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See rules for prize details. Monopoly is a registered trademark of Hasbro. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome into the Winklerverse. I'm Bart Winkler alongside Grant Mills.
And our goodest of buddies, Paul Imig. This is episode number seven hundred and sixty-one. Wow! Of into the Winkler verse. Haters said we'd probably make it that far, since we'd never get back on the radio.
This would probably be your life. Haters were right. We are brought to you by Carl's Place. But you will get that far. You will get to a thousand episodes because you won't ever get back on terrestrial radio.
To be fair, you did this even during terrestrial radio.
So true, I did, which was in hindsight a great decision, maybe one of the best of my entire life.
So I, I don't know. I still feel like I'm a little late to the game, but. You know, I'm I'm I'm almost up to seven seven seven, which we're counting up to with our friends from Potawatomi Sportsbook, and we're gonna have some events there soon. Um, at the same time, a lot of people are on like episode fifteen twenty five as the space continues to grow. I at least feel a little bit like an elder, um, of sorts.
I got a lot of texts last night from people. I'm not kidding or tweets, um. Maybe only like three or four, but enough to say a lot. But it was more than one, and it was it it was people asking me, "You're really betting five hundred dollars on this Bucks team? You're you're really?" But we're watching one preseason game, and and we're we're checking in with Bart to make sure.
I did have uh, I did talk to Matt in the falls a little bit. We remember Matt. Remember Matt. Matt, I want to get the exact verbiage of what Matt verbiage. Yeah, verbiage.
There you go. He said, "Did you really put five hundred bucks on the over?" I said, "Not yet, but I'm not letting a preseason game talk me out of it because I'd already answered this question to other people." And then he said, "I was just going to say that's about." The most decent way to force yourself to care about this disaster that will unfold between our very eyes. No, wait a minute, though. I enjoy the heck out of that Bucks preseason game. I only caught bits and parts because we were watching Raw, which is on Netflix, which is a streamer, which means the back and forth is no good.
Yeah. Also, there's some people worried if Marcus did the GLP one and it doesn't look as good on him. There are some. He was never that big, was he? No, but he does look less like he did.
We are supposed to age. He's like supposed to happen. He's like 75, isn't he? Still dunking after all these years. I love his annual dunk videos.
Me too.
So it's one preseason game. Kyle Kuzma was. Really bad.
Some other guys were quite good. I enjoy, and bar we've talked about this. Like when you grow up and you're in your early 40s and you're a Bucks fan, like most of your life has been spent as the Bucks being the lesser of the two teams presently on the court that you're watching. It felt natural. It felt like, okay, so there's Lamelo and there's And and there's Gobert.
Oh, and then. Let's see which young guys rise to the top for the Bucks. If you go, if you if you watch a Bucks preseason game, and then you say like, "Oh, like you're overreacting, and this is not going to be a team that can reach what's the is it twenty six and a half? Is that the number of wins? I might be up to twenty eight.
Oh, well, that's getting a little. I still thirty is my thirty is my baseline. I just think I mean, and the thing is, they're gonna. Our our guy KOC Kevin O'Connor wrote the piece earlier this week. Like the Bucks are at the central, are the central team in the league for trades this year, and he's right.
Like, and who was it that I saw from the Bucks in the front office who was saying, like, in the past month, like, are the team that we put out in October will probably be not who's on the team in March. A lot's going to change, but the Bucks don't control their draft pick in the twenty twenty seven draft. They've got these new anti tanking rules anyway. Where if you're a bottom three team, you don't get a bottom three pick or a top three pick, if you want to look at it that way. But it's going to sort itself out eventually.
I'm excited to watch it, even if it's a 29 win season. It's just it feels it feels fresh. Like this past Giannis year was so trying, and he didn't want to be there. It just was bad vibes.
So all of that to say. Yes, I would stick with I would stick with it. That's such a low number, and again, the Bucks are going to try. They have zero reason not to like always try to win. Taylor Jenkins is the real deal.
Ryan Rollins, if you can judge anything from one preseason game, like looks like he's ready to go from the fifth most improved player last year to maybe competing for it again and taking that next step. I'm all in. I mean, when I say all in, I don't mean to like make the playoffs. I mean all in to have a fun season.
So I'll just because we spent so much time talking about it before we started, we didn't really have plans to talk about the Bucks. No, but they were on last night, and there was plenty of angles to talk about. I want to get into the Brewers as soon as we can.
However, however, I do want to talk about the Bucks. Me too.
I didn't expect you. This is great.
Well, I think the thing with the Bucks is. And there's a lot, there's a lot of things swirling in my head, and we'll see where we can go with them in this long form format, as we like to cherish. Three of us. The the main thing for me is that I do feel like all Bucks fans are united, or not like, not like we weren't fractured, but we all want the same thing. We just want to have fun watching our team again.
Hell yeah, and. We all have an enemy now, and the enemy is a little bit Giannis, but also Kyle Kuzma. No one likes him. He's already chirping back at Marzian on Twitter last night. Who?
By the way, he didn't even say Kuz. Nathan didn't even say Kuzma. There was no way you can search it. And like, I looked very specific. Like, oh, is Kuzma searching his name?
