SORE LOSERS - Are You An Idiot Parent Who's Ruining Youth Sports?

0:00This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. College football will hijack your weekend, ruin your sleep and break your heart. And that's why we make the Sullivan-verbal College football show. I'm Ty Hildenbrand. He's Dan Rubenstein. Every week we preview the games that matter in the storylines that are gonna ignite your group chat. And you can join us in the aftermath as we react to what happened, why it matters, and how the sport went completely bonkers yet again. Listen to the Solid Verbal College football show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Bobby Beones. Join me and former NFL quarterback Matt Castle. Every Wednesday, on our podcast, lots to say with me, Bobby Beones, and Matt Castle. You're in training camp and the rookie quarterback has one good throwing session in front of the media. Suddenly, everybody online says he should start over a week one. How do you handle this? Let's go back out to practice the next day and we're firming this up.

1:00Listen to last to say with Bobby Beones and Matt Castle on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the US Open, which means the tennis world is about to lose its mind, and I'm here for every second of it. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast as I break it all down. The matches that matter, the drama that doesn't, and the stories everyone's talking about. No cliches, no sugarcoding, just host analysts from someone who's actually been there. Coco, looking real good, her serve looks so much smoother than it has in the past. I was really happy to see Yiga back to what she looked like a couple of years ago when she was winning dominantly. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I had just seen Iced Tea guest at the Apollo at the Snoop Dog concert, and I told him that, and he sort of looked me up and down and I'm like, Huh? Hi, I'm Lisa Trigger, and I'm Cara Kling. And together, we host That's Messed Up, a podcast where we recap, law-n order SVU, dig into the actual crimes and interview actors from the episode,

2:05like former SVU guest star Bradley Whitford. Often I would meet people who would assume that there was something sort of Ted Bundy about me, because of these sort of sort of characters that I play. And we're celebrating our 300th episode in style with the one, The Only, John Stamos. There's nobody better to play this character, like what is it? He's a reproductive abuser, and he tries to be pregnant as many women as he's got him like, Really? I'm the guy like that. Okay, fine. Get the story behind the rip from the headline story on That's Messed Up, new episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen to That's Messed Up on the I Heart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Dun dun! So we would have the sound effect. We ain't replaying this. Oh my God, this is so, that's so hot. Dude, I love Amy's been using a mouse that's dead. I don't think she uses it. I think someone else, maybe use this mouse. I don't know what this mouse goes to, but we're in a side studio y'all. So this is going to be very weird and strange and awkward. We don't have audio.

3:09We don't have the sound effects to start the show. Is that correct? Yes, that is accurate, coach. So are you just going to do it live without the bed? We are exactly 37 days away from the 2027 Sore Losers Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, brought to you by Freeland Chevrolet. And we're going to do it live. We are the one, two, three, Sore Losers. What up everybody, I am Lunchbox. I know the most about sports. So I'll give you the sports facts. My sports opinions because I'm pretty much a sports genius. Y'all it's Sizzin. I'm from the North. I'm an outfamiliar. I live on the Northside in Nashville with Bayser, two acres, two kids at Vandy, four to attack when I'm 72, just an on a dingy on gun Lake, probably betting. He's probably trying to get out to that gun Lake Casino. I take 200 from him every paycheck. But one of these times he's going to turn it around.

4:11He keeps picking 10 hitters a night to get a hit and about four of them do. So if that ain't throwing away your money, I don't know what is over to you, man. Coach, I'm going to tell you something. So baby box made the All Stars and I told you the first practice. I didn't fill you in on everything else because I didn't know if you wanted to hear about Little League baseball. If you want to hear about the March to the championship, if we were going to win the championship, I didn't even know how All Stars worked anymore. Back in my day, you make the All Star team from balconies. You play other All Star teams from the city. You play Northwest Little League, Great Hills Little League, North Austin, Optimus Little League, you know, all these other Little Leagues. Del Valley Little League things like that. Great town and country. You played all these teams and that was a tournament. You play as double elimination, boom, boom, boom. You traveled to their park. They traveled to your park. So I was excited when they said baby box has been selected to be on the All Star team.

5:13Thought it was a little crazy. It's Coach pitch. There's no need to have All Stars for Coach pitch was my thought. And but I said, you know what? I asked them if he wanted to do it. He said yes. I will support his dreams and his aspirations to be an All Star. So we have practices. I told you about the crazy woman that I met at the first practice. There's more on that to come later. More to come on that. Why wouldn't those be the stories that you tell? Well, there's more to come on that later. But I'm just going to tell you we we did All Stars and we didn't play any other Little Leagues. No, we did a couple tournaments. Oh, this Saturday we're playing a tournament out in Murphy's burrow show up. We're playing it one o'clock. Can't wait. And I look at the the tournament bracket and I look up this team that we're playing. And I'm going to tell you what is ruining kids baseball. Travel baseball. We were playing travel baseball teams pause.

6:13So that means you're getting a vehicle and you go play baseball. These are people that are playing every weekend. All the time I guarantee they're practicing two to three times a week for multiple hours because the first team on the schedule on the season. Their season record was 53 wins and 27 losses. Cool. My question is this how do you get in the same league as them? This is All Stars. I thought we were going to play other Little Leagues. But really it was just we're going to play a couple tournaments and we're going to play against these travel teams. That's a scam. I had no idea. I had no idea what it was going into it. Afterwards I would say we probably wouldn't do it again because it was a waste of time. The coaches were amazing. The coaches were nice. The kids were fun. The kids were friendly. But you show up and the team we were playing first. They had a double headers. They played before us and they were going to play immediately. We were going to play them next.

