Why All The Hatin' On Caitlin? The WNBA Has Issues

[00:00:00] You know we're doing what we love, we're trying the best every single day and you know we're not perfect.

[00:00:07] We're humans, words hurt.

[00:00:09] The following is a presentation of Hobson Media.

[00:00:13] It's not just another day, it's two days.

[00:00:21] This is the Church Pew Sports podcast featuring a group of pastors delivering bombastic takes

[00:00:27] on sports, life and faith.

[00:00:29] They like to drink their hate or hate and eat their hate or toss.

[00:00:32] Take a knee.

[00:00:33] You know, Barricu back there, it did it, bite me, hurt my feelings.

[00:00:39] Lendon ear.

[00:00:40] These are some of the best questions I can't have to tell you that straight up.

[00:00:43] What is that special?

[00:00:45] As the Church Pew Sports podcast begins.

[00:00:48] It's funny how one man's terrible is another man's pure joy.

[00:00:50] And man next to you somebody that gets to heaven.

[00:00:53] Two days.

[00:00:54] We got tomorrow.

[00:00:56] We got now.

[00:00:57] And with that we welcome you in to another episode of Church Pew Sports, Great To Have You With Us.

[00:01:03] Thanks for subscribing and listening and sharing the link with other sports fans in your

[00:01:09] world.

[00:01:10] And as we connect tonight for this conversation, it's tonight for us.

[00:01:14] It may be daytime when you're listening.

[00:01:16] But I'm joined by Paul Miller.

[00:01:19] First of all, let me back up Bill Hobson here.

[00:01:21] I'm joined by Paul Miller.

[00:01:23] He and I have co-hosted, I think every episode of Church Pew Sports that we've ever done.

[00:01:28] Maybe there's been one solo run in there somewhere.

[00:01:31] But Paul, at the outset tonight, I have to give you a little quiz, little pop quiz.

[00:01:36] Do you know how many episodes of this podcast tonight makes what number this is?

[00:01:44] I don't because you stopped putting a little ticker in the corner of the graphic and so I've lost it.

[00:01:50] But I'm going to guess 150.

[00:01:56] This is episode number 150, which is absolutely mind blowing to me.

[00:02:02] And it's kind of a cool milestone, right?

[00:02:05] So congratulations to us.

[00:02:07] You know, make a cake put a candle on it.

[00:02:09] We'll just blow the candle up.

[00:02:11] Yeah, it's been really fun for me.

[00:02:13] This new kind of season of the podcast only because with my shift in roles from being a local

[00:02:20] church pastor into working for this denomination for the EFCA,

[00:02:25] I've met all these guys who are, you know, they're from all over the country and they're very, very interested.

[00:02:32] So we're going to have to be selective about who we invite to guest on the show

[00:02:37] and who we bring in to those conversations.

[00:02:41] But that's going to make it really fun for me.

[00:02:43] I do have to say.

[00:02:44] Well, it's fun for all of us.

[00:02:45] And one of the cool things is that when we started out this whole endeavor,

[00:02:50] a couple of years ago, one of our goals was to connect sports to life and faith.

[00:02:55] And to hopefully encourage some people who might feel like they're on the fringe or somehow excluded from conversations like this

[00:03:04] or perhaps have never thought about the various tentacles that stretch from the athletic arena over into the rest of life.

[00:03:12] But there are so many things that they really do and it's been a blast to continue telling those stories

[00:03:18] and trying to make those connections.

[00:03:20] In fact, our primary starting point tonight is a right, right out of the headlines.

[00:03:27] The title of the episode is why all the hate and for Caitlin.

[00:03:33] So we take you all now to the world of the WNBA and we have, for whatever,

[00:03:40] you think about that league and whatever you think about the personalities in it.

[00:03:45] And one young lady who is a needle mover for that league, for the television ratings associated with that league and for everything that's transpiring from a popularity and ticket sales standpoint.

[00:03:59] Right, that's Caitlin Clark, the all time leading score from Iowa, who of course was drafted to the Indiana team.

[00:04:08] And I don't know Paul, I think the most accurate way to describe what her early experience has been like as a WNBA rookie has been on the receiving end of a nonstop physical assault.

[00:04:24] The course, is that how you see it?

[00:04:27] Yeah, I guess it kind of depends on who you talk to because there are some people that are like, oh, this is just welcome to the bigger league and it's a bigger on now

[00:04:36] and so you're not such a big fish and it's just kind of, this is the normal treatment.

[00:04:40] And then there are people that are like, yeah, it's beyond the normal treatment and it's she's getting targeted and it's interesting, the wide variety of responses in the media.

[00:04:51] Who you talk to and everything else? I have to confess that I don't watch the NBA unless Caitlin Clark's team is playing and I don't know if that makes me a typical women's basketball.

[00:05:04] Semifan or whatever, but I don't know how else to say that other than the games are interesting if she's out on the court because I'm waiting to see what's going to happen next.

[00:05:16] Well, the ticket sales bear that out. So you look at what the ticket sales for the WNBA were and then what they are.

