Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast

9am Hour - The Manager's Report + Padres vs Giants

Ben & Woods kick off the 9am hour as we do each and every Friday with our Manager's Report as Padres skipper Mike Shildt joins the show, and talks about last night's tough loss for Robert Suarez. Then at the bottom of the hour the guys take a look at this weekend's matchup with the visiting San Francisco Giants before we play some "Things Ben Likes" to wrap up the week! Listen here!

Duration:: 47m
Broadcast on:: 06 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Learn more at cdc.gov/stopoverdose. ♪♪ There's sports betting, and then there's circa Las Vegas, at adults-only sports-watching Nirvana. Now you can watch up to 19 games at the world's largest sportsbook, on a 78 million pixel, three-story mega screen. Plus, it's always spectator season at America's largest pool amphitheater, Stadium Swim. Stadium Swim is open 365 days a year, and features all sports on an epic, 143-foot screen. Book your reservation at circleosvegas.com/circleosvegas. This is sports the way it should be. This podcast on "97.3. The Fan" is presented by Hamul Casino, "Fun of all else." ♪♪ Final hour on a fryer Friday, it is Ben Woods on "97.3. The Fan," and that means it is, yes, time for our manager's report. Joining us right now, Skipper Mike Schilt from the San Diego Protrays, brought to you by San Diego County Credit Union. It's not Big Bank banking. It is better. Mike, it is good to have you on. It's probably nice for you to be back at home this week. There was a long road trip, a lot of games in a row, so welcome back to San Diego. Thank you very much. Good to be back, as always. Love the city, and good to play in Peko. It was as stressful as last night might have been for you and closer Robert Suarez. Mike, I had 11 kids under the age of seven in a suite out at Pekko Park. So I saw what happened on the field. I was there, and I thought to myself, "Ah, I think I still had a worse night. What can you say about your closer Robert Suarez?" And it's such a bummer to watch that happen to a guy that has been so great all season long. Yeah, I think he reminds us how we can't take for granted whether a tremendous job he's done for us. And it's a huge part of putting us in the position we're in. And listen, I mean, others I try to do, man. He's throwing 101, got to put a swing on it, and got the good part of the bat, and that's the game. But look, Robert's been a huge part of what we do, and trust him completely, and we'll go back and get him tonight. So I saw your post-game press conference, and I wasn't surprised, but you didn't seem worried at all that something like that is going to affect your team going forward. And I'm not surprised. You guys have bounced back many times this year and never shown any inkling of like reason to be concerned. But as a former minor league manager, when you manage guys who may not have had experience like your current players, do you ever say things like after a tough game like that? I mean, what kind of you feel is the manager's role there? Well, it's a good question. It's a-- for a player development standpoint, there's so many variables that can go into that. Generally speaking, yeah, I mean, listen, we didn't enjoy the end result last night, but there's not an overreaction to do anything. I think, really, just regardless of level, you're always looking to identify how do we win, what didn't happen that we would have liked to have been different, and we've changed anything, and then you take the inventory of it. So again, regardless of level, you look up and you say, all right, was there good competition with guys into the competition? Absolutely. Were guys prepared? Absolutely. Were guys aggressive? Absolutely. Did it work out? Yes, great. Repeat. Did it not work out for one of those other variables? Or, you know, and again, it's a general question, so it's a general answer, like, you know, so you explore what could you have done different, went up to it, what was your mindset? What was the decision-making process? And if you, you know, did you prepare for that situation? And then you just take it as you do undress it, and then, you know, you walk through it and you learn from it, or you ideally, you grow confidence from it. No, I was prepared. I was thinking the right way. I wasn't aware of the situation. I was in the moment. I did compete well. I wasn't, you know, being aggressive and trusting my ability. Heck, man, good for you. So, you know, just kind of go through that process, a checklist, and see where it falls. There's, as a learning curve, just some of it is clear, emotional, you're from a preparatory standpoint sometimes. Talking to the skipper, Mike Schill, here on Ben & Woods, this morning, and Schill, this may not surprise you, but I answered the question on Twitter the other day, and I think I was talking out of my rear end, and that's the part that won't surprise you. But somebody had asked me, we had called Diaz up. I said, what are we going to see Diaz? I said, hey, hey, hey, relax. It's a catcher, right? Like, he's a catcher. He's got a lot of new pitchers to learn, and it's got me thinking about it. When you trade for a catcher mid-season, and he's got to come over, learn a whole new slew of pitchers, that's got to be the toughest position for a team to trade for, right? And can you tell us what goes into getting a new catcher ready to catch your staff? - Yeah, I mean, there's an onboarding process