A note from MutStack Owner Dave Portnoy
Im still sick
Brutal. Something is going around, for sure. Klemmer looked sick all week in NY, but that might have just been his sickly self.
But My Boss Dave has been fighting it all week. Fought through a 103° fever for Pick Em. He was so sick he missed Lovely Grey’s return race Thursday - and he LOVES to see his horses run. He actually has one in tomorrow at Keeneland, the debut of #4 Ronna's Sizzler, Race 11 at Keeneland. He co-owns with trainer Ron Moquett. Safe trip for her.
And get well soon, boss.
Dave was sick, but of course he was watching Lovely Grey at Belmont. And look, I’ve seen all the jokes by now.
Lookin’ good, Gut.
GutStack.com
Mut Looking like Dave Cullinane at the Korn Ferry event…that one hurt the most
And they’re not wrong. I have officially let myself go.
Too much food, too much drink, not enough sleep. But mostly, it’s the food. It’s not uncommon for me to have a second dinner after a first dinner a few times a week. That could mean three bowls of cereal. Half a box of Cheez-Its. Seven to ten mini Clio bars. One or two bags of microwave popcorn. This, multiple times a week, plus weekend drinking, and yeah, it’s out of hand.
And like, I already knew this. My nice Milton’s ‘slim’ suit barely fits. Some shorts don’t fit. Really, a bunch of clothes that kind of fit, but, well, I look like this.
I can just feel it in my body. It’s an extra 15 pounds or so that I’m not used to lugging around. I felt it yesterday out at Belmont Park. I wanted to hustle and make an earlier train on the LIRR back to the city, and it was gonna be close. I had to hustle, and I could feel my stomach bouncing around like a heavy-ass basketball in my awesome Go Go Grey Polo.
I needed this picture yesterday. Thanks to the great Fox Sports team for getting an action shot of me tracking down Lovely Grey in the Belmont Park Paddock. Happy to come on and handicap next time.
Lovely Grey looked ready to fire in her first race in 90 days. She ended up with a wide, in-between-horses trip that you’re just never going to win from. But she had some run in the lane and looked like the spill at Saratoga did not bother her at all. Don’t know what the plan is, but there are going to be some synthetic stakes races this fall or winter where she could prove very tough - that could be turf races that end up on that surface as the new Belmont. A lot of options for the lightly-raced 3-year-old runner.
My options? Just one - lose the weight. Yikes. Diet starts Monday.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox are done. The Haterz are out in full force. NFL Picks plus weekly notes.
All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #191.
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On the main failure of the 2026 Boston Red Sox…
26th in home runs in 2026. 26th (!!!)
Can’t believe I bought in. #dumb
I wrote extensively about the Sox loss here.
On responding to the Haterz…
My guy James is one half of one of the great play-by-play teams of our time, Josh and James. They added so much to KMS Basketball. I love James.
I guess he wants to punch back at Joe Zarbano for this?
On the left, me in the PayDay/DraftKings Barstool NY Gambling Cave for Game 1. On the right, my old radio partner Lou on NBC, calling the game.
Okay James, I thought it was funny. Shoutout to Vibbs for making me look like a deranged Wally the Green Monster. If Joe was roasting me with this, whatever. Zing! I laughed. I saw a lot of people telling me to #GrowUp for putting a little face paint on. Those people need to loosen the grip a bit.
Joe was our producer for Mut and Merloni and eventually held some sort of management position at WEEI. He and Lou were much closer than we were, both on Mut and Merloni, and when Joe moved to the front office. Add him to the list of people who are not a fan, I guess. Have not talked to him in years and hope he’s well. I wish he was this creative as our producer!
Big day for James, b/c he also asked for a response to this. I listen to podcasts, so I didn’t see this when I heard Glenn’s pod last week.
Yikes. I guess Lou isn't a fan either. Yes, I cover horse racing and Dave’s Go Go Greys Stable for Barstool as part of my job. I love it. Being out at Belmont Park yesterday. Or Churchill last May. Or the NHC last March - fucking great gig. Dave has given me an awesome platform to write and talk about racing.
I wrote for years here that Lou should be the lead color guy with Dave O’Brien on NESN. When he got the gig, I texted him to congratulate him. He responded, and guess what - he got #MutToo’d. I never texted back. Bad job by me. Glad Lou got some NBC reps this week. Didn’t get much of the broadcast, but people seemed to really enjoy it. Add him to the list. And like, I take plenty of shots here - so Lou, Joe, Chris Curtis, or Ted Johnson are free to fire back.
