A Note from MutStack Owner Dave Portnoy

At the time of print Ryan Whitney is still frozen at the buzzer of Family Feud.

1. Tough moment for Whit as part of an amazing Barstool showing on The Feud.

2. He owned up to choking today on KMS - listen here.

3. His hair does look really dark on TV, but I don’t believe the #haters who say it’s dyed

If you’re a long-time MutStack reader (and hopefully by now a subscriber), you know I am not an expert in much. But I am here to tell you I’d consider myself an expert in local, little league concession stands.

I’m not talking about the concessions at Fenway or those Monster Jam vendors like Justin Trudell. I’m talking local, next to the fields in your town, concession stands.

I have been to well over 50 baseball games this summer (more on that below in the Notes), and 100s of games over the last few summers, all over New England. I have been to dozens of Snack Shacks during that time.

This week, I finally found the best Snack Shack in all the land.

Now, these Snack Shacks serve a very important purpose. Kids and parents are out in the sun for hours at a time. Sometimes you’re running late and forget something. Or dad, mom, or a sibling gets hungry. Or thirsty. You can’t leave, so you’re at the mercy of the Snack Shack. How good or how bad it is can impact the whole day - not joking.

Most of the time, these Snack Shacks range from bad to slightly above average. Too much candy. No hot food. Not enough caffeinated drink choices. No sunflower seeds. Cash only because the card machine is down. Not open when the game starts, or open at all. Closed right after the game so you can’t get anything before you leave. You’re thrilled to get an average Snack Shack when you arrive for eight hours of baseball or get out of the car after a 90-minute drive.

We got that and more for the Cal Ripken 10U Regional Final this past week in New Milford, CT.

Shanks’s Shack was/is awesome.

The menu looked so big I was concerned. Like one of those restaurants that has a little bit of everything…how can it all be good?

But the breakfast sandwich (no picture, I forgot) on a roll was something you’d get at a diner and be thrilled with. Most Snack Shacks don’t even have these, so even if it was bad, it would have been a win, but it was good.

A fellow dad said something I’d never heard near a Snack Shack: “The wings are great.” Excuse me? I had to try them, even though I knew they would be messy. I can confirm - restaurant quality. Our family did two orders of these one day, one buffalo and one BBQ.

Fried chicken sandwich? Piping hot and made to order. Not afraid of lettuce.

Over and over, parents commented on the food and selection. Multiple cooks back there cooking food. Service was solid. Took credit cards - some places still struggle with that. And stayed open well after the game so you could order for the (long) ride home.

If you’re a parent of a young athlete, you already know - the bar is pretty low at these places. Shank’s Shack went soooooo above and beyond that I felt like I had to start here today. It helped that the field was very nice and you’re surrounded by the green mountains of Connecticut.

It’s the type of place that if I were driving by on a Saturday morning, I’d just stop and get a breakfast sandwich. And I bet some people do that.

Whatever they are doing, they should start consulting other Snack Shacks. I’d be happy to host and be the Jon Taffer of the local field concession stands across New England.

Shanks’s Shack gets the full, Five-Star MutStack Seal of Approval.

Meanwhile, big spot for Red Sox ownership. WEEI is going to Sirius/XM radio. We have some #MutMail questions. And your MutStack Notes.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #181.

Yes, My Boss Dave still owns MutStack. But of course, it remains free to subscribe and have it emailed directly to your inbox every Friday.

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On the Boston Red Sox at the Trade Deadline…

Shoutout, Whit.

Don’t mess it up, John Henry.

On the Audacy Sports/SiriusXM Deal…

You won’t be surprised that while most radio publications are calling this a great thing for Audacy, I have questions.

It is certainly a big deal for the radio industry that Satellite Radio’s SiriusXM is paying Audacy some sort of licensing fee to start carrying some of its biggest sports and talk stations on its platform. From Andrew Marchand:

All Audacy stations will be available on the SiriusXM app, while some, including WFAN, will be available through in vehicles as well. The Audacy stations will still be accessible on all of its current platforms, including radios, the Audacy app and connected-home devices, like Amazon’s Alexa.

As part of the sharing agreement, SiriusXM personalities, like Russo, may appear as cross-promotional guests on WFAN and other Audacy stations. Top radio personalities are expected to show up on SiriusXM as guests as well.

Locally, yes, WEEI will now be heard on SiriusXM. Or at least the SiriusXM app.

If this were 20 years ago, and Audacy didn’t already have an app that gave you access to any local station you wanted, anywhere you want, this would be a huge deal for listeners. Like, I would have loved to get into a rental car on a work trip and listen to The Big Show. Or not miss Kirk and Callahan on a Gary Tanguay day while I’m on vacation.

But with the app…isn’t that already available? Doesn’t that already exist for me out of market?

Over the air, the app, YouTube/Twitch, and now SiriusXM - I’m guessing Audacy would argue they’re putting their content in so many places it's impossible to ignore them. And this is a new revenue stream, since SiriusXM is paying them.

If I were local talent. I’d be wondering if there’s a chance some people in my audience who are already listening to my show on the radio and have SiriusXM just decide to listen over there - could that potentially impact my own ratings? Maybe?

I might not be the best person to talk about this. For a few years, I was a Sirius/XM sub because I wanted to listen to Stern and Artie Lange. That was my draw to paying for the service and lugging around that equipment in different cars for a few years. That was the only place I could hear the show, so I had to get it.

But with apps, are people going to subscribe to the service for something they can already get for free? Is the Audacy app so bad that people will pay to have their shows on a more stable platform?

I certainly see it as a bigger win for Audacy than for SiriusXM. But it feels more like a PR win than a win for the listening audience.

Every industry story keeps talking about getting Audacy stations “in front of a national audience,” and I guess that’s true. But is some guy in Detroit who is a Lions fan going to give a shit about Patriots talk? What kind of impact is that supposed to have? One way this would really suck for the audience is if some local shows started doing more bad, national content. No thanks.

Radio is not dying, but it’s changing. Everything is going to streaming, and I guess one way to get ahead of that is to get your product on a national streaming platform - and get paid to do it in the process.

IDK. Label me as someone who sees this more as a matter of survival than as something that will have a huge positive impact on listeners.

Big deal? Meh. Maybe I’m missing something. Feel free to correct me in the comments.

On your MutStack Mailbag…

❓When you started out this humble blog back in 2023 did you ever envision a scenario where 3 years later Mutstack would become a global fashion brand? - David in Maryland

Great to meet David in Laconia. And it was never a goal, David, no.

T-shirt update: I have a few mockups of a potential T-shirt from Barstool. I like them - they fit the MutStack brand perfectly. I sent one to My Boss Dave asking for his opinion and did not hear back. I don’t think that’s a great sign, TBH.

He’s the MutStack owner, so I don’t want to post the mockup here or give it the green light in the store before he says okay.

Hats will have to wait - we need to prove ourselves first. But there is a shirt, and I think we’re close. And I’d like to sell them in the store and then give some away to subscribers. Hopefully, soon.

❓ Do you HATE baseball? - Groundhog on Substack

Not at all, Groundhog. I find it tough to embrace Red Sox ownership and management. Like, not enough bad things can happen to Sam Kennedy. He is a snake, and I’ll celebrate the day he’s gone from the organization. I personally have a major issue with him, and it will be hard to ever get over. He’s a dink.

But I grew up loving baseball. My kids love and play baseball. I spent years in the Red Sox booth watching hundreds of hours of baseball. I do not hate baseball.

Sam Kennedy, yes. Baseball, no.

❓ Hey mut, I want to get into horse racing but don’t understand it. You should make a short form video series explaining it to a beginner. Congrats on the barstool job and the shoutout from portnoy this morning 👍 - Brian

Thanks, Brian. Nice mention from My Boss Dave this week. So, I am committed to doing this. But I don’t know how basic to make it…Do I focus on handicapping races or terminology or how to bet? I don’t want to make it complicated and have to figure out how to present it correctly. But Dave’s Go Go Greys are going to keep hitting the track, and people are going to want to follow along.

If you are someone like Brian, let me know what you’d want to see in a video or video(s) like this.

And that was it for questions. Bad job by me, I guess. Maybe we’ll try again in the fall. #mutmail

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ The never-ending baseball season…is not over yet. And that’s a good thing.

The 10U Chelmsford Lions hunkered down in beautiful New Milford, CT for a week (thanks to weather delays) and came out as Cal Ripken New England Regional Champs. I think this 2026 is the first 10U winners from Chelmsford.

Local Newtown, CT had a huge home-field crowd advantage Thursday afternoon in the Championship Game, but the Lions took care of business in what was essentially a road affair to take home the banner and New England title.

Just an incredible summer of baseball from the players and coaches.

Only 24 teams (I think) make the World Series, which takes place next month in Virginia… just an hour from Colonial Downs 🏇🏻. One of those teams will be from Chelmsford, MA, representing New England. Very cool to watch this team compete with the best teams in the region. I can’t wait to see them against the best teams in the country. What a run for the Lions! Impossible to be more proud of this group.

📍 New Milford, CT…awesome town. Green. Lots of farms. Very lively little downtown (MUCH better than Chelmsford). Great snack shack. Could retire there and be happy… if they get better cell phone service.

🏀 LeBron. 1. I don’t know it’s going to work with all those players needing the ball in Philadelphia. 2. I give credit for going to the place that gives him, on paper, the best chance to win. 3. And for taking little money to do it. 4. I would have taken him on the Celtics for that money, in a second, as I wrote here a few weeks ago. 5. This gives us a TREMENDOUS Hate Watch team in the Sixers. They will be so easy/fun to root against. I’m in the minority, but it will not be hard for me to root against Jaylen Brown.

📺 Family Feud HAS to have Barstool back next time they do a celebrity game. You can’t possibly get better entertainment than 543-0. And Dave should run it back with the same crew.

🏈 As someone excited about Men of Honor, yesterday was tough. A win for Rico, but tough.

🎙️ The Red Sox are running so hot right now, they might actually give WEEI a little bump in the ratings. The day games will 100% rate better than Rich, Ken & Ted.

➡️ Great seeing this on X.com Friday morning. Sending Gasper good thoughts as he comes back from prostate cancer surgery.

🏇🏻 Been a very slow start for me at Saratoga. Just can’t seem to get anything going. More on Saratoga and horse racing in tomorrow’s At The Post blog at Barstool.

That feels like enough Stack for this week.

Good luck with the bets this weekend. Thanks for reading. And watching.

A Note from MutStack Owner Dave Portnoy

As I mentioned last week, My Boss Dave’s ownership of MutStack has been a good thing. Did his decision to NOT return ownership of MutStack to me, as he said he would do if Cancel Me If You Can debuted at #1 on the NYT best-sellers list, fly in the face of his famous “A Portnoy/Lannister always pays his debts” proclamation? That’s for other people to say.

But this is a great owner right here.

The people (David in Maryland) have demanded MutStack Merch. The owner of MutStack has approved it. At least, in concept.

Do I have a design? No.

Do I know the process to get this started? Also, no.

Some work to be done, but the hard part is out of the way.

As far as keeping them in stock, I think we’ll sell more than four. David, myself, my mom, Alex in Saratoga…that’s four right there. Boom.

Big day for this little newsletter that could, that’s owned by the biggest name in media. Feels like the sky’s the limit here at MutStack HQ this morning!

Yes, Dave still owns MutStack. But of course, it remains free to subscribe and share. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

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Hopefully, more of an update here next week. #staytuned

Jarren Duran makes it really tough to root for Jarren Duran.

Tyler Milliken, best known for his sometimes shirtless work on the Section 10 Podcast (Shoutout Jared and Ellyn Carrabis), posted this on the show’s Discord last night.

The TL;DR version of this post is that Duran did not like it when Milliken posted a picture online of the very public middle finger Duran gave a fan during a game earlier this year. Duran went so far as to text Tyler’s boss, Carrabis (Jared, not Ellyn), and reportedly called Milliken “ a fat fuck” and said, “If he ever saw Milliken, he’d beat the fuck out of him.”

Milliken then tries to talk to Duran about it face to face at Fenway, to which Duran reportedly says Milliken is “the fucking worst” and just gets up and walks away.

A couple of things really bug me about this from Duran’s standpoint.

To his credit, Duran was very open about his own mental health in the Netflix/Sox doc last year when he admitted he had contemplated suicide. Chris Cotillo of Mass Live mentioned that “Jarren sharing his story publicly saved countless lives, and that’s real. I’ve heard that from so many people around the country.” Cotillo interacts with a lot more Sox fans than I do, so I’ll take him at his word.

So Duran, who admits he has battled his own mental health demons, decided to text Tyler’s friend/boss and call him a “fat fuck” and threaten violence because he posted a picture of something Duran did online? I wouldn’t call that bullying, but it doesn’t seem like a healthy or mature way to handle the situation.

Then, when Tyler tries to be the mature one and talk to Duran about it face-to-face, Duran just walks away.

Are these War Crimes by Duran? No. But it makes him extremely unlikeable. As does his yelling at fans, which he’s reportedly done as recently as last month. Though he refused to talk about it when asked by the media after the game. Just like he blew off the media the day Alex Cora got fired.

It’s no secret that players don’t like the media, especially when they say or write bad things about them. And I get that podcasts can blur the lines a bit, but Tyler is 100% media. Like, even if it’s not traditional, look how active he is on social media. Did Duran think he was his friend because he was a podcast guest on Section 10? Did he think Tyler should not post the photo because he is a fan? We don’t know what the player thinks because when Milliken tried to talk to him about it, Duran stormed off.

Trevor Story suggested in Spring Training that Duran was going to take a “big step” as far as becoming a leader on this Red Sox team. I really hope that’s not the case. This is the opposite of being a leader. This is being overly sensitive to someone trying to do their job. And rather than talk to them about it directly, you text their friend/boss. What is this, Mean Girls?

I don’t know if I would have posted this if I were Tyler. But since he did, I’ll add it to the list of reasons I find it hard to root for this player. I don’t think I’m alone in that feeling. There will not be a big outcry from Red Sox Nation if he’s traded before the August 3rd deadline.

And while I doubt he’ll comment on it, I hope Duran gets asked about it Friday at Fenway. I’d be curious to get his thought process on being so angry at a podcast host that you text their friend/boss.

Meanwhile, we have a deep dive into the 2026 Spring Book Boston radio ratings. A simple request for the Red Sox. The Official MutStack Drake Maye Ranking. And lots of links in the notes.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #180.

On your Spring 2026 Boston Radio ratings…

First off, full credit to Boston Radio Watch on X.com, as he was once again the first to have all these numbers and post them late Wednesday PM.

I’ll get to the numbers and some thoughts on another Sports Hub pantsing of WEEI in a second. But I’ll say up front that what’s going on behind the scenes with these numbers is pretty interesting.

Beasley Media (which owns 98.5 The Sports Hub) has opted out of getting weekly ratings access from Nielsen, the company that tracks the ratings. So now, they just get quarterly numbers. Could be a cost thing. Could be they don’t love the way Nielsen operates. Could be because they have been No. 1 with Men 25-54 for so long that it just doesn’t matter. But it’s clear from talking to multiple sources at 98.5 that the access that many people had to the numbers no longer exists.

At least one person suggested to me this week that the company has internally really started deemphasizing the ratings to the on-air staff. I’d suggest that being #1 over and over and over should be celebrated. But maybe the suits there disagree. And maybe those same suits are sick of paying out ratings bonuses that are just automatic at this point. Sounds shitty, but I’d believe it.

I get why WEEI would want to deemphasize the ratings - once again, they’re getting bludgeoned by their main competition. But it’s a little weird to me that 98.5 is doing it. If I were on air and No. 1 over and over, I’d sure as shit tell my audience. And thank my audience.

Now, as far as the Spring Ratings go, “scoreboard is scoreboard.” This is another decimation of WEEI by the Sports Hub. Red Sox didn’t help. ANOTHER new afternoon show didn’t help. There were Harlem Globetrotters / Washington Generals games more competitive than this.

I don’t know why the hell I can’t find the overall winter number, but I believe both stations are down a bit. But year over year, one station is up 6%, while the other is down 14%. The station that's down 14% can point to its morning show being down 23% from a year ago at this time as a big reason.

The Greg Hill Show needs to be competitive with Toucher & Hardy if the station ratings are ever going to be close again. Losing by 10 points, I can confirm, since I’ve hosted shows that probably lost by that much, is not competitive. Going back to Spring 2024, Greg’s show is down 30% 👀👀

WZLX and The Chuck Nolin Morning Show continue to smoke WEEI, as they come in at No. 2 with an 8.8 for the spring. Fred Toucher said a few weeks ago he doesn’t really root against WEEI and only roots against WZLX, and you can see why, given how much closer they are in the ratings.

It’s boring to keep writing this, but Toucher & Hardy smashed again, and that 16.1 is the highest rating on either station.

I mentioned last week that I have been inundated with notes from people who claim they like Mego much more than Courtney Cox on GHS. Small sample size, but the numbers here would not back that up among a larger swath of listeners. Cox has been out on maternity leave all spring, and Mego has filled in for her most of the time.

Unless the weekly ratings (which I have not seen) tell a different story, Rich, Ken & Ted made little, if any, impact in their first few months on the air at WEEI. Rich Shertenlieb’s return to sports radio has strengthened my friend Kirk Minihane's claim that Rich would be a complete non-factor away from Toucher and the Sports Hub. The new WEEI afternoon drive show did not seem to draw any new-show bump, and as a listener, it remains the worst of the six “main” shows on the two stations. Rich making every rejoin some sort of talking point for a shitty band, movie or TV show I’ve never heard of is off-the-charts annoying and masturbatory.

Middays stayed about the same for both stations. Nice spring for Hub nights.

Will the summer book be any different? I doubt it. Fall? Nope. Maybe a small Red Sox bump? But that’s offset by the fact that people are ready for the Patriots’ season to start later this month.

Are the bad numbers getting to some very sensitive people at WEEI? The video below in the notes says 100% yes. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

On my wish for the Red Sox…

One or the other, please. Great lighting today.

On the Official MutStack Ranking of Drake Maye…

I am not an NFL executive. I am not an NFL coach. Nor am I an NFL scout.

I am a blogger/newsletter publisher who does not even own the very newsletter I publish.

All that being said, I present to you the

July 2026 Official MutStack Rankings of QBs I Would Take Ahead of Drake Maye If We Were Drafting For The Next Five Years

With no more than one sentence for each QB.

1. Josh Allen. He’s a stud, and he’ll be a pain in the ass for this Pats team in the AFC.

2. Patrick Mahomes. Even 35-year-old Mahomes will be Elite.

3. Lamar Jackson. Much better passer (check the numbers) than he gets credit for.

That’s the list - only three guys I’d take over Drake Maye if we’re talking about the next five years. He might not be the BEST QB right now, but he’s going to be in the conversation.

But Mut, Joe Burrow…always seems to get hurt, and Maye is much more mobile at this point

But Mut, Matt Stafford…Dude is 38. Elite, but 38.

Given his age, Caleb Williams might be my next pick on this list, ahead of Burrow, Stafford, or Dak.

Maye was not at his best throwing the ball in the playoffs, but he made up for it by rushing for 178 yards in four games.

I’ve heard from a few people that there's real Drake Maye buzz around Gillette this summer. That’s he’s added weight. That he’s going to thrive with the overhaul of the receiving core. I believe it.

Year 3 Josh Allen was 🔥🔥🔥 - 37 TD, 10 INTs, and inproved is QBR by 25 points from the previous year. Maye is coming off an almost MVP season, but another big step forward would not be shocking. The team will need it to avoid that classic Super Bowl losing hangover this season.

The ESPN list had Maye 8th for this year, and even that is a little low, in my view. I would have had him ahead of Herbert and Dak. But this MutStack list is much more important.

And his place on MY list is a reminder that the Patriots should be Super Bowl contenders again this year. And the next five, maybe 10 years, with Maye at the helm. No matter where the exes, coaches, and scouts rank him.

You can make your own list in the comments. Or go publish your own newsletter.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

📫 Next week. Let’s open it up to some MutStack Mailbag questions for the Four-Pack. It just feels right. Comment here with questions, message me here, or DM on X/Twitter.

🎙️ A very funny takedown of the Globe’s Kevin Cullen from Kirk on Thursday. Well, funny until you realize that there are highly-paid people who work in journalism who were okay with Cullen keeping his job even after being suspended for three months without pay after a review found fabricated details and inconsistencies with his Boston Marathon bombing columns. Those inconsistencies were, of course, also uncovered by Kirk. Maybe Chris Curtis gets a producing credit on those? A must-listen.

😂 Also very funny - this Klemmer prank on Nate. Must-watch.

🎙️ Not funny, but just…sad. Or very weird. But he’s not wrong - Red Sox baseball will get more listneners than his show. Just wild to hear him call out the demo by name. Very weird dude, huh?

🃏 Shoutout Coleman. Off to Nashville. Good producer. Loyal Teammate. Can take a joke. Kamala Fan. Godspeed, Jack. And Dickens.

⚾ John Henry stinks.

⚾ Very nice to talk to some great Minifans/Stoolies/MutSluts this past week in Freetown, MA, at the Cal Ripken State Baseball Tournament.

After Chelmsford High won the state high school tournament last spring, I am happy to report that the 10U team joined a select group from Middlesex County by capturing the Cal Ripken State Championship.

Amazing run for this great group of kids, including my son. Coaches did an outstanding job. Shoutout to the Freetown concession stand, maybe the best one I’ve been to for youth sports. Eight New England teams are battling in the Regional Final this weekend. I see lots of rain and fire smoke from Canada in the forecast. Sweet! Go Lions. 🦁

That feels like enough Stack for this week.

Good luck with the bets this weekend. Thanks for reading. And watching.

A note from MutStack Owner Dave Portnoy

Congratulations to me for being a NYT bestseller. Thank you to all the Mutsluts and Minifans who bought the book. I couldn’t have done it without you guys.

Now I know I said if this happened I would give Mut back ownership of the Mutstack. However as Bill Parcells once famously said…”I reserve the right to change my mind”

Yeah.

So, based on his tweet the other day, I had a feeling this was coming. And my boss Dave sort of has me over a barrel here.

I’m a Barstool Employee. He’s my boss. I like working for him. He also owns the MutStack IP (I legit signed it away when I joined Barstool last September). I thought about deleting this whole newsletter and going on MutStrike, but that’s not fair to you, the loyal MutStack reader and subscriber. I freaking flew to Chicago to win a bet and publish in March; I’m not NOT publishing.

Plus, if we’re in the MutStack Trust Tree, Dave’s tenure as Owner has been very good for MutStack.

Dave has often said that a Portnoy/Lannister always pays their debts - in fact, I’m 99% sure he said this in the audio version of the NYT #1 Best Seller, Cancel Me If You Can, available on Amazon now. So if he’s going to keep ownership of MutStack, I need to find a way to do something for the loyal MutStack subscribers. Hopefully, Davey Lannister would be open to that. But I don’t really want to negotiate over text on a Friday morning.

My next move is critical, and I don’t want to rush it. I need some time here. Hope you’ll understand.

Congrats to Dave. Thanks to the MutSluts (who are really Minifans, I get it) for supporting Dave’s book. And this newsletter. Hopefully I’ll have some further news/updates next week.

Yes, Dave still owns MutStack. But of course, it remains free to subscribe and share. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

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“If you’ve enjoyed what you’re seeing, well, support your local team.”

“This doesn’t have to be the last soccer you watch for the next four years. It’s a beautiful sport…”

These were the words from soccer announcer John Strong at the end of Team USA getting WORKED by Belgium on Monday night, ending their World Cup run. I would play you the clip, but FIFA might come to my house and sue my pants off. But boy, I really would love to post it here because the quote itself, in newsletter form, doesn’t do it justice. Strong just PLEADING with fans to keep watching.

“The future of American soccer is very bright,” added analyst Stu Holden a few seconds later.

I don’t think it was the intention, but it came across as weak - PLEASE keep watching soccer. I let out a real-life LOL when Strong said it.

Since 1994, I’ve been told that soccer is coming. And while this was a nice run for Team USA, I don’t think anything really changed. Do you? Was this the year soccer broke through?

Breaks through to what exactly? I don’t know. What’s the metric we’re going to point to and say, “See, I told you, soccer is here to stay”? More kids playing? Better MLS attendance?

Professional soccer is a fringe sport in this country. Not a knock, just a fact. I am a diehard fan of a very fringe sport in horse racing. I personally don’t care if you like racing or not - I get the sense some soccer fans need everyone to like their sport as much as they do.

In Europe, horse racing is a deeply embedded national pastime/sport (maybe even 2nd to soccer in the UK). Their racing festivals are ingrained in the culture and are major social events. It’s much different here in America, where, outside of the Triple Crown, racing does not register with many sports fans. I’m okay with that.

Same for soccer and the World Cup.

As far as growing the game, it can’t help that Major League Soccer seems kinda hidden on Apple TV. The $99 a year doesn’t seem steep, but there is a barrier to watching the games when they’re tucked away on a streaming platform.

Soccer fans should enjoy the beautiful game, as I guess they call it. Stop worrying about getting new fans. Who cares. Me? I’m committed to watching Team USA play high-level International matches, and that’s about it. I think there are a lot of people like me - just like there are fans who watch one horse race a year, the Kentucky Derby. Some will like it so much they’ll watch other races and become diehard fans - same for soccer and the World Cup.

Soccer is never going to be football in America, and that should be okay. People who love the sport should not have to beg sports fans to keep watching.

And to me, a casual soccer fan tuning in Monday night, that’s what it came across as.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox are on fire, but there’s one thing I won’t do. I have completely come to terms with the Jaylen Brown trade and remain on Brad Stevens Island. My Boss Dave was in Nashua. And your usual MutStack Notes.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #179.

On one thing I won’t do when it comes to the Red Sox…

PG-13 video this week. Sorry not sorry.

On a final word on the Jaylen Brown Trade…

So, turns out I might have been the only Celtics fan who was okay with the Brad Stevens/Bill Chisholm press conference on Monday. Seriously, people hated those 45 minutes. I think every show in Boston mocked it for the next 48 hours.

I thought Stevens came across as understanding of fans' and the media's reactions in the aftermath of the Brown trade. I thought he was thoughtful in agreeing that, yes, telling fans to care about draft picks is pretty silly. He seemed well aware that this trade could potentially not work for the Celtics.

But to me, he also seemed confident: confident that there was a reason for this trade, even if he couldn’t just come out and explain it directly in that setting.

“…In fact historic ball hogs like Kobe, Iverson, Jordan and peak Harden only had one or two seasons each with higher usage than 36.1. Lebron, Steph and KD NEVER had the ball that much in a single season. I just found this very interesting….This makes the argument that the ball moved better with him running the offense completely false along with them being 27th in assists and the slowest team in the league (30th in pace).”

