36:26Big Cat:Shane, this is a close your eyes and imagine the telecast when he's walking down 18. Oh, man. And it's the same fair way he and his papa used to sneak onto. It might be too easy. It might be too low-hanging fruit. But what you're not thinking is like, how dumb are we going to feel if we don't bet on him and that happens? Yeah. We'll be like, we could have pictured that. We saw that coming. It's a perfect story. I think the only counter to that is the fact that he doesn't really win that much in golf. I think that's the only counter I put out there.

2:36:59PFT Commenter:That's a fair one. But so how how many times has he played the place that he literally practiced on as a kid? Did he play in the 2017 Open Championship? I would I would I would venture to say he did not. Let me check real quick. So this could be the first time he's playing in a big time event this close to the crowd is going to love him. You could just see it. It's like Field of Dreams. His dad, like, you know, like maybe actually after a round. Yeah. How'd he play? He did play in 2017. T-27. Okay.

2:37:32Big Cat:That was probably good for him back then. He was probably happy to be T-27. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think Tommy's going to win this Open Championship. I think if I've learned anything about Tommy Fleetwood, it's the higher I get on him, the more I love him. But, I mean, you know, I said Colin Warcow wasn't going to win the U.S. Open, and he nearly did it.

2:37:52PFT Commenter:So his family lived, like, on the course? No, so I just looked it up. Close to it. He lived three miles away. He lived around the corner. He grew up around the corner. And his dad and he used to sneak on in twilight hours and practice some holes. I'm just sneaking me hardest. Seriously. We have to. I'm sorry. I'm going to bet it right now.

2:38:10Big Cat:You're the expert here, but I have to bet on time to free. Have to.

2:38:13PFT Commenter:You understand. This is the most. Oh, it's poetic. It's perfect. I'll say this about Tommy Fleetwood. Ten straight majors without a top ten. After the great run he was in at the majors, really 2022 through 24, when it felt like he was really starting to buck, hasn't had that level of consistency in the major championships since then. But I'm never pushing you guys away from making a bet you want to make. I mean, you want to bet on it? It's such a beautiful story.

2:38:42Big Cat:It's such a beautiful story. It is a beautiful story. So I will take some of your advice here. So you got Andrew Putnam, you got Russell Henley, Matt Kuchar, Tommy Fleetwood as a maybe, but it sounds like no Tommy Fleetwood. Not Matt Kuchar. Matt Kuchar was 2017. What did we have? We had Putnam, Fleetwood, Robert McIntyre. Okay. And Hatton and maybe Hovland. I love Hovland. Okay. I think Hovland wins. I think Hovland's the open champion.

2:39:09PFT Commenter:What about our guys? Brooks, Max, Wyndham now is kind of an honorary our guy recently. Lee. So how are they going to play? Is he like a Bruce? Bruce of the year? We're figuring it out. He's never going to be a Blake, but we're figuring it out. He would be a Wyndham of the year. He's a wine drinker.

2:39:27Big Cat:Blakes don't drink wine. It's a good point. They avoid the grape. I would say I don't love Brooks right now. Just really inconsistent. There are moments. Koepka looks great. He shot 66 out of the gate at the Scottish Open. And then the next day he shoots four over and misses the cut. But he just really sensed that WD in Canada with the whole hand thing. He hasn't really played the level of golf you've got to be able to play to continue. He has one top 10 this season, and that was at the Cognizant Classic at the Palm Beaches, which is a lot of words to say about a golf tournament. I'm a little bit higher on Homa.

2:40:02Just been kind of looking at the way he's played as of late. Didn't play awesome at the other PGA Tour event this past weekend alongside the Scottish, but he's been trending in the right direction to top 22 finishes before that second place finish at the deer plus the open is his favorite major and he continues to say he likes playing this this tournament and this style of golf more than anything else so i kind of like max a little bit okay and then windham i mean like windham is a windham is a top 10 bet right now okay windham is a top 10 bet everywhere yeah like everywhere he plays top 10 very confident um I I'm kind of kind of kick myself for not bringing him up at Shinnecock just for the way he was playing but I mean he played well at the Scottish like he's playing well everywhere right now I just think if you're um looking at numbers looking at Wyndham Clark and you see a decent number on a top 10 top 20 bet I think it's kind of free money right now with Wyndham Clark okay okay um all right Hank

