Sea Change

at it. The weekend is underway. It is a Friday edition of the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller and David Gascon. Unfortunately west of the four or five, because four hours a night not enough on the overnight. This the spinoff show. You found it, You have found the talk of the podcast world. We do this eight days a week, and every Friday we attempt to have a conversation, a chit chat with someone, someone in the wacky world of sports that we like, or know or want to know. And

that is what today's podcast is all about. We will tell you who we're chatting with in a minute. Guest count. But we have survived another week of the radio a wars the radio Wars. Here we are surviving and back at it again. In the podcast. Now, are we moving the Mallard Mansion to a a more um diverse city and state since we have done so with Major League Baseball's All Star Game? Are we doing that with the Mallar militia and the Mallard Mansion? The third roiotam, that's

the third route out there. I don't know what you're talking about. Man, I you know, life goes quick. You know you gotta gotta stay up with the stay up with the noise. There, my man, stay up with them against Rob Manfred could have moved at to Tampa right now. Rob Manford, My goodness. Uh, we should just do a podcast bashing Rob Manford. But this would not be the podcast to be doing that today. This would not be it. But we have some long opinions about Major League Baseball

and their decision to move the All Star Game. And the good news is we've been proven correct and the amount of criticism that Major League Baseball has gotten has been immence. But we do love baseball despite all the noise, at least I do. I have been enjoying the I don't know about you, but I've been I've been enjoying the hell out of the baseball season. I've been watching tons of games here, and you know, during the day, I wake up and for most people it's the afternoon.

For me, it's the morning, and I'll flip a game on and I don't care whether it's a Marlin's game or a Mariners game or whoever. Check out a little baseball. I love it great. A little add that Oakland got its first one of the season off of the Dodgers, But as soon as I know Kenley Jensen came into the ninth inning and a runner got on Matt Chapman, I knew ball game was over blown save and a

loss was coming the Dodgers way. It is fascinating that Kenley Jansen, who was at one point wonderful, is still encouraged to go out and be the closer when he's been very mediocre. It boggles the mind. Really. For years, Kenley Jansen has been doing a tightrope walk on the regular and despite Dave Roberts knowing the risk of sending Jansen out there, he continues to do it. And now, the way I look at this not that we're breaking this down because we're gonna talk some some baseball. With

the Dodge arrival in a minute here. But the thing about the dynamic with the Dodgers, my theory is every time Jansen goes out and pukes all over the mount I don't get upset because I feel like we're closer to him being removed as the closer, Like he's getting near the end of the rope there. So I think

that's a good thing. So every time he blows a save, that means later on someone else player X, whether they trade for that player, it's somebody else in the bullpen will get the opportunity to sink their teeth in as the closer. So that's that's what I like, no doubt. I mean that in Baltimore beat the Yankees the other day, to Red Sox got off to a horrific start. I mean,

it's not all bad. I saw Nick Castellanos get ejected or not injected, suspended for a couple of games because he was talking at home played after sliding in safely on a wild pitch doing the mad dog. He was doing the mad dog. Can't do the mad dog in baseball. The Cardinals won't allow it. The Cardinal way. It's gonna be all buttoned up. The St. Louis cars it's always that Yaddi Ra Molina who's always griping and complaining about

playing baseball the right way, the cardinal way. You know, it's so annoying, so annoyed, But I can't pip yourself. When you slide in safely at home in game two of one sixty two, you can celebrate. You can live life there. People in the crowd there that paid their money. They want to be entertained. And it is plausibly the entertainment business. Last I heard it was the entertainment business. But now anyway, entertaining as it is. Do you think there's mass panic in San Diego? And are you hoping

for mass panic? No? Listen, I love San Diego. I got my start in radio in San Diego. I have fond memories of hanging out at the old Jack Murphy Stadium qual Calm whatever they called it at the end there, and I'd buy the cheapest ticket and I'd sit wherever I wanted because the padres had usual fire sale there. You watched Tony Gwyn and a bunch of nobody's. It was Tony Gwyn in the three Stooges are in this case the eight other stooges that were out there. But no,