But as far as me firing back, James? Life's too short, man. As you get older, you’ll realize that. We’re all gonna be dead someday.
Plus, the AI Overlords are coming for us all, so there’s that.
On your Four-Pack of NFL Week 4 Picks…
Week 3 Record: 1-2
Season Record: 3-6
ATD Record: 0 for 3
Wow, the Bucs stink. That was awful. Aaron Rodgers overthrew Pat Freiermuth for what would have put us well over his prop. AJ Dillon was a swing and a miss.
The Side
TEXANS (-2.5) VS. COWBOYS (-136)
I’m ready to back the Texans here. They are one of the few defenses that can slow down the Cowboys. Nico Collins is back at WR, and that will help against a terrible Dallas D. Per Action Network: 0-3 teams in Week 4 vs. teams with at least one win are 47-25-1 ATS since 2005. Good trend for us.
The Total
BENGALS VS. JAGS UNDER 51.5 (-118)
Jags have a good defense (DVOA #2) and play slow (#1 slowest sec/play FTN pace)
Bengals D has been good DVOA #11) and also play slow (7th slowest FTN pace)
This is exactly what we want to see for an UNDER
The Prop
Jacoby Brissett 10+ rush yards (+112)
Cleared this 7x last year and once in three games this year. One run gets us home, and the Cardinals will have to be passing here.
The ATD
DARREN WALLER +260
Sunday night shootout against Detroit.
On your weekly MutStack Notes…
🎤 No, I will not be in Madawaska this weekend, but good luck and safe travels to everyone making the trip and running/walking in the 5K. It’s an incredible community Kirk has built, and I can’t wait for the RI Live Show next spring with the Minifans.
🎙️ Speaking of, Kirk and Glenn were great. I assume if you’re reading this, you have already listened. I found it noteworthy that Kirk has texted with Gerry recently. That makes me happy.
Must-listen. Glenn has mentioned a few times trying to get me and Mike Adams on. Again, I’ll say it here so it can go as my official answer - no thanks. As I said above, life is way too short.
🎙️ Being in New York all week, it was tough to track everything said on the radio. But it was obvious that WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show insinuated Mike Vrabel wasn't happy with Drake Maye. Then, when that clip went viral, Greg did the classic sports-radio backpedal.
Herald Pats Beat Writer Andrew Callahan went after them, as did many Pats fans. I mean, they had to know that people would assume they were talking about Mike Vrabel, right? Vrabel is a weekly guest. Of course it was going to be heard that way. Vrabel then had to be asked about it.
The show responded by saying Callahan needs to “get some coochie.” Ha. What are we doing? If you report something like that, even if you couch it as a whisper, you better be able to back it up. Doesn’t feel like they did in this case?
🏈 I’ll admit - completely rattled by the play of Drake Maye.
This was … not good. And it has not gotten any better.
I’m actually glad they play Buffalo on Sunday. I have no idea what to expect, but a road AFC East game leaves no room to not get locked in.
🗽 Really enjoyed the week at Barstool NY. Great to see Hogdale. The office gets a lot of shit, but I see a lot of people working on stuff and helping each other on a bunch of different projects. I will be back before the next Red Sox stream.
⚾ I did not expect Hubbs to celebrate the Yankees win quite as hard as he did.
🏇🏻 Note from a prominent horse trainer yesterday: “I’m a MutStack guy.” 👀👀👀
🙏🏻 Thank you, Ed! It’s a great shirt for some errands or cleaning the garage. You can buy your own MutStack tee right here
That feels like enough Stack for this week.
Back tomorrow with a full review of the renovated Belmont Park - that will be over on the Barstool Blog. Took a lot of pictures and have plenty of thoughts on racing’s ‘newest’ venue.
Good luck with all the bets this weekend. Thanks for reading. And watching.
Was really hoping we would hear what the other 4 trending stories on your For You feed was Wednesday on today's Stack. Maybe next Friday.
I’m a MutStack guy too. Have the shirt and it gets comments when I wear it out. People love you Mut and the haters gonna hate as a wife of an NFL player once said.
A few tips from a fat guy trying to lose weight after 50…do it now at your current age and keep it off because it ain’t easy after 45. Tip number two, if you don’t listen to tip one, buy shirts one size to big and get the pants with the expandable waistband. Tip three, everything in moderation and enjoy life because as you pointed out, it’s too short.
All cheer to the MutStack!