2:41:01PFT Commenter:Hank, do you have a question? And can I ask a question to you, Hank, first? Sure. Am I allowed to say what I witnessed today? Sure. Shane Bacon, have you ever witnessed this? I watched Hank play. I played nine holes with Hank today. He is now hitting driver righty, everything else lefty, putting righty. He's doing a righty Oreo on the golf course. Sweet. Driver's righty. Yes. Three woods lefty? Yep. it's crazy all right all right hang on one second all right i got some questions for hang okay we put i'll put row back on and just do the row back question here all right you so wait let talk me just talk me through the process like just talk me through how we got here i'm trying to just take

2:41:47Big Cat:the best of both where like driving righty was never a problem i can just step up and hit drives relatively in the same dispersion zone but i've been playing all year lefty so irons and wedges It's like I'm more comfortable with that. I'm just going with what's the most comfortable. And maybe I'm completely mentally screwed, but I'm not thinking about that. You were thinking of his dispersion zone, Shane. You are thinking about it.

2:42:12PFT Commenter:When we played today, I joined him on the back nine in the first hole, and the back nine was a par three, so I didn't think. And then I was kind of distracted on 11. And then at 12, I was like, what are you doing right now, Hank? Because he stepped up in the box with a righty driver. I was like, what are you doing? He's like, yeah, I'm driving righty. Everything else lefty putting righty. I mean, the putting's not that weird. Like, I mean, like, notable gay used a double-sided putter. My dad, for a while, took one of my lefty putters out and would putt lefty and hit everything righty. But the driver's the one.

2:42:45I mean, that is just. Now, Hank, listen, first of all, I mean, you are thinking about it because you just said it on the couch. Are you nervous about, like, what people are going to say? No, no.

2:42:55Big Cat:The questions you're going to get? I've been used to that. I mean, I play with people where I've had to explain, like, I'm playing lefty now, and then I go out and play worse, and they're just so confused. So that part, I've gotten over that. Like, people, I've been used to the people just being like, what the fuck is wrong with this kid? It is one of the most interesting stories.

2:43:14PFT Commenter:I've played without Hank and, like, played with people, and they've been like, so what is Hank doing? Like, they'll bring it up to me. He's the talk of the town, and we're in a pretty big town. it's like it's like a terminal illness like nobody wants to bring it up to him but they'll

2:43:30Big Cat:bring it up to his friends like is he is he doing okay is hank okay the crazy thing is i thought that hank left-handed as a driver is pretty good i i thought you were hitting the ball pretty straight the dispersion zone was good the distance was good what did you just have one bad day driving lefty and you're like i'm just trying it out i'm trying to i'm trying to have a bad day Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out the recipe to go as low as possible without accepting that it might just all be right.

2:43:56PFT Commenter:Yeah, it might be the handicap you had. Right. It's like I'm looking all around the world for my partner, and it was the girl I went to prom with the whole time. Like, this is what I was born with and the way I go. It's a fascinating story because golf is the hardest game in the world, and people will go at lengths to try to figure it out. And Hank was like, you know what? I'm going to make it even harder. I'm going to switch and now I'm going to switch back. I'm not switching back. Just temporarily. So Hank, I have another follow-up question for you. So in terms of wearing a glove, what are you doing glove-wise?

2:44:35Are you going left glove? No glove on the drives. Okay. Okay. And then your lefty glove or your right-handed glove for your irons. Yeah. And then no glove putting.

2:44:46Big Cat:Yeah, I think there probably was a couple times where I just wasn't thinking about it and put my glove on and still have to drive. But when I'm thinking about it, it's no glove. Why not double glove? Why not Aaron Rye? I don't like that. That would be weird. So was that actually an advantage for him at the open? Like if you've got shitty weather, he's the only guy that's got two gloves? He's the only one used to it. I think it's a great call, PFT. I mean, the fact that those guys pull out the weather glove if it's going to rain. Forecast doesn't look very wet this week. But I think in theory, in the future ones, like St.

2:45:16Andrews next year, If it rains, maybe we'll get a little nod to Aaron Wright.

