Kabooms.
If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of the old republic, a soul fashion of fairness. He treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as the rich pill poppers in the penthouse.
Wow.
The Clearinghouse of Hot takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now in.
The air everywhere, The Fifth Hour with me, Ben Mahler, and good to have you with Danny g not here yet who We have a show to do today, and it's a big day because today is Kentucky Derby Day. Yay, whoa. Now we are not horse racing people. We did the equine pickam on the overnight show.
Was that the other day? Friday?
Was that Friday the end of the week, I believe it was. So we did the equine pick and we brought that back well. We each picked three horses for the Run for the Roses, which is later today in Louisville and always a reflective day. The first Saturday in the month of May. They've been running the Kentucky Derby. They first ran it in eighteen seventy five, which is mind blowing, and when they ran it for the first time, nobody really cared, right, But now after all these years,
it's kind of a big deal. There's only been a couple of times they haven't run the Derby. One was during World War One. That was in nineteen forty five, and I loved the story, which has been passed down over the years. The reason they could not run the Kentucky Derby in nineteen forty five they postponed it because the horses that would have been running in the Kentucky Derby were being reserved for the United States military to
fight in World War One. So you imagined, like, if we had a war breakout, I mean, we're always seemingly at war with somebody, but if we had a war breakout here in twenty twenty five, would they be using the horses that would run these multi million dollar horses in the Kentucky Derby. Would those horses be used to fight for the US? Probably not.
Of course, we don't really use horses all that much.
So nineteen forty five was postponed and then twenty twenty, the second postponement of the Derby because of the pandemic that we all went through there, so that was the second time. But other than that, they've run year after year after year after year. So get your Mint jewliup ready and knock yourself out. And I also this time of the year, I often think what could have been? What could have been? And in my radio career, I've been at Fox Sports Radio for a long time.
I did local radio for a while.
I started out in Sunday Ago and when I was on the way up in my very early portion of my career, there were two jobs that I got offered early on that I wasn't really ready for, but I considered taking. One of them was an afternoon drive show in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
There was a radio station that I had.
An opening and they were interested in my services, and I declined to go to Albuquerque, which I didn't really have that big an issue with because I thought, well, I'm not quite ready for it, I don't know anybody in Albuquerque, as I can get something somewhere else, and so that I wasn't upset with the one that I
did think maybe I should do. This is what could have been had I taken the job to become the track side reporter at Santa Nita and Park, because back when I got into the radio business, for about twenty years or so, i'd say the eighties and the nineties, they the tracks had a radio reporter in the asshole who worked at the track, but really was there just to promote propaganda for the track, the horse reporter of course, of course, of course, and they would call into a
handful of local radio stations and broadcast the results and also not the play by play.
It was like live race.
Commentary, but you would have a phone and you'd sit out there and you'd give periodic updates post race results, the payouts, the highlights of the races, what's upcoming, Hey, you're coming up today at the eighth race at Santa Anita, so and so and so and so so. Do you have information on the upcoming race. The whole point was to get people to come out to the track, right. You discussed the favorites, the odds, you talk about the trainers, the jockeys, all that stuff, and then once the day
was done, you'd do a post race wrap up. And at that time before the Internet, there were people that would bet and didn't know the results or maybe didn't know the odds, and so this is how they would get that information. So anyway, that was a job that was offered to me. It paid pretty good money, pretty good money, and I did not do it. I was like, I'm not really a horse racing guy. I like going to the track. Back then, I didn't really like it that much, but I like going to the track a
couple times a year betting on the ponies. I like the vibe out there. I love the fact that you go to the horse track. And I've never been at Churchill Downs, but I imagine it's the same. I've been to Santa Anita and a few other tracks around the country.
I haven't been to Belmont Park.