[00:05:22] I mean, they're now playing in front of 17 to 20,000 people in arenas where she's present and they continue to play in front of two to three thousand in arenas where she is not so it's hard to deny the empirical evidence that she's making quite a difference.

[00:05:38] And yet there are some of those players who are jealous of her and are making their jealousy known as kind of a petty world it seems like here's probably the most flamboyant in her opinion.

[00:05:53] Angel Reese talking about these early days with with Caitlin Clark.

[00:05:58] Yeah, negative things have probably been said about me but honestly I'll take that because look where women's basketball is people are talking about women's basketball.

[00:06:06] She never would think we talk about women's basketball people are pulling up to games because celebrities come into games sold out arenas like just because of one single game and just looking at that like I'll take that role.

[00:06:16] I'll take the bad guy role and I'll continue to take that all and be that for my teammates and if I want to be that and I know I'll go down to history.

[00:06:22] I'll look back in 20 years and be like yeah, the reason why we watch anyone is basketball is not just because of one person is because of me too and I want you to realize that.

[00:06:31] Well, yeah, that can't be confusing.

[00:06:35] She said it was about one game I'm thinking she was probably referring to when her.

[00:06:41] I'll keep you going up against Caitlin Clark waiting for Iowa in the NCAA tournament.

[00:06:46] They had their little kind of taunting run-ins and stuff like that but then she comes back and says it's not about one person.

[00:06:53] But then she acknowledges that she's taking on the villain role kind of going at that one person.

[00:06:59] And it again just a couple days ago, a very hard dead ball cheap shot follow was committed against Caitlin by one of Angel's teammates.

[00:07:10] And Angel leapt up off the bench and during a timeout ran out to congratulate her teammate who did nothing to score did nothing else regarding the team competition.

[00:07:24] She just he's she had knocked over Caitlin.

[00:07:26] Yeah, so it's kind of a strange it's a strange world and I say all that because you can certainly feel free to dislike an opponent.

[00:07:37] Caitlin's not an angel. She's she's a talker. She's going to she's got some salty language to her as well.

[00:07:46] But to go out and say that people are watching the game, not just because of her well, miss Reese.

[00:07:54] The empirical data is in and in games where your team is playing another opponent.

[00:08:00] The rain nobody watching to pay attention except for probably ESPN.

[00:08:04] Yeah, if like I said if I'm typical, I know Caitlin Clark's name.

[00:08:09] I know Angel Reese's name because of Caitlin Clark.

[00:08:13] Yeah, I did not know as a Kennedy Kennedy Carter with through the cheap shot.

[00:08:19] I didn't know her name until she showed up in on ESPN for cheap shot in Caitlin Clark.

[00:08:26] So what's the common denominator there, right? And so it is.

[00:08:29] It's kind of it is what it is and it's what makes it hard is of course the media and players want to turn it into a racial thing.

[00:08:41] And a conversation about you know she's there's white privilege playing itself out here and you hear that narrative getting spun by some people all in yet Bob costus.

[00:08:50] I don't know if you caught that Bob costus was on CNN and he came straight up and said this there wouldn't be this outrage if it wasn't a black player doing that to a white player like he called it out and offended some of the CNN.

[00:09:08] And it was a conversation that they had.

[00:09:13] I don't know man there is this part of me that wishes we could just not inject the race card into the conversation and just talk about it.

[00:09:23] And it's merits as a basketball thing or non thing story or non story but it's like impossible to do that.

[00:09:30] Let's let's take it over to to the NBA let's back up 30 years and let's bring in Michael Jordan to the discussion.

[00:09:39] Here comes the flamboyant rookie who just in the in the era just after magic and bird and a little bit of Isaiah when the league kind of had an injection of enthusiasm here comes this kid out in North Carolina and there was some jealousy.

[00:09:59] We can look back at his rookie all star game when Isaiah led the freeze out and made sure that Michael never got the ball.

[00:10:05] Isaiah wouldn't do that he's just he just got such an adorable smile doesn't he?

[00:10:11] But the more that all of those players started to realize that Jordan was responsible for the rising tide that lifts all the boats in the lake.

[00:10:26] They may not have still liked him but they certainly developed a respect for the impact he made in their personal lives right so they are personally becoming more rich.

[00:10:38] Their popularity their notoriety is expanded because the league has exploded with this new superstar coming into it so let's take it back to the WNBA.

[00:10:50] The players now go from flying commercial it'll middle seat delta flight to somehow the league magically has come up with enough money for all these teams to fly private or fly charter.

[00:11:02] That only happened because their new superstar came out and said you know it's ridiculous for us to be flying commercial she hadn't made a basket yet as a professional and the league said okay you're right we're going to do that for everybody it's not like it's just her getting a private jet flight.

[00:11:18] And the salaries have increased the other benefits have increased.

[00:11:23] I'm I would like to think that at some point if somebody in my circle.

[00:11:28] If if Paul Miller came in and said hey listen, I'm going to bring to the table the following for church Pew sports and you're going to love it.