Nathan didn't say there was no Kuzma. Follow him. Or is this yeah popping up in his four U timeline? Nathan, all that Nathan Marzián said was, "I can't take eighty-two games of this." It was nothing, and it was a Kuzma highlight. And then Kuzma was like, "That's first preseason game." But where I'm happy or more excited about Kuzma is last year we all hated Doc, but we felt there was nothing we could do, and so we all quit.
We weren't a fan base that was hard enough on Doc because we all quit. Probably, rightfully so, because they were never going to fire him during the season, and they were going to fire him or whatever at the end of the season.
So that we knew was inevitable. There's nothing we could do to make it move up. We want Kyle Kuzma off this team two years ago, so we're going to make that happen.
So I feel like there's some juice there. The other thing I want to say: we, we, the Bucks, universe are going to make it happen. We, we are going to make it happen. The other thing is, how many wins did they have last year? Like twenty eight or something terrible.
There's one big difference that I'm going to tell you between last year and this year. There was a Bucks team that played without Giannis.
Okay, and now I know Portis has gone too and whatever. But there was like the Turners and Rollins and Trent and Porter and Sims. There were enough guys that played without Giannis. And remember that week they were like figuring it out, kind of. And then Giannis came back, and no one knew what to do.
They won. Ryan Rollins specifically completely changed his game. He went from confident, "I'm in control of this team. I'm going to be a future star, at least for this organization." To I don't know. I'll just get the ball to Giannis.
I'll have ten assists.
Now take two shots. What I'm saying is, I think it's going to be easier for the leftover Bucks, yeah, to assimilate with four guys coming over from the Heat. Which you might think it's our four, it's your four. Is this going to be easy? It's going to be easier than trying to assimilate to just one Giannis.
Yes.
So the on-court stuff should be better. The off-court vibes are already way better because Giannis is or became a gravity suck. He's an energy suck. The same thing I said about Rogers when he went to the Jets is you have a tremendous amount of energy that you didn't know you're going to have to spend on caring about what Aaron Rodgers is up to, and now Heat fans are going to go through that with Giannis. And they'll have Eric named to thank for the coverage.
And then we should say before we get into like the two teams who are largely more relevant right now. One in particular. Let's we should we should probably say what Giannis specifically called out: Brook Lopez, Chris Middleton, and Drew Holiday, three of his best. The the three the three that you will like be most regarded as being teammates with if you are Giannis it's like hey name three Giannis teammates unless he goes and wins two titles with Bam and Bam enters the discussion the answer is Ah Chris for sure and then Drew and Brook and he's like. You know this this heap culture thing is for real because fucking Brook Lopez, Drew Holiday, and Chris Middleton wouldn't come an hour early to practice.
That's heap culture. You came two hours late to the plane. It was I think it was more than two hours, wasn't it? And then and you got pissed at Miles Turner for like daring to tell people, "This is someone else's problem." It's great. It's it's this rebuilding thing.
It's going to be fun. They can win twenty eight thirty game. I hope it's thirty for Bart's five hundred dollars. But like, and it's going to be a more Enjoyable watch, which last night was. It was it was an enjoyable watch.
Win lose, it was like, oh, these people don't hate each other. I'll give you a quick analogy, and then we'll move on to Brewers. Bart, I don't remember if you were watching AEW already. Like, why are you bringing up AEW? I think it's a good comparison.
Early in the early in that time period, actually a month before the world shut down in 2020, Orange Cassidy was set to face off against R.I.P. Pac. Remember this? And the big, okay.
So what happened was at the time, even as an AEW fan, I don't remember Orange Cassidy set the face pack. I'll tell you why you'll remember why you might remember. It's the first off, it's the second most viewed clip of AEW's whole time, and it was when Orange Cassidy, who's the hands in the pockets guy, who doesn't really give a lot of. Grant, he's a wrestler who pretends he doesn't care about being a wrestler, but it's all part, but it's all part of the shtick to like lull. But it's never championship material.
He's a valued member.
So anyway, I don't know why you'd ever have a gimmick that prevents you from winning the title. A.
Well, that's not this gimmick. It's just that it's it's to lull you to sleep. Grand, it's to like, hey, I don't have to. You don't have to try hard against me, right? Because I'm not trying.
And then when I do try, anyway, the point is that before that match against Pac, Orange Cassidy's stablemates got a huge ovation because they said, and in this time. He's gonna try, and everyone's chanting, "He's gonna try, he's gonna try." This is the Bucks this year. With without Giannis, they're gonna try, and it's gonna be fun because they're going to try. They're not gonna just be in this like, okay, I guess my hands are in my pockets. I'm gonna give you these little light kicks to the shin.
No, like this is a team that they might not be very good. They might be a mid-card to opening card. You know, curtain jerking wrestler in my analogy, but they're gonna try, and it's gonna be a lot more fun to watch a trying losing team than a fucking like complacent annoying losing team. They're gonna lose. They would lose with the honest this year, like they did last year, or without him.
This will be more fun. I think Giannis also the twenty twenty six twenty seven bucks are Orange Cassidy circa twenty twenty. It's a great analogy for those who understand it, right? Because they're never going to win a championship. It is a really good analogy if you throw.
And hey, by the way, Orange Cassidy tried against Pack in in February of twenty twenty, and Orange Cassidy lost, but it was a lot of fun to watch. Yeah, I think they're going to suck. But but you and you won't and you won't. I Paul, I think I'm going to lose five hundred bucks. Black Friday is coming.
