Ryan: Hey everyone. Hi, everyone on the call. Hey, everyone that's watching. Yeah, give us a good wave. Let's all get a good wave. Something that we do at secret base on calls is we raise the roof when we get good news or when something good happens. That's something that happens at work. And so, hi, this is our next Patreon Mailbag. Enough of those celebration things, we'll send confetti all over the recording, which is a lot of fun. So, we decided that this time we're going to do a video mailbag to answer all of your questions. We got so many good ones this time, the $10, the top secret agents, $10 tier people got access to the mailbag submission form or whatever that's called, to ask us a bunch of questions about sports and the videos that we make, and also a bunch of questions about a bunch of random stuff. And we thought that rather than writing it out as a post, it would be fun to just record a call and do a video, a total experiment. Who knows how this is going to work, but it's an experiment and it's a lot of fun and we're having a lot of fun doing it. Wow. Will: It had nothing to do with writing that post sucks. Ryan: Yeah, no, it has nothing to do with the fact that this is much easier- Will: Cheerful. Ryan: And you get a little peek into everyone's private living spaces, which is also a lot of fun. Do with that, but you will. So, I'll start it off. I'll kick the first question to Jon. That's Jon up there in the top. It's also fun, we have a nice little Hollywood Squares thing going on, which is a lot of fun. And Tyson, you're in the center square. I don't know why it worked out like that, but you're center square. That was always the Paul Lind, "I'm the secret square." Anyway, I might be aging. Will: That's a good way to gauge how old all of our patrons are. Ryan: Yeah. I think that show stopped, went off the air about 15 years before I was even born. Anyway- Will: Jon, what are your thoughts on rationing? Jon: I actually just raised my hand because I had a joke that I wanted to tell, if that's all right. Will: Please do. Jon: So, you mentioned that it's like Hollywood Squares, and what I would say to that is that, I don't know about Hollywood, but we've sure got the squares. And in that joke, the squares is basically a reference to us because we're all nerds. Ryan: It's on. You're on. Jon: Is my mic on? Ryan: We can hear you. Yeah. Jon: Okay. Ryan: Oh, just the sense that you're on mute, that may have been why he wasn't laughing. Jon: Oh, okay. Yeah. Nevermind. I just sneezed. Sorry. Ryan: Yeah, no worries. Your first question is, since NCAA football is being revived, one must ask, "What college did BEEFTANK attend?" And that's from JIFFYPOP. Jon: Okay, so thank you JIFFYPOP, because that is a fun question. For those aren't familiar BEEFTANK, was a guy from my Breaking Madden days. He was the main character. And back then, and I think now in Madden, you can create your own player who's five foot tall and 400 pounds. So of course I made him like that, and I jacked up all the stats to 91 and he was this super Mike Tolbert guy, who was this undefeatable, untackable bowling ball of a quarterback. Everybody loved him. I loved him. Now, as far as what school he went to, this is actually established canon as much as it can be. So for a fictional character, because people were so enamored with him, that BEEFTANK actually had a real pro football reference page. I think during a database overhaul or something, they had to ditch it, but if you search BEEFTANK in pro football reference now, you will get directed to a cached version of his old player page and it lists that he was from DeVry. So, there is your answer. Ryan: I think there's actually a pretty good follow up to that. This next question from Brandon Boyer, it says, "Just finished rewatching Pretty Good, episode 12. I've always been curious if anyone who was there has ever seen that episode of Pretty Good? Did anyone involved in or at that Troy State versus DeVry game ever reach out or comment about it? Jon: Yeah, my answer to this one is also DeVry. I feel like I'm giving a deposition to Congress about online classes. But yeah, DeVry did actually tweet at me one time, but only to say like, oh, good job. That was fun, whatever. That was cool. Other than that, the whole thing is the official score for Troy State in that game is listed as 258, which is the college basketball all time record for points in a game. I counted it manually and I got to 253. There's been no official acknowledgement of that by the NCAA or either school. They still say it's 258, although if you want to go look at Wikipedia's talk page, there is a war, like a pitched battle in there for people who are on my side. We should change it. He reviewed the tape and he's right. And then other people are like, I don't think some guy is a reputable enough source for us to change our article. I don't think SB Nation's. Exactly The New York Times. So, that is about as close as we've gotten. Ryan: Put it on the website, SB Nation. We're not exactly the New York Times. I love that. Will: Going back to DeVry tweeting you, good job. Are you sure that wasn't related to BEEFTANK? Jon: It's been so long ago. The reason that I remembered that is, because I looked at the Wikipedia talk page and someone was like, "Look, DeVry tweeted Adam. This is evidence that they recognize the record." Maybe, I don't know how DeVry works or how those online universities work, but maybe saying a good job saying, I did a good job, is as good as receiving a diploma from them. In which case, I'm a college grad baby. Ryan: Congrats, man. That's awesome. I'm going to jump around here a little bit. There's a question from Victor that says, have you guys used AI for any work you do on the videos? And if you have not, have you considered it? And I think right now is a good time to announce that Charlotte Atkinson, our editor, who's in the bottom there, is AI. Charlotte is an AI entity that we've created? Charlotte: Yes. Ryan: Right. Charlotte: I am AI. What is question? Ryan: Okay, obviously we need to do a little work. Charlotte, would you- Will: This is the most natural she's ever sounded though. Ryan: Yeah, it's getting better. It's definitely getting better. Charlotte, have you ever used AI on a video and would you? Charlotte: Yeah, all of the videos that I edit are AI specifically. Any of the videos that have edited by Charlotte Atkinson in the description, all completely AI. Seth: Wait, I'm genuinely curious. Will: What a good intro to Charlotte. Here's our video editor that you haven't seen before. You heard her voice if you listen to the recent podcast, but here's her fully genuine answer. Seth: I want a real answer to that. Charlotte: No, none of the videos are AI and I wouldn't consider using AI to edit any of our videos, but... Seth: Aren't some of the Adobe tools that we might use basically... Obviously, to actually edit the video, to write the video to research, the answer to the question is basically no. But there are some artificial intelligence tools incorporated into textures and- Will: Doing player cutouts. Isn't that- Seth: Yeah, cutouts and stuff, aren't there? Charlotte: Well, the cutouts are all masked manually. At least that's what I do. Unless it's like you're keying something that's two different colors, like black and white, that's easy to key out, but everything's masked manually, so it's all tedious. Ryan: Yeah, I would say any AI tool that we're using is not generative. It's enhancement. It's like audio enhancement. That's like AI, but it's not really AI. So, I would love to get to the point where I could just type into a box like beef history between X and Y, and then a 20-minute video appears. That would be amazing. Here's Seth's voiceover. Here's all the images we pulled from Getty. Figure it out. Jon: I will say that making cutouts manually is probably the thing that I hate most about my entire job. Maybe the only thing I truly hate, because it takes forever, and then when you're done, you feel no satisfaction. You're like, "Oh, I had a picture of a football player and now I still have that. This sucks." Tyson: You could also get 50% of the way through and click wrong, and then it just erases your mask and you have to do it again. So, I'm not into the generative AI thing as a graphics person, because it's... Nevermind, we won't get into that. But I will say, like you said, Ryan, tools for it. I definitely select subject and stuff like that where it just grabs things like that to make things a little faster rather than replacing the creative side of it, because I don't think any of us do that, but... Ryan: I do it all the time. This next one is, I'm going to throw this one out to Joe, because Joe just made his triumphant return to NYC after a bunch of traveling and stuff. And then, open it up to the group of people who have lived in New York, which I think is everyone here, but Tyson. Joe, what is your favorite/least favorite New York City subway station? Joe: Oh, man. It is a combined answer. My favorite and least favorite are both Myrtle-Broadway and Bushwick. For those that haven't gone, just think of a nightmare stop that involves a Popeye's next to a Checkers, next to Dunkin' Donuts. And the smell of the Popeye's covers the sky, and you can smell it a hundred feet away, maybe a football length foot away. I know we got a few people... I know Jon used to live off that stop or close to it. Will used to live off that stop. But yeah, just think of the movie, Zombieland, where people are just roaming the streets high off, whatever you can think of. But it's also great because it's a charm. It blends New York, it feels very New York. But at the same time, you'll see people passed out at 8:00 AM while you're trying to go to work. So, both fun and a little scary. Ryan: I feel like it's important to mention that that particular stop is above ground and it's elevated. So when you pull in, you're on top of these vents coming from the Popeye's specifically. And yeah, it is really like a thick cloud of Popeye's. Joe: It smacks you in the face immediately. Tyson: Kind of disappointed. I never got to experience the getting high off of Popeye smog. Joe: And it's usually the same dude, but if you ever go, he's usually the same guy's always holding the door for you. It's amazing service. Same guy. Will: Any J train riders use Broadway Junction much, because the weird thing about Broadway Junction is you get the same amount of Popeye's smell as you do at Myrtle-Broadway, but you can't see where it's coming from. Because Broadway Junction is like, you're higher up and you're a little more secluded compared to Myrtle-Broadway, but it smells like you're in a Popeye's still. Which worse? Joe: Is that a signature thing for them? Do they somehow pump out the smell or Popeye's usually just that. Ryan: I know Burger King does. Burger King pumps out fake grilled meat smell. I don't know where I heard that. That was years ago, and I don't know if it's true, but I believe it. Charlotte, I see we have Charlotte raised her hand. Thanks for raising your hand and being polite. Charlotte: When I used to take the queue up to 72nd Street Station, it's cool because it feels futuristic, that station. But the only thing that I hate is that there's a massive escalator that is so long. And the angle at which you were riding the escalator, specifically if you're going down, is you feel like you're falling because the angle is so steep. Ryan: You have to close your eyes a little bit and keep yourself from vertigo. Charlotte: It's the longest escalator ride, but yeah. Tyson: A lot of DC escalators are like that. Sorry, this is a New York thing, but I have to feel like I have to feel like I'm connected to like... Ryan: Yeah, do you mind, dude? Do you mind? Seth: Yeah. This is like a Foggy Bottom is my favorite. It catches fire all the time. Joe: DC yourself out of this conversation. You know what I mean? I'm on fire. Ryan: Oh, I think he left. I think he really did leave. Let's throw this one to Alex. This is from LOLPLATYPI, and I hope I'm saying that right. I don't know. You all are nuts for this. Here's a question for any of you brave enough to answer it. Have you ever cried because of a moment in sports, and what happened to cause it? To show I am not a coward, I will fully admit to openly weeping when the Panthers lost Super Bowl 50. I was not a child when this happened. Alex: Yeah, my eyes get sweaty quite a bit during traumatic sports moments. No shame in admitting that. Ryan: It's healthy. Do you have one