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I am Bart Winkler.
So I have a new Plan, and that's to bring a lot of people into the Winklerverse that have not been in. And we're going to get right into it today. And if you're already finding this, his name's already posted, so this is no surprise.
So I don't know why I'm presenting it this way. It's Billy Schmidt. Whoa, I'm into the Winklerverse. This is awesome. Thanks for having me, brother.
It's such a dumb, awesome, stupid, great name. It really is. A actually the the tough thing is I was to eight years old until I figured out like in this lead in like I mean, bringing people randomly into my Winklerverse. Holy cow. That's a good catch 22.
That's almost like a. Dare I say, half-baked introduction. I think it's a phenomenal way to start up something. Welcome into the Winklerverse. It's the name of the show, and I'm welcoming you also into the Winklerverse.
What does that mean? I don't probably nothing. Nobody's definitely totally not our basements. Yeah, you have a nicer basement than I do, it looks like that is very much not true. Uh, right over there was where my wife found the rat, uh, the mouse that was on the mouse trap a couple of days ago, and uh.
Luckily, it provided us a good 30 to 45 minutes of radio content, but also has forced me into now being the laundry person down here.
So, this has now become like not only because guys like willingly go and live in their basements, now I get banished into the basement because it's like you're the only one that we. feel comfortable going down there with the rats.
So you figure it out down there and do whatever you want. We're sort of the same way, I'll show you. I have a dead body in the basement. There's been decaying there. Oh man.
Problem is, I wish the mouse was dead. Oh, yeah. She had to like know it was sitting there and squiggling around and sitting on the glue track. That was a tough deal. Tough, tough scene.
So, Billy is here, and we've rapped a lot over the years. It's been some years. But I thought we could talk about Sports You've covered the stuff.
So now we'll get into the sports, if that's okay. Gotta have the sports and the stuff, but hey. You never know what you're coming for. Um let me just ask you. This and I don't want to put you on the spot and I know you have ties with many, um Well, you're a lot closer to the Packers organization than I am, yes?
Sure. That's a fair way of saying it, I guess.
Okay. Because I despise the head coach. Mm-hmm.
So, I don't. Are you? Can you not say that, or do you not despise him the way? You probably don't. I mean, I despise him on a way that, like, it's what I'm known for, I think, right now.
Well, and the thing is, though, Bart, you do a good job of finding a homeland and a company, occupying that space very, very well. The thing is, it's not like a hot. It's a hotter take to think Matt LaFleur, or to say Matt LaFleur is a good NFL head coach right now, because I feel like the venom is very, very high. For him, because you reach seven to eight years in the same place. And you haven't reached the pinnacle yet, people are going to be frustrated.
Like, I think that's just a natural feeling for. The coaching staff, I think he's a really good head coach. Do I think he's a great head coach? Maybe not. But I also don't think anybody thought that Uh I mean, insert anybody in, like Andy Reid.
I don't know that anybody really thought Andy Reid was a great head coach. Until he ultimately got Patrick Mahomes. Like, I don't know that anybody really thought or knew if Sean McVay was a great head coach until they ended up winning the Super Bowl.
So I feel like you kind of get to that point where you're good, not great. Until you actually do and you break through.
So I think he's really, really good, but it's a tough time to be taking up that stance on the radio because I get the. The apologist tag quite often. But not nearly as much on Sundays, Barr, because I also do Badger football postgame. And I didn't think that they should fire him either.
So I get, I am in the spot where a lot of people think that I'm just an apologist for coaches in the state.
Well, you sound like one right now with what you just said. Yeah. a little bit but like in all reality i i don't like I because I they're not gonna fire him like I'm like fire la fleur they're not gonna be like Okay, we're going to fire him.
Now, if they lost to the Giants, they could have. I think that was very much on the table.
Well, and I like the thing is in in all reality since you and I have been doing this You and I both kind of started as full-time right around the McCarthy change, right?
So he is one of the only coaches that I've, at least the only coach I've ever done on a daily basis. uh basis. talked about every single day.
So like. At some point. People are always going to either call for a change, and they did in the end of 21. I feel like I heard a lot of it at the end of 22. A little bit as much at the end of 24.
But it's kind of a hot tag because it's the easiest thing to be frustrated about. Like if they don't win games. We need to fire the coach. If they don't. Score touchdowns in the first drive, you need to fire the coach.