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So you are re you are well. First off, you haven't done it yet, so you can get out. But no, I can't. I have to do this. It's a verbal.
It's a verbal contract. I think Giannis with this like throwing Drew and Chris and these guys under the bus. Giannis, this is not that difficult. This is actually very simple. Giannis grew up in Milwaukee, high school.
Then he graduated high school. And then he stayed at the high school to be the assistant coach of the varsity team, and then he took over coaching the varsity team. He's been in this one place where he grew up for 13 years.
Now he's going to spread his wings, and he's going to a rival high school that they used to play in conference. And now, what are you going to do? You're going to say, "Yeah, my whole time back there in Fondulac, now that I'm at Oshkosh North." I never liked the dinners. I I never liked what was going on there. You know, he's just trying.
It's this is what Giannis is doing is so unoriginal and so unlike new. It's not new. It's not inspiring. It's not interesting at all. It's just what everybody does.
And it's Giannis. And let me say this about Giannis. Let me say something that I'm very upset about Giannis. I just mentioned Eric Name. Eric Name grew up in this state.
Eric Name, I believe, I don't know why he doesn't do this more, and he's probably going to get mad at me. He might be the biggest Brewer fan that I know. I'm serious, okay? And he's being ripped away from his favorite team during this run. I don't believe that.
Like, the reason Eric's in Miami is because Giannis is in Miami. Obviously, right? His employer decreed this.
Okay, we're right. If I'm Giannis, and I know that this guy's life just got uprooted for me. There's got to be something that I step in and do. If I'm, I'm just telling you, if I'm Giannis and I see this guy just moved, I take him aside and I say, "I know you're here because of me. Is this what you wanted, or is there something I can do?" Like, I would pay Eric a half a million dollars to.
Quit and go home and be at home, or more. You're not. You're not moving your life for me, is what I would say. But they'll never think that. And it really bothers me.
Is why I'm talking about it. I'm just thinking about that. Or Giannis should pay Eric Name a half mill. Yes, to go home so he can be with his Milwaukee Brewers. What other job or one could you think?
Where what happened to Eric would happen to you. Where it's not you that are making the move.
Well, I mean, it's it's it's being drafted into a professional sport. Yeah, Eric essentially got traded. Yeah, he did. If I was Giannis, I would try to run some PR for. Eric with Milwaukee people, you know what I mean.
Like he's getting cooked alive on the internet by everyone from Wisconsin. Like I don't know how.
So is so is Giannis. I don't know if Giannis can help. Let me say another thing. If let me say another thing. Bucks fans, primarily, they want a beat reporter.
All they want in their beat reporter is someone to what? Is to be on Twitter, Paul. Yes, know what you're gonna say? Yes, because Jim Ozarski's on Blue Sky, and it's free to log into Blue Sky, and Jim like responds to people and gives out information, but no one wants to go to Blue Sky to see that information, and no one's paying for the Journal Sentinel. Bucs fans also didn't like Eric because Eric never tweeted anything that he would save for his columns because the Athletics paying him and not Twitter.
The only time a lot of people read anything that Jim or Eric write is when it's screenshotted and then tweeted, and then we all react on one little parcel of the thing.
So now you got this one guy from CBS 58, just like he's at the game and he's tweeting a few things of what he sees because that's his job. And everyone's like, "Oh, you're the best Bucks beat reporter of all time." He's not a beat reporter. He's the guy that's not being sent out to cover the Padres-Brewer series.
Okay, he's just there at the time where you wanted coverage. And he's covering a preseason game, which we don't need coverage on. And if you do, Jim's got it for you. You just have to pay for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
So, I am going to side with the reporters in this in this one. You guys don't, and yet you don't pay for the Journal Sentinel. Uh oh. But I do pay for the Athletic. Why?
But I've never paid full price. Sure. What do you? Every year they do like athletic. What do you need there?
What do I need? I get I get like nine emails a morning about everything that's happened. I get all these great emails. Nothing in Wisconsin. I like to know I was a national host.
Okay, so that's yeah, that's a good point.
Now you're a now you're a global host. YouTube is global. Yeah, now I'm a global host.
So are you, Grant? You've got a thousand followers, by the way. Follow Grant on YouTube. Yes.
All right.
Now we've actually probably talked too much, Bucks. Like for sure. Without question, I'd be like Orange Man or Pac. I've been lulled to sleep or Orange Man. What was wrestler?
Orange Cassidy. Orange Cassidy. Yeah. All right.
All right.
Um. Grant, I'm going to borrow your phrase or or version of your phrase that I think we were texting about the other night. I saw it a day and a half later when I caught up on the game. You've been getting really crappy at responding. I needed something from you like two weeks ago, and you just never answered.
Oh my goodness, that's so bad.
Okay, sorry. During the NFL season, during the NFL season, and and all this, like now I'm just I just don't look at texts because. Did you watch? You don't need to tape Falcons Saints though, and watch it. I already, I done.
I was completed, but that's like, like I went to Raw last week and didn't watch any of Bears Eagles. I just thought to myself, I can miss this one. It's not a. I mean, I, I don't feel obligated. I have no reason to have to watch it.
I like watching it. You said that you completed it. That's not something that someone says if they're watching to enjoy it. I don't. I don't say, yeah, I completed the Brewer game tonight.
