Tony Vitello On How He Landed Historic San Francisco Giants Manager Role + From CBB To MLB | Bussin’

Tony Vitello On How He Landed Historic San Francisco Giants Manager Role + From CBB To MLB | Bussin’

All right, we’re good. Be like busting with the boys, hanging with the fellas, betting on a game. No woman’s going to tell us what to do. And I’m over here [Music] just drinking beer and making that noise. Baby, I’m hanging with the fellas. Busting with the boys. Bro, welcome to Busting with the Boys, episode 353. The boys spooktober is over. We are now in the Thanksgiving season. Christmas season is upon us. Uh we have Tony Vitello joining us on the bus today. New San Francisco Giants manager, the uh former head coach of the Tennessee Valls. He will be on the show with us today. If you are watching or tuned in right now, just make sure you are subscribed to the episode. If you’re watching on YouTube, make sure you’re following the boys. If you are listening on audio, as always, we are brought to you by the one, the only FanDuel Sportsbook, America’s number one sports book. And we’ve got another week of football starting Thursday night. And you already know how we like our Thursdays. We’ve got specials with the FanDuel sports book. We’ve got another giveaway on Thursday with the FanDuel Sportsbook. We even got another little same game parlay with the FanDuel sports book. But we want to tell you about something that we can all get on with the FanDuel sports book. The Thursday Night Football Touchdown Jackpot. Three easy steps. Three easy steps, boys. I’m going to say it. I’m going to go through this one time. Step one, open up the app. Crack open your app. And if you don’t have the app, it’s all good. No judgment. Just head over to fanduel.com/bussen to get that taken care of. Step two, you’re going to opt into the promo and place an anytime touchdown score bet on the game. Whoever you think scoring on Thursday, uh we have our picks. You’ve got to make yours. Just pick and select an anytime touchdown score. And step three, this is the best part. Watch the game. Easy as that. Just watch the game and tune in to see if your player either scores first or the last touchdown. Um, that’s right, the first or the last touchdown. And if they do, you’ll win your bet and a share of the $2 million jackpot. Like we said, fanuel.com/bus is the place to go. Download the app and get ready for the week. Tennessee, how we doing? How we doing, fellas? Doing well. Good football recap show yesterday. Great. broke down a lot of good balls. Lot of good ball. Football porn episode. Football porn episode. If you like to to get in the weeds of football and the X’s and O’s. Greg Olsen, he he great 12 13 personnel. The evolution of the game. Basically coming from the tight end position. Yeah, tight ends have changed everything about football in the NFL. Um, if you’re wondering how does Will feel about the Nebraska thing, we recap how we’re feeling about South Carolina, Michigan, Tennessee, Miami, everything that happened that is in the recap show. This is the busting intro and boys, Spooktober is over. Another year has gone, another year has passed. Moment of silence for Spooktober. It’s been an interesting year for sure. Last week, I sat on this bus while all you fine gentlemen were dressed up in your best Halloween costumes. It was beautiful. It was wonderful. There’s only one thing missing. The head of Spooktober, the man who dubs himself number one of all spookiness was not wearing that. I like to believe I wrote the ship a little bit throughout the week. Um, that’s not for me to say. Put it in your core. I’m basically putting words in your guys’ mouth. I will take the compliment. Thank you. Um, but a hell of a Spooktober for the Lewan family. The Lewan family as a whole. myself didn’t watch as many spooky movies as I want. Didn’t get my adult fix of Spooktober that I like to get. But from a family standpoint, Disney World, Mickey Mouse is not so scary Halloween. We had the trick-or-treating. We carved pumpkins. We had I think my kids trick-or-treated three separate times, including a Halloween party as well. So, overall, I have to get the We hit the uh Nicole Lane over. By the way, dude, if I’m ever going to move from my house in Nashville, Tennessee, that’s the neighborhood I’m moving into. It is. They bought in. You could tell there’s a couple of bad apples. Like, there’s four or five houses out there that either they’re too old or they’re antih Halloween. But that whole neighborhood, dude, lined up. There was a tent where adults could go and get their adult beverages while the kids were hitting their trick-or-treating. Willy C hit me up. Hey, we went to this place last year. My neighbors telling me this is the spot to go. And I was dealing with gout, which we’ll talk about in a little bit. But that was the that was trick-or-treating. That’s trick-or-treating on steroids, dude. Everybody’s dressed up. Everyone’s having a good time. Parents are making jokes at other parents of like what costumes we’re in. We’re all kind of staying in character with each other. Your family was dialed in. I thought every time I looked at Charo, I [ __ ] I laughed, bro. I I would see you just hear just Charles’s voice go, “Oh, hey, Taylor.” I’m like, “Oh, [ __ ] All right, bing bong. But dude, just so funny. It was It was outstanding. And there was like roadblocks with the police officers. You get down the street and it was like a firework display where like the finale was the last house on the left. Dude, their display. I looked at T. I go, “We got to step our [ __ ] up, dude.” Like this is I like take a lot of pride in the decorations you put in the lawn household. This house, their lights, their decorations. I was like, “This [ __ ] is incredible. That is amazing.” and Charles parents too being there too. I didn’t even realize it was them. What do you got JP? What’s tough about that? He’s like, ah, just Will having to be fear. And he I mean, he crushed it. He owned the role. He crushed the role, but it just doesn’t sit right with me that he was that he was assigned to be fear. That’s not Will. That’s not Will. I hate that that got used against me immediately after. That’s what I’m saying. Like that. And it won’t be the last time. Nebraska, anytime they show up and play a top 25 team, it’s just me, bro. It’s now there forever. Yeah, you put in way too much work to have that be your legacy. I I Yeah, I don’t disagree with that. I thought you knocked it out of the park. Couple things, too. Uh, you got a little piece of green in your teeth. Oh, thank you. Yeah, we’re going to get that out of the way. Other side. Other side. Other side. Other side. Ah, yep. One over to the one over. Yeah, that one. Did you get it? smile at me. Boom. He’s back. Thank you. Yeah, dude. The whole the fit was it was outstanding. Who was the winner that y’all saw? Like everybody looked and was like, “Dang, that’s a good costume.” I saw one dad in a uh a Willy Wonka fit. Yes. But it was like very well like a very well like actual three-piece like probably got it custom made. Yeah. I’m like this dude really sold out. Good looking cat. Good. Yeah. Had the longer hair, had the big hat on, the cane. I saw him when I was I was with that. Yeah. I saw up a couple times. The second time around he’s like, “What’s up, Will?” And I was like, “Oh, okay.” We were both just not awkwardly staring at each other. I thought he just looked great in the Willy Wonka costume. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think the first time I met like he walked by. I was like, “Bro, you really That’s awesome.” And he’s like, “Yeah, you too, Dobby.” And I was like, “Oh [ __ ] All right. You got to know you understand my game. You understand my game a little bit. Look at that hot dog.” Yeah. Anyway, dude, Spooktober was awesome. It was awesome for the Lewans. I’m sure the Comptons had a great time as you guys car pumpkins. No carving pumpkins. We kind of gave up after last week, dude. I shut down the entire house. Like, hey, Taylor quit on Spooktober. No, don’t say that. We got to pack it in. Don’t say that. We got to So, just to be clear, are you stepping down or are you not? I can’t step down. If you If you guys think there’s somebody that’s more fit at this bus, I can’t stop you. This is a democracy. There’s There’s no hierarchy here. I would love another opportunity cuz you’re right. Listen, the multiple gambling shows, the ESPN, my brain got too like focused on my weekly routine that when Spooktober came, I didn’t give it what it should have been. I see where I went wrong and I apologize for that. I could be better and then it was just I just mashed a bunch of it in the last week. Mashed. I I do want to throw it out there. I don’t think it would be like a democracy type thing of like, oh, we vote for somebody to replace Taylor. They would have to challenge you head on to a spook off. I think it’s like a one v one battle of the spook. Battle of the spook. I don’t think anybody’s going to challenge you though. I think you still are the prince of darkness. But I just wanted to put it out there a spook off if somebody wanted to challenge me. You know, the person that I think would challenge me and probably have the most likelihood of success is the person that was just talking on the mic. I didn’t I don’t have it. I ain’t got it. We’ll break it down. You know, we’ll look at we’ll look at the wins of Spooktober. will look at what worked, what didn’t. Yeah. Where there’s opportunity and it’ll be a collective brand. Like we’re going to have to get more guys involved because again, we were in a This was a big massive contract year for Taylor. And I think if you’re looking at it front office wise, you’re going to have to figure out something replaceable for what we did. I didn’t like any of that. Yeah. I If you haven’t I don’t like the way that felt at all when I know it’s uncomfortable. I know it’s uncomfortable. You make the bed. You have to be able to sit there and be like, “Okay, why is he saying that? Why does it hurt?” because there’s truth in it. That’s why it hurts. And I have to sit there and I have to realize, listen, it’s November 3rd right now, correct? I got a long ways to the next Spooktober. The longest ways you can possibly get and there’s a lot of reflecting I need to do. You as well, the the front office, you guys, you guys need to have your internal conversations that I shouldn’t be a part of because I didn’t earn that right. And I just hope at the end of the day we get to September and we know Spootober’s on the horizon, you guys can look at me and be like, “We’re going to give you one more shot.” Yeah. That’s all I’m That’s all I’m hoping for. How many days are we until Spectober? Uh, it has to be 331. Let me just type that out right now on Twitter. It’s not 31. It’s not Oh, yeah. Yeah. 60. Yeah. 61. No, cuz Spooktober starts October 1. Oh, yes. That’s another great point. I know where my boat’s leading. I think it’s 32. Might be 3132. Oh, you’re just tweeting that. Did you just tweet that out? I might have to be the guy. I might be listen if there’s a guy here that’s going to hold. It’s not going to be you. I might have to leave like next year like when merch comes out and everything else. I just might have to be the guy for Spooktober. A spook off. A spook off. Will and Taylor spook off. Yeah. Listen, we could actually No, I haven’t. Oh god. And I know that tweeted out. I know I didn’t No, I’m like I’m like now will I when this episode comes out so that way everybody’s in on the inside joke. Um but yeah, it’s it’s just more of that it’s like mirror Monday. We just got to take a good hard look in the mirror. We have to get uncomfortable and be like what’s going to push if if if Spooktober is going to be um a real thing for the brand. We got to remove the we had fun as a family is like do we want this to be a hobby or do we want this to be a thing for the for the brand? But let’s look at the last week, right? You’re only as good as your last week in Spooktober. I think if you would have one brought it home. I mean we’re talking about eight eight different costumes in ESPN. You needed a lot of motivating. I would say I would say the starting point was last Monday when we were sitting here to not be motivated by others. Be motivated by yourself. How do you beat yesterday? That’s that’s the goal here. He’s beating Michigan. It’s like last year they’re having a a down year, but they come in and they beat Ohio State at the end. Yeah. It’s kind of it’s it’s a reflection. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a lot of like it’s like if there’s an analogy, it just feels like the Mitch’s fandom. Mitch’s fandom in this last spook. Right. Okay. And like when I was really challenging him about I think we’re just kind of starting to try to hurt at this point. Like we’ve really driven a point home. If we want to have a spook off, that’s fine. But it’s like whenever scary, do you really want this? It’s like, yeah, I do. It’s like, but you think about it. Yeah, but I still want it. But I could also Yeah, but I still want it. Like, hey, I could be better. No doubt about it. Did I drop the ball, especially in the middle of Spooktober? No doubt. Did my Did I kind of have a massive Lewan family spooker? No doubt. But when it comes to bus with the boys, yeah, could promote the merch better. Could came in with more outfits. Could have done a whole There’s I could have done a little bit more work for a much better result. And that’s really what you look at. It didn’t take much to had the last week that I did. It just took a little motivation. And I need to zoom out a little bit and realize what we did on ESPN there. That could have been every single week here. So, I’ll be better. Someone wants to to have a spook off, we can have a spook. That’s fine. But at the end of the day, what’s the most important? It’s celebrating Spooktober. That’s the most important thing. So, it doesn’t have to be about Taylor or Will or JP or Mitch’s fandom that randomly just takes bullets. This is about the the opening season of of the holidays. And we’ve opened the season. We had it was a little bit rough. We got a good one at the end. Now we’re looking forward what’s next. Is it Christmas? Is it is it Thanksgiving? Like that’s the now debate. What’s going on here? Yeah. And let’s get let’s let’s have fun. Let’s enjoy it. Because at the end of the day, we know, hey, this product wasn’t good enough, Taylor. All right. I understand that. We understand that. If you want to feel like there’s another thing you want to say, you’re more than welcome. You know, if there’s ever space we get to say a few things, it’s like uh we’re really coming down hard on Matt for turning off the TV. It felt like this was a moment where you’ve turned off the TV. You turned it back on. There’s some redemption in here. Now, you’re back. Yeah. And I think the team like we we’ve all we’ve all realize like how do we get the best out of our guy? Like how do we motivate our guy? And I think we’ve kind of found those I think we’ve kind of found those buttons. Yeah. And I think the goal now for me internally when I have my own internal conversations with me is okay, they motivated you this year. How do you bring the motivation and stay consistently motivated through 31 days of fright without having them have to come and pull you out of the weeds? Totally fair. I see that. Let me get back. Let me I’m starting to work. It’s like, dude, it’s like Santa and his elves. Like I’m working towards Spooktober now. Like we it’s it’s it takes 365 to have them with them 31. Yeah. Yeah. But is there another analogy you want to use? No, I’m just if I’m having internal conversations with myself, it’s like, all right, you know how to motivate your guy. You got to continue to coach them hard when those opportunities come. And so at collectively, we will be we’ll all be doing that, right? We’ll all be all we’ll all be better. We’ll all be better. Yeah. And forget the fact that I just said I can motivate myself and all that. But I know but I’m just saying I know a player feels that way, but sometimes it’s like, hey, this is how you got to coach this player. This is how you got to motivate this player. And then a lot of times a player is going to find out, are you going to mature as a player? Are you not? And I feel like this is an opportunity for me to mature as a player. But yes, as that head coach is like, “This guy’s been on the roster for four or five years of this.” This guy been your star player for four or five years and I had a down year. You’re going to throw me away right now. There’s been several down years. There’s not been several down years. Last year said last year was the best year. You guys tpd my house. That’s why it was the best year. We had seasonal every single week. We went out and we got we went to uh uh Spirit Halloween together. We went and got pumpkins together. We display We got pumpkins to say, “These are the personalities. Last year was a great year.” You can’t look at this year and look at last year and be like, “Now both years are bad.” This is not a great year. That was not a great year. Did it get better at the end? Yes. But do we know like, hey, one blip on the radar? One blip on the radar is all of a sudden going to change the last four or five years. That’s how losing franchises continue to lose. We want to be a winning franchise. Let’s not make it. Let’s not steamroll. Let’s not just, hey, this is a step at a time. Look at the mountain now. Look at the first step. Let’s take the first step. That’s November. I think we’re going into a contract year. Going into a contract year. New contract year. as a contract resign for another year and we just contract. We know collectively the things we got to do to just push continue to push this thing forward. He’s a good player as a team. He’s a good great player. We we franchise tagged him. We need one more one more perfect year. Yeah. We got to get good pieces around him. That’s where he flourished. And I’m sitting here saying, “Coach, [ __ ] the new pieces. I can do this.” Yes. I’m grabbing you by the collar. I can [ __ ] do this. We got We all We need We all we Yeah. Who? We don’t need anybody else. We got everything we get happens right in here. Regardless of negativity, we’re not going to have negative. It’s not not negativity. It’s just a learning. This is a learning moment. Sometimes we’re going to learn it. We’re going to have to get a chip out the first three times. We’re going to have to get we’re going to have to get a chipper out there. Now it’s just negativity. And I was like, “Hey, I learned from it.” You’re like, “Yeah, but I learned from it.” Yeah, but the goal is how do we make it better? How many times you going to have the