Friday Four-Pack 6.12.26
The Kirk Minihane Show returns. Red Sox make history. I'm ready for the big Celtics trade. An owner's note from My Boss Dave and more!
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…
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