Mailbag

eighth day of the week. The Sunday podcast will come right back Sunday night into Monday on the radio. On the radio will have a new show talking about all the playoff games today. But this is a mail bag podcast and yet again not joined by David Gascon. Gagon could not be bothered to do the podcast this week, So please tell a friend, Tell a friend. We need a lot of downloads here to annoy. Gascon could be very upset if the person filling in for him, Kevin,

Who's who's running alongside me here, Kevin O'Connell. If we have as many or more downloads as we normally have, that will be a great blow to the ego of guess Gon. But we do thank you for supporting the podcast. This is a mailbag podcast, so you know what that means. Let's get right to the questions. We actually have some good questions, so we need to get into it, as we say. And but before we get into it, though, just I want to I want to thank Bruce Jacobs.

If you didn't hear the Friday podcast. If you're a historian, if you open not a Laker historian, but if you're a historian of Fox Sports Radio, Bruce Jacobs is one of the greats. I love. This guy's one of my favorite people in radio. I love his style, bombastic, opinionated, passionate all that. He does a local show in Phoenix these days, Morning Drive Guy in Phoenix and Bruce spent a good chunk of time with us on the Friday podcast,

catching up telling some old stories about radio. There's an any Garcia story in there, and so if you want to hear what that's all about the changing of the radio business, we talked about that, which we've both witnessed in our lives. Uh So that's available. And then yesterday just some some witty Q and a back and forth with pop quiz, and we also had Kevin on the hot seat learning about Kevin Who's in this week for a guest con But time now for the mail bag.

These are actual questions sent in by actual listeners like yourself. Most of them have been submitted to the Facebook page Ben Mallard Show, or the Real Fifth Hour at gmail dot com. That's Real Fifth Hour at gmail dot com. Spell fifth f I F T H Real fifth Hour at gmail dot com. So the first question comes from Bill and Charleston, South Carolina. He says, Ben, could you please explain why West of the four oh five is important? Is East of the four oh five also a a

phrase that you use? And how are the how are they distinct and different? The militia must know? All right? He says, he's listening in Charleston. Why I I wrote back to you, Bill, I hope you got it. But my my niece actually goes to college in Charleston, South Carolina, and she loves it. She loves it. She's from New York, she grew up in Manhattan, but she can't she loves Charleston, South Carolina. So that's a a feather in your cap as far as west of the four oh five. Alright,

So here's the deal. This is really more of a local Southern California thing. But there's there's a point of the marcation where this generally speaking, the snobbyist, elitist people in the southern California area live in the west of the four oh five corridor. Uh. And that's where the beach cities are. That's that's where the a lot of the like Malibu and that type crowd, that's where they hang out. Uh, you know, west of the four h five.

And so that is why we use the term. The people east of the four oh five generally more hard working people, blue collar people. They don't take themselves as seriously as the people west of the four oh five, who are generally a Hole's not all, but generally speaking. Uh So that's why we use the term west of the four or five. And plus it's gascon in a nutshell, he is west of the four or five. He's an a hole. So there you go, all right, Travis writes

in from Parts Unknown. He says, if you're ever allowed back in studio to do the radio show, will you go or has the temporary set up become too comfortable. It seemed to be a mess when with the chemistry on the show and all that at first, but honestly, you're all back in top fom with the current situation. Well, thank you, Travis. Number one. Appreciate that I get my five thank you's in, so I appreciate that. Number two. I have a feeling that we will do a hybrid

where I will. I don't think it'll ever go back to the way it was where I'm in the studio five nights a week. I don't think we'll get to that point. I envision a world where I do some of it from my home studio where I I broadcast from and then you know, maybe a couple of days a week I'll do it from the studio, uh, depending on what happens with some other stuff. So I think that's gonna be the way that it goes. But it will it be completely one way or completely the other. No,