Very good post from The Sports Hub’s Cerrone Battle. And I’ll use it to say I feel like this is 100% what Brad was trying to say on Monday. Or some version of it.

The high-usage Jaylen Brown Celtics were a slow team that didn’t play much team basketball and, in the end, put a lot on Brown to make plays. For last season, with no Tatum, that kind of worked. But Tatum is back in full for 2026-2027, and it’s been suggested that Brown did not want to go back to a secondary role behind him. As I have said from the beginning, Tatum > Brown.

As a viewer, there were times I hated watching the high-usage Jaylen Brown Celtics. For all the shit that Joe Mazzulla takes (plenty from me) for his ‘three-first’ offense, there were plenty of times the team had to jack up a three because they never got a better look with Brown running the show.

Rather than run the offense through Brown again, or go through the painful process of taking Brown off the ball and dealing with the fallout from that, they decided to trade Brown.

I think the money was also part of it - that 2 year/$141 extension that was due in a couple of years, but that Brown reportedly wanted sooner, was looming. I think one thing Brad would have said Monday, if he were being completely honest, is that there might be two players worth keeping if it takes up over 70% of your salary cap, and Tatum is one of those players, but not Brown. But he wasn’t going to say that about the beloved Brown in that setting - I would not be shocked if he said it directly to his owner behind the scenes. And I’d agree with him.

NBA reporter/podcaster Zach Lowe reported that Brown “reportedly gave intelligence to multiple interested franchises indicating he had no interest in playing for them, causing teams to stay out of the bidding and ultimately forcing Boston's hand to make the deal.” That detail helps explain the WHY NOW part of this - the walls were closing in, and the team felt like they had to make a trade before Brown forced his way to a preferred destination, where the return might even have been worse if that’s possible.

Brad looked at the idea of locking himself into five more years of Jaylen Brown at max money and didn’t like what he saw.

Stevens and Chisholm have taken a beating this week. And I get that - when you make a title contender WORSE on paper, fans are going to be upset. This might sound and look really dumb a year from now, but I just trust Stevens here. I trust that when the time comes, Paul George's expiring contract and extra draft picks become the next piece or pieces of a Celtics Championship.

And maybe they won’t be. But it took some guts for Stevens to pull the trigger on this, knowing the fans would hate it, and the basketball world would question it. But I got the sense on Monday that he was okay with the move. And I am, too.

Feels like I might be the only one. #inbradwetrust

On A Night With New York Times #1 Bestselling Author Dave Portnoy…

The whole thing was very funny. At least to me.

I started my radio career in Nashua, NH. Selling ads, doing a sports show, vacuuming carpets, driving my boss around, and hosting a big Friday Night High School football show. I mean, we were legit flyering cars during the games, telling fans they could listen to the postgame and get scores from around the state after their games. WEEI star Rich Keefe was one of our best at-game correspondents.

The station moved two or three times. The last two homes, both in Downtown Nashua, were just a few good golf shots away from where Dave held a book event on Tuesday Night.

Sitting next to me at the show was my brother Matt, who was a correspondent on that high school football show. He loves Barstool. Before the show, we met Kirk for dinner. Kirk’s first show on WEEI was with me, and eventually, years later, he helped twist Dave’s arm to land me my current gig.

Sitting in the crowd, listening to Dave point out how talentless I am, the crowd laughing along, the whole thing felt serendipitous. No clue if I’m using that right, but since I’m the editor, it stays.

Whatever, it was a fun night. Dave was great with the crowd. Hosted by old Mut at Night stallworth Tom E. Curran, Dave talked about many of the stories in his book. And some things not in the book. A few takeaways from the night-

• For as much as he claims he wouldn’t win, Dave gets very fired up when he talks about running for office. I think the Florida Keys and the Go Go Greys will probably keep him out of it, but he gets very fired up when he starts talking about New York, Mamdani. 1% chance he runs for something at some point.

• A Minifan heavy crowd, including at the Mexican Restaurant we went to before the show.

• Kirk mentioned this on his show, and he’s right: the only boo of the night from the crowd was for Chris Klemmer.

• There was a very big response when someone asked about the return of The Unnamed Show. One of the louder pops of the night. Dave didn’t commit, but he also didn’t completely rule it out. Like most of you, I hope the show comes back.

• I wish Curran had punted the lightning round questions and done more Q and A with the fans.

• One person tried to use the Q & A to get a job. It was clear that that was not the way to get a job with Dave.

I think that’s it for the tour. We need to figure out this MutStack situation first, but Dave should/could do more of these and just take questions for an hour, and people would love it. The crowd in The Gate City certainly did.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ I might have to adjust the “They’re Not In It, But They’re Not Out Of It” stance after a three-game sweep of the White Sox. Big series in New York this weekend. A full-squad podcast of Dirty Water to try and explain this surge. Go watch and subscribe on YouTube. Then go listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

⚾ It’s impossible to believe that the Fenway training room being too small is the reason the Red Sox sent Roman Anthony to Florida to rehab. Not a believable sentence for Craig Breslow to say out loud.

🎙️ I don’t think it’s possible for a morning show to look less happy than this.

We’ll get the spring ratings for Boston sports radio next week. I think both stations will be down. And I don’t think the new WEEI afternoon show is going to help much.

I’ll say this about The Greg Hill Show. 1. WEEI NEEDS this show to carry, and if they falter, it might have a big impact on the numbers. 2. I’ve had way more people than I expected reach out and say how much more they like the show with Mego vs. Courtney Cox. We’ll see if the ratings show any of that, as Mego has been there most of the spring with Cox out on maternity leave.

It is a much different show with Mego. Greg and Wiggy end up talking less, and Mego seems to push back more. I do not think they’ll make any sort of change, for the record, but I’d be curious what the staff behind the scenes at WEEI thinks.

Full spring ratings breakdown here next week

🏇🏻 Tough first week for the Saratoga Bankroll. Hit the double yesterday on The Doubles Show w/ Elio and Turk. Elio posts it here every Saratoga race day on X.com, right around noon.

➡️ As I made clear yesterday on The Kirk Minihane Show, I am losing the battle in my kids vs. the screens. It’s bad. I am open to ANY AND ALL suggestions, limiting apps, etc. Comment here, email me, or DM me on Twitter. I’m 100% serious.

🏈 I’ll admit, Tom Brady helping the Seahawks beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl hurts.

Condolences to the family, friends, and former colleagues of the Boston Herald’s Danny Ventura, who passed away this week after a seven-month battle with cancer. Danny was the written authority on high school sports in Massachusetts, having covered them for the Herald since 1990.

The outpouring of love on social media over the last few days confirmed all the stories about how good a guy he was. I don’t often agree with Dan Shaughnessy, but when he wrote “Everybody loved Danny. MIAA should name a building after him,” he was 100% correct.

As always, thanks for reading. And watching.

Back here next week and back this weekend on the Barstool blog.

A note from MutStack Owner Dave Portnoy:

Lovely Grey runs today in the 8th. If she wins, Mut is invited to the winners circle

👀👀👀 I’ll be there in my Go Go Greys polo, rooting as loud as anyone. Safe trips for all.

I wish I had asked this guy about his shirt on Opening Day at Saratoga, 2018. A day so important to people that they’ll make Arial Font T-shirts celebrating it.

I’m writing this from the Skidmore College box near the clubhouse seats here at Saratoga Race Course.

It is Opening Day here at The Spa (Belmont days don’t count). The weather here is perfect just after 7 AM. But it’s going to be very hot this afternoon, and there has been plenty of social media push for Saratoga to join tracks like Ellis Park, Colonial, and Monmouth and cancel racing due to the heat.

I will not pretend to track vet - if the experts decide it’s best for the horses if we don’t run today, great. I’m putting my faith in NYRA to put the animals' safety first. And if the horseman or the jockeys fight to postpone, again, I trust them. As of right now, it looks like we’re running.

For much of the week, it didn’t. Or I thought it didn’t. Or social media thought it didn’t. Or they shouldn’t. And while I’ve joked for the last few years about my anxiety (Kirk calls me an “anxious guy”), let me give you an example of how it plays out in real time.

I am not lying when I say I must have looked at today's forecast hundreds of times every day leading up to Friday. Legit, thousands of times this week. I’m talking, flipping between four or five weather sites, refreshing every few minutes, multiple times an hour, to see what the Heat Index was going to be today. Because if the Heat Index were, say, 105 or higher, there would likely be no racing. As if that wasn’t good enough, I legit reached out and asked a NYRA employee what Heat Index site they used, as if there is such a thing. I’m a lunatic.

And in these cycles of checking the fucking forecast four days out, I would find myself losing 20-30 minutes of an hour just looking at weather, social media, group texts, etc.

This is not a new thing for me. When I was doing Red Sox pre and post, same cycle when it came to rain. Are they playing? Are they not playing? What time will the rain start? How long will the delay be? Texting local weather guys. Texting Red Sox employees. Going to “special” weather sites. SMH.

And I know I can’t control the weather, dude. I know this. But it doesn’t stop me from flipping between HOURLY, DAILY, and 10-DAY on WeatherUnderground, hoping to find a forecast I eventually like. It’s borderline debilitating at times.

Travel baseball also gets this treatment, refreshing tournament websites looking for the updated schedules. And I also see this when I’m planning on doing something and the planning (lists, schedules, etc.) takes longer than the actual thing.

I wasted hours of my life checking weather reports this week. I know what Epictetus preached and Bill Belichick espoused: “Control what you can control.” I’ve written that dozens of times over the years on to-do lists, journals, etc. I just don’t do a great job executing. Obviously.

My wife has seen me in these moments, paralyzed by the unknown of something as silly as the weather. Writing about it here, it’s pretty embarrassing. And I hope that maybe by doing it, I focus less on what might happen and just deal with it.

I did not plan on writing about this today. Maybe later I’ll hate that I did. For now, I’m okay having reread a few times

And for now, I need a shower and to handicap these races for today at Saratoga. And to not look at the weather.

Meanwhile, Dave’s book is out, and it’s great. The Celtics traded Jaylen Brown. LeBron to Boston? And your weekly MutStack Notes.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #178.

On the Jaylen Brown Trade…

I’m on board with trading Brown this offseason. And unlike other team executives in town (looking at you, Breslow), I have complete faith in Brad Stevens to make the right moves to make this team better. Even if the initial return might seem underwhelming, I’ll be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Because they have to get better - a lot better.

Yes, I wrote this just two weeks ago. Then, last week, I wrote that, based on some trade reports, Brad Stevens was really testing our trust. After the trade of Jaylen Brown to the 76ers, I feel like I’m the last one left of Brad Island.

It’s a horrible trade, even if Paul George did outplay Brown in the playoffs (he did). There is no way you came close to maximizing the asset - saying they got 40 cents back on the dollar is being generous.

I just have to believe there is another move coming; it’s why I refuse to go crazy about this right now.

The biggest question I have this morning is simple - why now? Why did the Celtics have to take this shitty deal on July 1 rather than wait a few months? Why not wait until another team’s star becomes disgruntled? Or gets hurt. Why now?

I’ve read every story, listened to every podcast; no one seems to have a good answer for this. So Jaylen was a know-it-all. So the analytics didn’t like him. So what? Those things don’t point to a good reason for making this terrible deal now.

Was it money? Did the new owner, Bill Chisholm, force Brad to make this deal for financial reasons? If he did, he’s an idiot. And Brad should quit tomorrow. Well, maybe not tomorrow because it’s America’s 250th birthday. He should quit next week, then. Chisholm has set himself up for a TD Garden full of “Sell the team” chants here. He has to know that. I get that the money is a popular reason for this move, and maybe I’m naive, but I don’t buy it.

Deep down, I think this is about Brad knowing his team was not good enough. Knowing he did not want to lock himself into Brown for that massive extension, and seeking some roster flexibility to reset. Fine, I get it - but why did you have to make the deal now?

I still feel like we’re still missing something here.

As for Brown, he was a great Celtic who never seemed to get over being booed on Draft Night. His efforts on and off the court for Boston will be remembered for a long time. But am I allowed to say I hated his streaming this offseason? And for calling this season his favorite season ever? I hated that. And I’m sure his team didn’t love it, either.

As a Day 1 Tatum guy who has said over and over Tatum is better than Brown…I guess we’re about to find out together. This is all going to fall on him. He’s in his prime, and the Celtics should be doing everything they can to surround him with a championship-caliber supporting cast. They didn’t have it last year, and after this trade, they sure-as-shit don’t have it now.

It’s lonely, but I remain on Brad Island. But I’d sure like to see the eventual next move and have some company here.

On My Boss Dave’s New Book…

My mom’s copy of Cancel Me If You Can arrived this week, and this was her initial take. I’m guessing this is because Dave mentions Rockingham Park, Suffolk Downs, and middle school gambling all in the first three pages.

Been there, done all of that.

But Ellen is right. Sooooooooooooooooooooooo many things in common between a couple of Boston media moguls.

He launched Barstool. I founded MutStack ✅
We have both been arrested, though for very different reasons ✅
We both know the great Dr. Matt Lopresti. ✅

And on and on and on. Just so much in common, mom, very good first observation.

My copy of Cancel Me If You Can arrived later than I wanted it to on Wednesday. So I didn’t wait; I jumped into the Audible version, which, at 1.2 speed, clocked in at about 8.5 hours. By Wednesday morning’s gym session (chest and tris, no big deal), I had finished the book. The plan was to go back to the physical book once it arrived, but I couldn’t. Dave, reading his own book, laughing at what he’d (or Francis) had written, making comments that were not in the book but just off the cuff while he was reading, was too good not to finish the listening.

This still counts as reading the book, by the way, even if I didn’t actually read it.

So, if you bought the book, I’m here to let you know you also need the audiobook. I saw Tommy Smokes was reading while listening, and he probably has the right idea.

The book is great. I was selling radio and then co-hosting a 2-hour night show at a small radio station in Nashua, NH, when Dave launched Barstool. Like so many other sports fans in Massachusetts in their mid 40s, I feel like I grew up with The Stool. Those early days of the blog…Milton..1510 The Zone Show…I was hopeful Dave would give this time period a deep dive. He did not disappoint.

The Boston nostalgia stuff is excellent. I had forgotten that my friend Glenn Ordway claimed he “could not find” Dave’s phone number so he could have him on to debate the Brady son picture fallout. Or that Jason Wolfe told him the audio from those two days was lost to corrupted files or something. Sure. Wild times. I think people like me, looking for Dave’s thoughts on those early days, will love it.

The book reads (sounds) like one long Dave blog - and it covers a lot more ground than just the Boston beginnings.

Like, I didn’t know anything about the Dave/Dan/PMT drama over the years. Maybe that sounds nuts, but no clue. That Dave/PFT Commenter first meeting at the Super Bowl? Pretty wild shit. Dave and Dan stuff, too. Thank you, ESPN.

The Penn/ESPN Drama. KFC’s two-year dual life working for Barstool and an accounting firm. Glenny Balls is helping to launch DDTG. Elio talking to a reporter for a hit piece by accident. All of it is covered in the book. I loved all the Penn/ESPN stuff. And the political chapter challenges many of the tired narratives you see about Dave out there. In the end, he and my friend Kirk seem to share similar views on the extreme right and the extreme left.

Angel of Barstool story? Crazy. Dave and Gaz confronting that reporter and her very short husband in Florida (wish we had that video).

You want me to nitpick? Fine. I wanted more horse racing. There were a few mentions here and there, including in the last line of the book, but Dave is the most popular horse-racing fan/gambler/owner in the world. I could have used Dave on Saratoga, on starting Go Go Greys, and on which race he might most want to win. Maybe in the next book.

Easy read, funny read. Hits on nostalgia, and you learn some good inside shit. Full MutStack seal of approval. I’ll get you my mom’s review this weekend.

Dave told the world that if the book debuts #1 on the NYT Non-Fiction list, I get MutStack back. I think we’ll find out about that next week. Does this #1 in Amazon Baseball Biographies count? Either way, get the book. And the audiobook.

BUY THE BOOK.

On Lebron James to the Celtics…

So, it looks like this is real? I think this is real? Sounds like it’s real.

LeBron’s agent, Rich Paul, with a map of the teams that might fit his client, from a podcast with Max Kellerman.

“Brad + Tatum” 👀👀👀

Oh baby.

There is a famous Minifan who called me about this this week, in fact. What if LeBron James joined the Celtics? Like most Celtics fans, I sports-hate LeBron. I don’t think there is another athlete I sports-hate more. Could I root for LeBron in the green-and-white?

Is there even a good comp for this? Derek Jeter joining the Red Sox?

I don’t think there’s ANY chance it happens, but once he puts on the uniform, I’d have to root for LeBron. I remember watching every game when Sheman Douglas was the point guard, so it would seem silly to bail on the team in my mid-40s.

My kids have ended up liking Lebron, for some reason. I’ve seen them watching LeBron is the GOAT YouTube and singing some sort of LeBron is the best song or brainworm, so they would be on board. They don’t know the pain he’s caused Boston.

Bron and Bronny and all that comes with it…again, not going to happen, but yes, I’d hold my nose and root for Lebron in Boston.

He’s also a part-owner of Fenway Sports Group… just sayin’.

On your weekly MutStack notes…

⚾ Yes, that is a paper bag on Ed’s head. And yes, he’s wearing Toy Story pajamas. Just another edition of Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast. Did a bunch of Jaylen Brown here, too. Plus, plenty of Sox, including why Hogdale hates this team. “They have no soul. They play with no heart.” Direct quote.

Watch and subscribe on YouTube, and then listen and subscribe where you get your audio podcasts.

⚾ I think MLB got it right with the suspensions for Wilson Contreras and Cade Cavalli. Cavalli started the issue, and Contreras… well, he threw a helmet. Can’t do that. Much more on this in the podcast.

⚾ The 5-2 homestand does nothing to move me off Team Sell for this Red Sox team.

⚾ It is REALLY dumb that the Sox play at 9:38 PM ET on July 4th and Sunday, July 5th.

🎙️ The vast WEEI radio network is getting smaller by the day.

WEEI programming lost its presence in Providence, RI, this spring when Audacy sold the 103.7 FM signal that had carried its shows for decades. This past week, their Keene, NH affiliate changed ownership, and the new owners promptly flipped the format to FM Country Music.

This was not an Audacy station. This station just carried WEEI programming and Sox games and could sell local ads. But you paid Audacy a fee to do that - having worked at a local station in New Hampshire when I first started, that was the deal then, and I assume it’s the same now. The new owners apparently did not see the value in that and appeared to have cut ties rather quickly.

With the WEEI app, this won’t be an issue for most people. But it’s a sign the WEEI brand no longer carries the weight it once did around the region.

🎙️ Dave did an hour with Zolak and Bertrand on Wednesday, and it’s worth a listen

🎙️ I failed you, the loyal MutStack Subscriber, by not getting my hands on any radio rating this week. The spring book numbers are out on July 14, so that might be the week we get them. But I will keep trying before then.

🏇🏻 Saratoga is back, and that means the Saratoga Doubles Show is back. He was nice enough to ask, so I’ll be joining Elio and Turk this year, trying to hit the double every day at Saratoga. I think it releases every day at noon during the meet, and I’ll repost on X.com Daily.

🏇🏻 A reminder that races going long on the dirt at Saratoga, usually a mile and an eighth, are historically dominated by speed. This has especially been true at the beginning of the meeting. And in many cases, speed from the inside. People tend to want to bet closers at this distance, but you want to focus on the speed. The same goes for when they stretch out for a few races at a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half. Speed and the rail were a MAJOR advantage during the Belmont at Saratoga meet a few weeks ago.

🎆 The Fourth of July remains the second-best holiday of the year, second only to Thanksgiving. Happy 250th, America.

That feels like enough Stack for this week. Back tomorrow on the Barstool Blog to talk Saratoga. I like the #10 in the finale today at The Spa, if you care about such things. Go Lovely Grey!

Have a happy and healthy Fourth of July. Good luck with all your bets this weekend. And thanks for reading.

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A note from MutStack owner Dave Portnoy:

I hope that MutStack doesn’t suffer with the recent falling out between Jeff D Lowe and Kirk causing Mut to pick up the slack on Minifan dick sucking at the expense of the MutStack

Yeah, Jeff D Lowe and Kirk. I was not expecting that after the Dozen playoffs.

My Minifandom, or any increase in it, as Dave points out, will not impact MutStack…I don’t think? That’s the goal, anyway, faithful subscriber.

As for Kirk and Jeff…yeah, no comment. Other than that, I hope the ice eventually thaws.

Jeff D Lowe is in Dave’s book, right? Kirk, too? Are they both in the MutStack Chapter? MutStack chapters, plural? We’ll all find out together next week.

BUY DAVE’S BOOK NOW.

As the doors to New York City’s only thoroughbred racetrack close forever this Sunday, I will be left with some awesome memories of Aqueduct Race Course.

I was not a fan (or alive) for some of its biggest and best moments. I never took the subway there. But I made a few visits to The Big A over the years. And I confidently say one of my favorite racing memories ever came there on Cigar Mile Day, 2015.

I was there with our usual Saratoga/King’s Tavern crew. I don’t know how or why, but we decided at some point during the day that it was a good idea to walk down the narrow path on the track apron to the Winner’s Circle after one of the races. It’s right on the track near the finish line, so the Winner’s Circle also provides a great view of the live race. I guess they weren’t checking for IDs that day in 2015, because we were able to move in and out of there as we pleased. And we did so for a few races.

As they got ready for the prestigious Grade 1 Cigar Mile, we decided to head back down, test our luck one more time, and watch the race from there. Worst they could do was say no, right?

I’m glad we did.

It turns out to be a phenomenal race. Tonalist was farrrrrr back into the turn, and with the half-mile in only 48 seconds, it looked like he had no shot to win.

But under the steady urging of Johnny V, Tonalist starts picking up steam. Johnny gets him out clear, and now he’s gobbling up ground. We’re right there on the rail, a couple of hundred yards away, and holy shit, he’s moving. Can’t he run them all down? Can he? No way. He was too far back. The pace was too slow.

And here he comes. We were so close that we could feel the track shake as he came thundering by. With the finish line lights on because it was already getting dark, the mighty Tonalist gets up in the final strides to win the Grade 1 Cigar Mile. To go along with his Grade 1 Belmont Stakes. And his Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup. He finished third in the Whitney and second in the Met Mile, both times losing to the great Honor Code. He had a storied career - a career that ended with that Cigar Mile win.

And there we were, right next to his trainer, the late Christophe Clement, cheering our asses off for him in the Winners' Circle, as he ran a huge race.

I’ll miss big races at Aqueduct. I’ll miss the times when the inside speed bias would show up, and smart riders like Kendrick Carmouche would take advantage. I’ll miss betting on a few Aqueduct races before Thanksgiving dinner. I’ll miss (and I have missed) the image denoting the Inner Dirt track in the Daily Racing Form.

I get why NYRA is closing Aqueduct, but I don’t have to like it. I’m going to write more about this Saturday in my weekly Barstool racing blog. But for today, I wanted to end on a high note with The Big A.

If you’re a racing fan, you know that the sport gives you moments you won’t ever forget. Cigar Mile Day in the Winners Circle, watching close by as Tonalist capped his career with a Grade 1 win, is one of those for me.

Meanwhile, my faith in Brad Stevens is being tested. Craig Breslow remains the absolute worst. Tom Durkin wrote a great book. And a sports-radio heavy MutStack notes.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #178.

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I bought the book. My mom bought the book. You should too.

Next Week! Perfect for summer vacation. Go buy My Boss Dave’s book - out June 30th!

Buy the book here

On Brad Stevens, The Celtics, and the Trust Tree…

S-P-O-R-T-S SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS!!!

Brad can’t be serious, right?

On the State of the Red Sox…

A legit layup question.

It came from Jermaine Wiggins on Friday morning. Making an appearance on WEEI, Craig Breslow was asked to grade his and the team’s performance so far in 2026. Saturday’s game will be the halfway point of the season, so I get it

And if you’re Breslow, you just say “F.”

Look at our record, look at us a year ago. Not good enough. That starts with me. Blah. Blah. Like, such an easy answer to show you get it, and also take some accountability for building a crappy, last-place team. EASY.

But he couldn’t. Either it was arrogance, trying to back his own players and staff, or just being oblivious to public sentiment. Whatever it was, he started his answer by saying that the on-field performance has not been good enough… and then listed all the positives of the team. The pitching. The better at bats. Whatever the hell else he said after that. I sort of blacked out. It was such a nauseating answer.

Seriously. He sat there and tried to spin what has been the worst Red Sox season of my lifetime. The team is 33-46!

Maybe he’s a poor communicator, in addition to being a poor baseball executive. There were reports that some people in the organization felt like he might need a ‘buffer’ to help him talk to others - like a Breslow Translator. You certainly get that sense every time he talks to the media. He sounds clueless and completely out of touch.

I thought for a hot second after the team lost two of three to the hapless Rockies this week that that was it for Breslow - that with the Yankees in town, the team would fire him Thursday and start the rebuild for 2027 and beyond.

Nope. Wrong again.

I hate to bring this up, but we’re looking at a Doomsday Scenario with Bres. Keeps his job. Makes a few moves at the deadline. Team plays better in September. He keeps his job for 2027. I think that’s 100% in play.

Even without the fake comeback in September, he’s giving off vibes that he’s been assured he’ll be here next year. I guess ownership could wake up and change their mind on that, but why have they given him this much rope? I’d love someone to ask the owner, but he has refused to take questions from the media for the last six years. We keep getting media reports that his job is not safe - what does Henry say? We’re left to guess.

Breslow looms over the entire season. As does finding a new manager - Chad Tracy has shown little in his six weeks at the helm.

So you’ll forgive me if I don’t go crazy over Red Sox 6 - Yankees 3 on Thursday night. This team has much bigger problems than the wins and losses on the field at this point.

And it starts with a Chief Baseball Officer who, despite being clearly bad at his job (and reportedly bad at human interactions), might be in line to keep it.

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On a MutStack Book Review: “A Life’s Calling” with Tom Durkin…

There is a moment in Arazi’s breathtaking move to take the lead and eventually crush the field in the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, where the NBC cameras zoom in on the race leader Bertrando. In fact, the video above starts right there.

Once they zoom back out to the wider shot of the field, Arazi has suddenly gone from the back of the pack to contention in just a matter of seconds. If it sounded like the move caught track announcer Tom Durkin by surprise, it’s because it did.

“There wasn’t much change in the running order, and I executed what is known in the race-calling profession as a bridge, which is a phrase like “As they continue down the backstretch.” That’s when I can momentarily take my eyes off the field and focus on the infield toteboard, where I can find the time for the opening half-mile and announce it to the crowd.

