Podbit · Pardon My Take
Bobby Cox kept Smoltz in the rotation when he was 2-11 in the first half of 1991. No manager does that today. Smoltz went 12-2 the rest of the year. Cox's ability to give a player confidence during failure was, Smoltz says, a lost art.
Where this was said
At 1:55:00 · chapter starts 1:11:45
Big Cat welcomes John Smoltz, who has been attending the American Century Championship for 16-17 years and calls it a marquee week on his calendar — he even warned his six kids not to schedule weddings during it. Smoltz explains the tournament's unique modified Stableford scoring: birdie = 3 points, par = 1, bogey = 0, double bogey = -2. His confession that he once made 29 consecutive pars, scoring no better than 1 point per hole while competitors made birdies and bogeys and flew past him, becomes the defining absurdity. [1] — John Smoltz "Smoltz: 29 consecutive pars at Tahoe: John Smoltz disclosed he once made 29 consecutive pars in a single American Century Championship tour…" 1:16:36 PFT trolls him about having no clutch gene. On the baseball front, Smoltz surveys the NL: the Braves hold a lead in the East but are injury-depleted, the Dodgers remain the prohibitive favorites despite their own injury concerns (no Blake Snell, bullpen gaps), and the Phillies and Brewers are making charges. He identifies the Mets as the most interesting trade deadline watch — a bloated roster that needs to decide whether it's a buyer or seller.
John Smoltz disclosed he once made 29 consecutive pars in a single American Century Championship tournament, which cost him the lead due to the birdie-heavy scoring format.
Teams now burn through 38 pitchers a season to get through the year — a number Smoltz calls insane. Nobody running baseball has ever played, so nobody cares that careers are being cut to thirds and eighths of what they should be.
John Smoltz argued that MLB teams now use approximately 38 pitchers per season, which he called 'insane' and a symptom of the broken pitching development system.
Want to fix pitcher overuse? Tie the starting pitcher to the DH slot — if your starter comes out early, you lose pinch hit options. That one rule change would kill the opener strategy and force teams to develop pitchers who go deep into games.
John Smoltz argued that analytics and overuse have so diluted the starting pitcher's role that he cannot identify 10 pitchers in today's MLB he would buy a ticket specifically to watch.
Maddux gave deliberately terrible interviews to keep the spotlight off himself and on his teammates. While Smoltz and Glavine were doing press about Maddux, Maddux was living quietly and building every possible competitive advantage — including staying anonymous enough to walk down the street unrecognized.
Thomas's wife deferred her CrossFit career — she's in the global top 1% of athletes — to put him through law school debt-free. He wants her to chase the dream now; she wants the emergency fund and house down payment first. On a $200K lawyer income with no debt, the opportunity cost is just a few months of slower saving.
Underground calisthenics battles are exactly like UFC meets a rap battle — 150 people crowded around a circle, fighters walking out with masks and chains, nicknames like 'Extra Money' vs 'Calisthenics the Prince,' and people throwing money and betting. The battle set: 100 burpees, 50 muscle-ups, 75 dips, 75 squats with a 65-pound dumbbell. This is the next big spectator sport.
Rico Verhoeven controlled the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion for approximately 10 rounds — and had his appeal upheld when officials admitted the fight was stopped after the bell. The result was never overturned. Rogan calls it either incompetence or corruption, and argues the money behind Usyk made an upset politically inconvenient.
Rogan lays out a blunt case: boxing's 3-judge system is structurally broken, and the judges know who the promoter wants to win. Glory's 5-judge format is the right model. Corruption doesn't have to be conscious — just knowing Usyk is the cash cow is enough to tilt the scales.
With the Usyk-Wilder fight stalling and Fury-Joshua coming too late, the real fight the world wants is the rematch. Rico is a free agent. Usyk vacated his belts. The story is unfinished and both Rogan and Rico know it. His Excellency Turki Alasheikh already called for it ringside — the question is money.
Rico texted Jason Statham during the Canelo-Crawford fight. Statham showed Rico's highlight videos to promoters. Two days later, Rico was on a call about fighting Anthony Joshua. When Joshua pulled out, Rico pitched Usyk himself — Undisputed vs. Undisputed. Usyk said yes in two weeks. The whole thing started with one text.
Every heavyweight who faced Usyk tried to move to the right — straight into his power hand. Rico and Peter Fury identified the obvious solution: move left, away from the left hand, and smother him with size. It sounds simple. Nobody had done it. That one adjustment was the foundation of 10 dominant rounds.
MMA fans boo when fights go to the ground. They love stand-up. Kickboxing is pure stand-up. Yet it barely exists in America while boxing and MMA are enormous. Rogan's diagnosis: no promotion machine. If the UFC got behind kickboxing the way they've built MMA, it would explode. The talent is there — the storytelling machine is not.
A nation of 17 million people gave the world Ramon Deckers, Peter Aerts, Badr Hari, Melvin Manhoef, Rob Kamen, Ernesto Hoost, and Rico Verhoeven. Rico's theory: the country is so small that every gym shares knowledge freely. In the US, you need a flight. In Holland, you drive 40 minutes and spar the national champion.
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