I like going to the radio station. I remember when this pandemic started and I got the call from from Scotch Yapiro or Boss and he's like, hey, we need you to do the show from home. Everyone's gonna be working remotely, And part of me was excited, but part of me was like I I remember telling him. I was like, you know, I I'd rather go to the radio station. I like going to the radio station and being part of that and all that stuff. But I've

gotten used to not doing it. And like anything in life, whether you you start a new diet, it takes on average it is sixty six days. It takes a little bit over two months, and then a new behavior, new activity becomes normal, it becomes automatic. That's on average. I mean sometimes it's last, sometimes it's more, but on average it's about a little more than two months. And whatever is like you moved to a new new area. Um, you go to a new school, you go you start

a new job. It takes about two months and then you're used to it and becomes just second nature and all that stuff. So yeah, I get back to going to the student get used to it. But I I, like I said Travil, I think it's gonna be uh some kind of split situation, all right, Chris writes in from Parts Unknown. He says, been how many hours a day of prep go into the show. He says, you're able to talk for hours and it just sounds me all right, Well, that's very kind of you to say, Chris,

it is a talk show. If I'm not able to talk for hours, I probably should not be doing it. But it's a lot. You don't want to know how the hot dogs are made. I don't. I don't think you need to know how the hot dogs are made and all that, but there's a lot that goes into it. And it's it's my job, it's my career. And so if I, uh, you know, if I, if I want to keep doing it, you gotta put the work in.

At least I have to put the work. And there are plenty of people that just show up, you know, two minutes before the show and just didn't prepare, and generally those people are exposed and they don't last that long, all right, But you're you're never supposed to see how they make the hot dogs. But yeah, it's it's an only thing. I'm always trying to find interesting things, uh you know that that I care about. I don't want

to do stuff I don't really care about. And some days I might find a couple of stories that I'm really passionate about, but then I gotta do four hours and I don't like to repeat stuff. This is all inside baseball. But you know I'm looking, Aroun. I'm always always searching for the next good story. Right, where's the where's a good story that that's good radio? Like locker room drama, palace intrigue, guys saying something crazy, all that stuff. Chris also says, what are you going to put in

a good word for ostrich An? Now? Ostro Jan is on twitters from the Washington, D C. Area. He says, I would love to see his art in the l A Times. Well, Chris ostro Jan is very talent. He's very kind. He writes these little cartoon drawings usually once a week about the show, and I enjoy them and I use them on Facebook and uh and I but I don't know anyone at the l A. Times. I can I can get him a job. But yeah, he's he's got a talent. He's very good. I can't draw

like that. I can't draw a little cartoons like that. He's good. Kevin and Kansas writes in on the mail bag. He says, Ben, I heard you tell the story this summer of how you discovered on one of your long walks a laundry card. Can you please give us a status update on how that has worked out. Yeah, sure I can do that came so, yeah, during the the summertime.

I just got a treadmill recently, but my the only exercise I could get for a while, for pretty much all of twenty I just got it, like right before my dad passed. But I uh so in my dad past earlier this year. So but I was walking, walking, walking, walk and walk and walk and walk ward and I was trying to like notice my be present right walking around. I had some some audio I was listening to. My headphones were in, but I was looking around observing. I

don't want to get hit by car. So I found this deserted laundry cart and I kept you know, it's early in my walk. I kept walking, and then I made a deal with myself. I said, all right, when I get home, i'm gonna get in the car, and if that laundry cart is still there, I'm taking it because it's just trash. It was in a pile of trash. So I got home, I told the story on the podcast. I then what value was there? So I put in my car And to answer your question, Kevin, it's it's

worked out well. But now instead of the laundry being on the floor, it's just in the laundry cart, you know what I mean. Like the dirty laundry is just in the laundry card. So it's it's made it look a little more aesthetically pleasing at the Mallard mansion. But it's just like the dirty laundry instead of being on the floor, is just in the in the cards. There is that. Alex writes in from Parts Unknown and asked the question, he says, Hey, Ben, who would win in

an arm wrestling match between you and David Gascon? And why all right now? Rather than me answer this question, I think Kevin should answer this question. Kevin, you've met guests, gun, you know who I am. Who do you think would win an arm wrestling match? And this is being recorded for posterity's sake. Um, you know, I think Gascons all looks he may look the part, but I think you have that grown man strength. Ben. It's right, I have

the old man strength. Yes, I think when you were yeah, yeah, Gascons all about the vanity, right you did you see him? He's all he's groomed and all that stuff. And but it's those guys usually the the what's the phrase the dog that barks the loudest doesn't bite, The barking dog doesn't bite. Something like that. Yeah, whoever barks a lot of Yeah, I think it's something like that. I don't know that we're close. Yeah, closet. Yeah, good answer. You

can stay on the podcast. Jason in Rocky Mountain, Virginia rights and he says, Ben, you said in last week's podcast that you remember going to a Tiger's Angels game with your dad and a cigarette came flying down and hit you in the leg. When I was a kid, my dad took me to the two teams when they were when we were on vacation in California. It was a Saturday night, I believe in Jim Abbott pitched for the Angels. Cecil Fielder hit over fifty dingers for the