After that bridge, I got my glasses back on the field, which is now on the far turn, and there’s Arazi, who has passed nearly the entire field. I instantly say to myself, “That can’t be Arazi. How is this possible? Where did he come from?” But I memorized his head markings. The chestnut colt had a long white blaze that went down one side of his snout. I spotted that blaze and internally I said, “That has got to be Arazi.” I was stunned. Just two seconds ago this horse was behind. But boom, there he suddenly was in full flight, about to swallow up the entire field.”

You can hear the surprise in his call. You never see a horse move like that, especially on the dirt. Durkin captures the moment perfectly, as he did so many times during his legendary career.

In his new memoir, “A Life’s Calling - The Voice Behind The World’s Greatest Horse Races,” Durkin tells some great stories. Like how he started his illustrious career calling races at a country fair. About growing up in Chicago around Arlington Park. About the lavish parties he would throw after big horse races. About calling the biggest races in the world. About his time traveling in Italy. A great storyteller in the booth, it’s no surprise is book is more of the same.

He also does a great job explaining the process of preparing for a race. There is no doubt that it takes a certain skill set, and Durkin honed it to perfection over the years.

I’ve felt for years that horseplayers are drawn to other horseplayers. It’s comforting to talk to someone who has felt the pain of being alive to the top three choices in a big Pick 5, and still not closing it out. You can tell from reading this book that, indeed, Tom Durkin is one of us.

And like us, he has had his battles. He mentions multiple times in the book that he dealt with race-day anxiety as a race caller, to the point of using hypnosis, among other tools, to try and make sure it did not impact his legendary calls.

And if I had any minor nitpick of his excellent book, it’s that I would have liked to hear more about that. Hearing that someone as talented as Durkin has been able to overcome something so many people face can be motivating for a reader - Dan Hurley’s book had that impact on me. And the way Durkin talked about these lavish parties he’d throw… selfishly, more about those! And how do I get invited???

It’s an easy read, and if you’re a racing fan, you’ll love it. I mean, he has a chapter called “Saratoga Is Saratoga…” He gets it. And there are small sections written by his friends and colleagues throughout the book - those are a nice touch, in particular, a very funny story from former Suffolk Downs announcer Larry Collmus.

I was lucky to take the Racing Hall of Fame tour with Durkin as our tour guide years ago - it was fantastic. Once it was over, I told all my racing friends it was well worth it. I’ll say the same about this book. If you’re a horse racing fan, this book is well worth some time this summer.

I have heard rumors that Durkin might call a race on Sunday at Aqueduct, the track's official closing day….I hope that’s the case.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

🎙️ This is not just about a terrible radio bit.

WEEI’s Rich, Ken & Ted Show produced this really bad AI-generated song last week. It’s gross. It’s lazy (more on that word in a second). The fact that it was promoted on air says a lot about the show and about how they feel about their audience. It’s awful.

BUT… there was a time, not too long ago, when this would have been great for WEEI or any radio station.

Because not too long ago, something like this would get mocked by other shows on a station. They would talk about how bad it was. Take calls on how bad it was. And guess what - you’d get calls on how GOOD it was, too. Get the creator (Rich, I assume) on another show, have him listen to it, and have him explain the process behind it. Or the nonsensical lyrics. Have a real musician try a version of the song. Would have made for a good few days of programming for multiple shows.

But radio has changed a lot over the last 10 or 20 years. And almost amazingly, this song did not get any run at all on WEEI, outside of the show that created it.

And Kirk is 100% right in his post - it is something that Chris Curtis used mock because it’s so mockable. And I’m sure he and countless others in that building had a lot of fun with it. But on air? Crickets.

WEEI is not the only station that has moved away from this. WIP in Philadelphia doesn’t do it. WFAN used to do it - Mike Francesa and Craig Carton had real battles over the years, and Craig mocked Mike at all times. Gio did some of that, too. But now?

Gio and Brandon Tierney got into it, but Tierney was gone from the station. And as I wrote at the time, these clips got millions of views, and it was great for both sides. And I don’t see much WFAN back-and-forth as I used to.

I’m told that WEEI boss Mike Thomas likes to brag about how everyone at the station gets along now and how toxic it was when he got there. Swell, Mike, but you’re getting drilled in the ratings across every daypart. So yeah, maybe station outings seem more friendly now. But you really do believe that, behind the scenes, hosts and producers aren’t still ripping on other shows as much as they EVER did? Come on, you’re smarter than that. And the audience is smarter than that. They want real. And ignoring a song as bad as this because you don’t want your shows to fight on air is as fake as it gets.

Maybe I’m in the minority on this. Comments are open for all your radio takez.

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🎙️ When Tom Brady calls in at 6:15 AM the day after a Patriots game for his scheduled and sponsored weekly radio interview, it’s a smart idea to replay that interview later in the show, say the 8 AM hour. 1. Because it’s Tom Brady. 2. You have more listeners in that hour, and Tom Brady is always a must-listen.

But the Rich, Ken & Ted Show has started replaying ANY interview they get later in the show. I heard the most boring Red Sox manager of my life, Chad Tracy, twice in 90 minutes this week. Mike Florio, who famously wanted the NFL to close shop forever because of Covid, was replayed on Thursday as a “content replay.”

Toucher and Rich would replay funny bits more than once. But Chad Tracy? Mike Florio? Freakin’ Scal? I don’t know what some radio suit would call it, but I’d call it lazy. The whole benefit of radio over, say, a podcast, is that radio is live. Replaying Mike Florio two hours later seems like the opposite of that.

🎙️ The Spring Boston Radio Book (April, May, June) closed on Wednesday. Full disclosure: I have not seen any real numbers from just the spring, and might not for at least a few weeks, but was told by a media insider that the rumblings about the early Rich, Ken & Ted Show ratings were “not good.” Or “really bad.” I forgot how it was phrased. WEEI still has access to the weekly ratings, and my guess is, based on history, they would have been leaked to the Globe and Chad Finn if they had been any good. We’ll get the full spring ratings on July 14. But I’ll try my best to get some early returns next week.

⚾ Saw a live triple play in 13U baseball on Thursday. Seeing a triple play > a no-hitter. Just electric.

That seems like enough Stack for this week.

Good luck with all your bets this weekend. And thanks for reading. And watching. Back on the Barstool blog for a big horse racing Saturday

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A note from MutStack owner Dave Portnoy:

No note from Dave this week.

Last week’s note was pretty important, and if you missed it, I’d check it out.

“I understand that there's this sort of heat around Jaylen Brown & the Boston Celtics. I am not a believer that Jaylen Brown is not going to be a Celtic at the start of the season…I believe there's a very good chance Jaylen Brown is staying put with Jayson Tatum.” - ESPN’s Brian Windhorst

This is getting tiresome. But I get it.

For multiple offseasons, the Boston Celtics have clearly dangled Jaylen Brown in trade talks. Then the trade doesn’t come to fruition, and it gets spun like they never tried to move him in the first place.

No one really believes that, right?

I’m on board with trading Brown this offseason. And unlike other team executives in town (looking at you Breslow), I have complete faith in Brad Stevens to make the right moves to make this team better. Even if the initial return might seem underwhelming, I’ll be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Because they have to get better - a lot better.

Whatever tier the Thunder, Spurs, and Knicks are in, the Celtics do not belong as currently constructed. I assumed that when Tatum came back, that would fix everything - it didn’t. I don’t think you can just run back last year’s team and expect better results. And I don’t think Brad Stevens thinks that either.

“I think the other thing you have to consider, especially for next year, is there were a lot of teams in the NBA that were playing for draft positioning this year and that will not be the case next year,” Stevens said after the season.

“The league is going to be a lot better, the regular season is going to be a lot harder, and it will probably give you a better indication of what everybody really is.”

I love this quote from a Boston executive who doesn’t sugarcoat it (again, talking about you, Bres). How refreshing!

So maybe it’s Brown for Giannis. Or Brown for pieces that free up the cash to trade for someone else. Or I guess, Brown and Tatum stay, and Stevens finds a way to add to those two. But trading a player with Brown's talent feels like the most efficient way for the team to take a step forward. And they need to; Stevens knows that and basically said as much. You can make the case that they’ve underachieved with this group and need a reset. The fact Brown’s name keeps coming up in trade talks is proof the team thinks that, too.

So they can keep trying to cover their tracks with the player, but I don’t believe it. I have too much faith in Stevens to think he’s going to sit back just HOPE this team finds a new ceiling next season. And if that means shopping a star player but telling the media you didn’t - until you finally find the right deal - I’m okay with that…even if the whole process is getting laborious.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox suck. My co-worker had a wild World Cup take. A Boston radio legend passes away. And the usual MutStack notes.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #177.

I bought the book. My mom bought the book. You should too.

Go buy My Boss Dave’s book - out June 30th!

Buy the book here

On the Pathetic State of The Red Sox…

Congrats, Bres, you did it! Idiot.

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On rooting for the 2026 World Cup…

So this was a pretty wild take from Chris Klemmer.

This week on Sports Central (the show previously known as Picks Central, which airs Monday through Thursday at noon and you should watch), Klemmer complained to us that he didn’t like the World Cup because baseball is his favorite sport and soccer is taking attention away from it.

Insanity. As if you can’t possibly pay attention to two sports at once.

He went on to say that he’s just not a soccer fan, which is fine. And he suggested that he didn’t want to pretend to be some soccer super fan for this event.

I don’t think you have to.

There are soccer fans, like my brother Matt, that will get up and watch the Premier League every weekend. He knows all these players and what’s going on. He’s into it. And so he’s very into the World Cup.

I am 100% not one of them. I’m probably right there with Klemmer at Barstool in terms of knowing the least about soccer at the company. I’m a super, super, super casual, and many of you reading this are probably the same - don’t let Klemmer guilt you into not enjoying the event.

There is nothing wrong with jumping all into the event and rooting for Team USA. Or any other team you associate with. I hate the idea you have to be an expert on something to be fully invested in it. I’m not going out of my way to watch many matches outside of Team USA, but I know I’ll be watching Friday at 3 when they play Australia. I like rooting for my country, and I like the ‘buzz’ of a single-serving, BIG event like this. Or a random Olympic sport. Don’t let the Chris Klemmers of the world sports-shame you into thinking that’s not okay.

And yeah, this has been fun to watch, too. International soccer fans discovering Boston has been pretty funny.

By the way, it works both ways. If you don’t like soccer or care about Team USA, great. You should not be sports-shamed into watching if you don’t want to. I love horse racing, but I have ZERO interest in Royal Ascot this week. But it’s not because it’s taking away from US Racing - it’s just not for me. Maybe you feel that way about the World Cup; I get it.

But don’t tell me it’s taking attention away from baseball, Klemmer. Give me a break. In the case of the Red Sox, good - the team sucks. Less Red Sox, more Team USA.

Comments are open for all your soccer takes below.

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On the passing of Eddie Andelman…

I didn’t really “get” Eddie at first.

Now, I never listened to the Sports Huddle, one of the first all-sports talk shows in Boston. It was just a little before my time. But by all accounts, that show was a must-listen and eventually helped launch all-sports radio in Boston.

My experience with Eddie mostly came as a listener came through The A-Team, with Eddie and Dale Arnold. I knew him at first as the old guy who would yell “Jambalaya!” not just in the weeks leading up to the Patriots’ Super Bowl loss to the Packers, but in the months. I feel like he and callers started yelling it that summer.

But as I started listening to more sports radio in the years after that, Eddie would say just ridiculous things on his show, like suggesting they fill the NHL hockey nets with pudding; I don’t remember if there was a specific reason. Or that soccer should have two balls on the field at all times to increase scoring. He’d have on-air Scavenger hunts with listeners where they had to find random items to win a nominal prize. He held an annual Gobble Show the day before Thanksgiving, where people and things would earn a certain number of ‘Gobbles.’ The Gobble Show was great.

And as a sports guy, truthfully, I found myself rolling my eyes. I wanted S-P-O-R-T-S talk. More SPORTS! Serious SPORTS!

I just didn’t get it. Eddie was as much an entertainer as he was a sports talk show host. And that’s what set him apart, even if I didn’t appreciate it at the time.

Eddie Andelman passed away this week at the age of 89.

There was an outpouring of love from listeners and colleagues.

I never really worked with Eddie, but I was a summer intern for The A-Team in 2001, Eddie’s last summer with WEEI. I would come in for the last two hours of that show and stay for the entirety of Glenn Ordway’s The Big Show. What I remember most was that when he sent me downstairs to place his lunch order, he would never let me give the change back. As a college kid with no money, that stood out. His generosity went well beyond that, as his Hot Dog Safari must have raised millions for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation over the years.

I remember the fax line would be cookin’, and I’d bring faxes into the studio for him and Dale during their show. Many of those faxes were jokes for Eddie to read on the air - some of them you just couldn’t, thanks to FCC regulations.

But he was a true character - 1 of 1. He left WEEI for 1510 The Zone late in 2001 and was happy to take shots at Glenn and the rest of WEEI on his new show. As a listener, it sure sounded like Eddie could hold a grudge.

It felt like he did what he wanted to over at the Zone - and that included shows where they would play the live race calls from Suffolk Downs on the air. Eddie was a horse guy - I actually wasn’t at the time. Or he’d get one of his friends from Vegas on for an hour. “Have a hunch, bet a bunch,” was an old Eddie line I still hear in my head once a month. Eddie was a fan of gambling stories. And the Kowloon. He had a good straight man on that show in Dave Jagler, who would play along when Eddie would go off the rails. By then, finally, I sort of got it with Eddie. But those shows at The Zone, or later at WTKK, won’t be the lasting memory faithful listeners will have of Eddie.

He’ll be fondly remembered for helping to bring full-time sports radio to Boston. And being part of the real blast-off for WEEI. For ripping local owners, coaches, and athletes for their bullshit. For his sense of humor. For raising millions for charity. For his love of wrestling. For being a true pioneer in the business. And for his many memorable catchphrases and malaprops that have given people so much enjoyment over the years. #hihowareya

A true entertainer who also happened to be really good at talking sports.

Condolences to his family and friends during this tough time.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ Bad. Just bad. Went live Thursday night to react to the Red Sox home sweep at the hands of the Blue Jays. Four guys asking each other why Craig Breslow is still here. Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

❓ I did not like this. I am hopeful that Kirk reconsiders and unretires from The Dozen. Team Minihane played well, just ran into another good team. He can’t retire. Run it back, Skip.

🎙️ “Grunting doesn’t help anyone listening on the radio.” I’m paraphrasing, but Jones & Keefe Thursday with some pretty blatant shots at Scott Zolak and his Patriots’ radio calls. Went on for a few minutes around noon. They were not complimentary of Zo. Like, at all. Is there real beef there? 👀👀

🎙️ I can only hate-listen to Rich, Ken & Ted for so long, but I did hear Rich ask Sean McAdam if maybe John Henry being around the team more is what IKF was alluding to when he said there were a lot of people around the team at Fenway. That made me laugh.

🏇🏻 It was a big story that Churchill Downs had purchased the IP rights to the Preakness Stakes. Turns out the state of Maryland had the right to match any offer, and on Thursday, they did. I still believe we’ll see a new TV deal for the Preakness that will push the race back at least a week, something I am 100% on board for.

🎙️A great old Eddie Andelman interview with Wade Boggs, where he tells Wade to his face that Kirby Puckett is a better player than he is and worth more. Good find from Boston Radio Watch. Thanks to Kirk for alerting me to it.

🥍 I spent time here last week reacting to the story of the Ipswich Lacrosse team having to forfeit a state semifinal game because some of their players were caught on camera smoking cigars, an MIAA no-no. Part of my defense of the players was that the parents claimed the cigars were fake and that they had a store receipt to prove it. Well…

“The manager at Shaw’s was able to print out a receipt that matched the details of the purchased tea bags with a date of June 8th at 1:03 pm, Mr. Mitchell had alerted the six families about the potential violation and the impending investigation by email at 12:41 pm on June 8th,” the principal and superintendent said.

“The receipt indicates that the ‘tea’ allegedly used in the ‘fake’ cigars was actually purchased 20 minutes after the families were notified of the potential violation.”

The receipt was dated after the parents knew of the impending investigation. So it looks like they just lied about the cigars being fake. I mean…what the hell are we doing? We can debate if smoking a cigar should lead to the team having to forfeit a playoff game (It shouldn’t), but it’s hard to debate the stupidity of the parents trying to cover it up for their kids. What kind of message does that send? Bad, bad look.

👎🏻 Three days into summer vacation and I’m losing the battle in keeping the kids off their screens and video games. Gotta be better.

⛳ I will be rooting for the course, a close and tense final round, and Xander Schauffele this weekend at the US Open. And hopefully get to watch some of it with my dad.

A Happy and Healthy Father’s Day to my dad, The Viking, and to all the MutStack Dads out there. Enjoy the day and the weekend.

That sure feels like enough Stack for this week. Good luck with all the bets this weekend. Thanks for reading. And watching.

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A note from MutStack owner Dave Portnoy:

If my book Cancel Me If You Can launches as the #1 best seller in non fiction I will give Mutstack back to Mutt. So go preorder the book.

Look, I already bought the book. I was always going to buy the book. I can’t wait to read the book. I was a Barstool fan a full two decades before Dave took pity on me and hired me last fall. #thankyoudave #thankyoukirk

Dave is the best boss I have ever had, and it’s not that close (shoutout Bomber Brad). I love working for him. And I hope I’ll be working for him over the next two decades. But we all need to help make his book #1.

Really, as a thank you to him for all he has given us over the years. Throwing that wallet at Blind Mike in Milton. Putting that jerk Glenn Ordway in his place. Fighting for the Patriots against Roger Goodell. I could go on and on and on. Oh…

HIRING KIRK MINIHANE.

Seriously, let’s do this for Dave. We owe him so much.

And, look, if MutStack is rightfully returned to the guy that started it in the process, hey, who am I to argue with My Boss Dave?

⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️ You can click on that handsome face above and place a preorder. Or you can buy the book RIGHT HERE. Post those receipts in the comments.

Book of the summer. Amazing graduation gift. Perfect Father’s Day gift. Arbor Day. Labor Day. Any day.

Again, buy the book RIGHT HERE. Not for MutStack, but for Dave. But also, maybe MutStack.

It’s kind of a silly record, right?

The Red Sox became the first team, maybe ever, to see the Top 3 batters in their lineup start a game 0-9 for 9 strikeouts. Has not happened since 1901, when they started tracking in-game strikeouts. I might have happened before that, but we’d have no idea. So it may have never happened in the Major Leagues until it happened to the Red Sox on Thursday.

But the offensive futility symbolized by that record is in the DNA of this 2026 Boston Red Sox team. And that futility is the #1 reason Craig Breslow should be fired.

Forget all the other potentially fireable offenses, like the way he handled the Rafael Devers trade. Or the way he botched the Alex Bregman negotiation this past offseason. Or the Level 10 Dysfunction that permeates this 2026 team - from the Roman injury to the Crochet injury to the ESPN reports of a “terrible” working environment at Fenway Park.

Putting ALL of that aside, his plan for this year’s team is enough evidence to send him packing yesterday - he built a team with no power. The Red Sox have 52 home runs this season, the fewest in all of baseball. Teams who out-homer their opponents have won about 70% of their regular season games, according to a quick AI search Thursday. In the playoffs, it’s over 80%. Home runs are the most efficient way to score runs and essentially, win games.

Just over the last decade, the teams who hit the fewest home runs have averaged 66 wins per season. The teams who hit the most? They have averaged 95 wins per season. Again, a little extreme, a small sample size, but you get the point.

You have to homer to win. Days after the team was bounced by the Yankees last fall, he was telling us all he knew the team needed more power in the lineup. Then the offseason came, and he failed to deliver. Breslow is supposed to be this big analytics guy, and he went and built a team around pitching and defense, even KNOWING how much power equates to winning. That’s stupid. That’s baseball malpractice. That’s FIREABLE.

And if the Red Sox could find someone to take the job, I think he would be fired. But they already fired the manager (didn’t work). And the last time they had an opening for Chief Baseball Officer, no one wanted the job - people forget multiple smart folks around baseball turned down the chance to even interview for the position with John Henry’s team #selltheteam. I think they’re worried about the same thing right now.

So that’s why Sam Kennedy goes on WEEI and says firing Breslow “is not even on the table.” That’s why we’re stuck with the reality that, even if the team ends up being sellers at the deadline (they should be), Breslow will be allowed to do the selling. That’s frightening.

Because for a ‘smart’ guy, he makes a lot of stupid baseball moves. The stupidest of which was not adding legit power to a team that needed it, in an era where power = wins.

Sean McAdam wrote today that BresBot is probably gone after the season. Again, my take - if the Red Sox could find someone to take the job, I think he would be fired. Instead, he’ll be allowed to sorta run the trade deadline?

Brutal stuff. Maybe worse than Breslow’s offseason plan for this baseball team. A baseball team that, less than a year after finally getting back to the playoffs, appears headed for yet another rebuild. And another new Chief Baseball Officer.

Meanwhile, I have some basketball takes. The Kirk Minihane Show is back! A wild high school lax story in Massachusetts. And your usual MutStack notes.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #176.

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On Giannis, the Celtics & the Knicks…

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Call me a moron for this take in the comments. I dare you.

On the return of the Kirk Minihane Show…

Was not expecting that!

When Kirk announced on November 25 of last year that The Kirk Minihane Show was over, I did not think it would ever come back. He seemed very content with the decision to end the show and focus on The Case, the highly-rated Golf Gambling Show, and other Barstool projects.

This opinion was solidified in the weeks leading up to KMS Live in Laconia, NH on Saturday. I had a small part in the show, singing my first original KMS parody song (I’m A ColeMan, a tribute to Jack Coleman. Although after the tweet below, I almost wish I never had) as part of the three-hour whirlwind production. I never got the sense that the show was a launching point for KMS to return. I assumed there would be more live shows and other KMS events, but not the actual show. Felt like that ship had sailed, even if I was among the thousands of fans who wanted it to return.

So like the rest of the crowd, this slide was a shocker.

The Kirk Minihane Show returns Monday, January 4, 2027. Kirk admitted on the show (I mean, the show is back, so Tuesday was a show, right?) this week that he was not 100% sure what form KMS might take next year. I think he said one show a week and then phone calls on Friday were a possibility. We’ll see.

What’s clear is that Kirk continues to have the greatest and most loyal fans at Barstool or really, anywhere. They packed the Colonial Theatre and turned Laconia into Minihane, NH all weekend. The town should be paying him a fee to hold the show there based on the hotel rooms and booze he sold this weekend. Shoutout to Hector’s for showing the Belmont, with the sound up, Saturday night. Great chicken fingers, too.

He didn’t say exactly why he came back, but seeing a sold-out crowd go nuts for three hours... and line up for the VIP event before that... and go to a fan live show the night before... and pack Laconia...again…that had to be a motivating factor.

These live shows are incredible, thanks to the work Kirk (okay, and the producers too) put into them. If you call yourself a Minifan, you owe it to yourself to get ot the next one. Which might be next May, per the show Tuesday?

The show being back is great. For the fans. For Barstool. And most importantly, for my potential continued employment with Barstool. I was hired, and then the show was gone, so this helps. I think?

Great to talk to so many Minifans in Laconia. Finally got to meet the legendary “David in Maryland.” Can’t wait for the next live show. And for 1/4/27.

📈KMS Stock Up: Menners. He hates me, I get it, but what a superfan. Came from Australia for the show AND got Murchinson’s Mouse on stage to save the band. A+ stuff.

📈KMS Stock Up: Laconia, NH. We were a Maine vacation family (Drake’s Island FTW) growing up, so I never really spent much time in the Lakes Region, but love it. Am I crazy to call the area a good Bachelor Party spot? Do people do this? Lakes are gross, but the area seems awesome.

📉KMS Stock Down

This guy. I love you, but cut the shit, Coleman. Wish the show was back now so I could hear Kirk do 20 minutes on this ridiculous video.

Covered my thoughts on the craziness of the Live Show itself with Kirk on Tuesday.

On Massachusetts Lacrosse team getting screwed…

Occasionally, there is a story that makes me wish I was still on the radio in Boston. This one of those stories.

The undefeated Ipswich Tigers Lacrosse team had advanced to the MIAA Division 4 state semifinal against Cohasset High School, scheduled for Tuesday night.

Tuesday afternoon, the school informed the MIAA that the team would have to forfeit the game because they didn’t have enough players. They didn’t have enough players because the school district suspended 8 or 9 players for violating the MIAA’s chemical health/tobacco policy (which bans possession or use of tobacco products, including during the season).

How did the players violate this rule? By posing for a post-graduation photo on a beach holding what appeared to be cigars.

Only, the parents say they weren’t real cigars; they were homemade props.

The MIAA took the brunt of the early heat for this. But they claim the school made the call, and it never reached their desk for a ruling.

The parents say the school principal gave the kids the green light to play, only for the superintendent to say no. The superintendent has refused to speak on it publicly.

Some parents think the superintendent did not fight for these kids as retaliation for an event earlier in the year. On Thursday, police had to be called to the school during a meeting between lacrosse parents and the Ipswich principal. Wild stuff.

I’m annoyed at the parents. Even if they were fake, homemade, banana flake cigars, as one of the parents has claimed, why not just tell the kids “No.” Explain the potential consequences and how it’s not worth it, like, at all. A local coach tells me that these kids are told “over and over” about the rules and the punishments, so the parents are aware, too. There is no world where this photo op was worth the risk. You want the photo, take it after your last game.

The kids take some blame too, obviously. They’ve had these rules hammered into their heads over and over. And keep the photo off social media if you are hellbent on taking it.

The superintendent needs to speak. He has refused multiple media requests, and it seems like he made the decision.

I guess most of all, I hate that the punishment in this case does not fit the crime. The rule stinks. These kids were unable to play in a playoff game because they had cigars in their mouths for a few minutes days before a game? Is this really the best message to send to young adults? Did the school fight for these kids at all? Did they want to? Was there a chance that, if they worked with the MIAA, they could have found a better way? Because they ended up punishing the whole team, not just the kids in the picture. Was that taken into account?

I’m a rules guy; I get it. They exist for a reason. But when enforcement turns a harmless graduation celebration into the end of an undefeated season… Then what are we doing???

Feel for the team. Seems like everyone could have handled this better from the very beginning.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ Over an hour of how bad the Red Sox are, why Craig Breslow should be fired, on this week’s Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast. About 12 hours after we recorded, Sam Kennedy gave BresBot another vote of confidence. But if you enjoy Breslow Bashing, it’s a must-listen.

🏇🏻 I would not pretend to understand the business behind the Daily Racing Form or the New York Racing Association. As a consumer of both of their products, I find some of their decisions maddening. That includes the news this week that DRF’s David Aragona will no longer provide written analysis of the daily New York cards on the NYRA website.