Now, I don't believe Matt LaFleur is the one that fumbles the ball to end the drive against Carolina or throw the interception against Cincinnati. But You're the headman, so somebody is going to be the front man when you don't score touchdowns on your first drive in seven straight games.
So, like, again, I get the frustration. I think he wins and helps them win a lot more games than he impedes them from winning.
So, that's where my feelings for Matt LaFleur would be. Probably a lot more positive than a decent amount of the fan base at this time. I think, you know, I'm always trying to, even though it may not seem like it on the surface, I'm always trying to evolve. and grow. It's a good goal for humans.
And be a better person and be a better. Um whatever it is that I am. Um Hey, I'm a radio host. People don't even know my show exists. Basically, basically, I've been starting to put reels on TikTok and people some radio again?
That's awesome. Sweet. Yeah, in 150 markets for the last two years. Thanks for watching. Oh.
Oh. Oh, well. But I don't hear you at three in the afternoon when I'm in the car.
Okay. But you know, so one thing that I've I guess learned or rediscovered with The floor bashing Because I am hard on him. And I am less hard. And Jordan Love. Mm-hmm.
Now that was a pick I did not like. Um you know, we talked about that plenty. But I also think that Jordan loved Jordan. See, a lot of these quarterbacks, this is where I'm an apologist. I have a really hard time.
When these quarterbacks get drafted. I have a hard time quitting on them. anyone in the league. Like, I'm not quitting on JJ McCarthy. I didn't want to quit on Caleb Williams.
I'm not quitting on Bryce Young. I'm not quitting on Justin Fields, even. And I just saw there was some.
Somebody was posting a video of him at Ohio State. The other day, and I'm like, yeah, that's who I thought it would be. Like, he's not that, though, anymore. Like, that is why I thought Justin Fields would work for Chicago.
So maybe I just have a more of a. I don't know, an affinity to these quarterbacks. But what I say about Jordan Love is. He has had throws. Where you're like, that's it.
That's what we hope guys would have. And he's had moments, he's had fourth quarters. Like he has helped win these games. Even last weekend, he helped win that game with a big third-down pass. And I don't think he gets credit a lot for that.
I feel like, for whatever reason, And maybe it's because some of these interceptions are brutal, the ones he throws, but he doesn't throw that many. And I feel like Jordan Love needs 100 good passes to neutralize one bad throw. I think that when I Say good things about Jordan Love, the response online or whatever I'm hearing from is: he's not the guy. It's more like, but then when I'm talking about Matt LaFleur, Saying that he's not the guy, it's a lot of. You're not a Packer fan.
I have the faith. Like, this, this is where I'm trying, this is what I'm getting at. With these quarterbacks, I guess I have the faith that some of them will turn around. But with the Packers and with the Brewers and with the Bucs. I'm not like, it's going to work out, guy.
I'm not like, oh, they'll figure it out. If the signs aren't there, I don't believe that they'll just magically. flip the switch as I used to maybe think, but I don't Feel that anymore. I don't, if I don't see it. And if the signs aren't developing, I can't just say, oh, Matt LaFleur is a good coach.
Well, why do you think that? The answer for a lot of people. Is because I'm a Packer fan and I don't want to criticize them, is what I feel like I'm running into. Yeah, where in all reality, what the answer should be, well, I think he's 29 and or 27 and 5 after November 15th in the regular season, right? Like, I think he's lost three regular season games in the month of December.
Like, the actual stats that then would compile in, like, his teams get better at the end of the year, which would lead, would be a telltale sign of good coaching. That's the stuff that, and I think what you explained there, Bart. Not only in Packers fandom, in sports fandom. In America, in the world today, that it's either like you're on one side or the other and there's zero opportunity for middle ground. I think Jordan Love can be a perennial Pro Bowl quarterback.
Does that mean that I think he's one of the seven to 10 best players that has ever played the position, which are the two guys that have probably preceded him in Fav and Rogers? You know what? I don't. But does that mean that I think they can win a championship with him? I do absolutely still think so.
Where I think the majority of people kind of settle more in the middle, like. Hey. Jordan Love is complicit in the fact that they haven't scored a touchdown on their first drive since the Dallas game. Right. Matt LaFleur also could be assisting you with a couple of additional possibilities to get out of your hot read when it's clear and obvious that they're going to jump a slant against Cleveland.