2:45:19Big Cat:And the iron covers, too. Keep them nice and clean. Just something to think about. That's a great point. You're all over right now. You know what? You're a year ahead right now. I might be. Yeah. Hank, you just – what happens around the green now? Like, are you chipping righty? Are you hitting bunker shots always lefty? Yeah. You never even thought about going back? Why are you so confused, dude? So it's putting? Yeah. Driving. Driving. Yeah. And 14 clubs in your bag? Yep. What if you had a driver off the deck? I mean, I have a righty driver, so it would be righty. So you got to go righty. Yeah.

2:45:52Big Cat:Okay.

2:45:52PFT Commenter:He's got it. All right. What was your question to Shane Hank? Sorry. It is fascinating. It's one of the most fascinating stories in golf right now.

2:45:59Big Cat:I'm pissed off that he just said that two gloves would be weird.

2:46:03PFT Commenter:I know, right? You are doing the weirdest thing ever. I know. I know. He did give me a look. It's a great point. He gave me a look knowing how weird that was or how funny that was. Okay. Go ahead, Hank. It's a great point.

2:46:13Big Cat:You talk about storylines. One guy that I want to bet on, but I'm worried about, speaking of irons, or his clubs is Justin Rose. Because I feel like that would be a fun story, but I feel like he switched to the Maserati irons or whatever and then has not been playing well. Yeah, I mean, I honestly think we're past it, to be fair. I think he's shown enough with the new irons, the McLaren irons, whatever they are, to where I'm not. By the way, the Maserati irons would be good. Like that made me think about a Mazda Miata iron. I, but no, I think we're past it. I think he's, I think he looks at these things as opportunity.

2:46:53And I think he's one of those guys that I think has an opportunity to win this open championship. You know, it's weird in 2017, we got to Birkdale and it was this wide open in terms of who you like to win that open as maybe ever. Jordan Spieth was second favorite. He went on to win. But I think about right now, like Scott, he's not playing great. Rory a little all over the map. He's kind of got this problem where one round a week he plays poorly in. He even did it when he won the Masters. He shot that 73, I think, on Saturday. He can't avoid the one kind of not great round. I go down the world ranking list, and there's not a lot of names I'm overly scared of.

2:47:28And I think about the way Justin Rose seems to show up at the majors. I think if you're kind of itching to bet him, I like the bet just because I think Justin Rose at least has the potential to put together four good rounds.

2:47:40Big Cat:Love it. And got her up. Goddard up my other my other horse kind of our guy too I like Goddard up a lot I feel like I feel like he monster he played doesn't have to worry about the the winning Scottish Open again curse still played well why not him yeah I think he's I I think he's like if you were going to ask me what what are my like my odd board he'd probably be a top it I mean just in terms of the way he's playing golf right now and the confidence level and obviously getting a crack at links golf last year and showing off his skill set. I think Goddorup is up there. I think Cameron Young is still up there as well, even though he hadn't played as good as of late.

2:48:16Rose, Victor, those guys are all near, in my opinion, near like a Scotty number. I don't love Cam Smith. He bucked at the PGA, and then that quickly went away.

2:48:26Big Cat:Yeah. Did you see that the Open Championship put out a statement kind of warning fans like, hey, we're not going to do any of that American shit over here? i mean yeah like they have to warn them to do that but that's just not really in their dna like they want to go out and be in the sun and put on way more sunscreen than we've ever worn in our lives and they just want to watch good golf man like yeah that's what this is about this is a great golf area where burkdale is like this is an area that you know gets this major championship once every 10 years they get fired up for it and they believe that their golf course is as good as any on the road.

2:49:06I think the players back that up as well. So, yeah, they're not going to come out. I mean, they're not coming out and being Long Island fans. They're just going to come out and, you know, eat their ice cream when it's 92, you know?

2:49:16Big Cat:Yeah, I thought there was one line in there that was like, we only will celebrate great play in a fair and sporting manner, which seemed to be them being like, hey, you're not going to do the Yankee stuff here. We're not going to boo guys that might be in the lead on Sunday. I mean do you want booing in golf PFT do you want yeah do you want like do you want this like you want it to be intense I think I do I I think I do but but that said I don't I don't want it in certain circumstances I don't want it at Augusta okay Augusta every that's like we go back in time we mind our manners uh everyone acts like they're over at their grandparents house That's what Augusta is.