I don't have any animosity towards the Potteries. Now the Dodgers are gonna end up winning, and I'm obviously more loyal to the Dodgers, But the Padres are a monster, a rags to riches situation for the Padres, and where they were a couple of years ago, and where they are right now from the outhouse to not the penthouse, but they're they're close to the penthouse there. They can they can see the country club up ahead, and they were in the trailer park, so they've they've gotten a

lot better. And we're gonna have a conversation here with one of the Podre broadcasters, a staple over the last decade in San Diego and very smooth. I like this guy because he's got big pipes, he's a he's an old news guy, did the did the nightly news, did the morning news in Minnesota and in New York as well. Mike palmerants is gonna hang out with this right now. Now? Do you do you do you know him in the past year? Do you go back with him? Gascon? Do

you have a history with him? Well, I mean, like yourself I got my start in San Diego with Extra Sports thirteen sixty, which was the old flagship station that you were at for the San Diego Chargers, and our afternoon drive shows would have Mike on on the regular. And then yeah, I did a couple of events with Mike um a few years ago, the Los Angeles Kings

the Anaheim Ducks. They had a massive hockey day where the Kings played in the afternoon, Ducks played at night, and in between that their junior clubs played and Mike and I were on the broadcast for that from uh the Anaheim ice practice facility for the Ducks, So we were on that together. And Yeah, I've known Mike for quite a bit. Good dude and this extremely nice man. He's everything that you are not. He's positive, he's encouraging,

he's engaging. He talks on the phone. He calls people back. Well, I I wa way tough guy. I called you up this week. Did you answer your phone? I was working out. Did you call me back? I did? You did not? Did? That's a lie. I will screw that call back. I am looking at my phone right here, I'm holding my iPhone. I do not see a return call from my phone call. I did not get a call back, no callback. So you just lie you want you want to bet on that, You're gonna have to wash your mouth out with soap

and water. Okay, you just told a lie. You're not allowed to lie on a podcast. It's a bad job by you. You're breaking the podcast rules, is what you're doing. Can we get to the guests please? Yes, we will get to but not really guests, just someone hanging out with friends. But let me just point out though, as you know, I'm very critical. I think most people that do broadcasting socking or terrible and all that this is someone who actually thinks pretty good. Uh. I watched his

work with the Padre pregame and postgame. He does some play by play as well. Mike Palmerants is his name? See him on balles? What are they calling it? Ballys San Diego? Is that what they're calling Valley Sports San Diego Sports San Diego. Yeah, they changed all the Fox Sports regional networks to the Bally's brand and Mike Pomerants joining us and it's a good time to talk Padre baseball. And I was in San Diego back in the day. The Padres didn't spend a whole bunch of money and

all that. But boy, have things changed in a large way. What is different now? What is the big difference between the Padres now who are spending big money the Padres of the past season of watching uh, watching his teable for one, instead of hopes and prays that they might win, their actual expectations. That I think it's the biggest difference.

And it's not just the fans, it's I think organizationally and the players actually have a feeling that they expect to win when they come to the ballpark, as opposed to, you know, say the right thing for the public and then hoping it works itself out. At to me is the most noticeable change in the obvious is quite clear to I think every team now playing as you're starting to see fans filter in there, and uh, it seems like their expectations are certainly are certainly greater, and there's

just an atmosphere of fun and excitement. So it's been it's been a completely different vibe for sure. Yeah, So what has changed now? I worked in San Diego and I was around the Potters and they always spent a ton of money. You know, they had some good players, but they didn't back in those days. They didn't go overboard. They always used the small market thing. They couldn't spend

a lot of money. But Fernando Tatis the contract that he signed this offseason, uh not that long ago here, Uh amazing, one of the biggest contracts in baseball history. What's the dynamic now? How how have things change the far as the ownership is concerned for the Padres. But isn't that literally the million dollar question? Uh? Pete Seidler has has taken over the primary rains and Ron Fowler

has has moved into some other capacity. So so it seems like Mr Sildler has decided that he's gonna be final revenue or created himself and has decided he's going to spend it. You're right, it's unlike anything the market has seen in a while. Averting you think it's started if you're if you're really analytical about it. I suppose was Eric Hosmer signing because I think he signed an eight year, a hundred and forty four million dollar deal.