But you go to the tracks and it's super wealthy billionaires on one side, and then on the other side you've got very poor people and they intermingle in this clash, this dichotomy of rich and poor and don't really need to be here. I'm so wealthy, I'm just flaunting my money. And then you've got the poor people who are trying to hit the big ticket, win big money on the day, and so they're side by side, and then you've got the smell of crap from the horses. If you're down wind,
it's just a magical place. And they're normally beautiful. They're normally beautiful. So today, being Derby Day, I flashed back to what could have been if I had taken that job on site reporter, and I would have been describing the atmosphere and interviewing trainers and jockeys and all that. And that job does not even exist anymore, for it's been a long time. It's been a minute, so that job does not exist. As far as I know, that
job is not around anymore. And when I was on my way up the ladder at Saddleback College, one of the guys that was ahead of me at Saddleback actually became a big horse racing guy. He went that direction, went that direction, and I lost track of him. But last I had heard he did end up for at least a number of years in Louisville, and he had a job, a prominent job at Churchill Downs in that world.
He then went to.
Dallas after that, at a track in Dallas. But he had bounced around and he had had a good run in the horse racing world, so he had had some success. Now, before we get too much Further, I don't want to do all sporty stuff. You know, this is not a sporty podcast. This is not a sporty podcast at all. However, I didn't want to mention since I was I was up watching last night the Golden State Warriors. I have no skin in the game, as you know my allegiances.
I just want a good story, that's all I want. But I am biased towards the Clippers. I would like to see the Clippers be successful and the Clippers play later today.
How dare you in game seven? The greatest words in sports? Game seven?
You just want to close games, Evan, in the final couple of minutes, everything on the line. That's all you want, right, You just want that wonderful So I'm in right, and you know everyone's all the Nuggets should win.
The Nugget should win. They're at home. Why are the Clippers even bothering to show up? I know all that.
Stuff, I get all the trolls in my inbox. I got you very very happy. I know, like true trolls, if the outcome happens that you do not want, you will crawl behind the refrigerator and go into hiding again. I totally understand that we know how this works, so I'm not shocked by that at all. But as far as the the gambling information, because it's all about the gambling information, as we like to say here, the Clippers and Nuggets, and the Nuggets opened up.
A one point underdog.
They're favored by a point and I have even though the road team has one. I think it's like eight of the last eleven. We had the stat the other night on the Overnight show with the Denver Nuggets are now a one and a half point favorite, so that line has flipped by two and a half points. The money is pretty heavy in favor of both the public liking the Nuggets and the sharps liking the Nuggets. So we'll see if they're right or not. Coopers and Nuggets
in Game seven day. But on Friday night last night, the Warriors could not lose. There's no way they could lose. Steve Kerr had given up, he had raised the white flag. He the old woke coach there, had said, all right, we give up. We're done. In Game five. We're not gonna even try to win. We're gonna rest our starters. And as I mentioned in a previous episode, of the
radio show. It's like, I don't have a problem with Steve Kerr pulling his starters midway through, but when the game got back in to reach, you put your starters back in and go for the jugular.
Mister.
I'm so worried about the health of my team. I happen to watch some of the Warriors feed because Doris Burke is so.
Freaking annoying to me. Oh my god, she is so bad.
So I flipped over to the Warriors feed that I got, and I'm watching that on one of those Russian websites. I'm watching the Warriors feed and the broadcaster for the Warriors I started laughing and I almost puked in my mouth.
They were claiming that the Warriors were.
Having issues because they had to fly, you know, these long flights between San Francisco and Houston. And I'm thinking, to myself, are these guys idiots? Like are the Warrior fans morons? Is anyone think that's an issue? So let me get straight. So the Warrior players have to get on their their chartered flight which waits for them. They have to have a vip bus service take them to the airport. They get on a chartered flight, they go to their five star resort hotel by police escort. And
this is somehow grueling travel that's wearing these players. Now, what are we doing? They're not traveling by train. This is not Babe Ruth in the nineteen thirties or whatever, traveling by train.
This is not it. This is I mean, what are we doing? I just I laughed.
But the Warriors lost, and they lost in glorious fashion. Glorious fashion going to the fourth quarter. It was a two point game. The Rockets had a two point lead over Golden State going to the fourth quarter, and in the fourth quarter the Rockets led by as many as seven I think it was seventeen.
At one point in the fourth quarter.