You throw it right to Grant Elpitt and he takes it back to the five-yard line and you potentially lose the game, right? Like there's a lot of times blame in the middle. But for us to get there. We would have to admit that we're potentially not right.
So it's either love's not the guy. I'm with The shield and I'm with the green and gold or Jordan Love is the guy. We need to figure out everybody in Green Bay that's holding him back from winning a championship, and Ed Polise is going to figure it out. Ed Police is going to step around and he's going to figure it out. I think that's where it's become a strange.
Uh, either or where you're like a love Jordan, uh, Jordan love, and now kind of Ed Policy guy because you believe Ed Policy is going to come in here and become kind of more of a tyrant running the entire organization, or you're like, Like you said, I'm a Packers fan. This is what we do. We're consistent. We're good enough. We win games and then we figure it out at the end, and ultimately we'll somewhat break through.
I think it's.
Somewhere in between. And if they're going to win. the championship. Like I very much believe they can. Both of them need to be better to help figure out the offense, if that makes sense.
That is true. We'll see what happens against the Vikings this weekend. Don't want to get too into that game because I want to keep this a little evergreen for media. But I'm also sorry. Not November 20th.
It's just a day, and it's just a day. You're just a day. Day in the Winkler verse, but I also think part of the reason why you have that feeling and sentiment am. It's because you watch the entire NFL and that you're kind of forced to discuss it all over the place, right? And it's not, I.
Generally speaking, a fan base watches. Always dialed in on this team. And why is their clock management terrible? You watch 32 teams in pro football, you'll see 32 teams that blow clock management situations every single week, right? Like you see that stuff happen all the time.
I'm a national host. Thank you. That's what I'm saying, but like you watch all of it, and you're like, okay, see, I see all these quarterbacks making big-time throws, and I see Bryce Young throwing for 450. The guy doesn't suck.
Sorry, I watched him in college blow out SEC teams. He doesn't suck.
So more giving you flowers there, but also saying, hey, if you watch the rest of the league, you see that a lot of the same issues that people say, I don't know how they keep doing this.
Well, teams that ultimately have a negative play in football, that's a lot of the, there's like 15 things that could go wrong. One of those is happening, and it is somewhat of a trend around the league. I got four main topics yet that I want to hit you up with. Let's go. One is a lot of planning.
I should start doing some of this. No, I'm thinking this all on the fly. Yeah. I even thought today. How do I want to talk to.
I didn't, I'm like, I'll just figure it out. Tis the season of gifting and holes to deck. And the Who's and Who Louville were in love with new tech. Where can we find Sonos and Samsung and Nintendo? they shouted.
Would they find it in one place? This they questioned and doubted. When suddenly a who yelled, Walmart's the place to start. And each who added headphones, TVs and games to their carts. With Walmart, their shopping was done in a flurry.
They cried out, who knew? and ordered their gifts in a hurry. Shop the latest tech gifts in the Walmart app. Y'all Are you ready to get spicy? These Doritos golden sriracha aren't that spicy.
Sriracha?
Sounds pretty spicy to me. Um, a little spicy, but also tangy and sweet. Maybe it's time to turn up the heat. Or turn it down. It's time for something that's not too spicy.
Try Dorito's Golden Stracha. Spicy, but not too spicy. But I'll do a generic brewer's. I'll do a generic box. I have a casino question for you.
In a minute, I'm not going to save that to the end. We're going to jam that in the middle. Sweet. But a football question. Because you're someone who played offensive line.
I believe you were featured on Random College Athletes one time. I was, thank you. At Carroll College. University, but yeah. Carol University.
And I saw J.J. Watt was repping Carol on Pat McAfee yesterday. Oh, yeah. And I was going to text you. And then I didn't want to admit that I had turned on Pat McAfee.
So I didn't. That impacts you. Um I for the longest time would say, I love the trenches. I love the A gap. I love the B gap.
I love the big nasties. That's where football starts. And recently I have admitted, That when I watch a game, Yeah. I don't know who is on the offensive line, even for the Packers. I don't ever.
Ever. Look at the offensive line. I watched the ball. 100%. I am only tracking the ball.
I don't go back and watch all 22. I don't like to see the lineman. I don't see when if someone's gonna beat an offensive lineman and get a sack, I see it when he gets to the quarterback. You playing offensive line, you must see it a different way. I would think in the same way that when I played goalie.
I see soccer. From the back. And not from the side that we see. But when you're watching football I mean, you can't just track the ball. You were an offensive lineman, right?