7:14And I watched this short stop. Dive. Stop the ball. Step on second. Throw it to first. Double play. Henny can do that. Eight years old. The baby. In my eyes, I was like, we are about to get slaughtered by this team. We are going to get absolutely annihilated by this team. And lo and behold, we got run rule in about three innings. It was a waste of time. It was a how do I say it slaughterhouse. Yeah, slaughterhouse embarrassing. They took us out behind the wood shed and put a beating to us. Did you guys have girls on your team? We had no girls on the team today. No, they did not have girls on the team. But they had, I mean, slide mitts. They had everything you could ever possibly want all the colors to all the colors. Different arm bands. Like I seen it at Dix. They got snow cones. You got cupcakes. You got the chains. Now the kids can buy. It's all green yellow paint because of these banana ballers dancing around in thongs.

8:27I mean, they had the arm sleeves just like the major leagers, Jack Peterson, you know, he's got his arm sleeve. So when I could think of right now, I don't know why maybe one so do wears one. I don't remember. But it was an absolute butt kicking. And I'm like, well, this is fun. This is so great. So then we got to wait an hour. We got to play another game and we get absolutely slaughtered again. Games over in three innings. That's good for the parents. You can get back to the pool. I mean, it is like, okay, well, we drove all the way out of here to play six innings, two games, six innings. But here's my question. It doesn't make any sense. Why have a run rule? Okay, they already won the game. We can't come back and win. But why don't we continue to play because the next game is not scheduled for another 40 minutes. So the field just sits empty for 40 minutes. I get it. If it's kid pitch because you want to save the kids arms, you don't want them getting out there throwing unnecessary pitches. But this is coach pitch where you just got to throw the coach throws the ball. The kids hit it. Why not let the kids practice more. Where any of the kids crying? No.

9:37Thank God. What was the parents? What was the morale of the parents? Um, I have a lot of them aren't supportive. No, I wouldn't say that they weren't supportive. No, did they go? Oh, they were there. Crazy lady showed up about halfway through the first game. So she stayed up showed up in the second inning. I wouldn't call her crazy lady. Isn't she divorce say. Okay, divorce say lady with a skirt. Right. Divorce and she came dolled up. Oh, she was dolled up. Make up hair done all this Saturday's prime time, especially with all the dads off work, especially at a little league baseball field where there's a lot of dads calling around. And she is looking to bait a hook. Ray, she was wearing a push up. She was trying to. I don't know she needs a push up, man. You think she. I think they stay up automatically. You think some of these parents got pocket rockets. They got a little mimosin. They're yeti. I wouldn't be surprised if a few of them had that. I mean, I didn't get a sense of it. I didn't smell any of it on them. So it wasn't too much of a letdown. I mean, as long as the parents spirits were flying high. No, I mean, we were still in a good mood. The kids were having fun in between games.

10:43I we were playing a wiffle get ball game over on the side. Smart that always goes hand in hand with baseball on the exact same day. There's no way that helps you with baseball. What playing wiffle ball is not with the lighter ball. Here's the thing. We weren't going to win. It didn't matter. It didn't matter what you did. You could have given us a hundred balls. You could have let us get a hundred out. We weren't going to win the game. You do wiffle ball. That ball is so heavy when you play with it. That's the worst thing you could do. It doesn't matter. These guys are throwing cannons from third base and getting them out at first first base and making the stretch and they look amazing. But I was just so frustrated. They just call the game after the freaking it's just stupid. You want to get your money's worth. It's kind of like closing early. Trampoline park or a putt putt place. You know, you want to fall. None of this closing the restaurant 10 minutes early. 100% but fine. We lose. Okay. So in between the games, I text the group. And I say, hey, I know I said, Hey, we got one more game.

11:48Anybody want to get together with the kids afterwards and just grab a dinner at a restaurant around here. Think it'd be fun for the kids just hang out. You know what I mean? And what should he hear you in? Murphy's burrow. They're in crap out there. I mean, they got restaurants. Jim's bar. Okay, we'll go to Jim's bar. I don't care where we go. Go to Jim's bar. You finifying the solo cup filled up with jungle juice. I mean, they got to have a chick. Well, I mean, I don't care where we go. I just thought it'd be fun to hang out as a team instead of just getting our ass kicked the whole day. Some of these smaller cities aren't going to really have the restaurant choice and options you're used to in the big city in Nashville. Okay. McDonald's. I don't care where we go. The whole point is they have to have restaurants because people live there and people eat food. Yes. Okay. So we go into the second game and I'm like, here we go. Here we go. In my neck of the woods, if you were to have gone out, you'd really just have the option of a pizza place. Right. That's fine. Okay. And the second game, same thing. These are hitting bombs. The fence. We're going as hungry. We are getting just absolutely smoked. We get run ruled games over.

12:57And not one person has responded in my text about getting together to grab dinner. Ah, ah, that's second day of dog word, not a single person has said, oh, that sounds like a great idea that sounds like so much fun. Are you saying current and present day now or you're saying in the moment at the second game, nobody's still. Nobody. It's been, it's been an hour and 45 minutes since I sent the text and not one person has responded. Maybe they're not the check in the phone type. Right. But the game ends. Everybody's packing up. Still. Nobody has said a word about going to grab dinner. What about an in person? Persian of the text thread. I don't want to make it awkward. I already threw it out there. Hey guys, per my text. Anybody looking to get something finger-licking good. I know your kids have got to be hungry. We've been out here for five hours. And we scored a total of four runs and we got smoked both games. Nothing. But I will say this.

14:01The second game, Baby Box was playing catcher. And this dude hits it to the outfield past our left field or all the way to the fence. And he's rounding the bases. They make the relay to the shortstop. Baby Box gets out in front of home plate. They throw it to him. He catches it. Tags him with the dude knocks his glove ball flies out. Dude, it was almost a sports center type play. Right. I mean, he got out there. They boom. Bam, bam. Dude hits it out of his glove. Love call it safe. And we lose 14 to one. Okay. We lost 14 to one in three innings. They called it after three. Once again, no one's playing out to us. But we call the game for whatever reason. So no one responds to the text. And then the two younger brothers like, can we go out on the field and play? So me and the three boxboys stayed out on that field for an hour playing baseball random kids just coming over and I'm pitching. They're hitting.