The final score was not necessarily indicative of how dominating it was. Rockets ended up winning by eight, but they were up by seventeen in the fourth quarter. And I remember when Golden State went up through the theory that nobody knows anything and everyone's just making it up. And if you want to be a sports pundent, just throw a bunch of big words together and make it seem
like you know what you're talking about. And if you're speaking cliches, a lot of people just fall asleep and they'll just.
Go for it.
So I bring that up because I heard, Well, the Rockets just aren't there yet.
They haven't gotten there.
The Warriors have that championship pedigree and they just know how to win.
Playoff Jimmy Steph Curry just oohz is confidence, just oohs his confidence.
So I'm thinking of that, and I'm watching the game last night in the fourth quarters, two point game, going to the fourth quarter, Rockets have all these bozos who are not there yet and all this, and so how did that go? Let's see Steph Curry in the fourth quarter two point game, took seven shots, missed six of them. He was one of seven, one of seven. While he was on the court, the Warriors were plus minus outscored by eleven points.
But wait, there's more.
How about playoff Jimmy, Jimmy Butler, all right, took five shots, made as many shots as you and I made zero for five from the floor, and while he was on the court, a minus thirteen with playoff Jimmy on the court.
In the fourth quarter. So okay, And then.
You got Fred van Vliet shoving it down your throat. You were playing hack and Adams. Hacking Adams is the game plan there for Steve Kerr giving him the old Shaquillo O'Neal treatment from back many years ago. But Steven Adams kept going to the foul line and over and over and over and oh he had sixteen foul shots because they were doing hacking Adams.
But it was really the Fred van Vliet game.
They had twenty nine points, another dud from Jalen Green, who's just not a playoff player, just not a playoff player. You are what your resume says you are. And Alfred Sengun getting it done also with twenty one and fourteen. So the Rockets set up a game set which I'm fired up for because Game seven is coming up on Sunday night and we go on the radio tomorrow at night after that game will be on and get to break it down.
So I'm excited about that Game seven.
But wow, it is a great story if the Rockets end up winning this because Steve Kerr, the wokester you pull back the curtain here, and he's the know of these guys, smartest gather room. He's not a big as big a schmuck as JJ Reddick. But the arrogance, the absolute elitism of Steve Kerr, like, oh no, no, you can't put your starters back in once you're thinking your starters out.
There's some impossible you cannot do that.
What do you what are you thinking about?
Yeah, that whole bull crap.
Oh god, it's I don't know if anyone cares nationally about the Rockets.
They probably don't.
And I don't really have anything pro or against the Rockets. Just to think that the Warriors could futch this away up three to one, which has only happened a handful of times in the history of the NBA. And to do it because you were resting in Game five to win Game six, and then you end up losing Game six, and now you got to go to a game seven. And even if you win a game seven, Minnesota is sitting there relaxing, having a cocktail, eating a juicy Lucy as they just sit.
Back and wait for the winner of this series.
I also saw that Greg Popovich has stepped down and pop lost it many many years ago.
Who goofed?
I've got to know Greg Popovich, who has been around a long time, and when I started as a radio stringer and a talk show host. Popovich was a young head coach at the time, and he was always a schmuck. He's always a bit of a douche, but in his later years he became king of all a holes. Craig Popovitch, I don't know anyone that's upset. Popovich is not going to be coaching the San Antonio Spurs anymore. You know, he's got some health problems there, and you know, you
know that happens you get older. You don't want to see it happen, but it happens to everybody. If you live long enough, you'll be blessed enough to have some crap go wrong. For as much of the criticism has been directed at Bill Belichick since Tom Brady exited stage left, since Tom Brady walked away from the Patriots and Bill Belichick and the Patriots fell apart. Now Bill's just concerned with his sugar baby, and that's it. Since he coaches
in San Antonio. If you you've noticed the San Antonio Spurs, there's a if you if you're to make a ven diagram, a ven diagon of Greg Popovic and the Spurs and when pop had to coach up lesser players, right, coach up players that were not all that good, players that were a little a little out.
There on the spectrum.