Yeah, I weirdly watch the front more than I probably should, right? Like, that's a good question. That was an awesome one. If I had a bell, I'd be hit and then ringing the shit out of that thing.
Sorry, I don't know. Are we allowed to swear in here? I apologize. Not fucking really. No, but I I do.
And it's not like a, well, that's just how I watch the game. Like, I think some people like to try to act like it's cooler than it's not. I just think it's, I think it's interesting to see. How the play starts to develop, right? And how initially people in the front seven are triggering off the ball.
By how the offensive line is playing. Because you can see in the first two steps, if they're trying to mimic a run, if it's an actual run, or if we're doing some funky shit that everybody's gonna be confused about, or if we're just doing a straight five-step drop and it's gonna be mono a mono, and I'm gonna see if I can block this defensive end.
So I watch a lot of times, I watch the tackles in. Where Generally speaking, you're going to look more for the first three because if you're going to see somebody pull, a lot of times it's going to be one of the guards. But I'll always watch the tackles on the outside, too, because it's the most. It's the most difficult position outside of quarterback and corner to play. Is offensive tackle because you're going up against 270-pound.
Just absolute human freaks of nature. Like, if indeed we have to fight aliens, I still think we should try to talk to the aliens when they land here. Have a nice conversation. Bring them to the Pottawatomi Sportsbook. Maybe introduce them to Happy PlayStation.
They've probably never had a Delta coming. You know what? He changed, right?
So I think we need to be friendly in that situation. But if indeed it comes to a combat, you're sending Miles Garrett, Micah Parsons, TJ Watt, those kinds of guys. Uh, I'd also be saying the dudes that are trying to block them because you're trying to do somewhat of an orchestrated ballet in front.
So, long story short, I do, however. I'm not also going to say, like, I don't watch the football, right? Like, I'm watching where the ball is going pretty quickly after the first two or so seconds. Maybe I'll even give it a try for a quarter. I'll probably be bored to tears, but.
Yeah, well, and that's the thing. You can also like watch and then quickly the the Eye goes right back to, oh, he is throwing the football. Or you see the ball running through the line. You see two cats leading up into a B gap for a nice power, a nice GT power. Guard tackle power.
You'd be dialed in. I would have got it if you gave me like five minutes. I think you could get one solid first drive of a game, but watch the first drive because that's when it's going to be all scripted and everything's going to be sweet looking. I'd be remiss now, since you brought up aliens, to not share my take that I think aliens miss their window. I think that if they would have come here in like the 90s, it would have been a massive deal.
Yes. I think like now we would either Not believe it's real or just willingly submit. I don't know that we would fight. That ho I think we or we'd just be like fuck you Don't get on my face. The crazy thing is, they definitely needed to come pre.
Like, and this isn't a political take, I apologize, but like pre-Elon taking over Twitter and changing it to X, because the algorithms are wild right now. Like, if ever anybody and Americans and people on planet Earth were ready to fight aliens, it's because we're watching so much stuff online. Like, I've seen 15 people fall off a building, I think, in the last like two weeks.
So, I think we're more immune to the wildness. Kind of like when we would go to fight the gorilla, I said, all right, we need to bring 100 people. And the first 50 that are going to throw up, you got to volunteer to walk away because we know you're not going to have the stomach for it.
So, yeah, I'm with you. If they would have gone like five or six years ago, maybe at the worst or at the max, we wouldn't have been so desensitized to the wildness that it's going to take. I just, I do believe. Listen, they're incredible life forms, right? They're flying all the way.
Oh, there's definitely. I mean, it's Billy. They've seen a ton. I don't, if they wanted to come here and mess some stuff up, I guess I think they would have. I think if they're going to come, as not to be stereotypical here, I think they're coming in peace.
Unless they're like in there, they're why would we go somewhere? We would not go. We would go because we fucked up Earth and we wanted new Earth. Or because we have too much money and trying to figure out what we should do. You know what I think we should do?
I have these millions of dollars. I want to go inside of a submarine and go use a Logitech controller and look at a sunken ship. No, rich. And albeit. White people find too many different ways to spend their money, and that would be why we go on Mars.
That would be why we go to Venus. I think the aliens are trying to actually help the world out here. Maybe they did go and drop into Africa and build out some of those or in Egypt and build out some of those pyramids. That's gonna get me started on Antarctica. I'm definitely in for all of those takes.