conversation, right? If you’re if you’re explaining to somebody an issue and they say, “I got it.” Are you going to continue to mansplain at them or you going to let them kind of [ __ ] they say they got it. Let me see if they actually got it cuz I’ve got it. I understand. This is more for the team. Turn into Mitch’s fandom. It’s like all right, crazy. But like all right, I I I understand what you’re trying to say. Yeah, but it’s also like Matt turning off the TV. It’s like, all right, I still got it. Like what what are we doing here? At some point, I got to be like, hey, I got to defend myself now. Yeah, this is ex you are exactly what I need you to be right now. Okay, so we got you [ __ ] we got the sport going talk about guys. We got it where we need them. People talk about Dylan Raola, broken fib throwing out wristbands and [ __ ] Like no one’s talking about Taylor one having gout on Thursday switching eight different outfits. No one’s talking about Taylor one having gout sitting on an air strip for 45 90 minutes waiting to take off and whether that could have taken out planes when we made it to Nashville. No one’s talking about Ter with no medicine and his kids walking multiple miles during trick-or- treat and not flinching cuz his kids got to have the trickor treat. All right. They know their dad’s going to be there. They know this is his dad’s holiday. All right. Yes. Saturday, November 1st. Was I up on the couch with my foot elevated hitting rice all day? Yes, I was. But it was because of Spooktober. It was for Spooktober. Am I in pain right now sitting on this bus? You bet your ass I am. But it was because of Spooktober. So, don’t come at me and say, “My dedication is not there.” All right? After I’ve said, “I’ve got it.” And then you want to pile on. But boys, hey, let me tell you something about gout. It’s no [ __ ] joke. I wouldn’t I I would probably wish this on my my worst enemy, but like people I just don’t like, I would not wish this on. Gout is horrendous. How do you get rid of it? Diet. Like I used to think gout was like a for heavier set gentlemen who treat their body Yeah. Yeah. Like that treat their body like [ __ ] Like I try to be pretty good in the the health and wellness category, especially as how many you know how many times you dive head first into a pile. You got to stay ahead of the chains a little bit. I’m I’ve treated my body like [ __ ] the last month. No doubt. There’s been a couple Snickers laying around late at night in a dark alley and I think you shouldn’t be here all by yourself. I go and take them boys down. I’m paying for it. I earn this. I have to essentially change my relationship with food because this is like I hope you guys never have to deal with gout. It is Is it something you have that’s just like genetic to where your diet is? I don’t know. That’d be good for the comment section because I don’t think my dad ever had it. I don’t know anybody in my family ever talking. You know what I mean? It’s just like a month of just having some fun with some food. It’s like I do that all the time. I like that feel like just is it a constant pain or is it sharp when you step? It’s dude it is sharp like th So Wednesday night we get there my foot was a little sore which I didn’t think much of of go to sleep wake up for uh like whatever 5 whatever a.m. for ESPN. Stand up, literally fall to the ground. It feels like a gunshot. Like similar to what you’re talking about when you hit your foot injury. Like a gunshot going off in your foot. Like that [ __ ] hurts. But a lot of times gout’s like very like acute. It’ll be in one little area of your foot. So you can overcompensate to like, okay, I’ll just stay on like the outside of my foot and kind of alleviate that pressure. This one, for whatever reason, it was like the whole bottom of my foot, kind of like the middle area to where if I was going to push off, it was just so painful. And then through ESPN, like it kept got getting worse and worse and every time I had to go and change into different outfits, I’m like in pain where I’m looking at Jack going, I’m in I’m every commercial break, I’m like, “Dude, I’m hurting so bad.” We get to uh Friday and I like it’s kind of feeling better, but after all that walking, like the next day on Saturday, I went to like get out of bed and I like literally it took me like 25 30 minutes to get out of bed to where like Nathan Worksman and Tayen are in the room and I’m like like how can we help you? was like, “Please just leave me alone. Like, I feel so vulnerable right now in my underwear while you guys are trying to get me out of bed.” Like, I’m like crawling to the toilet just to take a morning piss. Like, I would think to myself like I would drink I’d be on the couch drinking a bunch of water and I would think I got I kind of have to pee right now. And I would be so afraid to stand back up and go to the bathroom that another 45 minutes would go by to where like I’m rushing to the bathroom, but I’m in so much pain that like I’m borderline pissing on myself. That’s how much pain I was delivered to the just I would have I would have there was a couple times I was laying there and be like peing myself right now over getting up is kind of a win. Oh my god. That’s how painful this was, dude. And it’s like it’s not like oh I lay down and put it up it feels better. It’s like I any like there’s no it’s discomfort all day. And when I stand up like you would see the discoloration of my foot to where my my oldest when she’d come up to me like dad why are your feet like completely different colors? And like my left foot would be like raised when I had both feet on the ground because there was so much swelling on the bottom of my foot, dog. And it’s like needles. It’s like needles like sticking in the joints of your feet. It’s so painful. Do you not have like one of those carts from the ACL where you put your knee on it and it keeps your foot up? No. But I had some crutches in the basement that Taylor went and got, but a lot of times with crutches like you’ll put the injured limb down and like assist. I couldn’t even put my foot on the ground. How do I like hover? So, I’m like doing like the kid thing where you’re like swinging yourself all around. Kids, toys everywhere. Cuz I got my two kids and then Nathan has three kids that are all under four. And so there’s toys everywhere. It was a minefield out there. Yeah. To the point where I just go to the man cave and just put my foot up and be like, “Hey, you guys enjoy the trip. I’ll be in here.” Just And then I find like I’m a big like anti- antibiotic guy. Like I don’t want to take antibiotics. I don’t want to take like Tylenol or anything. I eventually gave in and I’m just like I need it. So I’m like on a medral dose pack now. I’m on a uric acid. Yeah. I’m on all of it. And it’s gotten better to where like literally if it was Saturday, if I was feeling the way I felt Saturday, I’d probably call in sick. I like would not be able to make it into work. That’s how bad it was. Like just sitting I’d have to have it up. It was awful. It was awful, dude. Still is pretty bad. Yeah. It it’s honestly it’s crazy thinking like any injury that feels debilitating just feels like this is the worst thing to possibly end time. It’s the end of the world for me, dude. Even like even like say I would, you know, strain my like UCL playing football and it’s like in my elbow and you like can’t do a pull-up. You like can’t really press against anything and you just think, “God, this is the worst thing of all time.” And it’s like, why would I rather have this or would I rather have a shoulder? Would I rather rather have a knee, a foot, a groin? And anytime you’re going through any of the injuries, you’re like, “This is just the worst pain of all.” Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everything hurts. And it’s like your foot starts to hurt, but then once you’re in pain for a long time, like everything else just starts to hurt also. Like you start to feel like achy almost. It was a terrible weekend. It was awful. T’s and peas, man. Still battling it. Still battling right now. I’m actually in a sweat thinking about it right now. More steak. No, it’s like a once a week thing for me right now. I got to re-evaluate everything, bro. I got to I got to reook at which is funny cuz I feel like you’ve been pretty good for the most part. Yeah, dude. But I my diet Yeah, I’m pretty good at like at my diet, exercise. This last month though, I’ve kind of like let go of the reins and I’ve kind of only getting like two workouts a week. I’ll like I’ll see something in the corner. You know, Clump’s wife brings in those pies and I’m like, I’m not going to eat that. But then I get done with the two gambling shows. I’m like kind of hungry right now. So, you have a slice. Everybody in the shop’s talking about it tasting so good. Yeah. How good it is. And I’m just thinking I got to I got just I got to get powerful about saying no to myself. Like this is an internal battle. We might need to make like a a morning lift group here at the shop. Get over with the sword next maybe, man. But it’s also like where are we going to shower? The issue is the smelly boys. The issue is it’s just holiday season’s kicking up. Oh, it’s only going to get worse. The colder weather. Now that we fell back, it gets darker sooner. Charm made chocolate chip cookies last night. We had chili and of course I had two peanut butter sandwiches with it. But it’s just it’s that time of year, bro. Leftover candy. Like I just been going to like R’s little pumpkin little bucket and just one at a time. You do. Just every hour you just make your way over there and grab one. You know, this a little mini. Eat this right now. Grab a second one. Eat the first one real fast. then walk out of the laundry room with one like I had to get a piece of candy thinking that the first one didn’t even count. Hey, that’s so real. Do y’all do the switch witch with R? The what? The switch witch. The switch witch. I don’t think so. It’s a little It’s a little put you guys on game for when you have kids. They have their they trick-or- treat and it’s like, hey, if you want to do the switch witch, if you put out some candy, the switch witch will come at night and maybe bring you something. So, it’s kind of like you get like a little $20 toy or something like that and you switch out the candy. So they make the decision, I’d rather have a toy than candy. And so you just kind of like get rid of that candy thing. Cuz I’m thinking I got to stay on top. I can’t let Ru eat all this candy. So I’m going to eat all this candy. And dude, with with wind, I don’t know where we have had like Ton saw this thing like if you don’t if you don’t let your kids have like sugar for the first three years of their life, like once they have sugar, their bodies like they’ll know it’s bad for them. And so the first can the first piece of sweet W ever had was from Will during Thanksgiving. gave her a piece of crumble cake or something like that. Not a big deal. But she was like two and a half at that time where it’s like, “All right, we’ve gone long enough without giving Win sweets. Her body is probably going to be like anti-swe. There’s probably not another child on this earth that is obsessed with sweets more than Winn is.” It’s like crack to her, dude. Maybe. But she’s eight, bro. And I’m like, when? You got to make a decision. She goes, “I know it’s bad for me, but I just can’t stop, Dad.” We have like legitimate conversations. Honey, like you eat this candy, like it’s going to be so bad for you. She’s like, I know, but I just can’t stop. She’s like an addict. She’s an addict. Win is an addict, bro. And it’s like, dude, you got to stop eating this candy cuz it’s like she’ll jump through hoops for a piece of ice cream. She’ll jump through hoops for Imagine you as a young as a young lad. Like, that’s just you chase them sweets. Chase. It’s like the high, bro. It’s the high. And we we saw that mostly at Disney World where it’s like early morning to get to Disney World cuz we only had Friday and Saturday coming back Sunday and we get up super early on Friday and it’s like well Taylor and I are having coffee. We kind of realize like you give them a couple pieces of sugar kind of resets their little resets their energy a little bit. So we’re kind of keeping them alive with candy which is like the weirdest thing ever. But the backfire the next three four days dude it’s like kids coming down like they’re itching. They’re moving around. Dad, you sure you don’t got one more Skittle in there for me? It’s like a bunch. We got to keep you away from the Skittles a little bit. I feel like the way to get this happened to me for a little like when when I was a kid. I was like kind of like when once you get that go to that first dentist appointment and you got a cavity or like you need a filling like the pain from that will be like, “Okay, I can’t eat sweets anymore because I do not want to go through that again.” That happens for what couple weeks maybe. I It’s you get back in that saddle. No, he’s right. He’s right. Cuz we went in and went had a couple fillings. She had to get in and it was like, I’m not having sweets. I’m not doing that. And it was probably two weeks exactly. And W’s back in there. Like my pantry. I try to keep as clean as possible, but we’ll get like these like healthy like chocolate things. And Tayen’s all about like lesser of two evils kind of thing. Like she’s going to have the things in there, but it’ll be like the healthiest version of the bad thing. My kids will sniff that [ __ ] out, dude. And you know, sometimes I’ll wake up a little later than they are and that [ __ ] pantry is taken down. Step stools are put up. These kids are they’re innovative, bro. The way that I’ll put up at the top shelf. They’re [ __ ] swinging, catching it, getting it back. It’s just crazy what they’ll go. The lengths they’ll go to. The lengths. I respect it. I did, too. But so I was tell, hey, look at me. I turned out all right. You want your kids to be better than me. Higher level. Yeah, bro. It’s tough. But yeah, man. Spooktober is over. 23% body fat. Quick break from the episode to shout out one of our newer sponsors, Ollipop. Introducing the new Lollipop Times Spongebob collaboration, the Pineapple Pineappleist Soda from Bikini Bottom. Five limited edition Spongebob can designs hidden in each fourack. Each pack’s little treasure hunt. 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We are also brought to you by Blue Diamond Almonds. The snack of busting with the boys and Big 10 football. Blue Diamond Almonds are a super nut that hits you with that little extra protein punch to keep you going. Available in 20 plus flavors like honey roasted, wasabi, and soy sauce. That’s a really good one. And smokehouse. My personal favorite is the blueberry or dark chocolate. And this football season, you can win a $10,000 grand prize or hundreds of other instant win prizes with Blue Diamond. Just visit bdsweps.com for a chance to win. No purchase necessary. Ends November 30th of 2025. Open to 50 US states and DC 18 plus. For rules, visit bdsweps.com. Void were prohibited. Blue Diamond Almonds, the official snack of Big 10 football and football fans everywhere. Back to this episode. Spooktober’s over. Now the tickle turkey lives. The tickle turkey lives. Yeah, explain the tickle turkey. So tickle turkey I kind of got from one Jack Conklin and the movie Thanks Killing. You guys have seen the movie Thanks Killing. Oh, is that is that the turkey turkey that’s insanely? Yeah, it’s like it’s a lowbudget cult film or whatever. But the tickle turkey essentially is this. I will go and I’ll tickle my kids and every time I tickle my kids I go and that’s the tickle turkey. Tickle turkey lives from November 1st to Thanksgiving. That’s when the tickled turkeyy’s alive. That’s the That’s the Thanksgiving turkey. Funny ass movie, dude. The movie opens up with just a nipple. Like it’s the funniest. It’s hilarious. But um yeah, the tickle turkey is fun. He’ll just kind of Jack Conklin would do this after after Halloween. Jack would just go in and like tickle other players throughout the locker room, walk up behind him and just go and tickle them. And then so once I had kids, I was like, “Bro, I gotta The tickle turkeys got to be a thing in my household.” So now my kids every time I’m around them, they’re like, they’re kind of doing this. They’re like, so the tickle turkey is just always active. Tickle turkeyy’s always active. Can always get you. He’s not just going to come out though when you want him to. Like Willow will be like, “Dad, bring out the tickle t.” But once she turns her back, boom, tickle turkey get Is it like a thing though to where it’s like on uh uh what’s it called? Uh, leprechaun day, Irish day, St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick’s Day to where if you’re wearing green, you don’t get pinched. No. Is there anything you could be wearing? Nothing that protects you from the turkey. Turkey. If you wear Yeah. Yeah. If you wear I guess if you wear a turkey if you’re wearing a turkey hat or a turkey shirt, I guess he can’t get you. That’s a fun little That’s a fun wrinkle. But the tickle turkeyy’s out from November 1st to Thanksgiving. The day Thanksgiving, I told Well, I was like, “The the turkey dies. We eat the We eat the tickle turkey and then it’s Christmas. Okay. So, yeah. Tickle turkeys out, boys. And that’s for everybody in the shop, too. You can get tickled. Just know your boys can get God around here. Huh? What do you want to say, JP? No. I have a like hilariously embarrassing story about similar to the tickle turkey. We were at this like party at one of our friends houses and there was this hallway that a bunch of the people were lined up in and anytime someone walked through the hallway, they’re tickling them. Tickle turkey basically. So, I’m like, I I want to be a part of this. This would be funny. And I don’t know if they were just scheming on me the whole time. And I’m like kind of first in the order. And this girl comes walking through that we’re friends with. And I go and tickle her and nobody else goes and does it. And I’m like, and it wasn’t ticklish. So, I’m just like, “Oh my god.” Like, oh no, dude. You know her? Yeah, I know her, but not like that close. I’m like, “I’m sorry.” I mean, they told me, she’s looking at you like, “What the Yeah. She’s like, “What are you doing?” like do you have a at the time like you have a girlfriend? I’m like yeah I mean did you make any noise when you were trying to tickle her? I mean I like I don’t really know off top of my head just a silent but man I was so embarrassed I was like I got to leave. I don’t I this is a prank set. Yeah. Like what the [ __ ] What the [ __ ] you What are you doing? How