that I feel really good about our staff being able to help with our players, whether it was the pitchers we acquired at the trade deadline, or our position players that have come in over the course of the season, and being able to give them up to speed of how we compete, how we prepare, how we think about games, how we just go about our processes. Catching is, you know, the biggest challenge. You know, the good news about Diaz is a very established guy in the league, played a lot of baseball in his life, really a high baseball IQ guy. You know, the one thing I love about the game doesn't really care about your socioeconomic status, or your language, or anything else. It knows if you can play it, and if you know how to play it, then you can usually assimilate pretty quickly into an environment which Diaz can and has. But to your point about the pitching, there's, you know, a bigger role for the catcher, 'cause most players just need to basically take care of themselves, you know, and in their general area. But the catcher spots for himself, and, you know, now 14 other pitchers that he needs to understand how they operate, what they like, and how they think, and how they like to go about things, where they like targets, and all that different things. So, you know, there's an onboarding process. Brian Esposito, who works with our catching, and also was, you know, effectively really our bench coach, knowing a great job, you know, onboarding Diaz. And had a relationship back when they were both together in Pittsburgh, and Herbie Andrade, who also was our bullpen catcher, had him in Pittsburgh, that helped with the onboarding. And I was really pleased with Higgie and Campi, you know, they didn't look at it as a threat necessarily. For Diaz to come in, those guys both done a good job. Clearly for us this year, and helped him with the process of understanding how we operate, the different pitchers and the nuances, and of course, Diaz did his part. So, getting four days to acclimate, and get caught up to speed, and got him in there. - So, Mike, we do a Thursday round table with all the hosts talking Padres-based, but I'm sure you know this, you probably never miss it. But in case you did yesterday, we discussed with the return of, you know, Joe, and you, Darvish, and Fernando Tetis Jr. The team is looking really complete right now, rotation, bullpen, lineup, a very formidable roster that you guys have put together. So, I know you're also, and you've told us, the kind of manager who, after a win or a loss, you go back and think about what you could do differently. What could go wrong? So, what is it now, that would still keep you up at night, you know, when things are going really well for this team? - I don't, I don't, I don't win any sleep. I don't, I mean, I spend 13 hours a day working at it. So, when the day's complete, you know, I take inventory at the end of the game, make my notes and take my shower and, you know, yeah, I can't say that I don't think about something at the end of the day, but, you know, the day is productive and efficient and spent towards doing everything that I and we can as a staff to get us ready to compete and have those, whatever questions that may be out there answered. And then, when you do that, you can have, you can have peace of mind. So, the reality is, when you're in my seat, there's always a question to be answered and it changes, you know, multiple times over the course of a day, depending on a lot of different variables. And, you know, you just learn to adjust to what that looks like and figure out a way to find a solution to them. But, you know, you can't, you know, there's not one thing that is never going to be there because it can only rotates. - Talking to the skipper, Mike Schilter, I'm Ben and Woods this morning and it's funny because I was at the game last night and they showed when Mason McCoy dropped that bump down. Now, not a reviewable play. You came out and wanted to talk to Phil Cuzzy and the funny thing is, the umpires all get together and the replays right there on the big screen behind them. I know you can see it and, well, they can see it as well. And they still, what did you see? What's, what do you say when you go out there to talk to Phil? - Well, you know, you said it's not reviewable. I think you could debate whether it should be. I personally think, you know, it should be a reviewable play, it's a tough call for the plate guy. I mean, I don't know how, I mean, Phil is doing his best. You know, and he said, he's a good, I'm part of a good crew, I could crew a lot. And, you know, they always wanted to just get it right. - Sure. - You know, he said, you know, they came out based on his reaction and based on the ball and, but he, you know, can he really see that? No, he's got a big catcher standing in front of him. He's got another player in front of him. And, you know, it's two feet away at, you know, at the feet. So it's at, at best his best guess, which, you know, it's all he can do, right? I mean, it's what his job is. And then I caught it in for asking the, you know, for help. And, but again, based on that angle, it's a really hard call for even the guys on the bases. I probably had as good of you as anybody 'cause I'm looking at it from a completely side angle. - Yeah. - Those guys don't have that, didn't have that benefit. However, they do want to replay. And so, but by rule, it's not reviewable. I've caught him for at least asking and talking. They didn't see anything that would have