15:04Well, what about your team? Did they leave everybody left? My wife goes to the bathroom. She comes back. She goes. What's kind of awkward? No one responded to you. Huh? And I'm like, she goes, I'm sorry that your dreams didn't come true. That no one wanted to hang out. I was like, it's not my dream. It's just I thought that's what little league baseball was about. I thought we'd all go have some fun. Who cares? Like we got to come back at eight o'clock in the morning. Let's go eat. Get to know each other, say hi. Maybe these kids will become friends. I don't know. Maybe the parents will like each other. Maybe the divorce saying we'll find another dad to cling onto. How many people are in this text thread? There were 11 kids on the team. So probably 22 parents on the text thread. And not a single one replied. Oh, for 22, right? And so after about an hour, hour and 15 minutes on the field, we're like, all right, well, let's go eat. We got to eat. We're starving. So we go grab something to eat. I don't even know where we ate. And did we even eat? Or did we just go straight for ice cream?

16:09It might have been an off brand place. They're not going to have in Murphy'sboro. They can have a lot of your chains. I do believe we just wouldn't got ice cream. That's good. You know, just get them some ice cream. That'll be great. Who cares? Like we've been having snacks all day. It doesn't matter. So they played baseball all day and you went for ice cream instead of a square meal. Yeah. Well, you guys should be ready for the next game then. Like what? We do. We none of the parents. There's no team chemistry. Belly full of ice cream. Well, we don't play until the next morning. We played our two games for the day. We got smoked both games. So now we're going to play in the losers bracket the next day. No problem. What city is the next day in Murphy'sboro 8 a.m. Man, eight a.m. Why do you guys stay the night there? What? It's a 35 minute drive, but then you get turned with the parents. I wonder if some of them did. Nobody even responded to my text about going to eat. Do you think they're going to want to get turned with me? You think they're going to want to get turned with lunchbox? Maybe D4 saying got herself a hotel room and she was head into the hotel bar.

17:13And maybe she was head downtown. Murphy'sboro to go, you know, gyms gyms. That's a popular spot. Might have been going to gyms. I don't know. But then we go to get ice cream. And we're sitting there and we're looking at the menu and two other families from the team pull up. So they had obviously because we've been playing baseball for the last hour 15 minutes. So they definitely went to eat. And then they went to get ice cream. So they went to eat together, ignored my text messages. Then they see me at the ice cream place. And they're like, hey, so people just aren't social. So we ate our ice cream. Now we got in the car and we drove on back, man. We drove on back to Nashville, oh and two, but ready to take the tournament by storm the next morning at 8 a.m. You got to come up through the bowels of the losers, Brad. You get knocked down. It's not about getting knocked down. It's, are you going to get up? Are you going to answer that bell at 8 a.m. the next morning?

18:16That'd be tough to actually answer that one. I mean, and the team we are going against the next morning, their season record was only 20 and 12. So they'd only played 32 games together. So we had a shot. Like this was us. We were ready. I'll tell you how went after the break. You know the feeling you make a pick in your fantasy draft in the entire room. Grounds because they wanted that player. Or you grab a small school rookie off waivers and you start him right before he goes off in prime time. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football. I'm JJ Zacharyson, host of the late round fantasy football podcast. Before your draft are players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. We've got data driven analysis, historical trends in the strategies that separate winners from the rest. And your dominance doesn't stop with the draft. All season long, we have our 15 transactions, 10 trends, sleepers and the mail back.

19:18Data driven, quick hitting episodes to help bring home that league trophy. Listen to the late round fantasy football podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Dear honeys, this is goodbye. In February of 2024, celebrated illustrator and children's book author, Patre Mathers and her husband Michael, nailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know that they had died by suicide. By the time you get the shalliter both Petra and I will be dead. Next stop, Wonderland. Patre and Michael were by all accounts healthy, happy and in love. Why did they do it? And what did it do to the people they left behind? I would have given a million reasons to not leave this world had I known. I keep coming back to a truly hope that Patre was a thousand percent on board with the plan. Do you think of him as having killed her? Yes, I do. I hold Michael responsible for my mother's death.

20:20I'm Leon Nayfak. And I'm Alice Gregory. Together we set out to interview everyone who got one of Patre and Michael's letters. As one married couple trying to understand another. Listen to death of an artist on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. That call was really pivotal for me. Hey, it's Emily Tish Sussman and this season on She Pivots, the podcast where women share bold career moves and personal turning points that changed everything. I sit down with culture shifting women who share their pivots like Para Olympian Alley Truett. I was like, I'm a month out from a shark attack. There's no way in 11 months I'm making the Verilandics. Advocate Elizabeth Smart. I still feel that drive that I can still make a difference so I'm going to keep going. Celebrity chef Carla Hall was that scary to walk away from such a stable career after just two years? No, I was more afraid of being unhappy than I was broke and in a dead and job that I didn't enjoy. And feminist legend, Gloria Steinem. All of us were trying to express women's real lives.

21:23We need a meeting place of our own and if I can contribute to that, I'd like to maintain that and leave this house for that purpose. Listen to She Pivots on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Michael and Para Alley. I want to tell you about my new podcast Underground Zero. I'm on the screen. I need something to wrong. It's about what happened in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. We're looking at the opportunity of a lifetime for us and the other families. While the world was mourning, five powerful New York families saw an opportunity. The debris supposed to go to the city on salvage and some of it will. They would go on to make millions of dollars. What's in the tunnels? Go on bars, shove a engage. It could be worth half a billion. And they would have made more if it hadn't been for one courageous cop. No, Dad, don't. You're going to need all of us. I'll call you when I can. Frank, be careful. Underground Zero, starring Steve Sharipa, Reya Brutsel, and me, Michael and Para Alley.