old were you when this happened? This is like 3 years ago. Oh [ __ ] Like elementary middle school. Oh no. It was so bad, dude. Did you go for the armpits? Where’d you go? Side. Armpits is crazy. Crazy. Got to go for the side. If anything, it’s a discomfort of people being insecure about them little hips. They’ll be get a little movement in them. It was fun though. The tickle turkey, man. It’s a fun. You should bring it to the Compton household. Oh, I will. Yeah. [ __ ] All right. Rising for some damage. Y’all think you can make me dress up as fear. Yeah. Yeah. I’ll tell you who’s in a bad position at our office is Derek. His back to that hallway like side is that tickle turkey is getting his ass a lot. He’s got to wear a turkey. When we were when I first started working here, Clump wanted me to have that desk spot. And for that reason, you know, like you were walking into a restaurant, the old like I have to have my back to the wall so I can see everything. That’s how I felt about that. I was like people walking down the hall and I can’t see them. That would freak me out. To this day, if I go if I’m at a restaurant, I always prefer to have my back to the wall. Like, what am I going to do? Like some sort of Seal Team Six guy. Like, I’m going to protect everybody in here. I’m just going to get, you know, your back to the rest of the crowd. It’s terrifying. Yeah. I don’t know how Der gets any work done in the shop. Yeah. And he’s Screen’s clean, too. Yeah. Yeah. You never know what’s going on. Are your uh Christmas decorations up yet? Yeah. You know, they are. They’re They’re full force. I not Christmas decorations are like the in like Spooktober is already down in my household like all the decorations like we had a crew of people come in November one I’m laying there on the couch leg up dude just everybody 10 15 guys just carrying [ __ ] I’m looking at him I’m like please just don’t even [ __ ] make eye contact me in this vulnerable state but all the stuff is done lights are up now and I know bro I know this is like a disgusting look to you guys but I’ve just lost that battle in my household I don’t I don’t wear the pants Like Thanksgiving’s already happened in Canada. Talent’s beating me down. Like have it, take it. But yeah, you it’s a winter wonderland. You want to drive past my house. It’s absolutely beautiful. The the up the upside of it. Like if I had an optimistic outside of like disgust that your Christmas decorations are already up. It’s just that you have the theme like you have the vibe that you just yearn for when Christmas time does come or is that it’s getting dark early. You got, you know, lights are on. Living room. Just the ambiance of Christmas is just so pure and good. It definitely has a good because like um the front side of our house is all like white lights and then the back side of our house is more like a colorful ‘ 90s vibe and outside of my master bedroom like there’s like a bunch of little trees that are all like in colored lights and it does give you that regardless of it being November 3rd when we’re shooting this like you look at it and you’re like yeah it does give you that cozy feeling. Yeah. Like if I if if like if I’m you and I was battling and you’re like trying to come to a middle ground, it’s we can do the interior of the house, but the Christmas lights on the outside don’t go up until after Thanksgiving type of vibe. Cuz again, it’s like at least you’re in the vibe of of feeling nice all warm and cozy with some lights and some decorations around. To be fair, to the public, like just an asinine. Yeah. But to be fair to Talon, having that feeling like what other feeling you going to get between November 1 and Thanksgiving? like it’s kind of like a dead spot because Thanksgiving is very much like a long weekend type of vibe as opposed to like a a celebrated holiday throughout like a whole month period. So there is a level of like kind of cheating the vibe a little bit for an extra long time cuz it’s not Christmas vibe is not one that kind of dies off as you get farther and farther down it like you’re kind of enjoying it more and more and more as you kind of get up to Christmas. So it’s kind of nice. I’ve I’ve I’ve bent the knee and I’ve kind of like if can’t beat them join them type of vibes. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t me. Don’t you do that. Can’t beat the Canadians. Join them. That’s what you kind of You saw what happened this past weekend with the Canadians. Dodgers. Dodgers beat the blue uh the Blue Jays. And I Quinn was texting me, hey, we own hockey. We’re about to own baseball as well. It’s a totally different game. Like MLB, you have a couple of Canadian teams. All good. But that was nice for the Dodgers to take that one. So I have that over my wife’s family. It’s become a complete rivalry ever since the Four Nations tournament. Yeah. Where it’s like they kind of they’ve been talking crazy to me ever since that Four Nations game. And it’s it’s nice to have one. We got I don’t really view this as one, but they kind of do. So, it’s like, yeah, we got you guys. Yeah, that is a fun that’s a fun family. Like, for me, it’s like I just got to wait and see if Pacquiao fights again. [Laughter] Yeah. There’s not a whole lot like there is this tennis There is this tennis player. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There’s this tennis player. Yeah, we need to But have you did you guys watch that game? Yeah, game seven. Incredible. Like I was I had zero plans to even watch that game. And then Nathan, you know, B he’s a big baseball guy. Grew up in LA. He’s a Dodgers fan, but he’s he’s the worst type of fan. You went to the game with him last year. Went to the game with him last year. It was his idea to leave. He’s the worst type of fan. Taylor was beating him up on the plane cuz he flew back with us from New York when we came from ESPN. Cuz I was kind of asking him for for whatever reason. And I thought he was like a Michigan State fan or we were talking football. He’s like, “I don’t watch any.” He’s like, “I am all baseball.” So he was fired up for the World Series, but then Taylor was beating him up. He’s like, “You got me killed for leaving that World Series game last year.” Yeah. Cuz to me it was like I checked the box of being there, but I’ve never been like since I’ve been 12 years, I’ve never been like a base I’m going to watch baseball. But like going to a first World Series game, this is awesome. And it’s so fitting that Nathan’s like, “You’re tired, right?” I’m like, “I’m I’m good.” He’s like, “You’re pretty tired. We should go.” It’s like, “All right, let’s Yeah, I’ll I’ll go. And as soon as we leave, like fireworks take off in that entire game. That’s when Freddy Freeman had the walk-off grand slam. Yeah. So, we get to this year, Dodgers are back in it. That is Nathan Worksman’s team. Like, he grew up going to Dodgers games. They have a whole They go to this one spot that all Dodgers fans go to. They get these like Philly cheese steakake type of sandwiches. I did the whole experience. He’s looking at me saying, “I hope Toronto wins.” I’m like, “Bro, you grew up a Dodgers fan. What are you talking about?” He’s like, “Well, my team already won. It wouldn’t be as fun for us to get another one.” like no like you want your team to win another one cuz how cool would it be to have three P like that’s what it’s about is like you just want you just want to win them all and he was anti that bad for anti and bro so he was rooting for the Blue Jays he was rooting for the Blue Jays he a fan he’s yeah he’s the weirdest fan ever and we we were watching the game and it’s the bottom of the ninth whatever the Dodgers score a run to take it into extra innings I kept calling it overtime he was laughing at me about that he gets up he’s like I got an early flight tomorrow I’m I’m going to leave. And I’m like, game seven, you’re a baseball fan. Your team who you’re rooting against just caused the game to go into xenics and you’re going to go to bed. And he’s like, yes. He left and bro. That that game was incredible. Was it Yamamoto? Who Who’s the guy? Yoshibbo. Yoshiba. Myamoto. Okay. That guy. I see you, Mitch. Dude, game six. This Yoshinito Mamamoto guy pitches 92 pitches and plays an incredible game. They’re in game seven and it’s got it’s starting to get in this like are they are the are the Toronto Blue Jays going to run away with it or the Dodgers going to come back? They get Yamamoto who’s just thrown 92 pitches the day prior to come back in and finish the game and pitches three innings and it was incredible, bro. guy’s like 5’11 throwing like after throwing all those pitches still throwing like 97 98 like just watching the uh intricacies of like he’s down in the pitch count then he’s getting guys to chase wide he’s jamming guys in it’s like one of the most fun games ever and this Rojos was it Miguel Rohos Miguel Rojos yeah in the ninth or the yeah the ninth inning top of the ninth top of the ninth inning they’re down one no one’s on base Miguel Roas has not had a hit in all of the World Series series hits a home run and they’re now tied up. Yamamoto comes in three up, three down, gets him off. We’re now in extra innings and then I think Yamamoto had uh all had the Blue Jays had three guys on base. Correct. Like first, second, and third and they go broken back because they had that play at the plate that was like that was like bang bang. his foot comes off and goes back on. And then Mookie Betts from shortstop hits a gets a ground ball, steps on second, wins the game by having a double play. Like it was like probably the only time since I’ve been like 12 years old. I’m watching a baseball game like this [ __ ] is unbelievable. It was a sick game. But the Dodgers winning is awful for baseball because why is that? Because the super rich franchise. Yeah. The biggest thing that’s been going Are they the highest paid? Yeah. So, show like show’s contract alone is like more than the entire Pittsburgh Pirates like payroll. Like, so it’s these teams like the Dodgers can just afford to pay all of this money to all of these players. But it’s like not even fair. Like the Pirates will never win a World Series. All of these lower tier teams will never win a World Series because they can’t afford all of these players. Like that’s why you see all of these really really good guys going to the Yankees, going to the Dodgers, going to the Mets because they can afford to like pay them and like get give them all this money because there’s no cap, right? There’s no cap. So that’s what but like it’s bad for baseball in the sense of like this just continues to happen, but it’s good for baseball in the sense of okay, this is proven like that we may need a salary cap. But it’s insane because Bryce Harper or like earlier in the season there was I saw that there was a meeting about hey we’re gonna have a salary cap and Bryce Harper went up and was like if you’re here to talk about a salary cap get the [ __ ] out of here cuz we do not we do not want that. But it’s like insane cuz it’s just imagine like the the biggest market teams in the NFL always win and like the Titans they’re the smallest media market have no chance to win whatsoever. Is there for any baseball guys? Chef, you just seem like you’re itching to get in this conversation. Uh, for the baseball guys, is there a leverage play for the league to make it a salary cap? Cuz it’s it it just sounds like they just don’t have they wouldn’t have the leverage going if you’re a player, you don’t want a salary. If you’re Yeah. If you’re if we’re speaking for like if this was going down in the NFL, you’d want the biggest stars to be saying the same thing Bryce Harper’s saying. Yeah. You want this conversation taking place in the NFL when it was uh Kurt Cousins getting a guaranteed contract, right? You want Yeah. It’s funny your superstar guys like throwing their weight around to get basically no salary cap. You just get paid as much as you possibly can. Yeah. So, it’s going to look it’s looking like that the MLB and the players association could possibly go in a lockout and then it becomes basically the MLB will have a lot of more leverage going hey the Dodgers are is that the man right there? A great guy to come in on the conversation. How we doing? What’s up brother? Good to see you man. What’s up man? What’s up, fellas? Before we get into Tony Vitello, we got to finish off the episode. There is a new Buffalo Ranch sauce that has arrived at McDonald’s. McDonald’s is now a sponsor of Busting with the Boys. Massive brand. Gorgeous, boys. Massive brand. And it And what was that? Did we hear a little? Did somebody toot? That must have been Yeah, the Mickey De’s. There’s a new Buffalo ranch sauce that has arrived at McDonald’s and it pairs perfectly with your snack wrap, a Mcrispy sandwich or those new Mcris Mcrispy strips. I will let Sherman speak to that in a second. It’s got the tangy zang of Buffalo with the creamy cool of mild ranch. It’s mild and wild at the same time. It’s a sauce that balances itself and compliments our crispy chicken. U fellas, look, the snack wrap jumps out at me. the McChick or the Mc Krispy chicken sandwich jumps out at me using this buffalo, this zesty, zangy, tangy buffalo sauce, mild and wild. I’ll tell you what I used to love to do as a kid and I still continue to love to do now is go into that little the regular cheeseburgers, the two for 99 cents deal that I used to be like the two cheeseburgers. I would get Mac sauce on those things. This new little sauce we got talking about, I think I’m going to find myself in a drive-thru real soon getting those two cheeseburgers. But go and put that zesty Buffalo ranch on there. You know what I’m saying, kid? Yeah, sure. Uh, you were just talking about the chicken strips at McDonald’s. I have yet to have the chicken strips. I’m I’m a big chicken nuggies guy. I’ve always loved the McDonald’s chicken nuggies, right? That’s the staple. But these new Mc Krispies, they are really, really good. I usually dip them in honey mustard. I have yet to try this new sauce. I know what I’m having for lunch today. Big sauce, guys. Today, big sauce guys on the bus. And there is prove that with a photo, too. Yeah. And there Sherm Dog. There’s a new sauce in town at McDonald’s, the tangy creamy Buffalo Ranch. Order now. And there is this final bite segment that we’re going to dive into of which something that we want people to be thinking about as they’re dipping their sauce and eating whatever little combination they’re going to have with this Buffalo tangy uh tangy creamy buffalo ranch sauce. Maybe a final t maybe a take, a thought, something we want people to be thinking about going into this football weekend. I like that. Uh, do you mind if I go first? Something off the top of my head right now that we kind of talked about in the reaction show and I’m going to bring it over to the bus and intro part of the show is let’s talk about the NFC East for a second. It’s done. It’s over. We might be in November. But as far as I’m concerned, the Philadelphia Eagles are taking that thing. They’re running with it. It’s over for the rest of that whole entire division because they’re just falling back, back, and back. So, if we want to look at playoff implications, I’m already going to go in, not just pencil, I’m going to pen in the Philadelphia Eagles into you want Dallas fans that tune in, Washington fans that tune in, and Giants fans that tune in to be sad dipping their Mcrispy strips in this Buffalo tangy sauce, thinking that this season is over for us. I know what the Golden Arches has provided to this beautiful country for many, many years. And if he can cure one thing, it’s broken hearts. And the broken hearts of the Commanders, the Cowboys, and the Giants. Listen, Giants, I I think you’ve got nothing to be upset about. Like, you lost Cam Scataboo, but Jackson Dart, quarterback of the future. Day ball saved his job. Cowboys, yeah, I can see you guys getting sad because you have a a Super Bowl caliber offense, but your defense is poo poo. Now you look over at the Washington Commanders and you just dislocated your best your quarterback’s elbow when you’re down 38-7. Those two have a lot to be sad about. The Giants, you can go over hit that drive-thru, get that zesty Buffalo ranch, and you gonna feel all right about having the McChick strips. What are they called? The Mcrispy strips. Mcrispy strips. And the Eagles, too. Grease the poles. Grease me up. Send me to McD’s. You know what I’m saying? Get you some of their Get you a little happy meal. You know what I’m saying? I like that take. I like it. I’m having fun with it. And if And you know, I I was I was dating the Cowboys for a minute. I was in love with the Cowboys for a hot second, but that flame burned bright. And now I’m kind of thinking to myself, boys, it’s time to back up. We got to get out of this toxic relationship and just realize the Eagles are going to keep flying. This new Buffalo Ranch that people are going to be dipping into this week. I want Husker fans to think about this. TJ Latif. Latif over 300 allpurpose over 300 yards through the air combined through the air and on the ground. Through the air, combined through the air. Yeah. TJ Latif going out to UCLA night game. going to be tough getting up after this emotional loss to the USC Trojans. As you were in Sad Boy season thinking about what’s TJ Latif going to do this weekend, I’m telling you right now, it’s over 300 yards. It’s so funny you say that cuz do you know what Latif is French for? Buffalo sauce. Zesty Buffalo ranch. That is actually what it’s French for. Yeah. Hold on. I Google that real quick. Make sure. But I’m I I took French in high school. Yep. It’s the Buffalo Ranch. Creamy Buffalo Ranch. Creamy Buffalo Ranch. Latif. Latif. And when he does 9 and three is alive and well, buddy. 