You know what I? I I need I need a I need a rich I need like somebody before they're like God. What should I do this weekend? I have so much money. I'm going to go to space.
Instead of that, I'd like them to be like... Maybe I'll feed a bunch of hungry people. You know what I should do? Maybe I'll do that. You know what I think I'm going to do, I think.
I think I'm going to go do one of those videos that I see of all these people buying all this food and donating it to people. That seems like it might warm the cockles of my heart. Or I'll go to the casino and bet on player. Yeah, no, instead I'm gonna go to Africa and bring back a giant Elephant tusk. It's the one.
Yeah, no kidding, where I walk right over there and they have them sitting there waiting for me. Although, cheers to all the folks out deer hunting this weekend. I'm proud of all of you. I'm proud of all of you. You're managing the population.
That's good. I don't know if you've ever felt this way. I've always wanted to go to deer camp just to hang out with everybody, but there's no way I'm sitting my fat ass in a tree stand, either early in the morning or late at night.
So I might be the drunkest guy in the group because I'm going to be sitting right here on this couch. I'll wait for you guys to come back in and I'll grill some stuff up after, but it's going to be an intense week here for the boys. Oh, yeah. I got no comment on that. I've never been deer hunting.
I'm afraid of weapons.
Okay. Let me talk to you about the casino question I have. Because I've noticed a trend on slots. Are you a big slot guy? Too much, yeah.
When did we get away? From the five reels. And hit a bonus. Why is everything like these three columns, and you got to fill up the berries or the diamonds? You know what I'm talking about?
Yeah. And you gotta fill them up, and you think you're close, and then the pumpkin's expanded, and it's gonna pop, and you're gonna get the bonus. But then it doesn't pop, and you're like, it's so close. And you put him. When did we get?
Why can't we just go back to? normal slots. Why do why has it got to be all these three columns? It's a tremendous, tremendous question. And it's one that I really, really wish I had a better answer for.
Than we are a dumb society where, like, lights and bubbles and shiny things excite us, right? Because I walk by, I walk by the one thing, and the mummy's sitting there on a big old stack of green gems. I'm like, Bart, mower spins, come on, baby, there's no chance this doesn't pop. Yeah, you're right. Because good old-fashioned top dollar and pinball still get it done, but nobody's looking to try to hit sevens anymore or a double diamond.
It's oh, I have to get five in a row, and it can't be an intersecting column. But if I get the full screen of uh the young, uh, the nice lady, Miss Autumn, on the moon game, boom, I'm winning there. You're you're spot on on that, but it also comes down to we can't just play three to five lines, it's got to be 25 lines. I can't count to 25 on how many different winning combinations it is. I'm dumb enough that I just want to see things in the straight line and then I win.
Holy cow, this one bounces here, here, and here, and here, and then it's not a line, and then I get pissed off.
So I'm I'm definitely there with you, but it's come to the fact where We just want to find more ways to get a bonus and think we're closer. and think that we have an edge. There's no way that this raging chickens isn't ready to pop. Look at how, look at how this red one is. No shit.
The egg's about to crack. I just need. Hey, can you watch this? I got to go to the ATM.
Okay. And then, of course, you know, they're going down there and betting 50 cents and hitting that bonus and popping both of the columns. Then it's like 13x and you're like, come on, man. Thankfully, I've had a... Little more money in my pocket because of all the savings I'm getting, of course, Billy at happyplacem.com.
Yes. Now I'm going to advertise the promo code BART. For twenty-five percent off every order when you go there. And go to happyplacehemp.com.
So Obviously, the gummies have worked for me for a long time. I'll tell you what I'm into right now: the Seltzers. Big time. Like the Selters, and they've got a five, a ten and a twenty. Yeah.
Um yeah.
So much more.
So, my main routine right now is to. Um like Sunday after the Packers or whatever. I'll jump on and step into the Winklerverse. And then I'll have like a 10. And then maybe around five.
And then around uh you know, kick off a Sunday night football. I'll have the twenty. And I'll just lay there. And watch the game. I was going to say, and then you are into the Winklerverse in the second half.
That's a great feeling. That's a great. And I I did the show Monday and I'm like. God, you know, I just realized I didn't talk too much about the Lions and Eagles this week. Why?
Why? Oh, yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's fair because I drifted into Sunday night football. I would second the fact that a fourth down punt.
