Friday Four-Pack 3.27.26
Red Sox season underway! John Henry gets skewered. Dan Hurley with an awesome quote about coaching. Chicago recap & MutStack Notes
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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On Opening Day, NESN’s new ugly scorebug, and the expectations for your 2026 Red Sox…
That NESN scorebug…woof.
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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Bad news: your boss, the owner Mutstack says he doesn't like you.
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