Andy and Mike D. spin the big wheel of crap and it lands on the Lou Piniella's final full season with the Cubs, 2009. You probably remember it best for Milton Bradley just being a complete psychopath, or for Kevin Gregg kicking his own team in the balls in a must-win game in Miami. It was the year we saw breakout stars like Jake Fox, Micah Hoffpauir and Randy Wells. And the Cubs made one of their greatest free agent signings ever with...Aaron Miles? Woof. The Cubs were in the pennant race, sort ...
Apr 21, 2021•1 hr 42 min•Season 8Ep. 1
It's time for another Movie Deep Dive Podcast and this time Andy and Mike P. are breaking down the Matt Damon/Ed Norton/John Malkovich/Gretchen Mol/John Turturro classic Rounders. What's with everybody's hair? Does the math in the movie make any sense? Why is that casino such a dump--oh, that's why. We talk about the cast, the backstories, our favorite moments and Ed Norton's constant ad libs. Nobody can explain Malkovich's accent, but somehow it all works. Kick back, drink some cheap gin with B...
Apr 16, 2021•2 hr 15 min
Once again, our heroes Andy and Mike D. spin the big wheel of crap to see where it will land what Cubs season they will discuss and this time it lands on a gem. Re-live Sammy Sosa's greatest season, a fun but bad Cubs team that spent most of the summer inexplicably in first place, three gut wrenching bullpen losses, one of the wildest nights in Cubs history where an umpire ejected a Chicago Bears lineman from the broadcast booth (and that wasn't even the craziest thing that happened). It's the 2...
Apr 08, 2021•1 hr 29 min
It's time once again to spin the big wheel and see what crap we have to remember and this time the wheel commands Andy and Mike D. to remember Jim Lefebvre's exciting 1992 squad. It was Greg Maddux's last year in his first stint with the team, Ryne Sandberg's last really good season, and some guy named Sammy Sosa showed up from the White Sox. Relive the glory days of Hector Villanueva, Gary Scott and the day Jim Bullinger made history in a good way! The Cubs had a huge win against Pissburgh in J...
Apr 01, 2021•1 hr 39 min
Baseball season is nigh and man are we excited for the Cubs upcoming season! The baseball crew is back together with Andy, Kyle and Sam and they try to gin up some enthusiasm for what sure looks like the final promise of a Cubs run of dominance landing with a big, wet, thud. If the Cubs can't even pretend to want to keep Anthony Rizzo, what are we supposed to get fired up about? But they look ahead to the Cubs slugging it out with like minded and like talented teams in the NL Central where conte...
Mar 31, 2021•1 hr 17 min
Remember This Crap is back, and if you thought we remembered a bunch of random stuff about the Bears you will be amazed what we can remember about the Cubs. We spin the wheel of death and it lands on...1997. It was a very memorable season for the Cubs, for all the wrong reasons. Relive their horrible start, Mel Rojas sucking what little life they had out of them in June, a waiver trade for the ages, Frank Castillo winning a car and sixty percent of that rotation is currently dead. It was also th...
Mar 18, 2021•1 hr 34 min
Andy and Mike P. give the 1989 classic movie Major League the Movie Deep Dive treatment. Relive the best moments of your favorite baseball movie, learn scintillating facts about the cast and the shooting, and wait until you hear about how they used to figure out how fast pitchers were throwing. Seriously, it's insane. You'll learn fascinating stuff like: why was everybody wearing shorts and tank tops in Cleveland in October? Why aren't there any libraries in Milwaukee? How did Willie know not to...
Mar 12, 2021•2 hr 40 min
Andy and Mike Pusateri are back with another deep dive into a great movie. This time it's Moneyball, with Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and...uh, Royce Clayton? You'll find out why Art Howe was so happy with the movie (he wasn't), how different the movie almost was, interesting facts about the cast and how it very nearly had a Billy Beane sex scene. Really. Andy picks the three most "Sorkin" scenes in the movie and tells you which Cubs game the big one in this movie reminded him...
Feb 19, 2021•2 hr 13 min
Our Bears pod is shuttered (at least until the Bears trade two number ones for Rick Mirer again) but that doesn't mean Mike Pusateri and Andy are done with their podcast. This abbreviated episode is the announcement of the next movie in our Movie Deep Dive series. Enjoy.
Feb 07, 2021•8 min
You all remember Cap Boso's turf face. You might remember Jim Harbaugh throwing the game tying touchdown to Neal Anderson's feet. But Blair Thomas will never forget Steve McMichael stealing a sure win out of his hands. It's time to remember a Monday Night Football classic from 1991 when the Mike Ditka Bears took on Bruce Coslet's Jets. Al, Frank and Dan were on the call and Dan really wanted to say nice things about fellow Michigan man Harbaugh and that got really old really fast. We watched all...