22:24Would you be willing to see your family go to pieces? Some ways it already has. Listen to Underground Zero on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Good segue. Great segue. So we get up the next morning at 8am games. So we're up at six. Gotta get to there. Gotta get there. We get there at like 740. Do the warm up. Here we go. Games over by 820. What happened this time? We got to be 14 to three. Ha, ha, ha. It's bad. We got absolutely hammered again. This bad. Hammered. 14 to three. And that's fine. And someone did text later that night. Hey, yeah, maybe we can grab breakfast after the game. What? And I'm like, great. Sounds good. So we get beat 14 to three. Tournament's over. Wow, that was amazing.

23:24So much fun. And then I reply to the group. So we still doing breakfast. Still haven't heard back from anybody. Yeah. These parents wanted to get back to Nashville. They're new. They're not exactly feeling everything out. Maybe you got to do a house party or something like that. So we went to the playground with the kids. We went to the other baseball field, hit some, ran around the bases, and had a good old time in Murphy'sboro. But we got absolutely slaughtered. Wait, just you and your kids. Yeah, just me and my kids. No, no, no. No one else on the team wants to be associated with us. No one wants to hang out with us. No one wants to reply to text messages. Even when they suggest, hey, maybe we should grab breakfast. They don't even want to follow through with it. But are these people that you hung out with before? No, these are all the all-star parents. I don't really know them. Oh, see, that's how they're feeling. They don't really know you. But that's how you get to know people. That's how you build a community. That's how you make the kids be friends. And maybe they'll be on the same team next year. You don't know. Let's be real. Divorce, a probably only had the kid for half the day.

24:25She had to get going. She probably had other plans. She had to get. She definitely had to date that night. I'm sure she was going to do something a little off Broadway. Maybe a convention spot. Who knows? But Divorce is not going to stick around Murphy's burrow. I wasn't looking for Divorce to hang around. Well, Divorce is nice to look at. Because let me tell you a rocket. Divorce, honestly, if we could have checked back in with her, she went and got absolutely plowed that night. Just because she was taking out her anger of the team getting killed, she did some drinking. I bet yet the next day she was hung up dry, ran hard. Wouldn't be surprised. I think the dad had the kids that weekend. Because she showed up to the game without the kid. Like she was by herself. So I'm thinking she did not have the kids that weekend. And so we played and then we went to breakfast at some random Mexican food place in a Murphy's burrow and had some breakfast. What's the name? Laura went to college there, Baser. Really? Yes.

25:25Oh, we went to a lot of the screen. Do you think I know gyms? I don't know. But this place, I mean, the service was really slow, man. Really slow. We ordered at the counter and then we sat down and we waited and waited. The kids were getting grouchy. Grouchy. Yeah, there's probably a better option. You might have wanted to do just McDonald's. Why did you get all cute with breakfast? You don't want to go to a mom and pop spot. Well, we're trying to support the local economy in Murphy's burrow. There's a one by us. If you go there, minimum two hours. It's tough. The clientele pays in cash in quarters. That explains a lot. Yeah. So it's one of those and actually they stop doing pennies. And I was there when I learned that the guy, the restaurant owner said, yeah, we don't take pennies anymore. We're not obligated to take pennies. They round up to the next nickel. That's not cool. So they charge you an extra four cents. And the guy was mad about it. I totally get that. That's what I deal with country life. Sometimes I'm like, okay, I'll go to McDonald's. Wow. What are we doing? What is happening right now? They're literally, they were literally having a discussion about three cents.

26:27No, you go to McDonald's now and they don't have someone to take your order. You got to use the kiosk. It is so frustrating. Really? I mean, I, you stand there at the kiosk and you order and then they call your name. There is very rarely is there someone at the cash register. And it is so annoying because you're sitting there like, what? Did my soul's okay? Order this? Did my order go through? Did I do this right? Do you have my order back there? Like, I don't know. I didn't print a receipt. So I don't know what if you got my order like, um, and then people don't really know where to wait. Correct. So I'm thinking about it the airport now, how it's set up. So you like do your order, but then do you drop back 10 feet or do you just stand there right at the kiosk or do you approach the counter and then everybody crowds around the counter and they crowd around the fountain drinks. Oh, excuse me. Excuse me. I got to get my, my pop. I got one of these cups and I got to fill it on my own. Like I just did the kiosk on my own. Apparently here you got to do everything on your own. I think I might need to make the breakfast for Sammy on my own. I have no idea. Uh, to go order for Billy for Billy. Oh, excuse me. Excuse me. Uh, uh, that's me.

27:27Excuse me. Can I get? Thanks. Sorry. Excuse me. You had to fight through people to get up there. So yes, McDonald's is going to this whole kiosk thing and it drives me nuts. But that's not my point. Yes. Yeah. My point is this travel baseball is going to kill these kids. It's you ruining you sports. Those kids think they are so good that beat us 14 to one 14 to three and 16 to four. They think they are the most amazing baseball players ever. They played 70 something games in six months this year. That is way too much baseball. Have those kids 90% of those kids are going to hate baseball in about three years. Now are they really good in advance for their age? Yes. When a guy is throwing it straight down the middle, it's easy to look amazing. But man, oh man, are you guys doing the wrong thing for your kids? My guy, hey, what did you do for your childhood?