2:49:55Big Cat:That's what it's for. I do like the Ryder Cup mentality. I like when we're booing people, when there's heroes, when there's villains. I think it sounds way, way worse than it actually is because we're just not used to it in golf sometimes. And I think when we figure out live in the PGA Tour and everybody's playing in the same arena again and the live thing kind of slowly dissipates and disappears, I do think the idea of a villain helps the game and I think having the villain on the same stage as the hero if you will and I think having those types of names around makes golf more interesting the problem obviously with Liv is a lot of those guys that are quote unquote villains went away while the PGA Tour guys were just out there playing and we kind of lost a little bit of that rooting for and also rooting against thing that is obviously available in every other sport just doesn't feel that available in golf

2:50:48PFT Commenter:Yeah. Okay, Shane, last question. Always great having you on. We actually did. I think you came on for every major, so now it's the reverse of the Bryson. It's like my Bryson slam. Yeah, yeah. And again, watch post-round on CBS Sports. Rowback question, RHOBACK.com, promo code TAKE. 20 % off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback.com, promo code TAKE. I'm wearing it right now. Zach. What's going on, Shane? How are we doing today? Turn it up. Oh, man. Didn't think I was. I barely heard you, which is okay. But barely hearing you is better than not hearing you at all, Zach.

2:51:23Big Cat:In other words, I got more volume coming through for you right now. There we go. I was curious. Way better. Way better. There was a trend here recently, Shane, with guys getting into golf who maybe don't have the fastest club head speed, so they're jumping straight to the flex shafts. Is that a viable option? And if so, like, what are your thoughts on that? There's a wave of that going around online. I just want to know from a guy who does play good golf, if that's something beginner golfers should get into. So the question is, should beginning golfers look at a shaft or an equipment change to help them out in terms of hitting it longer?

2:51:55Yeah.

2:51:55Big Cat:Should they jump straight ahead to like the more forgiving flex shafts if they don't have the clubhead speed? I think first and foremost to beginning golfers, try to figure out like the fundamentals of the golf swing, whether it's just hitting it solid, getting into the air, avoiding dribbling it, whatever you're doing wrong. I would work on the fundamental stuff before I start worrying about how far I'm hitting it. I mean, obviously hitting it far is more fun, but I would probably focus a little bit more on like weight shifting and solid contact and things like that before I started to venture into the shaft world.

2:52:27But I've had some friends, Zach, that hit it pretty short that have gotten into that world and have picked up mega distance with it. There's also like the stack system is something you can use that you can swing like in your apartment as well. It's just basically a weighted club and you can swing it to work on that. It's like kind of like a little golf workout.

2:52:45PFT Commenter:Okay, Zach. Good question. You got a follow-up? Because Zach actually knows a lot about shafts. I think it's an important part of the game. What's up with that? Yeah, what is up with that? What's up with that? Are you like Googling them or what?

2:52:56Big Cat:Yeah, I'm watching videos on them. Yeah. YouTube videos though.

2:52:59PFT Commenter:Because you don't even have a set of clubs.

2:53:01Big Cat:Yeah, but you got to know what you're getting into with the equipment, you know? Right. He's asking about my shafts, and I don't even have the answers. He's got great shafts on his clubs. How are you asking me about this? Hank might go vent his overkill on some of his clubs. Kind of crazy. Look at him. Look at him spitting it out. Oh, wait. So, Zach, let me ask you a question. Still no clubs. You work for a company that I believe has a deal with an OEM that probably could provide you a full set of clubs. What are you doing? Just send an email, my man. I'm just making sure I come with the right information.

2:53:30Big Cat:You always want to be educated on what you're trying to get into. He's shopping around right now. He doesn't know if he wants to make a commitment. Shane, you know, when you were a kid, you probably are like me. You had the East Bay catalog that came every single month. And you'd go through it and you'd imagine getting the different sports equipment. And then when you finally got it, it's exactly what you wanted, exactly what you studied over for the last three months. And you've had time to daydream about it, think about what those shafts are going to be like in your hands. I'm sure Zach just wants to get into that almost fantasy mindset where he's thinking about these shafts.