9 and3 has never died. No. Fibula is going to stop Nine and three and Nebraska Corn Huskers. Uh that’s mine. Do you have gentlemen? Do you have any back there? A final bite going into the weekend. As you’re as you’re dipping into that creamy buffalo ranch sauce, dip. Just think to yourself real quick. Could 40year-old Joe Flacco win the MVP? Could he win the MVP? Just think about it as you’re tasting that sauce, eating the Mc Krispies. Could he think? Could he win it? Something to think about. Be in the conversation. Be in the conversation. Have a conversation. Ignore everything else that’s happening in the NFL world and just focus on Flacco. Joe Cool. 700 yards in the last two games. About Joe Flacco. Uh, mine is separate to football. Is that against the rules? It feels like it is, but go ahead. Insulated denim jackets are back. That’s what the people are saying. Really? And and just as you’re dipping those, somebody might have an insulated what are they? Insulated what? Denim jacket. Insulated denim jacket on right now. Dipping. Oh, bro. Come on. And just think about it as you’re dipping. Like there’s We’re not wearing enough denim right now. Denim’s like I think it’s back. I’m I don’t have any denim on right now. That’s how kind of naked I feel after you talking about that. If there’s an individual out there that is listening to this thinking, I’m dipping in denim right now. Please tag us in a photo. Tag us in a photo cuz we’d love to see you dipping in denim. Denim dippers. Yeah. You know what? That’s my favorite take. That is my favorite take. And I think we need as bustle with the boys might need to go to a McDizzles. Set the tone for a dipping in denim. # dipping in denim. Yeah. See what we can do. Will he? Or just go, you just we get a photo together and we just drop it. No caption. And the tier one sickos know they let the world know that we’re doing what? Denim. Denim and dipping. Nope. Dpping. Said it enough times. Said enough times for you to remember. I’ll do dipping and denim, baby. Dpping and denim. By the way, this new Buffalo sauce available for a limited time at participating McDonald’s while supplies last. Are you serious? Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s going to be a hit. Yeah. Well, this is a sauce country. Think of all the things that McDizzles has done back in the day that has been hit over hit like nostalgia. But the McRib, the McFlurry, the smell of uh hot breakfast. Oh, pancakes. You open that thing up, dude. It’s like what? This is a fast food place. I don’t know. It’s fine dining out here, man. Yeah, dude. It’s incredible. Syrup sauce, the egg McMuffies, dude. The McGriddles. Let me talk to you about a McGriddle. Let me know about the McGriddle. I would have this uh it was basically A+ hour in high school as a senior to where A+ you could if you were gifted this luxury. You could go off campus and go to for me it was middle school. I would go and shadow my eighth grade football coach in his like health PE class. I don’t even know because I never went to it. He would just give me the sign. He’d give me what I needed. And me and a couple of my boys, we’d rip over to McDonald’s and it’d be like our Mc it’d be our it’ be our breakfast every morning, second hour, and we’d pull in and we’d talk about this cashier behind the register as he’s like a rivals recruit. Like he’s like a fivestar. He understood the game and the operation of McDonald’s. We thought he should own one one day because of how much work this guy put in. But we’d get the uh the little breakfast burritos, the little twofur, fire, by the way. Little chunks of sausage in there. We’d get the meal with the McGriddle and I would unpack that thing like there’s a like I was in the dark and the candle was next to my nightstand and I would be unpacking this McGriddle. I’d pick it up. We’d have this foreplay we’d do with it where I’d smell it. I just I’d take the entire environment in before I took a bite of the McGriddle. And taking a bite of that McGriddle, I don’t know if you can hear my voice right now, but my mouth is watering. Oh, buddy. And that boy faucet talking through a faucet right now. We would throw Rose Sparks in and just enjoy a good 15 minutes in seventh grade. No, we were I was a junior senior in high school. Okay. Okay. I thought you said something about middle school earlier. That was my football coach and we’d enjoy every day. Second hour, it’d be where are we going? We know where we’re going. That was a stupid question. Dumb. Throw up uh what is it? Uh stone sour looking at you through the glass. I’m looking at you through the glass. Don’t know how much time has passed. Oh god, it feels like forever. No one ever tells you that forever feels like home. Sitting all alone inside your head. That was How do you feel? How do you feel? So much to question. Yeah, dude. I know that one. We throw that. I actually do know that one. I just don’t know that one. throw that tune on or to be hindered. Touch like an angel. Touch like an angel. Kiss like an angel. Lips of an angel. Lips of an angel. Honey, why you calling me so late? It’s kind of hard to talk right now. Those would be the bangers. You guys just took me back to a moment. My girls in the next room. Sometimes I wish it was you. I guess we never really moved on. That was good. That was really good. Want to hear your voice saying my name. It sounds so sweet. People tuned in. They’re like, “God, we can’t wait to listen to Tony Vital.” Yeah. But they had no idea. They start dipping in denim. That’s what they didn’t know about. Dude, can I just give you I know Will just told a cute little story. Can I just give you mine real quick? Young three, fouryear-old Lean. All right. just freshly into Scottsdale, Arizona. My father, he worked late hours. He worked he worked early mornings as well, but every Saturday, your young Lewan would get up at the crackass of dawn around 5:30, 6:00 a.m. And right around the corner from our house was what? A McDazzles. And my dad would take me across the 101, sit in that McDazzles, get me a couple of them pancakes, couple of them breakfast burritos. I don’t even believe the McGriddle wasn’t even a thing at this time. All right, we’re talking about the ‘9s, babies. And I would sit there and my dad would read the morning newspaper with a McDonald’s orange juice while I ripped apart that ball pit alone because ain’t no kid got the luxury I did on a Saturday morning that my father gave to me when I was just a young buck, man. So shout out McD keeping families together since 93. Keeping families together since 93. Before we do get into the episode, we are doing this collaboration with Folds of Honor. Do you mind bringing up? Uh, so we have these hats here that you can go on our site right now. And, uh, what we’re doing is in honor of National Veterans Month, Bustle with the Boys is partnering with Folds of Honor to provide scholarships for the families of fallen or disabled service members, 50% of net proceeds from every purchase will support this miss this mission. We had the uh we had the privilege of playing in a couple of their softball games here in Nashville. And uh the team at Folds does such a great job, so we wanted to kind of do our part and collab with them on National Veterans Month. All you have to do is go to bwtb.com to pick up some merch and support their mission. Again, 50% of net proceeds uh will be going to that mission. Don’t forget about this shirt as well. The shirt is out there. Folds of honor shirt. Yeah. Got the red, white, and blue on there, too. But yeah, man. anything you can do to help our vets, our people that are affected on a daily basis keeping our freedoms free. Man, this is a beautiful time. Yes. And uh you’ll see it at the top of this interview with Coach Vitella. We also uh the licensing deal that we got to do with Tennessee is now going through. So these hats for Tennessee VS fans will be up in our shop as well at bwtb.com. We gifted Coach Vital the first ever one. The first ever one. We should have signed it for Yeah, we should have as his gift to go to San Francisco. We will love him forever. We will miss him forever. This was an incredible interview. I think you’re going to love the conversation. We were very ripe in the in the baseball industry. Thank God I watched game seven. Had a lot of questions. Yeah. Yeah. Just remember this, boys, as you go into this episode. The Giants are going to be contenders this year, San Francisco Giants. The Eagles are going to win the NFC East. And by God, we’re dipping in denim. That’s what we’re doing out here. Let’s get into this episode. Subscribe, please, for the love of God. and rate five stars. Before we jump into this interview with coach Tony Vitello, this interview is brought to you by Bud Light. Bud Light is always brewing for simple ingredients for a clean, crisp taste. And Budlight is the official beer sponsor of the boys, the NFL draft, Titan University, the UFC, and Shane Gills’s 2025 tour. And partners include Pton Manning, George KD, Baker Mayfield, Emit Smith, Shane Gills, Post Malone, and Dustin Porier. Uh, stock up now on Bud Light. Head to www.budllight.com/locator to find a a store near you. Easy to drink, easy to enjoy. Enjoy this interview with coach Tony Vitella. We were just talking baseball. Yeah, just talking about the Dodgers. Wild game seven Wild World Series. Yeah. And then we’re uh Oh, yeah. Toss that over here. So, let’s start with the first Let’s start with a gift. Thank you so much. Let’s start with a gift. I know you just left, but this just got I think we just we just got a licensing deal with the University of Tennessee to like make these hats and we want to give you give you the first one. Yeah, I still want to represent. Got a lot of blood, sweat, and tears with that recruiting class that’s uh that’s there now and I guess coming in too. God. So on this convers, what were you going to ask? What was the consensus on the Dodgers deal there? I’m not a massive like baseball guy. Like I’ll watch the Cardinals if they go to the playoffs and stuff and get fired up with everybody else. Um, but they’re sitting there breaking down the World Series game. I caught until they went extra innings and then that’s when I went home because Nebraska just lost to USC. So, I need to go home and go to bed because I was miserable. Uh, but Mitch is saying like LA winning is bad for baseball because of how much money that they have to afford the team. I mean, I think it’s great to have You put that mic a little close to your face. Sorry. You you just get thrown in the fire right there. And new new manager for this Giants. Yeah. Is it bad for baseball? I got I got gifts. Anything I say about the Dodgers is is certainly going to be of interest in San Francisco, but uh No, this is a pretty badass setup. I appreciate y’all having me. And I I think, you know, whether it was the Yankees back in the day with baseball or it’s the Chiefs and football. I I think it’s good for sports in general and the sport that’s in specific to have um kind of a target or a standard that’s set. And it’s college now, too. like it or not, money talks and it’s going to be a big part of it. But you can’t just buy your way to a championship. There’s still got to be the right people in place. And then eventually too, those people got to, you know, make the plays. And I’m sure you guys were diagnosed in that game. There were a million different plays that could have went one way or the other. And uh and then you get stories too of people rising up. One one pitch it could have went the other way. And now you got the Blue Jays is, you know, the Brewers were kind of trying to do this, the little engine that could. And obviously those those teams got stud players too, but um it’s fun to cheer for the underdog and then it’s also it’s good to have that, you know, enemy number one or you know, Americans, uh I think are hard workers overall, but it’s a lot easier to it’s a little lazy and a lot easier to cheer for who the best is, you know. So there’s always going to be people that pick a side. I think well it it I’m not I’m not at Tennessee anymore so I don’t say it arrogantly but our 22 baseball team was one that a lot of people just picked aside. They either hated them or they liked him and I think overall it was good for college baseball. Oh 100%. Cuz you’re getting to join up with who is the psycho that has all the celebrations. Drew Gilbert. Drews psycho loves being choked from the from the video they show us in the production meeting. That could be diagnosed a lot of different ways, but definitely there’s gonna be a therapist on the back end of that career at some point, but you got to love what’s going on. He’s in the dugout like humping the dugout, slapping the side. Some dudes are just walking up to him, choking. He’s just loving it. Like this is the type of cat you want around. Yeah, no doubt. It it’ll be a good bridge for me. Um, obviously I’ll be learning a lot on the fly. But, uh, to have someone like that in your clubhouse, no matter where you’re at, you constantly have energy and our sport has a bigger sample size than any other. So, it’s very repetitive and if it’s boring or there’s lack of personality, it’s it’s not going to be fun to come to work come August or or later in the season. Is that was something too like when you were with uh Tennessee, it’s like you guys did have kind of this bad boy image, but just allowing your players to like be themselves to kind of keep that energy during all those monotonous repetitive days. I think so. I mean, I think because now you got 162 games, you got to do it. Yeah, it’ll be different. That’s for sure. and and during the press conference, the first question out of the shoot was reminding me that I not only not in the big leagues as a player, weren’t even close, but haven’t been in pro ball. So, I don’t know what I don’t know, but yeah, every day for us in the fall and in the spring in college was a new day. And you try and some are better or more entertaining than others, but it’s a blank slate and you try and make it something fun and something memorable and um you know, there’s nothing more fun and memorable than winning. Yeah. How how did the conversation how did this job even happen? Right. Because you this is the first head coach of a a college football team, a college football, college baseball team. Yeah. To become a manager of MLB team. Is that am I correct in saying that? Yes. And so how did this conversation start? Your agent call you say, “Hey, by the way, the Giants are looking at you.” Like explain to me the process. Yeah, it was a little bit um it was organic and if you really reflect on it was kind of drawn out because the conversations have always gone on with college coaches and big league teams, especially in the summer. And um you know I remember taking a call on our guy Gavin Keelin. He was a second baseman shortstop for us. The Giants took him first overall. One of our best players this last year. So there was a lot of conversations not just about him but like what’s going on with our program? How do you guys like to do things? Just idea sharing. Um and then with Drew Gilbert also came over Blade Tidwell, one of our pitchers. They were both involved in that trade. So hey, what can you tell us about these guys? And so with those conversations, a little bit of a co-op started there. Um, and then, you know, I don’t know who gets full credit. I mean, Zack the GM, Buster is obviously u, you know, in charge as well. Uh, somewhere along the line, someone floated the idea of basically trying something new and San Francisco is about as innovative. I mean, there’s AI stuff everywhere, um, buildings and corporations. And so, uh, just an innovative idea and I feel blessed to be the guy, but I’m also the guinea pig. Yeah, that is true. We’ll see how it goes. I I’m sure it’s it’s going to be hard to just hammer your ego, but what do you think it was for San Francisco and the things that you’re doing or the things that they were hearing that dove deeper into getting you to San Francisco? I I think and it’s easy to be humble because I think it was more the the concept and and so I was a guy who maybe fit that profile. So we’re going through that now with trying to hire a coaching staff is what’s the profile we want and then pick out of a group of guys that maybe fits that profile. And it was it was something new. Uh Pat Murphy has been looked at I think I mean I don’t get on social media a lot but um Pat Murphy’s a former college coach at Notre Dame at Arizona State and now he leads the Brewers to if I’m not mistaken the best record in in MLB baseball this year. Um and he’s kind of got that more I don’t I don’t want to say it’s not really about college versus pro ball, but just a little more of the old school coach uh mentality when coaching his team. you know, when we grew up, like you knew Bobby co Bobby Cox and um I could Whitey Herszog where I grew up in St. Louis. Like he was a manager that everybody knew and there was a certain approach to it where his teams all kind of have the same culture and I think baseball’s swinging back a little bit towards that coach deal as opposed to the analytic guy in the office. Moneyball. Yeah. Is it like that old school? Is it like old school too kind of mixed with a younger like a younger swag? You know what I mean? Like I would say you’re like a young you’re like a young Thundercat kind of coming up into this situation. I I think energy I think when you’re around guys like Drew and then our fan base like a lot of times our the fans at Tennessee are about as good as it gets. And so when they come up with an idea whether it was yours or not, you’re kind of if you’re wearing orange, you’re involved in it. So I think people think I got a lot more swagger or confidence and I truly do. I mean if I was more confident I would have been a better freaking player. But I was but I’m I’m fortunate to be in the dugout with guys like that. And so I don’t know that it’s more swagger. I think naturally what I do have is u energy like at the field. It just is it’s a vibe. It’s fun to be there. And u so I think it’s more of an energy thing and again winning will bring about swagger more than anything. So hopefully that’s the case. There’s there’s some good players on the roster but I think energy is is a part of it. Yeah. Just a Missouri boy doing it big man. Doing it doing it big. boys. How How much time have you spent in San Francisco so far? Um, it was really three days with a press conference and and again trying to hire some staff and things like that. But when I was younger, I played college ball in a summer league out in Selenus, California. Small town, great people. Um, just south of San Jose. and a guy that played for my dad, Bill Miller. Um, if you’ve watched uh the specials on the Red Sox coming back from 3 0 against the Yankees, he’s actually the guy that gets a hit off Mariano Rivera to start that the first comeback game and then ultimately they win. Uh, Bill was with the Giants, so we’d go watch him play. He’d get free tickets and you’re in what I thought was the coolest park I’d ever been in and you get to explore the city. And fortunately, Twitter didn’t exist then and I didn’t have a job. So, it’s a little bit little bit more free reign. A little more a little bit more free. Yeah, it’s a pretty cool area. So, now what’s the process for you? You are you selling are you keeping a place here in Nashville? Um, definitely in Nashville for sure. Um, this place is phenomenal. Whether it’s, you know, just running into you guys like at the restaurant or the grocery store, I’m sure you get bothered everywhere. So sorry if I bother you guys too, but run into you