I say I watched it. I completed lanterns this weekend. Finally, I completed. I like your point, Grant, but I also that's how I feel about everything. I'm not the one dragging you for it, Bart.
I'm just. I'm checking. I'm. I want to finish the game.
Now I think in the fourth quarter I was like, okay, let's see if this gets any closer. And I'm like, okay, I can fast forward a little bit. Nope, it didn't get close. All right.
So, Grant, borrowing from your phrase that I read after the fact. We don't know how this brewer season is going to end, but it feels different this time. Or that something feels different this time. Or that's what I keep saying.
Okay. I keep saying I won't say the words, but now you've said two different things because you said it feels different. And then you also said we don't know how this Brewers season is going to end. We don't. Of course we don't.
I mean, of course we don't. We do. Oh, we do. We do. So it feels different, but it will.
Okay, it feels different, but it will end the same. I mean, I don't want to go down this path. Oh, it's not. It's not end the same. It feels different, and it will be different.
Hmm. Or hmm. I think so, Grant. Holy, holy shit! All right.
I mean, holy cow, YouTube. I think it's different. I think it feels it feels different because it feels different. That's why it feels different. Like we talking like parade chairs?
Yeah. Are we talking like Lafleur is bad? Like that level of confidence? No.
Okay, but close. We're approaching that. Why does it feel different then? You. Why do I have tears in my eyes right now?
You do have tears. I see it.
Something feels different. It it does, it does. But why? What's different? Two improbable endings consecutive.
It felt different before that. I mean, 103 wins will do that. I don't know. First of all, they're winning tonight. They're winning tonight, three nothing, four one.
Better get out. Better get out of San Diego then quickly. Is that a, is that a current events quip? It is. Yeah, the two cities he mentions are like that's our playoff path.
Shit, be great. Who's stopping you? Um, not me. No, it's a horrible thing to say. It just feels different.
It does.
So what happens when it feels different, and then it's not different? I'm ready to get hurt again. But I'm like, what feels different is because it just can't actually happen, you know? Them winning, yeah. That just cannot actually happen.
That's why I always say it'll never happen. It just cannot happen. Like it's improbable that it will happen. But I think back to 28 when I thought it might happen. 28 what?
Or 18?
Okay, sorry. But that didn't feel anything like this. It didn't. No, I agree.
So, but that was the Rockies. Yes.
And then the Dodgers. There wasn't another team. Yeah, that that was it, right? Rockies, then Dodgers. And I went to you with the game with you, and I felt I took a nap.
Took a nap. You're tired. I almost fell asleep on Sunday too, because I've been napping like every day. Different reason this time, though, right? Yeah, but I was like the third inning, and my brother was over, and I'm like, I don't.
I'm not. I have to sleep. Just wake me up in the six. I think that 2018 playoff game was the reason behind the biggest fight on air you and Chuck ever had, which is some, which is saying something. Um, I never fell asleep on Sunday.
I did get my second win.
So it feels.
So why? Why? What feels different, Grant? I think it is different, but I don't know if it feels different. Those are.
See, I'm. I'm coming out of. Whoa! What? The team's better.
The team is better than last year. They're significantly better at a lot of things. Maybe it's maybe it's a simple baseball thing. Like maybe in the past, Braun and Fielder get us to the playoffs. Go one for thirty.
Yeah. Christian Yelich gets us to the playoffs. Can't hit an RBI. Yeah. That ninth inning, what they did against Mason Miller, like the pitches they did not take.
I mean, well, Frelich stealing signs. Good. We're watching as intently. We're watching as intently. Gary Sanchez's at bat as like I've never, and I'm.
I would bet my life that he is swinging on an inside pitch. Inside slider's gonna get him. That's how this at bat's ending. That's how we lose this game. He gets on base.
And Churio comes up not one month after you knew he was hitting a home run when he had the opportunity. Did you see his quote? By the way, he said, "Like his rookie year, he was the last at bat in Seattle, and he says this is never going to happen again. I will never be the last at bat in a game again." Wow! And he comes up with that mentality.
He doesn't come up even with the mentality of "I can do this." Or even I will do this, but I've already done this. It's just a matter of now. Just everyone else has to see it. I've already had the game-winning hit.
Now everyone else just has to see it. That's what Freilich said. He's getting a hit. I just need to make sure I get home. Yes, but that's that's what he's become.
So now to have a guy like that and have that at bat, and as great as Saturday was. Where I was assured by Adam Amin that we would lose that game because it would be a home run, I was assured of it, and I thought, "Oh, what another dumb way to lose a game? Only in Wisconsin, right?" Here comes the list. I'm not even like thinking of that game anymore because of how insane the Sunday finish was. Yeah.
And and another thing that's different is we get to enjoy those two things for what they are, and not have to battle with the Cubs peripheralness of it the entire time either. Yep, sure. We just got to stay and celebrate our thing without being told that we celebrated it wrong. It feels different. Is my cop out way.
To say, I think I can't. I can't even. I can't. I can't. Don't say it then.
I can't. One thing that's different that I noticed. I talked about this a lot coming after the Dodgers series. We might have discussed this, where like when every other comment from Pat Murphy is, "We're not as good as them, and they're better than us, and we're just the low." Like I know that's that's a motivational tactic the coaches use, but I think at a certain point when you say it enough, your team starts to. You know, even subconsciously buying into that a little bit, and I think that hurt them against the Dodgers.