Tigers that year in his return from Japan. Also, Chili Davis hit to home runs in that game. Could it be possible we were at the same game as kids? All right? So, first of all, I don't think it was that game. I might have been at that game. I went to a lot of Angels games in those days,

so I might have been at that game. But that was not the day that the cigarette came flying down of the might have been a cigar that burned my leg when I was a kid, because I still remember the Tigers had several players who were on the eighty four Tigers, the great Tiger team that played the Padres in the World Series, and so I remember like chet Lemon and a few other players, and that was like a big deal when you're a kid, you know, you remember of the team winning a World Series, and then

they still got players that were part of the World Series, like bigger than life. So I remember that. But Jason, it would be serendipity if we were at I think that's the right term, serendipity, right, if we were at the same game at the same time. And I love that.

I love hearing the name Chili Davis because one of my favorite moments when I was a radio reporter in the mid nineties, I was a young guy just getting to my feet settled in the radio business, and the Angels, I think it so I'm still a young guy and the Angels had this big lead. They had like an eleven game lead in the American League West. It was in August, getting late in the baseball season, and they

completely took a ride on the vomit commet. They sucked, and they blew the lead to the Seattle Mariners, and it was a stunning collapse. And I had to interview those idiots as they were losing every game, and they have a player by the name of Tony Phillips who was their best player and really the only guy that was still hitting when everyone else stopped hitting. The entire team could not hit. He couldn't punch their way out

of a paper bag. And as the great line Losorda had the late Tommy Losorda, they couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat. The Angels were so bad then anyway, So I had interviewed Tony Phillips, this guy and Tony, uh, let's just say he was not the most corrigible person. He did not have to get along with the media very much and didn't like me, and they were losing and he was in a bad mood and one time he wanted to fight me, and I, like Froze, I didn't know. I was much bigger than

Tony Phillips. I could have kicked his ass, but he he was a obviously professional athlete and Uh, so, I like froze. I I at stage frined, I don't know what do And then Chili Davis came to my rescue, got in between me and Tony Phillips and uh and made sure that peace prevailed. So that that's a longer story than you asked for, Jason, but that the interaction with the great Chili Davis, who is a hitting coach I think for the Mets. He's been a hitting coach

for a couple of different teams. Now I think he's with the Mets. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Mark writes in from Concord, New Hampshire. He says, hey, Ben, does Roberto serve the crew food during cooking with Roberto? Well Mark, he has done that, all right, he has done that, but not during the pandemic when we were all together. Now Eddie and Cooper are still going in.

I'm obviously on remote from the remote studio. Um, but yeah, he would make you know, he'd makes some of the food. Usually like the next week, he'd make it. Sometimes he'd make it before and bring it in, and yeah, had some delicious food. Now, some of that stuff, like the Minuto, I wouldn't need, and some of this suff Roberto makes I want to want to barth, but a lot of it's very good, and the stuff I've eaten has been delicious. A berry from Nashville via email. Right, So, he says,

I know you do, Benny versus the pain. I haven't done that. That's on hiatus because of my personal life situation. But anyway, Barry says, on a typical NFL Sunday, how many games and how much per game would you actually bet if it were legal in your state? Of course, well, very a couple of things. You will never reveal how much you bet. It's not a lot, though I'm not. I'm not a whale. You I was the size of a whale for a while, But I'm not a whale

gambler that bets a ton of money. And the thing about it, I can lose a hundred bucks and be just as upset as if I lost a thousand bucks. So that's the special skill that I have. But to answer your question, how many games I would bet on a given Sunday, it really depends on how I like the card like I do benny versus the penny. And typically there's two or three games that I really like, and everything else I don't have as strong an opinion about.