overturned their, their, their partner. And they, you know, went down the road. - One thing I always like on your post game news conferences is one of the guys, you know, A.C. or A.J. and they bring something up in the game. And you always, when you, it's something like you wanted to point out, you go, I'm glad you brought that up. I'm going to give you that chance here. You've gotten a lot of contributions from different guys all season long, who's one guy on your team or your coaching staff that you think hasn't gotten enough recognition for the job that they have done this season. - Great question, it's hard to narrow that down to one. - Sure, give me two, give me three, give me 10, whatever you want. - Yeah, I think it's, it's a ideal time to really recognize the staff and you know, listen, we're here for the players and the players, they pulled away, they take care of the business. We, you know, we do our part to set them up to be as successful as they possibly can, but they, they get all the credit and, you know, clearly it's a, it's a very special group that, every day is looking to compete, regardless of circumstances, which sounds easy, but is really a challenge and way harder said than done. And this is a team that's doing that. But our staff has been outstanding. I really, you know, no order. And there's a ton of support staff. And the one thing I'll say is, you know, including myself, we're all support staff, you know, field staff, training staff, there's no caste system and, and, and servant leadership. And, and we just all have our jobs to do. So we're just more out in front than others, but all are important. And, you know, our, our field staff has been outstanding. I mentioned Brian Esposito has been, you know, a tremendous job, Ruben Diego obviously does a tremendous job of the pitching with Ben Prince, our bullpen coach and Peter Somerville, does a lot of game planning. I mentioned, you know, or being dry day also a catch you want, you know, those are bullpen catching and helps with the catchers and does a lot of behind the scenes stuff that, you know, just gets done in a positive manner. Of course, Victor Rodriguez has been tremendous, you know, taking over our heading. I mean, not enough can be said about what Victor's meant to this club, but he's got good help, you know, Mike McCoy and Pat O'Sullivan have come up through the system and have been a big part of our heading and do a great job. And, you know, their care factor is extremely high. And, you know, he got a really good base coach. He's 10, we've presented a really good job of third and helps with our end, does our end field work. And David Macias, you know, it's done a great job at first with the base running and outfield play. And, you know, those guys have been tremendous. And, you know, staff's been great. And, you know, listen, there's a lot of support, but our medical staff is tremendous as well. Mark Rogo and does a great job. He's got a lot of trainers there. And, you know, just these guys are phenomenal with the work they do to keep our guys on the field and the amount of work and effort they put into it. And Scott Hacker, I'll rehab guys on tremendous jobs unfortunately, he's been kept pretty busy this year, but he's been up to the task and gotten guys back on the field and ready to compete again. Our street conditioning guys are fantastic. Jay and Rio, you know, we travel in T.G. LaSita, T.G. Leylaw and the clubhouse guys are first class. I mean, we've got to, we've got an elite staff, you know, we've got group, including our research and development. The analytic group does a great job, Adam Escar and his group. And guys can help us game playing and video with Jim McHugh does a lot of the advanced workforce and Jim McAlpin and Adam Hahn on the video stuff. I mean, it's just a really good staff that get a lot of credit. They don't want to see credit. We're there to do our jobs and get the credit and build the players up. But it is a good time to recognize what we do as a staff and the group that's, you know, done a tremendous job that I've been really tickled a partner with to work every day to make sure we leave no stone unturned. And if people knew they might have effort and preparation that went in daily, it probably boyed their minds. But it's a dedicated group that has a strong desire to excel and it's done a great job. Much like this show, skip with the dedication and preparation every single day for Ben and Woods. Shilty, I did want to just, we let you go here in a minute. How is Hasan Kim doing? Any updates on him? I know you probably get tired of answering these questions, but we always kind of like to end with kind of that last piece of the team that will, you know, everyone would love to see back there playing shorts up. - Yeah, you know, he's moving in a positive direction. He's able to swing the bat without any discomfort, which is good. And so he's taking some live advance today. He's getting closer to the progression of playing. He's starting to throw across the diamond, still in a progression that, you know, is positive, but you know, probably slower than everybody would like, including himself, but necessary. Because we've got to be careful. I mean, you know, he can't, you know, dealing with the injury he has, he lets it go and he has a setback, then that's going to, you know, be real problematic for the time we have remaining in the season, which we, you know, feel good about being a long time. But, you know, still it's not something we