[00:11:36] I mean it's going to be we're going to have a full producer staff you don't have to drive yourself anymore we're going to make sure that we've got a hundred thousand downloads because of my.

[00:11:47] I would be doing whatever I could to thank to show gratitude and to help and to encourage Paul the last thing I would want to be doing is undercutting him literally in the case of Caitlin like trying to injure you so it just doesn't make sense to me.

[00:12:03] These players now have have turned a corner of illogical thought to where they have now begun to demand not request but demand the same percentage of revenue in their salaries.

[00:12:22] That NBA players receive there they're demanding what they're calling fair pay they want the same percentage of revenues that the NBA players get.

[00:12:34] Like Megan Rpino all over again and so why don't you spell the problem with that logic before I play the sound bite that really puts the math to it.

[00:12:43] Well I don't know the math I'm interested to hear the sound bite but what the whole point being.

[00:12:48] Hey if you want a percentage of the profits from your product that you're a part of then careful what you ask for right like in the case of the US women's national soccer team.

[00:12:59] They would want they would they ask for an A actually ended up getting you know equal pet equal revenue share or equal pay with the men's team and everything else despite the fact that men's soccer.

[00:13:11] Was exponentially more lucrative and supported financially than women's and everything else so I'm guessing that there's kind of an equivalent journey for WNBA players I don't think that league had a whole bunch of eyeballs on it.

[00:13:30] Let's break down the math here because there are a couple guys on Instagram who did exactly that says we're not asking to get paid with the men get paid we're asking to get paid the same percentage of revenue shared.

[00:13:42] Okay, which seems fair we did a little bit of research on this there's 12 players on a team there's 12 total teams so 144 total players the WNBA league loses 12 million dollars a year.

[00:13:56] So if you divide 12 million by the 144 players each player owes 83 thousand dollars thanks for playing so you guys want to say red share you're going to have to write a check for pretty much all the money you made.

[00:14:14] I'm guessing that that's not what they had mine so you know our main topic why all the hate and on Caitlin I still don't know.

[00:14:24] And I know that it would be better for all if we were not injecting the race component in the conversation but having a hard time getting away from that because I haven't seen.

[00:14:41] Well, it's the best way to say this I've only seen out right acts of hostility against this rookie.

[00:14:49] By African American players I haven't now that may be simply because that's all that makes the highlights I don't know if that's accurate or not but it looks that way.

[00:15:00] Yeah, you know I saw some somewhere I saw stats comparing Kennedy Carter's stat lines averages with.

[00:15:10] Caitlin Clarks and it's like you can you can talk all you want but if you're not as good a players or.

[00:15:16] Then like ball don't lie kind of thing right the part here's the part that I understand.

[00:15:21] If we take all the other junk out of it and it's just a basketball conversation then I understand why players would would be saying.

[00:15:29] I'm going to go extra hard against her because I don't want to be the one who gets guy.

[00:15:34] Yeah, I don't want to be the one who's in the highlight real.

[00:15:37] You know trying to close out on her her three from the logo and not getting there kind of things so that part I understand play hard.

[00:15:47] It's gone beyond that and that's the problem and so media start speculating you get all the variety of opinions you get gene in like you get genoa or Emma from you can come out and saying she was set up to fail with all these unrealistic expectations and.

[00:16:05] You get Bob Costa saying his stuff you get Pat McAfee saying his stupid stuff and then back having to back pedal and apologize for things he said and all the things right it's it's just a mess and so I wish.

[00:16:18] It could just be a basketball conversation where I could say yeah I'm probably not going to watch the NBA unless it's an Indiana fever game.

[00:16:26] And just leave it at that. Yeah, and by the way I'm fully in favor of playing hard defense you want to pick her up for all 94 feet pick her up for 94 feet probably going to get tired doing that but feel free doing it and I know that but the cheap shots are just kind of kind of strange and that's coming from a guy.

[00:16:44] I love the bad boys and then embrace the Jordan rules. You're on a journey that's going to say it's kind of it's kind of fun to watch you.

[00:16:54] Yeah, you fall as a sports fan and then come up with a reason I don't like that kind of injustice Paul against Michael though when it was the distance it was fully justified I'm pretty sure.

[00:17:05] Hey, since we're talking about basketball for a minute I not that either one of us is going to lose a lot of sleep or spend a lot of time talking about the lakers but it looks like they're about to get a new coach and it seems like it might either be JJ, Retic or Dan Hurley.

[00:17:21] Dan Hurley a late com or to that conversation and you can of course would never be able to match the dollars that I'm sure are being dangled as a potential lakers coach.

[00:17:31] Is that it?

[00:17:33] Obviously franchise wise legacy wise it's a great job current roster wise.

[00:17:39] Would you want to go in and try to be the coach of that team with you know who on it and potentially you know who junior on it?

[00:17:47] Yeah, no.

[00:17:49] But I think it's a fascinating headline and it's a great narrative to follow because I think you know JJ Retic was a candidate but no all the smokers with.