So coming out of that series, I'm like, how do you keep the underdog Brewers thing, but also raise internally your expectation? It's like we ex we expect to beat the Dodgers. You know what I mean? Like, but how how do you keep your Brewers? And I think they've done that.
Like, if you've read comments from any of the players, like Joey Ortiz. Saying we expect to go on a run and win a World Series, Aaron Ashby told Kurt, "Like, yeah, the only thing that's beating us is if we get injured, if we lose guys to injury, like." And Pat Murphy's talked about it too. Like that—that's a big step from last year to this year. I don't know if that results in anything different, but that is a big difference in the team and and what I've heard and seen from them in the last calendar year.
So that's a real thing to me. If they, I. I'm hesitant to ask this, but I'm just too curious on the response that I do have to go there. Like how sometimes Paul treats like like we're on a fucking like civil trial or like we're in front of the Supreme Court. It's a military absolutely.
What what could you possibly be loading up to ask us? I don't I don't believe in jinxes, so it's fine with me. Others might take might take offense if they go to the World Series. Regardless of the outcome, so they go to World Series and lose.
Okay, let's just play it out. Bart, Grant, we should celebrate that thing the same way. It's been like that. This that team should still be celebrated in perpetuity forever. The same way that some people mock Bart, like in the '80s with that Brewers team.
Like this, this should be celebrated. Regardless, at this like we've no, no, no. I think the word you're looking for is. There he is, the Brewers 1982 World Series losing a three two lead. By the way, no one ever talks about that.
That should not be celebrated the way that it is, comma. But. I understand why people have not been able to let go. Because if it happens, like you will feel like at this point, going a whole forty, you know, four decades of not sniffing that, and then just getting there feels like a win. It will.
I mean, it would feel.
Well, it's it's a win of it's the same way I celebrate two thousand and eight. Yeah, because that was the first time they made the playoffs in my life. That's crazy. Still, still crazy to say.
So now you know what I'm thinking about a lot. Paul is like my kid and our kids.
So, what's happening with the Brewers? And it really sucks that there's going to be a strike in the middle of all this. A, but what's happening with the Brewers is and a plague. And a plague. I'm over the plague.
I'm not. I was for a day.
Now I'm good. This like that weekend was like when Favre hit Sterling Sharp in the Silver Dome. Silver Dome. Yeah, yeah. Like we are witness.
They're Brewers, and that's another thing I said about Boomers. Is like, imagine if during this run. We just kept finding every Brewer fan we could that was younger and been like, "Oh yeah, Grant, you didn't live through the '90s Brewers, though." I mean, why would I be doing that now? Yeah, that's what they did. The oh, you you like this 11 win season?
You should have lived through the '70s. Maybe you should have not let the '70s happen, guy. Same way you're letting Lafleur happen. God, that was the worst game of all time, and we all knew it was going to be, and it still was. We knew exactly how the game would be, and it still was.
And we can get there in a second, but regarding the Brewers, it's just crazy that I waited 24 years for a playoff appearance, yeah, to lose a playoff series. And these kids are just casually watching the greatest Brewers team of all time at the age of seven. Yeah, that's true. But then you've got some people that are like seventy, and they're like, "Like, I can't believe this." I mean, like, I was a kid when the Braves won a World Series at seven. We lost a team.
I never thought we'd get a team again. Then we got one. They were horrible. They had one good year. And now they're this.
You can see why Red Sox fans in the early 2000s and Cubs fans in 2016 were like, you know, people who are in their 70s and 80s are like, okay, it happened. I fuck, I might die if they win. I might give out. Grant, you answered the original question, I believe, in the sense that you said it. It doesn't feel different, but you do believe it is different.
Is that it? Right. You're going with that. It doesn't necessarily feel different, but you do think it's different. I, I, I feel the same as every year, where it's like, yeah, it could happen, but it's going to be an uphill battle, and they're going to need some things to go their way, and the Dodgers are really good, and yeah, but but there are parts of this team that's different.
The the overall prospect of them winning a World Series doesn't feel that much different to me. I might feel a little bit differently about the team. I'm walking around in circles here, but then again, it's a circular question, Paul.
So I don't know. Yeah, it is. But then again, you said they need things to go their way. Of course, things went their way so far. Sure, definitively.
Two games into a best of five that will proceed to best of sevens if they're going to, you know, go all the way. That's like I really—if they somehow lose this series. I don't know what I will become. Hey, hey! This happened last year against a much bigger a much bigger rival.
They were up too much. A much remember that happened, and we went through that. I I watched Game Five. I was a disaster. I was melting down.
I I know. I watched eight and a half innings of Game Five.
So yeah. Yeah, yeah. We celebrated. Oh no, the Brewers would have been the home.
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If they win the the NL pennant, that's you. Celebrate that. You just celebrate at the appropriate amount. You don't you don't all you don't celebrate them like a champion. You celebrate them as a team that won an NL pennant, which is a thing.
It's just not the thing.
Well, so do you so do you invite the twenty sixteen World Series losing Brewers back in twenty five years to celebrate? Grant or Yeah, but I wouldn't frame it that way. I'd frame the 2026 National League champion. Of course, I mean I'm I'm being intentionally dismissive. Here's here's something to so so basically that we're we're seeing what we're seeing what the 82 what fans of you know the guys of our age in the 1982 team like you know what I know they lost.