So they say that you're really only supposed to bet on the games you got a good opinion on good knowledge of. But usually the numbers three, you want to bet an odd number. You don't want to bet an even number because then if you win two and lose too, obviously you've lost money on the juice. So you want to bet one, three or five somewhere. Usually I'm in the three category. There have been weeks where it's only a one game. Sometimes I've gone weeks where there's no games,

so I don't like anything. Usually that's week seventeen of the regular season where I just don't want to bet because I don't know who's motivated, who's not motivated, who's gonna play, who's not gonna play, that kind of stuff, So I usually avoid those situations at all. Cant I'll costs alright? Next up Matt from Mansfield, Texas. Right soon, he says, Ben, you bring money line odds all the time. How are the relative percentages you mentioned calculated? Asking for

a nerd Masses. Well, that's that's a decent question, Matt A. I have a computer like mind and I use mallard Mass skills to do it. Unless none of that is true. No, I I have a I have an odds calculator I use as a gambler that tells me the perceived odds based on a bet like so, and this is something

that I I did years ago. Actually, I think it was R. J. Bell that that tipped me off to this, and so it's something when I make a bet, I'm like, all right, what is the gambling I would like to know what the gambling market says about something like what does the gambling markets say the odds of this happening? I think it's interesting. I think it's interesting to look at a line and say, okay, so the Chiefs are favored by this, and this is the money line. What

does that mean? Like what percentage chance to the Chiefs have to win? Uh? So, I I asked, that's just been some of my michigas, and so I have that. Now I've done that enough. We're certain certain money line numbers I know just because they come up a lot, you know, like plus two thousand or minus two thousand. I know I know what those are. But that's that's generally speaking, how that works again, how how we make the hot dogs. But that's the beauty of the Fifth

Hour podcast. You can ask those kind of questions and you can you can figure it out and all that stuff, and you can mock and criticize and all that stuff. All right, Kentucky Tay in Kentucky. J Right, and this is from Kentucky Tay. Our friends from Scottsville, Kentucky. They're lovely daughter there as well, she says, I honestly, UH don't have any interesting, witty questions for the show. Okay, However, Kentucky ke Tay says, I wanted to ask you how

you're holding up. I'm hanging in there, Kentucky Tay, thank you, she says. Sorry for your loss. Jay and I, she says, both lost our fathers at a young age, and from experience, it is not something you completely recover from. But looking back at good memories, she says, she loves looking back at good memories. My favorite times, Kentucky Taste says, with my dad is us cooking breakfast together on Saturday mornings.

What is your favorite memory of you and your dad. Well, I talked on some of that last week Kentucky Tabe. But I have a lot of membories, and you know, growing up, I was a mama's boy, and I really got a lot closer with my dad as my my mom got sick, and then you know, the last about ten years or so, came really close with my dad. But when were kids to go to baseball games or

football games and you know, it's just family dinners. You know, lost both my mom and dad now, but I remember very especially the times where now where my mom was a Democrat liberal, my dad conservative Republican, and they would duke it out at the dinner table and they'd go back and forth about whatever the big stories of the day were, and then when it was over, they hug it out. And that's that's how I learned. I like that. I think you should be able to fight about different stuff.

But then at the end it's just it's it's meaningless. It's politics. Who cares, you know, it's like all this stuff, what's the old? It's a I forget how you say, but as an expression in in in French, where you know, once you're gone, it all ends. So you know it's you know, you know who cares. Uh, you know, don't don't sweat the small stuff, but you know those kind

of things. Pierre from Springfield, Massachusetts, the home of the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame rights and he says, Ben number one, do you think that theo epstein he's laying the groundwork to eventually be Uncle Rob's replacement. Yeah. Well, he's a a cunning individual. There's something going on. He's

scheming theo Epstein. There's a couple of different theories. A the theory is that he's just using that because he's got his eye on a certain job that he wants to take over as a GM and so he's just hanging out getting a check even though he's got a ton of money theo epstein. Uh, but he's just hanging out of the commissioner's office. But eventually he wants a GM job with Team X, but he's waiting for that to open up, so he's just laying low like a

snake in the grass at Major League Baseball. The other theory, which you referenced here is the possibility, as you you know this Pierre as a friend of Alfae alien O piner Uh, that there could be a hostile takeover, that Rob Manford is not that popular with the big shots who run these baseball teams, and theo Epstein is, and so yeah, there's certainly it's not that biggest stretch to imagine that this is all a facade and that theo is going to eventually replace Rob Manford as the commissioner.