in particular that sticks out? Alex: The last seven ways the 9ers' seasons have ended. Ryan: Yeah, it made you legit teary-eyed. Is it difficult to talk about right now? I don't want to put you on the spot if it's going to actually upset you. Alex: No. The 9ers haven't had a normal non-heartbreaking playoff loss since pre Jim Harbaugh probably. So, since Steve Mariucci losing to the Bucks in '02. It's just every single one, the dagger just twists in the most agonizing way possible. So, they're just all a mishmash of agony. Ryan: Jon, I see your hand. Go ahead. Jon: Yeah. This morning I woke up and realized it's been four and a half months since my team won the Super Bowl, and I just burst into tears. It's too long for any one person to go, and I don't wish it upon anyone else. That's my story. Ryan: That's brave of you. Brave of you to come to say that. And JZ, you know I was going to kick it to you also, man. You're muted. You got to unmute yourself first. JZ: IJZ knew that was coming. I just cried this week. I, using the words of Alex, got a little sweaty my eyes. I'm a Celtic fan. Ryan: Yeah, what happens? JZ: I'm a Celtics fan- Ryan: Big Celtics fan- JZ: ... I got a lot of hate for that, but I waited 16 years for their second championship in my lifetime, so. Ryan: That space just made me laugh. Yeah, that's pretty good. JZ: I'm sorry, Seth. But that's happy tears. But to answer this question, I actually want to throw it back, because when I was a kid growing up in China, I was going to elementary schools and stuff, and they actually confiscate our phones if we took it to school. So, there's no internet access for me whatsoever. And because of the time difference, I couldn't watch the games and stuff. So, I would come home learning the news that 2010 NBA finals game seven, the Celtics lost to the Lakers. They were winning the game, and then they lost it in the fourth quarter, I believe. So, I definitely cried a lot. And 2012, Eastern Conference finals, game seven in Miami, American Airline Center, the Celtics lost to the Miami Heat, and I'm known as the biggest LeBron hater out there. And that's one of the games that made me the biggest LeBron haters. I'm sorry, but I cried for a while, 2012. I was in high school, but I was crying like a baby. That was the last game of the big three together, because Ray Allen left after that. So man, I cried a lot. I'm sorry, but that's it. Ryan: That's okay. It's brave to say it. And that's- Seth: Can I say something about the question itself? Ryan: Yeah, please. Seth: The person gave, as an example, the Super Bowl. That was the one, the Panthers beat the Bronco... Or sorry, the Broncos beat the Panthers in San Francisco. I think a few of us were at that Super Bowl covering it for SB Nation. And I had a press pass at that Super Bowl, but no actual assignment. So, I was just wandering place to place around the stadium. And at that Super Bowl, after the game ended, I was like, I have access to the locker room. I'm going to go into the Panthers' locker room, just lively wandering in. And it was the saddest thing. It was just a bunch of Carolina Panthers sobbing. Everyone was crying, everyone was really upset. So point being A, don't go into the locker room unless you have a plan. B, for this person who gave it, how high was I? I don't know. Normal amount. The Panthers were as upset as you were is my only point. So, that specific example is one where I can confirm that it was shared with the actual team, weirdly. That's the first reporting I've done on that Super Bowl. Ryan: Alex said, "Man, that vid." Did you take a vid inside the- Seth: No, we made other videos that we- Alex: The video where everyone was competing to get to the stadium by different means of transportation, one of two Seth videos where every comment is just, "Seth's so high." The other one was the one where Kobe stayed a Hornet, but- Seth: I promise you, there are way more than two videos where people are accusing me of being high. The one in San Francisco is the only one where they might've had a point. Ryan: And then, all the ones post-COVID that we did. But that's, you're not on camera. You're just recording video or audio. I'm also high right now. I feel like I should probably mention that. Let's see. Let's just open these up to the group. Although Jon already left an answer here on the sheet. So, this one's a free for all. Whoever wants it. And I really appreciate, this is from John Hopwood, and John says at the beginning, here's a couple, you don't have to answer them all if you don't want to, but we will. "You're stranded on an island and you get to take three things with you, what are you taking? Who dies first in the Secret Base horror movie?" Jon, go ahead. Let's just start there. That's good. Seth: No, I think Jon just volunteered to die. Jon: Yeah, that's what I said. I'm going to die. See you guys. Ryan: Thanks. Jon's really selfless and I really appreciate that. Do you want to say what your three things are that you would take with you when you're stranded on an island? Jon: Yeah. Stranded on a desert island, you have three things to take with you. The number one priority is survival. So obviously, the three things are going to be Nintendo 64 cartridges. The only question is which three. You really, you got to play video games. They're going to have a Nintendo on the island. I think the three... My loadout of three N64 video games are going to be Perfect Dark, which is Goldeneye. You can play single player with bots. That alone will last you a lifetime. Amazing game. Mario Kart 64, so you can beat the time trials endlessly beat your own records, basically a perfect game. The third is out of left field, I would say Excitebike 64, which is a super massively overlooked N64 game. The spiritual and actual sequel to the original NES Excitebike, which if you beat the game soundly enough, they will give you a hidden version of the original Excitebike, which is in the game for free that you can play. It also has car soccer, motorcycle soccer, which was basically what Rocket League, I think, stole their idea from, amazingly deep and complicated game. So yes, I hope that answers the questions efficiently. Seth: I would take a boat. Ryan: You can't play any games on a boat. Seth: Yeah, you can. Ryan: Yeah. What games can you play on a boat? What Nintendo 64 games can you play on a boat? Seth: Oh, N64 games, I would take a boat, a TV, and an N64. Ryan: There you go. Will: No games. Seth: Shit. Will: You can take a second boat, so then you could race boats. Ryan: But that's the boat where you can only have a cabbage, a sheep, and a wolf, and you can only have two in there at one time. So then, it gets even more complicated. Jon: I will note that if you turn on an N64 without a cartridge, the screen will still flicker a little bit, and that's pretty fun. Will: Jon, do you see they're making a new Perfect Dark? Jon: No, they made one for the Xbox 360, I think, that wasn't as good. Are they making a brand new one? Will: Yeah, they released a gameplay trailer for it, and I couldn't tell you if it looks good or not. It was more of a like, "Huh, childhood. All right." Jon: I might have to do that, because I don't know. That'll give me back into first person shooters because today I'm playing exclusively games where you either have to research the printing press or build a machine that makes a whole lot of screws. Those are the two kinds of games that I play. Will: Starfield, huh? Tyson: To answer the other question about who would die first, I actually want to... I don't know who would die first, but I know who would last the longest. And the answer's Phil, because he would immediately disappear within the first 12 seconds of there being a horror movie. And you wouldn't see him to the last 12 seconds of the horror movie, where he either reveal himself as the murderer or he would come out of a bush in a full ghillie suit covered in some kind of mud and blood, so that's- Seth: You can tell that Phil is one of the smartest and most capable people at Secretase, because he didn't volunteer to participate in this. Will: I like that Tyson's describing checkoffs Phil. Ryan: It would be incredible if Phil joined the call at the last possible second, now that we've been doing this for about a half an hour now. Let's see. Let's see what else we have here. I feel like this is an Alex question, but we'll also open this up to the group. "Favorite Simpsons episodes?" You got a go-to Simpsons episode? I know you're a huge Simpson head. Alex: Yeah, I think hat burglar might be my number one. My answer changes. It's not always just set in stone, but right now I'm feeling cat burglar. Ryan: I feel like it's like when someone says, "What's your favorite food?" It's like, I don't know. Sometimes I'm in the mood for fried chicken. Sometimes I want something a little bit more elegant. Sometimes I just want junk. So, it changes. Alex: Yeah, it's just each is its own flavor. Ryan: Any other Simpsons heads on the call? Will: Grimesey. I think Grimes is the one where quotes from it just pop into my head more often than any- Ryan: Which one is that one? Will: It's where Homer has a new coworker who Homer just bails upward in his eyes. And so, it's Grimesey who ends up dying by the end of the episode, because he's mimicking Homer, and then I believe touches a high voltage thing or a radioactive thing. But he has the quote, he goes over to their house for dinner and he's looking at all of the family pictures, including Homer in space. And he said, "You went to the moon?" And Homer's response, "You haven't been?" But I think that the best one is, "I live above a bowling alley and below a bowling alley," - Ryan: Yeah, that's a pretty classic one. Alex: Peak fear's also another of my go-to, where Sideshow Bob pulls a voice and just steps on a ton of rakes. Ryan: That is a classic. Mine has to be the one... I'm struggling to remember the name of the character, but he's basically the villain. He gets the new job at the villain's lair, and the whole time he doesn't realize he is working for a bond villain. Jon: Hank Scorpio. Ryan: Hank Scorpio. Yeah. The one with Hank Scorpio. I don't remember the name of the episode, but the Hank Scorpio one is the best in my eyes. Let's see, what else? Okay, how about one for Jon? "I heard from REFORM, part three, used to work at Kroger's pushing carts." This is from Sol Hoerig. "Used to work at Kroger's pushing carts. As a fellow former Courtesy Clerk at Kroger's, how was it there? And what was it like working there back then?" Jon: It sucked. I hated it. I got my least favorite job of all time out of the way early. It was my first job, I think I was 16. I got assigned to a different Kroger than all my friends. They just sent me out to the one way out in the suburbs, and none of my friends were there, and it was boring. And also, there's the added indignity of like, okay, you get six bucks an hour and you have a union mandated 15 minute break, which is great. But then, you go in the break room and everything's a $1.50, so you get a Coke and a snack, and all of a sudden like, "Oh, I'm making three bucks an hour. This is awesome." I hate the workforce. I'm going to live off the grid for the rest of my life. Ryan: Anyone else worked at a grocery store? I did. I worked at a ShopRite. I did the same thing. Same sort of thing. No? The nice thing about working in the grocery section of the grocery store where you just go around stock shelves and stuff is, you can look busy and not do shit for hours. It's incredible. I loved it. Only every now and then you'd get the grocery line two, and you'd have to pull... They'd be like, "Where's the pallet of Cheerios that are..." "Oh, they're in bay two. See you." And then just walk around. If you look a little hurried like you're trying to get something for a customer, no one will touch you. No one will even bother you. It was incredible. Will: What were the store's expectations for you going into a day? Because there's not many measurables. Ryan: I was 16 years old. I have no idea. I don't know. Don't- Will: Don't be too fucked up. Ryan: Be on time and yeah, come in sober, which was still not always easy. It was not a very high bar to clear. Here's one. Let's go for, let's do one for Joe. "If the team was taking a road trip together..." This is from Jonathan Currie, "Who drives and who gets the AUX?" Joe: All right. I think I'll give Seth the AUX, because I think Seth's got some variations of music. Seth's got some good music taste. I know- Seth: You can say