Jan 20, 2021•1 hr 51 min
You thought you were done with the Bears for the season and so did we, but the mind-numbingly tone deaf and just plain bad press conference last week with George, Ted, Ryan, Matt and Ringo deserved a breakdown so Andy and Mike P. are here to do it. They try to figure out just what it is that George does, why Ted is still around and really why was he at the press conference, and they try to figure out why Ryan Pace is so afraid to answer how much longer he has on his contract. Mitch is clearly go...
Jan 19, 2021•1 hr 42 min
The 1984 Bears playoff upset of the Washington Footballers in DC is remembered for a lot of things: the Bears broke a 21 year playoff win drought, they did it with their fifth quarterback of the season, the old school Washington team had a straight ahead kicker, a quarterback with a one bar facemask and male fans who wore dresses and pig noses. But mainly, the game is remembered for a second quarter play when Bears safety Todd Bell killed Joe Washington. Since the current Bears seem as far from ...
Jan 14, 2021•1 hr 34 min
Word leaked out after Andy and Mike P. recorded the podcast that Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace are coming back, but it's not like the guys didn't expect it. They look back at an uninspiring playoff effort, try to figure out why their Parler passwords don't work, what Nickelodeon was going for with their broadcast, Andy thinks Alabama's quarterback Mac Jones is named Matt, and they try to figure out how the Bears expect to rebuild with the same stooges inevitably making the same decisions. They also bi...
Jan 13, 2021•1 hr 22 min
Sunday's game will be the third time the Bears and Saints have met in the playoffs and the Bears have won the first two. You remember the 2007 NFC Championship game and Andy and Mike D. talk about that, but you probably don't remember much about the 1991 Mike Tomczak-Steve Walsh-John Fourcade barage a tois, so we go deep into that one. It's the leftover players from the Super Bowl XX champions mixed with the lovable duds that we rooted for in the '90s against an up and coming Saints team. The ga...
Jan 06, 2021•1 hr 44 min
The Bears reward for losing to the Packers again is, inexplicably, a playoff spot. Andy and Mike P. look back at the Bears showing improvement against Green Bay and still losing by nearly three touchdowns, try to figure out what kind of defense that was supposed to be, why the Bears refuse to hire running backs, what Mitch looked like against a real defense and what their reward would be if they somehow won a playoff game. They also look ahead to just what in the hell Nickelodeon is doing broadc...
Jan 05, 2021•1 hr 30 min
It's Packers week part deux and Andy and Mike D. are ready to look back at important Bears-Packers games in recent history (there really have been some) they also talk about the Jerry Lewis telethon, Tom Dreesen, Caleb Hanie, Chris Conte, Eddie Jackson returning an interception and hurting his knee, great high school football plays, great (and terrible) Hall of Fame busts, Gary Kubiak's migraines, Mark Grace strikeouts, when you can advance a fumble, how to use timeouts, Doug Flutie doing a drop...
Dec 30, 2020•1 hr 36 min
The Cubs traded their best pitcher to the Padres for four bags of teenage beans and whatever the hell Zach Davies is supposed to be and that called for an emergency podcast with Andy and Sam Fels. What the trade says about the Ricketts desire to win is all bad, and while there are defensible reasons to trade a 34-year old pitcher who has had two serious arm injuries the "haul" the Cubs got in return for Darvish isn't any of them. Sam threatens to disavow the Cubs, Andy says mean things about the...
Dec 29, 2020•1 hr 17 min
The Bears have inexplicably staggered back into playoff contention and Andy and Mike P. get you ready for Sunday's sure-to-be-memorable tilt with the hated Packers. They go through all of the scenarios, look back at the Jags rousing halftime speech that convinced their team to stop trying, break down how averaging 35 points per game the last four weeks is basically just barely above average, look at Roquan's unusual attempt to get named retroactively to the Pro Bowl, and give you key scouring re...
Dec 29, 2020•1 hr 23 min
The history of the Bears and Jaguars is neither long nor storied, but we'll always have Keith Traylor and the crowning moment of Dick Jauron's 2001 Bears juggernaut. Andy and Mike D. look back on all seven contests between the teams, try to figure out why Jacksonville even has a team, re-live great moments for the A-Train, Peanut Tillman, Chad Hutchinson, Cameron Meredith, Brandon Marshall, Paul Edinger, former Bear Keenan McCardell, Adam Podlesh and many more. They also talk about spending too ...
Dec 23, 2020•1 hr 33 min
Andy and Mike P. talk about the Bears win over the Vikings and how everything on Sunday broke against the best interests of the team long-term. Will the Bears still be motivated to change the GM or coach? Will Ted Phillips be given a big Publisher's Clearinghouse check to leave and if so, Andy thinks he knows who they'll replace him with. Let's just say the interns should go out and buy ties. They discuss the different playoff scenarios and how likely it is that the Bears will be playing a disin...