That still blows me away because when I worked in San Diego at the mighty six ninety and I would occasionally go to Padre games and I'd sit in the press box at Jack Murphy Stadium. I recall the Padres had an intern by the name of theo Epstein. He was an intern. He got the press notes out for the the hack writers and the radio nerds in the press box. And then I just remember hearing the name, and he was an intern. You know, you don't spend

a lot of time with the interns. And then like bam, a couple years later you got the Red Sox job. I'm like, what the hell? I crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, all right? Another question from Pierre. He says, Ben, if you were given the opportunity to vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame, would you blank a ballot, and then he sent a screenshot here of this scribe who sent

an entirely blank ballot. He says, it seems more like a gagon move to me, Yeah, Pierre, I would not I would not do that, although I understand the logic behind it. I mean, and the argument is a compelling one that there doesn't have to be a Hall of Famer every year, right that the standard to get in the Hall of Fame. Uh, it should have been the one percent of the Creme della Kreme. It's not like

that anymore. The Hall of Fame is a it's like the way I would describe it, it's like an amusement park when times are normal, and so it's like, well, no, you don't have to be an uh only elitist and all that stuff. But it's it's now where they have to have a certain number of people in the Hall of Fame because it's they've got a business to run.

They they wanna they wanna become rich and make money and prosper and all that stuff, and so to do that, you have to have a new class in the Hall of Fame every year, and you have to have a certain number of people Otherwise who's gonna go to the Hall of Fame. You know, it's uninteresting, people would be unmotivated, takes a lot of work to plan a trip when

times are normal and all that. So so yeah, I mean Dion Sanders did it, ran about that a couple of years ago, about how there should only be you know, a certain percentage of players should get in and that's it, and I agree with And baseball had always been that sport where he had been like that. And then Harold Bane's got in the Hall of Fame or Bill Mazeroski because of one home run, and it changed. There you go. Chris writes in from Marr Cooke to Iowa. He says,

life is short. What life goal or place to visit is at the top of your list right now? So you're talking about like a bucket list. Uh, you know, I don't really have a bucket list. My wife would like to travel a lot. I have a feeling that will be doing that in the future. I just want to, you know, a live a good life, hang out with people. Uh, you know, I love and I like and and friends and all that and enjoy as much of it. I love my job, which is cool. So I like doing that,

and you know, I would like to travel. It's been a while everyone, you know, with the pandemic and all that, have been able to do stuff. And I really like traveling around America. Like to to check out some of the historic sites around the United States, the National parks, some of the Civil War monument areas, like the ones that haven't been torn down yet. I'm just I'm a big fan of American history, so I'd like to check some of that out. Like to go through Canada, that

would be nice. Maybe a trip to the Bahamas. Uh, there's a lot of places. I'd like to get to. New Zealand. I've been the radio there in New Zealand for for years. In fact, I just went back on this week. On Friday, I returned. I was off the station I worked for in New Zealand went out of business during the pandemic. So now I'm on a news talk station as a weekly correspondent. So that's a lot of fun. I'd like to talk to Well, I talked to him everywhere. I'd like to meet the people I've

talked to for years. That would be pretty cool. So that's all. That's all there. Carlos and Houston writes, and we're doing the mail back Carlos, and Houston writes, and he says, you had close to a month off. Did you eat that steak that the gas can gave you? Know? I did not, Carlos, did not eat the steak still in the freezer you wanted, I can sent it to you. Then he says, what's the origin story of Tammy in Montanah, yeah, Carlos. As far as Tammy and Montana, I don't know if

there's any amazing story. Tammy has been a loyal minion. She has been a p one fan of the show, and she's just you know, she called in back I don't know how many years ago, but she's been with the show for a long time. She's a bona fide certified p one and she's been very supportive. She does a lot of stuff that nobody knows about, very kind things that I know a little bit about that she

does not promote um, but she's very concerned. We we have a very eclectic group of people that call the show, and quite frankly, some of the people that call the show or down on their luck and they're living in shelters and they're living in in bad situations and they've got medical issues, and it's just kind of gravitate to the show because the overnight and and we're there. We

we have a rule. You take the Mallard Militia oath and all that and the motto that you know, everyone is welcoming every man, woman and child, and doesn't matter your politics or you're whether you're gay or straight or anything like that, whether you're you're bright, or you're stupid, or you've got medical problems. Right, we just we just bust each other's balls. And so anyway, the point of that is Tammy has been been very cool at reaching

out like collering James for example. She she's she's really good at tracking tracking these people down, like I don't know if she's a private investigator or not, but she's able to take a little bit of information, just like little clues that certain people mentioned on the radio, and then be able to get ahold of them and help them out if they need some extra help. So so that's my my nutshell reference of the great Tammy in Montana.