Aragona’s work in handicapping races in written form was the best in the business. Forget picking winners, whatever. David was clearly invested in each race, and you could tell in the way he wrote about them. He made me, and I’m confident countless others, better handicappers because of his work. And I get that everyone is in a rush to go to video content, but as a handicapper, I like written breakdowns as much as I like YouTube videos. Maybe I’m in the minority.

Hopefully, he’s able to continue his written work somewhere, like Substack. Or DRF.com. If it's on Substack or behind a paywall, I’ll be one of his first subscribers.

🎙️ Sam Kennedy is a very good salesman. So when he went on WEEI Thursday, sidestepped Greg Hill’s first question, and gave a three-minute opening statement about how bad the team is and how he understands the pain of the fans, he knew EXACTLY what he was doing. He completely took the air out of the interview by falling on his sword, and by the end of it, the hosts were commenting on how down he was about the team - which was exactly what he was looking for.

🎙️ That Greg’s first question was going to be about Garrett Crochet’s injury, after all the shit that happened this week to the organization, was a terrible instinct.

🎙️Rich, Ken, and Ted replaying full interviews like they’re live hours later in the show is lazy. Replay Bill Belichick or Tom Brady. Not Chad Tracy or Buster Olney.

⚽ No one is more out of the loop on the World Cup than me.

⚾ Happy to report the home of the old Lowell Spinners, LeLacheur Park, is still in awesome shape. The Sox Single A Red Sox team is gone, but a Futures Collegiate Baseball League team named, yes, the new Lowell Spinners plays there now. As does UMass Lowell. The legendary Dog Man is still around, too. Awesome park. Will be back this summer.

That feels like enough Stack for this week.

Good luck with all your bets this weekend. And thanks for reading. And watching

A note from MutStack owner Dave Portnoy:

I’m getting smoked. Need winners and Bitcoin to bounce back or Mut may be on the unemployment line.

Not good. Got this owner’s note late Friday afternoon. It is in line with Dave’s post from this morning.

He’s a great handicapper. He’s with Elio, another great handicapper. I have faith they’ll find some winners. I will admit, I am also getting smoked at Saratoga. The track is way too speed-favoring.

I have no clue on Bitcoin. But I have faith.

I don’t want to be unemployed. I’m gonna go find some winners.

Happy Belmont Weekend!!! Not panicking at all!!!!

Check out this post from Dan Wetzel.

On the left is a Zillow listing of homes for sale in Saginaw, MI. On the right are the listed prices for Knicks/Spurs NBA Finals on Monday night at the Garden.

This is INSANE.

I know it’s been a while. I know the Knicks are as popular as the Yankees, if not more so in New York. But 10K to watch a two-hour basketball game? That sounds awful. And that’s one of the two things that stood out about this.

First: let’s say you’re not super rich. You decide to go all out for these tickets. Like, it’s a major investment for you and your family. Would you be able to enjoy the game knowing how much money you dumped into seeing your team live? Is that cost stress offset by the likes you get on IG from posting about the game? Or the buzz of being in the building?

Me? I’d be thinking about the cost of the seats the entire game. From the time I walked in the building until the end of the game. Would not be able to help it. I have some anxiety issues as it is, and this would not be good for me. No thanks, would not do it. Just stay home.

Second: If you’re a Knicks fan seeing this, are you concerned that the building might be full of people with a lot of money who just want to be seen, rather than diehard fans? Is there a chance the building isn't as wild as it should be, thanks to a potentially corporate crowd?

Years ago when Sox tickets were crazy, and the Orioles were terrible, people pointed out that it would have been cheaper to go to an O’s game in Baltimore to watch the Sox vs. a night out at Fenway. That HAS to be true for these Knicks fans, right? Flight, hotel, tickets in San Antonio < going to MSG. Wild.

In the East, I thought NY was good, but Boston was just better. I was more wrong about the Celtics than I was the Knicks. The Knicks are not unlikable, but their fans are. Coleman. Hubbs. Meek. Can’t root for them.

Go Spurs.

Meanwhile, Ben Volin wrote some really dumb things on the A.J. Brown trade. I have a Red Sox prediction. It’s the final Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. And it’s KMS Live in Laconia on Saturday.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #175.

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On The Globe’s Ben Volin being a moron…

Forgive me if I am recycling an old headline.

Because Ben Volin has said, written, and done some moronic things as a Patriots reporter and columnist for the Boston Globe. His A.J. Brown column this week that I’m about to pick through was not as dumb as, say, taking a DM from a Stoolie and then going on the radio and reporting it as a real source, but it’s still worth highlighting here on this first Friday of June.

It would be naïve, though, not to consider another reason for making the trade now — to distract from the episode involving Vrabel and Dianna Russini. Tuesday’s media session was previously scheduled to be open to the media, and it turned into the A.J. Brown Show, from Vrabel’s news conference, to the interviews with the offensive coaches, to Brown being the focus at practice, to Brown speaking to reporters afterward.

It certainly seems the Patriots were so desperate to move past the Vrabel-Russini story that they were willing to overpay for Brown.

The idea of making a monster football trade to overshadow a coach’s personal issue is a wildly dumb take in its own right. What makes this paragraph even dumber is the media session point. Volin is suggesting they make this trade, I guess in part, so that the media session already scheduled focuses on Brown rather than Vrabel.

Volin knows he can ask whatever question he wants, right? He’s a reporter paid to cover the team. He might rather be covering the PGA Tour, but that’s for a different newsletter. In this case, today, he’s still employed by the Boston Globe to write about the Patriots. Ben, if you have more questions about Vrabel, Russini, his family, his wife…go ahead and ask! My guess is he’d rather have other reporters ask so he didn’t have to, and then write about it off the Vrabel responses. Was Ben hoping to ask Vrabel how his marriage is going? Another question on how the team was responding to him and his coaching after all this? Just ask, Ben; it’s not illegal.

Also worth noting that the Brown-to-the-Pats buzz started before any of the Vrabel/Russini news. I think.

But yeah, they traded a first-round pick for a #1 WR to change the team narrative. 🙄🙄🙄

I’d like the Brown and Doubs moves more were the Patriots able to keep Diggs or Boutte and move on from DeMario Douglas or Efton Chism. Instead, the Patriots might just be reshuffling the deck chairs at the top of the depth chart.

Brown, by almost any receiving metric from last season, is an upgrade over Diggs. And a major upgrade for the team. Brown and Doubs > Diggs and whoever. I don’t think it’s that close.

It’s true, the Eagles weren’t going to trade Brown until after June 1, but the Patriots didn’t have to pounce right away. They could have made the Eagles sweat it out a bit.

Why would they want to wait to do this? Let’s say some team loses their #1 WR and Brown is still out there - then that team jumps the Pats. Why risk that? Isn’t there also a benefit to having Brown at camp this week to work with Drake Maye? OF COURSE there is.

I get it, Ben has earned that Trollin’ Volin nickname time and time again, but this shit is sad. Felger and Mazz shit on the trade too, but Felger is smart enough to pull it off. Volin is not.

If the Bills had made this trade, my guess is Ben would have been ripping the team for not making it themselves.

I love the trade. I don’t care that Volin doesn’t. Plus, he doesn’t even go all in on hating the trade; it’s a half-hate. Just go all in! But the idea that the trade was part of a ploy to distract the media and fans from the Vrabel stuff is garbage.

Tough scene for Volin, who got some more bad work news that I actually missed back in March. That’s below in the Notes.

On Not a Red Sox lock but a prediction…

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It’s a very comfy shirt. Also, before you troll me in the comments, yes, I paid for it.

On the 158th running of the Belmont Stakes…

It was a good run.

Saturday marks the third and final Belmont Stakes hosted update at Saratoga Race Course. And I’m okay with that.

Given that NYRA announced they’d be selling tickets the day of the race this year, I’d say there are a lot of racing fans that agree with me. The first two editions of the race at The Spa sold out completely.

Saratoga is special. Adding racing days sounds like a good idea, but sometimes, less is more. I’ll be content when the meet closes on Labor Day and does not return until next July. Excited to see the new Belmont Park later this fall.

As for this year’s race, it feels like a terrific rendition of the Belmont Stakes.

The early betting has Renegade at 4-5 off that 2-1 morning line. Could be one big bet, I guess? Those odds suggest the Todd Pletcher trainee wins this race 55.6% of the time. He ran well in the Derby after a tough start, always comes running, and has Irad Ortiz aboard today. But 4-5? That’s way too low. We’ll see how much those odds change over the next few days.

Golden Tempo got a dream setup in the Derby. He was also 23-1 that day. He’ll be about 4-1 on Saturday, and while I respect the horse and the connections, I don’t think the pace will be as hot, and I wonder about his ability to get a second straight perfect ride from Jose Ortiz. Talented, but not my top pick on Saturday.

The horse I want out of the Derby is the horse I bet in the Derby, Commandment. Having watched the race back more than a few times, I don’t think this guy had a great trip. Johnny V getting aboard feels like the right move. I can see him sitting in that second flight or horses (Powershift, Growth Equity in that first flight) and getting a jump in the deep closers. One of the reasons I liked him in the Derby was the fight he had shown late in races. We didn’t get to see that on the First Saturday in May. He is a tough horse to pass, and I’d take my chances if he was trying to hold them off late just after 7 PM on Saturday.

I’m also going to use #8 Emerging Market. Chad Brown could have waited for the Peter Pan, then the Travers, after rushing this guy into the Derby. But he ends up here, and that says something to me. I have not seen the DRF Clocker report, but I’m guessing that last work was a good one. Prat is one of the best, and he stays here. The Derby effort did little more than add some foundation to this lightly-raced three-year-old. Contender.

He’s 10-1 in the early betting and plenty useable at that price.

Chief Wallabee will be on my Late Pick 5 tickets. Powershift could take advantage of a slow pace and has real talent to hit the board, maybe win this. I won’t have any of the 1, 5 or 6 on my tickets.

Full breakdown tomorrow on the Barstool Blog, but it seems likely #7 Commandment will be my Belmont horse after being my Derby horse five weeks ago.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ If you want more railing on the embarrassment that is the Bostn Red Sox, go watch or listen to Episode 39 - Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast. Taped late Thursday after the Sox loss and the Bello demotion. Vibes were not great. You can also listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

📺 In writing about Volin’s AJ Brown story, I went looking for the latest episode of Boston Globe Sports Report. The 30-minute weekly show, hosted by Volin, launched last October.

“There is always something to talk about with Boston sports,” said Linda Henry, CEO of Boston Globe Media at the time. “This new show brings the best of the legendary, award-winning Boston Globe sports team together each week to provide the deeply experienced perspective and analysis to NESN viewers and Globe readers.”

The most recent episode I could find was Episode 20, from March 16. Since then, no new shows have been posted online. Volin has hosted some podcast-like videos on the Globe’s YouTube channel, and in one he said he had to “revive” the Boston Globe Sports Report “here in podcast form.” But there is no podcast feed, just a one-off video or two on the channel.

The diligent newsletter publisher I am, I reached out to Globe PR to ask about the status of the show. I was told the show was ended and was pointed to this post where Ben made that announcement back in March. Bad job on me for missing this.

The Globe/NESN has tried a few versions of this show, and none has worked.

Volin is still hosting videos on the Globe’s YouTube page, if you’re looking for his takezzzzzz on the Celtics, Alex Cora, and more.

🎙️ Is emailing Globe PR about a TV show that only me and Dave Cullinane cared about real reporting? No chance. For that, I suggest Episode 1 of The Case Season 3 - Unreliable Narrator. Host, coworker, and friend Kirk Minihane hates when I compliment him, and he’ll probably unsubscribe from MutStack because I’m writing this, but the first episode of the new season is awesome. I’m hooked.

❓ I mentioned something last week about how Saturday’s KMS Live Show in Laconia would be the final KMS Live Show. That’s clearly not true, as Kirk mentioned this week that those would continue. But with The Kirk Minihane Show ending, I don’t know; this live show feels different. I have never had so many people reach out about the show, asking if I’m going, etc. So I’m not the only one who seems to feel this way.

🏇🏻 The Belmont goes off at 7 PM, one hour before the show. Is there a place near the theatre we can watch the race? Maybe Hector’s Bar and Grill? See you in NH.

🏈 I am not reporting this, but the Diggs-back-to-the-Pats rumor keeps getting whispered around Boston. And the whispers got louder Thursday. Just sayin.

🏈 My boys are obsessive Madden players. I told them Thursday that Madden 2027 is adding the stupid Tush Push to the gameplay.

“So stupid,” was the response from Son #2

“It could ruin Madden if it’s too over-powered,” from Son #1

Take note, EA Sports.

❓ This was a very weird clip. Rich seems very weird.

Okay, that feels like enough Stack for today.

Good luck with all your bets this weekend. Full Belmont at Saratoga Blog tomorrow morning on the Barstool Blog. I need to find some winners for my boss.

Thanks for reading. And watching. #thankyoukirk

A note from MutStack owner Dave Portnoy:

If you’re on the waitlist, I’m right there with you.

Dave released the first-ever Go Go Greys polos this week. Legit perfect for Saratoga. A lifelong procrastinator, I waited too long. The 200 or so that were available are gone, and I’m set up to get an email alert when they're restocked. As usual, I’m an idiot.

But next week, we get racing live at the greatest place on the planet, Saratoga, so we have that going for us. The five-day Belmont at Saratoga racing festival runs Wednesday through Sunday. I’ll be in Laconia, NH for the next KMS Live Show, so I won’t be in the building Saturday. But maybe I’ll be able to get to Saratoga for a day early in the week. We’ll see.

It’s been a few weeks since Derby weekend and Lovely Grey’s effort for Go Go Greys Stable in the Kentucky Oaks. She turned in a bullet workout at Turfway this week, and there was some online speculation she might run next weekend in the Wonder Again up at Saratoga.

I emailed Dave to ask about Lovely Grey and some other Go Go Greys’ runners as we get towards the summer racing season. As usual, he quickly responded and gave me the latest on the most popular stable in horse racing.

Lovely Grey: “That (The Wonder Again at Saratoga next Friday) was the original plan, but her foot is a bit tender so we’re gonna give her some more time to get 100% and toward Wild Applause July 3rd.”

The Wild Applause is a one-mile stakes race at Saratoga this summer, to be run on Opening Day of the 10-week Saratoga summer. Hell of a way to kick off the meet!

Silver Syndicate: “Should be running early July at Churchill. No clue if he’s learned how to rate yet.”

Yeah, this guy is quick early, but has faded late. Runs hard. Still has one of the faster Timeform sprint numbers of the year for three-year-olds. Also, still a maiden.

Miss Apples: “Frustrating horse. After she got scratched again for the same thing we sent her to have bone scans and everything else. All came back clean. We are giving her 45 days’ rest. Hopefully that will clear up whatever heat the vets keep picking up in New York. Probably the most frustrating horse because she has been ready to go, and now we are months away again.”

Dave had been excited about her training before the vets scratched her twice. Maybe we’ll see her this summer.

My buddy Alex is a diehard Go Go Greys fan, lives in Saratoga, and wanted to know if the stable was moving north for the summer. Alex is out at the Oklahoma Training Track every day, trying to find us winners.

”The only horse who will be at Saratoga next week is Miss Ice. Hopefully we’ll have 5 or 6 there for the summer.”

Miss Ice! Elio! I don’t see any workouts for her yet. How about the ones closest to racing next?

“Lovely Grey, Monomoy Mist, Miss Watermelon, Naughty Nancy
(Unnamed Early Voting), Silver Syndicate

These are the only ones I think who have a shot to run at Saratoga this summer. Lovely Grey is the most likely. All the others, who knows.”

Naughty Nancy was just purchased this spring and is a two-year-old filly.

Based on the insane response in Kentucky, I imagine Saratoga will be full of Dave/Barstool/GoGoGreys fans when these horses hit the track this summer. Dave has talked about how much Saratoga means to him, so seeing him get his runners on-track upstate will be wild.

Hopefully, there’ll be a new release of Go Go Greys polos before the end of the Saratoga Summer, for those of us that missed out.

Meanwhile, the path should be clear for the Red Sox. Sam Kennedy puts his foot in his mouth. I bought two new books this week. And your weekly MutStack notes.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #174.

Already a MutStack Subscriber? Thank you! You can always share the Four-Pack with people who might be interested. Or send it to all your friends and mock another MutStack grammar or spelling mistake.

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On the obvious move for the Red Sox…

People love a bad thumbnail.

Also, this stat is insane.

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On the clown show that is Sam Kennedy…

He just stinks.

If you’ve followed this newsletter for any real period of time, you know I am no fan of Slimy Salesman Sam Kennedy.

Last week on WEEI’s Greg Hill Show, host Greg Hill asked the Sox CEO about Roman Anthony’s injury. Greg said he heard that maybe Anthony actually had a tear in something in his hand, and the injury might be worse than the team and the media reported.

Sam (In a dickhead voice): “There’s no evidence of a tear. The imaging is negative.”

Roman Anthony six days later: “It’s a partially torn ring finger ligament.”

Now, here’s how it will play out Friday. The team will “get on the same page” and say that they’re both talking about the injury. You can spin it that a tear and a Grade 2 sprain are the same thing, I’m sure.

UPDATE: Nope. Turns out Roman hurt himself even more. Awesome.

But this was so unnecessary. The Red Sox continue to mess up the PR with injuries. It’s 100% what Michael Holley was talking about a few weeks ago - the thing Jarren Duran pushed back on! The Red Sox try to sugarcoat these injuries, and it always backfires. In this case, you made your star player look like a puss, and people started to talk about pain tolerance and ask why he’s not playing through it. The damage is done - in the minds of many fans, Anthony is now injury-prone and too much of a baby to play through it. Thanks a lot, Sam.

The CEO had to be a dink about it for no reason, other than to make sure fans know that if they buy tickets for later in the season, don’t worry, Roman is healthy! Buy tickets! So dumb. I hope it was Roman who leaked his actual injury to Greg whoever, just to make Kennedy and the team look stupid.

I’ve seen people defend Kennedy because he has to talk for John Henry. Bullshit. He makes things worse, not better, for the team. And his unlikeability and smarm are off the charts.

The team looks dumb. And for no reason, Anthony comes across looking soft.

Idiot. Kennedy, not Anthony, obviously.

On the two books I bought this week…

Now, I have been TERRIBLE at reading books this year. Smart people like my friends Kirk and Hogdale are reading new books every week. I know I should be reading more vs. scrolling on my stupid phone. I know that. I’ve been stuck on Horse Trader for two months. I’m hoping that buying these books gets me going here.

My Boss Dave wrote a book, which I preordered this week. You should too. It’s out June 30th, so I have some time to work on these other books. I imagine much of Dave’s book is dedicated to his acquisition of MutStack.com. Can’t wait!

This one arrived Thursday, so no review yet of Tom Durkin’s A Life’s Calling: The Voice Behind the World’s Greatest Horse Races. But I plan on starting it this weekend.

Tom Durkin is the greatest race caller of my lifetime. I drove to Saratoga on August 31, 2014, to make sure I was there for his final call. It was a monsoon; just a gross, wet, disgusting day at Saratoga. But I had to be there.

I was not alone. Thousands of fans showed up to say goodbye to Durkin. Hundreds of us stood on the track apron to hear Durkin speak after he called Condo Commando’s win in the Spinaway. That group, which included two now lifelong friends I met at Saratoga, Ron and Ed. They made the trip from Connecticut for the same reason I did.

You can search YouTube for Durkin’s best calls on your own - there are many. This one of him calling a race in the fog is one of my favorites because it shows his sense of humor.

Durkin was the best on the big stage, and it was no wonder he called Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup races. But his ability to make even a 20K claiming race sound important was just as impressive. Listening to him call races…I don’t know, it made you feel like being a diehard horseplayer wasn’t such a bad thing. But a Durkin moment I think about often was his goodbye at Saratoga.

Given the mic to speak, he didn’t thank any racetrack executives. Or drone on about his career accomplishments. He didn’t thank any friends or family. He only spoke for two minutes, and he only thanked one person - the horseplayer.

It was incredible. Racing is a sport that NEVER rewards or acknowledges the horseplayer. CAWs, high takeout, stupid decisions - you get the sense racing would be happy to run the races without anyone betting on it! But here was Durkin, the Voice of racing, singling them out on his final day.

“Long live horse racing. And long live Saratoga!”

What a sendoff.

I don’t think I’d be as big of a racing fan/horseplayer as I am today if Durkin had not been the voice of NY racing when I started going to Saratoga. He’s as responsible as Andy Beyer, Andy Serling, Steve Crist, or my buddy Geoff’s Uncle Mike, who explained the beauty of a $2 exacta box, for my love of handicapping and racing.

Can’t wait to dig into his autobiography this weekend. It sounds like Durkin will come out of retirement to call the final day of racing at Aqueduct on June 28th. It’s a safe bet if I’m not there, live I’ll be watching along at home.

On your Friday MutStack Notes…

⚾ I’ll give us credit - we try and laugh through the suck. The Red Sox are bad, but the show goes on in Episode 36 of Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast. Hogdale, Ed Hand, and I try and explain the unexplainable. Like why are the Red Sox so bad at ABS? And in what world is this team SOOOO bad at home? Watch and subscribe on YouTube and then listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

🎙️At least they're making an effort, I guess.

Getting embarrassed in the ratings by rival 98.5 The Sports Hub, Sports Radio WEEI changed up their hourly format late this week. They’re doing just one quick update at the top of the hour, terribly titled “What’s in our feed.” Seriously. Like your social media feed, I guess? Classic radio consultant bullshit. Again, atrocious name. But before that, they’re pushing that it’s “just a quick two-minute break.” Same for the first break of the hour, “back in two minutes.” Sounds like the other breaks are the same?

It’s been years since any change like this on the station. Big impact? I doubt it. Especially in afternoon drive, which continues to sound like a parody of a sports radio show. But I am awarding Mike Thomas credit points for the effort, even if “What’s in our feed” sounds like something one farmer might say to another.

🎙️ Speaking of WEEI, the dumbest segment I heard on Boston radio this week was Jermaine Wiggins trying to defend Michael Jackson. It got pretty heated with Chris Curtis.

🏇🏻 If you’re a DK Horse user in Massachusetts, you’ll notice the app is no longer available the next time you go to log in. And that’s okay.

In Massachusetts, California, and many other States, DK Horse is now DraftKings Racing. The revamped horse betting platform can be found directly in the DraftKings Sportsbook App. You just scroll to the 🏇🏻 symbol, or click on ‘Horse’ at the top of the page to access it. From there, you’ll see Promos, Featured Bets, and Featured Tracks. The betting menu is easier to read and use than other ADWs, for sure.

This is a great thing for horseplayers - and not just because you’ll see my handsome face with some Featured Bets next week for Belmont at Saratoga 👀👀👀.

No more toggling between the two different apps. Now you can share a wallet between sports and horses. And they have other ideas and plans that players will love.

Fully expecting some great promos for Belmont Week, and we’ll make sure to highlight and explain them here. Of course, full coverage of Belmont at Saratoga here, on socials, and the Barstool Blog.

🏀 I’ll be either rooting for former UConn basketball manager and Leominster Blue Devils Alum Mark Daigneault, or former UConn star Stephon Castle in the NBA Finals. I will not be rooting for Coleman’s New York Knicks.

🏈 MassLive has a Friday Jerod Mayo update. Crazy we have not heard from him about what happened in New England.

🎉 Congrats to former At A Theatre Near Me host and current Barstool teammate Chris Klemmer on the announcment he and and his wife are expecting their first child in September. We’ll be sure to toast with him next week in New Hampshire.

👀 I am very excited for Laconia.

That feels like plenty of Stack this week.

Next week is Belmont at Saratoga week. And KMS Live in Laconia. A big week, indeed.

Good luck with all your bets this weekend. And thanks for reading. And watching.

Subscribe now

Note from MutStack Owner, Dave Portnoy:

No Note from Dave this week. But the NTRA will be happy with his success in horse racing tournaments these last few months. I’ll explain tomorrow in my weekly racing blog on the Barstool Blog.

I spent most of last week in Chicago, playing a small role as referee on Season 5 of Surviving Barstool.

Three non-spoilers from six days in Windy City.

1. I’ve spent my whole career doing what, 99% live content, so this was a completely different animal. Surviving Barstool is a big show, and it was wild to watch an entire reality TV production unfold before my eyes over five days. In radio, it’s you and a producer. Maybe a co-host. Maybe a second producer. The audience via calls or texts. A guest. I don’t know what I was expecting, but seeing this come together was eye-opening. Viewing the finished product this summer will be something else, given all the work that goes into it. The whole crew was awesome to work with - very talented people. Me? Famously not talented. But lucky to be involved.

2. Chicago. These were long days, so there was no real sightseeing, but I came away a huge fan of the city. The Fulton Market District was extremely walkable. I was trying to come up with a Boston comp and had a hard time. The great weather helped, for sure. The pizza above is from Pizza Lobo (7.9 pizza,10.0 atmosphere). I’ll admit there was a slight tinge of regret about never giving city living a real chance…Then I thought about a gross, slushy day in February, and that regret was gone.

3. Andy Mayo would disagree, but Jeff D. Lowe is really good at what he does. I’ve now watched him work in person on both a ‘Dozen’ Live Final and this, and in both settings, he makes very difficult things look very easy. Jeff mentioned he needed a break from me after these six days, and the feeling is mutual, but I appreciate him bringing me along this week. Sorry, Mayo, he’s very talented.

Lots more to say, but again, no spoilers. Based on what I saw for six days, people are going to love this season.

Meanwhile, John Henry still doesn’t get it. We have REAL anger between two Boston media members. The CAWs pounded the Preakness winner. And radio-heavy notes.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #173

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On John Henry just not getting it…

“We work every day on behalf of fans. Fans demand excellence from us on the field, and yet only one out of 30 clubs ends the season happy, with deliriously happy fans. When I arrived to live and work in Boston 25 years ago, I was told if you win the World Series in Boston, you’ll never have to buy another drink in this town. It doesn’t actually work that way. We won the Premier League again in Liverpool last year, but the next season, you leave all that behind, thankfully, and begin a new quest.

Like Fenway Park, that never gets old.”

He just doesn’t get it.

These were the words from Sox owner John Henry on Wednesday night, part of an acceptance speech for the Sports Business Journal’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

It’s been a tough year for Henry. “Sell the team” chants have been common at Fenway, thanks in large part to My Boss Dave.

Henry had to fire his manager. His team is five games under .500. Now, once again, he’s showing he clearly doesn’t get it when it comes to Boston fans.

