Falafel (6-7-23)

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley. When some idiot in the press asked him, if you know what you know now, would you schedule this game? He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey.

And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. He's just completely taking the wind out of my face. It's time for The Drive with Josh Grant.

Welcome to a Wednesday Drive. You are listening to WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where perhaps the most significant news in MLS history and maybe American soccer history came down today. That news being, Lionel Messi has decided he's gonna join Inter Miami and he could begin his stint in the United States as early as next month.

Think about it this way. Messi is the greatest soccer player of all time in some circles and six months ago, he won the World Cup. That guy, fresh off a World Cup, who some believe is the greatest, is going to be playing club soccer in the MLS. And here's what makes 2023 different than the other times foreign stars have played stateside.

The American soccer scene is finally ready for a star like Messi because in the past, it hasn't always been. Really quickly, a history lesson about American soccer. Usually every 15 to 20 years, there's a touch point in American soccer history that you can pinpoint where the sport has had clear growth.

Go back to the mid-1970s, so dating back 50 years or so. Mid-1970s, Pelé joined the New York Cosmos. Nobody really knew about the sport of soccer at the time.

That generated some interest. The player that many consider, along with Messi, to be the greatest soccer players ever, is playing in the United States towards the end of his career. Fast forward 15-20 years, early to mid-1990s, the United States got a bid to host the World Cup, the 1994 World Cup. At this point, people knew about soccer, but it wasn't all that popular yet. People knew the sport, but it was still very foreign to them. Oh, that's the sport that they play very well elsewhere.

They don't really play well here. We don't even have a league here that's very successful. We hosted the World Cup in 1994 and what came out of it? The MLS launching in 1996, the US soccer boom with the ladies winning in 1999, and there for the really first time being an appetite in America for soccer. 15 years or so after the 1994 World Cup, David Beckham decides to join LA Galaxy.

This is in 2007. I remember this because I was just starting to play soccer in high school and I told my dad I want to see him as close as he can be. Problem he said at the time was, Josh, there are only 13 teams in MLS, so we'll have to see maybe he can go to DC.

And surely enough, his first match was an exhibition at DC United and I was in RFK Stadium to watch that happen in 2007. It was a huge, huge deal and what came out of it? A lot of interest in US soccer as they went into the 2010 World Cup, Landa Donovan had the goal against Algeria and the country was behind soccer. You could see that growth from 1994 and it was just continuing to grow.

It was continuing to bubble at the surface. You saw more of those think pieces about the sport of the future being soccer and now you have another touch point with Leo Messi joining MLS in 2023. The MLS though has changed so much. It is a legitimate professional league in a way it was not 15 years ago. It would have been strange 15 years ago to talk about players playing, being good enough to play in the European soccer leagues back in 2007.

That's not as strange anymore. You have plenty of guys on MLS teams that are playing for national teams of note, guys who are outwardly choosing to play in MLS. Think about this from a growth perspective. 13 teams were in MLS when David Beckham started. There are going to be 30 teams in MLS in the next couple of years.

30. More than twice the amount of teams in that period of time. If that doesn't represent growth I don't know what does. And you have owners with very deep pockets like David Tepper, our guy who's bringing concerts to Charlotte. Yeah and worth 13 billion dollars, one of the richest NFL owners.

You got owners with deep pockets and you have these massive football stadiums that you play in. Leo Messi being an MLS is only going to elevate the sport and elevate the league and elevate all of the clubs in it. Every time he plays in your city it's going to become a massive, massive event because he's a much bigger star than Beckham was. Beckham was a big star because he's handsome, he was a model, you know he played for the English national team then Real Madrid and he had a wife who was a member, was a spice spice girl, you know that all factors into it. But David Beckham never won a World Cup. David Beckham I don't think was ever considered one of the best of his generation. Leo Messi might be the best soccer player to ever live and he just won a World Cup. So it's not the same thing and it's a totally different time for American soccer too.

The soccer public, the soccer scene in America is ready for a star like Lionel Messi. On Twitter at WSJS radio if you want to know today's show 336-777-1600 is the phone number. Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show taking your calls at 777-1600. W.D. the audience has spoken on the alien movie you're gonna be watching this week a la tonight.