28:27I played baseball every weekend. My parents had me in tournaments from T-ball all the way until I was 12 when I quit. It, it also is an eye opener. I mean, you guys were worlds behind these other kids. No, I understand we were worlds behind. I get it. They were a lot better than us. But it's just like how good do you want your kid to be at six and seven years old that they're playing tournaments every weekend, having practiced two times a week for two hours? Let them go out and ride their bikes because they don't ride their bikes. They've never been riding their bikes because you know what? Got a baseball tournament this weekend. Oh, got to go to baseball practice. Hey, you want to come over and spend the night? Sorry, man. Got a baseball tournament in a Shelbyville. Sorry, have it. What'd you do all summer? Oh, I had 16 baseball tournaments in saying, but it's like at what point did they, your kids get that far behind? Was it you in the backyard? Did they get behind with you? Would kid, I would have showed him how to pick up that ball and hold it at home play. Kid, you got to be strong kid.

29:29He should have used two hands on that play, but after that game, it said 14 to one on the scoreboard. And before we left, baby box lit, he goes, Dad, we got to go change the score. Like, what do you mean? He goes, it was really 13 to one because I got him out. I looked at him, I said, bud, I said, listen, if you want to go change that score, you go change that score because I support you. He goes, because he knocked the ball out of my glove. I said, hey, bud, if that's what you think, if that's the final score, then you can go ahead and go change it. And he walked over there, changed it to 13 to one. And he felt so good. He goes, see, now that's the real score. He wasn't mad about getting smoked. He wasn't mad about getting absolutely blowed out. He was mad that it should have been 13 to one instead of 14 to one. And he wanted to correct the wrong. He wanted to make sure America knew that all of Murphy's borough at that tournament knew

30:32it was 13 to one and not 14 to one. Wow, I mean, this was depressing but enlightening, but wow, I thought we were ahead of the curve. I thought we were on the up and up. We are. Our kids are that behind in baseball. I mean, sorry, they play for about four or five months out of the year. We'll play catch every once in a while now that it's the off season. But I'm telling you, these kids play in 70 games in the first six months of the year. And so by the end of the year, they're going to play 200 baseball games. That is absolutely insane. So they're playing tournaments nonstop. Nonstop. These kids we were playing. I'm telling you, they play a tournament every freaking weekend. That's what the parents do. That's all they do. They sit out there at these tournaments all weekend every weekend. I'm like, guys, how is that your life? What how have you come this far that this is now your life? I get it if they're 17, 18 and they're trying to make it. But at six and seven and eight years old, you are damn insane.

31:36Yeah, I just figured out myself. Yeah, parents are definitely packing coolers and yeties. There's no way they're doing tournaments every weekend, not unwinding a little bit. Do these seven year olds that we were playing? It's had three different bats, three different bats. Travel ball is killing youth sports. If you're one of those parents at six or seven years old, you're an absolute idiot. We'll take a break and we'll be right back. You know the feeling. You make a pick in your fantasy draft in the entire room groans because they wanted that player. Or you grab a small school rookie off waivers and you start him right before he goes off in primetime. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zacharyson, host of the Late Round Fantasy Football Podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. We've got data driven analysis, historical trends, and the strategies that separate winners from the rest. And your dominance doesn't stop with the draft.

32:37All season long, we have our 15 transactions, 10 trends, sleepers, and the mail back. Data driven, quick hitting episodes to help bring home that league trophy. Listen to the Late Round Fantasy Football Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Dear Hunnies, this is goodbye. In February of 2024, celebrated illustrator and children's book author, Patre Mathers and her husband Michael, nailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know that they had died by suicide. By the time you get the shalliter of both Petra and I will be dead. Next stop, Wonderland. Patre and Michael were by all accounts healthy, happy, and in love. Why did they do it? And what did it do to the people they left behind? I would have given a million reasons to not leave this world had I known. I keep coming back to a truly hope that Patre was a thousand percent on board with the plan.

33:38Do you think of him as having killed her? Yes, I do. I hold Michael responsible for my mother's death. I'm Leon Nevock. And I'm Alice Gregory. Together we set out to interview everyone who got one of Patre and Michael's letters. As one married couple, trying to understand another. Listen to death of an artist on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. That call was really pivotal for me. Hey, it's Emily Tish Sussman, and this season on She Pivots, the podcast where women share bold career moves and personal turning points that changed everything. I sit down with culture shifting women who share their pivots, like Para Olympian Alley Truett. I was like, I'm a month out from a shark attack. There's no way in 11 months I'm making the very little index. Advocate Elizabeth Smart. I still feel that drive that I can still make a difference, so I'm going to keep going. Celebrity chef Carla Hall was that scary to walk away from such a stable career after just two years? No, I was more afraid of being unhappy than I was broke and in a dead and job that I didn't enjoy.

34:41And feminist legend, Gloria Steinem. All of us were trying to express women's real lives. We need a meeting place of our own. And if I can contribute to that, I'd like to maintain that and leave this house for that purpose. Listen to She Pivots on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Michael and Perry Oli. I want to tell you about my new podcast, Underground Zero. I'm on the plane, honey. Something's wrong. It's about what happened in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. We're looking at the opportunity of a lifetime for us and the other families. While the world was mourning, five powerful New York families saw an opportunity. The debris supposed to go to the city on salvage, and some of it will. They would go on to make millions of dollars. What's in the tunnels? Go on bars, over ingets. It could be worth half a billion. And they would have made more if it hadn't been for one courageous cop. No, Dad, don't. You're going to need all of us. I'll call you when I can.

35:41Frank, be careful. Underground Zero. Starring Steve Sharipa, Ray Abruzzo, and me, Michael and Perry Oli. Would you be willing to see your family go to pieces? Some ways it already has. Listen to Underground Zero on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Back. Good. And so that was my, I didn't mean to go on a rant about travel baseball. I know you have an experienced travel baseball. And I mean, this was just supposed to be all stars, but I just saw travel baseball up close and personal. And I was like, dang, this is crazy for seven year olds to be playing this much baseball. Well, and I mean, not to get too deep with you, but I think we know now. Back when, when I was growing up, there was no such thing as the internet. And guys, we're going to take a trip down memory lane. So I didn't know if I was good or not. In my town, I was the best player. In my household, I was the best player better than your brother.