The other thing about Tammy, she's sneaky mean, sneaky mean, Like I think it was the the Octagon between Tammy and Montana. I think the one I remember is the one with Genie and Medford. If I recall correctly, it all runs together. But but I recall that specifically because it was it was an octagon, and we didn't expect Tammy.

You know, Tammy a very very sweet woman, very nice woman, not really feisty at all, and so we just expected her to roll over and play dead, getting the fetal position and not put up any kind of a fight. And she came out throwing these amazing haymakers, right, just amazing haymakers. Uh. And it was it was awesome. She didn't have any kind of fatigue, she didn't get exhausted there, she was prepared, she had done her homework, and she came in there like Donkey Kongs, just crushing everything in

the octagon. And it was it was pretty neat. So any wait, all right, next up on the mailbag, uh Vahed, I believe I'm saying that correctly. In the biou in New Orleans Saints Country, he points out, says Mr Miller, question, what is the biggest handyman job each of you did or planning on doing it? Okay? So I love the YouTube and I do a lot of cooking stuff off the YouTube. As far as like handyman stuff, I'm not good at it. I have tried some things off YouTube

and it doesn't quite work for me. But I've I've painted, and I've done a few small repairs. I remember there was a door, you know those bathroom what do you call the kind of sliding doors that pocket doors? One of those got stuck and locked and I couldn't get it open. It was locked from the inside. I was in the outside, and I went on a YouTube video on how to hack into that, and I was able to do that with I got the device I needed. So but that's does that really count as a handy

man job? Yeah, I'm not I'm not sure all right, But he does say, but he says, after a year of questioning myself, I did two bigger rooms. It worked perfect. There you go, whatever it might be, Yes, you can do it. Uh And then for somebody he loves the show, But he says, Mr Mallard, do you bring that slap dick in instead of guess? But I don't know what slap dick you're talking? Is he calling you a slap nick him? And I don't think he knows who you are.

I think you must be he must be referencing somebody else. Yeah, I seem, I seem. So that's a good term though, slap dick. Can you ever use that term? Plenty of times with my friends? Yeah? Absolutely, Yeah, it's it's a term you can say on the radio, that's what. Yeah, so that's what I was wondering. As soon as you said it, I was like, oh, can you say that? And yeah, I mean obviously you would know more than me, so well, it's a podcast, you can say it on

a pocket. But yes, the terms. I've used it on the radio and Eddie got all like upset, I can't believe you said slap dick. But it's actually you know, the origins of the term. You know what the meaning of it? I do not know. Let me here it is. It is actually an old Texas football term, like a coach ripping his players would be like, oh, you're a slap dick. You're a bunch of slap dicks. You know, like you're not You're like you're not focused? So what's

great about that? And I'm really glad that's the origin behind it because I coached high school for six years and I would use that term all the time to the players, but I didn't no idea. That's where it stemmed from. There. You go, look at that. That's awesome. What high school did you coach your Belinda? Cool? Yeah, you're in high school? What's the map? What's the mascot of the mustang? Must Mustangs? And what did you freshman? Sophomore? Varsity? Like?

What did they started? My first four or five years mainly j V, and then what you know, obviously helped varsity, and then my last couple of years I was assistant varsity defense coordinator. Do d line in linebackers? Cool? Yeah, we're good. We want to CEF And he done the sixteen too. It was fun. And why did you stop doing it? Because it didn't pay anything? Uh? And I didn't. I did. I didn't really want to be a teacher. I was actually a sub for a year and try

to test those waters. And I love coaching, but I didn't want to be a teacher. That's there was a guy one of our old interns in the nineties was this guy named Tom. Tom the intern. He's like a boardop guy, and he loved coaching high school football like you. He was He working at the radio station coaching football, and then he decided to fully go into coaching and he became the head coach at the University of Texas. He was just let go a couple of weeks ago.