37% of the Twitter poll has voted for Independence Day 1996. That sound good to you? It sounds fair enough but I don't have much of a choice enough that it matters.

That would have been my choice. Well yeah. Like last night it was close and I called it saying hey Independence Day is gonna be the movie so I watched Independence Day last night.

I think you're gonna enjoy yourself. You know speaking of Will Smith and aliens I've never seen iRobot either. iRobot's not aliens. I know it's not but like you see what I'm saying.

Futuristic. Yeah. Well I guess Independence Day is set and I see what you're saying there. Let me get to ACC basketball because this might encapsulate the Steve Forbes experience. He broke news on his media call without likely knowing that he broke any news. He was talking about his schedule saying it's in the books. We know what we're gonna be doing non-conference. We know who our ACC opponents are gonna be. The only thing we don't know is our ACC SEC challenge matchup but we know it's gonna be held in December. That's news to us because we were wondering is it gonna be in December like the ACC Big Ten or is it gonna be like the SEC Big 12 and be set in early February late January. Well Steve Forbes says it's going to be in December and he had some thoughts saying he probably preferred it the way that the SEC and the Big 12 had it. You know at the timing of it it's always after the MTE in early December.

I mean I would I don't think it would be bad to put it somewhere in you know January February. I probably would be God I'm not sure everybody would agree with me on that but I will tell you that in 2008 in February we played Memphis when I was in Tennessee non-conference game on Saturday on college game day and at that point I know this would be hard for Duke of Carolina fans to understand but it was the highest watched game in the history of ESPN. It was one versus two we ended up beating them and it was in February had great coverage.

