Alright, I take it back, Millman is boring as ****.

Millman, Simmons and Sal talking gamboooling is the ultimate bsp wankfest.
You'd think that in all of these years, he'd have run into some degenerate who would advise him teasing through zero isn't one of the greatest things in the world.

Heard Simmons on the ESPN Radio yesterday... I mean, the dude is a print comedian, but his voice is a bit tilting.

Anyone agree with me about the "well since gambling is illegal" bit? I feel like it's unforgivable.

agree, since it's not illegal. or at least, it depends.

a weekend in vegas with bill and millman would be like taking Simmons' expert 20/20 hindsight and magnifying it to 10/20 hindsight. the woulda/coulda/shoulda/i had that/it was so obvious shtick would be endless.

I did a 180 on Klosterman. At first, I couldn't stand him. he's still a bit annoying with his "ooh i'm so weird i come at **** from crazy angles" shtick, but they have good convos.

House and JackO are fine, though House is just a terrible talker. Gus is fine but he's barely on. His other friends blow.

Rick Bucher is the absolute worst.

i like klosterman a lot but he does have an annoying habit of always sound weirdly breathless on the podcast.

the last one they did where they talked about college football/nfl and variations of basketball was good. he makes bill look really really stupid in their conversations.

klosterman is the nuts

i cant believe you guys like jacko. i dont know a single person who watches baseball at all and is as clueless as him. i mean i get that hes jsut there so they can troll each other but it doesnt really work when he agrees with every single thing simmons ever says

Meh. I think he's a pretty typical fan. He watches his team. Knows little about anyone else. And doesn't think advanced stats are worth anything.

That probably describes like 80% of baseball fans over the age of 25.

Simmons is intolerable to me because he's not really a dumb guy- he's a slightly smart guy who refuses to use his brain in way too many spots. There's all kinds of intellectual inconsistency in terms of how he approaches things, all kinds of bias that he seems like he should be smart enough to see through- but instead he herpderps it up half the damn time.

i actually look forward to simmons articles. they are funny. i dont take him seriously

I like the JackO podcasts but it's definitely not because I'm expecting any sort of good analysis from either of them. But they have good chemistry and I think their shtick is funny.

Also the idea of him being at work at a legal firm and taking an hour out of his day to talk with Simmons on his podcast is hilarious.

yeah the other day he was talking on his podcast about being surprised by meeting people (at book signings or whatever) and being told that they love the podcasts, nothing about the columns. he found this weird, because he considers himself a writer. i think he fails to realize how little he writes anymore. like a typical week will have 2-3 podcasts, and 1 column (Friday picks in football season). sometimes more podcasts, rarely more than 1 article, more often less than 1 outside of football season. so why is he so surprised?

i don't blame him at all, i mean obviously he's busy with writing books and signings, on-air appearances and TV production (like 30 for 30), radio gigs, and other stuff that is more important than writing a free column. but "be more self-aware" man, there's a reason people don't think of you a writer anymore!

but yeah, i like the pods too. tend to like his goofier (mailbags, lists, quotes, etc) better than his long form serious type stuff, because the latter tends to fail, and is rarely funny or interesting.

Patton Oswalt on the podcast today... he's pretty much my favorite.

+1 for klosterman/house/jacko/jacoby love


i'll preface by saying im a simmons fanboy.. but when i went to a booksigning in DC for TBOB, House was there and he looks nothing like what I thought. hes pretty tall/solid build

IIRC according to simba house can out-eat pretty much anyone else

He doesn't seem to do any prep for really any of his podcasts (besides a non occurring guest like Al Michaels/Leonsis), so it works when it's just casual conversations, but not so much when it's serious and we get exchanges like he had w/Millman this week.

I don't think I've read a Simmons article from start to finish other than the behind-the-scenes TNT/Barkley one from a long time ago, but I do listen to all his podcasts because they are great for killing time during the day.

Millman is possibly the least knowledgeable "expert" in any field I've ever heard. I can't really tell if he actually bets sports at all, or just reports the lines. It wouldn't surprise me to find out he's like Louis Sobotka picking horses.

I like pretty much all his guests because almost all bring something to the table, whether it's someone like Duchovny or Leonsis who have lives I'm curious about, or House/JackO who are funny to listen to because they are regional fans for areas I don't know much about.

hey man, louis sobotka was up 7k hypothetical dollars.

As useless as Millman is, you have to admit he has a pretty sick job.

He doesn't do a damn thing. He talks about random sports betters as if they are awesome, when in fact nobody can really tell whether they are or not. He reports on line movements, which are publicly available.

I really think he just hangs out in sportsbooks and talks to random guys and spits out an article a week. And anytime he has an actual question all he has to do is ask any of those random guys he talks to and quote them as an expert, and nobody can really refute it at all. Nobody has any idea whether Fezik or Teddy Covers or Big Al McMordie are the best handicapper, they are all experts if he needs them to be, and they will all be correct probably 48-52% of the time if he needs them to be.

I guess I just like that a major media outlet is acknowledging that gambling exists, in some regard.

this was great. just 90min of pop culture talk

Aaron Schatz is the worst hes such a douche. Pretty much every playoff game he refuses to commit and has it at 50/50.

from his all star game column today...

LOL

I'm not too familiar with Chad Millman's gambling stories/contacts/exploits (or lack thereof according to you guys), but he's written/co-written some pretty good books: 'The Ones Who Hit The Hardest', talks about the Steelers/Cowboys rivalry in the 70's and their cultural differences; 'Invincible', the Vince Papale story that Marky Mark acted in; the Baba Booey book (haven't read it yet, should be entertaining)

Actually all these guys are better writers than speakers: Chuck Klosterman's books are excellent also, Simmons' mailbags and NFL previews are good, but listening to all these guys on podcasts is kinda meh.

it's not that bad