[00:18:01] Dan Hurley and so I think that's that's where the conversation has to go until he decides to say no but if I'm him if I'm Dan Hurley and I'm looking at that roster.

[00:18:11] They can okay you know I love to develop players that's part of what I'd loved about my 10 years a college basketball coach and so they've got like what like Ruri Hashemura and.

[00:18:22] Austin Reeves and.

[00:18:25] Who else the dude for Michigan State Max Christie they got these young players that have potential.

[00:18:32] It.

[00:18:33] It.

[00:18:34] To be developed but you and I both know that that's not going to be the primary thing you have to navigate as a coach of the lakers as long as.

[00:18:42] Um, the bra is on that team.

[00:18:44] And so I started like it my head doing a little like pros and cons thing for Dan Hurley like if you called me and said hey man what do you think is this a good idea should I go for it like what will be the reasons to do it.

[00:18:54] Well, if you're a guy who always aspire to coaching the NBA and I hear

[00:18:59] the conversation now saying that there is something that Dan Hurley has always

[00:19:03] had as an aspiration for a someday kind of thing. Okay, so that's in the plus column for making this move

[00:19:11] He's probably gonna make quite a bit of money if he does it that's I mean, I don't know how much money is enough money

[00:19:16] But that's another thing. Yeah, plus it's you know, it'll be 10-12 million a year at least

[00:19:21] Yeah, and it would definitely be for a guy who seems to be a real competitor and and really wants to kind of

[00:19:28] Perfect his trade as a coach that would be a challenge coaching the leggers would be a challenge

[00:19:35] But on the down on the negative side there would be a mixed bag of results

[00:19:39] When you look at you know college coaches that have

[00:19:43] Stepped up into the NBA in fact. I think it was I heard somebody say somewhere that it was like this is like near the

[00:19:49] Anniversary of one the Lakers try to get coach K right

[00:19:52] Turn them down right, but here's the biggest thing and I don't know how to get around this one like LeBron

[00:20:00] Is a coach killer

[00:20:02] I looked it up today though. He's had nine

[00:20:05] Head coaches in his 21 year NBA

[00:20:08] Career he's had nine different head coaches so that's like just over two years

[00:20:13] 10 year her coach average and

[00:20:16] Of those nine coaches that he's had seven of them have been fired

[00:20:20] Wow, I did that

[00:20:22] Yeah, that's a crazy stat so it's not when you when you hear the LeBron is a coach killer thing. It's not just like

[00:20:28] Antilebron sentiment out there or whatever there's like data

[00:20:34] To back that up and we all know the head lines of LeBron being like I don't get involved in that

[00:20:38] And you never ever and I was as ridiculous of course. He does

[00:20:41] Absolutely before during and after

[00:20:44] So I think I would tell Dan Hurley man going with your eyes wide open if you decide to go for it because well one of the uh

[00:20:50] One of the I'm let me back up

[00:20:52] I'm in a hotel room in Travers City, you're in a hotel room in Minneapolis

[00:20:56] I'm on a TV shoot and one of the guys on my crew throughout the summer he was actually on with us a few weeks ago

[00:21:02] He is an assistant coach for the next

[00:21:04] G league team and in the summer. So just he's like next week

[00:21:09] He flies over to Europe to coach a UA team team for the summer and but he wants to spend a little bit of time getting away from basketball

[00:21:15] Which is why he's with me, but it makes for some really cool conversations and today

[00:21:20] As we were driving from one shoot to the to the next

[00:21:24] We were talking about Hurley. We had just listened to a conversation on I think the Dan Patrick show podcast

[00:21:30] And he said you know

[00:21:33] Probably five or so years ago

[00:21:36] Hurley would would would be unlikely to consider the potential for a lakers gig

[00:21:42] Because there's a there's a mindset of a coach

[00:21:46] That appreciates the college

[00:21:49] Environment the opportunity to help shape kids not just on the court, but off the court and all those things

[00:21:55] Well fast forward to where we actually are

[00:21:59] And those opportunities are not what they used to be and we've seen a lot of coaches retire from the football world

[00:22:05] And the same thing's gonna happen in basketball because now

[00:22:08] You're coaching young men who are gonna get paid and they're gonna get paid a lot

[00:22:15] You are now going to see more of a diva culture in an NCAA division one men's basketball and unlike the NBA

[00:22:24] The the the highly paid divas in college can leave it anytime. They don't like you

[00:22:32] Yeah, they can stop and go enter the transfer portal and be gone

[00:22:35] It least in the NBA. They can't do that because they're under contract now that may change in college

[00:22:40] Depending on how all this plays out. I know I think I was gonna play out

[00:22:44] Because there's gonna have to be some structure put to what the NCAA is doing and I will talk more about that in a minute

[00:22:50] But at least right now

[00:22:52] The difference

[00:22:53] Between the professional game and the college came from a from a personnel management standpoint