Yeah it happened in February and that would be great if the ACC and the SEC capitalized on having a game having their challenge later in the season because teams get better as the season goes on we learn this the ACC won the Big Ten as ACC challenge and it's last year and how much did that help the ACC when you know bracket time came around not so much people forgot about those results teams get better teams change so if you play in late January early February I think those metrics I think those data points will be more significant and it will help the metrics for the ACC and I think it'll make the games more exciting too and it will be a good reprieve from ACC play one month of conference games then you get the ACC SEC challenge and then one more month of conference games I think it would have been a good fit. Steve Forbes also provided an update on Damari Monsanto. Damari if you don't remember ruptured his Achilles back in late January at NC State I think was January 28th was the game when they were honoring the 83 NC State team on the 40 anniversary 40 year anniversary and Steve Forbes says that it's looking like a 10-month recovery for him which would say he comes back after the start of the season but Forbes says don't count out Damari. Well according to Dr. Damari Monsanto I didn't realize he'd already got became a doctor he says he's two months ahead of schedule which according to the real medical people that's not in case I think he's doing really well again I'm not I'm not a doctor but I watch him I go down and watch him work out in the water on the zero gravity treadmill he's out in the gym shooting he's moving around you know it's just it's a process but yeah I do expect him to play in in in November right away. That's big if he were to come back remember he had an Achilles injury before two years ago and he came back he had surgery in June of 2021 he came back in January to play January that's six months so if he's ahead of schedule again then yeah he could be back for the opener in November they are really gonna need him especially without Bobby Klintman who kept his name in the NBA draft and you're losing Ty Appleby as well Wake Forest has had some pretty big losses this offseason game three of the finals tonight in Miami decent time to be a sports fan in South Florida Miami basketball to the Final Four for the first time and Boca FAU to the Final Four for the first time Miami women's basketball to the Elite Eight some guy named Leo Messi it's gonna be playing for Inter Miami and on top of that our beloved Carolina Hurricanes were knocked out by the Florida Panthers to go to the Stanley Cup final so a lot going on so we welcome in Tom Haberstroh who joins us basketball Illuminati podcast doing great stuff with metal arc media but since you're a Wake Forest alum I have to know what are you more excited about your alma mater being number one in the country in baseball and hosting a super regional this weekend or that ish Smith one of your former classmates as a few wins away from a title ish Smith baby ish is the light in my life he is the light in everyone's life in the NBA I mean it's so cool to have people sing the praises of ish Smith because people from Concord North Carolina or Winston-Salem North Carolina have known this about ish throughout his basketball career that he is just greatest guy always has a smile on his face and has never been to this place in the NBA like he's been in the league for over a decade and has been on 13 14 different teams and has never been in the NBA Finals and so I I feel like wake back wake baseball can get to number one status and maybe win a college World Series but to have some finality here of the ish Smith experience that he's just so close to winning it all and I got to tell you I'd be lying if I said it doesn't hit in the back of my head Chris Paul to is just like ish Smith is here three wins away from winning the title knowing how close Chris got as a wake fan I'm just still so very nervous about what happens here oh no doubt but to your point ish Smith he's the only professional athlete that we've had on the show that we just couldn't get off the air because he wanted to go on and on and on about how much he loved Wake Forest after we learned he was gonna be in the Hall of Fame last year what do you remember most about getting to know ish back in your Winston-Salem days well he was this plucky point guard who was just fast as lightning out on the floor and coming off of Chris Paul you just thought although they'll never be another Chris Paul and Jeff Teague certainly could hold his own NBA player and that's kind of the curse of being at Wake Forest is like you know you get these guys like John Collins and ish Smith and James Johnson and and and Jeff Teague Alfred Camino and before you know it they're gone and with ish it was we get four years of this guy he got hurt I think his junior year but the fact that he was able to be the clutch performer pull-up jumper after pull-up jumper I think he had four game winners just the thing about ish was that energy brought to every locker room every game was validated with these like heroic finishes and everyone just wanted to see success around this guy one of my favorite details about ish is is that before NBA games he calms down and just kind of gets his end by watching everybody loves Raymond you know there's an NBA player right now who's 35 years old what have you who just pulls up old our archive videos of everybody loves Raymond to get in the zone for an NBA game like is there anything you it's more delightful than that I bet he's doing that right now as we speak and all I can think of is he's like Paul Rudd and 40 year old virgin like he's everybody loves Raymond that's that's ish Smith you're telling us yeah in and he you know it's a small campus so you get to know the basketball players a little bit and he's he's local North Carolina guy but he's not quite like you know Josh Howard and Chris Paul but he's one of our own and ish just always you know whenever you saw him around campus just oh just hey how's it going just so bubbly and happy which is different than your