yourself, you literally worked for Genius. Joe: No, man, I can't. That's a cop out answer. Also, I've been listening to some trash shit lately. So, you all don't want to give me the AUX. Who's driving though? Who's driving? Will: While Joe figures that out... Seth, can I ask a follow-up? If you were presented the AUX on a road trip, are you comfortable with that? Or the moment a song goes on, are you terrified that no one in the car is enjoying the song? Seth: I think that I'm inclined to take the temperature of the car, like who's here, and not just follow my own taste, but try to... I would be a people pleaser. I wouldn't be trying to introduce people to anything or play my favorites. But I'm still confident that I could throw fastballs down the middle. Joe: You always got to throw in something new though. And then look in the back seat, be like, "Yeah. You all know this one?" You got to put some people on. But Ryan, I think you'll be a good driver for the team. Ryan: Me, really? That's too much pressure. Joe: But Ryan, I think you'll be a good driver for the team. Ryan: Me, really? Oh God, that's too much pressure. Joe: Yeah. You just got to 10 and two. Charlotte: If Ryan's driving, I want to be in the passenger... reading directions, but very poorly. Being like, "Wait, you were supposed to make that left. Oh, sorry." Ryan: Would it change your answer if I told you that on Tuesday morning I got my first ever speeding ticket, of this week? On Tuesday morning I got my first speeding ticket. Joe: No way. It took you 30 something years to get a speeding ticket? Ryan: Yeah. Joe: If anything, that makes me more confident in my answer. Ryan: Oh, okay. Will: Wait, you got your first ever of all time or your first ever this week? Ryan: Yeah. Well, this was what time on Tuesday? So the first For Tuesday. Yeah, the first for Tuesday. I got pulled over for speeding once and then got off on a warning, but this time the cop was like, not the same cop. I don't think he knew, but I was going fast enough where he was like, "I really got to write you this ticket." I was like, "Okay." Joe: In college, driving from Atlanta to Athens, I got pulled over. Luckily I had my school ID on me and I was like, "Officer, I have a test tomorrow. I just really need to get to my apartment and study up for this test." He was like, "You're a good student kid, but slow it down next time." I was like, "All right." Seth: You're speeding to the library. Joe: Yeah. In reality, I was speeding to not do shit, just to get back to college. Tyson: I got pulled over one time with, I had just gotten fillings done and I had a fever, and so the cop pulls me over and I'm pale and literally sweat is pouring down my body and he looks at me and goes, "First time getting pulled over?" And I'm just like, "Yes." Ryan: Sure. Tyson: Yeah. I got away with a warning, but it was quite an experience. I'm sure he thought I was on methamphetamine or something like that. Joe: Just play dumb whenever cops get involved. Tyson: I didn't know I was driving. Joe: Me driving? Ryan: Here's one for, I feel like I had one for Will. Well, I guess this could be for anyone, but I'm going to throw it at Will or maybe Jay-Z because we haven't heard from Jay-Z in the while. So this is for the two of you guys. This is from Keegothewise. What are your top three booty songs? And then in parentheses, to clarify, songs about butts, songs that sound like butt, or interpret how you wish. Will: Oh man. The Thong Song feels like such a cop out, but I did rewatch the, oh shit, who makes those videos? Some brand not long ago, maybe it was Rolling Stone made a kind of oral history of a bunch of pseudo, not one hit wonders, Sisqo had a pretty solid career, but they did Papa Roach. That was the other one I remember. And it made me appreciate The Thong Song on such a great level. Plus, I think that came out while I was in middle school, so just dangerous time for that music video. I'm trying to think of a song that sounds like butt. JZ: I got one. No, not sounds like butt, but I'm not going to give three, but- Ryan: One is good. One's good. We don't need to- JZ: Are we going to censor this video? Ryan: Just say whatever you want, man, let it fly. JZ: What is that song? I like big butts and I cannot lie. Ryan: Sure- Will: Sir Mix-a-Lot. Ryan: Sir Mix-a-Lot. Yeah. JZ: I like it because I have to clarify, I watched Friends thoroughly at least 10 times top to bottom, and that song was the song that Ross and Rachel was singing. So I got to give it to that one. Ryan: I'm not sure that I knew that. JZ: They had a dance too. Very appealing. Tyson: Ryan, I really want you to censor that even though it wasn't deserving of a sensor. Ryan: Yeah, I'm going to bleep the whole thing. Make you sound like a fucking sicko. Will: Just bleep all of the references tied to Friends. I used to watch, and that was a song that, and you used to sing. Joe: Jay-Z. I totally thought going to say, just to clarify, I do like big butts and I cannot lie. So that's why I love the song. JZ: That we can censor. Okay, okay. Okay. That we can sensor. Ryan: Jon Bois has raised a hand. Jon: Yeah, the risk of taking us a bit far afield, on baseball reference, they list a baseball player whose name is Larry Butt, B-U-T-T. He played briefly in the minor leagues in 1961 for three games and was never seen again. Again, the name is Larry Butt. Ryan: Big thanks to Larry Butt. Will: I was really hoping they had his walkup song. And that was... This doesn't totally count, but there's the episode of Always Sonny, where Jason Sudeikis shows up and he is kind of replacing Charlie. And Charlie has the butt song and dance. That's just like him singing, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt. And I will get that stuck in my head here and there. Ryan: That's a pretty good one. Hey, okay, here's one from Hayek. Will Untitled ever return? It was one of my favorite series you guys made. I'll throw that Seth or Will. Seth: Whoever wants to, I think there's certainly more episodes to make because one of those shows where I feel like we ran out of, not ran out of, but exhausted the obvious episodes, the John Stockton, Charles Barkley type ones that we had to make pretty quickly. There are a few that we haven't done. But the show gradually regenerates new episode ideas when people retire without a ring. There are more episodes that we would want to do, but it would be, and this is more of a Will thing, like a sales question, a question of the amount of manpower and time it took to make those episodes thoroughly the way we wanted to do them. So practically speaking, we haven't done those just because they're a pretty heavy workload. But there are definitely more episodes to make and more with each passing year if Will will ever let me do them. Ryan: Yeah. Will what the fuck? Will: Yeah. Yeah. If you have a show that you love that we don't do, you can blame me for it. A lot of my job is just to attempt to look out for everyone else's jobs here and make sure that we're all safe and smart as a business. And so I'll try to get away from doing that. No, Untitled was a huge lift that sales didn't want to touch, and the unfortunate nature of our work is if we're spending a long amount of time building something that then can't bring monetary value, it's hard to keep justifying that production. But we'd like to and might find a way, who knows? I think with Untitled and Collapse, my answer is like we want to badly enough that we should at some point and we're just waiting for the time to be right. Seth: I will also say Untitled is the most direct way to do it, but I have, I think we all have to an extent kind of found a way to write Untitled without writing them. We've done stuff about Reggie Miller in the Malice at the Palace and Clara's Rewinder about the Reggie Miller block where we're basically talking about why he didn't win a ring. I am writing a Carmelo Anthony prism right now, and a lot of it is about why his legacy is not winning a title. So there are more so than other shows, other ways to tackle those topics and answer the same questions without it explicitly being about why someone didn't win a ring. Ryan: Hi, Jon. Go ahead. Jon: I guess in that sense, that similar definition of the word, Alex and I kind of did an untitled for Steve Jilts, why he didn't win a title. The answer is because he sucked. Seth: I was nodding. I thought you were going to talk about the Vikings or the Falcons or something, but Nope. Will: That is the hard thing about Untitled, when Michael Jordan is the answer to everything and we have to spend 20 minutes talking around that just to fill out the runtime and beef up our stats. Tyson: I really wish we could have a Henrik Lundqvist one, which is real sad. Henrik Lundqvist at Washington Capital, great as we all know him. Will: But what sport does he play? Not one that any of us here watch. Tyson: Hey, we did Jarome Maginlo one. We did a Jarome Maginlo one. Ryan: But we don't know what you're talking about Tyson, because you're the only person who likes hockey. Tyson: Sorry, hockey goalie. Sorry, sorry. Will: We're all too stupid, Tyson. Ryan: Will really let that last podcast get under his collar, I think. Will: Hey, I'm doing this for the commenters who were like, is that true? Ryan: It's almost true. Charlotte, which way do y'all orient the toilet paper? And I assume what this is referencing, this is a question from THE BAD LORD, all caps. I assume this means paper hangs over or paper hangs under when you put the roll on the holder. Charlotte: I love how my first introductions are like piss bucket and AI. Well, AI is better than the toilet paper, but I- Ryan: Do you want a hockey question? We can do a hockey question if you want. Charlotte: Hockey puck. That was also, I was my first line was hockey puck. Ryan: You were obsessed with the hockey puck in the podcast. Charlotte: I just really wanted Seth to drop a hockey puck and piss. But for the toilet paper, I think I put it over. If this is the holder, the toilet paper is over this. That was it, right? Is everyone agreeing with that or someone different here? Ryan: I think I'm a TP role agnostic, to be honest with you. I don't care. I have no preference. Tyson: I have TP holders at our house that don't hold the toilet paper, where you just set it on the back of the tank. The rolls don't fit on the thing because whoever made this house was a psychopath. Ryan: Oh, they weren't accounting for nice big American rolls. Tyson: Yeah, the Charmin super ultra mega rolls our house normal usage. Will: When the house is built in a one ply only era, I can't fit the good stuff. Ryan: No one could foresee the future of the mega roll. I'm going to open this up to the group. This is from Gillups Fabrizio, and it is just the question in all caps, AIR BUDS? Seth: No. Ryan: We are no on an air bud. Tyson: Yes. Joe: Fraud. Ryan: Fraud says Joe Ali. Thumbs down from Jon Bois. Will: Depends which era. I think basketball, yes. Everyone else? No. Ryan: What else did he do after basketball? Will: Golden receiver. I think he did everything at a certain point. Ryan: Tyson, your Pro Air Bud? Tyson: Yeah, super Pro Air Bud. The thumbs down. Are we talking about the spirit of the movie or animal abuse? Ryan: I think that's why it's open to interpretation. The question is just Air Bud? Tyson: Did Air Bud ever dunk? I'm going to say no. Ryan: I'm going to be honest and say I don't think I've seen the entire movie all the way through in one sitting. Tyson: I remember there's a clown. Ryan: Seth, you saw it in theaters? Seth: Yes. Ryan: Bleak. Joe: Air Bud competed against a bunch of plumbers and firemen. He's not the real deal. Ryan: Joe's got mad respect for the firemen and plumbers of America. They don't need to be embarrassed by Air Bud. Tyson: We got to turn comments off now. They're all going to come for Joe. Ryan: Okay, here's one from Jake Huffaker. This is for Jon and Alex. When did you first hear about the Seattle Mariners story? Who first presented it? When did you know you were going to make a documentary about it? How long did it take to create it? And lastly, did the COVID pandemic impact the release schedule of the series? And thanks for raising your hand, Jon. I appreciate that. And they also said thank you for that series. I know it's just a baseball series, but it means so much to me. I watch it all the time. So yeah, you guys just want to talk about how that came to be? Jon: Yeah, as far as how I heard about it, I didn't really hear about it so much as just kind of watch