Tom Herman. Tom Herman was Yeah, Tom Herman worked at a radio station I worked at in the nineties and he was like a board op intern guy. And then he decided he loved coaching and he just dedicated his life to it and he moved all over the place to different cities and all that. Yeah, he was going to like cal Lutheran out here and uh yeah, then he ended up ended up moving around. He was cal Lutherans in the Thousand Oaks out in the Yeah, far, I had no idea at that. I didn't know that

about him. Yeah, I was really I was really pulling for him. Unfortunately it didn't go his way there at Texas. He he already got he got sent the sent the walking papers. But yeah, that's pretty good though, just to get to that job. He made a ton of money too, absolutely on the top notch programs. Obviously, he made He made more money in one year than I probably made

my entire career in radio. And then what with his bio, probably twenty million or something, um like, oh yeah, yeah, that's the oah, yeah, he's yeah, he's getting paid for several more several more years for sure, ahead and take off. We'll give you all this money. Okay, yeah, yeah, he did a little He's like he worked a little bit in television, kind of like an intern. But he was also behind the scenes intern guy producer at Extra Sports eleven fifty, the l a version of the of the

station back in the day. So and he'll he'll get like a bunch of coaching. That gotta be in coaching the rest of his life. He's not he's not that old guy. I think he's I guess he's getting older. He's he's a mid forties. But he'll coach like I don't twenty years if he wants, oh yeah, absolutely an assistant somewhere. Yeah, if you know he's not a head coaching somewhere else at some point. Yeah, you know, when you get in that racket, it's the good old boys network.

He just keep getting gigs, you know. Yeah. Yeah, Well he's seen like as Steven Starcasion. I mean, I know, from getting fired for being alcoholic and I'm being speaking of Texas. Right, that's right, he's the guy who replaced herman. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. All right, marking Ottawa writes in he says, Hey, Ben,

what is your favorite part of the chicken eat? Is it the wing, the thigh, the breast, the leg and cooked which way? Well, I'm a breast man. Uh that's a drop. I would say anything fried. I like the chicken strips are my favorite meal. So fried chicken is amazing. But I've eaten more grilled chicken recently, but I preferred fried. R J in San Antonio, long time p one of the Mallard Show says, uh, see here go to flavor of chicken strips besides raising canes. So I don't know

if you mean flavor or what you said flavor. I think you mean other chicken strips I'll eat other than raising canes. That's how I'm interpreting the question. I think that's what you implied. So I would say Popeye's chicken strips pretty good. I've heard amazing things this placed. It's a Midwestern chain called Culver's. I've never been there, so

I don't know. I don't know. The gold standard, the magnum opus, right, the tore the force of the chicken strip was this place called DULs in Burbank, right across the street from Warner Brothers. And when I worked, I worked at a radio station across the street. We used to go there when I was, you know, single guy, nobody would date me. I would go there five nights a week at happy hour and eat chicken strips and

it was awesome. But that place is closed. And then I would also say the I think they're called chicken crispers at Chili's pretty good. Have you ever had those? You're a chicken strip guy. Yeah, I don't know if I've had those ones, though, but you have you haven't had the Chili's chicken cristpers, I don't know. Not pretty good? Yeah, I don't think so. I do like chili So, you know, maybe if I could never go there again, I'll definitely get them. Yeah, you should get them their solid Yeah.

But raising Keynes is there, Yeah, that's the that's the top Ali in the Valley of the Sun. Right, So, and he says he is COVID negative. He had the COVID like you Kevin did in Phoenix, and he's over it. Now. Welcome Lee, Welcome, Welcome to the club there. Eventually we'll all be in apparently, uh Lee, And the Valley of the Sun says, did you have a toy collection or some other collection when you were growing up? And what

is it or what is it right now? Yeah? Lee, I collected baseball cards and they did that a lot when I was a kid. And by the way, I'm I'm letting go. I'm gonna I'm gonna get rid of the baseball card. So if anybody wants my yeah, I want to make a couple of bucks if I can off it. So if anybody knows how I can sell the cards make some money without having to go to a card show because all of those have been canceled. But yeah, I have a fair amount from what I was.