I don't know. No, you listen, your mind spaced away after the Hawk Tua happened in the Cincinnati-Pittsburgh game again. That's fine, it's very okay. I uh The drift was a phenomenal way for me during the grilling season because your boy has become a little bit too aggressively into. Smoking meats, no pause.
Um on the Traeger Grill. And there was a good time where it was like every single night, like, all right, sweet, I'm gonna go start dinner. Might as well have it drift. And then all of a sudden, by the end, you're like, Why did I not take the stakes off? Oh, that's right.
I was drifting. I thought that was the five.
Sorry.
Well, I mean, yeah, have it have it maybe post. Cook. Post-dinner, it made it a lot better. Listen, you live and you learn.
Now, and that's the best is you can try all these products with the promo code. Tis the season of gifting and holes to deck. And the Who's and Who Louville were in love with new tech. Where can we find Sonos and Samsung and Nintendo? they shouted.
Would they find it in one place? This they questioned and doubted. When suddenly a who yelled, Walmart's the place to start. And each who added headphones, TVs and games to their carts. With Walmart, their shopping was done in a flurry.
They cried out, who knew? and ordered their gifts in a hurry. Shot the latest tech gifts in the Walmart app. Are you ready to get spicy? These Doritos Golden Sriracha aren't that spicy.
Maybe it's time to turn up the heat. Or turn it down. It's time for something that's not too spicy. Try Dorito's Golden Sriracha. Spicy.
But not too spicy. Um I was very excited. Getting back to sports. I was very excited when I saw Woodruff took the qualifying offer. Mm-hmm.
And uh Adam McCalvey. Had a quote here. From Woodruff. Come on, that's a large salary and it's a place where I'm comfortable and I love. Also, I took it as they really wanted me here.
I know the ramifications of offering a one-year, $22 million to a pitcher. In the Brewers organization, that has never happened, so I don't take that lightly. And I was pretty pumped for like 18 seconds. And then I thought, Oh, he's hurt. He's hurt.
I'm more at ease. I do wonder though, like Baseball on a hole. I don't I they're gonna lock out. Yes, I feel like they have to. What the only thing that makes me way too...
You know tentacles up for it is they're signing managers to one-year deals. And, like, the name is Kurt Suzuki in Anaheim. He signed a one-year deal. No one's signing a one-year deal unless you only know there's one year, right? And then everything could look different.
It's. It's too contentious and there's way too much smoke. For there not to be like some serious Content, like hold out, I think, in it. At the very worst, you're missing a certain amount of spring training. But like they're in a weird conundrum now where The staring contest between the M and the B.
The B always wins. Million always beats million in a staring contest when it talks about money. And who's going to wait longer? But We've Now turned, I think, a. you know, a cultural leaf.
And we all want the millionaires to beat the billionaires. But I don't know if that's going to, in the court of public opinion, still outweigh the fact that the billionaires have more money and they can outlast the players in a longer holdout. Because like hockey, it definitely helped the state of the sport. But it was that and the fact that it wasn't on ESPN for 15 years. Nobody really around the country talked about it.
And it's still very clearly the fourth-ranked sport in the country.
So baseball is at a good point where their numbers and the demand for the game. Is higher than I thought it would get to. before lockup.
So maybe that holds and you know. Cooler heads prevail, and smarter people realize it's too good right now to lose an entire year of. But it's definitely impending it's it's definitely leaning towards them doing it. And to the woody piece. It's a hell of a gamble.
It's a hell of a gamble when you talk about it being the highest paid annual value they've ever given to a pitcher. Let alone on a one-year situation. I think it's the most they paid in one year, not a part of a long-term deal like the Yellich or Braun contract. Um That I sure hope that they got better news than they gave all of us during the. postseason where it was just like Yeah, he talked to his he talked to his surgeon.
Okay. And he talked to a surgeon.
Okay, sweet. All right.
So we're just not going to ask.
Okay. So he talked to the surgeon.
So we're going to have more surgery. He talked to the surgeon.
Okay, sounds good, but that usually doesn't mean it comes with 22 million.
So I think. And I sure as hell hope that they have some good clearance on it. But I mean, we all love Woody.
So if there's anybody that's going to grab 22 mil on the way out. Um I'm I'm glad that it's him. But from a baseball solvency standpoint, it's a hell of a gamble. And maybe the biggest one I think that. I don't know how you would feel.