[00:23:00] It's it's changed a lot there not that different

[00:23:03] Yeah, that's that's a really good point. You know we can talk all we want about managing the the egos and stuff of the NBA

[00:23:10] But at least that's your team that you're managing yeah, there's so many other things now that go into coaching

[00:23:17] Big time division one

[00:23:19] Athletics in college

[00:23:23] That aren't about coaching they're about donors and boosters and NL and

[00:23:28] All these other

[00:23:30] Things I don't know. I that's that's a really good point. You know the other thing we haven't talked about

[00:23:35] You kind of like two time defending national champs yeah, like the last time

[00:23:41] I heard the last time that there's been a three-pee and NCAA men's basketball was like

[00:23:48] Like UCLA with new Alcindor at center position, you know like back in the late 60s early 70s like way

[00:23:56] Back then so there's something that he's leaving on the table

[00:24:00] If he jumps now I don't know how important that is to Dan Hurley and they can certainly repeat or three-pee as

[00:24:07] NCAA champions with a new coach but at the same time

[00:24:11] That's all those ingredients got to be in the super him. It'll be interesting to see what he decides to do

[00:24:16] Well, it no offense to JJ Reddick but if

[00:24:20] If I'm the owner of a team and my two finalists for coaches are down to

[00:24:26] Hurley and JJ Reddick then I've got to take Hurley every time his track record of it is is established head coaching track record is

[00:24:33] Pretty darn hard to argue with and JJ would be coming into this having sat next to Dorisburg for a couple of weeks

[00:24:40] And otherwise

[00:24:41] hasn't coached a team. I just I find even the possibility that they might hire him to be pretty surprising except

[00:24:48] With the lakers you never can ever really know what's going to happen. He'd have podcasts with bron that's what he's got going for them

[00:24:54] Well, that could that could be very helpful

[00:24:56] By the way since we're on the topic of bron

[00:25:00] I don't want to jump ahead and steal your holy discontent but we have had

[00:25:05] a remarkable amount of talk about LeBron's son, Brani

[00:25:09] Yeah, to the point where it's it's almost comical in its hyperbole

[00:25:16] Most of the people who cover the game full time are not thinking that he is a top

[00:25:24] He's actually a draft pick at all

[00:25:27] But low and behold in the last couple of weeks some things have shifted around in draft projections

[00:25:32] Here's Steven A Smith with some thoughts

[00:25:35] And what's happening in this strangely

[00:25:39] Seems to be orchestrated world surrounding LeBron junior so much of of what's transpiring

[00:25:45] Seems so transparent it's insulting

[00:25:48] You have a situation where money James

[00:25:52] Good as projected as the night as ranked 98

[00:25:56] on a talent pool

[00:25:59] He goes to the NBA combine Molly and it drops 44 slides to fifth is like really

[00:26:06] You know, that must do me I mean Molly he didn't drop 38 slides. Yeah, I said like the fifth yet

[00:26:12] 60 right he didn't drop 50 slides

[00:26:15] The you know the you know 48 there's a oh no

[00:26:19] Right a run a number where the link is get the pick

[00:26:24] Low and behold the possibility then exists for a day two pick and

[00:26:29] Entering that factor into your team dynamic. I just think would be I mean if yes, I would be quite love to do some of my

[00:26:36] Profession with my dad

[00:26:38] Right, it doesn't mean that it's the best for everybody involved so we'll have to see how that one plays out

[00:26:44] All right, let's go over to the to the diamond for a moment. Um there has been I

[00:26:49] Don't think it received nearly enough attention to what's happened in the disciplinary world of the major league baseball in just the last few days

[00:26:59] As they have lowered the boom on a handful of players

[00:27:03] With suspensions one of them for life

[00:27:06] For really for betting on baseball now I did notice

[00:27:12] That the players don't exactly carry household names to the point where you'd be like well

[00:27:17] I'm not going to a game if he's not playing but yes, they dropped some some bombs on some guys for for betting on the game

[00:27:24] The lifetime ban was on a player who had been well, he's been betting on his own team

[00:27:30] Here's my question for you

[00:27:34] How should the leagues policy be affected?

[00:27:39] By the fact that the league is in bed with all of the online gaming sites everywhere and that's all you ever see I mean it's

[00:27:47] Yeah, we you can't be betting on things and yet here they are taking sponsorship money so

[00:27:53] The the pod raise

[00:27:55] Player two to Sepita, Marcano permanently ineligible list he's been Pete rose. He's done

[00:28:03] And then four other players received one year suspensions for gambling related violations

[00:28:09] Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly

[00:28:12] J. Grume Jose Rodriguez and Andrew self-ranked the diamond back so the fillies the pod raise the diamond backs

[00:28:20] All got dinged by what's been taking place

[00:28:25] Does a league have any

[00:28:28] Standing to make those claims of moral superiority and purity

[00:28:34] When

[00:28:36] Their right hand is in the pocket of fan dual and their left hand is wagging a finger at the players who have been

[00:28:42] Waituring. Yeah, that's that's a great question

[00:28:48] I just watched the pregame for game one of the NBA finals and they were talking about the ESPN