2:54:00Big Cat:And then when the perfect shaft comes, it's just as he imagined. He's dating right now.

2:54:05PFT Commenter:Yeah. I do feel like – let me say this, Zach. Before the fundamental talk I said earlier, I think one of the first things you've got to do is get a set of clubs. I think that's almost like step one for a golfer is to own a set of clubs. That's super fair.

2:54:22Big Cat:Yeah. I did have a quick follow-up since we are talking equipment. You did speak a little bit earlier about Bryson struggling with his iron play. Do you think it's a 3D printed irons? And if so, is he in too deep? Can he just he just has to stick with him? I think he tinkers a lot. I honestly think it's the one link thing to me. I mean, I just I don't love the one link irons. He hits so many short irons. You think about how far he hits it, Zach. I mean, one of the longest in professional golf. And the fact that his lob wedge and sand wedge and pitching wedge and all this stuff are the same link.

2:54:52you know he's always struggled with this kind of concoction he has in his bag of getting the ball close after a perfect drive and I just feel like it's deteriorated over time and it's just gotten to a point where now he's not taking advantage of booming it off the tee I just feel like honestly you could go one link through like seven iron for me and I'd be fine but I think about the scoring clubs for Bryson and again nobody else on tour is doing this they're not doing it for a I think if you're Bryson, just try it, man. You know, like, what are you going to hurt? You just missed three cuts in a row at majors and look like you're headed for four in a row, you know, unless he gets the standing ovation he got in that YouTube video.

2:55:30So I just feel like he's going to – he needs to maybe just try one thing different.

2:55:36PFT Commenter:All right. Well, Shane, thank you as always. You're the best. We appreciate it. Everyone go check out Shane on CBS Sports. And like I said, he's got some big interviews coming up. And we got to figure out a time to get you to Chicago. We got to play around. It'll be fun. We'll do a video. Got to do it before it gets cold. Did Zach get a new apartment, by the way? I owe him a picture. Did he get something? I did get the keys yesterday. Oh, yeah. We're all moving him. We're all going to move him for a video because he has the amount of stuff he owns. We figured out we can all just pick it up and just go.

2:56:07Well, he just doesn't own a golf club. He probably doesn't own a bed. I have a friend working on a picture for you, but now I think he's making it for everybody at the pod. Love that. So I'll send them. But obviously, just Zach, I just want you to know you're the reason for this. Big Cat's not the reason. You're the reason. You're the guy. Love that.

2:56:28Big Cat:You're too kind, Shane. I do appreciate it so much, man. It was great talking gear with you today. I really enjoyed that. Anytime. By the way, love chatting with you boys. All right. Thanks, Shane. Appreciate it. Have fun. Guys on Chicks is going to be brought to you by Fruit of the Loom. For some reason, guys hold on to their underwear way too long. Why? Who knows? But when a fresh, comfortable, well-designed pair of Fruit of the Loom costs less than your morning coffee, there's really no excuse. Refresh your underwear drawer today with well-made, well-priced Fruit of the Loom. It's been a household name for generations, trusted for comfort, for durability, for consistency.

2:57:00Big Cat:High-quality essentials that are made affordable. The iconic fruit people bring charm and make us stand out in the crowd, making trusted basics since 1851. It's nearly 175 years of delivering comfort. Premium feel without the premium price. Thoughtfully designed essentials with designer-level quality, but at a fraction of the cost. Fruit of the Loom delivers legendary comfort, iconic style that you can trust. 175 years of expertise. They craft those essentials that feel like designer, but a fraction of the price. Check it out. Everyday reliability, that's Fruit of the Loom. It's time to refresh that underwear drawer with well-made, well-priced Fruit of the Loom.

2:57:36Big Cat:Don't wait for an undervention. Pick up some well-made, well-priced Fruit of the Loom today. Okay, let's wrap up. We got guys on chicks. Henry. Sup ladies. Hey PMT boys. What's up? How you doing? I have a golf question. Oh yeah. What do you guys even talk about for four plus hours when you're all together? For example, whenever my husband gets home from golfing and I ask how his friends are, he says they are good. His friend and wife just bought a house and I asked him, is he excited? And when are they moving in? He said, uh, I think he's excited. Not sure when they're moving in next month. Maybe.