Maybe we go back to Will Myers who had I think a sixty million dollars left on his deal right now, But you go Hosmer and you go Machado, And so the Tatis deal wasn't entirely shocking that the money might come, but I think the duration of fourteen year deal at what three forty uh surprised a little bit in the industry, mostly because of Fernando's injury history and lack of actual big league experience, But the money being there, I don't

think he was in shocking this time around. The real shocker, as it felt down here to us, was really the Manny Machado deal three hundred million over ten years. No one UH in this area seemed to think that it was coming, and really nobody did, I think across baseball. If I remember right, Kenny Williams, the guy was running the White Sox, so the was who was also bidding on Machado. When he found out about that deal, he almost crashed his golf cart in spring training because no

one thought it was coming. But it's a different vibe for sure. Now. Yeah, as far as Fernando Tis, you mentioned the injury history. I know it's early in the season and he's currently on the the injured list, but you know what's what's the vibe around this? Is this gonna be a season long situation. Could this end up

in surgery? What's the real story there with Fernando Dutist that you're hearing, Well, what we're hearing is is pretty much what I think the public is now hearing from Major Crawler, the general manager, and that is right now, they're going to stay away from surgery usual, but they're open to that possibility that if this continues and recurs as it has basically three or so times at a span of one of us about three or four weeks um, if it becomes an issue on and on, they may

have to go the surgical route. Though the right now they're trying everything they can opt it. He's on a ten day I l he's eligible to come off the teams on a road trip now. They start playing tomorrow in Texas. They'll be back in time to take on the Dodgers here after they go to Texas and then Pittsburgh, and he'll be eligible to come off the list then. But whether he'll be strong enough and ready, I think

that's uh, that's the great question. And everybody here is a fan, and I think a watcher of this team always looks at him with a cautious eye. Because his history is so great. He had the stress fracture in his back last year, plus a hamstring or two years ago the hamstring injury as well. Then he had a hand problem in the minor leagues. He's never played a

full season. I think right now he only has about a hundred and forty six or so games under his belt, um going into what is now his third year, So there's a cautious eye. I think right now everybody is hopeful. There are some guys who played through this, but not necessarily. Well, everybody brings up Cody Bellinger, especially folks in l A. But if you look at Bellinger, yeah he was on the field, but he's still not hitting, even after last year where he had the issues even then to the

championship series. So there's questions to whether when you come back, what kind of player are you? And I think that's where we're all watching Fernando closely. Mike, so as temperate as fans are in San Diego, And obviously you covered the team for such lum print the time. What is the expectation and do you think they'll hit that mark? Well,

the expectation is it's a playoff team. Um. I don't think they're getting too caught up in the numbers, because, as you guys know, I mean, the projections are insane everywhere because most of the league, it seems, isn't even trying. Um, they didn't, most teams didn't spend this past offseason. Most they are just trying to get their finances in order.

So you've got three clubs in the National League West nearly capable of losing ninety games each uh and basically the same for the American League West, which for the Padres is going to be their primary focus when it comes to inter league play. So there are a lot

of wins out there on the table. You could easily say this is a ninety win team if everybody is buying large healthy and obviously I say that knowing full well what we just discussed, um, but I would say the expectation is they've got to be at least a wild card team. They know the Dodgers of the team to beat in the West. I don't think it's a great mystery, but now that we don't have the expanded playoffs like we did last year, I think the expectation here is clearly this is at least the first if

not the second wild card at the very least. So with that being said, I know there's high hopes for you Darvish to deliver same thing with Blake Snell. But where is Chris Pattick? Mix and all of this pack has been the one guy where two years ago he blew the doors off of everybody, last year he regressed in then this year at a slow start. Yeah, it's a it's a big question mark for them for sure, UM, because the expectations are that they win. Obviously the leash