normal football player or basketball player on campus because they're always just kind of like tired and coming back from this road trip no ish ish told Stan Van Gundy in a recent article for the athletic can you believe they pay us to do this and that's the energy he had on campus to at Wake Forest and walking you know around the mad quad and you'd see him at the at you know eating at the pit you know it just was this energy of you needed to be around that guy you just needed to because he was just so bubbly and so happy and he didn't have that same kind of like oh I got to go through classes today that you get a report from different students students he genuinely deemed like he hit a lottery ticket and won the lottery with every step of every day important clarification correction Paul Rudd would not have pulled everybody loves Raymond out of that box and 40-year-old virgin that's Steve Correll who was watching everybody loves rain I wasn't gonna say it but you know it's an important I get what you were going for important correction Tom havers throw is with us basketball Illuminati podcast check it out the finals tonight getting to the finals how sustainable do you think it is for Miami to play the way it did in game two with such a strong reliance on threes and also using that zone to try and limit the movement around the okich yeah it's it's done the idea that the Miami Heat can't keep this up we should have said that after Milwaukee then they did it against the Knicks and then they did it against the Eastern Conference champions in the Boston Celtics at some point the fan needs to realize this is who they are they're making more threes than the Golden State Warriors did during their championship runs they are they have four games in which they've made over 50% of their three-pointers which is more or than any team no one's ever had more than that not even the LeBron Cavs that were built around three-point shooting around LeBron not even the splash brothers Golden State Warriors this is the Miami Heat this they are gonna kill you with three-point shots whether it's Gabe Vincent or Jimmy Butler or Max Drews actually so an 0 for 10 in game one and came out guns blazing in game two and made four of nine three-pointers in the four seven in the first quarter like the resilience of this team is something we've never seen we've never seen a team win this many games as an eight seed in NBA history in the postseason and the zone defense certainly disrupts with the Nikola Jokic Denver offense that was gangbusters against the Lakers the top defense in the NBA they're absolutely legit the Miami Heat but both ends of the floor so might go down as the best coach of this era he's just that there's tactician his motivation two years ago he was last year remember Jimmy Butler and Eric's bolster were ready to go to blows it before before the playoffs there was a game in which Jimmy Butler and Eric's bolster were ready to go out Mike Tyson style and then they they rallied and became the the Eastern one minute away from the East winning the championship so this this sustainability is no longer a question they can keep this up and they can win this whole damn thing last thing for Tom Haber Stroh basketball Illuminati podcast you're in Charlotte now what do you think do you have an opinion on what the Charlotte Hornets should do it to I think they should go for scoot scoot would be so much fun just watching him in lamello man that back court and I think as we've seen in today's NBA positionless NBA you don't need to have defined roles in the back court to make you feel like you have a chance and I think scoot and lamello do two very different things Brandon Miller of course is being talked about as the fit at number two because he's great on the wing I just I want to see better handle I want to be see better strength and athleticism I don't I don't think he's kind of this like can't miss prospect I think scoot Henderson is the better player and I also think at this point you just get the best player available so to me it's it's scoot Henderson have you everybody's mocking it feels like Brandon Miller going number two to Charlotte and every argument I've seen is an argument fit while many of those seen people will say at the top of the NBA draft especially you shouldn't be talking about that have you heard anybody make the basketball argument that Miller is a better player than scoop because I just haven't heard it I haven't either though scoot did not have a great ignite season with a G league night team I think he's super strong I've heard the name Eric Bledsoe tossed around with with him and I know that doesn't seem like oh well that's the number two pick Eric Bledsoe he's better than that as a prospect but if you can get me a guy who's just gonna blow everybody out in in transition John Wall ask and North Carolina fans know the talent of John Wall and the career he's had if we always want to say like is he a Hall of Famer well then no is he he's not worthy of a number two pick no if you get a John Wall in the draft a guy who's you know perennially all-star and sometimes in the MVP conversation that is a home run of a second round second pick overall so to me scoot Henderson has the tools he's a great dude and I think some of the character issues that you've heard about with Brandon Miller and the kind of attitude that he's had even forget the off-court stuff I think scoot Henderson has the kind of charisma and the energy about him that you put him next to the metal they're gonna figure it out and they're not in a position to get picky Tom haberstrell you are in the position to be picky and that's why we are appreciative that you spent the time back in your roots on wsjs best of luck to ish Smith best of luck to you as well in the basketball Illuminati podcast and otherwise thanks for the visit go deeks if you'd like tickets to go see tenacious D on the spicy meatball tour fantastic name Jack Black Kyle gasps those who know know how great tenacious D is September 6th in Charlotte three three six seven seven seven one six hundred all you need to do is call in and tell us something good