want to have a setback on and we're taking our cue from him. But he's making his progress and he's throwing across the diamond, which is encouraging and just a matter of getting his intensity back to where he can do it and feel like, you know, he's going to be back and healthy and be able to make all the plays. - Well, I know we still got a few weeks left, hopefully many weeks left going into October, but I just wanted to say thank you. This has been a really fun season. As a lifelong Padres fan, you put a good team together, not just you, but everyone and it's been really entertaining and hopefully we got more of it coming up starting this weekend against the Giants. Good luck, Mike. - Yeah, we're excited about tonight. Appreciate it guys. - Thank you, Mike Shilt, manager of the San Diego Padres, or manager's report, brought to you by San Diego County Credit Union. It's not big bank banking, it is better. It's almost stunning, you know. And obviously it was like the credits of the Oscars there at the end with all that. But how many people do go into day to day keeping those 26 guys on the field? All we see is really the game and, you know, maybe a coach or two, but there are so many guys that you probably don't know their names, you never see them, that help those guys get ready every single day to play a baseball game. - Yeah, no doubt, man, the preparation too for every single game. It's overwhelming to think about what you have to do and play it from a player's perspective, from a coach's perspective to pretty gnarly. It's always why I try to keep the perspective. As much as we fans, obviously care, want to see our team do well, win and lose and it feels just devastating when they lose like one last night. Believe me, the people who are putting in 13 hours a day on this, they actually care probably more than you do, even as the fan, whether they're gonna be successful at the end of the day or not. No one's phoning it in there, so. Anyway, good stuff from Mike Shilt. We had some good stuff from Jesse Agler on the Incorporated and I felt so bad that we missed playing it yesterday. I want to give it one more play 'cause he so nailed it. Let's get to that coming up. And then final segment, we'll look ahead to the Giant Series starting tonight at Petco Park all coming up after a check of traffic on 97.3 of the fan. - From the mind of a two foot tall talking spokespuppet comes this year's biggest challenge. It's time for Bob's Dare to compare. The hottest game show on TV that asks, "What happens when you compare Bob's to the competition?" You get style. You get quality. You get beeps and boops and dings and wops and thousands of dollars in savings. Everyone's winner when you dare to compare with Bob's discount furniture. Shop in store at mybobs.com to play now. Recovery from addiction can take many forms and quite often it's a team effort. For those in recovery, having support often leads to a better outcome. And for those supporting people in recovery, they celebrate every milestone. Here's to family, friends, loved ones, healthcare providers and community groups who are essential to helping people find their path to recovery. If you or someone you know is experiencing addiction, visit cdc.gov/stopoverdose to learn more about the various treatment options available. America's favorite place to watch football is stadium swim located at circa resort and casino in Las Vegas. Catch all the biggest games and a viewing experience built for sports fans. Chill in one of their six pools on three different levels for a perfect view of their massive screen. Plenty of seating options from cozy day beds to private temperature controlled cabanas. Stadium swim book your spot today at circle Las Vegas.com. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man. 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You don't sink in and get stuck like with memory foam. And thanks to over 1,400 air chambers in the gel flex grid, you will sleep cooler on a purple mattress. Purple has a wide variety of mattresses from the original purple mattress to the restore hybrid collection that combines gel flex grid with coils and the rejuvenate lux collection, the height of luxury. With over 112,000 to five star reviews to prove it, visit purple.com to find the perfect purple for you and enter code podcast 10 to get 10% off. - Bye bye. - Thanks again to the skipper Mike Chilt. By the way, we were just looking it up on espn.com, a definite manager of the year candidate in the National League. They have some metrics. It was weird, Polly was going, somehow by their metrics, Dave Martinez of the Nationals is the quote unquote, front runner. But even they acknowledge he's not winning anymore. - 62 and 78 nationals who are 22 games out of first place. - They may have outperformed expectations, they've won some close games, which is usually good for managers. They're just too far back and irrelevant to be considered. No, it's really gonna come down to three guys. And I agree with the analysis. Pat Murphy of the Milwaukee Brewers and their expectations were pretty low this season considering who they lost. And they have pretty much run away with the NL Central. So he's gonna get a lot of interest, a lot of votes. Mike Chilt, who again, the Padres slashing payroll, but improving tremendously across the board this year and especially playing well in the second half and surging, that's gonna give him a lot of support. And then the third one, which I hadn't thought so much of, but if