guys, the connection with country music, some friends I’ve formed. Uh you’re you’re in the middle of the country, so both coasts are kind of accessible. This is just a phenomenal place. So yeah, definitely looking forward to sticking to a place here and probably even the the fans were awesome to me at the football game Saturday. So as long as that continues, I’d like to still be in Knoxville a little bit. I mean, like I said, I mean, the other coaches had a lot to do with it, but for the next 3 or 4 years, I’m going to be pretty closely tied to some of those players. Yeah. What are the biggest differences in being like the head coach of a college baseball team and then being a manager in the MLB? I I think just that recruiting, um, you can have a voice maybe with trades or free agency and and I think that’s, you know, something that pro players look at is what park do I want to play in, what city do I want to live in, what coaches? Um, so it’s not like recruiting completely goes away, but you’re not in charge of your roster anymore. Um, which hell free up some more time to go to UFC or, you know, you know, whatever it might be maybe. Um, but then two, the amount of sample size. And then the kids you work with in college are so impressionable. Um, they’ll latch on to about anything you’ll give them. And I haven’t, again, what I don’t know what I don’t know, but I assume a a 35-year-old that’s in the big leagues for a while, he’s he’s pretty much got his system figured out. And so it’ll be a little bit different of a co-op or relationship there. Yeah. With uh when you got the news that you were going to be the next Giants manager, I I’m going to have a hard time not saying head coach. Uh how do you tell the team, the Tennessee team? Yeah. No, my my uh non friends or non- baseball friends are all like manager like are you managing a Walmart? Still you’re like you’re the head coach for the title manager. Skipper, you know, our pitching coach Frank Anderson would always call me Skipper and it’s kind of I don’t know. I kind of like that concept. So, whatever it is, you you’re serving that role of of writing out the lineup, you know. Um so, it’s interesting. I I g with recruiting, you have to respond to every email and every text possible, but I had to give up on my phone. So, I apologized to everybody. And one of the first texts was nice, but also sarcastic, I think, from you. It was basically like, I miss you and love you or I don’t mean to put words. I think I said, “I’ll miss you.” I sent you when it was starting to be like, “Hey, they’re closing in on a deal.” I sent him the link from Twitter and just put I’ll miss you forever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, sorry to throw the love out there. It was a little aggressive, but I I bring that up just because how this thing broke was uh very unconventional and it’s the day and age we live in. Um, we we were not we were not even at a point where I was going to make a decision. And this news broke on a football Saturday in the middle of one of our scrimmages that I was going to do this. And our assistants were like, you know, I I had kind of kept any of the conversations um out of the locker room because it could only be a distraction, especially with recruiting. Yeah. And now if it was going to get to a point where this is something I really got to decide on, I was going to involve everybody. Well, that all got skipped over by a tweet or what, again, I’m not on there, but I think God, you know, Ken Rosenthal or somebody um and and I’ve had a couple people apologize to me like, “Hey, I just got a job to do.” They get word that talks are at least serious, and now all of a sudden it’s like, “You’re doing it.” And so I got these texts on Saturday like, “I don’t know if it’s true or good luck.” And I’m like, I don’t even know how to respond. And so that the initial reaction is you you’re probably pissed off. Yeah, I was. So, I was kind of cuz mine I’m thinking like if all if this if this profile is posting about it, it seems like this is going to happen. First manager, right? It’s like congratulatory like, “Hey, I’m going to miss you forever.” But now that makes sense on the no response. You’re probably like, “Who in the [ __ ] is leaking this stuff?” Well, I was trying to watch Alabama Tennessee and I had I’d thought about going to the game with a donor after our scrimmage and when this popped, I was like, “Well, I’m not going anywhere.” And uh I just sat and was watching the game and it’s on the ticker and I even kind of quit watching the game a little bit to be honest with you and I I just for the night kind of shut it down and then the next day um some things picked up. Ironically, it ended up being instead of one conversation with the team and being like, “This sucks.” and crying and everything, it was a three-parter and it gave those guys time to share their thoughts on it a little bit with me, including our coaching staff. And I mean, this is a tough setting to break down and cry, so I won’t do it here, but we’ve cried as well. Okay. All emotions are welcome here. 100%. I like I will forever be grateful the way those kids texted me, talked to me in person, and then the way the coaches basically said, “Do what you got to do.” And uh that really opened up the freedom to think about it selfishly, just like what do I want to do as opposed to how is this going to impact other people. Yeah. So waiting on some tears. Yeah. Let it flow. You’re trying to go to Barbara Walters approach. It is very hard. I’m assuming being in your spot even as a player like if I’m a player on your team and I absolutely love you. It’s like when coach Eckler left Nebraska he recruited me there. Yeah. And whenever he left to go be like a co-defensive coordinator or something at Indiana and he’s kind of telling the linebacker room after practice on around like the 30 yard line like we’re all breaking down because you’re like [ __ ] man. A part of you comes to a place for a staff or for a guy and you’re galvanizing around this this roster. So, I can only assume how hard that was on trying to be like, you don’t feel like you have the freedom to think selfishly. You have so many people involved. Some of them aren’t tipped off now. They’re finding out on the internet. How do I even approach this conversation? Cuz I know there’s going to be broken hearts. It’s broke. I’m assuming you’re brokenhearted. It’s just Dude, it’s tough. And you’re sitting in a situation where you haven’t made the decision yet. And it seems like the decision’s been made for you. Yeah. Publicly. And now you have to go put out what you’re assuming is a bunch of fires and you’re met with like it seems like empathy and love. Yeah. No. Well, it affected things greatly and um at the end of the day it was a difficult decision and if you know props to any college coach out there you coach Eckler’s a stud and back in Nebraska now but when you switch in college you don’t get to breathe for a year minimum just because of the nature of the turnover and now I’m in this weird stage where it’s not like we’re we’re hiring a staff there’s work to be done press conference all that but it’s not that drinking from a fire hose that you have so in a bad way it’s freed up a lot of time to just reflect on those relationships and things like that. And it’s it’s tough, but um you know, staying in motion is a good thing. You guys are doing what you’re doing because you guys are constantly kind of pushing the envelope. And um shoot, Dana White did what he did when no one else was doing anything active. He got active and now he’s reaping the benefits of it. And I don’t know that the sport would be that popular if he didn’t push the envelope during COVID or during a time where people weren’t in motion. So hopefully uh who knows how this thing will go, but I I think staying in motion is healthy and and hopefully it’ll benefit me. Again, kind of a selfish decision, but Tennessee Tennessee will be all right. There’s some players in that dugout the next few years. So the future Giants, yeah, I’m all for that. We got That’s going to be a touchy sub. I I bet that’s going to be hard for you, too, cuz are you now as a manager, are you you’re not the GM, so you’re not you’re not pulling the trigger on draft picks. Correct. Correct. But it’s such a But you sit there and you’re like, “Hey, this guy,” and you’re you’re the one evaluating the ball players as well. I’m sure there’s a level of bias you’re going to have. If I’m a player, I’m hitting him up. Hey, listen. Little higher, a little more money. But I think the the Giants organization has always been very well thought of and kind of a family vibe. So far, it’s been enormously welcoming to ideas and and to working together. So, I I think all of us are going to have a voice when it comes to stuff like that, but like the decision you were talking about being skewed because of personal feelings or stuff that’s out there. Probably got to be a little careful about not loving on those guys too much from my standpoint. Yeah. Yeah, that is. Was there ever a point when this news starts to break where you’re like, “Fuck it. I’m just going to stay here.” Did you like was there ever that much second guessing involved? Yeah. When that first hit, it was like, you know, any competitor kind of bows up. when someone tells you one thing that it’s not true or you don’t believe in it, you bow up and want to do the other. And um so I got good advice from a guy who was a mentor of mine, uh Sean McCann’s name, and he he’s like, “Dude, just take a timeout. You don’t know where that came from or why.” And so it was good to kind of take that night to reset. And then um you know, it’s like these kids I talked to on the phone with college decisions. I mean, when you’re getting recruited by SEC schools, you can’t really choose wrong. I mean, you’re going to think it if you’re working at Tennessee and they choose Mississippi State or, you know, South Carolina or whatever, but the only way to make a decision, right, is just to move forward and make it the right one. So, um, no, no going back. Now, was getting in the MLB always like a a north star for you? Never. Um, just because I didn’t think it was possible. I mean, I I knew enough as a son of a coach that I wasn’t skilled enough that that wasn’t going to happen as a player. And then I always thought, one of the reasons I went to Missouri and walked on University of Missouri was I always thought you pretty much, and this is true for the most part, you finish or you coach where you finished playing like that level. And I know there’s exceptions. So I would took a big risk and and walked on at a at a division one school cuz that’s what I wanted to do. But having never even been in pro ball, I didn’t think it was possible. And then the last couple years, some conversations have started where the interest was peaked. And um you know I’d hate to finish coaching without at least trying it. And yeah. Were there any other MLB teams you said in the last couple years that were interested? Nothing significant. You know, you mentioned agent. You know, Jimmy Ston’s got his hands full now since every He’s your agent. Yeah. Um but everywhere back that stems more from a guy. You don’t know how it leaps. Well, that that stems from uh more of a friendship and a tie. He went to Tennessee, so that’s kind of more and of course baseball is not it’s become more his field and really he’s impacted the game in a great way. Um he gets a lot of credit for coaching salaries and where the trend is going right now. So kudos to him. Uh but that’s kind of how that relationship worked out. Obviously he started with Reggie White and he’s been in football and man, these guys I I can only imagine how much you guys have discussed college football. this firing guys in the middle of the season. Dude, it’s crazy. I get it. But I I get it. But uh it happened at an SEC school baseball-wise, and I wasn’t there, so I’m not talking ill about any decisions, but you looked at a schedule this guy had in front of him, and it’s like this team is going to win a lot of games. And if you get in the postseason, anything can happen. But they get rid of the guy in the middle of the year, and again, the schedule got a little more favorable. They had good players. Just you guys are athletes. the the season has a lot of es and flows and I’ve been on teams especially two out of the last three three years at Tennessee we started out really weak and we finished really strong this past year we started out like a ball of fire and we finished okay but we were doing so well at the beginning everyone thought we were just going to steamroll everybody so a season is an entire body of work and I I get it it’s a different sport you guys know it better than I do but right now is wild Lane Kein can only take one job out or stay or stay. Well, yes. Or even stay. It is nuts. It’s like we were talking about what is it? Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, LSU, Florida, Florida with Lincoln talk miss. That’s Yeah, that’s an insane. And then not to mention, still out there. Still more jobs to go. Relax with that. Lot of balling. Lot of Michigan’s out there. I’m just saying. Hey, hey, hey. What are you doing? You know, now he’s just doing the thing. Sh. We shot a reaction show a little bit ago and we’re really having a good conversation about football and college and little all these head coaching jobs. Then I start talking about Michigan and how like I want to see the passing game develop and he’s like a lot of head coaching jobs open out there. I’m just what are you doing? That’s harsh. Well, if anything, you got Morgan Wallen coming to the stadium. Got to be excited. Was that July? Yeah. That’ll be nice. That’ll be nice to see. Zack Bryant, he did that. set the record and now Morgan’s like not on my watch. Gota get that thing done. Yeah, that place gets rowdy, huh? There’s a lot of them there. Yeah, I think that’s probably Michigan’s biggest knock on a game day atmosphere is not very loud for how many people are in the building. Yeah, but I think it’s a structural thing. Has to be. Can’t have 115,000. It’s Tennessee straight up. It’s like it is a way different sound. Tennessee, LSU, we went to Nebraska, even 92,000 there. Yeah, it’s very very loud. And then you go to Michigan, it kind of just bows out a little bit. Sure. We were talking about this before. If you just take you have the sweets that they were putting in when I first got there. If you just kind of put those in next to the the big screens and then take out the the wood and put in aluminum, I think you’ve changed the game right there. Couple hundred mil. That’s all you got to do. I I don’t I don’t know why they wouldn’t outsource you for this information. This is it, man. I I got a lot of good ideas. What happened in Tennessee against Oklahoma? I don’t know. That was rough. And even more rough was trying to keep one eye on the TV of watching game seven um and then watching the game as well. But um you know I was up there and Payton and those guys can break down football better than I can. But it was just a real frustrating game and um you know people seem to be a little sour on our defense. But I don’t know you win and lose as a whole team and um you know coach Hypel’s always done well with the offense and the quarterbacks and the vibe is always good over there you know in the building. So, it’s the SEC and it’s the same for you guys, too. I mean, when it’s that high level of competition, it can go one way or the other. And unless you’re in the locker room, you don’t know if there was a vibe that swung it one way or the other. And we were just talking about the chaos and people just these emotional decisions on firing coaches mid year, it’s like after the Oklahoma game, even Hypel’s names getting brought up in Lane Keifin coming back to Tennessee. It’s just guys, we’ve got to call, we got to relax. Yeah. I’m sure I’m sure Lane Kein’s going to make $50 million a year at the end. So, he’s got a bidding war going crazy right now. I’m sure he’s been known to get back with an X or two back in the day. But, but cons, there’s something to be said for consistency. And when I was coming up at Missouri, I spent more days on the bench than I did on the field, unfortunately. But I knew I wanted to coach. I was surveying. It’s like, what’s consistent about some of these best programs? And a lot of it was that word consistency. when a group can stay together and build some synergy and keep things going, you know, the recruits stay on board and relationships with the donors, I think there’s a lot to maybe because I’m defensive of coaches, but there’s a lot to be said for riding out some storms and giving somebody some freedom because if you’re in our league or one of the best leagues in the country, you’re going to take blows. You’re going to dish out blows, but you’re going to take some, too. What’s the consistency look like? Like this will be a very broken question but um I’m very curious like you being a player and you be like I spent more time on the bench unfortunately than playing but as you’re observing what is the consistency like what are the things that in your mind you’re trying to build a resume or a portfolio for for you knowing you want to be a coach what are things you’re seeing like when you are in the locker room as a player that you’re observing that’s like I’m going to take some of these things knowing that I’ve experienced it as a player into coaching. I I think probably even on the sheet of what to do is even on the sheet of what not to do and you know how to approach guys and and what freedom to give them reaction-wise you know the freedom to be who they are. You took kind of mentioned that earlier. That’s all good but it’s got to be under the framework of the team. So it sounds real vague and real easy to say but balance is huge. Like that balance sheet of learning and watching probably equal to what not to do is just as valuable and there’s just as many lessons learned there as what you’re probably learning it too in real time like a coach might have a wrong message of trying to address something and be like I know my teammate or this player he’s not taking it kind of the correct way. This could be a way to get the messaging that the coach wants across and you know mixing it in with kind of the player mentality. I’ve always been fascinated with that because I my thought if I wasn’t podcasting is I was I would get into coaching. So, I’m I’m just curious. It’s not too late. I know. You never know, man. Look, if Rule can’t get it done, you know, Willie see give me five, six more years with this man. He can go do what he wants after that. I’m really enjoying doing busting with the boys. Just needs me. It’s like, give me a couple