isn't gonna be as long. He came up with a lot of fanfare. Don't we see that a lot? Maybe too often with these young guys. UM used to be he didn't hear about prospects until they produced at the big league level, really, but in recent years with social media, there's this expectation and he came in with a lot of that and a lot I think is unfair on a young player until they started to finally get traction and the league tells you how good you are instead of, uh,

the organization of the fans. So for Chris, he came up as a two pitch pitcher, fastball change up. UM. The league figured him out probably about halfway through his first season, and if you remember, the good offensive teams

hit him pretty well even in his first year. The patient teams and the Dodgers were one of those clubs at the time, um and still are and those teams that are waiting him out, and you know how it is if you're a starting pitcher and you're reduced to two pitches at that level, it's gonna be really hard

to get through a lineup. So my anticipation is that he's going to get a handful more starts um to see if he can finally establish a little consistency, and uh, they may have to make some changes, you know, into May June if he if he can't do that. I don't want to be premature and say I don't have any inside information that he's on a on a chopping block immediately, but the patient's level is going to be different. Right when you're expecting to win is when as opposed

to whether you're hoping to win. And that's where the padres are right now. Yeah, I think maybe some sentiment crosses over from the National Football League In the NBA, where guys come in right away and they hit the ground running, So why can't they do that in major league baseball. Yeah. It's the thing about baseball that has changed so dramatically as we know, is the little things that you were supposed to learn in the minor leagues

aren't even required at the big league level anymore. For example, nobody really steals. You don't bunt. There is no situational hitting. It's max velocity. You swing out of your shoes and somebody's gonna click one, and it's often the guy you least expect, and it's a battle of walks, strikeout Homer's. So you're seeing guys up there with the fast twitch fibers years old, twenty two that don't seem to require as much seasoning, meaning learning the game as they did

years ago. Uh, you just you. If you can hit the velocity and you can make a few routine plays, it seems like you're more likely to get a shot. UM the NFL is is is as much for shelf life and injury right as anything else. You got to get him on the field, because who knows how long you last in such a physical sport. UM baseball. You're

starting to see it more and more. UM teams are sinking money in the prospects and then up you know they're they're thinking is Uh, they're like Derrito's, you keep crunching, will make more. If we've got guys blown out to injury, we'll just put a bunch behind them. Uh. And you're seeing teams run through cultures like uh, you know, like

nobody's business. I think as a result. Yeah, and you mentioned the way baseball is played, and we we've all you know, guys our age have complained about this, said how you know what's going on with this? But they are trying that they're talking about changing it and trying to get more back the way the game had been played in the past, with stolen bases and hitting behind runners and actually bunting occasionally and things like I remember about fifteen, maybe even more than that years ago, Uh

manager Terry Collins. Uh it was he was managing as I guess it was long before that, but he there was a situation that called for a bunt and he didn't he didn't use the bunt, and and then one of the writers after the game said why didn't you do that? And he then explained that the guys didn't know how to bunt, so they just didn't practice it.

And uh, I mean, what's it gonna take, Mike in your open You've been around baseball a long time now with the pottery, what do you think it's gonna take to get the game back to not completely the way it was, but a little bit closer to that style play where it's not just swing from your heels and try to hit a home runs home run derby every night. Oh. It really is so that they say, right, the three

true outcomes just home runs, walks, and strikeouts. And I think you got You're you're asking the great question, Ceo Epstein, you just moved for in the Cubs front office, as you know, to the league has verbalized that need to make the game more exciting and interesting to fans. How do you do it? Is the toughest question. Bob Manford and his group, as you know, putting all these ideas and experiments in the minor leagues to try to pick

up the pace. But it's not so much the pace of play that I find challenging and what we hear from the fans, and remember we're watching a hundred and sixty two plus every single year. It's not the pace, it's the fact that nothing's happening in that span of time. If it's if there's movement in excitement, you don't even notice it's a three hour ball game. But if it's walks and strikeouts and you're waiting for a homer, three

hours feels like eight hours. And I think there's no real easy answers somehow, whether by lowering the mound, whether by adjusting the strike zone, whether by backing up the mound, uh something, maybe to give the hitter a little better chance to put it in play, eliminating the shift wouldn't hurt, or making it such that left handed hitters had a fighting chance. You're seeing a bunch of really good fleets do non athletic things that's never good for any sport.