[00:28:53] Parlay that you can bet an ESPN bet or whatever their thing is it's like it's like almost shameless now how

[00:29:00] Sports betting is entering culture on all levels personally. I don't

[00:29:05] Think they have a choice when somebody gets outed

[00:29:09] When a player gets outed as doing something

[00:29:13] That

[00:29:14] Compromises the integrity of the game. Yeah, like a player or a coach or a manager or whatever

[00:29:20] I don't know how they

[00:29:22] Don't take action to discipline that person because then I would skepticism and everything would just be

[00:29:31] Running rampant and people would be

[00:29:34] The integrity of the game would be at risk and I don't know how you avoid that well it's interesting to hear the

[00:29:39] Demagially Commissioner Rob man for he says since the Supreme Court decision open the door to legalized sports betting

[00:29:46] We have worked with licensed sports betting operators and other third parties to put ourselves in a better position from an integrity

[00:29:52] Perspective through the transparency that a regulated sports betting system can provide

[00:29:59] So in other words if they have

[00:30:01] If they are

[00:30:03] partnered up with

[00:30:05] Van Duol and draft kings and whoever else is out in the know I don't that on sports

[00:30:12] Then they're gonna be less likely to have players

[00:30:15] Betting on their own games. Is that what he said? Yeah, and that's what led to the lifetime ban for Marcano

[00:30:19] So here's the report of

[00:30:22] 2022 and 23 Marcano placed 387 baseball bets including

[00:30:28] 231 MLB related bets. I don't know what the other ones worth they made it's betting on minor league baseball

[00:30:35] Softball leagues. I don't really know

[00:30:37] Some included multiple major league baseball related parlaes

[00:30:42] Which would be your way during on more than one item in several different games here's the here's the key take away

[00:30:49] over

[00:30:50] this period

[00:30:52] 25 of his wages included pirates games while he was a member of the pirates major league club

[00:30:59] He did not appear in those games however he was on the injured list, but still you can't bet any bet on his own team

[00:31:05] So again I get it banned the guy

[00:31:08] Interestingly enough

[00:31:11] You take this pretty hard stance on a guy that nobody could pick out of a lineup

[00:31:15] One wonders what it would have been like had it been

[00:31:19] Showhail Tony and

[00:31:21] You know and not his interpreter who had been all the done all those things, but

[00:31:25] So the baseball's trying to kind of have it both ways really it's sort of like I would like to drop about

[00:31:33] 15 pounds Paul, but one of the guys on my crew brought

[00:31:37] With him something that his mother made for us called Brookies

[00:31:41] It's a combination of a cookie and a brownie

[00:31:45] All smashed together in a delightful square

[00:31:48] That seems to weigh about seven pounds each because it's just mashed together and it's incredible

[00:31:53] And I have a big Ziploc baggy now of 10 of these things in my car

[00:31:57] I would love to walk the fine line of

[00:32:00] Consuming tonight when we're done recording I'd like to have a brookie and still

[00:32:07] Follow this path to hopefully losing some weight

[00:32:11] But unfortunately you can't have it both ways

[00:32:14] Yeah, and I don't know how a professional sports league

[00:32:18] Can can get into bed and pull the covers all the way up with online gaming and then come down on players who engage in online gaming

[00:32:30] Yeah, I don't know how in the world you like is that a tension to manage not a problem to solve?

[00:32:36] I don't I don't know I'm trying to figure out how to give major league baseball a pass here, but maybe there isn't one

[00:32:42] Maybe it's just it is what it is

[00:32:45] Maybe it's my old man prudent is coming out of me, but I've never found there to be an upside-de-gambling and

[00:32:52] Perhaps this is another reason why I

[00:32:54] I stay away from that, but

[00:32:57] Let's let's talk for a moment about something that's

[00:33:01] Boy, it has been sobering especially in the world where I operate which is the world of golf

[00:33:07] We're talking about the loneliness and the isolation side of sports

[00:33:15] There's a young man named Grayson

[00:33:18] Murray

[00:33:19] Grayson over the course of the last few years has struggled mightily with numerous forms of addiction

[00:33:26] He was the the kind of guy who was I say was

[00:33:30] Because he went through a major life change. It will talk about momentarily

[00:33:34] But he was a flame thrower on

[00:33:37] Social media he would say whatever he felt like whenever name names call people

[00:33:43] He was he was pretty rude frankly in all those ways and he was not well liked among his peers

[00:33:51] He won a couple times on tour, but he was always a counter-a powder keg waiting to explode

[00:33:59] And then

[00:34:01] I mean what better way to celebrate for here on church peace sports than

[00:34:06] Through the the PGA tour has a player fellowship Bible study

[00:34:11] Meets every week in every city there are chaplains to travel with them. I'm trying to get one of the chaplains to come on our show with us at some point in his