it while it was going on. I was a kid, I was a baseball fan when Griffey entered his prime and everything. That was super fun. Yeah, Alex and I probably, Alex probably has a lot of stories I've forgotten about as far as the production of Mariners, but I remember Alex, and correct me if I'm wrong, but when I first pitched you on the history of the Mariners, we thought it was going to be 30 minutes long, 45 minutes long. Ended up being, what, three and a half hours or something. Alex: I literally dropped the verbatim in the spreadsheet. Jon: That was great. And even that was like 40% as long as Vikings just was last year, so that's just wonderful. Yeah. And COVID actually didn't, if anything, it helped us bear down more. It was nice to have something we could totally sink ourselves into as a distraction from all the stuff that was happening outside, at least in my case. The one funny thing that happened was that I remember Alex and I went out for a holiday dinner I think, or drinks or whatever. Kofi was there, Alex was there. And then we headed home and then I left my laptop in the Uber and it had all the Mariner stuff on it and I did not have anything backed up because I'm an idiot. And I had to pay the driver 100 bucks to come back from Long Island somewhere and bring it back to me when she so didn't need to. So the reason that she drove all the way back and came back and gave me that laptop is the reason we have the Mariners today. Alex: Yeah, Jon, I remember we were walking back to our desk after shooting the Steve Bono Dork Town is he was like, yeah, what if we just made a doc covering their entire history? And he specifically said it would be pretty long, maybe 30 to 40 minutes, and that was multiple episodes or longer than that. Ryan: Here's another one for Jon. Hey Jon, I'm wondering if REFORM! was a one-off foray into the political world or if you're interested in making more documentaries focused on political figures. I was just reading Michael Lewis's book on the '96 election Losers and thought that Maury Taylor would score well on reform's fascination index. That's from Tucker Legate. Jon: Yeah. I've had a guy who I've had on my list for a long, long time, I want to say five, six, seven years of guys who I would love to do a project about. That guy is Lincoln Chaffee who was barely around for the 2016 Democratic Presidential primary. Just long enough to say like, oh yeah, I did a bad job as governor of Rhode Island, because I had just got in there. I didn't really know what I was doing, whatever. And that was the only question they asked him, and then he just vanished after that. He's also the only guy to run for the presidential nomination as a Democrat, Republican and Libertarian, which is awesome. I would love to cover him one day. Ryan: Incredibly weird energy. That's kind of cursed vibes. Okay, so here's one that I'm not sure I know what this is, but Jacob Kief wants to know, would you consider bringing Lunch Judgment back? The Spilly saga is one of my favorite things on the internet. What is Lunch Judgment? Jon: Lunch Judgment was a column I ran on SBNation.com about 10 years ago where I would around lunchtime Eastern Standard Time, I would be like, "Leave a comment. Describe to me your lunch. I will rate it on a scale of zero to 10." That of course birthed internet superstar Spilly, who is beloved in sports internet circles. That's kind of how he made his bones by making the most disgusting stuff imaginable. It was great. It was a lot of fun. It was kind of a time and place thing that I honestly, I would like to open that up into the public domain. If somebody wants to take Lunch Judgment and do it for themselves, they owe me no royalties and they should have fun. Seth: I once went on a quest that I failed to source Spilly a pair of yak testicles for him to eat. And I had the hookup and everything, but just the expense and infrastructure required to transport those ended up being practical. Great guy. Ryan: Big shouts to Spilly. This is from Liam says, bring back Card Show please. That's their full name. God given. I'm sure it's on their birth certificate and everything. Their question is, who is your go-to leader on Civilization VI, which is something that Jon has mentioned before. I also play Civilization VI. I don't know if anyone else does. Oh, Charlotte does. Charlotte: I don't play, but my sister is obsessed with Civ and she's only started playing Civ VI, I don't know, very recently and she has over 150 hours already. And she said, "I like Hojo Tokimune because coastal combat bonuses plus district adjacency bonuses. He's a base game leader, so pretty straightforward and beginner-friendly. Also, his character art is hot. Ryan: So he's the Japanese leader and he's a handsome dude for sure. I like that guy. His bonuses are good. Jon, you have a go-to Civ VI leader? Jon: I do. I've got the Sumerians who are led by Gilgamesh and the reason I like that they have a few really intriguing little bonuses, one of which is that they get to manufacture war carts, which is like the ancient era cavalry esque unit. You don't have to research anything to get it. You just get it. You can spam them like they're zerg and you can just mow down two of your nearest civs. And then just kind of camp up and win a science victory ideally. That's my favorite way to play. Ryan: Okay. This one is for anyone who wants to take it. Is there a chance any of those old based blog series from sbnation.com will return on Patreon or somewhere other than the dorktown articles? This is from Max T. They're specifically talking about the reviews or the secret based hall of fame. Jon's blog about Rust is still one of the best things I've ever read. Jon: Speaking from my part, I would not rule it out at all. I kind of miss doing that bloggy article writing stuff. A lot of us made our bones doing that and that's kind of how we got there. So yeah, no concrete plans other than obviously the regular dorktown, but I'd like to. Tyson: Patreon's the best place for it. Will: I know we've talked about using reviews for the Annex. I think that would be fun. Ryan: Oh, like inserting them in the podcast? Yeah, we have talked about that. Will: Yeah. Ryan: That would be fun. This is from Erik Helmle. Would you ever consider a Dorktown live show with presentation debates, meet and greets, merch, et cetera? A live tour would be super fun. Or any kind of secret base live. You guys kind of did one. Alex: Yeah, we kind of did one of those a couple years ago in Seattle. It was fun. Jon: The one thing that I would not do in that list of thing is debates. I would rather jump off a canyon than have any kind of sports debate that lasted for longer than 30 seconds. Because I would just lose. Alex: You don't want to do a Jordan vs. LeBron debate? Jon: Oh God. Yeah. No, I would volunteer to lose debates. If you want to pick a side for me to take, I tell you what, as a Dorktown fundraiser at the next live event, if we do one, if you pay me $50 cash, I will guarantee to enter a debate and lose to you no matter what the side is, no matter what the debate is. Alex: Sounds like a plan. Ryan: Let's do actually this one. I always enjoy when SB vids get a chance to talk about positive relationships in sports teams or how some folks irrespective of skill, et cetera, are just nice to be around. Is there any chance for some sort of anti beef history? That's from Zorak. I think that could be fun. A series of best buds or nice people. Will: Where's the conflict? Where's the story? Ryan: You always need conflict. What is the deal with that? You're always making problems. Tyson: See, the conflict is they try to destroy the friendship, but it withstands the test of time. It withstands the controversy of that exists in whatever world this is. I don't have a specific example. It's up to you. Ryan: This person also asked, can we get a rewinder on EVO moment number 37? Which someone helpfully dropped in this dock is a Street Fighter, that's a Street Fighter thing from a semifinal match held at Evolution Championship Series in 2004. I think I've seen YouTube videos of this. It's kind of a big deal in the fighting game world. I guess the bigger question is are we going to do rewinders on eSports? People do want to know that. We get that question a lot. Will: Without searching on YouTube right now, I would bet someone has done a rewinder adjacent thing about this moment, right? I think the honest answer is probably like, we don't know these things well enough to do that, but I bet there is an expert out there who's covered it. Ryan: Someone did a rewinder ripoff about a chess tournament once, I think, like a world championship chess match or something like that. That was kind of cool. Tyson: It reminds me of the stuff Sun Mining Salt does about speed running. They do a fantastic job of recapping video game moments. Ryan: This next question is from Some Nobody As President and they said, first I want to thank everyone at SB for making incredible work that I get to sit and watch with my dad. I never understood why he was so glued to any TV playing football or basketball or golf as a kid and now with y'all I get to share that passion with him, which is kind of cool. We're both big golfers, so my question is about golf content. Last mailbag you mentioned several sports that weren't in your wheelhouses. Is golf a similar thing? Have you thought about or pitched golf stories recently? I'd love to show him a golf story about the worst professional game or another golf beef or whoever you think the wackiest golfer is. The only thing I know about golf is the weird rules we did about where you can call and report people who are breaking the rules, which apparently you can't do anymore. We have office masters. Oh, what was the office thing where they brought in the masters and played golf in the office, in the office kitchen? Alex: Yeah. It's Will's favorite video. Ryan: Oh, that's a... Jon: I remember that. Ryan: What is this? What are we talking about? I thought we were talking about something different. Alex: No, yeah. It's the one where we set up a mock masters in the office Will: Doing routine office things like getting coffee and stuff like that, which I believe the full story was the person who conceived it had tried really hard to convince Jon to be a part of it as the second person against Alex's brother. And John was just like, "No, I don't want to do that." And so he made sure not to be a part of it by working from home that day. And so it was like, oh shit, it'll be one person I guess doing all of these things while I think Susanna and Alfred commentated from the studio on the stuff. Jon: Yeah, he basically said, he asked me if I wanted to be in it. I was like, no. And then turns out his backup plan was to basically put my name on a leaderboard to be like next time he saw me like, okay, well we set up the set for you. You have to do it now. And I didn't even give him that chance because I didn't even show up to the office that day. So I think somewhere on the thumbnail is my name on a leaderboard, but I was not in the video. Seth: I do think the answer to that question is that, at least of the people who produce videos, golf is not particularly in our wheelhouse. I don't think any of us are big... I feel like Tyson, you might be the biggest golf person. Tyson: I like golf. I'm not good, but I do. I live in Florida, so I have no choice but to- Seth: Yeah, there you go. But yeah, I've done at least one golf video. Joe did one on Tiger Woods pretty recently. We do them now and then, but A, we don't have much of a golf audience and B, none of us off the top of our head is going to come up with a golf idea and it takes us a great deal of research to get there. Because we don't want to half ass a video or make one that isn't satisfying to watch. And so when it requires that much work and care to arrive at even a basic understanding of the topic and then no one watches it, yeah, that's not something we're going to be doing that often. But that could change with different people or different incentives to make videos. Tyson: I will say on a completely related unrelated note as an anecdote, in a women's tournament recently, someone, Randy Johnson'd the bird that was on the green, which is absolutely, I was thinking about it in the car the other day. The variables that have to add up for that to happen and it's just the universe is just an insane experience. Ryan: Here's personal question for Jon from Timothy Richardson. John, did you travel on an airplane from