weekly positivity here in the midweek lifting morale across the Piedmont Triad that's moments away a couple Major League Baseball things to pass along the New York Yankees have postponed their game today against the Philadelphia Phillies due to air conditions with this Canadian Wildfire that we've been hearing about throughout the day show that came from obviously Canada and is making its way across the south just saw Tim Buckley from WF and why say that overnight air conditions even here in the Triad might not be great so be mindful of that overnight but when you look at pictures from Yankee Stadium it's pretty staggering what it looks like right now and when you see those pictures you'll realize that this was the only choice they had while we're talking Major League Baseball though my Baltimore Orioles they lost in extras to the Milwaukee Brewers last night but last night was just another example of why it's cool that baseball changed the rules to allow for every team to play every team in a season on the baseball scheduling format last night I was sitting on my couch listening to Bob Euchre call the Baltimore Orioles and it's great that you have that capability with the MLB app and all of that but the Orioles don't play the Brewers all that often so and Bob Euchre's 88 so how many more opportunities do you get the chance to listen to that Bob Euchre even though the brew crew won in a walk-off just hearing Bob Euchre call a walk-off against my team pretty cool last night now let's get into weekly positivity oh yeah today we celebrate our Independence Day WD gonna watch Independence Day later on tonight excited very it seems some of our listeners are excited to potentially win tickets to go see tenacious D let's start with one of them Chris in Kernersville is up first Chris tell me something good well just like mr. Josh Graham I am an Oriole fan and even though we're having an incredible season it's good are you gonna make your way out the Camden Yards sometime this year I don't know if I'll be able to make it up there this year but I want to go up sometime soon because it's beautiful ballpark I just got in the league last night I just got my tickets for 4th of July weekend the 4th is on a Tuesday so I'm gonna pull that move where I ride up on after I get off the air on Friday maybe get in like at 1 2 in the morning and then Saturday Sunday gonna watch my birds and just take Monday off so that way I still have Monday and Tuesday to do other things with my wife my wife not Orioles related that's my game plan that's good that is good enjoy tenacious D and thanks for the call Chris hi well hello Josh tell me something good so yesterday after the show I went to this new place to eat that I'd never been before it's called Kava Kava is good have you been there yeah it's so it's a Mediterranean style it's not a restaurant it's a kind of a fast-food type invite almost like a Chipotle where you like build the hole and type things like that you went to the one in Greensboro I did and I had a market spice bowl I don't know what all was in it it's a lot of things I can't pronounce something called a falafel a falafel it looks it looks like a meatball but it's not it's some type of bread I think three three six seven seven one six hundred Kyle the Amazon driver once in hi Kyle how are things going with you tell me something good WD get ready I might need your help with this one oh boy be making our our tournament return to countryside lanes for the no tap tournament in bowling me my son and my father will be bowling at that where's countryside lane Stephen a Smith Curtisville oh we're gonna be in Kernersville and there might be a bowling alley when I'm done with it but I will not make any guarantee Wow you're gonna burn that place to the ground aren't you oh it's gonna be beautiful there's gonna be babies crying everywhere it's gonna be beautiful most depicted the sitcom baby number two my son is graduating from daycare tomorrow Wow and number three as I sit in this Amazon fan I am currently the number five thousand five hundred and fifty eight top-ranked PGA Tour 2k 23 player in the world here's the question though yes do you want WD's hands and on TPC sawgrass on in the PGA Tour game there's a lot of things we joke and we play about but I do not play about my games and let alone my golf so if he wanted he can come get it do you want that smoke Kyle you oh I want the smoke I want the pipe I want the fire and all baby okay we're gonna figure out Kyle you know the next destination for your for the Josh Graham fat head to her by the way I do not right now we're gonna take a step back we're gonna make some changes to the fat head we're gonna make it a little bit better and we're gonna reset ourselves and we're gonna go after it a little bit harder in a couple weeks okay and in the interim you work on that I'll work on something with you and WD to play some bets it might in the spirit of the sports betting becoming legal in North Carolina well we'll play some odds on you on TPC sawgrass versus WD in this golf video game get rekt will bring it home there goes cuz you get rekt the Amazon driver but not right now cuz you're driving was that JC horn it was he was oh I'll tell you something good I bought I brought willow into the office today you did I win I didn't see that it was like 10 10 30 all that was area yeah and I realized I didn't realize until I got a puppy the power of puppies first day I mean it's the first dog I've had since I was in high school but like the smiles it puts on people's faces it like it's a rainy dreary day and you could kind of feel it when you walk into an office like I went into the law office next door but then when willow the dog walks through those doors immediate kind of like this segment this segment might instead of being the sticky V of radio segments it might be the willow the dog of will of radio segments it's a ray of sunshine right it just elevates everything and that's been weekly breaking NBA news Chris Paul has been waived by the Phoenix Suns. He is now a free agent. It'll be interesting to see where he ends up. Banana boat crew reunion in LA.