more. Give me a couple more. That’s a real thing, too. That’s a thing that could happen in the next couple of years is maybe like the linebackers don’t do well in Nebraska and they will call Will, hey, can you just coach the linebackers for a couple years? That conversation is real between me and Will. We’ve had the conversation of like if you go what’s our game plan? I think it should be I mean I mean as far as the thought of who to hire as a coach so many times um you know that I’ve been a part of interviews or co-workers and we’re kind of doing this now. We we just talked to a guy. I was like I’m thinking about just quitting my job and starting a company with this guy. Like it doesn’t matter if it’s a working at a pizza parlor or tech industry or coaching or or podcast. Like this guy would be good. And I think you know there’s some similar traits for people that are successful across the board. And like I said, fortunately or unfortunately, I was sitting on the bench a lot, so I I I didn’t have any skills in, but I got to watch a lot of people that I think had the that set of skills. You had a good correlation. What uh what were the nerves like and stuff as you’re interviewing for this job in the MLB, you know, because you you this is a different like first ever. It is. Well, the other thing is you’re talking to Buster Posey and that’s uh that’s a guy that I had started coaching, but I looked at him, you know, in college and watched him in college almost as a fan and then to see what he did in in Major League Baseball. Um he’s one of the biggest winners ever in pro sports and I know that was the concept of bringing him on and making him a part of the front office now. So to talk to him, I I mentioned to Jimmy a couple times like, “Hey, you you got to let me talk to some people other than Buster because it’s impossible not to talk to him and see him for who he is.” You know what I mean? And just keep it normal and regular. So that was a big part of the process. But I guess when you’re in a good position, and I didn’t I didn’t hand in a resume or seek this out. Um it kind of presented itself to me. So, I felt rock solid in what was going on at Tennessee and, you know, new stadium being built there and the next couple recruiting classes are ranked real high for whatever that it’s only worth so much. But, um, so I think that kind of changed the tone of it, too. Yeah. Now that you’re out of it, how is the NIL speak on the NIL? How how has it been changing the game in college athletics particularly at a baseball level? Yeah, it’s a disaster. Um I I I’m in this weird again we all have thoughts that are probably you dream a little bigger than I kind of have this weird fantasy or vision of like okay can college and MLB merge together a little bit and help each other and I wouldn’t be the main you know I certainly shouldn’t be the patron of either but I could connect the right people and get this thing where it’s a little more fluid but the one part MLB can’t affect is just where NCAA sports are in general and it’s it’s just a mess. And I would say the biggest I’m doing this off the cuff. Hopefully no one wants to slash my tires, but ju it’s like you’re driving in the fog and you can’t really see but about 100 or 200 feet in front of you and you know you’re grasping for what’s real, what you can do, what you can’t do. And again, I’m sure someone will throw out that I did something wrong or I didn’t do this or but overall it’s very frustrating when you don’t know the rules to the game. And it’s I hate to keep beating up the topic. Of course, there’s judges in UFC or boxing, but I love those two sports because it’s two guys locked in one spot or it could be gals and just who’s better. And that’s what I like more about anything. I mean, I almost wish too like Oregon, you should only be allowed to have a certain amount of uniform combinations. You should only have certain square footage in a locker room. Like, let’s find out. That’s the whole point of of athletics or competition is like, let’s find out who can do it better. But when you really don’t know what the rules of the game are or they’re so lopsided in favor of Tennessee over Middle Tennessee State, it’s kind of hard to have that nose tonose competition. Yeah. Yeah. It’s definitely it’s the wild west. There’s going to be like a crazy documentary about all the NIL that’s taking place. How does it work for baseball players? Like do baseball players get full scholarships now? Cuz when I when we were in school, it was like baseball was getting like 40%. Like the most you could get is like 50%. That’s like, hey, this is a really good baseball player. But now come in. So you’re paying these guys, but do they have full scholarship? Like how does it all work? Yeah. So to make it overly simple, so they’re used when I first started coaching it was 11.7 pretty much for every major program. 11.7. What does that mean? Scholarship. Scholarships. So if if if I sit down with you and your family and we we love on you all weekend, official visit, you go down on the field for the football game. It’ finish in the office with a here’s your scholarship offer. and you try and do your best to make it seem as big as it can be because it’s not an average if you do the numbers 11.7 you’d get to about 43%. So, not even half of your cost would be covered. And it’s like, we love you, but to come here, you’re going to have to pay 20 grand a year out of state kid, let’s say. It’s just awful dealing with that. And then the NIL is actually like, this is in football, this is a mess. But in baseball, it’s kind of helping like, hey, you got no cost. We’ll just figure out a way to combine everything. And then we go into the new territory where the rumors became true. And it’s like, I’m in the portal. You want me? My first phone call, they said this number. What do you guys got? Yeah. And some of those conver like kids, two kids literally walked to them off like what am I what is it? And I was like nice to meet you, you know, like are we even you know some of these kids are getting so over the top bat they’re not even really introducing themselves. They’re not there’s no small talk. It’s like what are you willing to offer me to come play at your school? Yeah. And again to no offense to them uh or no no foul on them. I mean it’s what I keep saying what you don’t know you don’t know. I mean if their phone call they get from university or whoever is right out of the shoot this is what we’re offering you. then that’s kind of what his expectations are. And now we’re at this new place where we can offer full scholarships at Tennessee. Not every school did that. And I mean, we’re talking big time program athletic departments did not boost their scholarship. So you can offer full scholarships if you want as an athletic department, but it’s not available. And then you got this revshare thing, which is real money, but some don’t get any. And then you got NIL which again is hopefully getting sorted out but we’re still in a very gray place with that. Yeah. And are you even able to like vet if they’re getting this offer outside from another university? I’m sure you can eventually but it’s like you know coach I was talking to even with uh college football you’re like you’re not even having real exit meetings to talk about what the player can work on or develop. They’re kind of walking in and be like hey this is what I’m hearing from my agent. there’s really no conversation to be had unless I get X Y and Z and it’s kind of the bulk. It’s that is the exit meeting which is bad for the development of players in the football world at least. I don’t know how it works in baseball but if you’re not if you can’t coach a guy hard he’s not going to get better at these small things and you’re going to see it in the next couple of years where the level of play on the field is going to get worse because the technique is not as good because the guys aren’t getting coached the way they should. They’re just getting more and more money because they’re naturally talented. Yeah, I think it’s kind of already started that way. to backtrack a little bit. The one thing is what? And again, no foul play on an agent. If you’re an agent, why wouldn’t you say, “Hey, my guy’s been offered already kind of between this number and this number.” And maybe you make it seem a little better than it is. How are we supposed to know? And and the recruiting in the summer goes like that. I mean, it’s a whirlwind. So, but I I think development, a word that I kept coming up with is sequence. I think there’s a sequence that takes place in the development of an athlete. And for some guys it comes quicker, some guys it comes slower. But there’s definitely a sequence you have to respect. And I think all respect for that has gone out the window because coaches are you got to make a choice. What’s your approach? But all of us at some point have tiptoed around something because of the threat of the transfer portal or a guy being disgruntled. And then two, for a player, it’s like it’s not going well. Um it’s not going as well as I thought it would, so I’m out. And I thought the coolest thing, and I’m not I just I know I’m fortunate enough to know Payton because of the university, but when people talked about Arch Manning leaving Texas, one of my favorite individuals I’ve ever met is Archie Manning. And if you know that family, it’s like that dude ain’t going nowhere. He’s going to see that thing through and he’s going to make it happen. And um I followed a little bit. It seems like it’s going decent. Yeah. Last couple games. Last couple weeks. Sure. But I think because of the background of that family, there’s a respect for that sequence of development. And at some point, you’re going to get knocked down and you’re going to have to overcome some challenges. And if you wait till too long in your career, you might not know how to handle it. Yeah. It’d be very off brandand for Arch Man to be in the transfer portal. If he would, I think it’ be a massive shock to anybody if he was going to go somewhere else based off of the adversity that was having up until these last couple of games. You talked about uh there every coach at some point has kind of tiptoed around some things. What are some examples of you tiptoeing around that you’re like, “Ah, I shouldn’t uh Thanks a lot. Maybe.” Well, hey, we’re out now. This this is fair game. We won’t say names. Well, I mean, there’s one that’s pretty well documented. I mean, the thing is sometimes you find out a guy is leaving. Mhm. And um you find out via news or a text. Well, on the recruiting side, you get a phone call and and we had kind of blossomed and now all eyes are on us. And I think we could have coached a kid that was a superstar. Um, but you get a call and it’s like, hey, this guy’s got um, seven or eight SEC offers. What’s your guys offer? And it’s like, well, and trust me, I’m no saint, but at the time it’s like, we got too many eyes on us and people are throwing out, you know, certain things. We didn’t move on it at all. But it’s so weird because it’s like, I just watched this guy on TV. He’s playing for a different school and yet shopping these other ones. So, um, there’s so many different situations in recruiting that pop up and that’s one. And then with coaching, had to coach a kid that was really talented that we knew he was out the door. Um, we knew the minute we made kind of a change in role that he was going to be out the door. And we had a short conversation in the locker room like what do we want to do? And finally, I I just I mean, we made a lot of group decisions. In this particular case, I was just like, this is what we’re doing, but he’s going to leave. and then knowing that you still have season left. It’s kind of like, you know, the firing coaches in the middle of season in college football. Um, sometimes it’s a different way you get there, but you might still be able to have a successful season if you can just kind of keep things on board. So, that that was a tough that was a tough one to deal with. Yeah, these decisions of all the schools, when you’re getting calls from agents being like, “Hey, we have an offer from this school for this much.” What’s one school that came up the most? It’s like, “Hey, LSU. LSU’s got a big baseball pro. They’re always kind of offering the mo. Like, what school does it seem like to you is like always offering the most? Well, um, you know, I I think Oh, as far as NIL NIL. Yeah. Yeah. Like I thought you’re talking about me. No, no, no, no, no. I’m talking about like your fight. Yeah. You know, I think there’s a few certain ones that seem to be more organized out of the shoot. Um, but you know, you you brought up LSU. It’s like that’s a religion down there. um that culture is so different and not just in sports, but just in life. It’s pretty cool to be around um just the vibe. You’re not going to go hungry if you’re walking around down in Louisiana and and and that vibe is sports is life. And then in the state of Texas, it’s you know, everything’s bigger is true in a lot of different ways. And down there, it’s like who can throw out the bigger wallet or or the bigger amount. So, um and then there’s traditions at other sports, too. And there’s some quirky niches that are out there. So, it it honestly it varied. It’d be Now, I’m not in college, maybe I could throw something out there, but it honestly varied where some were really organized out of the shoot and then others made adjustments. Um, oil money’s real. And then and then you guys see it like fan bases are loyal and I don’t you know I’ve been in Columbus but Ohio it’s a big city and Ohio State football is that is it that’s the main deal going on. They got all the money in there don’t they? Um what are a couple guard rails you’d put up in college baseball with the NIL and the portal? It’s like for football like I don’t know the portal windows and stuff in baseball but in football I want to say the main one opens up in December. Yeah, it’s like the last I thought it was the first week of January. Yeah, it might be that. I know it’s shifted a couple times, but makes it very hard to where it’s like, hey, if we’re going to do all of this money stuff and everything else, like just make it a like a free agency type window. That way these kids like some of these decisions aren’t getting made where if there’s still some season left or like right after it’s happening and there’s teams playing for in the playoffs that are focused on the playoffs, other teams are not making a bowl game, some bowl games. Yeah. Be being, you know, with our sport being a spring sport, and this is totally off the cuff. I don’t have a stance one way or the other, but some people are in favor of guys being able to transfer and play if you transfer it semester. So, right now, somewhere out there in the SEC, there’s a kid that’s realizing this isn’t the place for me. Um, and but he’s good enough to be in the SEC. Why can’t he transfer at December at the end of the semester and be eligible? Um, you know, that that creates a big mess, but that’s an option out there. And then, you know, moving the portal dates, you know, I don’t know that it affect our deal too much because so many of these conversations start before they start, you know, so our deal does start, you know, I think in the middle of regionals and it creates a bit of a mess and now you’re trying to win a regional and, you know, recruit a kid or a kid’s trying to win a regional but he’s already, you know, got one foot out the door. Um, so I think it’s kind of nature of the beast. A lot of this stuff starts before it actually happens. And uh I I don’t know how you safeguard or put up, you know, rails against that. But um that’s why there’s smarter people than I in higher paid positions. Yeah. Would that be like tampering? Yeah. And that’s a word that gets thrown out a lot. Um, you know, I think what the actual definition of that uh needs to be put out there and I think, you know, again, someone will say I did this or that, but uh I think pretty staunch penalties against that would be wise. But there’s always back channeling stuff when agents are involved and again they’ve got a job to do. When agents are involved and they can technically be a middleman or a third party, it it throws everything out of whack a little bit. Yeah. I mean, even in NFL, like there’s a tampering period before the free agency period that’s like well known. It’s like these guys soon as like free agency starts, if it’s like 2 p.m. on this day, it’s like 2:01 p.m. these 10 guys are getting signed these massive contracts. There’s always tom foolery about Sure. but it’s like how do you that’s like the the name of the game, right? Like you find the rules and then you exploit the rules with the way they’re written to put your team in the best advantage you possibly can. Yeah. I’ve I’ve tried to say I mean with the NCAA in particular, I’ve seen a bunch of rule changes and and again I don’t know know necessarily what’s best. You just find out what they are and you try to do your best job. But anytime you make a rule or a law to me you should always hire a criminal and say how we getting around. You know if we’re going to start a casino you would want you know I I think you’ve had some time at the tables. Yeah. I’ve played a couple not as a criminal game every single time. How do we hire a criminal you know he’s down right? Yeah. Well, actually, yeah, but you know, find find out what are the ways around this and maybe you can prevent it, but there’s probably always going to be a gray area. And, you know, I guess if anything, kudos to people that are aggressive trying to make it happen. It’s such an interesting world. The NIL is just so crazy right now. All right, quick potty break. We are brought to you by Neutral Vodka Seltzer. Have you tried Neutral? If not, you’re missing out. Neutral is so much better than any seltzer that the boys have tried. It’s made with real vodka and real juice. That’s what makes it delicious. comes in a variety of flavors, watermelon and orange to name a couple. And their new flavors, lime and strawberry, perfect to bring when hanging with friends because it’s such a crowd-pleaser. Whether you’re watching uh whether you’re bar watching the game, let me let me try that again for you guys listening. Whether you’re at a bar watching the game in the backyard with friends or at a tailgate, bring neutral. Neutral. Keep it tasty. We are also brought to you by Row. 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That’s what True Classic does for everybody. You can find True Classic at Amazon and Costco, Sam’s Club and and Target Nationwide or online at trueclassic.com/bussen. Look good, feelgood, playgood. Let’s get back to Tony Vital. In the MLB world, we in favor of a salary cap. Um, to an to an extent to an we need you to draw a line in the sand. Yeah. Right now. Yes or no? I’m trying to stay out of trouble. Yeah. Although you’ve done a great job of doing the allegedly and hey, people will say I did this, but would you like to see a salary cap in college baseball? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would I again I do kind of like what it’s it’s delicate because America is built on pushing the envelope and trying to outdo people and capitalism and things like that, but in the spirit of competition, I do like when things are even. So, um you know, where the where the balance is between those two as far as what you can pay people, I don’t necessarily know. But yeah, look at the example of the ESPN and YouTube TV right now. Yeah. As far as fighting for capital, the viewers. Yeah. Viewers are losing right now on both ends. Uh yeah, but we were just talking about the Dodgers and how the Dodger It’s bad for baseball. The Dodgers won. This is Mitch’s take because they can pay more money for people. Also, they have a crazy like vet tunnel from like Japan. The most disciplined people ever. Like the people from Japan love Dodgers. If you uh from a giant works, time zone works out the whole thing. They got a nice little tunnel though. They got a nice little tunnel with the Dodgers. When you look at the Giants, is this like a a franchise that can spend a lot of Do they spend a lot of money? Yeah, they’re aggressive. Okay, good. Good. So, we’re in a good spot. Yeah, I think so. Um, you guys want to jump on board? Yeah. Listen, we have that hasn’t hit our account right now to where a couple years ago somebody was on the podcast and said I think they said that they would give their salary salary to busting with the boys to win a national title. And did that person win a national championship? He did that year. Did bus with the boys get their salary? They did not see a dollar. Can you pull up uh that individual’s salary for the last body tuning in whether it’s San Francisco new viewers rooting on your next uh manager? Coach Tony V was on we sat down with him out in Tennessee for Busting with the Boys an episode. And a question we like to ask Oh, damn. A question we like to ask is what would you be willing to do to win like a national title or a Super Bowl? Super Bowl and Tony V was on. He said he’d give us a salary if he won a national title. That year we went out through the first pitch here in Nashville, Tennessee. They go on to win a national title. So we’ve been having guns point at Tony Ve like, “Hey, where’s that salary?” Or we getting we we dipping into the new salary. We we could we could come up with an agreement, especially cuz I failed. I’ve been running around. We’re interviewing people. But the plan was to come in with a briefcase full of IUS. Uh 275,000. You might want to hold on to that one. in the San Francisco. Might want to hold on. It’s a big one. You might want to hold on to that one. Yeah. So, we could we’ll get on a payment plan. We’ll figure it out. Yeah. Maybe like I don’t know like 10,000. I mean, how about a beverage? Like, now that at least I’m not a molding young men and and having to recruit, I actually won’t be fearful of being seen with a beverage in my hand or anything like that. We’ll we’ll start with a if I see you guys a free cocktail and then we’ll just keep the tab running till every time you like buy us a coffee or something like that. Knowing how the national title went. You might have to have us out to throw a first pitch to get that World Series title. I’m 100% down with that. Yeah, we need that. We’re going to need that. Here’s where it starts. Would you be willing to give us your salary this year with the Giants if you win a World Series? A a good chunk. A good chunk. Uh, yes. Exactly. What you need to say right now is yes. Then we do the first pitch thing and it might just be written in the stars. Written in the stars. Then you never give it to us. I would do that. I would do that. And you would actually give it to us instead. Yeah. And then um I’d, you know, roam the streets of San Francisco and there’s got to be a a company that’s having enough success there that that that amount of chump change to them. Yeah. That’s a that’s a perfect city to just blindly give out money. Yes. We have a non- handshake deal for the non- handshake deal for the record. Oh, bro. What else do I have? Oh, I have a question. Oh, so it’s like coming up through high school when we were younger, it’s like it seemed like uh if you get drafted or going to the farm system, that could be a better route to the MLB versus like going to college. Has that shifted a lot due to the NIL stuff going on in college baseball? You know what? Is that is that a good question? Yeah, I think scouts were real fearful of, hey, we want to give this guy, you know, $800,000 in the third round, but he’s going to get pushed to college. And I think there’s been examples people can point to like, hey, they bought this guy out of the draft. Um, I think there’s probably more of that with returning players, like a a sophomore or a junior that could have left college X and gone to the draft. Maybe he’s more inclined to come back cuz he’s already ingrained in the community. He’s getting this NIL setup. Um, but I think it’s like anything, it’s case by case. I don’t think it was as rampant as as maybe scouts feared of, yeah, man, I put all this work in on this guy. I know he’s the guy I want. I go to the front office, but when we call him on draft day, he’s like, no, I’m good. I’m getting six figures from a college. Yeah. Um, so it it skewed it a little bit, I think. But, um, so my followup, is that where you could is that where some collaborative efforts on bringing college baseball or the NCAA into like the MLB in some sort of a way? I think if anything, an understanding instead of both sides wondering what’s going on. And hey, I I always kind of kept my distance because I’ve just kind of been a live I’ve lived my life in the clubhouse. I mean, that’s my family away from my family. Yeah. Um, but there’s probably already been some continuity between college coaches and pro teams, but might as well open up the avenues and everybody have a full understanding of how it works and what goes on so that people can make the best decisions without, you know, looking back on it with regret. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I feel there’s a lot there’s a lot more nuance as a high school player coming out. Yeah. Potential to get drafted, potential to go make a lot of money in college and still the development in a certain organization that you might want. Like I’m just assuming here like if I’m a player and you’re a massive fan of of you or development of you and you could get a call coming out on draft day and you’re kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place of wanting to go into this organization but getting a lot more big dollars to go play college baseball. I could just see where there’s it’s a very nuanced decision that an entire family is making. I think it can be an X factor at the end of the day. I think a lot of decisions are made ahead of time and it’s like maybe a fall back on something like that. It makes me it confirms that’s what I want to do or just has more gives more conviction to the decision. Yeah. But I think a lot of these guys, man, it’s in their DNA what they want to do ahead of time. And then you’ve got the first round is unique. It’s if they’re making you their number one um you know, they’re committed to you more than any other player in that draft class to make it to the big leagues. It’s hard to say no. And of course, there’s finances that come with it. But I think there’s very few swing guys where you can change their mind. I think more times than not, it’s kind of in the DNA, so to speak, what a guy wants to do. I appreciate you being open. I’m very ripe when it comes to all this baseball talk. Yeah. Yeah. Same. How long if someone’s picked in the first round, what is like the average amount of time it takes him to get to the big leagues? Yeah. I mean, we’ve got a kid now that it’ll be interesting to coach him because he said no to us and committed to Alabama. U but but Bryce Eldridge is a guy who’s, you know, 21 years old probably and has already seen what it looks like in the big leagues. So again, that sequence can happen different for various guys, but to go from high school to the big leagues, you got your outliers like Brett Anderson was a left-handed pitcher and Andrew Jones who can make it at year 20, 21, but I think on average it’s probably six, seven years. God, really? Um, so, you know, and again, I’m throwing that out. All this stuff is just my vantage point. There’s other people you could bring on that are either have varying opinions or are different experts. That’s Ca. Um but uh but yeah, I think in general you’re looking at a long march into the big leagues, but there’s there’s reasons why clubs can can show kids it’s an advantage to get into the organization and start your pro career. And then there’s also college coaches that can say, “Look, if you’re playing in the SEC, you’re actually speeding up the process to make it to the big leagues because you’re learning how to handle media and um you know, compete at a high level, deal with fans, knowing what you got on your Instagram and yelling at you. Um and and then you’ve seen it, too. There’s proof in the pudding with guys who almost go straight from our league to the to the big leagues, whether it’s Skins or Christian Moore or guys like that. What do you think you’ll what will you miss most about coaching college baseball? I think just from seeing this weekend with a college football Saturday, just the youthfulness, the youthful energy. Um, having said that, there’s a donor who lives here, really good dude. I’m watching game seven of the Blue Jays Mariners and he’s texting me cuz it’ kind of gotten hot and heavy at this point. you know, you’re better around kids and and that energy thing and I’m I’m watching the game and I get that and I agree with it, but if you were watching Mariners versus uh Blue Jays game seven and you don’t see two dugouts full of kids um you know, and again, you guys have experienced it in pro sports like it’s recess. You’re wearing a damn uniform and still playing still having fun. Yeah. Yeah. you’re you’re behaving as if you were a kid and you’re playing a kid’s game. And then when you take the uniform off, your life is different because you’re an adult or you have a family. But I think that’s the essence of the fun moments of sports is you get to see guys being in that character of of being a kid, but you’re seeing it at the highest level athlete. Yeah. Especially when you’re in the playoffs. Why Why does MLB have 162 games? Why do we do that? Got money. making a lot of money coming. Just so many games. How many games are in uh college baseball? 56 regular season. Okay. Um and then of course you start the postseason with the conference tournament, all that. So you can end up playing about 70 games if you have a successful year, maybe a little bit more. Earlier earlier in the pod, you’re talking about you starting off slow and then getting real hot towards the end. Then this past year starting real hot and then kind of being okay towards the end. How is it as a coach manager like motivating guys when you have that many games? Because football, it’s like every game kind of counts. If you lose one, it’s like, guys, we can’t we if we lose one more, like we’re in a bad spot making the playoffs. With you guys, it’s like you drop three or four, it’s like, hey, who cares, right? Well, the the biggest thing is and and that was something people cautioned against me, a distaste for losing uh can really hurt you if cuz even a good season, you’d lose 60 games. So, you better learn how to deal with that. And again, I haven’t personally experienced it. But on the college level, even at 56 games, it’s like we beat Alabama. Coach Hypel’s good enough to have me in the locker room and the guys have cigars and things like that, you can’t you got a game the next day. So, you really can’t do that in baseball. And then when you lose, you know, after a a loss of you prepared all week and it comes down to the last play, I can only imagine how down of a feeling that is as a coaching staff. Next morning, see you in the office at 6:00 a.m. breakdown video. I’m sure coach Eckler would just sleep there. Um, you you can’t do that. It’s go home, get a good night’s sleep. When you take, you know, the old one one kind of mental deal is when you take your jersey off, the game is over in baseball. Some guys will roll with that. So, yeah, it’s a lot lot bigger sample size and you got to learn to roll with the punches a little bit more and you can’t get as hyped up as you as you do running out of the tunnel. Dude, it is um it is so [ __ ] cool that you were the first manager to kind of make this crack into going from college to the MLB. When you are in your reflective stages, your reflective state, like what are some moments you look back on that you’re proud of that you persevered and stayed the course knowing that you are now in this spot. It’s I mean it’s [ __ ] awesome, bro. Especially if you’re you go on win World Series and like humility you’ve had like hey we’ll see if it works out and all that. It’s like we all know the competitor in you is like you obviously you’re going to crush this, but it’s like you’re the guinea pig and you’re kind of figuring out like is this going to work cuz if this works out for you, you’re opening up a door to every college baseball coach and it’s like it’s a sick opportunity that you’re being able to pave the way and be different than everybody else. No, that’s a source of energy, too, that that other people might be able to do something that they normally wouldn’t. And it’s it’s not going to be me. It’s going to be just the general concept. And I think there’s starting to be an understanding of, yeah, I didn’t ride all the buses in the minor leagues or I didn’t have the talent to make it to the big leagues. And I’m speaking on all college coaches, but the time these guys have to invest in recruiting and learn how to deal with people and watch games. I mean, you you watch five or six games on any given day in the summer through recruiting. So, you’re around baseball as much as anybody. So, if there’s a little bit stronger of a bridge there, um, that would be pretty awesome to be a part of. But, you know, reflecting on what I persevered through as a player, speaking of crying at Missouri, there’s a couple times where I was just like, I’m working my ass off and I’m not getting rewarded the way that I should. Is this worth it? And there were a couple days where I was just going to quit as a player. And I didn’t, you know, see it working out like this, but if I would have quit as a player, it wouldn’t have worked out as a coach. Um, and then two, as a coach, it’s kind of like being an insurance salesman recruiting. I’ve heard no so many damn times. I think again you only see the successes so maybe people think it’s different but even at Tennessee you hear no all the time and it’s negative feedback and it can beat you up. So to keep pushing through it is is pretty huge but yeah that was it would take me a while to reflect on the whole career. There’s there’s a lot of ups and downs strikes and gutters as the big Labowski says. Um, but you know, it’s been been awesome to be a part of some of the teams I’ve been around and ultimately it starts with players. So, again, I think the concept started of maybe a college coach involved, but it started with them having an interest in our players. And then two, I’ve gotten credit for being around guys like Kyle Gibson’s a major league all-star guy coached. Any we could go pick somebody up off the street. They could have coached that guy. Was just fortunate enough to get a yes from him in recruiting, you know, and Max Scherzer is Max Scherzer. But every time I address a team, I can bring him up because everybody knows him and I’m friends with him and I coached him and you can almost kind of take credit for some of the things he’s done. But you’ve seen that guy pitch. I mean, he is the definition of creating your own future. Yeah. So that’s sick, man. You will be successful and whatever moments you do reflect on and come up with, it can be part of your book one day. It just won’t, you know, wy will not go by us that we got to have him on the bus. Yeah. as you’re going in the majors and not only that, but we got to sit with you like before you went on that uh the national title run and I it’s to me it’s just sick that you you’ve you we have this relationship and you’ve allowed us to interview you and you came on the bus and when you are [ __ ] successful one day and you do win the World Series like I know for us this will be this will just be a cool moment to look back on. You talk about taking credit for what some guys have done like you’re a perfect example for us when you win a World Series. We’re like look what we did the three of us. No, I’ll be taking credit for sure. Well, we we helped Will will the Giants into a World Series. I know the boys. Well, let’s Okay, if we are going to manifest or whatever and we we win a World Series, if you guys get to be in the clubhouse with the champagne and everything, what is that worth dollar-wise? Do you see that being like that’s a good meiece? That might be worth 500. Put the cool goggles on. dropping dropping the gray for a moment like this snowboarding goggles. Now I remember the I mean you were out there and you threw out that first pitch and I was like well [ __ ] did or do you have eligibility or but then did you have again I’m not on social media like yeah be not on social media but go ahead then there was there one that wasn’t as successful and I’m not being facicious. I’m trying to because the one you looked like a good big long lefty when he threw that first pitch here in national. It was good. It was real good. Thank you. And I’m glad you brought that up cuz everyone wants to look at St. Louis and be like that’s the sample size. Like people forget what happened in Tennessee. Here’s what happened. Um I tasted I tasted the success and I felt good about it. Couple of your your guys and the volunteers like hey not bad, you know, used to throw a little bit back in the day. So we go to this Cardinals game and I’m thinking I’m just gonna throw it as hard as I can. I’m gonna try to throw heat get on like ESPN top 10 and Yeah. got away from me. Got away from me. Didn’t bring it around. Yeah. And can I be honest, since that day I I’ I’ve had the yips to where we go and we go to um the Royals game and I throw one that’s a