36:43Yeah, I made all stars. Now that I think of it, like, 11 and 12, I would make all stars a year before him. And then he made it when we were both older. But and then I, when we were in an American Legion and something that I would start, and he would like come off the bench. But yeah, so I was better. So I always thought I was pretty good. But then we'd go to the statewide tournament, which are happening now on TV. Yeah. Those ones, and I guess that's even regionals and nationals. That's even way bigger. But we'd go to just the state ones and we'd get beat 20 to nothing. And I look at my dad and I'm like, wow, we suck. In my town, I thought we were the best team in town. So that's when we learned we kind of sucked. And to me later in life, then I learned when I went to college, I was like, wow, I suck. Like these guys, and I learned people play baseball year round. I played like two months of the year because it was always winter. So but now with the internet and back to what you were saying with travel ball and see what people are paying, you realize your kids like your kids aren't going to play professional baseball. You realize that now, right? Or do you think they still have a chance?

37:43Well, I think I mean, the chances are 0.000001%. I'm not going to say they don't have any chance because they might be really good. But they are not dominating. They are not. But when puberty hits is really when you can tell and there's a little bit of you can get better, get better, get better, get better, and you can make it. Because Justin Rugeano, who went to my high school, he's a year younger than me. He wasn't the best one at our high school. He wasn't the best one in his graduating class. He was really good. And then he went to junior college and then he went to A&M and then he was in the minors and he just got better and better and better and better and better. And he made it to the major leagues. Well, and he focused on his craft, you could say at the right time. Correct. Whereas these kids in travel ball, it's definitely not the time to do it. I don't think six and seven years old is the time to concentrate on baseball specifically. I think you will burn out.

38:44I knew at an early age, like you said, you knew you were the best at your league in your house. I knew in my household, I was the worst baseball player. I knew batter's box was better than me. I knew my sister was better at softball than I was at baseball. Here, try and hit this sock. I knew that I was not going to be a baseball player when I grew up. I loved it, but I sucked at it. Batter's box loved it was good at it. My sister loved softball and was good at it. We have a whole show of baseball players, Muffy, softball player, batter's box, elite college baseball player, me two week college baseball player, Justin college baseball player. What? Yeah, he played it at Juco. Didn't know. Yeah. And then afterwards he was playing that dumbass like a doll league that like was not the minor leagues of baseball, but it was pretty dang close. They're throwing in the 80s. Just grown men thrown in the 80s at each other. Right, but this is the, this is breaking news that he played Juco ball.

39:48Yeah. Wow, elite. Okay. And the funny thing is we'd always party at the pool and we'd never played catch together. Have we played, I mean, we've played with laundry balls in the house. I don't think with gloves me and Justin have ever played catch together. What position did Justin play? Pitcher. Really? Yeah. Yeah, he's a heat thrower. I mean, that was way before he's putting down the kegs. I mean, now it's probably been five years since he played on that minor team. That is very interesting. You learn something new every day. We're a whole show of ball players. No, except for me. I wasn't a ball player. I sucked it baseball. But sucked. Kid, I tried to get you to love the game. Kid, but it was beautiful to see you out there and give it your all. And that one time we were playing and I moved you to the left and we were playing against Del Valley and that guy, I mean, we moved you and he hit it right to, and I was beautiful kid. Wait, was kid one of those people a coach that was like,

40:49kid, kid in left field, move one half step to the left kid. I don't know if he was, I don't know if he was that coach all the time, but there was one. We were playing all stars and we were about Coney's red. And we were playing against Del Valley. And this dude had roped one to the left field fence his first time up. And the second time up, I'm in left field this time. Maybe I was in left field the first time. I don't know, but I remember him going, kid, move three steps to your left. That's where he hit it last time. And dude, he hit it right to me like, boom, like it was unbelievable. That was one of those moments. I was like, holy crap. I mean, he wrote it. I said it because that's what my dad would do. Ray, Ray, Ray. When I was playing the outfield at some point, I eventually became catcher all time because that's how I knew I could play. And but, Ray, Ray, the whole crowd, everybody's looking people on the field.

41:53One quarter step to your left. Okay, dad, thank you. I lit it's not even a full drag step. It was one shoe to my left. All right, dad, I'm pretty sure I could have got there. Did it make a difference? Who knows, dude? He did it all the time. So sure he was right at some points. I do, listen, with the my boys, I do catch myself saying, hey guys, you want, he's left handed. You might want to scoot three steps to your left. Scoot three steps to your left. He can't, that's where he went last time. Right down, right in that hole right there. So if you take a couple steps, shade him this way. I do do that. And it's so dumb because it's freaking six and seven year olds. But I still try to get him in the right position. Right, it's all about the jump. Yeah, these Dominican Republic kids are the ones that are getting the jumps. I mean, they can cover the ground. Yeah, they don't need someone to tell them move, let the right. They just move themselves because they're so athletic. And I guess you can bet on the world, Little League World Series now. Yeah, I don't know the sites if it's polymarket or what the crap it is.