2:58:09Big Cat:What do you guys talk about? um just fun stuff i think we don't nothing we we try to not talk about anything related to real life whatsoever it just you're bullshitting for four hours yeah it depends too if it's people

2:58:24PFT Commenter:you know it's like just whatever you know i mean could just not talk to if it's people you've never golf with then you'll do like the general you know background all that stuff i mean i'm trying of think of my last what do we talk about on wednesday the weekend yeah and what do we talk about well monday we talked about how much we missed hank where's hank was yeah it was most the conversation yeah no it's very like generic i don't even think it's also like i think girls

2:58:54Big Cat:think about it because they're like oh when i go to dinner with my friends like we're at a dinner table and we're together for four hours golf is like a lot of set you know you're together but separate but together like there's not really time to have longer than like a 10 minute conversation

2:59:07PFT Commenter:right it's quick things like in the t-box and you got to go find your ball in the woods then you got

2:59:11Big Cat:to hit out of the woods yeah and you might be like teamed up with one of your friends so that person is your actual friend for that afternoon and then you're playing against your other two friends so you're just gonna make fun of your other two friends as much as you can and just kind of bullshit and fuck around for four hours and you get and you're like gambling yeah like

2:59:26PFT Commenter:2v2 gambling so you're talking about that like who's up who's down all that stuff and also talk

2:59:31Big Cat:about a lot of other times you've played golf yeah and just other rounds you've played recently courses yeah last time i played this hole this is what i did yeah remember that yeah i think that i think the car girl likes me a lot of that yeah basically nothing hello i'm planning on getting married in january 2027 my fiance tony is your guy's biggest fan he listens to episodes daily while working and yaps about your podcast at home i kid you not he gets excited when certain sporting events take place or certain plays happen simply because it'll make a great episode for him to listen to when i saw this on instagram i got super excited any words of wisdom for him i love that tony seems like a great guy i love when people say that type of thing like that actually makes me feel really really good well it also makes i'm happy that tony is able to like he sees something like probably let's be honest probably terrible house to say tony's a sicko in perfect he's a sicko and he's like i can't wait to hear how hank reacts to the halftime show the super bowl when who's getting his ass kicked.

3:00:26PFT Commenter:Yeah. Jalen Brown got traded. Oh, you got to tune in. Right. I like Tony a lot. Words of advice for Tony. He's getting married. You can... Listen, Tony. I'm going to say this once. You just let us know and we'll call this whole thing off. Okay? We'll get the fuck out of here. You never have to talk to any of these people again. Just hit the road. Open road. You and the PMT guys, gone. Just dust in the wind. So just let us know. We're in. Yeah, I would say more than anything, it's a true partnership. Communication.

3:01:01Big Cat:Communication. Yeah. Yeah. Communication is key. Also, if you have any hobbies that you think you're going to want to pick up at any point for the rest of your life, start doing it now. Now.

3:01:09PFT Commenter:Right now.

3:01:10Big Cat:It's hard to add. Yeah. You never used to play poker.

3:01:13PFT Commenter:Yeah. Real hard to add. You just actually do all the hobbies right now. Then you can, when you cut them out, you're a hero. I love you so much that I gave up quilting, babe. Oh, shit. I'm not LARPing anymore. it's because i want to spend time with you the larping actually sounds pretty fun

3:01:29Big Cat:hey guys my boyfriend has been preoccupied by the world cup the last few weeks but ever since usa was knocked out he keeps saying how many sundays there are till football starts yep for some context there's nine we live in california and most of his friends live in chicago every sunday at 10 a.m since he can't hang out with them to watch together he and his friends facetime for the start of the games he continues to facetime until the last game ends around 8 30 PT. Basically 10 hours straight. He's done this every Sunday for the past five years and won't do anything else besides FaceTime and watch football with his friends on Sundays.

3:01:57PFT Commenter:Love that.