Carlos Mendoza gets the Mets into the playoffs after their slow starts and their disappointment from last year, he's also going to get some support. So a bit of a three-way race going into the last three weeks of the season for the National League Manager of the Year award with Mike Chilt. They say maybe being the slight favorite in their minds. - Interesting. Yeah, I mean, I think you make a great case for there and I think you make a great case for Pat Murphy as well. I mean, I feel like it's a two-man race really between those guys, but yeah, I mean, I think, you know, Chilt, he would trade that in for a ring in a heartbeat just like Jackson Merrill would trade that rookie of the year for a ring. And again, you know, I'm not, after last night's loss, I'm not dissuaded from the hopeful feeling that I have about this team. But, you know, I did say yesterday is kind of a joke. I just want the playoffs to start now today. Like that's the last three weeks of the season are gonna be fairly excruciating and I don't, I decided to, I'm not gonna really get nervous until this team loses three games in a row. I think that for me is like, that's when I'll start to get a little, you know, a little dicey, but they have not done that in, since when? July. - They lost that five gamer with the Mariners, two-game sweep in there in July. - Yeah, and based on where we are in the standings, yeah, I mean that-- - I disagree though, I don't necessarily in any rush to get to the playoffs. Obviously I want them to get there, but this will eventually, if you can get through your Ajita Woods, this is the best time. There should be a clinching celebration. This is what you're waiting for all. This is, you played 140 plus games already to get to this point where you actually have an opportunity to now get some actual good things that happen. Like clinching a playoff spot and, you know, figuring out where you're going in the first round of the playoffs. - Mine's more, it's always more health related. - That's, because you asked me yesterday, what keeps you up at night? And I said, "Health." I mean, really, I'm not worried about, you know, Manny or Xander, I really not. I think these guys know what the goal is and what they need to do. You know, I just, somebody getting hurt, somebody twisting an ankle or something, that's what always domes me out in the last three weeks of the season. - I can hand out one postseason award right now. It's not the one you think. First, baseball coverage on 97-3, the fan is presented by T-Mobile. Switch to T-Mobile, you can get tons of benefits and still save on every plan versus AT&T and Verizon. Is their savings calculator to find out how at T-Mobile.com/switch, the National League Radio Play-by-Play Broadcaster of the Year Award was over before it even started. - They do that. - They don't, but if they did, it would go to Jesse Agler, who always does such a phenomenal job. Even when we're throwing in Incorporator Words, we only got a minute or two here. So I don't need the setup again. We had Welsh Friarion on Wednesday. We told Jesse that he was supposed to work Pelfas, the Welsh word for baseball into the broadcast on Wednesday. And we didn't play it yesterday. I felt bad about it 'cause he knocked it out of the park. In the third inning, here is Jesse Agler, the Incorporator. - First pitch from Matsui is taking low and outside ball one. So Matsui relieves Darvish, a couple of Japanese-born pitchers. Crayed international game, this continues to become Robert's in pro-far out there from Aruba and Karissa, respectively. Swing and a miss, one and one. I like learning all the different baseball terminology from around the globe. In a lot of places, they call baseball baseball, most of the time, though they do have words in their language specific to it. The Netherlands kind of famously honk ball is what they call baseball. So you hear that in those ABC islands. One and one at Torkelson, Matsui, long pause. They had to pitch it in the air up the right field line. That's foul and out of play. In Japan, they say baseball a lot, but there is a Japanese word, yaku. And another one I learned today, Pelfas in Wales. Here's the way that they say baseball. That's your nugget of the game presented by Chick-fil-A San Diego. We had 21 restaurants in San Diego, you're never too far. From the home of the original chicken sandwich. Come try the honey pepper pimento chicken sandwich for a limited time. He's an artist. Jesse is an artist. That was verbal art. Yeah, verbal art. Getting in the sponsor as well. Vart. Vart as it were. He's amazing. You going to the game tonight? No, I'm putting my dog down tonight. Like that would stop you from, I'm sure you're teeing off it too. I'm not. What are you taking, Reggie? 