Dec 22, 2020•1 hr 29 min
It's Vikings week part deux and Andy and Mike are Remembering This Crap about the Bears and Vikings which includes one of the rarest of all things in Bears history--a road playoff win, by Dave Wannstedt, no less--and tales of famous Vikings like Ted Brown, Jarvis Redwine, Joe Senser, Fuad Reveiz, Amp Lee and Steve Dils. The '94 playoff win at the Metrodome was the absolute peak of the Wanny era, and the guys talk about the desperation of Mike McCaskey to land him to replace Mike Ditka and the bi...
Dec 16, 2020•1 hr 14 min
The guys look back at a the Bears first win in nearly two months and hope that it didn't save anybody's job--but it probably did. The talk about Mitch's big day against a terrible, depleted Texans team, about whether they'd rather have the Texans future or the Bears, who Andy thinks should be the Bears QB next year and who probably will be. They also talk about the cinematic classic, Porky's, and compare the McCaskeys to the Royal Family--there are many disturbing similarities. They wonder who w...
Dec 15, 2020•1 hr 13 min
The Bears, a charter franchise of the NFL have played the Texans four times in the 19 year history fo the Texans and dumped them all. The Texans have prevented the Bears from making the playoffs, contributed to Paul Edinger's only career pass, and ruined a Bears season by scrambling Jay Cutler's brain. The guys also discuss why Bears should try an interim coach, how Ted Phillips got his job, Mugs Halas, the prospects of the McCaskeys selling, and Andy proposes the Bears employ the Vags wagon for...
Dec 09, 2020•1 hr 18 min
Another week another undignified Bears loss and Andy and Mike P. are begrudgingly ready to talk about it. They break down the epic Bears' collapse, try to figure out what anybody was thinking and where defense has gone. They talk about Ted Phillips' rumored retirement, why Ryan Pace can't pick the next QB and the advantages of firing everybody in-season. Andy gives a detailed (half-assed) scouting report on BYU's Zach Wilson and they Google Trey Lance. As they try to figure out the barber shop l...
Dec 08, 2020•1 hr 22 min
It's time to remember even more crap about the Lions as they come to town to take on the Bears Sunday. The Lions had the courtesy to fire their idiot head coach named Matt, unlike the Bears. Andy and Mike D. look back the long, illustrious history of Lions coaches, the youngest players in Hall of Fame history (and how that reflects pretty poorly on Detroit.) They also delve into Matt Millen's first round draft history just to make themselves feel better about Bears drafts. They also look into Ga...
Dec 02, 2020•1 hr 7 min
The Bears made fools of themselves, again, on national TV at Lambeau Field on Sunday night and Andy and Mike P. are on hand to wallow in the misery the Bears are shedding as the NFL's latest superspreader of suck. The guys tell you what the Bears need to do, and why the McCaskey family is too dumb to do any of it. Mitch Trubisky came back to remind us why he was on the bench in the first place. Matt Nagy insisted his team has no quit in them. (They do. We saw it.) And they plea for the NFL to st...
Dec 01, 2020•1 hr 15 min
With the Bears off fighting their Week 11 bye to a draw, the Pointless Exercise podcast takes advantage of having an actual professional actor, Mike Pusateri, on it to go into a deep dive into one of Mike and Andy's favorite movies, Phillip Kaufman's 1983 classic The Right Stuff. Why should you listen to a two hour podcast about a three and a half hour movie? Because it's a great movie, and the guys lovingly and thoroughly get to the root of what makes so thrilling, heroic and yes, funny. You'll...
Nov 26, 2020•2 hr 19 min
The pod starts with a new sponsor and ends with extensive talk about Theo Epstein leaving the Cubs, but in between Andy and Mike P. do their contractual duty and talk about another Bears loss. How the offensive coordinator search saved the season, the best thing about the game was how quickly it was played, the saddest kind of quarterback controversy, a dark turn in our Noah Jackson discussion, how bad things have to get for the Bears to make actual changes and what they should do. And then at t...
Nov 18, 2020•1 hr 33 min
It's time to Remember This Crap, and Mike D. and Andy look back on the glorious Bears-Vikings rivalry. It's mostly marked by Bud Grant pissing and moaning about the early '80s Bears not respecting the national anthem, field goals from the one yard line (that used to be a thing), Wanny winning a road playoff game, the glorious chokes of Gary Anderson and Brett Fah-vuh-ruh, and the worst Monday Night Football crew of all-time calling the most unlikely Thursday Night game of all time. Andy does the...
Nov 11, 2020•1 hr 16 min
Andy and Mike P. try to figure out what landscape company Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy can hold their farewell press conference at as they harken back to the last time Nagy's offense was any damned good (it's a long trip.) They go all Steve Kornacki over the Bears chances to either make the playoffs or finish last, wonder if the backup fat guys the Bears had to use Sunday are really worse than the regular fat guys. They marvel at the team's ability to make an outside linebacker their only real runnin...
Nov 10, 2020•1 hr 14 min