It’s been almost 2300 days since Henry met with the Boston media. That’s been through losing seasons, firing Cora, trading star players, losing star players…nothing direct from the owner. No response to being in the bottom third of the league when it comes to % of revenue spent on the roster. No explanation why he wants to go to the Tampa Bay Rays Northeast. NOTHING.

Meanwhile, when he made a big decision on Liverpool soccer, he issued a three-minute video apologizing to them. Shit like that makes it clear he’s much more invested in that team than he is the Red Sox…well, that and the lack of spending.

When Henry and Co. won in 2004, you could sense the commitment to winning at all costs. But that’s long gone, replaced by a commitment to win, but only at a cost that still makes fiscal sense to Henry. That sucks.

And that’s a big reason why he’s not getting that free drink these days. Not because the team lost to the Yankees last year, but because of the small-market direction of the club the last six seasons, and his hiding in the shadows. Where is the video for Red Sox fans?

To his credit, Henry has been around Fenway more than ever this spring. Maybe if he talked to some of his paying customers, he’d be more dialed into the reality of Red Sox Nation in 2026.

On some real Boston media beef…

Thanks for the shoutout, Beetle. And I sure will.

Over the course of a few days, we got some real-life anger between 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Marc “The Beetle” Bertrand and Pats reporter Greg Bedard.

Full credit to Boston Radio Watch for clipping this, as I spent the week in Chicago. And I saw a follow-up post from him, hoping I buried these guys today. Maybe I’m the problem because I loved every minute of it.

To try to summarize from the beginning:

Beetle and Bedard worked together on the Pats' postgame radio show.
Beetle got wind that Bill Belichick was mocking Bedard in front of others, saying that Greg had begged for a scouting job with the Patriots.
Beetle told Greg this was going on, but under the guise that Greg would not tell anyone - he wanted his co-host to be aware this was happening.
Ten minutes after Beetle told him this, Greg called Scott Zolak, who worked with Bill every week on the team’s TV show.
Sounds like that caused friction between the two guys who work together every day, Zo and Beetle.
When confronted, Greg showed no remorse for discussing something he had sworn he would not discuss with anyone else.
Based on Beetle’s take, he feels like Greg has taken multiple petty shots at him on his podcast, all stemming from an issue where Greg still shows no remorse and does not seem to get that he broke the confidence of someone trying to help him.
All this led Beetle to tell the now-viral story on Tuesday.

Got all of that?

To his credit, Bedard went on with Zo and Beetle on Thursday, explaining that he had actually written a letter to Belichick looking for a job with the team. Greg said he had been out of work and was looking for anything at the time.

There’s real anger here, especially coming from Bertrand. I guess that’s why I liked the few segments on this - more than another 20 minutes on AJ Brown coming to the Pats - this felt very real. You don’t get a lot of that in radio anymore. Is it, as Dale Arnold might have famously said, “Navel gazing???” Sure, but I was into it. Gaze away!

Plenty of reaction online to this, most of it critical of Bertrand. I don’t get it. Guy tried to do Greg a solid, Greg burned him badly with his co-worker, and doesn’t seem to get that all these years later. “It’s simple; you’re not a person of your word. Therefore, I’m not friends with you,” Beetle came back to say after the break.

Listening back a second time Friday morning, it’s clear Bedard went on the show not to apologize, but to explain that he didn’t ask for a specific job, but any job, from Belichick. I get doing whatever for your family, but it’s a little nuts from Greg. Dude might just be ‘off,’ since he still doesn’t get why Bertrand is mad at him, and the apologies he made seemed empty on Thursday.

It’s worth noting here that Greg went on his own podcast yesterday and made another Bill claim, where he says Belichick told him his work covering the Pats for the Globe was so good he thought Greg had a mole in the building. 🙄🙄🙄

Bizarre stuff. Greg did not get much support for this story from fans on Friday. Yes, kinda a dick move from Belichick, mocking Greg for this in front of other people. Maybe you could say the same about Beetle saying anything to Greg about this.

Media guys don’t like it, but in 2026, it’s usually all kept off the record. This one was wide open for the world to see.

Feel free to take a side in the comments below.

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On the CAWs hammering the Preakness winner…

The Preakness was a good result for me. I liked the winner, #10 Napoleon Solo, and used him with #12 Incedibolt in two-day bets, exactas, etc. I also used him as my DK Horse “King of the Track” play, and wrote about it on the Barstool blog and talked about it last week on Picks Central. Once in a while, we get one right.

But you know who else had him? The Computer Assisted Wagering groups.

As they were loading the horses on Saturday, Solo was a juicy 10-1. Once they broke the gate, his price had been knocked down 7-1. The CAWs saw he was an overlay and smashed him in the win pool late. This is not uncommon - one of their big advantages is using the odds as part of their betting.

Credit to Twinspires’ Ed DeRosa for this chart above. It shows JUST the last two betting cycles of the Preakness; think the last 60 seconds of betting. From this chart, you can see that over 30% of the late (CAW) money came in on Solo. His odds based on just this money were 8/5. Again, this is not an accident. This is huge CAW action in one of the most-wagered-on races of the year.

You get these types of results when you let the CAWs bet until the last second. They would have had to bet him earlier, or not bet him at all, if you shut them off at 2 minutes to post, as NYRA does. #9 Iron Honor saw the third-most late money, which ended up being one of the reasons the exacta came back at only $53.

“But wait, the winner was 10-1, why am I only getting $17.80, it should have been over $20?”

Because the CAWs are allowed to bet as much as they want and as late as they want. In this case, they bet enough to knock the Preakness winner to 7-1 from 10-1 in the final few seconds. Even when you win, you feel like you lost because the odds are lower than they were when the race started.

Racing will continue to lose customers as long as they let the CAWs have free rein over the betting pools.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ The Red Sox swept the Royals this week. HogDale and Ed Hand (from fame) reacted on Episode 34 of Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast. Great stuff from the guys, correctly pointing out that, of course, the Red Sox swept the Royals, since Craig Breslow built a team that would really contend in the AL Central. Plus, they glaze the hell out of Nick Sogard. Watch and subscribe on YouTube, and then go listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

🎙️ It’s rare I give WEEI credit for anything, but I like bringing on Zach Gelb for part-time weekend shifts. I’ve listened to Zach in various roles on CBS Radio and think he does a good job as a solo host. He also gets good guests and gets something out of them - booking Mo Vaughn created more aggregation and online ‘buzz’ than anything WEEI has done since Fitzy vs. Part Time Teddy. Boston has a hard time accepting outsiders, so it would have been a tough sell, but he’s better than Rich Shertenlieb by a wide margin. And I bet Zach would have been willing to shit on 98.5 The Sports Hub, something WEEI’s new afternoon show is never going to do.

🎙️ Speaking of Rich, here is a clip of him completely butchering Wilyer Abreu’s first name. No shot he has not watched a game this year. How can Ken just sit there and not correct him? Very fake shit, here.

🎙️Rich opened his show on Thursday by reading a written script and playing Red Sox highlights from the night before. In Boston. In 2026. WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOING????????????????????????????????

🎙️I’m told that 98.5 The Sports Hub’s parent company, Beasley Media, has opted out of getting weekly ratings going forward. They’ll get the end-of-quarter numbers, but due to the cost of subscribing, they’re out on the weeklies. When you’re #1 every quarter with Men25-54, what’s the point, I guess. WEEI still has access to them, so if Rich wants to brag about a good weekly to the Boston Globe, he’ll be able to. But you’ll know where that info is coming from when you see it print.

🎙️ I don’t get the sense that The Greg Hill Show will be bragging about its own weekly numbers anytime soon, as one good source told that me those have been trending down this spring. To be fair, I have not had a full look. That show carries the station, and they need it to do not just okay, but good.

🏈 I saw zero issue with it, but Toucher and Hardy were critical of the Pardon My Take guys for not asking Bill Belichick about his girlfriend on their show this week. The subject did kind of come up on Belichick’s podcast with Sean Hannity, where Hannity said he hoped Belichick would sue CBS over how the non-famous interview that ended up including Jordon Hudson went. Belichick said he has asked for a full transcript multiple times, and called the interview “done very deceptively.” If Pablo Torre took a break from outing Oz The Mentalist and had Bill on, I would get him asking about Hudson. The PMT crew had a good laugh at the RADIO WARZ feel to all of it.

🏇🏻 On Thursday, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission gave DraftKings the green light to launch DraftKings Racing as part of a bigger DraftKings app update. This will replace DK Horse for users in the Bay State, and it will be a great thing for horseplayers. Much more on this, maybe as soon as next week.

⚾ Seems very, very dumb that the Red Sox are one of four teams not scheduled to play on a holiday, Memorial Day Monday.

🛒 At the age of 46, I made my first Uber Eats order this week. It’s info like that that shows why we’re almost at 7500 subscribers. I mean, where else are you getting that info heading into the three-day weekend???

And with that, it feels like plenty of Stack for this week.

Back tomorrow for the weekly Barstool Horse Racing Blog. Good luck with all your bets this Memorial Day Weekend. And thanks for reading.

Owner’s Note from MutStack Owner, Dave Portnoy:

No note from Dave this week.

Gotta say, these look pretty sweet 👀👀👀. More on the Red Sox below.

I’ll start this week’s Four-Pack by strongly urging and borderline begging you to watch Eric Church’s 2026 Commencement Address to the graduating class at the University of North Carolina.

Is this the best commencement address I’ve ever seen? Yes.

Am I biased because I’ve been to about 20 Eric Church shows, have a brick with my Church Choir Fan Club Number on it at his bar in Nashville, and the guy giving the address is my favorite artist of all-time?

Also, yes.

His address is like his music - Powerful. Authentic. Real. The things he talked about spoke to me as a 46-year-old husband, son, father, coach, and friend, among other things. I think when those UNC graduates get older, Eric’s words will mean even more to them.

If you’re a fellow parent, maybe you can relate, but I’ve cried a lot more since my boys were born. This address brought me to tears on Thursday morning. But I also laughed. And it made me think. Those are three things his music has led me to do over the last, well, almost 20 years.

Without spoiling it, because you should watch the whole thing, I will say that of the six pillars of life that he connects to the six guitar strings, Faith. Family. Spouse. Ambition. Community. You - They all hit home in their own way. But Family hit home most on the first viewing, though I suspect it depends on how old you are and what’s going on in your life when you watch it. Same thing for his music. Sinners Like Me hits me differently now than it did in 2009.

But his words of Family were a good reminder not to roll my eyes when my mom makes an unannounced pop-in at our house. Or when one of the boys leaves a freeze-pop wrapper on the floor. Again. A good reminder to text my brother more.

Eric Church doesn’t win the most awards at the CMAs (that’s a great thing, by the way). And he’s not the most commercially successful artist of his era - but he’s the most creative and the most talented. Go to Amazon Music or Spotify and listen to Evangeline vs. the Machine from beginning to end. Better yet, the live version. The songs fit together from front to back. In 2026? Awesome stuff. Does it sound like the sound he was putting on in 2006? Nope, and that’s okay.

You really need to watch it. And ending his address with Carolina was perfect. And the shots of the graduates singing along. Love it.

The speaker at my UConn graduation was the then-Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont. A quick search says he spoke about personal responsibility. The address is actually online, so I’ll listen this weekend. I’m sure it was fine. I doubt it will have the impact of Church’s address here.

I’ve written some stuff about his music and its impact on me before, but it never left the draft folder. This was too good not to write about this week.

Did I mention you should watch it? I did? Oh, okay. Well, go watch it. Then dig into the rest of the Four-Pack.

We’re talking Pats schedule. We’re talking Preakness. We’re talking Rich Shertenlieb. And we’ve got some MutStack notes. It will not be as good as Eric Church. Trust me on that

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #172

Next goal - 8000 subscribers here at MutStack.

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On the Patriots’ 2026 schedule…

Shoutout Mike Francesa. Shoutout to my huge purple highlighter I bought in the Vegas airport.

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On this PR profile of WEEI’s Rich Shertenlieb…

I mean, I really shouldn’t give a shit about this. I doubt more than 20% of the MutStack audience knows what Barrett Media is. And even fewer than that read this profile of Rich Sherternlieb this week.

But I can’t help myself.

I’m not the only one. Just here in Boston media, I had multiple people send me this before I even had a chance to read it. Once I did, I understood why.

It comes across as bullcrap. Well, a lot ot it, anyway. It’s pretend. It’s make-believe. For example:

That mindset also guided Shertenlieb during his morning show run on WZLX in Boston. During the six months the program lasted, he said he was proud of the growth the show experienced, something he hopes continues with WEEI.

“During that short time, we took that morning show from 14th place to 5th place. It was sad that it ended so soon because the trajectory over the last month was excellent,” said Shertenlieb. “I’m really proud of that time, but it’s all for the better. Now, I get to work with Mike Thomas again. To me, that’s probably the best part of all of this.”

For the summer of 2024, The Rich Sherternlieb Show on WZLX was 14th in the Boston market with a 1.8 rating with Men 25-54. That same summer, Toucher and Hardy did a 16.6, and The Greg Hill Show did 11.9. Over a three-month period, full summer, Rich was 14th. He’s not lying about that.

But he’s lying (fibbing?) about being 5th. His last weekly rating, which covered five days, not three months, was 5th. This was after the program director forced Rich to start playing more music on his show - something I’m told Rich fought against. But the music brought people back. WZLX finished second that fall, thanks in part to the cancellation of Rich’s show - the ratings for WZLX mornings almost doubled from the summer to fall once he was gone.

None of that is mentioned in this piece from Barrett Media. There’s no note that the 5th-place rating is weekly.

“That was embarrassing,” said one current Boston sports radio personality RE: this profile of Rich. “So predictable, yet still embarrassing.”

That personal connection is something Shertenlieb has learned is vital to success. Just weeks after launching the program on WEEI, he has already developed an appreciation for his team and the station staff. He admits he is loyal to a fault with the people around him as he continues building what he hopes becomes a legitimate competitor in the daypart.

To hear his former co-host Fred Toucher tell it, Rich didn’t have much loyalty to him. Fred and his morning show have rolled along on The Sports Hub, racking up #1 ratings and bonus checks in the aftermath of Rich walking away from the station just over two years ago. Fred’s show - along with mid-day host Scott Zolak - mocks Rich on an almost weekly basis. It ended poorly, and Rich will not really address it. Maybe that’s my issue with the story - it comes across as phony. Like Rich claiming his show at WZLX was 5th. Fairy tale shit. Chad Finn of the Boston Globe reported a few weeks ago that even after being canceled, Rich emailed him to make sure he knew the show was 5th in that weekly. He sent that email on Christmas night.

I get it, Mut and Callahan is right up there on the list. But Rich’s show at WZLX was one of, if not the biggest, failures in Boston radio history. I listened to a lot of that show, and I hear the same show happening now at WEEI.

“Whatever he’s doing…I’ve heard it already. It’s all recycled,” said another current Boston radio personality.

His show and the host come off as unlikeable. Rich 100% deserves a chance to bounce back from his WZLX flop. I just wish he were more honest about it. And it is crazy that the show he’s doing now on WEEI is basically a more sporty version of that WZLX morning show that was 14th in his first full book and only did better when they added music.

This should not bother me. The show should not bother me. They both do. That probably says more about me than anything else.

The first weekly rating for Rich and Ken with Ted Johnson is due out next week. I’d be shocked if the show is as high as 5th. But if it is, Rich will be sure to tell or email someone about it.

On the 151st Preakness Stakes…

To loosely quote the great Mad Dog Russo, “This Preakness has no juice.”

The least anticipated Preakness of my lifetime. The media and social media folks who carry water for the sport can’t say that, but I can. It’s a great betting race on paper, but as far as quality, it feels like a Grade 2 race…maybe a Grade 3.

As I finish this Friday morning, I don’t know who I would bet to win the race. I know I’ll be betting the Black-Eyed Susan/Preakness Double that starts on Friday (I’ll use 2, 3,6 7, 10 to start #7 would be the top choice).

As for the Preakness, I think the most likely winner is #12 Incredibolt. Trainer Riley Mott entered him late here, and good for him. Ran fine in the Derby, but maybe a little closer to the pace than they wanted to be. Has done his best running at a pace, and he’ll get a huge pace to run at today. Legit win contender and might go off favored here. Trainer is 2 for 11 running horses back in roughly two weeks. The might go off-favored thing is the issue.

The best value and the most talented horse in the field might be #10 Napoleon Solo. This guy has blazing speed early and used to wire the Grade 1 Champagne last fall. Was part of a WILD pace in the Wood and still held 5th there - much better effort than it looks on paper. Last two races came on tracks that favored closers. Can he rate off the other speed? Will he try to just wire this group? Do we trust jockey Paco Lopez? Workouts say he's primed for a big effort at 8-1 or 10-1; he offers awesome value.

My best longshot idea is #5 Talkin. We’re not getting 20-1 on this guy. Gets the best jockey in America, Irad, and has some buzz coming into this race. There aren't many closers in the group, and you have to imagine the plan today is to take him back and make one run with him. Remember, he beat Further Ado on debut and ran a credible second in the Champagne. Pointed here after the Bluegrass defeat, and looks like a live horse at a price. Win chance, as I see it, and should be 12-1 or so.

I’ll be focused on those three. Full breakdown and betting ideas in tomorrow’s racing blog on Barstool.

I love the Preakness and can’t wait til next year when they adjust the schedule and modernize the Triple Crown. Fingers crossed.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ A late-night edition of Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast. This team stinks. The offense is embarrassing. Thursday night was the low point of the 2026 season. Go watch and subscribe on YouTube, and then listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More about Thursday’s shit show here.

⬆️ As a follow-all-time idiot, this made me laugh. I think the ACL and Achilles are for sure different injuries.

⚾ It has been tough to listen to Dave O’Brien these last few weeks on NESN. I worked with Dave for a few years in the Sox radio booth, and he is a GREAT guy. Funny. Smart. Critical. One of the best in the business. But as the Red Sox have circled the drain here, there’s not enough talk about the team and their struggles, and way too much promotion of what’s coming up. The schedule. Promotions. League leaders. Scores from around baseball. He mentioned at least twice and maybe a third time how much energy Fenway had the previous night. Lou had to point out that it was not until the 7th that things really got going.

People know the team is bad - embrace it and talk through how they can get better. I feel like Dave did that well on the radio. That’s what I want now as a TV viewer, anyway. Like, this seems like a good topic to riff on with Lou or Will for a few innings.

🎙️ It’s worth noting here again that the owners of The Sports Hub, Beasley Media, seem like they’re in real financial trouble. First quarter revenue was down 12% from a year ago. And from one industry publication. “The improved bottom-line performance was driven largely by the completion of the company’s sale of its Fort Myers, FL radio properties.” Selling those stations propped up their numbers, while revenue was still down almost 7%. That sale is a one-time bump.

In Philadelphia, the Beasley sports station has canceled local nighttime programming after 6 PM, unheard of for a major market with a good baseball team.

The Sports Hub is Beasley’s most successful station by far, and Tony Mazz has noted that they have to “carry the rest of the stations” with their success. Worth watching if this impacts 98.5's ability to retain talent, maybe cut salaries, secure local play-by-play deals, etc.

🏀 I’m willing to admit the Knicks probably would have beaten the Celtics this round.

🎶 Top 5 Eric Church songs? Sure. Today’s version 1. Sinners Like Me. 2. Those I’ve Loved. 3. Drowning Man. 4. Where She Told Me Go. 5. Can’t Take It With You. Bonus- Mad Man

✈️ I am headed to Chicago to be a small part of the next season of Surviving Barstool. I’ll be the referee/official for the challenges. I am very excited. Jeff D. Lowe and his crew pour their souls into this, and I hope I don’t suck. I wish Arlington Park were still open, and I can’t believe I never got there. Hawthorne does have live racing on Sunday…where else do I need to go in Chicago?

That feels like plenty of Stack for this week.

Good luck with all your bets this weekend. Enjoy the golf and Preakness bets. And thanks for reading. And watching.

Owner’s Note from MutStack Owner, Dave Portnoy:

No note from Dave this week. Sorry to see Go Go Greys’ Miss Apples scratch from her debut Friday at Belmont, er, Aqueduct. The Big A closes for good on June 28, and I need to get there before it does.

The greatest event experience of my life.

That’s how I would describe Oaks Day at Churchill Downs last Friday. Lovely Grey Day.

Multiple Finals Fours…Radio Booth for the Red Sox clinching a World Series at Fenway…front row for some huge UConn basketball games…three feet from Eric Church at Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den before anyone really knew who Eric Church was…I’m probably missing a few.

But this topped them all. And given my age, it’s likely to remain in that spot until they bury me in the ground.

It’s hard to exactly put the experience into words. I’ve included a photo gallery of the day here as a primer.

The pictures tell the story better than I can.

As an owner of a horse in the Oaks, My Boss Dave and Go Go Greys had access to an owner’s box right next to the Churchill Downs Winner’s Circle. There was one Travers Day at Saratoga where I sat at a picnic table in the middle of the backyard, which I’m pretty sure was for track employees to take their smoke break. It was tucked between some white tents and the men’s room - I never saw the track the entire day. Those were the worst seats I’ve ever had for a race day.

These were the best - Suite #8 - right next to the freakin’ Winners’ Circle. The first trainer I saw in there was Cherie DeVaux, and I should have bet Golden Tempo right then. Bill Belichick and Jordon were among the stars who walked by during the day.

So you're sitting in these outrageous seats, right on the track. You have access to this dining room inside with great food options - they even did a changeover for more food and dessert as you got closer to dinner. You have access to the brand-new, $10 million paddock. You have a waitress coming into the box every 30 seconds to ask if you need anything. You have WiFi that never seemed to go out and, unlike some tracks and casinos I’ve been to, didn’t block any other apps or betting sites. Could not ask for a better set-up to bet and watch the racing.

And as we get closer to the race, Dave tells me I’ll get to walk with Team Go Go Grey across the track and then be part of the walkover with the horses for the Oaks. It’s implausible to be able to write that sentence and even more implausible that it actually happened.

I’m guessing Dave was the only owner who took selfies with fans on the walk back. Fans cheering for him, Lovely Grey, Go Go Greys, Rico Bosco, Elio, Jersey Jerry…the entire walk back there. It was a good reminder that racing on social media is not real life, and in real life, it’s much better.

You go from the track into the paddock for “Rider’s Up,” and the place is jammed. As the horses walk to the track, you’re right behind them, going back to the seats to watch the race. Just a completely surreal 45 minutes and overall day at the races.

As for the Grade I Kentucky Oaks, Lovely Grey hated the dirt, but she kept trying. Dave and Elio noticed it right away, watching the replay - she clearly pulls her head back when she had dirt kicked in her face. But it sounds like she came out of the race well, and I can’t wait to see her in Saratoga later this summer.

It’s no surprise that Oaks TV viewership and Oaks betting set records. The total handle on Friday’s card was $89 million, up 18% (!!!) from the prior record set in 2024. Primetime was a big factor, but so was Dave having a horse in the race. People want to bet with Dave on sports, racing, whatever. The impact of both he and Go Go Greys was felt on Friday night. I have no doubt he and his stable will have a positive impact on racing fandom in the United States.

A true 1 of 1 experience. Can’t thank Dave enough for his generosity in inviting a life-long racing fan along for the big day. Amazing. The entire Go Go Greys team was awesome. My handicapping and betting were not, but I’ll chalk it up to sensory overload of an amazing experience.

I’ll get back to complaining about racing later in this newsletter, but to open it here, a chance to celebrate the sport. Thank you, Dave. #thankyoukirk

Meanwhile, the Celtics have some issues. The Triple Crown needs an update. WEEI’s new afternoon show is terrible. And much more.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #171

A friendly MutStack reminder that Sunday is Mother’s Day. Make sure you do something nice for your mom.

She’s probably hoping for a nice card. Maybe some flowers. And for you to hit the blue Subscribe button. It’s free - like it has been for the last 3+ years.

Subscribe now

On how the Celtics should move forward…

The people demand a terrible thumbnail. Change the coach or trade a star player? Seems simple to me.

On this travel baseball fight…

Seriously, we have to cut the crap with going after youth sports umpires and referees.

This scene from Mississippi last weekend is extreme, I get it, but the point remains that this has to stop. I mean, this video is INSANE. Turns out this is reportedly the COACH in the altercation.

We live in a day and age where you can make as much money delivering for DoorDash as you can umpiring or refereeing a youth game. Probably make more, actually. More and more officials are choosing that route, thanks in part to parents who think just because you paid for travel ball, you’re getting MLB umpires. And the officials don’t want to deal with them or aggressive coaches. Due to this mass exodus of officials, you’re seeing game postponements and delays all over the country.

I think the cost to play these sports raises the stakes for parents and coaches. That and the time commitment of, in many baseball and softball leagues, giving up every weekend to get to games that could be hours away. Trust me, I get it.

A few weeks ago, I watched an opposing coach scream at an older umpire because he said he had a bad view of the play - meanwhile, the coach had the same view and just disagreed with the call. It got to the point that the coach had to be removed from the dugout in a 10U travel game.

I have no idea what led to this ugly showdown in the video above, but I know it just made me mad. And I wanted to comment on it. Especially beating the shit out of this old umpire while he’s on the ground.

“But Mut, there are some terrible officials and umps.” You’re right. But complain to the other parents you’re watching the game with. If it’s really bad, I guess say something to the league or the coach. Well, not this coach, I guess. Just don’t be the parent who has to be asked by your coach to quiet down. No one wants to see that, especially your kids.

And please don’t be this guy, or the guy who goes on the field during a kid’s game. Because after all, it’s still a kid’s game. /endsportsdadrant

On modernizing horse racing’s Triple Crown…

I wrote this long blog after the news broke on Wednesday that Derby Winner Golden Tempo would bypass the Preakness and target the Belmont. It’s the third time in five years that a healthy Derby winner is not going to Maryland to contest the second leg of the Triple Crown.

Racing is filled with people who refuse to move forward; they want to live in the past and don’t understand that things do, in fact, change. So I should not be surprised that so many of the rebuttals to this blog have been focused on one of two themes.

1. Changing the Triple Crown would impact the legacy of the 13 horses that have previously won it.
   
   Nope. Their legacy remains intact if the Preakness is pushed back a week. Or two weeks. Human beings have brains (well, most of us), and we’re able to have two thoughts at once. What those horses did was great, and if the Triple Crown schedule is changed, that accomplishment will still be great. And if it’s changed and another horse wins all three TC races, it will not be the same. This seems pretty easy for my dumb brain to understand. Larry Bird played most of his career without a three-point line. His legacy is not impacted by current NBA teams jacking up 25 3’s a night. Or by other players having more 3s than him. What he did stands the test of time, rules, etc. The same will go for Secretariat, Seattle Slew (RIP Neumy), Justify, etc.