I know they were up in the series. I know they were, but like this is going to the World Series and losing. Is a bigger accomplishment than going to the finals and losing, or the Super Bowl and losing. I was gonna if you didn't, if you didn't say, I was going to. Why?
I think it's because we in the past it made sense because the leagues never played. You won your thing. If the Bucks had lost to the Suns, I would not feel like we got. They had Giannis. I, but I, I would have said, oh, that was a that was a failure.
Like. The '97 Super Bowl, we don't even talk about it. Why would yeah that they were a major favorite and lost, right? And that whole year is a waste because of yeah. I bet even Leroy and others would agree.
But if they if they actually make a World Series, I mean, just enormous. Yes, but they've done it before. Not in our lifetimes. Not in a long time. And there's enough of a gap.
We're like same with the Bucks. It's like all of a sudden they print these two time world champion shirts, and everyone's like, "When was the other time?" Yeah. Oh, they won like their third year in the league. No big deal. Our parents were kids, right?
Forty years. Yeah, your parents saw this.
Okay, Brewers, good stuff. Packers. Quick aside. We're brought to you by Happy Place Hemp. Quick aside.
The gummies I took today were not hemp gummies. I did. Did you hear the the the tough news? The gummy of the day award, which has been going to Happy Place Hemp for twelve hundred straight days, they did not get that award on Sunday or Monday or today. That award goes to Miralax.
As I am, I've been constipated for a week. And I've been talking about it on these shows. And yesterday, I'm happy to report on Monday, I felt like they worked, and I got through it. I'm even happier to report that today, I'm definitely officially no longer constipated. Boy, and and so thank you to the Miralax gummies.
No promo code on that, but the promo code at Happy Place M stays the same. Bart. When you go to check out, we're also brought to you by Carl's Place. That was the other thing. If I couldn't use the Miralax gummies, I was going to shove a golf club up my ass.
So thankfully, I don't have to do that. The simulator would be like that's all in one, but not the kind that we sell. Yeah, the simulator would have self destructed because at Carl's Place. Tommy and I went there, and we did the video. They they have the things that you can also get.
It's not just hitting a ball into a thing. You can like take video of your club and see the how you are doing it. I would have placed my butt in front of the video. You know what you said when you finally became unconstitipated? What?
Same thing they said in Billy Madison. You did poop again. Because there must have been multiple days of being backed up.
Okay, it was a week. Holy cow! Holy cow! That's bad. And my stomach, when it bloats, it actually gets bigger.
That makes sense. But it's like visible. Your gut. You would look at me and say, "Oh, you gained five pounds." That's probably normal if you're a week of constipation. Yeah.
All right, from the Brewers and optimism. Tim, can you actually cut out that part and then insert it into every podcast we've already ever done? I really was fond of those three minutes. Tim and I might go out to Miller Park tonight and broadcast live if they're winning big. To where?
From where I said, I said it. I'm just kidding. You're such a child. From the optimism of the Brewers to the pessimism, pessimism of the ain't no Brewers team having a World Series game at American Family Field. Grant, sure.
Are you ready? Are you ready? And the tooth fairy exists, Bart. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, that's how the world works.
No, there's actually multiple of them. Are you ready? I was doing DX. I know what you're doing. Break it down.
All right, the Packers. Packers. Without Packers, are objectively the worst. Ibo a couple weeks ago. I got a kick out of that.
Sorry, Paul. I did. Yeah, I did. The Packers are objectively the worst. Orvin and I still always do it too.
The Packers are objectively the worst team in the NFC North. Or the Packers.
Now notice how he picked up his pace there. Yes, I just sneaked in. I was done. I was done trying to. The Packers.
Fuck! It sucks talking to that friend too, who's like a like a chronic interrupter, and you feel like when you're telling them something, you need to. I got a speed run this. That's what just happened. The Packers are objectively the worst team in the NFC North.
Mm hmm. Or mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. They're terrible.
I think it's objectively. Mm hmm. They. Can I say they? They would have lost on Sunday had they played any average backup quarterback.
Yeah. Like if they're playing Jameis or Tommy DeVito or Ooh DeVito Tyson Baygent or like they only won that game. Because of the backup, the limited backup they were playing, we all agree on that, right? Like they're zero and four, they're an zero and four team. They played a Jets team that was trying to lose harder than us, and they played a Tampa Bay team that, the same, I guess.
I mean, yeah, they the two wins they have are not good wins. They are wins, but it's just it's not. I think in a normal year. Um, you're thinking, all right.
Well, at least we got the two wins. This isn't a normal year. Edger and Cooper going down does not does not change my outlook on the 2026 Packers because your outlook was already it's bad, bad, and now it's just worse. And so, what's happening is a change.
Well, what's happening is they are. A bad team already because of their coach, who the Ty Dunn article. What have you tried to get Ty on? By the way, I haven't asked him. Tomorrow, we're only we're don't you we have a schedule right now.
We have Monday, Carlos. Tuesday, you guys. Wednesday's the interview. We're talking to Billy. We're talking to Billy tomorrow.
Billy Schmidt's coming back on tomorrow. Yeah. Sweet. Talk Brewers and their big announcement. They're now going to be up against Grant.
Oh, for an hour a day. Better not plug the show then for only yeah for only one hour, I guess. Why are all these stations just one station? I don't know. Why are there nine stations with the with the programming schedule for three?