They're just standing there. The ball is never in play, and fans love right the highlight play. You're looking to see somebody who's more gifted than you are athletically do something you can't do, and you're not seeing enough of it in baseball. How do you get there? Buddy? I have no earthly idea what the definitive answer is, but they've got to do something to get the ball in play.

What can't stand going to the park like any of us, and watching Mike Trout spitting sunflower seeds on the off chance he might get one ball in a two three game series. Um, and that's just not good for the game. So hopefully they'll figure it out how they do it. But if I had the answer, man, you'd be going through six people to get to me for an interview because I'd be the genius of the sport. That's a good point. The booking process would be much more difficult

if that was the case. The thing I've heard, Mike, and you're around the players, I guess with COVID guidelines will get to that later, maybe not as much because you gotta do everything on zoom. But what I had heard in the past was, you know, the sacrificing and the bunting. The players argument is they don't pay for that. Baseball teams pay for home runs. They don't pay if you're the guy that hits behind the runner and you bunt.

And so that's the counter arguments like, why are the players really going to change their approach if the industry doesn't pay for those skills? So you're actually leaving money on the table. That's that's the issue. I've heard. Yeah, it's a it's a. It seems to be valid. I mean, look all the way up from the time these kids are old enough to pay attention to what's going on.

You're going through high school where they're now ranked and rated based on velocity and and how learn how hard they can hit a baseball, and so they're not concerned with learning the game. They're concerned with measurables do I throw, Whether I can throw a pitch behind in the counter work a corner is inconsequential. I'll get drafted if I throw hard enough. Something goes once you get to the

money's right. It's like you had said, if I'm hitting home runs and I'm generating power on the one of two or three times out of ten, I actually make contact, that will get promoted in the paycheck. But if I can hit behind the runner and sacrifice and steal and read situations, it's not as appreciated as it was because you look at the numbers at the big league level and they'll tell you a stolen base. If you're not stealing at a sev clip, it's not worth the risk.

The trade off. Isn't there a guy scoring from second on a base hit um statistically is gonna whole come greater um then being at third, So why would you sacrifice him from second to third? That's what we're seeing now in the extra innings. Are new shocked. I know I am with the extra inning rule where they put a runner on second base, how infrequently teams will try to push him over to third and then just score the one run on the sack fly instead of three

straight guys. Unless it's the picture up, we'll just take big rips, hoping to make it a two run difference instead of the of the solo run um. It is a strange situation, but you're right in that if the game doesn't pay for the skill, why would the player work to develop it. The flip on that is the club's knowing they've got six years basically of ownership of

a player. The players almost playing right into the hands of ownership as far as finances go, because they'll say, at the end of your six years, we've gotten you for your prime years of your athleticism in your fast twitch, We'll let you go. We're not gonna pay the big salary. You get a couple one or two offs. Right that we read about with the big contracts, but the middle player is getting squeezed out of the game right now. It's the cheap guy and the tatis bets kind of

contract guy that's going to hang around. And that's that's still my goods of the game because those smart, really good contributor type players the middle Major league is getting squeezed out. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Paciffect. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm PACI Effect

on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio. Mike, I know you're in season number two of Major League Beginnings of podcast us that you and Mark Sweeney and MLB VET host on Apple iTunes. Can you give us a little bit of the conversation behind the scenes between you and Mark? Yeah, yeah, thank you for asking about that. By the way, we've had a ton of fun with it. Uh So Sweeney, as you know, fourteen years in the

big leagues. He and his age and longtime agent Barry axel Rod, who was well known in the industry and at Craig Diggione Bagwell and Mark Grace and Rick Sutcliff and on and on. They had this idea to write a book. Um. Instead they decided to turn into a podcast and invited me to join them. And the whole ideas. We talk to guys and gals around any sport really who have reached what they consider to be the pinnacle or are major players, so to speak, in their field.