Washington Dulles airport to Dayton, Ohio for the solar eclipse of April 2024 or perhaps did I sit behind his doppelganger on that plane? Can you confirm or deny you were on that airplane in April of 2024? Jon: No, that's a really easy question. Ryan: You heard it here first folks. Jon was not on that airplane. Okay. Seth: The search continues. Ryan: The search continues. One day we'll find out who that possibly could have been. 1 Baseball Elephant asks, is there any crazy story you've always wanted to tell us about but has never fit into a video so far? I feel like we have tons of these, right? No, we've done everything we've wanted to? Jon: Yeah, this is actually our last video. Will: It's a hard question since so many of when we look for topics, it's like looking for something kind of specific, but then while we're researching we find weird anecdotes or side rabbit holes or whatever and we're like, oh, I should bookmark that. At least personally, I rarely remember shit while having tunnel vision on the one topic. ... While having tunnel vision on the one topic, but there has to be something. I don't know. That's the issue with building stuff in franchise models, I guess. Tyson: Well, I guess you don't want to give away the secret ideas right away, right? You want to save them? Will: Yeah. One baseball elephant works for ESPN. Nice try. Tyson: Yeah, nice try. Ryan: We have similar questions from Matt Beaty and Mehul Joshi about what our favorite movies are. JZ, I'm going to start with you. You got a favorite movie? Real quick, no time. This is lightning round. What's your favorite movie? Go. JZ: Godfather. Made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Ryan: Jon. Jon: Did you say me? Ryan: Yeah. We're doing lightning round. Favorite movie. Jon: Spaceballs. Ryan: Joe. Joe: It used to be The Departed, but then I realized the ending's terrible. Ryan: Oh, no. So now you're still on the hunt for a favorite movie? Joe: Yeah, I'm still on the hunt. Ryan: Seth. Seth: Hot Rod, easy. Ryan: Okay. Tyson. Tyson: Hot Rod's real good. Dodgeball makes me laugh a whole bunch in that same vein. That's not a good answer. It's not my favorite movie, sorry. Ryan: Damn, you goofed. Okay, Alex. Alex: Comedy, Dumb and Dumber. Non-Comedy, He Got Game. Ryan: See, he had it right there. Will. Will: Right now, I don't think... I used to always say Shawshank and then everyone started saying Shawshank. I would say Shawshank and Forrest Gump are the two movies where if it's on TV, I'll sit through it. Joe: Forrest Gump on TV has got to be like five hours long. Ryan: Yeah, there's way too many commercial breaks. Joe: You're sitting through all the dialysis commercials and shit like that, watching Forrest Gump on TV. Will: I'll pause it and I'll come back to it two hours later so I can fast-forward the commercials. Ryan: There you go. That's a good idea. Char. Charlotte: Cleo 5 to 7, From Up on Poppy Hill, and The Trouble with Angels. Ryan: What was the first thing said? Seth: And Hot Rod is four. Charlotte: Cleo 5 to 7. Ryan: What is that? I don't know. Charlotte: Cleo From 5 to 7 by Agnes Varda. Seth: Is that the one where you don't understand what you're watching and it's one woman's life for a really long time and then- Charlotte: Yeah, stuff happens to the woman and you're watching the woman and it's mysterious. Seth: It's very similar to Hot Rod I think people say. Ryan: Yeah, they are a lot a like. That's probably why I got them confused. I know it as Hot Rod. Yeah, I got to go with Hot Rod. Tyson: I have to say my ultimate favorite movie is Young Frankenstein though. Sorry to- Ryan: Young Frankenstein is a good one. My actual answer I think if I really had to pick would be Monty Python and the Holy Grail. That was a really early childhood favorite of mine that never really has lost its shine. Joe: No Casablanca heads out there? Seth: Casablanca is really good. Ryan: It's really good. Seth: It's really good. Ryan: I'll tell you- Seth: That's one of those movies that I saw almost ironically, and then I was like, oh wait, this is fantastic. Ryan: I love Spaceballs too, says Charlotte Atkinson in the chat. I also love Spaceballs. I'll tell you my favorite movie I've seen in the last 12 months was Godzilla Minus One. That movie was fucking incredible. Highly recommend if you haven't seen it. Joe: It's on streaming services now, right? Ryan: It's on Netflix now, yeah. Joe: All right. I'll have to check it out. Ryan: Ghost. Jiazhan, yeah. JZ: No, no, seriously. I love that movie. Yeah, I love me some romance movies. Ryan: You just want Swayze's arms over your shoulder while you're making pottery. JZ: Yep. Listening to Unchained Melody. Ryan: Yep, exactly. Let's see here. You are the manager, this is from Ethan May. You're the manager of a fictional baseball team and you've been tasked with creating the all-time goofus-maloofus lineup. Nine hitters, a starter, and a reliever. Who are you picking? I think we could just do this one collectively. Jon: There is nine of us on this call. Ryan: That's true. That's true. You're looking at them, folks. Alex, what did you say? Alex: I said Steve Jeltz has got to be in that lineup somewhere. Ryan: Okay. Anyone else want to throw out any other contenders for the goofiest baseball lineup of all time? Besides the nine people on this call right now? Tyson: What's the guy with the last name of Butt? Jon: Larry Butt. Ryan: Larry Butt. Tyson: Yeah, Larry. Lawrence Butt. Full God-given name. Joe: Lawrence Derriere. Ryan: Yeah, that's his more formal name. This is from Nikolai Levnekov. I think this is for you Jon. Longtime fan here. Fighting in the Age of Loneliness was a watershed moment for me personally, even if I've never watched live MMA. I'm just curious if any similar collaborations, even if smaller scale, have been floated around or gained traction since. Jon: Yeah, I mean, first of all, I appreciate that. We were really proud of that. Felix did an awesome job writing that. As far as future collaborations, I mean I've lately gotten my field just being able to collaborate with others on the team here who I've been able to collaborate with on projects. The Michael Jordan Bobcats piece that we did a couple of years ago is still maybe the most fun I've ever had working on something. In the future, yeah, I'm down to collaborate with pretty much whoever that makes sense. Ryan: If you had to pick someone right now to collaborate with who does not currently work here, who would you pick and why? Jon: Jesus Christ. Ryan: That's a pretty good one. Seth: No, he does work here. Ryan: He does? Seth: Yeah. They have him making stuff for TikTok mostly. Will: He is on the weeds, he took over the weeds. I feel like the collective answer at Secret Base would be Summoning Salt. I feel like that's the creator that the most of us are into. Ryan: Mr. Beast. Tyson: Even like John Boyer, I like his stuff. Summoning Salt's super good. Ryan: Here's a question from Ryan Simmons right now, just because I'm getting a little loopy. If you could design an insane Mr. Beast game show, what would you do? What would you make? I'm going to make some- Joe: I saw someone mention that Mr. Beast is essentially Jigsaw from... Ryan: Yeah, he's terrifying. Joe: And it's pretty accurate. Ryan: The stuff he comes up with is terrifying and I find his visage, there's something lacking there. There's a humanity I think that's missing that makes me feel like maybe he is capable of something really sinister. All right, what are all of your favorite Broadway shows and why? From Aidan Mott. We got any Broadway heads here in the crowd? I'll tell you right now, mine is The Producer. Will: I saw Lion King once, thought that was sick. Ryan: Lion King's pretty good. Tyson: I saw Wicked and it made me cry. Ryan: Wicked will do that. Tyson: It's pretty good. Ryan: JZ. Joe: Got to go either Book of Mormon or School of Rock on Broadway. Ryan: Book of Mormon is pretty good. Laughed really hard at Book of Mormon. JZ: No, I got to second School of Rock. I was so moved by that one. Ryan: For the rest of you, just name a Broadway show that you know. Seth: I always liked The Music Man. Ryan: Music Man is good. Music Man is- Seth: Oh, and I saw Beauty and the Beast on Broadway when I was a kid and Toni Braxton was Belle and it was amazing. Ryan: Charlotte, I feel like you were going to jump in there for a second. Mamma Mia- Charlotte: No, I mean I saw Wicked when I was a kid and it was pretty cool. Ryan: This is from Ben Sweetser. Would you ever do a deep dive video on the relationship between sports and their fans? The good, bad, and ugly of sports fandom. Not specific to one fan base or another, more about the positives of building a community through fandom and the downsides of toxicity within those fan bases, et cetera. Then someone else replied, their name is J.C Abdallah, PhD and they said, "Answering your question is what I do for a living. LOL." I want to collaborate with that person. Seth: Also, Mike Imhoff kind of made a video about that. Ryan: Which one? Seth: Mike Imhoff. He had a beard. Ryan: He goes by Jesus Christ now. Seth: Yeah, this is pre-Secret Base or anything resembling it, but it would still be on our channel I think. This is from, I want to say 2015-ish, 2016 maybe. It was about the psychology of fandom. Yeah, I think sort of as that person implied, that's a question that warrants actual academic controlled research that we're not going to do. Will: Kind of related to this, but our old colleague, rest in peace, Ryan Nanni, still alive. He has started making a podcast where he talks to individual fans from teams, often I think from fan bases that people think lesser than of, and it's kind of like we're not all like that. I think the title of it is something like that, but go find Celebrity Hot Tub on the socials. You'll find links to it. I haven't listened to it, but everything Ryan does is very enjoyable. Ryan: Well, not everything. Will: Oh, yeah. You've been in the bathroom after him. Ryan: Let's see, what else? Oh, there were two I wanted to combine here because they were kind of similar. Perfectlyadequate wants to know, have you considered entering any of the Dorktown series into film or documentary festivals and Brennan Keller said, would you ever premiere something in a movie theater? I'm asking because I manage one in Minnesota, brag, and I think it could be a neat idea. I mean, do you think it could be an interesting idea? We kind of have already done that. We've definitely submit stuff to festivals with varying degrees of success, and you guys had that show in Seattle, right? Jon: Yeah, the Seattle show was a ton of fun. It was amazing. I would love to do more of those. We just need to kind of get ourselves out there a little bit more and we have to cross some more I's, dot some more T's on the legal front to be able to show something. For some reason, the law is different when you show it on a really big screen in front of a lot of people versus whether you show it on a YouTube screen. Some things there, but nothing that we can't overcome. I would love that. Will: Just want to quickly shout out because I have a hunch this is her, but hey, Emily, in case that's Perfectlyadequate. I assume all of us are familiar with Emily, Perfectlyadequate Emily on the socials. She's a big Secret Base fan. Ryan: What up? Shouts. Will: Also, we should have just played that off as though we haven't ever submitted anything for festivals or awards and that's why we haven't gotten in. Seth: Oh, you can do that? Ryan: So lie, we should have lied for more of our answers is what you're saying. Gabe Taylor would love to hear any larger or overarching inspirations you guys have for the tone and content of the channel. I mean, I feel like it's kind of a big goulash. It's kind of a mix of a lot of different disparate things. I feel like some 30 for 30's on ESPN, kind of, in sort of where we draw our... But I wouldn't say it's direct inspiration. I don't know. Are there other channels or things that you guys have watched that you felt like, continuing to do it is enough of an inspiration. Yeah, I agree. Jon: Yeah, tonally we're kind of all over the place. I know I personally am all over the place, both on a project-by-project basis and a minute-to-minute segment-by-segment basis and yeah, I see the same thing in the rest of our videos. As far as our tonal spectrum as far as how serious and how funny we are, I'm pretty happy with our balance. Will: I feel like for a while we were kind of inspired by the idea of, oh, it would be great to