I could see it. Just throwing that out there is the first place that makes some sense. Maybe bring Chris home. If Chris is gonna take a lesser role he can help mentor LaMelo Ball. Maybe help mentor Scoot Henderson, hopefully.

Fingers crossed on that. We now welcome Darren Vaught to the show. Darren Vaught, our state's preeminent college baseball expert from ACC Baseball, etc. A great podcast that you should be listening to, especially this time of year. Darren, Wake Forest hosts Alabama in a Super Regional starting Saturday at high noon.

It's gonna be broadcast on ESPN. What would your level of surprise be if the Deacs do not advance to Omaha? What are we dealing with, like a scale of 1 to 10? Yeah, 1 not being all that surprised, 10 being absolutely shocking. Like, the first time that you watch, 6 cents level of shock. I think it's, I think this is, this is, I see dead people territory. Whoa!

It would be a 10 or something like it if, if Wake Forest did not. Slightly lower, like Kaiser Soze being Kevin Spacey at the end of Usual Suspect. I'm not blowing any of these movies, by the way. I am, but it's been 25 years if you haven't seen them.

There's no such thing as a spoiler alert when a movie's decades old, come on. WD, you've seen both of these movies, right? 6 cents? Have you seen? Whoa! Hasn't! Hasn't seen 6 cents. That's kind of amazing. Okay, maybe we could write that down.

Tonight he's watching Independence Day, so you'd be that level of surprise. Why? They're just that, they're that complete, man. And, and the ACC was tough. Look, I know that it's an SEC opponent coming into Winston-Salem this weekend, but they had great level of competition every weekend in the regular season, and they never slipped up once. And here we were, I was telling you guys before this weekend, before the regional, that I thought Maryland was at least gonna put up some sort of fight against them, because they're one of the better home run hitting teams in the country. Or they were, they're no longer in it, because Wake Forest walloped them 21 to 6. I just, I have a hard time believing that, especially in the case of a three-game series versus one opponent, this is the part of the format Wake Forest is most comfortable with, given their rotation, given the way the weekends have gone throughout the entire season for them. Same team, two to three days in a row, they're not losing twice.

That's just, I just can't see it. Getting to the other North Carolina school in a Super, Duke hammering Coastal in a game seven on Sunday. I remember a few years ago, I got pretty fired up when ECU played on a Monday, a game seven, I forget if it was against Campbell or NC State on a Monday, game seven, and I got charged up because the next day they sent the Pirates to Louisville for a Friday noon game. And they just did the same thing to Duke, where Duke, they're on the road, they're in Conway, at least the Pirates were at home that weekend. Now the quick turnaround, they have to go play the first game of the Super Regional Round in Charlottesville at the Dish. Did you have any problems with this scheduling?

Not really, I mean, I mean, you could draw your qualms from elsewhere, right, like you're talking about, from other situations, and just like the fact of the matter is, it's impossible to treat everyone the same in these situations, so you're going to have some that seem a little less fair than others. I'm not at all concerned for Duke about it because honestly, I don't think the extra day phases them at all because of the way that they have plotted out their starting pitching, right? That's the only the only reason you would not want to play one day sooner would be so that you could map out a rotation, right? I mean, I can't think of another. I mean, logistically, you got to get there, but this is all pretty regional.

Coastal, back to Durham, and to Charlottesville, Virginia is not that much of a pretzel stretch to do in the span of a week. So no, I don't have any issue with it, and especially in the case of Duke, I think they can they can handle it pretty well, and they took two of three from Virginia in the regular season in Charlottesville. I mean, they're going to be ready.

This is not a disadvantage. Time to transition things to the unusual questions portion of the proceedings. If you have an unusual question, which is essentially the ask anything portion of what we do, 336-777-1600, call in now. Tenacious D tickets to the first person to call. Spicy Meatball Tour is going to be in Charlotte in September.

Tickets go on sale Friday. The first to call in with an unusual question gets tickets to see Tenacious D on the Spicy Meatball Tour. It's time for unusual questions. Last week, guys, everybody made it out that I got mad at Josh, and I left the press conference.

That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question, and it's okay. It's time for unusual questions with Josh Gray.

