Friday Four-Pack 6.19.26
The Red Sox Suck. A wild World Cup take. The passing of a Boston radio legend. Weekly MutStack notes and more.
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!
On the Pathetic State of The Red Sox…
Congrats, Bres, you did it! Idiot.
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.
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.