[00:34:18] Brad paint

[00:34:20] Grayson started to come and

[00:34:23] He ended up accepting Christ into his life a few months ago

[00:34:27] And by all reports, I don't know I've never met Grayson

[00:34:30] So I'm not trying to speak as if I know him but from all reports from the players who are active in the tour fellowship

[00:34:37] Was a change man

[00:34:40] Really embraced his faith

[00:34:43] Was sincere was humble was helpful was the opposite of what he what I mean the opposite

[00:34:49] Yeah

[00:34:50] And the strangest thing was that a couple weeks ago he was playing in a tournament

[00:34:55] Thursday and Friday or they're opening two rounds and if you're if you play well enough

[00:35:00] You make the cut to play into the weekend

[00:35:03] It's Friday afternoon he's kind of hovering around what they think will be the cut line

[00:35:08] And he suddenly with draws from the tournament in the middle of the round

[00:35:12] Sighting illness

[00:35:13] Well, I could happen you can you know your stomach you can get some food poisoning

[00:35:16] You can throw your back out whatever so nobody really knew he just he literally walked off the course

[00:35:23] His opponents continued to play the other guys who have kind of embraced him and come around him

[00:35:28] They were playing they didn't have any idea what was going on until afterwards

[00:35:31] Assembly said yeah, I'm racing with Drew. He wasn't feeling well that night he took his own life

[00:35:38] Oh

[00:35:40] And

[00:35:43] Stunning would be an understatement amongst everybody who has been paying attention to his life

[00:35:49] And it it rocked some guys on the tour here's one of Grayson's good friends Peter Malnotti on CBS talking about it

[00:35:58] The day after on Saturday the tour at the urging of Grayson's parents continued to play

[00:36:05] Instead of calling off the rest of the tournament having lost one of their own family members on the tour

[00:36:10] This is Peter Malnotti with Amanda Balianno, San CBS

[00:36:34] Here are good break there

[00:36:38] You were so competitive

[00:36:41] So competitive out here

[00:36:43] I want to be each other

[00:36:46] And then some like this happens to be realized

[00:36:49] We're all two humans

[00:36:52] It's just a really

[00:36:54] Really really it's a really hard day because you look at Grayson and you see in him like

[00:36:59] Someone who is you

[00:37:01] Visibly outwardly struggled in the past and he's been open about it

[00:37:05] You seem kind of get his life back to a place where you know he's been good about things

[00:37:12] I mean, you know we talk about connecting sports to life and faith

[00:37:17] That that's the connection

[00:37:21] Yeah, well

[00:37:23] Man, I didn't I didn't know that whole story

[00:37:27] So then just a couple days later

[00:37:30] the I think you could make the case that one of the top three most popular players on the LPGA tour

[00:37:38] Lexi Thompson

[00:37:40] Who actually began competing in professional events when she was 11 she played in the women's US open

[00:37:46] That's just that that just doesn't make any sense to me

[00:37:48] so she's now has a 19 year career. She's 30 now. I believe and

[00:37:55] She was getting ready to compete in the US women's open this year happened last week

[00:37:59] She's on her way to Michigan by the way she'll be here for the next two weeks playing internaments

[00:38:04] And she in her press conference decided

[00:38:08] To announce that she was retiring at the end of the year at the age of 30 and here's a little

[00:38:13] Here's a little excerpt from her press conference as to why being out here can be a lot

[00:38:19] It can be lonely

[00:38:22] Sorry if I get emotional I said I wasn't going to

[00:38:28] I just think you know especially with what's happened in golf as a recent too. A lot of people don't

[00:38:34] They don't realize a lot of what we go through as a professional athlete. I mean

[00:38:39] I'll be the last one to say like throw me a pretty party this last thing I want but you know we're doing

[00:38:46] We're doing what we love we're trying the best every single day and

[00:38:50] You know we're not perfect we're humans words hurt and

[00:38:56] It's hard to overcome sometimes but having the people around you that

[00:39:02] Love you and support you and I feel like that's

[00:39:06] That's been the biggest thing for me. I might not have a huge friend group, but

[00:39:11] But to have

[00:39:13] The people that matter the most around me have gotten me through some really hard times

[00:39:18] So here we are all of a sudden Paul dealing with

[00:39:22] Literal life and death issues and people feeling the weight of loneliness

[00:39:29] That's that that's a heavy weight. Yeah, well that that comment that she made right at the end of that sound by there

[00:39:36] Where she talked about her friends getting her through that's the thing right like none of us were

[00:39:43] Created design to do life alone

[00:39:47] That's not how the Lord

[00:39:49] Created us he designed us

[00:39:52] For community and so like you know I'm one hand we celebrate that this guy grace and

[00:39:57] Found Jesus right and and then that didn't obviously didn't resolve all of the demons he was wrestling with and

[00:40:03] Struggles that he had and everything else but at least we know that we're Lord was with him

[00:40:10] And he was and so that part is there, but I guess what I would say is

[00:40:17] I don't know this isn't the three minute message, but like if you're if you're dealing with something or if you're feeling something or