So we bring them on. Sometimes they're Hall of famers, sometimes they're executives, sometimes there from other sports, uh, and we kind of get to their what we consider to be there at least metaphorical Major league beginning wherever they got started, and walk them through these uh fan tastic tales that they rarely get a chance to ask to talk about because everything they get asked is always topical. Well,

this is more of an evergreen thing. You want to know the history behind Kimming the general manager, now the Marlins, we have that kind of thing for you, um, the first time they're in the clubhouse, the introduction to the leagues, the people who took them under their wings, that type of stuff. So we've been able to put together a nice roster. We drop it once a week, usually on a Wednesday, um a nice roster guests, and the feedback has been great. I really appreciate you asking about it.

The folks get a chance to to check it out, subscribe and rate it. You know that goes. We really appreciate it now, Mike, which you think give us a feedback? Yeah, Mike, I was gonna say, you actually come from a unique transition where most people don't know this, but you were actually a news guy before you became a sports guy. But sports has been in your life, your entire life, I guess as a young adult and now as a

as a professional. UM Bend's got a lot of fans in in the Minnesota region, and I know that you've worked in that area as well. What's it been like, I guess, covering news as a whole and then making your way down to sunny San Diego. Man, what it's

been a heck of a ride. I've learned. I've been really bad at a lot of things, uh, in my career, but it's been fun to experiment, you know, as minor league and couldn't make the big leagues, and then I flipped over to broadcasting and wanted to become a reporter and was you know, obviously I was in a named player. So I went into news and set of sports and fell in love with it and was a reporter and anchor for twenty years. So the where we ended up

in Minnesota. We'd come from New York City and CBS and w CBS in New York and got an opportunity to work in my wife's hometown in Minneapolis. And the quality of life, as anybody who's in that area knows, is so high. It's such a great place to live. You do a little bit of a winner, but you have a ton of fun doing it um and we really enjoyed it. Had our daughters grew up around family,

and it was just a wonderful experience. And then I started entertain aiming the notion of getting back into sports in some capacity, and a buddy of mine, who was running the network that handled the Twins and the Timberwolves, et cetera up in that area, asked me if I wanted to kind of freelance for him a little bit. I did it, fell in love with it. He came out here, started up to San Diego stations. I was handling the new agreement with the Padres and asked me

if I wanted to tag along. I said, sure, I'll take a shot at it. I pretty much sucked at everything else I've tried. How much worse could I be? Gave it a go, and uh, buddy, I'm still I'm still very lucky every week that they throw a paycheck at me. I'm very fortunate to be around it. But I don't miss the winners, but I do miss the people. Well, what about the skill set of being the news anchor?

And you worked in New York and he said, obviously Minnesota there, but the difference between being the sports guy and being the news anchor on the nightly news of the morning news, what's the what's the change? How big it changes? Obviously huge change, But what's what was that like for you? Well, that's a good question, and it's a I think several folks have done it. I think we all kind of say the same thing. And it's

for one thing. You know, in news, right, you feel like you're imparting information that well that could potentially affect somebody's life, the real life uh stuff, um, not the entertainment side of things. So I think that type of heaviness if for some people in news, I know it did for me can kind of weigh on it again. I did it for twenty years, and after a while I thought, my goodness, man, this is really really heavy.

I like getting to the root of things, but the industry had changed a bit um as far as the resources these networks were throwing at the product, and it

was getting a little tougher. I think for journalists to do their job and feel like they have the backing of companies that were rooted in journalism as opposed to being purchased by venture capitalists and being run with different budgetary concerns, and then flip it over to sports, it was like, hey, you know what the coolest part about it was after somebody has put fifteen hours in on a factory floor and they just want to be entertained,

uh and informed on their favorite team. It was really nice to be able to be part of putting a smile on somebody's face who's had to deal with some real life stuff. So after serving the medicine as you you know, you might say for twenty years as a journalist, UM given him the stuff they had to have where they may not like informationally, it's really nice to be on the other side of that. So you know what,