3:01:58Big Cat:My question is what am I supposed to do during this time and is this healthy for him to do? They also do this every Monday and Thursday night game. That's only a few hours. Am I insane thinking that this is insane? It drives me nuts that he doesn't want to do anything else. Curious your thoughts. Thanks. Football, no. That's a lot of FaceTime.

3:02:15PFT Commenter:Yeah. Loves his boys. actually you should not complain because it sounds like he doesn't watch college football so count your lucky stars we could add Saturday you want to add Saturday? Tuesday Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday you don't want that Brazil you're one of the lucky ones Sunbelt? this is what the majority of us this is our hobby also shout out all the guys out there that are going to be going through it next week the guys that maybe spent the entire last month and a half treating the World Cup as their full-time job. I do feel for them. Because there are those guys out there.

3:02:54Big Cat:Listen, we all go through things that we have to fill the gap that football leaves when there's no football on. This just got me excited for football. I just started thinking about it. But there's too much time in between. No, but I like the anticipation. The getting excited for it's almost the best part. I love football.

3:03:12PFT Commenter:It's so good. It's the best thing That's why it's like I can't get that upset About like if England Wins the soccer match I land on my honeymoon The Friday

3:03:20Big Cat:The Friday before Are you still doing this Oh yeah Whole wedding thing Yeah You got another wedding No Renewing your vows I'm gonna I can't I'm just not gonna talk to you It's gonna be the only time Of my life Oh buddy

3:03:34PFT Commenter:Oh buddy That's not true Yeah I know If there's something happening We're gonna be calling you For an emergency podcast

3:03:39Big Cat:Oh yeah I'm bringing the mic

3:03:44PFT Commenter:where you land the Friday before Labor Day.

3:03:46Big Cat:I land in Chicago the Friday of Labor Day weekend. So that's Saturday.

3:03:53PFT Commenter:That's convenient. So you land right. You've taken two weeks and then landing right before another three days. Three days doesn't mean nothing to us. I'm just fucking with you. That's a great timing by you. I'm so excited. Although we do podcast on Sunday night. So it's actually two days. Correct. Labor Day. Yeah.

3:04:09Big Cat:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

3:04:10PFT Commenter:Yeah. Because college football. although Wisconsin's playing Notre Dame

3:04:14Big Cat:no I think we normally do oh yeah no we do Monday, Tuesday Tuesday, Wednesday

3:04:19PFT Commenter:I'm an idiot okay good show boys great show oh by the way Bruce Levine did apologize to Jed and Carter Hawkins privately so that's a closing that chapter

3:04:33Big Cat:twinkle D twinkle dumb

3:04:40PFT Commenter:Shane, I just realized the mistake I've made in this show because I made fun of Shane's blockbuster pic on a day that I got a haircut and a beard trim so my face is looking extra fat. I'm expecting a tough thumbnail for me today. Real tough. You look so happy. It's going to be a tough. Listen, I don't... It is what it is. I posted the one that was just so egregious that it was like... You've done some bad ones. It looks like somebody put a bicycle park in your face. But I post them, but I just realized I've set myself up for a bad one today. The Brady Keduck graphic.

3:05:24Big Cat:Did you guys see that one? Yeah. It was awful. It was awful. With thumbnails like that, Shane, you should work for The Onion. Oh, he's mad. It's when you're... That's the most emotive faces of the episode. Okay. Numbers. 78.

3:05:40PFT Commenter:I'm going to do zero. I'm going to do seven. I'm going to go... I'm going to go 20. Nine.

3:05:46Big Cat:I'm going to 23. 86. What did you say, Hank? 79.

3:05:53Big Cat:Memes took zero, huh? Right in the hot hand.

3:06:02Oh.

3:06:04PFT Commenter:51. Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? 51. One more. One more.

3:06:10Big Cat:One more. One more. 51. 51.

3:06:26PFT Commenter:76.

3:06:30Big Cat:Sixers. One more. Happy birthday, Tobias Harris. Oh. Happy birthday to Dame Lillard. Happy birthday, Barry Sanders. Happy birthday, Aaron Glenn, memes. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, Will Ferrell. Love you guys.

3:07:03Thank you.

3:07:35Thank you.

3:08:09Thank you.

3:08:35Thank you.