I think it's the biggest one I can really remember them taking financially, that is. Are you there? I'm there.
Sorry, I got bounced out of the Winklerverse here really quickly. My two and a half-year-old decided to pull the Ethernet plug out. Are you sure my my stuff's always Stupid. Yeah, I'm guessing it's me. I just listen.
You know, I think it's the Wisconsin. Oh, sorry there.
Sorry there. Yeah, thanks, thanks. We're both. We're both. No, it's my internet there.
I got it. I got somebody to rear end to.
Sorry about that.
Sorry for sitting there at the way there. Yeah. Sorry.
Yeah. But I the the the million and the billion thing. Great point. And our and our brains don't understand the difference that one One billion is a thousand million, I like to say. Mm-hmm.
And even that. Doesn't seem right, but I think and I've been warning people that The owners are going to win the court of public perception for a long while because they are going to promise you what you want, and that's. We're trying to get to a salary cap. Mm-hmm.
Now, even if they get to a salary cap, that doesn't mean The pirates are going to magically spend $200 million. And you still have to deal with the teams that are paying a lot of money. How do you lower them? It doesn't mean any of that. Um And what's going to happen is, even if there's a salary, so they're going to say salary cap parity, and fans are going to be: yes, that's what we want.
You're offering us what we want. The players are being greedy. Because they're not giving us what we want. But there is a salary cap that they want. But Billy, there's not a profitability cap.
The owners want a salary cap. Because they don't want to pay as much money to the players. They want to keep more of that money for themselves.
So let's just remember that when this is happening. They're going to have the promise of You know, what's behind our door is a lot more. Of what you want, but they're only doing that, they're not doing that for us. They're doing that for them. as they always do.
Okay. They didn't get To the B category by doing things for the welfare of others, generally. That's generally not how you become a billionaire. Like you can do some nice things, no doubt about it, but you're doing things for the greater part of me, the greater good of my wallet. And you're spot on there.
I also think the interesting. Dynamic is If you surveyed 25 people on the street, 25 sports fans in the Winklerverse. You would ask them. That's a little high. What do you mean?
Well, sorry, 1500.
So, like, you went through and you hide up. The amount of folks that What you just explained, they're giving us what we want. But what we also want in terms of You know. Because a lot of times we like to compare our Jobs and our workplace environments into the professional sporting environments. It's what we know, it's an easy comparison.
Not always that easy. You want the employees to get more of the pie. You want the employees to feel like they're getting their share of the revenue.
Well, that would be the one that people say is the most selfish and greedy, and the guys that are the most overpaid, which would be the NBA, because they're the ones that actually get a legitimate 50% slice of whatever comes into the league, whether it's the television rights money, whether it's the in-stadium entertainment money, whether it's the gambling money, we all get 50%.
So we all have a vested stake in this thing doing the best it possibly can. On a macro level, and in baseball, It's the 30 owners and everybody else. And you are as much of a general independent contractor in baseball than you are. in any sport it is your performance Indicates how much money you're going to make. As much as, you know.
If I'm the three-hole hitter, the five-hole hitter driving me in changes my run scored.
However, whatever my batting average is, however many home runs I hit and extra base hits, that's all on me. That's all on my resume.
So it's the least. Where it's the sport where you're least dependent on others around you, because football, I could argue, is the number one. Um, in terms of your value being tied to everybody else's performance. And that's where you get a salary cap, and there's $200 million, and we're going to figure out how. How we're gonna slice up this pie.
The reason why it's worked for over 100 years is because the sport actually. I think Sells itself in the market that it is, where it is a free market. You can spend as much money as possible. And I don't believe. If all of a sudden there's a salary cap and salary floor, That the Dodgers will no longer will cease to be The mega giant that starts all of the best assets of an organization.
Two theirs. Like right now, the brewers can spend their $30 million they spent, or whatever it ended up being. On their pitching lab, and that's their own. Intellectual property and all of their own stuff, they can develop that. The Dodgers will go and just start plucking that and spending more money on whatever is around the organization if they can't just buy the best players.
So you're right. It's not a salary cap for the players. But it won't be for everything else. And if you want to see more teams spending and firing their managers to go and hire another team's manager, if you like the Lane Kiffin situation. then you would like the situation that potentially could happen.
In my humble opinion, in baseball, if the salary structure changes after this lockout. I don't really have a bucks question. I lied. I don't really care. But I do I just to wrap up uh I am like I am like on pins and needles about Lane Kiffen.