4.30. And you'll be hitting balls before then guaranteed. You playing golf before? No. I figured you'd be running from the goat to your appointment. No. What are you going to do all day? Spend some time with him. Like what? Probably just sit. He doesn't do much other than sit. Just hold him. Go to the, we have a park right next door, maybe. Sit outside like a bit. Donald's cheeseburger. I did that. Thought about that. I took Max down. A little, a star is born, you know. Just to cook up a steak sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah. These suggestions are not good though. I don't know if that's probably wise. I mean, this is the last day of my life. I got a little burger, took him down to the beach, let him stick his hat out the window one last time. This is the most excruciating day of my life. Excruciating. Awful. Died in my arms. It was horrible. It looked the worst day of my life. I don't think I'm planning to like, he's a very large dog. Yes. Not going to be in my arms. Sucks. Yeah. Do you feel emotional? Yes. Nice line. What? I'm not lying. I'm not lying. I will cry. Oh, yeah. You will. I'm going to cry for you. Yeah. But I'll be okay. Adam says, how about the dog food you advertise? Give him some of that. Farmers dog. Farmers simply the best. Even on their worst days. Yeah. Simply the best. They are a sponsor. I will shout out farmers dogs. We had farmers dog for Jackson up until the end. And when we had to call ahead and let them know that we don't need those orders anymore, it sucks. You don't really think about it. And they sent us a little gift. It's amazing. A little care package or whatever, because they know whenever somebody cancels, they usually know what that means. I thought that's a nice touch. Appreciated that. It always makes me uncomfortable when he has feelings. Yeah. I'm all feeling. Because it's a robot. You're not supposed to have feelings. I'm all feelings. I'm all feelings all the time. It's just a self-defense mechanism. You know, of course. All right. It's going to break. The more robotic I am, the less I have to feel. It's true. Therapists can really do some wonders with you. You'd need. Why? All I hold on to are the good emotions. The laughter, the smiles. That's what you think. That's all I need. You would need a month in boot camp. No anger, no sadness, just happiness, smiles, all the time. That's what I'm all about. Things that I like, in fact, you'll probably hear a few of those in our last segment of the show. And some new ones. Yes. The very new edition. If you missed it. The brand new. Things Ben likes. Next, a '97 through the fan. Woods has something he is really excited about for our final segment. I did have something. He just can't remember what it was. So you're now on the clock. You got like 15 minutes left to think of what it was. It was something really good. You guys really would have liked it. And maybe you'll think of it. Now the pressure's on. Maybe you will. Absolutely will not. My brain is mush. Maybe you need an assistant. This hour on '97 through the fan has brought you by Express Employment Professionals. If you're supply chain demands a flexible workforce higher with Express Employment Professionals with contract and full-time workers from Express Employment, you get the staff you need and manage contingent labor costs. Learn more at expresspros.com. That's expresspros.com. We used to work with another radio host at another station who had an assistant. And she was great, loved her. I always thought it seemed like a little too much though for a radio host to have an assistant. But now it's sort of starting to see the potential appeal of having some help. You know what I mean? Yeah, dude, it's something that's a major point of contention in our home right now. My wife and I are discussing trying to find some maybe part-time help to do a couple of pickups, a couple of soccer practices, things like that. You need a nanny. Nanny. Is what you're looking for. No. Yeah. Or just a... I don't know. I don't know if you'd consider it. In my mind, when I hear Nanny, she's there all the time. You aren't describing exactly what a nanny does. I'm like raising your kids though. No. I mean, it's essentially just a regular babysitter. It's kind of a nanny. You go European and call them an au pair, but it's kind of the same thing. So what? Nanny doesn't have to live with you in your house. I'm not joking when we told you to get a manny. We could get a manny. This is Mandy Matado. I love that sports center commercial. Remember that one? No. Mandy, the manny. He was daycare and he was... Why? Just wearing his sunglasses and my kids were running like in your suite last night. They were running rough shot all around the place. He was doing nothing, but he was the manny. Was Mandy Matado? Taking care of all the kids of the sports center anchors. No, Mandy Matado. I don't remember that. You don't remember that one? I was phenomenal. This is sports center. I was hired a manny to help take care of our kids. I told Bo last night, we're going to try to find somebody that can help us out a little bit. He goes, "It's because we suck." I go, "What?" He goes, "It's because we suck." And I go, "No, it's not because you suck." And he goes, "Well, what is it?" I go, "Well, we need to spend time together, too." Your mother and I, it's important. It's going to make us better parents in the long run. He goes, "It's because we suck." And I go, "Bro, sometimes it's nice to have somebody else pick you up from school or take you to swim or take you to the park or stuff mom and I can't do all the time." And he's like, "All right, this kid." He called me last night, we were driving to the game and we were breaking balls and he goes, "You're a manipulate." And I go, "What did you say?" He goes, "You're a manipulate." And Hannah goes, "Oh, don't worry." He told me the other day he got manipulated at school and he goes, "Yeah, somebody punched me." And I said, "That's not manipulated. Kudos to trying to wedge a big word in, but you clearly have no idea what you're talking about." So this kid, he's like, "Bro, he's like a 40-year-old." So yeah, we're talking about that in the house, like maybe trying to find somebody that can... Dominic says, "Mr. Belvedere." You