My unusual question is, what's your favorite posish? Just kidding. Those who know know with Tenacious D, right? I don't think I could quote more from that particular song, but... Full stop.

Full stop. We could make we could spin that baseball-wise. Hey, what's your favorite posish? You know, I might like the six.

I might like the seven. I actually have a baseball question to get us started here. And again, first to call in with an unusual question.

336-777-1600. See you in Jack Black. See you in Kyle Gasser in Charlotte later this year. I've been stewing on this since last weekend where I was at the Supers or the regional in Winston-Salem.

Where do you stand? Where is the line between okay and too far when it comes to baseball hecklers? And let me define baseball heckler.

I guess you could have your own definition. I think guy behind the plate who's yelling after every pitch, Good eye! Good eye! Or because you could be a positive heckler too.

Or like, oh, blue, blue, blue! That guy counts. The person who's like saying mean things at players. That guy obviously counts.

Or the person who's like a polite, like a funny heckler that qualifies too. But where do you stand on it, Darren? There's a line, right? I think it's a fair question to ask. I don't, I don't, I don't like negativity.

You can be a little over the top with positivity and chances are I'm unironically going to love it. Like, like, here we go, two six. Here we go. You got this after every pitch, right?

Just remind him what kind of account it is. Want to know, all right, you're ahead. You're ahead.

1-0. So you're, you're okay with that guy. You're okay if that person's like super loud around a lot of other people. Every pitch, because my dad is that guy. Doesn't matter what game he's at. He picks a side and he's like, yeah, two six. Way to go. Good eye.

Good eye. I'm like, Dad, it's the second inning. That was, that was my life up until about 23 years of age. So that was me. Whether I was in the on deck circle, in the dugout, in the field, because you're cheering on a pitcher in that case. I get it.

That's instinctive to a lot of people. I respect it. I remember I was at a Dash baseball game where I was heckling the left fielder while I was in the brew pen, which was the Foothills brew pen at the time. And all I kept saying for three innings is, hey, 17. I want some double bubble.

Can you throw me some double bubble? Because I saw he had some in his back pocket. And then after about like two or three innings, he turned around. He threw it my way on a rope right to me. Caught it. And then like two pitches later, a home run hit right to me. And the outfitter's like, hey, was that out?

Yeah, because it bounced right in front of me and then back onto the field of play. Manager was upset the whole deal. Anyway, who are we going to on the phone here? We got Gabe in Winston. Gabe, what's your unusual question? What is the best minor league stadium in the triad? Appreciate the phone call.

That's actually a really difficult question. Wow. See, since I used to be a Dash season ticket holder and we give away Dash tickets on a weekly basis, I am partial to the Dash ball park because I've been there more.

Yeah, it probably is. Mostly because this is no disrespect to the Rockers. But like, I mean, Scott Van Pelt was pointing this out on Bad Beats earlier this week with Wake Baseball. You play on a carpet. OK, Wake Baseball, High Point, you're playing on a carpet out there. I want infield dirt on the field.

I want infield dirt. If I'm going to say you're the best ballpark. And look, don't get me wrong, the row of old seats from other parks that they have out in right field underneath the scoreboard at High Point is awesome.

Great. Probably best stuff around the actual park itself, even though Greensboro will give you a run with some of those rooftop bars and stuff that you have in right field and JoyMongers that's right there. But like High Point, you have like that food court and stuff that's out there in center field and they develop that part of town.

No, it's cool, don't get me wrong. We're talking about inside the park. Well, and also my point was with those seats, you're sort of like co-opting a little bit of character from those places because of the the newness to the Rocker Stadium. And again, I've been there to see games. It's a really, really great place to catch a game.

But it's it's got to be Winston or Greensboro. Congratulations on winning those tickets to go see Tenacious D. Also, two more words to close this thing out. Flight deck.

The flight deck. Yeah, there you go. What's your unusual question, W.D.? So you're not seeing as many people go to malls anymore. Malls aren't maybe as popular of hangout spots as they used to be.