2. It’s supposed to be hard. Spacing out the races will make it too easy.

   
   100% disagree. I believe that if you space out the races, more of the top horses will run back in them. The competition will be tougher, making it just as hard to win; maybe harder. When Justify won the Preakness in 2018, the field was full of horses that didn’t really belong. The 5th - 8th place finishers in that race went on to win a grand total of five races the rest of their career. By pushing the Preakness (and Belmont Stakes) back, you give the connections of all these horses more of a schedule to map out over the course of the spring and summer. I don’t think it’s easier with space.

And it would be SOOOOOOOO much better for promoting the sport. We had record TV ratings for this year’s Derby - wait til’ those fans tune in and see no Golden Tempo in the Preakness. Shit, right now only one horse from the Derby looks possible for the Preakness, and that’s 70-1 longshot Ocelli. He ran a wild third in, but will enter the Preakness with zero lifetime wins. Zero.

Seems likely we’ll get change as soon as next year, with the Preakness and Belmont each pushed back a week. Good. I’m happy to take the ‘L’ if we get another year of the Derby winner and most of the Derby runners skipping the race. But I doubt that’s the case.

Look, I love the crab cakes. I love the Preakness; we’ll handicap it plenty next week. But it’s hard to get excited about the 2026 edition, thanks to everyone from the Derby passing the race.

Additional thoughts on the Derby winner below in the notes.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ Before the Sox lost to the Rays on Thursday night, vibes were VERY high on Dirty Water after that sweep of the Tigers. Can see some signs of life, finally. Watch and subscribe on YouTube - then go listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

🌹 #19 Golden Tempo 36-1 🌹

“Deep, deep, deep closer ran well this year in the Fairgrounds prep series. Never off the board in four career starts, just has NO early speed and will need a perfect trip to close home through traffic and win Derby 152. Keeneland works for this have been solid, and another that I could use on the bottom of tickets, but not as a win candidate. USING UNDERNEATH DEEP”

I did not expect a complete pace meltdown. The horses that were 14th, 12th, and 10th after a mile ran 1-2-3 in Derby 152. Golden Tempo and Jose Ortiz needed a perfect trip to get there, and they did. One hesitation, one sliver of traffic trouble, and Renegade wins. Renegade ran the best race. He got blasted coming out of the gate and still ran a huge. Credit to Irad Ortiz for keeping the horse locked in after that rough start. Danon Bourbon ran a huge race given the pace, and he appears to have real talent. My pick, Commandment, broke slowly and was wide all day. He took a decent bump in the lane, and it was not his day.

A thrilling Derby - and it’s just too bad we won’t see a bunch of these runners back next week for the Preakness.

🏇🏻 Travis Stone’s call of the Derby was an A+. I wish the whole country could see/hear this live on Derby Day.

🏇🏻 I loved the primetime Oaks. I could easily see flying in to go to Oaks Day, then staying in the area for Derby, but not fighting the 150k fans at the track. Also, the Churchill renovations rock

🏇🏻 CAWs still suck - more on that tomorrow on the Barstool blog.

🎙️ Boy, is Rich & Ken with Ted Johnson a bad show. So bad that even the Boston Globe trashed it last week (after we did). Listened to quite a bit this week. The most bizarre thing I heard was the opening to Tuesday’s show, when they did 15 minutes on the Odyssey movie trailer and some generic, bad. movie talk. A close second was a call they took 10 minutes into their show on Thursday from a gentleman who sounded 80 years old, praising Mike Thomas for bringing Rich back to radio. In between that, you had bad production songs, Rich and Ted taking turns trying to one-up each other in their ill-preparedness for a four-hour talk show, and Ken's fake laughter. One minute, Rich is telling you the only way to get in touch with the show (because social media is too much for him) is to leave a voicemail - then a few minutes later, he’s giving out the number and begging fishing for calls.

Ted Johnson used to come in at 3 PM and stay til the end of the show. Now he comes on at 2 PM when the show starts, but leaves at 5 PM. On Thursday, guest Tom E Curran was on the phone trying to address Ted directly, and Rich had to tell him on the air that Ted had left the studio. What the eff are we doing, here???

A really unlikeable show, with an unlikeable host. And co-host. Poor Ken.

🏀 The new, expanded, 76-team NCAA Bracket is as disgusting as I feared.

👀 Yes, there are new Vrabel/Russini pics. But I don’t understand the media's push saying that, all of a sudden, he can’t coach the Patriots. Something was going on for a while, and we got confirmation this week. At this point, he’ll be here.

👀 But yeah, fascinated to see what she says when she speaks, and I guess that could change things depending on what she says.

Feels like that’s enough Stack for this week.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the MutStack Moms out there. My mom reads and then corrects my grammar. Love you, mom! Do something nice for your mom. That’s an order. 💐💐💐

Good luck with all your bets this weekend. And thanks for reading. And watching.

Note from Owner of MutStack.com, Dave Portnoy:

We’ll let Dave’s video serve as his note this morning.

Surreal morning. Surreal week.

I’m somehow here in Louisville, KY, to watch My Boss Dave’s horse, Lovely Grey, compete in the Grade One Kentucky Oaks.

I have said for weeks that she has a big shot if she gets in.

• Confirmed closer in a race with plenty of speed.

• Bred to love the distance (416 Tomlinson)

• Multiple siblings who have won on dirt - breeding is there

• Trained very well here at Churchill Downs. DRF Clockers gave her a solid ‘B’ for her last work.

• Jockey Dylan Davis aboard - the Mutnansky Family loves Dylan.

Lots of things to like at 30-1. The problem is, she won’t be 30-1. I think she’s going to be like 12-1 because the world wants to bet with Dave in one of the biggest races of the year. He and she are the stars of this race. That’s the only knock -her price. I would not be TOTALLY shocked if she’s under 10-1.

She is 100% live today. I think her #2 Zany and #9 Always a Runner are all going to be flying late. And with Dylan Davis aboard, let's get Lovely Grey home.

I’d be rooting like hell for Dave’s horse if I were still just cranking out MutStack in my basement full-time. The man loves racing and the animals. He’s been so good for racing, and I am genuinely happy to see him with a good horse and a blossoming Go Go Greys Stable. He’ll yell at me for a shitty pick in a race later today, but that’s okay.

I’m sitting here laughing at how lucky I am to be here. Don’t deserve it, but thankful. Thank you, Dave. #thankyoukirk

Owners dream of having an Oaks horse for years, only to never get it. Dave and Go Go Greys made it in and are live to make some noise.

Have plenty of handicapping to do for the next two days. Good luck if you’re playing, and safe trips for all. And go, Lovely Grey!

Meanwhile, WEEI has debuted a FOURTH new afternoon show in just the last three years. Mike Vrabel gets a warm welcome. My Kentucky Derby thoughts and a LOADED MutStack Notes.

It’s all ahead in Friday Four-Pack #170.

🏇🏻 Thanks for your support here at MutStack on this Friday, one of the best Fridays of the year, and every Friday.

Make it even better by hitting the blue SUBSCRIBE button.

Free, and will bring you luck all Kentucky Oaks/Derby Weekend long. Probably. It can’t hurt, right? 🏇🏻

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On the debut of WEEI’s Rich and Ken with Ted Johnson…

I want to give WEEI’s newest afternoon show some credit in a second. But first-

It’s worse than WEEI Afternoons
It’s worse than Salk & Holley
It’s worse than Mut & Callahan…maybe.

If you told me Rich and Ken with Ted Johnson was a parody of a radio show, I’d believe you.

“It was uncomfortable to listen to,” one former very successful Boston radio host told me this week. And he’s right.

Rich and Ken with Ted Johnson is supposed to be a new show, but it’s really just a different version of Rich’s failed show at WZLX. Same stories, same deferring to Ted Johnson, same EVERYTHING. They replaced Mike Hurley with a neutered Ken Laird. Rich is hosting - he’s soooooo bad at that. Ted is not smart. And Ken is… just the update guy who held on to his Operations job at Audacy so he could fake-laugh at Rich and Ted? They admitted it would be bad, and they’re right.

So look, there’s a way this might work, but it would require honesty. First and foremost, honesty from Rich. I tuned in thinking I might get it on Monday afternoon. After all, he failed historically at WZLX and was doing nothing before Mike Thomas fired a bunch of people to pay him; what I got instead was pure bullshit, with Rich pretending to be some sort of WEEI listener:

“Mike (Thomas) and Mark Hannon are doing something special over here…”

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? The only thing special at WEEI is Thomas’ ability to make the ratings disappear. Hannon has a working brain and must have wanted to vomit when Rich said that. It was a whole segment of shit like that, with the main character, Rich, re-telling some story of his career from his own warped mind into the microphone. It just made me angry. As did Thomas, taking a victory lap for hiring him as a savior.

WEEI is failing. Rich failed at WZLX. Tell the audience you’ve failed and you’ll try to do better. Both you and the station. Nope, none of that.

As you might expect, the industry texts I got this week have not been kind. Words like unaware, horrible…just got one that said “Wow.” The social media reaction has been similar; just check the replies here. Brutal. But the lack of ANY real reaction tells you all you need to know. Rich apparently said something about all the nice media they got after their debut - I looked, there was none, other than a press release reformatting or two. ZERO.

Rich alluded to going after his former co-host, Fred Toucher, when the show was introduced Monday morning, but no shot that happens. I’m rooting for it, so Fred fires back; he’ll probably do that anyway. That will be entertaining. The new show isn’t.

Here’s where I’ll give them some credit - it is different than Felger and Mazz. In all the worst ways, but it’s different. Felger and Mazz sound like a classic, angry, smarmy, smart, Boston sports radio show. Rich and Ken with Ted Johnson sounds like a morning show in Albany that was born out of a bad radio petry dish. I’ve used the word bad here four times. I apologize.

I don’t think the show will make it to next year’s NFL Draft. At least in its current configuration. I can’t imagine it doing better than the old show in the ratings.

I heard my friend Kirk Minihane give me “half credit” for breaking this story here. That’s fair - I did not put my nuts on the table and report it as a Dave Cullinane LOCK. But we had it basically cold, before anyone else, even if no one wanted to give us credit. Good week for The Stack. A note on the parts we got wrong below.

It was a nice break having the Sox on Wednesday, so I didn’t have to listen. I’ll only be able to catch clips in Kentucky on Thursday and Friday. Thank God. Painful stuff. A deeper dive into the Mike Thomas moves at WEEI here in the next month.

If you listened, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Leave a comment

On a VERY warm welcome for Mike Vrabel…

So there was a Club Seat (fancy Red seats at Gillette with a great bar) ticket-holder event for the Pats on Tuesday night, and Mike Vrabel got this very warm welcome.

How about Zo pumping up the crowd? He might be angling for my emcee gigs!

This had to feel pretty good for Vrabel. He’s had a shitty few weeks, his own doing, of course.

As did this. His young, star signal-caller here is saying all the right things at a charity event.

I thought Jermaine Wiggins made a good point this week on WEEI, saying that the players in the locker room only really care how Vrabel treats them. How his message has to change now this is on his resume, I don’t know. But I’m probably guilty of overrating how much this might impact the Patriots. It helps that QB1 was front and center, with his back on Wednesday night.

As for the fans? I mean, come on. Fans were ALWAYS going to have his back. The few callers you hear blasting Vrabel on sports talk or social media are a loud, small group. They were destined to get drowned out.

This is 100% a story and worth talking about, but the reaction at Gillette is a sign that Vrabel will get through this. There’s still the eventual Diana Russini return - how is she going to handle this???

But the fans? They’re back on his side. And probably never left.

On the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby…

Racing is such a tough game.

Fulleffort was not just my big rooting interest, but he was also my favorite bet of the Kentucky Derby. He ran well in his preps at Turfway. He looked great at Churchill Downs. He was bred to like the dirt. He has a talented trainer. He has terrific connections. And he was going to be a great price. I hope he’s okay and we get to see him run again.

To say my excitement for Debry 152 has been dampened would be fair. But the Derby is still the Derby, and people want to know who I like.

I like #6 Commandment. Trainer Brad Cox. Jockey Luis Saez

First of two in here for Super Trainer™️Brad Cox, and he is a legit contender today. Only horse in the field with two 100+ Beyers. Beat Chief Wallabee in back-to-back starts - the race two back, he kept galloping out like he wanted more ground. Got his first career win over this track. Third different jockey in last three races is a little weird for a horse that might be favored, but Saez and Cox have had plenty of success. Dam was very good. Can make his own trip from the six-hole.

I liked Fulleffort. A lot. He’s out.

I like #14 Potente at 20-1 as my best price idea now. Trainer Bob Baffert. Jockey JJ Hernandez

Again, a horse with just three career races. Trainer Bob Baffert said he’d be better going longer, and he was right. Fought hard on the lead before getting run down by So Happy last time. I think he’s better with a target and with Baffet’s other horse as quick early, is the plan to rate this guy? I would not hate it. He cost $2.4 million, so big expectations. Can see him hitting the board at a nice price. Note the workout here 4/26 when you look at the past performances - it was a good one. USING AT A HUGE PRICE

I like #12 Chief Wallabee. Trainer Bill Mott. Jockey Junior Alvarado

Tons of talent here. If you told me that by the end of the year, he’s the best of this group, I’d believe you. Beat The Puma on debut and then just missed vs Commandment in those two Florida races. But that’s the knock, right? Only three races coming into this. His local workout in Kentucky was the talk of the town, and he has MAJOR buzz coming in. Riley Mott’s Dad won this last year and has won it twice in his Hall of Fame career. Blinkers go ON here, which is interesting, given how well he’s run. Legit Derby contender, but I wonder if the three races (and none as a 2-year-old) is too big a hurdle vs this group. But oozes talent.

#1 Renegade, #15 Emerging Market, and #18 Further Ado can also win. #9 The Puma can probably win, too, but I don’t think I’ll be betting he’s Mage 2.0.

6-14-12-1 for me in Kentucky Derby 152. I have the most faith in Commandment based on his efforts in Florida, and 7-1 or so is very fair.

The plan is to live-stream pre-races tomorrow on X.com. Picks for the day are to follow there, too.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ Vibes were so, so down on Thursday for Episode 28 - Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast. Red Sox still stink. Not much home. Watch and subscribe to a grown man get upset about baseball. Then listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

🏀 So yeah, the Celtics. Did not get to watch much of the game on Thursday. I did laugh at Hubbs on Picks Central a few weeks ago when talking about the Celtics’ path to the NBA Finals. I am not laughing anymore.

The 29% from three tells the story. They’re back in the place where they settle for threes, and if they hit them, they look good. If they don’t, they look like an 8-seed that doesn’t belong. I’d bank on a home win Saturday night, but the crowd was TERRIBLE for Game 5.

The Sixers are not that good, but the Celtics have let them back in this series. A loss this weekend doesn’t just mean a failed season; it means an offseason of talking about massive changes to the team. Tatum vs. Brown for months.

🏀 UConn vs. Duke. Night before Thanksgiving. Las Vegas. Do you think my wife and kids will like Turkey Day in Vegas?

⛳ So, that’s probably it for LIV, huh. As a golf fan and avid golf bettor, I just never gave a shit. Some good players over there, but the format did nothing for me. In the end, I’m not really sure who it was for.

🎙️ Mike Felger did a podcast with Awful Announcing that’s worth a listen. On a slower week, I might have done a full breakdown. Interesting stuff on WEEI vs The Hub. Felger said he roots for WEEI “to a point,” so that there’s a competitive sports-radio ecosystem. He also called out the Boston media for their lack of coverage of Vrabel. He should talk more about these non-sports topics on his own show

🎙️RE: WEEI. Mike Lockhart did not come with Rich - they have his spot for a longtime part-timer, “Jackson.” So they basically fired three guys to hire Rich. Is Ted full-time now? I actually don’t know. Also, I got bad info on Arcand moving. He stays on nights and Sox. But other than that, ice cold.

That feels like enough Stack for this week. Headed to the track in a little bit. Wild times.

Oaks! Derby! Lovely Grey!

Good luck with all your bets this weekend. Thanks for reading.

Note from Owner of MutStack.com, Dave Portnoy:

No note from Dave. Big day tomorrow as they’ll draw the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks, and the race that Go Go Greys runner Lovely Grey is expected to enter (per Dave), the Edgewood Stakes. Full coverage on social and the Barstool Blog.

"My previous actions don't meet the standard I hold myself to. They don't."

This story stinks.

And, like, it is a big story. Greg Bedard embarrassed himself on Felger and Mazz this week, trying to suggest that this was not something worth talking about. Same for a few other shows and hosts. No one WANTS to talk about it, but it’s a real story.

Based on multiple rounds of candid pictures and, now, his own words, Mike Vrabel and reporter Diana Russini appear to have had more than just a working relationship for years. They’re both married, both have kids, and yeah, talking about it sucks.

Vrabel was asked about new pictures and declined to talk about them, saying in part, “… my priorities are my family and this football team. In that order. ... My family needs me this weekend, and that's where I'll be."

Indeed, the head coach and final decision-maker for the Pats is missing the third day of the Draft, where the team has seven picks. He did not rule out missing more time when he was asked about that possibility on Thursday night. If the plan is to put family first, that might not be a bad thing.

I’ll only speak for myself, but I thought there was at least a chance Vrabel was going to be fired Thursday, after the NY Post photos of him and Russini allegedly in a NY bar six years ago (!!!) went online. What other photos were out there, and what had Vrabel told the Krafts? Then, on Thursday afternoon, the team released a statement, saying in part

"The New England Patriots fully support Mike Vrabel's decision to prioritize his family first, as well as his own well-being," the team said. "Mike has been open with us about his commitment to being the best version of himself for his family, this team and our fans, and we respect the steps he is taking to follow through on that commitment.”

A life raft - this was a big show of support from the team, hours after the new photos came out. And a sign he’s not going anywhere - he was safe. The NFL says they are not investigating, and I don’t think he should be fired.

I feel like Vrabel has handled what has to be a brutal personal situation pretty well - how will Russini eventually respond? Her old tweets went viral in a bad way on Thursday, before she finally deactivated her account. All we have is her Athletic resignation statement, which is not really holding up.

I don’t really have a hot take on this, other than it’s nuts that Bedard and others didn’t see the magnitude of this story. And are Vrabel, his family, and the team prepared for more photos dropping? Are the Krafts?

I’m glad Vrabel is putting family first. But between what might be next, the coach missing a Draft Day (terrible movie), and Russini’s next response, it doesn’t feel like this story is quite over yet. But sorry, Greg Bedard and others, it is a story.

Meanwhile, WEEI has dismantled its afternoon show, again. Plus Red Sox, Pats Draft, and a very busy MutStack Notes.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #169

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On yet another afternoon shakeup at WEEI…

It’s not that important, but let the record show we had it first. We had it here last week, when it wasn’t 100% official but was basically 100% official. And Dave Portnoy’s MutStack.com sure as shit had it first Wednesday, before anyone else. Some people, like the talented Jim Murray at 98.5 The Sports Hub, gave us credit. Other industry insiders and major newspapers did not. Noted 📝

First, the news, then the rumors of what’s next.

After another thumping in the ratings (unofficially, Felger & Mazz beat WEEI Afternoons 15.3 (#1) to 2.7 (#14) in the Boston winter ratings. More on these in the notes below), WEEI finally decided to pull the plug on its worst show.

This version of WEEI Afternoons lasted just over a year. It made no impact in the ratings and will go down as one of the worst and least-remembered shows in Boston sports radio history.

Andy Hart, Nick ‘Fitzy’ Stevens, and producer/fill-in host Dan Bahl were told on Wednesday that they were all out. I don’t know if they were told together or individually, but I’m told the timing was surprising to some involved. I’m also told that Nick took it very well and made sure to thank different people around the building.

And that’s not surprising. Nick is a good guy, as is Andy (I don’t know Dan). They were put in a terrible position by their boss, Mike Thomas. To avoid paying Nick more, they let him work 2-3 days a week from home. In the same vein, former Patriot Ted Johnson - who, for all intents and purposes, is the star of the show - works 3-4 days a week and comes in an hour after the show starts. Andy Hart was there every day, asked to host even though he wasn't really a host.

Formatted that way, Mike Thomas built the show for failure. I don’t think it would have been that much better if all three did 20 hours a week together, but it would have helped. I have no doubt Nick and Andy will both land on their feet - both guys are hard-working and easy to work with, based on my experience with them.

There was tension on their show, as evidenced by the blow-up documented here last week. It sounds like there was a bit of an Andy-and-Ted vs. Nick dynamic; Nick was aware of this, and that helped lead to what happened last week. The station sending Andy and Ted to the NFL Draft last year and leaving Fitzy in Boston sent a message to everyone that he was the obvious third wheel from 2-6 PM.

For a multitude of reasons, it was not a good show. As a listener, I’d argue Ted Johnson is the worst part. Based on the hundreds of responses to my post on X.com, I have a lot of company in that same opinion. But Thomas loves him, loves ex-athletes, and he’ll stay.

WEEI is planning to announce the new show on Monday morning at 9 AM during The Greg Hill Show. In a promo read on Thursday, Adam Jones said that “they” would join the morning show and that “this will be a first.” I assume in this case, they would be the new afternoon show cast members.

So, who will they be?

I spent hours trying to get this cold for you, the loyal MutStack subscriber, here for Friday morning. But since we’re in the MutStack Trust Tree, I don’t have it 100%. Mike Thomas is playing this very close to the vest and, to his credit, has done a good job of keeping it under wraps. In his email to staff on Wednesday, he did not say who would host the new show.

I fully expect Thomas to leak this to the Boston Globe or someone else before Monday. But before he does, I’ll give you a few scenarios of how it might play out based on talking and texting with almost a dozen sources over the last 48 hours. Below is just informed speculation.

WEEI Afternoons 3.0: Ken Laird, Rich Shertenlieb, and Ted Johnson (and producer Mike Lockhart).

If you made me guess, this would be the new show. Ken’s position as program director was eliminated when Thomas was demoted a few weeks ago. Rather than lose him, I believe they’re going to put him on-air. He’s been on vacation this week, returning Monday, just in time for the announcement. There’s another on-air spot he could land, but this seems the most likely.

I have heard from three different sources that Shertenlieb is expected to return to Boston radio with this show. Rich famously left 98.5, flamed out at WZLX, then abruptly stopped doing YouTube content a few months ago. A source recently reached out to say that Rich was untagging himself from old WZLX social media posts, suggesting he might be preparing to return to a job in Boston. Thomas talked to Rich when he left 98.5, but the money was not close. WEEI freed up a bunch of money this week, and maybe the desperation of being on the bench and watching Fred Toucher clear bonus after bonus was enough motivation to take a bonus-laden deal with WEEI himself.

Ted Johnson stays because Thomas loves him. But you need two full-time hosts because Ted is not in 20 hours a week.

WEEI's firing of producer Dan Bahl didn’t make much sense until I heard that Rich wanted to bring in producer Mike Lockhart. He’s the guy Rich paid when 98.5 fired him a few years back.

So, this is my best guess as of Friday morning, but it’s only a guess at this point. And it’s not the only possibility.

Ken and Curtis with Ted Johnson. This is what I would do: Ken and Chris Curtis are the best weekend show on WEEI. But is Greg Hill okay with losing Curtis as a producer? I doubt it. But one source said that as part of all these moves, Christian Arcand is moving off nights/Red Sox. Could Arcand replace Curtis as the “sporty” producer for Greg’s show? Red Sox pre/post sounds like it could be a rotating position going forward, with some of the WooSox guys filling in.

Jones and Keefe to afternoon drive. In this scenario, Ted and Arcand (who often hosted together at 98.5) go to midday, and Ken Laird goes to Red Sox baseball. This feels much less likely, but it would not be a total shock.

WEEI talked to at least one national host who never heard back. Maybe a Sports Hub part-timer is coming over, but I have no sourcing around that, and those guys love to talk. Arcand potentially moving shifts throws a wrench in all this, but maybe I have that wrong, and he’s staying at night. There’s no way it’s some national simulacast, right? I guess it could also be Rich, Ted, and Arcand on in the afternoons, with Ken going nights and Red Sox that way. Or Ted, Ken, and Aracand as producer/updates in the afternoon, no Rich, rotation for Sox pre/post.

I have spent way too much time on this. None of these changes will make a real dent in the massive lead for 98.5, unless WEEI really changes course and starts mocking Felger and Mazz. Or getting into more on-air battles. BE DIFFERENT. None of this feels like that, even if Shertenlieb comes back.

Wish I had it cold. I don’t, and am fully prepared to get this wrong, but that’s what I got. We can react in full to the new show here next week and to how WEEI got to such irrelevance in a sports-crazy market. Feel free to comment below with your own thoughts.

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On the Patriots’ First Round Draft Pick…

I spent very little time consuming NFL Draft content this year. I had only two wishes for the Pats draft.

1. Draft an OL in the first round ✅

2. Draft UConn WR Skyler Bell in Round 2 or 3.

The Pats got one of the seven “can’t miss” tackles in Caleb Lomu late in the first round. Works for me. AJ Brown comes aboard in June. Get me Bell and a young TE and keep making these easier for Drake Maye.

On this video from the Red Sox…

I just can’t get over this.

For sure, it’s a staged video where the Red Sox social crew wanted to get owner John Henry interacting with the fans. Henry has been to most home games this year, which feels like an effort to make him seem more human and less Monty Burns.

So he’s among some players who have walked over from the team parking area at Fenway Park, signing autographs for the loyal supporters who have waited there.

Who the hell is asking for John Henry’s autograph?

There’s one kid who’s in every part of the video, front and center, getting every autograph he can. I get that.

But in another shot, there appears to be a 20-something (30-something?) wearing Red Sox gear, smiling, and getting the owner’s autograph.

Why? Because he made a bunch of money as a commodities trader and hedge fund manager? Because he had a good hunch about soybean futures back in the day? He’s decided to take that same approach with his baseball team, unwilling to risk money on talented players in favor of a more cost-efficient spend on younger players. He’s owned a team that’s moved on from players like Mookie Betts, Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts, and Alex Bregman because of money.

He’s turned the big-market Red Sox into the Tampa Bay Rays.

As I watch this again, this 100% feels like staged, sad PR play by the social team. But going forward, please don’t ask for John Henry’s autograph unless it’s on a blank check to sign more talented players.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ Episode 26 of Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast is aptly titled, They Suck. Because the Red Sox right now, indeed, suck. I didn’t write about the Red Sox here this week because I spent over an hour talking about them late Thursday night with HogDale and Ed. The idea of pitching and defense working in 2026 always seemed silly. The team needs to trade for a BIG bat or fire someone. Or both. Watch and subscribe on YouTube and then listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

⚾ The Red Sox have played 26 games, and in 12 of those, have scored two or fewer runs. That includes six of the last seven 💤💤💤💤😴💤🥱🛌🏻

🏈 Mike Vrabel’s surprise press conference on Tuesday caught WEEI without a live feed, and they had to play clips of the coach talking for the first time since the Diana Russini Sedona photos went live. 98.5 The Sports Hub was able to carry it live and react right away. Major win for 98.5.