know, a butler. A butler. Belvedere would be incredible. Is what you need. A butler would be great. I'd be so jealous if you had a butler. Yeah, it would be great. A valet. Have you ever thought about that? No, but I don't need an assistant. I need somebody to pick my kids up a couple of times, a couple of times a week. Take them to soccer practice or something. That's it. Have you thought of what we're doing in this final segment? That was it, I think. All right. Well, we do have to look ahead to this giant series. Let's go. We'll do some tips for you. We will do that right after this check of traffic on 97.3 of the fan. All right. Big game tonight. Padres opening a three-game series against the Giants, first of six games against the Giants in their next eight games. Six of their next eight games are against the Giants. So this will go a long way toward determining, you know, where the Padres end up at the end of this season. And tonight's game, of course, you want to erase the taste, the sting of last night's defeat, and you got Michael King, a well-rested Michael King on the mound against Mason Black, who has an ERA over seven. Yeah, I thought it was Logan Webb. He's tomorrow. He's tomorrow. This is one you kind of want to get. This is an important one, I think, for the San Diego Padres. Not that they all aren't. But bounce back. You know, bounce back. You've got the pitching match up advantage. We have seen, we've seen games where the Padres have struggled against high ERA, unknown quantities at starter, but not necessarily with the full death star lineup, which they've almost got back with everybody but Hassan Kim. So go out, take care of business tonight. It's a 641st pitch, 540 eco water SoCal pregame show with Sam Levitt and it's not on Padres.tv. This is another Apple TV game, which means if you are watching, you can switch over the audio channel. Sometimes it takes a moment or two to click in, but it worked last time. And listen to Jesse and Tony, who's rather than the Apple announcers during the game, which is fantastic. It's really weird though, because they'll cut down to like the sideline reporter and she's standing there talking. But then you hear Tony and Jesse in the background. It doesn't match up, but it's way better than what they're going to give you on the broadcast. I agree. Now, a great pitching match up tomorrow, Saturday game 540. That one's Dylan C's Logan Webb. Nice. That's a really good, solid match up. They're the one that will determine either the series or whether the Padres can pull off a sweep. And then on Sunday, Joe Musgrove against Kyle Harrison, who's the young up and comer for the San Francisco Giants, has had a bit of an up and down season. He certainly got good arm and good stuff. Good stuff. By the way, that is also an Apple TV plus game. They're just kind of camped out this weekend at Pekko Park. So Don and Mud. I'm going to start getting two of the next three days off. Boston is going to be in Boston this weekend. Oh my God. Oh my God. Well, this is a good weekend for it. I'm only missing one game by being gone the whole weekend because he would have only done Saturday's game. So he walks. So Jesse probably does TV on Saturday then. He walks in the streets of Boston, like a Greek god, right? Like a Greek, like a mythological figure. Well, he had the misfortune, of course, of being let go by the Red Sox, but in a way, it's kind of a hidden blessing. Oh, yeah. Because everyone is on his side. He can do no wrong now. Correct. He goes back there and he's simply the returning hero every single time. And he got to call the best period in Red Sox history. And he's missed kind of the worst now and again, kind of the down period again. And he's here in San Diego. The Padres are on the on the calm. Like this is perfect for him. I'm sure it's sucked and was probably one of the worst moments of his professional career when they let him go. Yeah. Mine. The best thing that ever happened to him. No doubt. It gets the best of both worlds. Yeah. They're the villains. He's the hero. And now he's beloved in two places and he's got to be a part of this Padres team and organization and he gets to live in San Diego and fish and Coronado and cook and I mean, it's one of those lessons in life. And I'm sure Don could tell it better than I could if we could ever convince him to wake up early enough to come on the show that sometimes your worst moment actually helps you out, you know, moving forward. You don't see it at the time. You never want to hear it. You know, this could be a good thing for you. You're just like, no, this is, this is my nightmare. You never want to get better. And Don has turned it into a giant win. Huge win. Back in Boston. Huh? Back in Boston. The Red Sox can't like that. No. It's really, you couldn't find anyone else to do this game. You're bringing Don here. Thank you so much. Today is the free game of the day, not an Apple TV game. That is the free game on, is it on MLTV? It's on Apple TV. It's going to be on Apple TV. It's maybe it's free, but it's, it's on Apple free on MLB, MLB.com is the free of the day or whatever. Well, you can stream the Apple TV broadcast on MLB.com on Sunday, but it is the Apple TV broadcasters and then an off day on Monday, two against the Mariners in Seattle and an off day next Thursday. So I'd imagine that Robert Suarez will be down tonight after two in a row and four and five. She comes out tonight. All right. Who knows? Hopefully when you're going up against Mason