I was doing some research and it seems like the ones that are worth the most money are actually the basketball cards, which is very odd because I was looked at as the biggest heathen and like I was like I was an ogre because I collected basketball cards and everyone was in like baseball cards and I liked the basketball cards, and I was like, what are you doing while are you collecting the basketball cars? Nobody cares about

basketball cards? And it was like, but now because nobody cared about them, they're actually worth a decent amount of money, which is which is interesting to me. But yeah, I gotta get rid of a lot of that stuff. My my dad collected stamps because his dad collected stamps, and he collected some coins. But I haven't really gone through all that. There's a lot of stuff that I'm still That's why I've been able to do Benny versus the Penny. So I'm still going through through a lot of that stuff.

Patricia in Vegas now she's she's a p one. She's listening for more than fifteen years. In fact, that Patricia, you were back in in the northeast, right, you were in the Boston area, I believe, I think when you started listening to the show. She's referencing this picture, which is on the Facebook page. More of a visual thing than an audio thing. Ostrich Aunt sent this in. She says, why is the cow in the picture wearing your pj's. Alright,

well let me answer that, Patricia. Listen you never question art. Right, it's like that, Andy. I love Andy Warhol. Andy warhol quotes. I use those a lot. He's had a lot of good lines. He passed away a long time ago to young age. But Andy Warhol, as he pointed out, anything and everything can be art. So even a cow laying down wearing pajamas art uh. And then also one of Andy Warhol's lines is that art is never finished. It's

it's only abandoned. So Ostrich Chant probably got busy and he didn't write it the way you wanted and all that. Why why do you contact him? He's on Twitter. He's a good dude. He's a big stud writer. There an artist in Washington, d C. All right, last one on the mailback Glenn from Carmichael. Boy, that's a beautiful place on God's Green Marthe says, Ben, do you support Barry Bonds entering the Baseball Hall of Fame? Well, that's a very sporty question to end, Glenn. But I will I

will take the bait. I will answer the question. First of all, for a long time I did not. I died on the mountain that Bonds and all those steroid guys should not be in the Hall. Of Fame. No no, no, no no. But then I had an epiphany. All right, I had a come to Jesus moment with the Hall of Fame. And the issue is this. When I was covering baseball games in the nineties, I was relatively aware of a few guys that were doing the steroids that

I I knew beyond a reasonable doubt. And since then I've learned from other people, uh things about certain players. When those guys started getting in the Hall of Fame, I changed my position. I evolved. I said, listen, you're telling me that Bonds can't get in and Clemens can't get in because they did steroids. But people that we suspected steroids, like Jeff Bagwell or Pudge Rodriguez or Mike Piazza, those guys can get in. Like what are we doing here?

Like that? The whole selective enforcement thing rubbed me the wrong way. So my position. I did monologues in this back when this was a big hot button issue, back in the early two thousand's. Other but none of these guys are ever gonna get in. But since you started letting them in the open the floodgates, let them all in. Let's get it's make it like Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, and just make it the big Top back in the day, and they bringing the elephants and

bringing the donkey's in the clown car. And you're a hall of famer. You're a hall of famer. Everybody is a hall of famer, all right. That is it. Have a wonderful rest of your Sunday. Hopefully you are enjoying or have enjoyed, depending on when you're listening to this, the a f C and NFC championship games. And if you listen to this after those games are over, you already know who's in the Super Bowl. We're gonna talk about all that on the radio show tonight or tomorrow,

depending on how you look at it. Eleven pm eleven pm in the West on Sunday night, and that is very early two am in the East, two am in the East on Monday. We catch and thank you Kevin, by the way, good job this weekend, appreciate it. Thank you, Ben. I had a good time. And anytime you know you want to replace Gagan, just let me know. Can you come here next week and the week after and the week after that and if you wanna, are you Twitter? Can people find you on Twitter if they want to

say hello and they either praise you or rip you? Yeah, yeah, do either or I am on Twitter at k V as in Victor O'Connell O C O N N E L L. It's k V O'Connell on Twitter. Not too active, but you know, I got to be there for work. So if you need if you're in l A and you need your air conditioning fixed, O'Connell heating there you go check it out. All right, all right, thank you Kevin, all right, thanks Ben