have something go onto an OTT channel. It'd be cool if we did a Netflix show or something like that and then just over time, I think we're all just like, I don't know. It's also really fun to do things with the control of doing it in the Secret Base way. Specifically for the audience that has been showing up for it. Ryan: Here's one from Comrade Jay that I feel like we could help him out. Got a bit into basketball/ NBA in the last few years, mostly through your videos. The thing I want is a team to support and I'm not sure who. I guess I'm asking for suggestions or maybe try to sell me on a team. My other teams are Newcastle United in football and Hull Kingston Rovers in rugby league, but I doubt that's helpful. Anyone want to make a pitch for their team? Tyson: I'll pitch for Orlando Magic. That team is super fun to watch. They're young, they're only getting better. They're making good managerial decisions. The games are real fun to be at and good atmosphere and the players are good guys. I don't know them personally, but it's Orlando Magic. Fun team to watch and they're on the up. Ryan: Jiazhan, if you say the Boston Celtics, I'm going to kick you off this call. Tyson: No. JZ: You have to listen to my reasoning because watch the Celtics because everybody's going to hate you and it's fun. Ryan: Okay, next. Joe. Joe: Detroit Pistons. Ryan: They just fired their coach. Joe: That's a team that's really on the up and up. Ryan: Yeah, get in on the ground floor. Joe: Nowhere else they can go but up. Tyson: Absolute bottom, yeah. Joe: Yeah. Buy that stock early. JZ: In all seriousness, I would say the Spurs. Because I think Wemby is, he just got into the league. He's a freak of nature, a lot of fun to watch. They've got a really mature system, so there you go. I don't know, I'm just... Ryan: Charlotte, pick a team and make a case for them in 15 seconds. You don't have to know anything about them. Just pick one. Charlotte: Liberty because New York, woo-hoo. Ryan: The New York Liberty, okay. Charlotte: WNBA, let's go. Ryan: There you go. Hey, that's a great reason. Charlotte: Let's go. Nice shirt. Ryan: That's repping the merch. Seth, you got any advice for our friends? Seth: I have earnest advice. One option is to hold out because the league will expand within the next couple of years and you can become a fan of a team at its inception. Option number two is to do it organically. I think the only real way to become a fan of a team is to be open-minded, and so sit down and watch NBA games the beginning of next season. Cast a wide net and you'll just feel it. You'll be attracted to one team or another. That's usually how I approach the NCAA tournament where I don't have a team but I watch a bunch of games and you just kind of take your own temperature of like, I'm rooting for this team. I don't really know why. Something about their best player or their style or something is magnetic to me and then take it from there. I think I have at times in my life outside of the NBA been like, all right, I'm going to become a fan of this team and then started watching their games and it doesn't work like that. You got to, I think, have it happen organically. I think either wait to get in for one of those expansion teams or go in without a choice in mind and see what attracts you or the Magic is a good answer. Joe: Or I'm sure there's a BuzzFeed quiz from 2010 that says like which NBA team am I? You take a little poll, you should do that and then go with that. Ryan: We should put something like that on the Patreon. Tyson: Actually, I think we made a long time ago when I was doing feature stuff with Graham. I think we made what player you should... I got to look back into that. Oh my gosh. Joe: I forget what it was, Tyson, but we definitely did do something along those lines. Tyson: I just kept getting Ben Simmons for some reason and I don't- Seth: Tyson just had the equivalent of a Vietnam flashback, but for content. Tyson: Yeah, truly it was old SB Nation, big tent pole stuff was a wild time in the history. Ryan: The MD wants to know what's your view on inside the park home runs and I guess my first question is is there some sort of controversy around inside the park home runs and why someone would have a strong opinion one way or the other? Does anyone know? Seth: I want an Alex answer. Okay, Jon. Jon: I also want an Alex answer. What I would, I mean I don't think there's any controversy or any discussion or discourse that I know about. I do think that if I could make any rule changes to baseball, it would be to blow out the outfield so that it is as deep as the Polo Grounds or Ebbets Field or whatever. There was one where it was like 500 feet to dead center and make it so that the majority of home runs are inside the park home runs. That would encourage athleticism, speed, action and make the game more exciting. Tyson: You'd be blowing out outfielders arms left and right. You'd be just switching out outfielders as much as pitchers. But I am all for, maybe even if you get an infield home run now you can get two points. Maybe that's too much. Alex: I was just going to be like, who's trying to outlaw inside the park home runs or whatever? My thought is if you make it to first base after an inside the park home run, it should count as another run. So if you can conquer five bases, that should be allowed. Ryan: I agree. Alex: You should be allowed to run to first and make it even a fifth base. Seth: I think you should be allowed to after the initial contact, go the wrong way and go to third and then around to home clockwise, but you lose a run. Ryan: Make it happen. Let's see, what else? If there were, this is from Zach S. If there were an Olympic style competition with only pro sport league athletes, who would you want to see compete in what? If there were an Olympic style competition with only sport league athletes, who would you want to see compete in what? Jon: I just want to see NBA players play Olympic basketball. Hope it happens one day. Ryan: Maybe one day. Charlotte: I don't want to see NFL players do gymnastics, I just want to see them on the beam or something. That'd be fun. Will: Ndamukong Suh with the little wand. Seth: Oh, you went straight to rhythmic gymnastics. Will: Proper gymnastics. Seth: Sure. Ryan: Nicolas Holly asks, what's your opinion on the Colorado Rockies currently? Been a lifelong fan, tortured soul for my whole life, so I want to get your take on them. Anyone who's plugged into the baseball world want to take that because I have no idea. I couldn't possibly speak on the Rockies in any meaningful way right now. Tyson: They do have a team. I know that. Ryan: They do, yeah. Joe: They work purple into their general colors. That's pretty cool. It's a pretty dope thing to do. I'll give them that. That's all I got though on the Rockies. Ryan: They remind me of beer and I like beer. Joe: Beer's cool. Will: I asked our friend Russ Oats about the Rockies because he is the only Rockies fan I'll probably ever meet, other than Nicolas. He said they're very much a team, which is probably the nicest thing you can say about them. Seth: He said the same thing we all said, and he's a big fan. Ryan: We can agree they're a team. The Real Ben Shapiro, doubtful, but who knows. Asks a discussion of 2019 Jacob DeGrom often providing his own and only offense in here got me thinking given his roots as an outfielder, would Dave Stieb had benefited from playing in the National League? Alex: I don't think so. He hit in college and stuff, I don't think he necessarily can be penciled in to have been some sort of transcendent hitting pitcher, but who knows? Jon: Yeah. One thing that, and this is a super, super Secret Base exclusive we got for you. I actually asked Dave Stieb a similar question one of the times I talked to him and he said that by the time he had gotten to the majors, he was really only a couple few years removed from his career as a position player and hitter. He said even that little amount of time was all it took for his swing to completely desert him. If you saw him in the All-Star Game where he just struck out, I mean he was just like, yeah, my hitting ability was completely gone because it really is use it or lose it. Ryan: This is from JC Abdallah, PhD, who made a little cameo appearance in someone else's question from earlier. What's the most interesting sports news story to you in terms of how the hell did that happen? I'm thinking about stories that were maybe more tangential to the sport, but I'm interested in hearing your thoughts. Thanks and I'll hang up to hear the answer. They're going to take that off the air. Go ahead, Will. Will: Nate Burleson breaking his arm to save a pizza. Ryan: Yeah, that's a pretty good one. Geez, I feel like there's so many, there are a lot of bad ones. Ones I wish I didn't hear about. Gun related things or whatever, I don't want to know. That's all kind of tragic and sad. Seth: I have a random one that I always, I don't know. The thing is that I have a little kid and so I've thought about the children's book author. Well, I'm going to give away the spoiler of the story. Let me tell the story. Mo Williams, Maurice "Mo" Williams, the former NBA player, teammate of LeBron's, Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Cavalier was called by a Hollywood agent who was like, hey, man, we want to make some movies. We want to work with you to produce some movies based on your life's work and your career. Would you be interested? Mo Williams was like, yes, absolutely. I've kind of been waiting for this. That's really exciting. I didn't expect to get this call, but absolutely. Had a few more calls before he realized that there is a children's book author named Mo Willems who the Hollywood agent intended to call and so this NBA player thought that he was going to have his big break in Hollywood and he's famous enough that he has an agent and if you ask for an agent directory, can you get me in touch with this person? They might be like, okay, Mo Williams. They might both be represented by CAA or something. But yeah, he got mistaken for the children's book author Mo Willems who writes books about pigeons riding school buses and stuff and has never played in the NBA. I've been thinking about that a lot recently because I have a child. Ryan: That's pretty good. Tyson, I feel like this is for you because you're the only hockey person on the team. Dan from the Band Minister wants to know if the Oilers win the Stanley Cup this year, can we get a deep dive into their absolutely up and down crazy year. Tyson: I mean, it's worth, their history is worth taking a look at. Unfortunately, the fact that I live in Florida makes me want to root for the Panthers and I have been on the Panthers bus. Oilers have a pretty interesting history, mainly in their draft picks and how they've squandered a lot of them for a very long time and then all of a sudden it starts clicking and Connor McDavid has pretty much just had enough playing on a mediocre team. I honestly don't care who wins the Stanley Cup ultimately, but I think that's a absolutely valid history worth looking into. Only if Will wants it. Will: I don't know who the Oilers are. We should note we are recording this the day before game six, and this will release the day of game seven, which makes it for a very interesting answer of... Tyson: Florida should of swept, but Florida getting reverse swept is actually very funny. Will: Their year, I mean, the Oilers year has been wild enough that it'll be unbelievable a few times over if they pull this off. Ryan: There's a question here from Ben. I think I could take this. Is there any football (soccer) content you guys have planned? The answer is no. Next question. No, do we have any soccer vids coming up? Will: There's a couple. I mean, we have a couple built if sold offerings out there. Ryan: If anyone out there knows a big brand that's got some money burning a hole in their pocket, send them our way. I don't quite understand this one. It's not even a question, but we're getting down to the bottom of the list here. Clayton Zeno wrote pro wrestling plus Secret Base equals collision course. Agree or disagree? Will: I'll jump on that just because it's related to the previous answer. We actually, we've never covered pro wrestling, but we do have, there were a couple sponsors interested in stuff and so I think we have one or two topics out there as if they want it, here it is. We had to wait for Godfrey to get back because Godfrey is the resident wrestling boy at Secret Base. Ryan: Hagen