It has been a absolute sixteen car pile up on the interstate there as Popovich has had not one, not two, not three, not four, not five. How about six consecutive losing seasons as an NBA head coach. Six consecutive losing seasons as an NBA coach, and now they gave him some figurehead job in the organization. But I'm not going to miss Greg Popovic as he's finally done after twenty nine seasons with the San Antonio Spurs. So that is that did have the alf birthday influence. I did want
to mention this the ALF they influencer. So my weekend is going on obviously right now. Last night was the beginning of the weekend, and so we have the birthday celebration, which is really going to be a series of events birthdays during the week. I'm like, I'm all grown up, so you can't really celebrate during the week because you know, you're not supposed.
To do that during the week. It's a school night and all that.
So I didn't really do much celebrating. I did have a cousin visited, which was really cool to see one of my cousins who lives in Colorado, who was in town for a work conference, and so he came by and visited, and I got a few random gifts and had a zoom call like a FaceTime call with my my brothers, which was nice. I don't talk to them very often, and so that was fun. As far as my cheat meal on my birthday, it was inspired in part by Alf the Alien of Partners.
So I was like, I don't know what to eat. I usually fast and I don't eat that much, eat the.
Same few things over and over and over, as I what am I gonna do? It's, you know, the birthday, and so Alf mentioned I'm not usually on X during the day, but I don't even know if this was at night or during the day.
I'm not really sure, but I saw it.
I just popped on there for a second and it was like, Hey, I'm going to have an apple fritter in your honor for your birthday. I said, oh, man, you know, I've not had an apple fritter donut in.
A long time.
That's a great f an idea to have an apple fritter. That is a wonderful, wonderful idea. So I should have an apple fritter, and so I did. But I had that pastrami fries, a couple of chicken fingers, and then I had a delicious apple fritter, A very unhealthy meal and wonderful. One of my favorite cheat meals is the pastrami fry. Big fan, big fan, and I've mostly been eating it at the house here at the mallor mansion, preparing my food, cooking my food, all that stuff. Have
not been spending a ton of time eating out. But it was a nice, nice day with the wife, and then hung out with my dog, Moxie. I put a photo up of me and mox as Moxie hangs out with me most of the.
Evening when I'm watching games.
I got Moxie to my right and normally sleeping with not any care in the world, as I am freaking out, pulling my hair out, what's left of my hair out, trying to get the radio show together, trying to prepare, get everything good to go. And I did get a message from the great Karen k KK who was with me in the original run on the Overnight Show years ago, and she's she's the big bulldog woman.
She always had bulldogs.
Everyone Stuid known KK and she was very excited to see photos of Moxie. So there's some bulldog bonding going on, some bulldog bonding going on. Time now for the phraseus all the week, that's right, the phrases of the week. So I thought we'll do something a little different here, the phrases of the week.
Now, let me explain.
Normally we do a phrase of the week, but we're gonna do the phrases of the week on this Saturday in honor of the Kentucky Derby. There are so many phrases that are used day to day that are from horse racing, colloquial phrases that go back to the eighteen hundreds that started at the track and have worked their
way into the lexicon. You think of horse racing, you think of boxing, that have given us so many of the terms that we use in our American day to day idioms and things like that, and of course you go back even further to Shakespeare. There's so many phrases and words that are Shakespearean. But in terms of our world right now, since today is Kentucky Derby Day, the phrases of the week.
The Phrases of the Week.
The first phrase, which we have used before on this show, but there are always new people listening, is dark horse.
All right, dark horse.
Now, a dark horse is a lesser known horse that does very well, that's not supposed to do well, that does very well.
So now, of course it's known as you're describing.
An underdog or a team that is a surprise, that is not supposed to be that good. But the phrase dark horse originated in horse racing in the early nineteenth century, and it referred to a horse that people didn't really know that much about, didn't know it was.
Good or bad or anything like that.
It was not supposed to be a contender in the race, and it sure enough became a contender.
The earliest recorded use.
Is attributed to a gentleman at eighteen thirty one, who wrote in a novel The Young Duke. He wrote, a dark horse, which had never been thought of, rush past the grandstand in sweet triumph, and so that phrase eighteen
thirty one. The phrase gained more of a regular occurrence in the eighteen forties eighteen fifties, horse racing became a big deal, not only in the US, but also in Britain, and from that point on it became a regular phrase in reports from the track and all that, and then by the mid nineteenth century it was here to stay. In politics, it crossed over. The first notable use early on was to describe James Polk, James K.