I want him to stay so badly. I'm so glad that somebody else northern the Mason Dixon cares. I want him to stay so bad. It's like dry, it's like consuming me. Dude, I was on SBC message boards yesterday, like reading.
My kids weren't home.
So I was literally like reading up on the old message boards. Big win for the internet that message boards still exist, by the way. That's a good thing for 2025 and for our kids' futures going forward if message boards are still alive. Hopefully, O'Mangle still is a thing once, you know, parental controls start off of the internet. But like, you start wondering, um.
How much people care about college sports? I had four people say, No one gives a shit about your SEC conversation. I'm like, You are lying to yourself because you're, I know, when your wife has real housewives of Los Angeles on that your ass ain't going to be. Orange County, Billy. Orange County.
Sorry, Orange County. I apologize. You're sitting right there and you're following along, and you know, when Amanda is pissed at Tiffany because she didn't pay for her part of the breakfast deal. I'm into it and it is. I think they should make a real life.
Are real housewives of the SEC. And that's the next part of the licensing deal. That whatever network gets the SEC after ESPN gets rid of it, that's the next step. Like Lane Kiffens' ex-wife. We need a reality show of her f ⁇ .
There's the best friend in a private chat for different places and figuring out where the money go. It's awesome. I just don't want him to leave. I want these people. You can have what you think you're getting.
Elsewhere, you can have it there, Lane. You can have it there. There's one thing he can't have. There's one thing he can't have. A live tiger on the sidelines.
Governor Jeffrey Andrews is going to get that live tiger on the sidelines. He's going to get that son of a bitch on the sidelines. All right, we got 180,000 people. My daddy took me to the Tiger Stadium. Man, my best memories were looking at a tiger on the stadium, on the sidelines.
I saw the tiger on the sidelines. I said, anything's possible. I also love Louisiana people. I've been to Louisiana three times. Wow.
And I'm just infatuated with the human beings down there because it is a culture, that's for sure.
So I definitely am rooting for the tigers in this, but I also think that they could get a. Joe Brady and it still would work out pretty well here, but you can save that for later tonight. Billy Schmid. What a pleasure it's to see you and talk to you again. Oh, well, I appreciate us being allowed to do this.
Not that we were like stricken from being able to, but you know, there's always some. Different stuff. And this is always fun, dude. I uh There was one moment in time where you looked at me and said, you know, you're too young. to be so bitter.
I said, Bart, there's going to be a day and time where we're both old and we're both better. And someday we're going to reach that time. I did say that. I did say that to you. I remember that.
Yeah. That was when we both had desks, but no computers to use at that desk. Th so that stuck with you, huh? I I have sat with that one for a long, long time. And that one is, that one has been with me for.
My entire radio career.
So just remember that. You had that one imprinted in my mind. You're too young to be bitter.
Well, hopefully I reach the time in the business that I'm old enough to be better. Did it make you less bitter or not? It'll make you more bitter. Um, that's a good question. I think it made me less bitter.
I think it definitely made me less better. No doubt about it. Because there's listen, the thing is, and People knew that's probably I'm gonna probably clip that when I post this. You should. You should.
Because you had a lasting impact on somebody who's made a D-list celebrity career in the radio industry.
So, like, I think about this a lot of times as to how you can climb. In our business, you reach a point where you're like, Holy cow, go to Syracuse. I'm talking to Bart Winkler on the Winkler verse. This is as good as it's going to get. And then somebody even better.
And every single day, you're talking to somebody who, I don't know, maybe somebody's girlfriend broke up with them last night and they're going through a tough time. And all they want to know is that Bart Winkler is waiting there to say, good. Good morning, everybody. I can't reach it as high as possible, but.
Now it's good afternoon, anybody? Good evening, anybody? And at some point, everybody is going to be anybody hanging out in the Winklerverse. That's what my wife gets in the morning. Um Good morning, everybody.
I climb up behind her. Whisper in her ear. Goodbye, daddy. She's like, the papers are drafted. I was just going to say, she says, sign the damn paper.
Okay. No sign there. They're downstairs on the counter. Just leave the keys next to him. Either that, or I am going to grab my keys the next time that you do that, and you're going to find a seven-knuckle sandwich.
Let's do it again, Billy. Thanks for having me, brother. Can't wait for it. Thank you for stopping into. The Winkler verse.
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