Lena wants to know... Hagan Ledda wants to know, "Would it be possible to send small items for y'all to sign? I have a classic Mariners hat and a Bob Hamelin card." Seth: Yeah, but everyone but Jon signs it. Ryan: Signed by Jim Bankoff, company CEO. Let's see. What else, what else, what else? Seth: Wait, but that person can send some stuff to the office and I'll make Jon sign it. Will: Yeah, I think specify who you want to sign it so you don't get a Bob Hamelin card signed by Phil back in the mail. Ryan: I think this is for whoever wants to take it. We get similar questions like this, but what are your thoughts? This is Brendan Simone, wants to know, "What are your thoughts on the Detroit Lions?" One of the more irrelevant franchises in North American sports. They had the first zero in 16 season, but also housed two of the greatest skilled position players of all time and an incredible history of getting screwed. "Any chance a video or series gets made on them?" Jon, you think you have a similar Atlanta Falcons/Detroit Lions series in you? Jon: The Lions were one of the franchises, one of the many franchises I think Alex and I had batted about as a potential topic. I think they were just on our list of like, "Nah, there's just not enough and we don't want to join the chorus of people talking about how much of a tragedy they are and how sad they are because that's not interesting and everybody knows that already." I don't know. Personally, as an aside, I'm hoping things are on the up and up for them. Ryan: Similar question, this is from Noah T, if you are willing to revisit the Falcons. "I'd like to know if there will be an update on the history of the Atlanta Falcons," Joe, you can chime in on this one too, "updating everyone about the Arthur Smith era and now introducing us to the Raheem Morris era." There's already so much to unpack in just those three years, or would you prefer to wait until more time has passed or another Falcons moment happens or if they become successful again and they update us on the shape of the bird? Jon: Yeah, I'd love to hear Joe's thoughts on that and Alex's. For my part, who knows if we'll do another episode. The nice thing is its pretty modular so if we ever were compelled to do so, it wouldn't be a big deal to add another chapter. That said, I did end on a really bad note, and this is a total cell phone on my part. I ended with, "Let's name some of the Falcons of the future. For example, Calvin Ridley," and that didn't actually work out so I wouldn't mind rejiggering the ending there. Alex Rubenstein: And if the Falcons draft a quarterback in the first round next year we will make an emergency part eight. It's fair to say that. Joe: I got quick chapter for you. They're a joke of franchise. There you go. There's an update. Ryan: Let's see what else we got here. Jackson M wants to know, "Does anyone care about fantasy football at all and if so, is there a Secret Base league?" There is not a Secret Base league. Seth: Will has a podcast for his league. Ryan: Will's a big... I have a fantasy league with my friends too, but not near the level of recording a in-house podcast for it. Will: One of my biggest regrets of the last 12 months. Ryan: Why? Will: It was not worth it so quickly. Ryan: So much work. Will: And I committed. I saw this question earlier and I was thinking about we used to do work leagues, we stopped doing work leagues because not enough people are into it. It could be a fun thing to see if any patrons want to jump on a league with us this season. Ryan: Oh, boy. Will: With the people on the team who are interested in doing that. Ryan: I think we should charge them $100 to join. This is from Kalvin Filarski. "We know there is an active Bob emergency, but did we ever look up to see who is currently the anti-Bob or investigate which name was most thoroughly represented at different points in the Bob emergency timeline?" Seth: In the NBA right now, that's an easy answer. Sorry, I feel like that's a Jon question, but... Ryan: Take it. Seth: We have only just passed the hump I think of Jaylens in the NBA. This has been written about at length, but if you're into the NBA Draft, the last five or six drafts, it is extremely hard to keep straight all of the Jaylens in the draft. I think this year's draft is the first one in a while where, and unless I'm not thinking of someone, none of the top most prospects are named Jaylen. Usually there's two to four. And I can't remember who did it, but there's a great piece about how like Jaylen Rose, the NBA player, is the origin of that name basically. There's also, Ken Pomeroy wrote something about the history of people named Shaq and people named Kobe, neither of which boomed quite as much as Jaylen did, but we have the opposite of. We have a Jaylen surplus entering the NBA over the last few years. Will: Kind of related. I think I saw recently that Bob is actually the most common name on the Stanley Cup. Ryan: Az Cohen says, "Hey guys, a long time listener, first time question asker. Would love to hear your guys' take on the Green Bay Packers three time success in quality QB discovery. Is it a fluke or are they doing something others aren't?" Seth: Wait, sorry, I was distracted by Alex's point. Ryan: Yeah, I saw it pop up but I didn't see what it said. What did it say? Seth: He made a Jeremy Lin, J Lin, joke. Ryan: It's perfect. The question was football specific. Green Bay Packers, three times success in quality QB discovery. "Is it a fluke or are they doing something others aren't?" Will: I think they're doing something that others aren't by having a fluke at the position. Ryan: Well said. I think we're getting down to the end here. Most of these are for Kofie and Clara who will be joining us I think next time, but I've got a couple more here. "I recently read the actual formulas used to calculate passer rating in the NFL and, as expected, it's grade a crazy." Alex, I feel like this is right up your wheelhouse. "It's like someone who was only okay at math and had no statistics background, tried to do sabremetrics 30 years too soon, and yet it's shockingly effective at explaining which QB played better that day. Anyway, my question is: What are some of your favorite eerily useful statistics and why?" From Adam Foote. I'm going to have to go with points. I feel like that's a pretty good statistic, usually yearly. There seems to be a lot of crossover between points and performance, but if you've got another one, I would love to hear it. Alex Rubenstein: That's just really funny though that they specifically call out passer rating, but... Seth: Stay tuned. Alex Rubenstein: Yeah. Ryan: Big project coming up about passer rating. Alex Rubenstein: That shocked me to see. Tyson: I might have some ignorance here, but I was talking about this the other day of why do we track errors, and I know baseball is just like... They track everything, but I was just thinking about it, just it's a feel bad or maybe it's like, "Oh, they didn't deserve that run because someone made an error," or something. I don't know. I feel like- Seth: Baseball is a bookkeeping exercise with a sport attached to it and if they can track something, they will. I think that's part of the fun is to write stuff down. Tyson: I think it's interesting. And then they have someone, one specific person who judges whether it's an error or not, like in a booth. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's a thing. That's a weird stat to me that I think is funny. Seth: I always assumed it was God. Ryan: Devin Weinbrecht wants to know, "In your opinion, who was a better scorer in their prime, Glen Rice or Jerry Stackhouse?" Alex Rubenstein: It's got to be Stackhouse. Seth: I was going to say Glen Rice. Alex Rubenstein: In terms of numbers, I guess, yeah, you could argue Rice, but Rice was just so much more of a shooting specialist, I feel like. Seth: Yeah, but Jerry Stackhouse was a pretty bad shooter. Alex Rubenstein: Right, and he could beat you in more skill- Seth: Jerry Stackhouse definitely scored more than Glen Rice did. I don't know if that's true. I might end up being wrong, but- Alex Rubenstein: I think he demonstrated and possessed more offensive skill. Seth: I'm fine with that. Alex Rubenstein: Yeah. Tyson: I'm not. It's Air Bud. It's the answer is Air Bud. Ryan: The answer is always Air Bud. Bryce Page wants to know, "Are y'all excited for the new NCAA football game? You think there's anything worth exploring and how the franchise went away and is now coming back? Seems like the concept of Amateurism withering away is going to have a lot of knock-on effects. Curious what you all think." The headline there being that this game went away for a little while and then now it's coming back because college players can actually make money based off of their likeness. I've never actually played any of these games. I'm not much of a football game player, like Madden or the early NCAA franchise, but if anyone else has played those games and has got something to say on that matter, then now's your chance. Jon: I would just say that I am so starved for a American football video game that isn't complete crap that I might actually wait in and try it out, just because even though I am not a college football person at all, what really impressed me about the old version of the game was that it could let you create your own dynasties and everything over a period of years and decades and stuff. That's super fun. So if that is on the level it was when they dropped the series, I'm in. Ryan: The one that I liked the most was NFL Blitz because you could pick dudes up and body slam them back down onto the ground. Tyson: Burst into flames and then- Ryan: And burst into flames. That was a lot of fun. Basically, if we could introduce more violence... Huh? Will: Like real football. Ryan: A lot like real football, yeah. We just need some more of those elements in there. I think my ideal football game is when you go to tackle someone, it goes into a sub mode where it turns into a fighting game, and if you are the tackler and you win the fight, then you tackle that person. And if you're the defender and you win the fight, then you break the tackle and you get to keep running. It turns into Street Fighter basically, is what I'm saying. Seth: That'd be a good arcade game. If you went to an arcade and there's an arcade cabinet that has a sled... Is that what that's called? Like an offensive line sled and you and your buddies each put in a quarter and then you have to be linemen? Ryan: Oh, that's a great idea. Sure. Will: It's like a football version of that punching bag arcade game. Ryan: Yeah. And if you're really good at it, it tells you, "You're sexy, you're so hot." Those things at Carnivals where you grab the love meter...? Will: "The Falcons are going to try to sign you." JZ: Sorry, can I add in something? Ryan: Please do. JZ: The NHL game, the official game, I think it has the fighting features, right? You can instigate a fight and stuff. So I would remember, I was playing that game with my buddy, he won the game, he kicked my ass in scores, but then I think I knocked him out three times. And then all my players were just all suspended. But I won all the fights in the game. I didn't score. He won. I didn't score once. He scored a couple of times, but I knocked him out a couple of times, so I felt pretty good. Joe: JZ, known fighter. JZ: I'm not a violent person. My apologies. Tyson: I do like the alternative win strategies though. JZ: Right? I got to win at something, right? Tyson: You got to find your fun. JZ: Yeah. No, I actually felt more fun than actually winning the game, so it's all good. Ryan: You know what I want in a sports game, is just Air Bud. They never made an Air Bud sports game. I want to fucking play as Air Bud. Okay, we've got a couple more left. This is from Elliott Anderson. This is maybe a question for Kofie or anyone, so we'll take it in Kofie's absence. "Which sports video game has the best soundtrack? As someone who grew up in the Nintendo/Sega Genesis era, my pick is Laker versus Celtics in the NBA playoffs for Genesis." I've not played either of those games. "It's an absolute banger that had no right going that hard for 16 bit hardware." So great game soundtracks. Anyone got- Will: I would jump to the Tony Hawk games on 64. Ryan: Oh, those were so cool. Oh, man. Superman. Tyson: The original Tony Hawk and Underground have the most solid soundtracks of probably all time. There really isn't too much of an argument there. It's such a sick soundtrack