42:53But Little League came out and did a post on Instagram. And they go, hey guys, we want to keep the love in the game. This all kind of goes with your travel baseball. This is, it's, it's disgusting. They're like, guys, we don't want the betting on the Little League World Series. Let's keep it adults, professional sports. These are just kids. Please, please don't bet. And all the comments are, okay, sounds good. All right, I'm going to go a thousand on Dominican Republic. Let me tell you, when I saw that you could bet on that, I literally thought people have a problem. Like if you are betting on the Little League World Series, you need to check into rehab. Like that is absolutely disgusting. Should we pull it up and see who is the favorite? That is the favorite. That California was favorite. The fact you know. And I think Texas was the second favorite. At least for the US side, I don't know about overall. I'm just telling you that it is so gross. If you had ever thought, I'm going to bet on 11 and 12 year old kids,

43:56then you need, you literally need to just stop and like, look at yourself in the mirror and realize you have a problem. Like the NFL is just right. I mean, we are inches away from the NFL. So you can just wait till that happens. But betting on 12 year old kids. And if I mean, because you know, that people are losing money and they are hitting these kids, finding these kids Instagram and sending them messages on TikTok. You are a freaking loser if you bet on the Little League World Series. Mexico massive favorite over Australia. Ohio favorite over Nevada. California over Iowa. Japan. Huge favorite over Kurosau. Who knows these lines? It's embarrassing. There's a Little League betting expert. It's gross. And that shouldn't be available. It should be illegal on all sites. No site should offer that. And if you are a site that is offering it, you need to reevaluate.

44:56You need to go into your like office and be like, look guys, can we take down the kid stuff? That's like, oh, I'm going to bet on the spelling bee. Like when they do the script spelling bee, come on, man. Let's not do that. Betting on kids seems a little weird. Speaking of betting, do we have time for a story? I do have time for a story. All right, where are you going to tell a story? No, go. Because there's time here. I believe it's a good story to fillage. Go. I have a friend and he's in Vegas and it's the overnight guy. Got it. And he doesn't bet at all. He goes out there and he does weird stuff. So he'll go up to a slot machine. I mean, this count is betting, yes. But he'll go up to a slot machine with $10 and then just walk away. That's it. He'll do weird stuff like that. He'll go do a horse bet. So it's just, sometimes he'll go out there and not bet at all. That doesn't seem like a good trip. And I'll say, oh, hey, what'd you do? And he'll go, oh, you went to a nice meal at Caesars that I go to or Bologno. And he goes, went and saw a carrot top. I, whoa, don't knock it.

45:58Carrot top is hilarious. If I ever come back from Vegas and say, I went to see carrot top. Somebody punched me in the face. No, no, no, do not sleep on how funny carrot top is. How do you see him lately? He looks terrible. That's the funny part. Oh, wait, he doesn't look, well, I mean, when I say terrible, like I don't think he looks anything like he used to look like. He's unrecognizable. Like if you looked at his pictures, you would think that is a different human being. It is not like, oh, God. steroids and plastic surgery. Hello, I mean steroids to the max. But go to his show dude. It's laugh out loud, funny. So overnight guy goes, mean him talk occasionally. See if he's still out there. Who? Carrot top man. Yes, he played last night. This is the story. Okay. So my buddy is he goes, hey, man, you had a time for a phone call. He goes, hey, doing a show, doing a meal at Bellagio out here by myself. I'm like, where's your wife? But he's an overnight guy.

46:59He's got all this odd hours and vacation time he can take. And so he said, hey, I had a couple minutes before the carrot top show. Sometimes I'll do horse racing. So I swung by where was it? Mandalay Bay? Maybe that's where he's staying. But he goes, well, I wonder where carrot top is. Maybe Caesars or something. Maybe Luxor. Oh, Luxor. Okay. So it goes to Luxor and he goes up to the window. And he said, hey, you guys got horse betting. I got this show. I'm going to. It looks like it's all shut down for the night. And the guy goes, actually, there's still some of those horses that run with the carriage on the back. Oh, that's that is cool. Those are fun. I don't know what that's called, but it's very interesting. So like I said, this guy doesn't really bet. And if he does, he bets a weird thing. We're a bit carad racing and put a dollar out of it. But it's kind of fun. So he said, his address growing up was always 731. And so if he ever has a spare dollar or something, he's near a horse track. He always just doesn't even look at the odds. Doesn't look at the color of the horses. He just bets 731. It's an exacta. Got it. So he goes up to the window and he does an exacta and it's called a box.

48:02So it can go in any one of those orders. So it's 731. It can be 137. 371. You're correct. And so he did what he did is he did $6. And you're essentially betting on any sequence. So he could have bet $1 on this exacta. And it had been 7, but it would have had to be 731. Instead, he did the box. So he had to bet $6. Correct. OK. So the race starts and his vision. He's like in his 60s. It's kind of getting worse than ours. Oh. And so he said the whole time, 7's in the way back. And apparently 7 was 90 to 1. Not good. And they're not even close. 1 and 3 are the first two horses. Oh my god. Far and away. The whole beginning of the race. And he's like, I'm only half paying attention. I mean, you know me, it's six bucks. I just threw it on there. I sat in the chair and I told the lady at the desk, I'm not even going to watch. This is what he told me the overnight guy guys. You can be overnight radio guys. He told the lady at the desk, I'm not even going to watch the race.

49:03Just come over and tell me if I won and I'll give you a tip. What? What? Because I guess he couldn't see it. I've never heard of that. OK. So he could he could tell though that 1 and 3 were in the front, half paying attention. He's just like, ah, and then apparently the horse was a lavender. Now, maybe not the horse color, but the bib color. Yeah. So it blends in with the dirt. OK. Yes. So he couldn't even tell the numbers and stuff. So the race finishes that he's like, you got to be freaking kidding me. 1 and 3 hit, 7 finishes last. And he goes up to the screen. And he's like, man, that lavender, I thought I couldn't tell the numbers while I was sitting down on that lavender. I still can't tell, but I swear it shows up there that the lavender is in third place. Oh my God. So it was 1 3 7 and he's like, I can't tell and it's unofficial. So he goes over to the desk and he goes, Hey, can you guys tell me the number? I can't read that lavender. And she goes, well, it's got to be official. It'll it'll be a second before it's in. And he's like, well, again, I'll give you a tip.