📻 Got a couple of texts about The Sports Hub's little Vacation Week, with both Toucher and Hardy and Zolak and Bertrand off all week. It’s a busy week, with the playoffs, the NFL Draft, and the Red Sox/Yankees. So yeah, a little surprising, but these guys have taken this week off before. And given the fact they have no direct competition at this point, it’s a low-risk move as far as ratings go. The audience is smaller during these vacation weeks, and the numbers show it.

🎙️ The numbers. I guess there might be an issue with the winter ratings, so consider these unofficial for now. I have Toucher and Hardy at 18.8 (#1) vs. The Greg Hill Show at 4.4 (#7). I have Zolak and Bertrand at 11.7 (#1) and Jones and Keefe at 2.8 (#11). Plus the afternoon numbers above. Very, very bad book for WEEI, even with the Super Bowl.

🎙️ Oh, one more on Nick and Andy being fired from WEEI- 0% to do with Mike Vrabel talk. Silly Internet bullshit that people are using for clicks and views. The most vocal critic of Vrabel in all this has been Marc Bertrand - I’ll be curious what he thinks Monday at 10 AM when he gets back from vacation.

🎙️ And one more on Ted Johnson - very tough opening segment on his show yesterday talking about Vrabel. Not sure how you can listen to that and think you want to build a show around it. Yikes.

🏀 I am not worried about the Celtics.

🏖️ Barstool Spring Break Co-MVPs: Tate and Dante

👑 Family Feud - Rooting HARD for Team #1

I think that’s enough Stack for this week.

Back tomorrow at the Barstool Blog, talking about which horses can actually win The Derby in 2026. Derby Week! And much more. Good luck with all your bets this weekend. And thanks for reading.

Note from Owner of MutStack.com, Dave Portnoy:

No note from Dave this week. Big Go Go Greys update in tomorrow’s Kentucky Derby Prepping w/ Mut at the Barstool Blog. And a preview of the Saturday Showdown at Oaklawn between Sovereignty, Journalism, and White Abarrio. Can’t wait.

Busy week for the Mike Vrabel/Diana Russini story.

→ Russini resigns as the NY Times starts an investigation into the Sedona pics, saying in part, “‘I do so [resign] not because I accept the narrative that has been constructed around this episode, but because I refuse to lend it further oxygen or to let it define me or my career. I have covered the NFL with professionalism and dedication throughout my career, and I stand behind every story I have ever published.”
→ Nashville Radio Host and noted Mike Vrabel hater Jared Stillman tweeted, “A source close to Dianna Russini tells me that they believe Dianna and Vrabel were caught by a PI and that the PI was hired by Dianna's husband and that it isn't about money because the source says Dianna's husband already has plenty of it.”
→ Media waits for any comment from Vrabel on the issue

Look, I have no problem with what former Patriot and now radio host/radio color guy Scott Zolak said yesterday in the clip above - I appreciate his honesty. I personally did not find it pathetic at all - Mike Vrabel has put Zo and many others in a very tough position.

Because while yes, this is a personal issue, it’s also become a very public one. Zo has to work with Vrabel and the Patriots. He values those relationships enough not to jeopardize them by commenting on a topic that, a week later, we still don’t have all the details. Nowhere below do I claim to know anything other than what’s been reported.

I think Zo and many others in the Patriots/general media are waiting for Vrabel to say something here.

He has to say something. And once he does, the story will go away because the 2026 news cycle is so, so short. I’m surprised he has not made any sort of statement yet - he’s required by the NFL to meet with the media next week before the NFL Draft. It wouldn't be shocking if he released something (Friday news dump?) and then pointed back to it when he’s eventually asked about it. Whether those pictures in Arizona show two friends hanging out or signs of alleged “canoodling,” as My Boss Dave has put it, the coach has to address it.

There is no one else I’d want coaching this team, but there’ll have to be some sort of conversation with his players, too. I wonder if the team will have their own comment, maybe hand-in-hand with their head coach.

Zo’s show has talked about it plenty - his co-host, Marc Bertrand, along with Felger & Mazz, have been open and discussed every issue of this topic. I think they’ve been very fair. The Greg Hill Show - which interviews Vrabel every week during the season- has been less active on the topic. And just like the case of Zo, I sort of get it.

I get the sense there will be many media members ready to comment once Vrabel speaks; all eyes will be on the coach. And as I wrote here last week, I’ll be curious if the local Pats media is more critical of Vrabel, even by accident, if they believe he was giving the national reporter more info than the local beat guys.

I have no issue with what Zo said or how he’s handling this. I don’t get the sense his audience will have an issue, either. It’s awkward, it’s messy, we don’t have all the info, and we’re still waiting for the next comments from Vrabel. I’d much prefer Zo’s honesty to having him say nothing on a controversial topic, as one local announcer did this week. More on that below ⬇️ (What a big market tease)

Meanwhile, we have a ridiculous youth baseball celebration to discuss. The Celtics are in the playoffs. WEEI had a rare on-air fight. And the usual MutStack notes.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #168

When I launched MutStack, it was free.

Four years later, it is now owned by Dave Portnoy and is still free.

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On this perposterous travel baseball celebration…

The first time I scrolled past this on X.com, I just assumed it was fake. I’m an absolute boomer, so I keep getting burned online by fake and AI videos. But after doing a little research, it turns out it’s a real team that recruits players and plays in some of the biggest Perfect Game tournaments in the country.

And as boomer, you know I absolutely hate this.

The GoPro camera on the helmet…the insane bat spike…the basketball dunk… all of it. Hate, hate, hate it. And I get it, the guys behind this are a YouTube content factory. But at 12 years old, these kids are still very impressionable. It’s the wrong way to learn the game. You’re teaching them to go viral vs. good sportsmanship.

Does that make me sound old as shit? Good, I don’t care.

There is a very Bananaball aspect to this - I don’t like that either. But I’m also not a “hand the football to the official after a TD” truther. I like the NFL allowing these guys to celebrate more over the last couple of years. The energy in the World Baseball Classic was awesome. This just feels gross, given the kids’ ages.

As a father of two boys about this age, I view sports as fun, yes, but also as a way to learn about life. About failing and trying again. About being a good friend and teammate. About learning personal responsibility.

I was curious what my boys would think of the video, so I played it for them. Before I even started it, my youngest said, “That’s Pottstown.” Yes, the team is called the Pottstown Scout Team. Turns out they know all about them from YouTube. I hit play.

“That’s tough.”

“Yeah, so tough.”

Saturday Edit - Turns out it’s “Tuff,” not “Tough.” I am an idiot.

I’m not so out of the loop that I don’t know that in this case, tough = cool. They were big fans of the “celly,” as they called it. I gave them my opinion.

“You’re just mad because you could never hit a home run like that,” said the oldest, as they both laughed in a very mocking manner at their father. If I could have hit with those loaded U-Trip bats they use now……But I digress. They ran off to play MLB The Show, so I didn’t go into some big lecture about sportsmanship and content vs reality - I’ll save that for the car rides to one of their six games this weekend.

And I bet it really is an age thing. Olds like me hate this stuff, while teenagers are watching every new Pottstown video and short.

I wanted one more opinion on this, so I reached out to a respected baseball coach in our district. He’s about my age and has coached every level, up and down, for a long time. I sent him this video and asked what he thought, acknowledging I might use it here today.

“This is obviously a gross example of this going way too far. Generally, I’ve mellowed over the last 10 years of coaching youth baseball. Ten years ago, I would have hated it completely. If a kid hits a home run, they should celebrate. But turning it into a ridiculous choreographed dance number is an entirely different issue. I try to steer kids towards celebrating with their teammates, rather than it being about themselves.

I have no problem with a team coming out in youth baseball to wait for the kid at the plate who homered - but in high school and college, the line can get crossed when they start chirping at each other.

A big thing I hate is the kids on defense giving an opponent a high five on the way around the bases. I hate that - your job at that point is to back up your pitcher because he’s your teammate, and that’s the last thing he would want to see. I could probably write 30K words on what I like and don’t like - I think it’s very subjective.

As a coach, I want it to be fun but positive and team-centered versus trash talk when it can be avoided.”

I had not noticed that the opposing third baseman actually does high-five the kid who homered - now I’m annoyed at the other coach, too!

It’s not 1992 - times have changed - it’s a whole different world now, I get it. But I have no love for this at all. Hopefully, there are enough coaches and parents out there who agree with me. This being the new norm would suck.

Comments are open below for your own takes on this - and plenty of space to call me a boomer, too.

On the playoff expectations for your Boston Celtics…

It seems pretty obvious, right?

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On this real moment from WEEI Afternoons…

To easily sum up how different sports radio in Boston is today vs. 10 years ago, it took The Greg Hill Show almost three hours into their show on Wednesday to play this semi-viral moment that happened on their station’s afternoon show the day before. Greg Hill actually said, “Oh, I didn’t hear that.”

In 2016, Kirk & Callahan would have played it in the first segment of the show. In 1996, The Big Show would have had a Pete Gustin bit ready to go for 2:20 PM in that first hour. And the listeners would have eaten it up. Callers would have taken sides. Producers would have tried to get each guy on.

But those days of radio are long gone. No, in 2026, this gets buried at 8:55 AM, and the host of the show either pretends not to have heard it as an excuse not to play it earlier, or actually didn’t hear it. I’d believe either with Greg.

Fizty vs. Ted Johnson was a pretty good dust-up, as far as in-show sports radio dust-ups go in 2026. It’s clear some of the off-air tension on the show finally boiled over for whatever audience they have listening at this point; the numbers say not many. Maybe if they did this more, the audience would be bigger.

The way I’ve heard it, Andy Hart and Ted would be happy to do their show themselves, maybe with producer Dan Bahl. Fitzy is well aware of this - being on remote 60% of the time doesn’t help. I wrote here a few weeks ago about a Friday show where Fitzy said he wasn’t feeling well and just bailed on the last two hours, while on remote. The fact that no one on the show even mentioned he was leaving or had already left was another sign of the lingering tension.

That once Market Manager and now Program Director Mike Thomas has talked to Chris Gasper and Phil Perry about joining the station (and presumably that show) has probably not helped matters. “The shakup continues to loom,” texted a Boston radio insider this week.

I don’t blame Fitzy for this outburst, and I also don’t blame Ted for being bored at Fitzy’s droning on - he’s guilty of constantly repackaging something someone else on the show just said seconds later. It’s bad, and it happens a lot. Ted is a bore, and his “remember when” Patriots talk is a massive tune-out for me.

It won’t happen, but they should have it out like this more often. I’d much prefer this to some stupid list or boring guest…or Ted trying to monologue on anything. Mike Thomas allowing Ted to work a part-time schedule while also letting Fitzy be at home three days a week doesn’t help our chances of more in-show fireworks. Thomas also put more tension on the show by setting it up this way. I don’t blame Fitzy for being pissed or for his reaction here.

Will we get more of this? No, feels like Tuesday’s battle will be remembered as a one-off. The show will be revamped by Patriots training camp, and we’ll have another failed Mike Thomas production to add to the resume.

Additional Note: Sooooooooo, as I am about to publish here on Friday morning, there are some real rumblings that there could be an on-air shake-up at WEEI as soon as today. I am not reporting that yet, but it’s very much in the air. I will update this as I get additional info either way. 👀👀

Saturday Update: Sooooooo, no official news yet. Glad I didn’t hold the Four-Pack until I got the story. The two people I reached out to have no connection to each other and have no reason to steer me wrong. They have been rock solid in the past. A third person I spoke with talked to their own sources and heard what I heard. I think this is a case where MutStack won’t be wrong, just early, on this. But for now, no news to report.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ We welcomed Ed Hand in as a new voice on this week’s Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast. Good win Wednesday, but at 7-11, it’s been a bad start to the season. How does it get better? Watch and subscribe on YouTube and then listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

⚾ Jarren Duran deserves a lot of credit for being so open about his own mental health issues on the Netflix Red Sox doc. And I’ll excuse him for flipping the bird to a fan in Minnesota after Duran said in the postgame that the fan told the player to “kill himself.” There’s a better way to handle it - like grabbing security, pointing the guy or gal out, and getting them ejected from the game - but I understand his response. This is his third or fourth incident with fans, so he’s clearly become a target. No one is condoning it, but the reality is the taunts are likely to get louder now that he’s given this reaction. We’ll see how he responds the next time.

⚾ To his credit, Red Sox TV voice Dave O’Brien brought up the incident the next day on the broadcast. He laid out the facts, stated his opinion, and left space more than once for his on-air partner and former Red Sox infielder Will Middlebrooks to respond - but Middlebrooks declined, choosing silence. Never gave an opinion or a take. Not a story about dealing with fans himself. No defense of Duran. Just…silence. Tough spot, I get it, but you have to say something. Eventually, Dave moved on to tell us he was going to the dentist on the off day. I wish Will had said, well, something, given he’s the former player in the booth.

⛳ My fix for golf coverage on TV is simple - more golf shots, and fewer interviews. Or crowd shots. Or human interest pieces. Or the Leaderboard. I’m a simple man, show me more golf shots!

🏇🏻 I talked to a few people around racing this week, and while it could happen, moving the Preakness back a week is no lock. I wrote about the impact here on the Barstool Blog when the report broke.

⚾ Got mine this week, these shirts are 🔥🔥🔥 Need to see these at Fenway this weekend.

That feels like enough Stack for this week. Will update if I get WEEI news later today.

Good luck with all your bets this weekend. And thanks for reading. And watching.

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Note from Owner of MutStack.com, Dave Portnoy:

Thank god for Mut that UConn lost. I have also put Mut in charge of finding me every grey horse that runs every weekend and looks good and is 3 years old or younger. I expect Silver Syndicate to run huge today at Oaklawn but at a very short price.

Note from MutStack.com Founder, Mut:

Congrats to Dave and Michigan. That’s the silver lining to UConn losing - I am still employed. I gave it my all in the luxury suite, UConn gave it their all on the court, but UM was too good. More on Silver Syndicate below.

The Celtics will likely beat the Pelicans on Friday night, clinching the #2 seed in the East and allowing the starters to rest in their season finale against the Magic on Sunday. They’ll go into the playoffs as a big favorite to win the East (+145 on DraftKings on Friday morning) and one of the more likely winners on the 2026 NBA Championship (+550 third choice on DK behind the Thunder and Spurs).

I can’t believe they're in this spot - and I can’t believe Jayson Tatum has played this well since his return.

Those are his season averages above, since his return from a ruptured Achilles. Not referenced are his 32 minutes per game and his 39 and 40 minutes in his last two games, respectively. His shooting was off on Thursday, and his 3-point % is down from his career average, but he looks like Jayson Tatum. He’s drawing a ton of defensive attention and doing a great job of finding the open Celtic - he’s always been an underrated passer.

Tatum’s return to form so quickly is a surprise, but so is the fact that the team is even in this position to contend upon his return. I didn’t have much faith in Joe Mazzulla or Jaylen Brown to have the team contend without their best player - I’m happy to have been dead wrong. Brown did anything and everything in Tatum’s absence. Mazzulla should be the NBA’s Coach of the Year for the work he did with this roster. Baylor Scheierman banging big 3s in the 4th quarter of a huge game against the Knicks is a great example. The team was shooting too many 3s early on; they adjusted, and Mazzulla has been a huge part of it.

The Celtics almost beat the Knicks without Jaylen Brown on Thursday night. Shit, without Josh Hart’s insane 4Q, the Celtics do beat the Knicks. Note, it was just Nikola Vucevic’s third game back from injury - he’s going to be a HUGE factor in the playoffs.

Look, five months ago I was talking tank, so, as usual, #MutWasWrong.

The Thunder are loaded. Spurs are very good. But the East? No one on the East would scare me based on the way this team has played with and without Tatum. This team not only could be but should be in the NBA Finals. Wild to write that, but it’s true. Happy to have been so wrong about this group.

Meanwhile, I went to Fenway Park. The biggest NFL story of the week involves the Patriots. UConn had a great season. And a Boston Sports radio MutStack Exclusive.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #167

When I launched MutStack, it was free.

Four years later, it is now owned by Dave Portnoy and is still free.

Hit the blue Subscribe button right there to show your support.

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On the end of UConn’s great season…

“I just thought the two fouls on those three guys in the first half, I thought we had a real good chance to go into the half with the lead … [that] really put us down at the half…We just had to make more shots. We had great opportunities, I thought, from three. If you make three or four more, you have a great chance to win it. But how are you disappointed at all in your group?” - Dan Hurley

The greatest college basketball coach in America summed it up perfectly on TBS after his UConn team lost to Michigan Monday night in Indianapolis.

UConn did not play its best game in defeat, but Michigan did not play its best game in victory. But UConn had a chance late; they just could never get the big shot to go. The Solo Ball layup. The Alex Karaban three that came up just short - huge chances that did not go for the Huskies.

Michigan is good enough to survive a 2-for-15 shooting night from three. UConn had to make more than 27% (9-for-33). Hurley’s offense got his team constant good looks, but they did not fall. Frustrating. Between that, losing the turnover battle, and the foul trouble, it was too much to overcome.

There were missed calls on both sides - I think the losing team always feels like they got the wrong end of the whistle. Yes, I’ve watched the highlight reel of bad calls against UConn…I just think there were bigger factors in losing the game. I’m not ready to watch the DVR recording of the game yet. And with the Masters this weekend, it won’t be anytime soon.

Hurley got the most out of this team, and they have nothing to hang their heads about.

I was very lucky to be on Indy - thanks to Dave, Tom Moore, Hurley, and, as usual, #thankyoukirk. The UConn fans there were awesome. Took a million selfies with people, met some legends like Little Red…I love the UConn Fan Community. Got to meet football coach Jason Candle and transfer QB Bo Polston at the send-off rally. Besides the result Monday night, an awesome week.

With Hurley running the program, UConn is not going anywhere. Hopefully, Coach does not see me as a bad luck charm and ban me from the Final Four next year in Detroit. It will not be a surprise when he and UConn are back there.

As always, Go Huskies!

On the Vrabel/Russini pictures…

It’s a slow week in the NFL, so by now everyone has seen them, and the cat is out of the bag - Pats HC Mike Vrabel and reporter Diana Russini are allegedly friends, based on these photos taken from a resort in Arizona.

Vrabel responded quickly to the NY Post after they published the pics, saying, “These photos show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable. This doesn’t deserve any further response.” The Pats have not yet issued any sort of statement.

Russini told the newspaper, “The photos don’t represent the group of six people who were hanging out during the day. Like most journalists in the NFL, reporters interact with sources away from stadiums and other venues.”

“These photos are misleading and lack essential context,” said Athletic executive editor Steven Ginsberg. So they’re standing by Russini.

And look, their alleged friendship will lead to some fallout. I agree with the guys on Pardon My Take when they suggested on Friday that Russini will probably be doing a lot less reporting on the AJ Brown trade than she has been. The same probably goes for the Patriots in general.

Can she still do her job? 100%. Any time Jon Heyman reports on a Scott Boras client, we all assume it came directly from Boras, as the two are reportedly close. WFAN host Keith McPherson confronted Jon Heyman on-air, joking that Heyman is “part of Boras Corp” and asking how much of Scott Boras’ clients’ contract commissions he receives when breaking news, specifically regarding Juan Soto. But Heyman is still breaking news and working. Reporters are friends with the people they cover.

So, where did the pictures come from?

Front Office Sports had an exclusive late Thursday about how the photos ended up being published 👀

An anonymous tipster reached out to the (TMZ), saying that Vrabel was hanging out with an unidentified woman. When TMZ staffers evaluated the photos, they eventually realized that it was Russini. The anonymous tipster was not from a known paparazzi or photo agency, and requested an unspecified sum in the “four figures.” As TMZ’s newsroom deliberated whether this was a legitimate story or too “bedroom police-y,” the Post’s Page Six vertical ran with it, rendering the debate moot, a source said.

Fascinating. Why did TMZ pass? Kinda shocked the photos were not even worth $10k. And are there other photos that might confirm that this was a group trip, as Russini suggested? That’s worth investigating.

Where these pics came from feels like the next level of this story - a story that will eventually go away because the news cycle in 2026 is 24 seconds, not 24 hours.

But for now, they’re front and center. Vrabel is scheduled to speak to the media in a few weeks before the NFL Draft. Could he issue a statement before that and refer to it when he asked about this? That was Bill Belichick 101.

Either way, there will be questions. And the answers will be interesting, to say the least.

On the empty seats at Fenway Park on Wednesday…

I’m told “getting ratio’d” means having more comments than likes on a Tweet, so I didn’t quite get ratio’d on this Red Sox tweet the other day. But Red Sox fans were big mad that I pointed out the empty seats at Fenway Park on Wednesday afternoon. It was a day game, it was not warm out, and the team is off to a slow start. All fair.

My point was not to rip Red Sox fans by showing 1000s of seats empty around Fenway- my point was that those fans are making their own statement on the “Sell the team” movement by not going to games.

Red Sox reporter Chris Cotillo mentioned my post and pointed out that even going back to last year, “April games have been an issue.” The Sox announced 28,000 in attendance on Wednesday - I can confirm it looked and felt like A LOT less than that. Friend of MutStack and loyal Kirk Minihane Show fan, the talented Mikey GrabBag, pointed out that “from 2004 until Covid, Fenway had two (2) total games under 29,000 in attendance. Sox are deadest they've been in Boston, and Mut is right.” I didn’t double-check the numbers, but it sounds right. Ownership cares less about winning now than they did back then, and fans have noticed.

The big story Sunday and Monday at Fenway was those “Sell the team” chants. Red Sox reporter Rob Bradford told WEEI Thursday that before those two days, he and people he talked to had NEVER HEARD THAT CHANT AT FENWAY. He went on to give My Boss Dave credit for this movement, and I agree. That Dave cares so much about the Red Sox at the start of the season is a big part of this.

So is the fact that, coming off their first playoff appearance in years, the offseason was highlighted by the loss of Alex Bregman. There was potentially more fuel for those chants late Thursday, when the Associated Press reported the team’s actual cash spending on their 2026 roster is 12th in MLB - this with the third-most revenue in the sport. BAD.

The Red Sox won, so there were no “Sell the team” chants on Wednesday at Fenway. But if they keep losing, and the John Henry Clown nose tees are a nightly sight, and the chants get louder…At that point, maybe the Boston Globe will mention it?

As for the game, the Red Sox are 1-0 when MutStack is in the building. Sonny Gray was excellent. I didn’t want to support Henry at the concession stands, but with all those empty seats, there were no lines for anything. If you wanted to pay $20 for a 16-oz alcoholic seltzer, there was no wait. Same for bathrooms. Weekday-day games are kind of great if you can make it work.

And if the team is good and you believe in ownership, you’re more likely to make the effort to get there. I’d say the empty seats and “Sell the team” chants are a sign that the die-hard fanbase has questions about both.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast is much more fun to record when the Red Sox win. They won two in a row this week, and we laughed more in the first three minutes than we did on the show we recorded on Easter Sunday. Watch on YouTube and subscribe there - then go subscribe and listen wherever you get your podcasts.

🎙️ Over the last few weeks, I have written about the financial issues of 98.5 The Sports Hub and their parent company, Beasley Media. I had wondered if those issues might end up costing them a signature host. But in a MutStack Exclusive, I’m told that Marc Bertrand has signed a new, long-term contract to stay with the station. He had reportedly been working without that deal for a few months. Zolak and Bertrand continue to dominate in the ratings, and keeping Bertrand is a big deal for the Hub - especially as they start to look for what will be next in afternoon drive after Felger and Mazz. I don’t get the sense that WEEI had the budget to jump in and steal Beetle away. Nor do I think he’s dumb enough to make that leap. Good move for both him and The Hub.

🏇🏻 As Dave mentioned, Go Go Grey’s Silver Syndicate gets back on the track Friday afternoon.

Silver Syndicate is the 8/5 favorite and has a big pace advantage early. He ran one of the fastest Timeform US races all year for this distance and age group on debut. Then last time, he went fast against a good group and faded for third. Now he’s had a break and catches a field he could wire - I’m guessing that will be the plan? His half-brother Book Em’ was 2 for 2 at a mile, so this distance should be no issue. Also worth noting that trainer Ron Moquett has been hot - hitting at almost 20% over the last 30 days.

The biggest contenders look like #6 Feral cutting back from a mile, #5 Centerline going first for Super Trainer™️Brad Cox, and #2 Vintage Cowboy, who goes second time for Steve Asmussen. Has big chance on paper to break through here. I’ll plan to go live on X.com at 4:30 for a Silver Syndicate pregame. Safe trip for the speedster!

🏀 Dan Hurley is very superstitious…do you think he blames me for the loss?

🏈 If you told me some of the local Patriots media might be harsher in their coverage of Vrabel going forward, if they believe he was spoon-feeding Russini news and notes this past season, I would probably believe that.

📝 Some assorted notes for the Final Four trip…Dave is 100% locked into the Red Sox, watching them on his phone before the National Title game and constantly checking the scores… I pulled an all-time good-guy move for Jeff D. Lowe during the trip, and I wonder if he’ll mention it at some point…Jeff gfted me an amazing UConn pullover, so if he doesn’t, that’s okay…Tate takes his job covering Rico very seriously…Tate covering Meek covering Rico in Las Vegas will 100% be worth watching…Crowds at Barstool Live were awesome…

📺 They can promote it 5 million more times this weekend, but Rich Eisen hosting SportsCenter on Sunday night makes me 0% more likely to watch.

🏇🏻 “In my view, CAW is not a problem to be solved or something that needs to be severely restricted or limited,” said Scott Chaney, executive director of the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB). “It’s a reality in racing that you deal with by trying to figure out what is the best long-term approach for the health of horse racing.”

A million middle finger emojis. I don’t have the space to fully address these idiotic comments here today, so I’ll address them in tomorrow’s Barstool Blog horse racing post.

That feels like enough Stack for this week.

Enjoy the Masters this weekend. Good luck with all your bets. And thanks for reading.

Note from Owner of MutStack.com, Dave Portnoy:

Lots of people are saying if UConn loses, it’s Mutt’s fault. I’m saying if UConn beats Michigan in the final, it will be the worst thing to ever happen to his career. Good luck to all the teams this weekend

Note from MutStack.com Founder, Mut:

100% of the focus is on Illinois. One game at a time. Go Huskies.

A wild 24 hours.