for at least both of those games. Will: Underground also let you choose which songs to put on repeat, so you could be like, "Okay, here's a hundred songs. I just want to hear these 10." Ryan: Crazy Taxi. Will: Ooh, yeah. Ryan: Crazy Taxi is a sports game, I believe it, and it also has a great soundtrack. Will: Also, I couldn't name a song off the soundtrack, but I remember 1080° Snowboarding having just really good jams. Ryan: Oh, damn. Yeah, that one was pretty good. Seth: I would throw in MVP Baseball '05, and the NBA Live that had Carmelo Anthony on the cover, which is around the same era, which had a really good theme song. And then I would also add that there is an entire genre of music that I would describe as FIFA core, which is stuff that's vaguely world music, but sometimes hip hop adjacent and sometimes like electronic adjacent and from around 2010. I don't think I particularly love any of those songs. Waving Flag is probably the one. I don't think I particularly love any of those songs, but I just have heard them so many times from playing FIFA in high school and college that they're all very important to me. But there are still songs that come out now and that I'm like, "This is FIFA core. This sounds like it's from FIFA." Joe: Yeah, I was going to say one of the FIFA years, for sure. They're always very... To Seth's point, they're very songs you'd know but would never put on yourself. But when you're playing FIFA, it's like, "This shit slaps man." You going through, what country, what club I'm going to play with... But yeah, never a song you would purposely play yourself. Seth: Oh, also... Again, same era. What's the really famous Kid Cudi song that was on... It was on the menu screen in one of the NBA 2Ks from that era that you would just hear it like 50... It was maybe even the load screen. I think it's the most famous Kid Cudi song, but that's like... Joe: It wasn't Day and Night, was it? Seth: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. While you're picking your themes in probably like, 2K9 or 2K10, it's just... Baseline of that song the whole time. And so that stays with you no matter what. Ryan: So we are pretty much at the end. There's one more question that I want to wrap up with that is for everybody. There's a couple more for Clara and Kofie. We'll get to them when they can join us in the future. And thanks to... We answered pretty much all the questions that were submitted to us. Seth very helpfully dropped a YouTube link. You cannot click that if you're watching the video, but maybe you can pause the video and type it. Seth: I know. But for people on the call, that- Ryan: Our last question comes from Owen Stegall, or Stegall, and is, "I'm not currently working in any journalism or sports field, but my pipe dream would be to break into the field somehow. What would I start with to get into this field and what were y'all's processes for starting out?" Do we discourage this person from doing it at all? Do we tell them the truth? Do we say, "Save yourself?" Who wants to start? Who wants to take that? Will: I want to hear Charlotte's answer. Ryan: Go ahead, Charlotte. You don't have to raise your hand when someone... Charlotte: I know. I don't know. I just wanted to... I liked the sound of the raising hand. Honestly, I feel like if I wasn't on this team and I wanted to be on this team, I'd say to myself, "Build a portfolio." Because I was working at CBS Sports before and I think that definitely helped me in this position, but if you're coming from a place with no experience in sports journalism, I feel like if you have stories you want to tell, you could make your... I feel like our videos, while there's a lot of work put into them, if you have a story you want to tell, you can make something similar and put that in a portfolio and I think that'd be cool. I feel like that'd be cool to see if I was thinking of hiring someone, seeing that. Seth: Is there anyone here whose education directly set them up for the work they're doing here? Who was like, "I am getting an undergraduate or graduate education in sports media?" Tyson: My path took a weird circle. I was studying graphics and video editing stuff, and then I was forced, as a designer, to do web design and encoding and I just hate it, hate it so much. And then I've worked with Vox for... Was it 15 years, 14 years? And so after COVID, they were like, "Oh, do you know how to do video?" And I was like, "Yes." And then I got cycled through because I worked at so many different places at Vox. This was the perfect place to end up, and where I would've chosen a hundred times out of a hundred. But it was a weird circle 'cause there was a time where I just didn't work on it, on video stuff, for forever. Weird circles, that's what everything is. Will: Joe, you did some sideline reporting, right? Joe: Yeah, I took some sports media classes, but yeah, it was sideline reporting and commentating for Athens Clark County high school football. So that was a thing. Can't say that really prepared me for this job though, necessarily. Ryan: I'm not sure anything could prepare you for this specific job on this specific team. Joe: That's also fair. Ryan: I fell into this. I know people say that, but I was already working at Vox and doing just general video tech stuff. And then speaking of golf, we were doing... Or I should say you guys were doing the golf Tahoe tournament live coverage, which is, by the way, not the same year, but the same tournament that Donald Trump met Stormy Daniels years prior, and got sent to help with stuff and then just jumped onto the team from that general Swiss army knife team. And then just kept getting my hands in different projects until now. Seth: I was talking to someone about this morning, so I have advice crystallized in my head, which is... Like Charlotte was getting at, whatever your approach to media or covering sports is, you probably have an opportunity to do it using your own platform or using a publicly available platform. And so my advice is always like, if no one is paying you, if you're doing it for yourself or if you're doing it for exposure or whatever, it has to be fun and you have to want to do it. And that's worthwhile. A lot of us have done that and it's worthwhile, but it has to be fun. And if it's labor and someone's making you do it or it's grinding you and you're not getting paid for that, then that sucks and don't do it. Bail. If someone is paying you and you are making a living, or at least eating off of whatever it is you're doing, then I think it helps to not be too particular about what it is you're doing. And almost all of us, all of us, have worked jobs that didn't exactly match what our dream was, or those of us who intended to go into sports journalism or sports media did something that was slightly off or developed a different skill or covered a sport that we weren't that into or whatever. And not having a dead set like, "Okay, I want to be a basketball TV commentator, and so if someone offers me a job in football or a job on the radio or a job producing a podcast..." No. I think if someone's offering you a real job, then it is worthwhile and might actually help you in the long run to do something that's not necessarily exactly in your perceived wheelhouse and develop a new skill or actually find some other thing that you're totally into. But I would not be on Secret Base if, at this point seven or eight years ago, someone wasn't like, "Do you want to do video even though you've never done video before? 'Cause that's what we're going to pay you to do and we don't have a job for you otherwise." And I was like, "Fuck it. Okay." And now I'm doing this. This is not what I imagined I would be doing, but I just continued to say yes when people offer me money. But if no one's offering you money, do whatever the fuck you want and nothing else. Tyson: Allow yourself the opportunity to take opportunities that let you learn, even if it's connected or to the side... I worked with Vox.com for a long time and I learned more about structuring charts and things with them, which I could bring to a ton of Secret Base stuff. And so it's just like, even if it's not the same, just take from those learning experiences... Make sure you're getting paid for sure. And then take from those experiences and then see how you can translate them. Because always through lines that you can link everything together. Or you can just do... What? Was it, Antonio Brown who just ripped our...? They can just take our YouTube videos straight up and then just post them as there. Will: Jumping off of that, the best experience I got was with stuff that was not sports related. Because I think if you find a version of the job you want to ultimately do but it's not in the space that you're passionate about, then it can be a really good gauge to understand if you enjoy doing the work itself. And if you say, "My dream job is X, specifically in sports," there's a real good chance that it's not going to really line up with how you thought it would go, in a way where then the burnout can hit you, but you're like, "Oh, but this is my dream job. I want to keep pushing forward with it." If you were to find the non-sports version of it to understand what the reality of it is, that can be extremely helpful. And if you have that in mind, reach out to folks who do that job, because more often than not, maybe this is way too much hope for humanity, but people will want to talk to you and people will be down to share their experiences and get you a pretty clear picture of what their day-to-day is or their path to get to that specific position. And hopefully they're not all just completely jaded and try to talk you out of it. But I do think the experience that has nothing to do with sports can then inform the version of it once you're doing something that is about a topic you love. Tyson: I'll also say one last thing. Sports aren't going anywhere, so it's not like there's going to be a door that closes forever. And so finding a different path however weird it is, 'cause I know everyone here has had a weird path to get to Secret Base, but everyone's happy with where they ended up. So it's just like sports isn't going anywhere. If you have to grind somewhere else to get to where you want to go, it's worth it. I can say that because I'm super happy with where I'm at. I don't want to speak for everyone else. Ryan: Anyone else want to jump in on that real quick or should we call it a day? All right. What? Go ahead, Jon. Jon: Yeah, I'll jump in with one last little thing and I'll keep it quick. There's boom and bust cycles when it comes to the media. Right now, you could argue we're in a bust cycle where there aren't a lot of jobs and there haven't been for a few years now, like post-lockdown. I remember coming up, when I guess you could say the market was in a state of bust because it just didn't exist, early aughts. 2001, 2002, nobody knew how to make money on the internet, least of all through sports media or anything. And that's how me and some of my buddies came up and we were like, "Okay, well there's no market now. I have no idea how to do this for a living, but I am going to place a bet that someday there will be jobs that show up and I can apply for one of them." And I believe that it might be a similar thing for you if you're just starting out now. You might have to do a lot of fun stuff, but a lot of stuff that takes a lot of time for years and years before a job opens for you, just because of the nature of the market. So yeah, just stay patient, keep getting better, keep having more fun. What Seth said is important. Have as much fun as you possibly can. It's going to make the work better. It's going to make you want to do it more. And eventually, I have faith that something will open up if you give it enough time. So that's my little spiel. Ryan: Amazing. Thanks for sharing all of your stories everybody. Yeah, can we get some confetti going in the chat, please? Thanks everyone for coming and answering questions, and thank you for all the people that submitted questions. If we didn't get to yours, we will almost certainly do it next time when Clara and Kofie are here. But until then, whatever you guys want to talk about, we're happy to... If they're not nasty. Yeah, no nasty questions. Maybe a little nasty. Depends on... Nasty like cheeky? Like, "Ooh, that's nasty." You can ask those. But nasty where it's like, "That was nasty?" Don't ask that. And I think we will end it there, and see you guys next time. Everyone wave. Okay.