little too high and it’s better than that one, but it’s like what are let’s get back to the basics. Sure. You be working on the side, he gets the ball in his hand and you feel the confidence, but the moment you step in the big leagues and he’s got that ball in his hand, it’s like it just starts shaking. I’m a Yeah, I’m a I’m a AAA guy. I’m never going to be I’m a dude that’s going to ride the bus for 15 20 years. Well, I don’t have all the answers, but I’m in Nashville, so maybe we need to play catch and train a little bit. I should have called you during this process. You know, the the if anyone’s listening out there that is has that opportunity, the number one advice I would say is don’t try and throw it hard. And you did better than like 50 Cent tried to throw hard and he’s muscled up and Conor McGregor tried to do the same thing. So, yeah, just a little feel, a little touch pass if you will. That’s the thing though is like we we it would be very easy for me after that Cardinals game to go and just kind of throw a muffin, get it in there, no problem. But I It’s like am I going to take that way or I have to like kind of keep the same process and try to throw it. Yeah. Now I have to conquer throwing hard. We can do it on San Fran. We’re going to have to. Maybe after this podcast we get out there and we get a couple gloves. You give me just give me a couple pointers. Throw the ball 10 15 times. I should have brought all these materials. I’m upset the no suitcase with the IUS. Should have brought a ball and some gloves. That’s right. I I can guarantee we’ll be out in San Fran sometime. I can guarantee that for you. Bring it on. We’ll be out. I think we’re officially a bus with the boys. Uh San Francisco Giants fans, right? Is that where we are now? Please. I’ll send some gear. Yeah. Black and orange, you know. Um spooky. Now the Super Bowl’s in San Francisco, right? Yes. Will you guys set up shop out there doing anything? We will be out there. Yeah, we’ll be out there. We haven’t got it set in stone yet. Yeah. Yeah. You got a spot for us to stay? We can arrange that. I’ve got a Come on. Um I I don’t know that I should Gabe Gabe Kappler uh there there’s a place that’s been talked about uh you know Bob Melvin was the last manager and I didn’t get to say it in the press conference. Shame on me. But he reached out to me and was a class act and uh was very helpful. And then the manager before him was Gabe Kappler. and uh Gabe was in pretty good shape and I think I think enjoyed the city. So, I’ll explain how that involves a living arrangement when we’re when we’re off the Yeah, fair enough. Sounds like we’ll have a big enough place to stay when we come out. We’ll make sure that happens anyway. But yeah, that there’s the official invitation and um man, what a cool I I want to see that stadium as well. U I mean, our park you guys will absolutely fall in love with, but I I want to go out there and uh John Lynch reached out right away. Obviously, he’s involved in the organization. great dude. And then if I can meet coach Shanahan cuz those guys like Al Wilson and Payton that know him through, you know, his father with the Broncos. I always asked about him and they say the guy’s an absolute superstar. Yeah, you got a great football team that would very much probably rally around the Giants. Yeah, good crew. Good locker room out there. Good locker room. I probably shouldn’t have it, but I was given George KD’s number and uh boy would it be fun to take part in some shenanigans with that guy. Yeah. Have you reached out to George yet? I have. Well, it was a group message. Gotcha. So, yeah. Yeah. George is the perfect guy. He’s the type of dude that he he’ll get DMs from guys and become friends with them. Yeah. And they’ll be at his part his uh George KDFest. Yeah. And not just DMs from guys. I’m talking like this is like meme group DM for those people he doesn’t know that like Xbox fans and they’ll be out at KDFest because he’s like, “Oh, you’re my guy. George from the Northeast.” Like, and I’ll be like, “Oh, how’d you meet George?” They’re like, “Oh, we’re we’re on the same kind of like Xbox team. Like we just kind of DM every week and people drop like different just memes in the DM and George will respond and now they’re out here at KDFest in Nashville. Yeah. So George is he’s the perfect guy to get in with the 49ers. That’s a true clubhouse team. That’s why every kid should be at least be on one, you know, take part in one team sport. That clubhouse mentality. Uh it sounds like he’s the definition of it. What the hell’s KDFest? KDFest. He KDFest where Yeah, it’s KDFest. You don’t know how to explain it, but it’s Every year is a different theme. It’s out at his farm. Okay. Food trucks. Jelly Roll. He just randomly comes and plays. Yeah. People performing. George just throws a party. That’s awesome. Yeah. Jelly Roll, man. That guy says something to you. Even if it’s just a regular sentence. It feels like a sermon. It’s awesome. We might have to have him speak to the team if we if we go through any poor streaks. Absolutely. He is the nicest guy ever. He really does have Do we want to hit him with the Bud Light question? What an opportunity for him to say, “I’d be willing to give my entire salary to you guys if we win the World Series.” But we can hit him with the uh Bud Light question. So, Bud Light, people would do anything for an ice cold Bud Light. Absolutely. What is something that you would do anything for? Well, I wouldn’t stand in front of a gun with Kid Rock, that’s for sure. Uh [Laughter] uh it was just Halloween. For an ice cold Bud Light, I’d be willing to go back to my uh my I didn’t wear a costume this year, but kind of the one that I regret or look back on the most was Kramer in Seinfeld once was uh trying to be a an underwear model. So, there was one time I roam the streets of Columbia, Missouri, uh with just tidy whies and some Doc Martens, I think, or some shoes. So, I’d revisit that Halloween costume for an ice cold butt. Hey, that’s a good one. That’s a good one. Columbia, Missouri. It’s a fun town. Yeah, it’s a fun town. You’re a part of some interesting teams. It’s a little chilly. Yeah. Um, a lot of personalities there and Yeah, it’s interesting. I like the loyalty thing and being a part of one place, but um when you explore new areas, you meet people that you never would have met and you pick up on different cultures and I look back on the four colleges I worked at and um wouldn’t have it any other way. So to to juice up the Seinfeld clip, would you be willing to throw us an image of you back in the day again? Is this an off air thing or is this going up on this social media? Now I can’t I can’t I got to do something between now and spring training. I got to get in shape if I’m going to be in uniform around these guys. Uh but back then I was in decent shape, but I don’t think it was anything to brag about and have the whole world looking at. That’s for sure. Yeah. That be so funny. That’s AI’s fault. Sure. You’ll handle that. No problem. This is a throwback photo. Him wandering the streets and tidy whies. Yeah. Well, dude, congrats on all your success. Thank you. This is It’s awesome. Ground floor. I appreciate it. And thank you for taking the time to come here. No, this is awesome. Anyone who would ever get a chance to do this uh would be floored. And um you know, Coach Eckler was good enough to to hook us up a few years back. And fortunately, it went well enough. if I didn’t screw it up. But, you know, you guys had floated the invite. I knew something crazy had to happen to actually step foot on this bad boy and uh I appreciate it. Maybe maybe one day uh down the road we can do it again. Where do you guys train? Scottsdale, Arizona. The the the mecca. The mecca. And uh I’ve never got to do the waste management thing. My buddies do that every year and I’m in a group text. Um, Bruce Bochi, you know, he was another guy. These man, like I I’m blown away because, you know, in the SEC, there’s high level of respect, but you’re at each other’s throat more than you want to be. And I got the job and all these guys reached out to me with either text messages or phone calls. Managers now in the MLB or former managers and and Bruce Bochi, who was with the Giants and with Buster, he lives here, and I was able to sit with him. But one of the things he said, a lot of great advice, but maybe the thing that jumped out the most was he said Scottsdale, Arizona during spring training is like Marty Gro. It is, dude, it’s a zoo. I grew I mean I grew up in Arizona and every time every spring training it was like a flood of people coming in. Always something to do, somewhere to go. You’re going to love Oldtown Scottsdale. And if I could just give you a piece of advice, if you want a team bonding experience, Yes. take your boys to Zips. Go to Zip. Hey, am I wrong? Hey. Hey. There it is. Yeah. Get some golden wings. Call Zips. Tell rent out this place. Get yourself some golden wings for the boys. Some Monaco ficashas. You get the whole team in there, buddy. You’re going to spend 1,200 bucks to feed your entire team, but you’re going to walk away full bellies and full hearts. You guys might win it all based off of this one experience. We will set that up 100%. It is. And we’ll come. How awesome would that be? It’s like the players are like, “Coach apparently has some nice dinner set up.” Yeah. Drops a location. They pull up, see Zip Sports. Sports Bar. And he’s just like, “Taylor told me to go here.” Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that ising Well, Zips Zip sent us a gift card for $250, which is like a month worth of Zips. And we have talked about like flying into Arizona for one day just to get Zips and come back. But now spring training, boys. Let’s go spring training. And then also, so those guys are training for the for the big league season. You come down, you train for a first pitch in spring training. I love it. And then we get you ready for Yeah. a real game in San Francisco. I would love that. Yeah, Zips is the icing on the cake. Zips is the icing on the cake. We’re gonna do a full day of training, get the elbow nice and sore, and then we’re gonna go feed some Zips and that elbow will be just fine. It’s going to be awesome. Coach, Coach B, he can just tell him we got a couple sponsors that lined up at dinner for us. Yeah. Just be standing in there. Bring all the fellas, man. Dinner on the boys. That’d be Hey, that’s I’m telling you. I’m telling you, chef, before we get off or Jack, any questions for Coach V being sicko fans? Uh, not a question, but a thanks. You truly embody what it is to be a Tennessee V and took Tennessee baseball into the forefront. Brought us First Natty. Truly incredible. The whole fan base, I can wholeheartedly speak for them. We will miss you and wish you the best of luck with the Giants and yeah, I’ll be telling the Giants now moving forward. So, GBO and whatever, go Giants. So, thank you, brother. SFG, I appreciate it. Yeah. Also, thanks here. Uh, you’re actually the reason I have a job here. I did the documentary on Hunter. I don’t know if you remember and I interviewed you. That’s the reason uh Jared when I was an intern he said just off of that alone is kind of how I got started here. So appreciate it. Appreciate everything you did. Ball baseball has been such a great like since you got there and turned the program into what it is now. It’s added just another sport that we get excited for and it feels you know anything that we can root on the orange and white is the best. So thank you and best of luck. Yeah. Well thank you man. That’s a cool story and you did the work. So, it’s it goes to show I didn’t even know that with the, uh, the documentary. That is Yeah. I mean, if you do good work, someone’s going to notice. So, uh, good on you for that to happen. But, I’m glad we had a part in it. And overall, just it like anytime you’re talking to a V fan, you feel like you’re talking to the whole group. It’s just a representative at that. So, um, as far as that exchange goes, I got more out of it than anyone else did. Um, and it couldn’t have happened without all the ingredients are there in a great city. Um, obviously phenomenal place and the fan base and then you mix in college baseball. If you haven’t been to a college baseball game and you’re listening, you got to go no matter where it is. It’s become a party and it’s a lot of fun and you’re seeing future big leaguers for a much cheaper price, you know. Um, not that there’s anything wrong with the San Francisco Giants prices, uh, but uh, but no, I the appreciation is mutual. and dude walk I didn’t know my dad’s like how was the feedback or whatever because he cares and you got to grow thick skin but I went back to the football game Saturday and just entering the stadium stuff that people were saying on the street I was like again to use the tears theme like I was like I got to duck my head and get in the stadium cuz this is emotionally overwhelming and people don’t have to do that. Um so I appreciate it. I think part of it Josh Elander stepping in. I think a lot of people have trust in him and do you want to speak anything on that and kind of yeah tell VS fans what they can expect. I’ve heard some really cool stories about him being in Canada and wildfires or maybe it was California and drove home for like his wife’s uh he was doing recruiting uh wife pregnant and then got back out like just these crazy hard ethics hard work ethic stories. Do you have anything you can attest to that? Yeah, to a fault going back and forth and being on top of the recruiting thing for sure. Um, but no, that was I feel like um, you know, again, I I get the hat. I feel like I’m still a part of V Nation, but really truly being a part of a victory, that was the last victory I was a part of, and it was a small part of it really. It was the players spoke up, the agents that he worked with, the summer coaches, the players that are in our recruiting classes. He was the guy that was heading all that up. And um you know just because there were some moments maybe you accidentally touch an umpire uh or bump into an umpire I should say um you get a little more attention than than you deserve. There was a massive group effort in that building to try and get the thing you know going and he was just as big big of a part of it as any. Um, so he’s the right leader, but there’s also the right players on the field and then also it’ll keep that culture going and there’s something, like I said, consistency of of that culture. Tennessee baseball, for whatever reason, has a vibe and the fans contribute to it. So, the fact that vibe is going to keep rolling fires me up. Should fire everybody else up, too. Fires me up. Yeah. Good. Before we get off, do you have a piece of advice that you’ve latched on to as you’re making this transition? Um, again, I I think uh make a decision and do it like hell um was something that a family we talked about earlier uh kept kept revisiting with me and and the thing I’ve always latched on to from a mentor of mine with these recruits is the right decision is the one you make. Um you know, unless you look back on it and or you second guess or you regret things. So, um those are somewhat corny ones, but I think impactful at this point, but more than anything, I’m just going to enjoy it. Um, again, I’m the guinea pig. So, whichever way it goes, I’m blessed to be able to experience it. And, uh, the organization has blown me away so far and how they do things. So, I’m going to learn a lot and have fun doing it. And, uh, we’ll we’ll see if we win enough games for you guys to be in the locker room one day. Let’s go. Oh, yeah. Coach B, you’re the man, bro. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Appreciate you, brother. Round of applause, Coach B. Thank you. That’s for the boys. Official Giants fans. Officials kisses.

Recorded: November 03, 2025

Will Compton and Taylor Lewan welcome College Baseball powerhouse Tony Vitello, former head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers and now the new manager of the San Francisco Giants!

Taylor Lewan kicks off the pod by further apologizing for his Spooktober showing. However Will Compton presses him to a point that Taylor defends his title as the king of Spooktober. The boys then recap their Halloweens with the family, sharing stories of trick-or-treating with their kids and the best costumes they saw over the weekend. Followed by Taylor fighting for his life on the bus explaining his battle with gout.

Afterward Vitello hops on the pod and gives the boys an incredible interview. Renowned for his fiery intensity, innovative culture, and championship run, Tony Vitello will now look to translate his skills to the MLB. Tony opens up about his leadership style and team culture building, as well as a few recruiting secrets, game-day rituals (including the infamous leopard-print fur coat for home runs), and how he builds a winning mindset from the ground up. Along the way: light-hearted stories, locker room moments, and unexpected insights into what it takes to win at the highest level of college baseball and what it will take to win a World Series after what we all just witnessed between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays.

Big Hugs, Tiny Kisses!

TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro
3:19 Spooktober Is Over
17:34 Gout Is No Joke
31:31 Tickle Turkey Time
36:00 When Is Too Soon For Christmas Decorations?
39:21 Dodgers Win World Series
45:41 The Final Bite
59:52 TONY VITELLO JOINS
59:57 Are The Dodgers Winning Bad For Baseball?
1:04:09 The New San Francisco Giants Manager
1:09:41 Difference In Coaching In College v MLB
1:10:37 Telling Tennessee He Was Leaving
1:18:03 Was The MLB A Goal Of His?
1:24:09 Coming Up The Coaching Ranks
1:26:36 Nerves During Hiring Process
1:27:47 NIL In College Baseball
1:43:08 Salary Cap In MLB?
1:44:37 Tony Owes The Boys Some Money
1:47:14 Farm System vs College
1:53:10 Motivating Players With So Many Games
1:54:38 Moments He Likes To Look Back On
1:58:18 Taylor’s First Pitch
2:04:14 Bud Light: What Would You Do Anything For?

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Get on the bus with NFL players Will Compton & Taylor Lewan! The Boys are letting you in on their hilarious, high-energy (and often heartfelt) conversations. Topics range from exclusive stories to active player perspectives to out-of-left-field hot takes on things you and your friends only discuss behind closed doors. Sometimes they chat with a guest, sometimes it’s just the two of them, but it’s always a good time when you’re Bussin’ With The Boys.

And yes, this is the podcast where Mike Vrabel said he’d cut his piece off for a Super Bowl.

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