On Tuesday, Dave tweeted that if I was able to get a video plea from UConn head coach Dan Hurley to send me, a UConn Grad and fan, to the Final Four, Dave would take me along to Indy.

This post from Coach Hurley at 12:10 AM Wednesday morning showed he was at least aware of it. So on Wednesday morning, I drove down and got a good spot in line at the UConn Final Four send-off on campus in Storrs, CT. I had some signage that might get his attention. Between that and his post, I felt pretty good. Then I talked to the guys on Picks Central.

“What if he doesn’t stop?”

I hadn’t really planned for that. But once they said it, I panicked. I texted Big Cat, who has just had Hurley on Pardon My Take. I responded to some random DMs who offered help. I was getting nervous.

Then I saw Tom Moore.

Tom Moore is the UConn Basketball GM. Before that, he was a UConn assistant. Before that, he was the head coach at Quinnipiac. Before that, he was a UConn assistant under Jim Calhoun. And before all of that, he was the coach at Worcester State here in Massachusetts. There, he coached Chris Dube, my 7th and 8th-grade coach at Varnum Brook Middle School.

Coach Dube had Coach Moore come and speak to our 8th-grade team at the end-of-season banquet. After the event, I asked him about what basketball camps might be good to attend that summer for a short, slow point guard. He promised to send me a list. Sure, he would…

Well, he did, along with a nice note. A note that I kept and actually brought with me on Wednesday.

When I saw Moore, he was walking out towards the parking lot, about 75 yards away. I grabbed the note from my bag and chased him down. He seemed startled - and then he seemed very surprised when I showed him the note. We talked for a minute, and I explained what was going on. He seemed like he kinda understood - maybe just being nice. Then he told me that the coaches would not be walking out the same place as the players. Not good.

Then, for some reason, he took pity on me. He took me to where Coach Hurley might be coming out and told me to wait. Five to ten minutes later, well, the result is above.

Luck? Fate? The silver linings to being a hoarder? All of the above, I guess.

But without Coach Moore, I never get the video. I owe him big time.

Thank you, Coach Hurley. Thank you, Tom Moore. Thank you, Dave. #thankyoukirk, always.

Meanwhile, UCONN IS IN THE FINAL FOUR. LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOO.

The Red Sox stink. We have a shakeup at WEEI. And the usual MutStack Weekly Notes.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #166.

Baseball season! ⚾⚾⚾

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Year Four of being 100% free, and if you have not hit the blue button yet, I appreciate your consideration. Go Huskies.

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On an abysmal start to the 2026 Red Sox season…

I need Breslow to get boo’d off the field Friday like I need air to breathe.

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On this UConn Final Four run…

I mean, wow. WOW. The win over Duke was an all-timer. Of course. Basically, it was the 2004 ALCS played out over a few minutes vs. a few days. UConn had no business winning that game. It was the first game in a long, long time where I just sat and watched the last 8-10 minutes over and over. So many things had to go right to win.

All that being said, 1999, UConn 77 Duke 74 remains the biggest game and win in program history. I’ve seen some people online saying this one tops 1999; it does not.

Between 1999 and 2004, and again in 2026, UConn and Duke have played three of the best Final Four games of the last 30 years. I think the fact that they don’t play in the regular season, really ever, makes the games more special. It also helps that UConn keeps winning these big games.

There’s probably a list of 1000 good reasons why UConn is here, but a few stand out as the most impactful to this UConn graduate.

🏀 Dan Hurley turned down the Lakers. He’s not going to coach forever, but his impact is just immeasurable. He’ll play anyone. He can recruit at the highest level. His in-game coaching is A+. His offense is NBA-level good. The stat that doesn't get enough love is his 17-1 record in the last four NCAA Tournaments. The one loss was a 2-point loss last year to eventual champ Florida. I mean, he’s doing this in Storrs, in the Big East, with a smaller budget than many of his biggest rivals. He’s also so good for college basketball. I had my doubts about this team at times, but never about Hurley.

🏀 Silas Demary Jr. You could just tell early on - he was put on this earth to play point guard for UConn. Smart, tough, excellent defender, good passer. He’s just so good. He reminds me of some sort of Tristen Newton/Ricky Moore combo. I think he’s set up to have a big weekend in Indy.

🏀 Braylon Mullins. These highly-touted freshmen can go one of two ways. They either play at a high level and keep getting better. Or, they get to a point where you can tell the leap is not coming this season. Mullins has been the former - he is a special player who just keeps getting better. Not just the amazing “Wow” shot against Duke - there’s been so many other elite, elite offensive plays and moves in the back half of the year. The way he moves without the ball. His passing. How about those two key steals against Furhman? The 2025 Mr. Basketball in Indiana will have a lot of fans in the stands Saturday Night.

Illinois is very good - better than they were when UConn beat them in November. And better than they were when UConn beat them in the 2024 Elite Eight. Freshman Keaton Wagler is much better now, too. And Illinois is HUGE up front. But I love the idea of Hurley having three days to prep for their defense. And this team will not quit; we saw that last Sunday.

I can’t wait for this game. I can’t wait for the UConn energy in Indy.

On a shakeup at Sports Radio WEEI…

No, this is not about WEEI finally blowing up the disastrous WEEI Afternoons. But the man who built that show has been demoted. Or promoted. It’s a little confusing.

But Mike Thomas, the Market Manager for Audacy Radio in Boston, no longer has that title. Here’s what “industry publication” Barrett Media wrote Thursday.

Furthermore, Barrett Media has learned that Mike Thomas will step into the position of SVP Programming in Boston. The role change includes joining Mitch Rosen and Chris Kinard as Sports Format Vice President. Prior to becoming Audacy Boston’s Market Manager, Thomas excelled in programming the sports format. He helped build and lead 98.5 The Sports Hub to massive success before exiting to lead ESPN 1000 in Chicago. How his job change affects Ken Laird moving forward is unclear though sources tell Barrett Media WEEI would like to retain him.....

He did not waste much time updating is LinkedIN profile

It’s one of multiple cuts/moves for Audacy this past week. So, here’s what I’ve been told: Thomas is being demoted to Program Director at WEEI. The SVP title is whatever. He was brought in back in 2021 to fix WEEI, with a reputation for building 98.5 The Sports Hub into the monster it is today. And that’s what his role will be going forward, according to a source.

WEEI has a program director, former Kirk and Callahan producer Ken Laird. Looks like he’s out of a job, at least his current one, based on Barrett Media’s note. I was not able to confirm by Friday AM.

Thomas has a big ally in the WEEI morning show host, Greg Hill, who not only has the station’s best ratings but also close connections to its biggest advertisers, through both his show and charity. It feels like Hill has locked himself into a lifetime gig with Audacy, and he and Thomas have become tight, per sources. I don’t get the sense that everyone on the staff has the same relationship with the former Market Manager.

Thomas has a similar hot-and-cold rep over at the station he “built,” 98.5 The Sports Hub. Some staff members seem to love the guy, while others mock his reputation as the architect of the station’s big success.

The numbers show that WEEI has cratered since Thomas took over. Mark Hannon built The Greg Hill Show, not Thomas. Jones and Mego, WEEI Afternoons, Gresh and Fauria to some extent…those are Thomas shows, and none had any real success. Even the obvious pairing of Jones and Keefe took years to happen. Now he’s going to focus on WEEI while also working on the Audacy sports brand nationally?

I mean, I guess?

When moves like this are made, I reach out to many people. Some current and some former employees of both WEEI and The Hub. One response stood out among the half-dozen or so.

“Wow. Falling upwards at Audacy continues. What about WEEI’s track record since he started there suggests he should be elevated to oversee sports content in other markets? No one has dined on the success of being handed great talent 15 years ago like Mike Thomas, with 98.5 (The Sports Hub). Truly a dumb company run by dumb people.”

My last interaction with Ken Laird was not great. I called him and told him I knew they had already given my night shift to Rich Keefe. He stammered and said we should get on a call with Thomas. The next day, over Zoom, that was that. But I had a lot of fun with Ken on K & C, and hope he’s not 100% out of a job.

Impact level…minimal on the listener, for now. The on-air budget is pretty low as it is, so I can’t imagine any cuts. Could Laird go back to producing or do some Sox on air? Maybe. Or stay on as assistant PD? Or maybe…something else??? More on that in the weekly notes.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ So yeah, just a brutal start for the Red Sox. We went live after the loss to the Astros on Wednesday for Episode 20 of Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast. A lot of laughs for a 1-5 team. Watch and sub on YouTube, and then listen and sub where you listen to your podcasts. If you have been listening in the offseason, you’re not shocked at this slow start.

🎙️"Gasper and Perry are out.” Got this text over the last 10 days or so. WEEI and Mike Thomas had spoken with both Chris Gasper and Phil Perry about full-time roles at the station. I’m guessing money was/is a big issue. And I do wonder if there’s a hiring freeze of sorts at WEEI, given the various cuts across the company this week. We’ll see, but it's pretty quiet in both, best I can tell.

🎙️ Here’s one to simmer on: Rich Shertenlieb. I’m told he’s starting to untag himself in old WZLX photos on Instagram. I don’t really know what that means (also, please follow me on IG), but one person suggested he might be getting set for a new gig. Is there a chance he’s willing to take a deal with WEEI for less money and more bonus structure, just to get back in the game??? He talked to Thomas when he left the Sports Hub. He’s stopped posting YouTube videos. WEEI is desperate for change in the afternoons.

I know, it sounds nuts, but maybe it doesn’t? To be clear, this is an unsourced, MutStack original thought. But if you’re hearing anything, let me know…

🎙️ Also Nuts - Okay, one more, this one from a Boston radio personality - is there even a 1% chance this ends up getting Laird and Curtis a full-time show on WEEI? Middays? Move Jones and Keefe to afternoons, and keep Teddy J?

 Ken and Curtis is a good weekend show. Hail Mary idea, don’t hate it.

🎙️ Joe Weil does a very good job on Red Sox Radio pre and post.

🎥 I wanted Blackberry to be a better movie. It felt like a movie I’ve seen 100 times. And that’s Mut Talking Movies.

🏀 The way Tatum has played since his return (better than we could have hoped) and given rest of the East right now…the C’s should be in in the NBA Finals.

🤑 Getting back on campus and Wednesday was great, but also a reminder that the UConn Bookstore is one of the easiest places in the world to spend money. Not cheap.

🏀 Excited to see Rico in his element out at the Final Four.

🏀 Just realized UConn is 1-0 in the NCAA Tourney vs. Illinois, while Jeff D. Lowe and I are in the same building watching…

‼️Under 70 days til Laconia

⚾ Seriously, boo the crap out of Breslow Friday at Fenway

🐰 A Happy and Happy Easter to you and yours

Certainly feels like that’s enough Stack for this week. I’ll be very active on social at the Final Four, so follow along.

Back Saturday on the Barstool Blog to preview the final big Kentucky Derby Prep Weekend of the Year. A lot of work to do on Friday night. Good luck with all the bets this weekend. And please reach out if you’re in Indy.

Thanks for reading. And watching. Go Huskies.

Note from Owner of MutStack.com, Dave Portnoy:

Owners Note - I don’t like Mut

It was pretty clear Dave was not happy with me Monday on Wake Up Barstool. He was a man of his word and returned MutStack publishing ability to me when Iowa beat Clemson on Friday night. But even in Chicago Gambling Cave…I thought the winning bet might change his mood.

I feel bad Jeff D. Lowe got caught up in this. We were texting after I was offered the bet, and he was a big help in making the arrangements to leave on the fly from Chelmsford on Friday afternoon - without letting my wife know until I was in the Uber close to the airport - to make the Iowa game on time. I left the house a fucking mess, and she might like me less than Dave right now. I got lucky that my flight was delayed 30 minutes. Is Dave less mad if the surprise was not ruined? I don’t know.

It wasn’t quite as neverracking as the Packers bet Dave made the day I was hired (that also cashed by the way), but it was close. At one point, I stood to the left of the insane Planet Fitness massage chair, and after about five minutes, a very nice producer named Nick had to tell me I was out of the shot for the live stream.

As usual - I’m an idiot.

I saw people asking why I left after the Iowa game and missed the UConn first half - do people really think I had a MutStack written? My boss told me I could not write one, so I didn’t. Again, Chain of Command.

I’m glad the cave rode with and cashed the bet - hitting a group bet with friends remains one of the best things about legal sports betting. I enjoyed hitting a live bet with Dana Beers when Florida covered the -57.5 we laid in the second half. And another on Cal Baptist +16.5. Shoutout, DraftKings.

Chicago crew was great. Rico is a very easy guy to watch basketball with - you can tell how much he loves college hoops. I had never met him before Friday, but Nicky Smokes came up to me in the bullpen while I was writing and gave me a very formal handshake that has stuck with me this week for its respectfulness. Big Cat was a gracious host.

But yeah, I remain out of the good graces of My Boss Dave. He’s mad because he thinks I called the very nice Go Go Greys jumpsuit he gifted me in Vegas, “goofy.” I did not. I thought the pants were baggy and wasn’t 100% sure if we were all wearing them because I am an insecure child with anxiety issues. I should have texted Dave to ask him. I called my friend Kirk and said as much. But I said baggy, which they really aren’t.

When I went on KMS last week, Kirk relayed that I said, “baggy, not goofy.” But then on stream Friday night, Dave is telling me Kirk is texting him saying I said goofy. And here we are, with a four-word owner’s note and officially uninvited to any future events with Dave. Not great with the Triple Crown a few weeks away.

All my doing. No one to blame but my own issues. Fences to mend, for sure.

As I said in the video in last week’s Stack, I appreciate the subscriber support. Glad Iowa won. And for my own selfish reasons, rooting heavily for UConn (and Michigan) to win tonight.

Meanwhile, it’s Red Sox season, and NESN debuted a terrible new on-screen scorebug. A journalist skewers John Henry. An amazing message from Dan Hurley. Plus, MutStack notes.

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #165.

Baseball season! ⚾⚾⚾

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Year Four of being 100% free, and if you have not hit the blue button yet, I appreciate your consideration.

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On Opening Day, NESN’s new ugly scorebug, and the expectations for your 2026 Red Sox…

That NESN scorebug…woof.

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On this detailed video of John Henry’s lack of spending and the new age of sports and private equity…

This a long video - one with over 3 million views on Twitter/X.com. Normally, I would never watch a video this long, but if you’re trashing John Henry and Sam Kennedy, I’m in.

I don’t like either gentleman. Henry? Well, it’s bullshit that it’s been over 2000 days since he took questions from the media. He’s given that task to the naturally smarmy Kennedy, whom I just don’t like personally. When it was very fashionable to do so, he made comments about my co-workers and me at WEEI. Basically kicked us while we were down, to gain points with, well, I’m not sure who. It was a dick move. Just listen to him talk - he’s a hard guy to like if you support the Red Sox and don’t dislike him as much as I do.

Back to the video. It’s a good video, but it doesn't break any news. It’s a detailed aggregation/breakdown of Henry's decision to spend less of the Red Sox's (and the Fenway Sports Group's) overall revenue on his baseball roster. I have written about it here for years and on the Barstool Blog for months. The Sox are in the bottom third of spending-to-revenue ratios in all of baseball - for a big-market team like the Red Sox, that is unacceptable.

Joon Lee (the video host) points to private equity as the bad guy here. These groups come in, buy into professional teams, and all of a sudden, winning becomes less important than the bottom line. He says Henry and the Sox have done just that.

We have plenty of examples of private equity ruining everything. Take youth sports - these groups have started buying into playing venues like travel hockey rinks and indoor turf facilities. In some of these, you can no longer take pictures or videos of your own kids playing sports - you have to buy into their photo or video service. I’m serious. Good luck trying that with The Mutnansky Family. We have not encountered that here with our two boys, but one baseball travel league in our area does force you to use a certain app to track games, stats, etc.

Lee uses Alex Bregman as an example of the team taking a private-equity-like stance by not committing long-term money and years to Bregman this past offseason; I think they should have. But I also think the Rafael Devers trade was a much better example of what Lee is talking about here.

Under the guise of trading Devers b/c he didn’t want to play first base, they unloaded 100% of his salary in a move that rivals the suckiness of the Mookie Betts trade. The goal was to dump that salary, no matter what. Devers was beloved in Boston, but it didn’t matter - they decided the contract was too big, just a few years after he signed it.

I wonder if Lee will make a similar video about the Patriots. Their actual cash spending on players (vs. the fake salary cap) has been reported to be in the bottom third of the NFL over the years.

For me, as a young fan, sports became a business when Roger Clemens left the Red Sox. Or when Bill Parcells signed Curtis Martin to a contract the Patriots couldn’t match because of some clause Parcells cooked into the deal. Lee seems to be coming to grips with sports as a business now, in 2026.

If he sticks with baseball, how about 20 minutes on teams like the Marlins, who, despite a beautiful new ballpark and vibrant baseball community, are spending a league-low $80 million on their team in 2026. How do they or baseball justify that???

I’ve tried to come to grips with the fact that I love baseball, but Red Sox ownership sucks. Sam Kennedy is a dink. And Lee helps prove that with this in-depth video. But sports are not going back to the way they were when we were growing up. Hell, look at what college sports have become!

The good old days are gone. Henry is just one of dozens of franchise owners less committed to winning and more committed to profit. I fear it’s going to get worse before it gets any better.

On this amazing quote from Dan Hurley…

“I feel like I’ve got a responsibility.”

If you don’t watch that whole John Henry video, I implore you to watch this.

I love this guy. One of the many reasons UConn’s Dan Hurley is the best coach in the country is that he’s so honest with his answers. In this clip, he’s 100% right when he talks about remembering the teachers and coaches who are hardest on you - those who expect the most of you.

I had an Honors English (brag) teacher in high school that I still think about when I’m writing. My 7th- and 8th-grade basketball coach (Coach Dube) would run us into the ground, have us do drills where we were diving for loose balls everywhere, and have us wear a shirt and tie to school for road games. They were both tough in their own way - it might have felt like “too much” at the time, but that’s what sticks. And I’m thankful for both of them.

With my kids now active in sports, I WANT tough coaching for them. I have told many coaches to “yell at my kids like they were your own.”

The media wants to make Hurley and Tom Izzo into Bob Knight because that shit sells - it gets clicks. But as a parent? Give me that every day of the week over a coach who is just there to babysit. It’s probably harder than ever to be that type of coach, but Hurley’s success at the highest level shows that it works.

Good for Coach Hurley. I love the way he coaches, and I hope we get to see it on Friday, Sunday, and again next week in the Final Four.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ Even with a game in the books, the predictions episode of Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast is worth a listen. Watch and subscribe on YouTube, and then listen and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

⚾ With the season underway, expect at least 2x new episodes a week, usually after a series is over.

⚾ There are a lot of hoops to jump through if you’re trying to watch every Red Sox game this season. I created a handy Red Sox TV/Streaming Guide here on the Barstool Blog.

🎙️ Former WFAN host Brandon Tierney was let go from the station earlier this year. Then he took some shots at this old station (I would NEVER do that…). He also took some shots at WFAN’s current morning host, Gregg Giannotti, calling him a bad teammate. Gio fired back, saying Tierney begged to come on the station to talk St. John’s last week (sad if true), and that Tierney was the most thin-skinned host ever, and that was the reason he failed at both CBS Radio and WFAN. Tierney fired back, then Gio said all these former co-workers of Tierney reached out to him and thanked him for ripping him. Some great back-and-forth drama and maybe a lot to follow - but I followed it. Watched all the clips, read all the summaries - I cared about two people I don’t really care about.

The point is, this was a great moment for sports radio. This feud got me to care about WFAN for a few days, and I have no dog in the fight. I can only imagine WFAN listeners ate this shit up - I know one did, because he texted me right away when Gio attacked Tierney earlier this week. I saw where Craig Carton is rooting for this thing to keep going - he’s right, good for business!

I wonder if anyone at WEEI saw this and realized how impactful a rivalry can be. Probably not, right?

🎙️I am not the only one surprised that, as of now, Sports Radio WEEI seems content to keep its current lineup intact for the Red Sox season. I’m confident the station has had talks with both Chris Gasper and Phil Perry about full-time roles, but I’m not sure what the holdup has been. I brought this up with two people close to the situation this week, and they both said money was the obvious holdup. I wrote here a few weeks ago that Mike Thomas did not seem to have much urgency in making the next move. I thought for sure we’d see change before Opening Day - I was wrong.

➡️ I did hear a prominent Audacy salesperson left for the Sports Hub recently, thanks in part to $$.

🎙️ No surprise that raw, overall audience, for both 98.5 The Sports Hub and WEEI have trended downwards since the Super Bowl. 25-54. The Hub will get a boost from the Celtics. We’ll see what kind of boost WEEI gets from the Red Sox - it was much less than I expected in the fall and into the playoffs.

🏀 It’s not personal - it’s about my bracket. I have Michigan cutting down the nets, so I’ll be rooting for them to beat Alabama tonight. I will also be locked into the Barstool NY gambling stream for Dave v. Rico. Has the chance to be an all-timer. My Barstool NY sources tell me the Picks Central crew is fired up. 👀

😮 This trailer is a work of art #menofhonor

🏀 We are so due for Braylon Mullins to hit like three 3s in a row in this Tournament. And for Solo Ball to do the same. Huskies sitting on a big game tonight….get me to 10 PM.

Certainly feels like that’s enough Stack for this week.

Back Saturday on the Barstool Blog to preview two huge Derby Preps in the Arkansas Derby and Florida Derby. Good luck with all the bets this weekend

Thanks for reading

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Note from Owner of MutStack.com, Dave Portnoy:

I am very disappointed in Mut. Kirk Minihane has said he is 100% positive that Mut called my gift to him goofy. Mut said he didn’t, but also won’t say Kirk is wrong or a liar. I can no longer welcome him into my world. Also, the jumpsuit isn’t even baggy on him. Mut will not be allowed to keep the jumpsuit, which was a gift from my heart.

Note from Publisher of MutStack.com, Mut:

I didn’t say it. I said baggy. Which, again, doesn't let me off the hook for even wondering if the plan was to wear the Go Go Greys jumpsuits on Friday in Las Vegas. I can’t pull the clip now, but as we talked about on Kirk’s show Wednesday, and I believe he agreed, I said baggy. No goofy.

It was an amazing weekend, which I’m writing about tomorrow on the Barstool blog.

I am going to ask Dave to keep the jumpsuit once I publish tonight. I’ll report back next week.

Trending on X.com today. Why can’t it say MutStack?

Blind Mike gives me shit for this not really being a Friday Four-Pack. Usually, I’d push back. But on this one, he’s going to have a point.

It’s been a long day, and we’re getting right into it. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #164. The streak rolls on.

Hey! We’re live from Chicago!

And we’re closing in on 7K subscribers. Only takes a second to subscribe.

Year Four of being 100% free, and if you have not hit the blue button yet, I appreciate your consideration.

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On a whirlwind trip to Chicago…

Maybe you guys can relate. Also, I had a mustache in the 7th or 8th grade, not at 7 or 8 years old. It’s been a long day. But seriously, thank you guys. And gals. Without your unreal response this morning, this would never have happened. #thankyou #mutsluts

I mean, come on.

It’s getting more and more obvious that A.J. Brown will be a Patriot. The Eagles can save millions of dollars by waiting until AFTER June 1st to make the trade. But between this clip…the whispers I’m getting from Philly that Brown will “100% be traded”…it feels like a lock.

I’ll be okay if it’s a first-round pick going to Philly as part of the trade. I hope it’s a 2027 1st-round pick, if possible.

I see people trying to grade the Pats’ offseason. It’s impossible until we see which No. 1 receiver they get. Brown, Jennings, Aiyuk. No matter what else they do, they do not get a passing grade for the offseason without a No. 1 WR for Drake Maye.

On the wild reaction to my Red Sox blog on Thursday…

I have never gotten such a negative reaction to something I’ve written on the Barstool blog. Go read it while you’re here. And feel free to agree with these people.

Just these over and over again. For hours. A barrage.

The Red Sox are clearly manipulating the service time of both Connelly Early and Payton Tolle. Both guys have pitched well enough to break camp with the Sox. But because the team can gain an extra year of an affordable contract if they keep them in AAA for six weeks, they’re going to do it.

People seem angry that I’m pointing this out.

If the Sox were trying to build the best team, I think both guys would be on the roster. But the team traded for Johan Oviedo, and they want to get him some run - he also has options, by the way.

The AL East is the most competitive division in baseball. There’s a chance a playoff spot comes down to a couple of games. If they struggle in April and we point to Oviedo as the reason, you’re allowed to rip Breslow. I know I will.

I would have Connelly Early in the rotation to start the season. And Ovideo would be at AAA.

The Red Sox are doing it a different way, it sounds like. If it were based on how they pitched this spring, I think they’d be doing it my way.

On your weekly MutStack Notes…

⚾ A very WBC-heavy Dirty Water Podcast this week. But we did get to some big Red Sox issues, including the plan with the 5th starter, where it sure looks like the Sox are manipulating the service time on a few young studs. Watch and sub on YouTube, and then listen and sub wherever you get your podcasts. Opening Day is next week, let’s go.

⚾ NESN will carry 145 Red Sox games this season. They announced this week that Lou Merloni will call about 120 of those. It’s about effing time. Lou is excellent in the booth, and after years of rotating guys, I’m glad they finally realized he’s better than the rest. I also remain a huge Dave O’Brien fan and think he and Lou can be one of the better booths in baseball now that they get some real extended games together.

➡️ Having a full Kirk Minihane Show on Wednesday was…well, awesome. If you have any extra Laconia tickets, please DM me. I have a diehard KMS fan looking for maybe up to four.

➡️ This is now three straight weeks of writing about the financial issues of 98.5 The Sports Hub’s parent company, Beasley Media. This is not good - as BRW points out, this was the Audacy bankruptcy plan from three years ago. More on this next week.

🎙️ Not much in the way of WEEI/Hub gossip. Heard The Greg Hill Show is looking at some … interesting names to fill in while Courtney Cox takes maternity leave. They’re not good names, and I’ll be curious if it comes to fruition.

🎙️ I’d just have Mego in every day - she is good with those guys.

⚾ The WBC was great. I’d consider moving it to the All-Star break and taking two weeks off every three years if it got more MLB players involved.

🏀 Really need UConn to beat Furman tonight.

That feels like enough Stack for today. Back on the Barstool Blog to recap Vegas and talk a pair of Derby Preps in the regular Kentucky Derby Prepping with Mut. Hopefully around noon Saturday. Much to discuss.

Seriously. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Dave. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Kirk.

Good luck with all your bets this weekend. Thanks for reading. And watching.

Note from Owner of MutStack.com, Dave Portnoy:

Today’s Mutstack has been cancelled, and all future Mutstacks are suspended until further notice for extreme ungratefulness. No further questions at this time.