[00:40:25] You need to talk then talk yeah

[00:40:29] Find someone to talk to

[00:40:32] As opposed to trying to like power your way through it or just deal with it on your own none of us

[00:40:40] We're created or designed to do that and and of course we would say

[00:40:46] That the best place

[00:40:48] The best relationships are those that are rooted in Christ as the foundation and I always think about

[00:40:55] The band of brothers who with their body on the stretcher and took him to Jesus and all of that and that's

[00:41:00] That's what is designed to do that's how life is designed to be lived

[00:41:06] So you're right here's here's a world of sports remind and a sol of the life lesson that we all need to

[00:41:12] Take and apply and the other thing I would say too is if if

[00:41:17] If you're a friend of someone who you think is struggling go ask them yeah to that

[00:41:23] Don't be afraid to

[00:41:26] Press in a little bit because you never know you just never know that's I think the lesson you can take from grace

[00:41:31] And conversation yeah, and I'm

[00:41:35] 1000% in favor of just rolling that right into our three-minute message as we kind of move fast forward and bring this episode to a

[00:41:44] A downhill glide because

[00:41:46] There's nothing more important than making sure that every one of you listening right now

[00:41:52] Nose fully well you you've maybe you've convinced yourself otherwise

[00:41:58] I want you to hear this very clearly

[00:42:01] You are not alone

[00:42:04] If you're feeling that way you're not alone

[00:42:08] You simply need to let somebody in your life who cares

[00:42:12] Know that you're hurting

[00:42:14] That's it

[00:42:16] Without any doubt and I've heard it said clearly by a number of two-or-pliers

[00:42:21] Had grace and just said hey guys, I'm just having a rough day. I'm having a rough evening

[00:42:29] They would have sworn to his side

[00:42:33] Right and that's often the case when whenever we hear the just awful tragic tale of somebody who's taken in our life

[00:42:40] Everybody who would love that person says we had we didn't know it no idea. It's not like

[00:42:45] In a it's not like we ignored them we just didn't know that that was a need and

[00:42:50] Interestingly enough

[00:42:51] Lexi and her press conference went on to talk about how she she looks forward to experiencing other things in life

[00:42:57] I mean she's literally lived with a golf club in her hand for two thirds of her life so I totally get that

[00:43:02] But you could hear in the emotion of her voice

[00:43:05] She alluded to the other things that are going on in the world of golf

[00:43:09] This all happened just a couple of days after

[00:43:12] Grace and

[00:43:13] News

[00:43:15] That got the attention of a lot of people

[00:43:19] Um

[00:43:20] And so if if we're sitting here on church Pew sports and all we're talking about

[00:43:26] If all we do here is you know talk about who's picking on Caitlin and we talk about the next

[00:43:31] Lakers coach or we talk about gambling and sports or

[00:43:37] All the other things that you know we will we'll do an episode on the NCAA

[00:43:41] Paying its players finally and all it will do that stuff, but if that's all we did this would be a waste of time

[00:43:48] I mean Paul and I are sitting in in

[00:43:51] hotel rooms in different places than our homes

[00:43:55] We're recording this not because we think you can't get sports conversation somewhere else

[00:44:01] Really doing this because we think that it's valuable to connect it into real life and this is where it connects friends

[00:44:07] If you need of an ear to hear

[00:44:11] if you need somebody to pay attention to you

[00:44:14] And if you can't think of who that would be

[00:44:18] Reach out to one of us

[00:44:20] Jump on Twitter jump on Facebook go to the website at churchpewsports.com

[00:44:26] You'll see a email address or just send send something to us

[00:44:30] If if one of us needs to call you and just talk for a while

[00:44:35] Happy to do that

[00:44:37] That that's I mean

[00:44:39] That's kind of what would be the ultimate payoff for this show was to know that somehow

[00:44:45] It made more of a difference than just sports conversation in somebody's life

[00:44:50] Believe me neither one of us are getting a dime for this it actually cost us money to do it

[00:44:54] So we enjoy conversation we enjoy talking sports. We do it on text chains all day all the time everywhere we go

[00:45:02] But we both are well aware this is the toy box of life and if there's an opportunity

[00:45:09] To connect in and help you through a difficult time

[00:45:14] That would be an honor that would be an honor and a blessing for us to do

[00:45:18] Yeah, that's really well said bill. You know life is not a solo sport

[00:45:23] And so

[00:45:25] So there's our three minute message turned into a seven minute message

[00:45:29] We'll wrap it up there tonight we're gonna bring you some more

[00:45:32] Topical conversations throughout the summer we'll add in some other guests as special voices

[00:45:37] We'll have some fun doing it along the way. I hope you'll stay with us

[00:45:40] I know summertime is usually a dead time for podcast

[00:45:44] We'll do our best to keep going if you'll do your best to keep listening sharing the link and

[00:45:49] Helping us keep others connected into this world and if you know somebody who's hurting

[00:45:54] Please send them this episode so they can hear and be reminded that they are not alone

[00:45:59] Thanks for listening we'll talk to you again next time on church view sports