50:05I'm going to go sit down. Just let me know. And so he sits down and he said before he even sat down, you're sure it's official. And he goes usually when they go official that quickly, there's not anything over turned. Apparently it was a race in New York and he said he's seen fishy stuff over the years. Oh, yeah, that's all fishy, man. So he said, especially with the chariot racing and if it's a long shot, that's what it's called chariot racing. Thank you. I've never known the name. I just made that up. Oh, I bet horses and do it since I've been with South Beach. And so he goes, well, she yelled at him right away. And he said in New York, it's weird stuff. If it's a 90 to one horse does well all of a sudden they deac you a horse for no reason at all. And so she was, that's official and he goes, wow, that's crazy. And she comes over and she goes, yeah, it hit. And you want a thousand dollars. Oh my God. That's unbelievable. And so apparently, and so he gave her a $20 tip.

51:07Okay. And so then he went back to his room and I guess it was 900 to one. I could be wrong on these odds. Forgive me. I was driving. I tried to listen to the numbers as best I could. I love the fact that you talked to this guy in the middle of the night on your drive-in to work. Very interesting. And so he goes, I got back to the room and it was his parents address, long story short. And he wanted a better version of the ticket because he wants to frame it because it was awesome. It's the home address and it won a thousand dollars. Don't go back down there. What? Don't tell me it got overturned. So he looks no, no, no, no, no, he made the thousand. Okay. He looks at the ticket and it he thought it was 900 to one. And that's how he won a thousand. The ticket says 1800 to one. And so he goes back to the desk the next day.

52:08And he shows it to the people and they're like, oh, yeah, you should have gotten two thousand dollars instead of one thousand dollars. That girl messed it up. That's never happened before. And they looked at it, looked into it. And I guess because he did a one dollar bet our horse racing bets on based off of two dollars. I don't know. Okay. So horse. So he won a thousand went home woke up in the morning, thought he won 2000 went back to the desk and they said, yeah, horse racing bets are based off of two dollars. So yes, the odds say 18 to one. But since you only bet one dollar on each one of those sequences, you won a thousand. But yes, it is 1800 to one. Your average horse bet you won two thousand. So that's gambling. Talk about a roller coaster. That is a roller coaster, dude. But that mother now he's trying, he's going back to the sportsbook.

53:09They're going to de-cue him eventually and he's going to get the ticket. They said there's some boss person that can print out the ticket and he's going to frame it and put it in his house. What a freaking loser. Two dollars. That is that's pretty funny. I thought you were going to say they took his damn money back and I was like, no, no. Overnight guys trying to run out of there with his ticket after a day. So we're going to need a secret wallet hand over those big bills. We paid you last night. Oh, that's a good story. I like that. All right. You guys have a great Monday. We're out of here. I don't know anything else you want to say. Yeah, he went to Carrot Top and he had a back row seat and he goes, it was just one of those nights in Vegas. They go, hey, are you with anybody and he goes, no, no, it's just beyond by myself. And they go third row. We're trying to fill it a little bit. If you want to go up there and sit 500 dollar seat, but you can go sit up there if you want. He was what I don't have that ticket.

54:09I'm here in the back row and they go, oh, no, no, you can just go up there here. Here's a wristband. So since he went by himself, he got better seats. That's incredible, man. He couldn't lose. I mean, hey, I did that's what you call a heater, man. He won a $500 ticket and he won a $900 freaking horse race. I'm going to book my plane ticket to Vegas right now. I'm going. I'll be back. You guys have a great Monday. We're out of here. Absolute psychos who gamble on the little league world series. You're a freaking loser. Absolute loser. I mean, but I'll bet you $5 that Texas wins it all. Mexico minus 500 over Kuros out. Hey, it's Bobby bones. Join me and former NFL quarterback Matt Castle every Wednesday on our podcast. Lots to say with me, Bobby bones and Matt Castle. You're in training camp and the rookie quarterback has one good throwing session in front of the media.

55:10Suddenly, everybody online says he should start over you week one. How do you handle this? You just go back out to practice the next day and wait for him to mess up. Listen to lots to say with Bobby bones and Matt Castle on the I Heart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. College football will hijack your weekend, ruin your sleep and break your heart. And that's why we make the Sullivan verbal college football show. I'm Ty Hildenbrand. He's Dan Rubenstein. Every week we preview the games that matter in the story lines that are going to ignite your group chat. And you can join us in the aftermath as we react to what happened, why it matters and how the sport went completely bonkers yet again. Listen to the solid verbal college football show on the I Heart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the US Open, which means the tennis world is about to lose its mind. And I'm here for every second of it. Join me, Renee Stubbs on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast as I break it all down. The matches that matter, the drama that doesn't and the stories everyone's talking about.

56:11No cliches, no sugarcoating, just host analysts from someone who's actually been there. Coco, looking real good, her serve looks so much smoother than it has in the past. I was really happy to see you go back to what she looked like a couple of years ago and she was winning dominantly. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the I Heart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I had just seen iced tea guest at the Apollo at the Snoop Dog concert and I told him that and he sort of looked me up and down and then. Hi, I'm Lisa Trigger and I'm Kara Kling and together we host that's messed up a podcast where we recap. Law and order S.V.U. dig into the actual crimes and interview actors from the episode like former S.V.U. guest star Bradley Whitford. Often I would meet people who would assume that there was something sort of Ted Bundy about me because of these sort of sort of characters that I play. And we're celebrating our 300th episode in style with the one the only John Stamos.

57:12There's nobody better to play this character like what is it? He's a reproductive abuser and he's trying to be pregnant as many women as again. I'm like, really? I'm the guy like that. Okay. Get the story behind the rip from the headline story on that's messed up new episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen to that's messed up on the I Heart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I heart podcast guaranteed human.