we're the dessert for you. You put in a hard day, your your world has been a little trickier than you'd like. Why don't you take your mind off and enjoy the ball game. We'll try to make it fun for you. And and it's been a really nice flip. But the hardest part of that transition, I think has just been letting go of the seriousness in life that I think I started to allow UH to kind of take me

over in a negative way. I think I started to look at things just through far too heavy and dark a prism and realize, hey, man, it's a short time you get on the planet. You might want to like not Mike, and enjoy it a bit. And that's what sports has given me, Mike, given the fact that you were in that realm for such a long print of time and now you see what's outside of that. Do you trust the news? Great question? Great question. I trust the people. UM, it's certain outlets that they're trying to

do the best they can. I certainly have my opinion is that which outlets those are. UM, I'm very selective as to who I choose. I search out what I feel to be the most objective, and I know the natural tendency in this day and age is to search out your news source, uh and and look at the whoever is going to say the thing that you most agree with, and look at that as a valid news source. I've kind of trained in the old school where I try to look for the objectivity in it um and

I do find it. It's tricky. I trust the sources I've come to trust over time. They've they haven't really failed me, but they're they're certainly winnowed down now right. There are fewer of those, but I still believe they're out there, and I know that there are people out there trying every day to do the right thing. I don't think anybody goes out there with malice to present

too much of a jaded case. I think, save for a few, um, and I'm being very careful not to name names in this, I think most objective outposts and outlets who have traditionally been that way, Um, the New York Times, I know I can throw out there as some as an organization I know tries day in and day out to get it right. Uh. Those types of sources are the ones I go and so yeah, I still trust, but my pool of trust has gotten a

lot shallower. Well and Mike following we just talked about baseball getting back to, you know, the more of the way it was. But the news businesses, as you said you worked in a long time, is it ever going to go back? Because there's money to be made being on team Read or Team Blue like you, you can make money doing that. So what would encourage anyone to go back to being you know, the neutral arbitrator if you will, of the of the news, if you can just make a lot of money being on one side

and another being a partisan. You're right, You're right. I don't know that there is an answer. I think it's going to take somebody who's somewhat altruistic, uh, some type of just philanthropic billionaire who says, you know what, I'm not looking at this as a looking at this as a as a place I have got to make the same margins profit wise that we've made in the sixties, seventies, eighties. I'm looking at this is something I'm doing to do

the right thing. And I don't know that that person or people are necessarily out there in mass because nobody gets into private business to lose money. But it's almost like it's going to take that um and it may come down to just fewer and fewer sources willing to do that. But that's the great question, man, there's so much. Look at what we watch every night. It's hot take after hot take after hot take, and it's not thought out,

it's not well researched a lot of it. It's just screaming and yelling, trying to get balls, trying to get ratings. You get enough folks who will buying the conspiracy to save your side. Whether it's red or blue or what your color as your team is, it doesn't matter, um And that seem to sell. It's it's not a positive outlook. But I'm hopeful that somebody somewhere with the money to back it will say, you know what, enough is enough. Someplace, somehow has got to be the middle of the road.

And we used to have that saying in journalism, and you guys know it. It's if I get complaints, uh, equally from both sides of an issue, and I know I'm doing my job properly, that means I'm somewhere in the middle where I'm supposed to be. And you don't see a lot of that, and there is some risk to that. Into your greater point, it's not a revenue

generator to be objective. Um, it's a shame. But the current audience is like, look, we want it lazy, We wanted spoon fead and nobody likes to be argued with and feel wrong and they want to participation trophy and feel like, you know, the world's on their side. So they're gonna tune into a station that feeds them whatever they feel like that line needs to be. It's it's tricky out there for sure. All right, Well, Mike, thank you,

appreciate it for coming on. Good luck with your podcast and continued success with the padres, and we'll see you down the line. Thank you, thanks many, Hey appreciate the time, and uh enjoy the season and hopefully catch up with you again if not in the postseason. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at

two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.