I don't know. Why has everybody got to run a syndicated show? And I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
You're asking good questions. I know. Thank you. But I'll talk to him. Ty, I will talk to at some point.
I did message Ty. What did I? What did I tell him? Look at me telling about all these people I'm talking to. Ty, Matt in the Falls.
Name dropper. I think. Oh, I all I said to Ty was, "I love you." He said, "Thanks." If Mad the Falls had a Substack, I'd read it. I'd read everything he wrote and posted there. It would be, oh yeah, we got to get going.
Nope, that's not what I told Ty. I said, "God, I love you." He said, "Thanks for sharing, brother." There's a lot to this guy. Lafleur is everything I thought he was. And then, did you see that guy who posted that went to the game and like specifically went to watch Lafleur? No, he watched Lafleur.
Basically, not talk to anyone that entire game. I did see that. I didn't know that was. I didn't know that was his objective going in. What are we?
What? What about this guy? Is so. Captivating that we have to give it away for him. I think everybody.
Why this guy? Yeah, who are you talking to? You went from the minority. You did go that you were you were a minority opinion. You are no longer that.
You are now the central leading character on.
So you you have no one left to convince. I think. Other than the one person who matters. A lot of people still. Will blame everything else except Lafleur.
Like they look at the Packers, and they think the offensive line's a problem, Goody's a problem, Love's a problem, defense is a problem, Gannon's a problem, policy's a problem. But Matt Lafleur is not a problem. This is a real person that exists. Is this an your straw man? Many, honestly, these people talk to me, and they're not straw.
They talk to me. Yeah, boys. My favorite thing to do is that song, country. I hear voices in my head. They talk to me.
They understand. They talk to me. They talk to me. Yeah. They tell me all.
Okay. Sounds like a song I'd like more than the first one. It's Randy Orton's theme song. Oh, we should country it up. I hear voices, and you can do it slower.
Like she left you. Like I hear voices. I hear your voices in my head. You talk to me. You understand.
You talk to me. It's a Randy Travis song. You talk to me, Randy. Randy Travis, the legend killer. Fifty-yard line, broken down, dog in a beer truck, handsome guy, Celine.
You talk to me. You talk to me. Although the most country-like, stereotypical country song ever is the best one. That's my kids, and that's my car. That's my dog in my front yard.
There's that window to the world where she lays her pretty head. I've never heard that in my life. Honestly, and that's my kids, or that's. My tree out by the fence, planted not long after we first moved in. We moved in.
Who is it? There's our kids, and that's my wife. Who's that man running my life? Paul, when you asked, are the Packers the worst team in the division? Who?
I'm sorry. Yeah, who's supposed to be worse? No, it's the Lions. They lost to the Panthers. The Lions are defensively last in the NFL in points.
They went against Bryce Young, MVP candidate Bryce Young. It's by the way, we all agree, it's unanimous.
Okay, the Packers are objectively the worst team, so I'm not disagreeing. The counterpoint would be, and I wrote some of them down.
Okay. The Lions are the worst team in the NFL defensively in both yards allowed and points allowed. They've given up thirty plus three times in a row now. The Lions have. They, I mean, yes, Bryce Young looked like a super duper star against the Lions, but okay.
Lions defense stinks. They're so bad on defense. The Packers might be able to score on them. The the four the four and O Vikings obviously a superior team to the Packers right now. I'm not arguing otherwise, but they have gone 18 straight possessions without a touchdown offensively.
So you have a Lions. Packers feel like they're close to that. I but they haven't actually. You got to okay, but then you the Devil's advocate. Yeah, but they're not like they are actually getting in the end zone.
So on one end. The team with the same record, Detroit, has the league's worst defense. On the top of the division, you're looking up, and you're saying that's a team that cannot literally score a touchdown in 18 straight drives.
Now they're winning anyway; they deserve all their credit in the world. Yes, the Packers are objectively the worst team in the NFC North, but I don't think it's like if you asked, you know, 100 NFL fans across the country, I don't think it's 100 to zero to zero. He says. Really, I mean, what do you think? Like the national consensus is on percentage of like is ninety out of a hundred people would tell you that an average NFL fan who the worst team in the NFC North is.
Yeah, I mean, like you think it's ninety percent say Packers? Yes, higher. Nobody likes Jordan Love. How is any of this a Jordan Love problem? Exactly.
At least the quarterback of the team. Oh, I see what you're asking. Imagine explaining to someone who doesn't know any history of the NFL and has just watched this first month that actually the Vikings' head coach and the mastermind who's running the whole thing is the offensive guy, and the defensive guy is the hired gun that can't get a head job anywhere else. Like, how is that?
Well, that he's had a head job, didn't go too well. He's the only one ever. You know, he took two into the. Didn't wasn't he good with Tua? He was winning with Tua, wasn't he?
He had Tua. I don't know if they won, but he'll clearly get another head coaching job after this. I mean, if he hasn't, why would he? If he hasn't already, why would he? If you want to fire Lafleur, who would you hire?
There's your answer. The answer is the Sunday Night Football analyst. Your boy, your Minecraft buddy. Oh, Tomlin's Tomlin's never going to go back to coaching. Never.