Black and you've got Michael King going, you don't need your high leverage relievers at the end of the game. That would be nice. Go ahead. Lovely. Go ahead. Build a nice, comfortable lead and we'll see Brian Hoeing and Adrian Morrie home close out the last couple of minutes. Literally nothing would make me happy would be fantastic. That would be something that I would like tonight, if it happened. For other things that I like, Paulie has come up with the, is this the fourth iteration? Fourth installment. Fourth iteration of things Ben likes. Enjoy. I like the tanginess of the cranberry. I like reflecting. I like all time rock and roll too. You know I do. I like and I like my standard, very uninteresting haircut. I do like hearing people talk about how well it's going for the Padres. I like numbers. Oh, I like the bits. I like to be educational. I like when I get up, have a glass of cranberry juice cocktail. I like Adam Major. I do like butterscotch. I like your tweets a lot. I still like this deal. I like after another famous Benjamin. Benjamin Button. I like when the Padres take 203 from the Dodgers. I would have liked to have tried something else. I like Darren. I've always liked Darren. I like watching LeBron and Anthony Davis. Sex by the fire at night. That's what I like. I like Jake Chrono worth. The last couple of days I really like to swings. I do like horses. I like the Padres lineup. I like when things just flow perfectly. But I like Indian food. They're just like a good honest answer. I've liked what I've seen from Donovan so far. I like that idea. I like 18 games in 18 days. You know I like where the Padres are. I like that we want as a team. I do two of us together. I like to picture people actually in a recording studio. I like the way the Padres play baseball. What I like is the variety of the win. Yes. I liked everything about this week. Did you like everything about this week? Well, it was short week which was nice. We started on Tuesday and now it's already over which was good. That's like, you know, makes it a little easier to get through the week. Yeah. For the most part, Padres played well and won their games until last night. They didn't like that. Up until the last moment I liked that game last night a lot. I mean, for eight and two-thirds innings for two strikes, I like that game a lot. I thought it was going to be the second three-nothing win of the series for a very long time. And then I didn't like it for a moment. If you're over it and we've had our 16 minutes of Salk and we're moving on. Yeah. If you come down, if you're going down to the game tonight, stop by East Village, Tavern and Bowl. I'm going to be jumping on the podcast with the boys from Divine Sports Gospel saying hello. We're going to be bowling there with the wife and kids. We'll see how the first bowling outing as a family. When's the last time you went bowling? It's been ages. We did an event Ben and Woods did somewhere downtown. Uh, uh, social. Oh, yeah. It's a punch ball. Social. It was awesome. That's for playoffs. It was for the playoffs. And I bowled a little bit after, but I didn't bowled the full. I read it. What's your like average? What's your bowling average? 120. 120. Yeah. 120, 130. Ready for the PBA tour then. I'm not ready for the PBA tour. I don't know if like, like, like, do they have little balls for the kids? No, they're light balls, but they do regular sized. I mean, it's a little smaller. I rented the lanes for ski balls. I rented the lane. Do they have bumpers on them? They usually have the automatic. So yeah, if it's your turn and you got the kids, you had a butt on the bumper just and then they pop up and then they go back down for the grownups. So I rented the lanes for two hours. That's a bit excessive. It's been a long time. Your arm is going to fall off if you use, if you go, if you bowl for two hours and have not done it in years, your arm is going to be useless for the rest of the week. That is a waste of money. Well, the good news is. You're going to pay for one hour. I'll be able to lick my wounds with a fresh margarita over at the Margaritaville Hotel where we'll be staying tonight. There is, so there's a problem. One hour, sometimes you feel like you have to rush and get all your games in and you like sprinting to get to the end, two hours is way too long. My proposal, bowling like should be an hour and 15 minutes is what each bowling reservation should be for. That would be the perfect time to bowl. It's not an option. It's never an option. It's either one hour, which is just not quite enough to finish that last game or two, which is way too much and your arm can never handle it. Well, pop on down. You want to see that come down, watch the podcast. Good dudes. Excited to be down there. It's been on it. You do a straight ball. Straight and straight. Straight and hard. This is how I do it. It's how I do it as well. Yeah. All right. Well, you guys have a great weekend Ben. Good luck today. Thank you very much. Annie and Elston are coming up next. You just get the prettier egg rolls yesterday. Beatty. Beatty. Beatty. Well, did not. No, he was supposed to go run ragged. I'll be there tonight and I needed to know where they are and are they worth it. Nope. Everyone says yes in the chat. Go for him at the ballast point behind home plate. All right. Annie and Elston are up next with more bowling talk for Paul Reindel for Stephen Woods. I'm Ben Higgins. Have a great weekend. 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