Polk, who was a candidate, but.
An unexpected candidate who won the US presidential nomination in eighteen forty four, and the newspapers. That was back when people read newspapers, and he got the labeled dark horse. Of course, now it's used for any underdog or surprise situation that the so and so is a dark horse. And it's not just a sports term. Another phrase that came from horse racing.
As we're doing the phrases of the week, how about buy a nose.
It's another horse racing term from a horse winning a race by a photo finish, which is also a horse racing term. But buy a nose, right, the narrowest margin possible. So if you do something and get it done by a very small margin, by a nose is the phrase.
The term emerging again late nineteenth nineteenth the early twentieth century, as horse racing became more and more popular and you were determining the winner, and you carefully observe and go to that photo, finish technology and all that, and again sports journalism on the eighteen nineties, eighteen nineties, they would put that in the newspaper. There's an example from nineteen oh two. Newspaper said blue streak one buy a nose over ironclad.
And so then it moved.
After that over the years that followed politics, sports, it's all by a nose.
But wait, there's more. Got a couple more phrases of the week. All right, so how about this one.
Also ran. That's pretty good, right, Also ran? Now, also ran is an obvious Once you hear it, you'll be like, oh, that makes sense, But if you don't know what it means, you're like Also ran is a horse that does not place in the money, meaning not in the top three, but describes someone who was in the competition but didn't get it done. So a horse racing phrase again late nineteenth century. Earliest known use in print was in the
eighteen nineties. And give an example. The winner was black Diamond, followed by Starlight and Thunder. The others also ran ooh yeah, they also ran. And so that term also ran just was if you ran the race, you finished the race, but you didn't get any money.
That's how it worked.
The phrase has stayed in the lexicon all these years, and it's a very versatile phrase. Also ran a team that's not very good, like the Angels. I was watching the Angel game last night. They gave up eight runs to the Detroit Tigers and the ninth inning. Don't ask me why I was watching the Angel game. I was just flipping around and the Angels were playing the Tigers, and I flipped over to the game and I was like, man,
but those Angels, they're also rans. That game was not O's, that was not by an O's And if the Angels were to win, they would definitely be a dark horse. Art last one, last one across the board, across the board, the last one here on the fifth hour. Now, originally any of this is on over the Kentucky Derby. All these phrases came from horse racing. So across the board originally referred to a bet covering first, second, and third place.
It now means covering all the different possibilities, all the possibilities out there. And it originated like all these other phrases, because of gambling, and in the nineteenth mid nineteenth century, if you said, hey, I across the board, it was a bet, a wager that was placed on a single horse to finish in any of the top three spots, so first, second, or third, which is win place or show one placer show, and the bet covered all those outcomes, and so that was it, and over time, like everything
else here, that phrase has continued on. But that one across the board goes back from when there were no computers and they.
Used tote boards.
They used chalkboards at racetracks to display the odds and show all the bets, and so if you went across the board, you were effectively betting all on all three categories listed on the board, spreading your risk and increasing your chance of getting something something in return. So that is the jargon, all of these phrases horse racing jargon that worked its way into the everyday.
Language that we use.
And there's some other ones, but it's only a half an hour podcast. We don't have time on the pod, nor do you want me to go in to all of the possibilities here that are out there. But that's a few of them, and those are some good once. We'll enjoy the Kentucky Derby today. Enjoy the Clippers and the Nuggets and the Clippers winning that game today.
That'll be fun. And we will have a mail bag, mail bag. I will have a mail bag on Sunday.
Have a great rest of your Saturday, whatever you're up to today.
It's early while we're recording this, and we'll get you next time.
As Danny G would say, later, skater osta pasta?
What kind of pasta is that? I have never heard of that part? Asta pasta? Is that like a spaghetti? Is that? Do we know exactly what that is? I don't. I don't know.
Is that it's not a ravioli. It's definitely not a ravioli. No oh, I'm told it's not a ravioli.
I'm out. Why are you still here? My flation