Tomlin shouldn't. Tomlin. Tomlin's good at what he's doing, so he's good. And Sean Payton, I like Sean Payton on TV, even though I hate his guts. He was good on TV, but now he's a coach, and I hate his guts again.
It took Brady two years to be good on TV.
Sorry, go ahead. Who? No, it took Brady two years to be good. Tomlin in a week. I don't even think he really knows what he's doing yet, and he's just awesome at it, just like that.
I have a lot more to say on JJ Watt, Jim Nantz. That has to end immediately. Yeah, there's it doesn't have there's no chemistry. Has it been bad? Yes.
Sorry, I've been watching. I'm I'm on the vent the. Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma pack because my team sucks balls.
So, don't you mean the Packers? Yeah. Did you hear the guy in the Badger game?
Some guy in the Badger game goes, "All this crowd, you know, you give him a winner, and they're really gonna turn up here at Beaver Stadium." Oh yeah.
Well, Madison has a lot of beavers. Yeah. Beaver capital. By the way, I know what you are saying, though, Grant. The first thing I thought, and you, you'll.
You guys know me. You'll know this was my first thought. You'll know I am telling the truth. Three minutes into the Packers game this past Sunday, my first thought was, "Fuck, they really do suck." Look at this announcing crew. It's not a joke, like, yeah.
The the Packers, by the way, the Packers on their touchdown drive in the first half just just refreshing your memory just for a sec the the touchdown drive they finally felt like getting blood from a stone. And I'm I'm pulling up the play-by-play here.
Sorry, I didn't have this in front of me, Ryan Russillo style. Their touchdown drive in the first quarter of the Buccaneers game went 16 plays, 68 yards. They converted four fourth downs and took two timeouts. That's what it took for them to get in the end zone on Sunday, and and a penalty in the end zone to give them. They I think they ran six goal to go goal to go plays.
Six. They they they went 16 plays. And the drive started on the thirty-six. It's not like they were even backed up. This team sucks, dude.
This what does Sunday ass? What does Sunday look like if the Brewer game would have been at noon and the Packer game was at three? What does that look like? Because that Packer game, everyone was just like, whatever, fine, okay, sure, all right, Brewers, and then Sunday night felt like a Friday night. Because you just didn't know what time it was.
A got weirdly dark. Weird, everything was just weird Sunday night. Because it was great. But what happens if the Brewers played first, and then you have to watch that Packer game? Ugh, they're gonna lose to Chicago to Tyson Beighton.
Yes, they're home. They'll probably win. Tyson Beighton.
Well, that's the that's the thing. Look at I have two examples on my show rundown tonight. That remember the Falcons went zero and two, and then the whole football. TV and and and analyst world like started to treat their three upcoming national TV games like it was some emergency. Don't you love when this happens?
On this Falcons team, they have three national TV games coming up. What are you going to do? They look awesome. Just like you know, yeah, great. Or the Patriots.
You think they're cooked and they're dead, and then they roll into Buffalo as you know touchdown dogs, and they stick it to Josh Allen.
Now the problem is, is I think those teams are good. I I don't think the Packers are good, and the Falcons got right in one of those games against the Packers. Also, the NFL, this is going to happen. You will have teams play really bad one week and really good the next week. But the Packers, nobody, the Packers, the Packers.
The Packers are going to play the same fucking game every fucking week. That was the same. That was my lead take on the Packers yesterday. Was Sunday was the same game I've watched for, and they're only going to win if you're bad enough to lose to that, which some teams will be. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the New York Jets were barely, by the way, barely in both counts.
Let's end on this: who's the best team in the division? Chicagoers. Who would you take the win of the division? Chicago Bears. I probably still take Detroit.
Whoa, they're. I mean, okay. They're. I mean, look. You want to get yourself scared off that take?
Go look at their defensive staff. It's brutal. I've been watching a team with a bad defense and good offense for fifteen years, and they win divisions all the time. I don't. I don't know.
Do you guys see this tweet about last night's game? It says there's no rivalry in American sports like Saints Falcons because there's it's the only one that really captures the 20th century spirit of poor countries going to war over nothing. At least I'm arguing about ethical teams in the NFC North. Imagine if we were NFC South fans and Paul is like, the. The you know the Falcons are the better team over the Panthers.
The Buccaneers are the worst team in the division, and we all have to be like, oh God, I don't even care. It doesn't matter, I guess. And then you're already in SEC country, which is all college, college, college. And then the four NFL teams are like the dumbest, you most XFL branded kind of teams. Yeah, we're gonna be the New Orleans Saints.
We're gonna be the Buccaneers and play in front of a pirate ship. That's. I still think that's pretty cool. I'm into. I think it fits.
I think it fits. I'd live in Tampa. You know, if I was an athlete, it'd be a good spot. No, no income tax. I love it when sports radio hosts always bring that up, as if that's ever something that's entered my mind.
Yeah, I gotta keep more of the the mounds of money that I'm making. But yes, boys, good to see you. Enjoy the game tonight. Nice to see you both as well. Get some rest tomorrow night, cause we'll be moving on.
I do feel good about tonight. If they lose tonight, though, then they're going to lose tomorrow. Yeah. Fair.
Okay. Good bullpen day. I thought you were. I thought you were trying to wrap. I am.
Oh, okay. I had to pick up my kid. The Packers. All right, thanks for stopping into the Winklerverse. At Edward Jones, we believe rich means opening yourself to new possibilities.
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