Yeah. One, did you guys was that a regular hangout spot for you guys? And two, when you would go to the mall, what was like a regular staple of place you would go, thing you would do anything? It was topic, baby. Oh, my, my time to shine, my time to shine. Hot topic.

You knew it. Champs, champs, I go and I want to look at some of the sports stuff. And I would get excited every time I go to the mall just to walk around in Greenville. And actually, I had a friend of mine who would get his steps in every day, a kind of fit dude who would get his walk in every day at the mall during the winter months because it's just really cold outside. So we'd go to the mall to like walk like for fitness purposes.

Or you lace up the solid white. What are the walking shoes now? Hocas, new balances, the new people. Oh, what did you just say?

Did we say new balances at the same time? Wow. Yeah. The sweatsuit on the matching, you know, gray, gray sweatsuit. You get your power stride. Pretty good.

Pretty good. I didn't like hang out at malls. I mean, you guys know I grew up in a fairly rural area.

And I think to get to a legitimate mall, I would have had to have driven like an hour, at least. Darren, what's your unusual question? All right, so I did North Carolina high school state baseball championships in Burlington at the old Burlington Athletic Stadium and was just making some observations about high school sports. We all played sports in high school. And I noticed while taking in and out, it wasn't like it was anything flashy. Every sports got their equivalent of this, so it's like layup lines in basketball, infield, outfield in baseball, warm ups and soccer. I I was explaining to my analyst, I was a middle infielder. I always took it as an opportunity to do something really flashy, because inevitably the other team was always watching while you were doing in and out because there's just one field.

It's a little bit different with layup lines because they're doing their own thing while you're doing your own thing. But I always was trying to to to show off. So one time I had sort of perfected some moves better than others.

One time at shortstop, I took this ground ball and was trying to do the transfer from my glove to my hand in between my legs, sort of do like the like a little Vince Carter when I flip it up to second base. Right. Something I had done 100 times before.

Right. So I do it. I trip up and eat dirt. And I don't just mean the expression like they say that, you know, think natural things like vegetables of the size of your fist is like a serving. I ate like a serving of dirt when I did that. Had to yack it up before. Is there a question somewhere in here? Yeah, my question is I was answering it before I asked it.

OK, not the typical format. My question is, when you were doing those warm ups or whatever the equivalent for your sport was, what's the most out of pocket thing you did that went horribly wrong? Oh, see, I was a soccer player. Baseball, I never played in the infield, I played in the outfield, so I didn't really have one. So you're just long tossing.

That's the easy part. See, I tried to get a little cute on a pop fly one time. I was trying out for an A.U. team. Behind the back? Did you go behind the back? Well, no, no.

So they were taking BP or something like that. And I was at second base trying to get a little cute and casual on a high pop fly. And I totally tripped over the bag at second base and also ate dirt. Pretty bad. Let's go to Joe in Greensboro. Real quickly, Joe, what's your unusual question?

So I missed the beginning of the segment. Does that have to be a sport related question? Yeah, no, not really.

Just fire off. Not really? No? OK. So how much, being out in public, how much does the air have to start smelling like a campfire before you get concerned? Oh, wow.

This is relevant today because of the Canadian fires that just postponed a Yankee game in New York and going to be probably affecting us overnight coming this weekend or not this weekend, but later tonight, overnight. Before you get concerned, Aaron, what do you think? I don't know, man, there are plenty of smarter people than I who know the concerns. So there is no level. There's no level.

You're going to default to you're going to default to smart people will figure this one out if I need to be concerned, not me. We've all got weather apps that give us the air quality every day. They do? People measure these things and you can check it every day. Air quality is on the weather app?

Yeah, it's a 68. That is poor air quality. Therefore, I know one thing.

I'm probably not going for a run outside. You're right. It says air quality alert till eight o'clock tonight. That's what I'm telling you, man. There are people this is built in. We don't have to we don't have to ask these questions. We are doing it for us. I love I love the campfire smell, though.

Also, if the sky is orange, like, yeah, be concerned. Like, come on, Darren, thank you for being here, my friend, ACC, baseball, etc. We'll talk to you next week. Sounds good to you guys.