Friday Four-Pack 6.9.23

More MGC v. Barstool. It's Belmont Weekend. Sox mess up. REALLLLLLLY???

Still working through the massive Belmont cards for Friday and Saturday so no time to waste. Right to today’s Four-Pack.

On the biggest sports story of the year…

What a blazin’ hot take!

REALLLLLLLLYYYYY???!??

Well, three days later and my take is not that much better.

The Tuesday morning news was an all-timer - thanks in part to literally no one knowing about it. No leaks. No tweets. Nothing until the above from CNBC of all places. CNBC lol.

PGA and LIV bury the hatchet. LIV (PIF) basically buys professional golf.

Wild. Especially in the context of PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan’s stance the last few years.

It’s been a few days so I’m not going to rehash some of the main storylines you (and I) have probably watched, read or listened to the last 72 hours.

Yes, Jay Monahan should be out.
Yes, he looks like an dink.
Yes, I’d like to type something worse but my mom reads the MutStack.
Yes, the PGA loyalists got screwed.
No, I don’t give a crap about TEAM GOLF. Who cares.
Yes, the Saudis are going to rule sports. Just a matter of time before - as Minihane said this week on KMS - some Saudi prince pays an NBA star an obscene amount of money to come play exhibition games for his kid because his kid loves that player.

And the player will do it because as always, cash is king.

Three opinions I have that might not have been trampled all over by now.

• Over the last year, my own personal betting bankroll has been has been led by betting horses. Second is football. And a close third is golf. Football and golf include straight sports betting and DFS. I love betting golf. And while as far as the sport goes and competition go, it’s great that in this new deal we might once again have all the best golfers on the same tour … when it comes to betting it’s not a huge deal to me. I’ve enjoyed digging deep on Luke List’s putting disasters or Ryan Palmer playing in Texas. The guys who crush the Florida Swing. I’m watching and betting on golf as much as I was when my guy Cam Smith was carrying my bankroll. If there ends up still being a LIV Tour (sounds like there might be?) as part of this agreement and some big names stay over there…fine. The golf is still good and the sport - the PGA version - is still a strong product to wager on. In-part because a lot of people are just betting names they know. That gives us - the grinders looking at shots gained stats for hours at a time- an advantage.

• LIV - as it is set up - is not bettable now or ever because of the guaranteed money. You have no idea who is showing up for the check and doesn’t care v. guys who are still motivated to win.

• I’m convinced that one of the final things that led to this out-of-nowhere deal is the fact that some big-name golfer was close to a move to LIV. I thought that Tuesday. Apparently, so does golf insider Matt Adams.
  

  https://twitter.com/NUCLRGOLF/status/1666507012283195393?s=20
  
  “A Former No. 1 in the World…multiple major champion…was in advanced talks to join LIV...”
  
  Yes the money was the biggest reason. But ANOTHER big name going at this point was going to be terrible optics for the Tour. And if that name was big enough, might have opened the floodgates for more guys to bail and go get that PIF payday. That and the realization the PGA could never compete with the Saudi money is enough to get a deal like this done swiftly.

Crazy that it’s Friday morning and we still have no idea how the hell this is all going to work.

On another round of the MGC v. Barstool/Penn…

“The [Can’t Lose Parlay] is a humorous, satirical reference to Mr. Katz’ reputation as an awful bettor,” said Albano. “Katz [has admitted] that he is a terrible, terrible gambler, and ‘a loser who never wins at gambling’.” Albano added that Katz had regularly shared on social media that “no one should ever listen to his advice.”

I could have done an entire Four-Pack on Wednesday’s Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) hearing in response to Barstool/Penn and the use of the term “Can’t Lose Parlay.”

Instead let me rant about it for a few minutes- with an example of something the MGC should actually be focused on - rather than this nonsense.

H/T to Bill Speros, Steve Ruddock and Robert Linnehan among others for their coverage of this.

On the bumbling Red Sox…

Another low for the 2023 Red Sox Thursday.

On the field it was an ugly defeat to the Guardians. A game where opening day starter Corey Kluber pitched in relief and allowed eight straight hits at one point in a 10-3 loss that dropped to team back under .500 for the first time since April.

They stink right now.

Kluber was relieving 32-year-old Matt Dermody, who is known much more for a deleted tweet than anything he’s even done on a Major League Baseball field.

Dermody tweeted that back in 2021 while playing in Japan. He deleted it and the Red Sox signed him in the offseason. Because he deleted it, the Red Sox say they were not aware of the tweet when they signed him.

If they were, they say, they probably would not have signed him. Okay.

So instead of either

1. Letting Dermody address this himself in spring training when it came up or

2. Just releasing Dermody when they found out what he had tweeted

the Sox chose instead to bury their heads in the sand and do nothing, likely hoping the guy would never pitch in an MLB game.

But he had to pitch Thursday because Chaim Bloom’s pitching plan has been a disaster.

Then Sean McAdam calls them on these deleted tweets and its spin, spin, spin.

“It’s important to us that he had taken the tweet down and important why he had done it,” Bloom said. “I talked to him personally about that and what he told me was that it really came down to two things. One, he didn’t realize that his words would be hurtful and he didn’t want to hurt anybody and when he realized that they were, he took (the post) down.

Just one of the many rough Bloom quotes in Sean’s story.

Not to be outdone Sox CEO Sam Kennedy - who once embarrassingly went on the record to call out my old station WEEI over things said on talk radio - found a way to spin signing this guy and then not cutting him when the team was made aware of the tweet.

“What Matt posted in 2021 was hurtful — and we addressed this with him when we learned about it after he joined the Red Sox in 2023. Matt, along with all our minor leaguers, went through our mandatory anti-discrimination and harassment prevention training in March. We cannot dictate the religious beliefs or political views of our players and employees, but we do require they treat people in our organization and ballpark with respect and professionalism.”

What?

My former WEEI coworker Alex Reimer has a new gig at Queerty.com and wrote about it Thursday. You should read it.

Though players are obviously free to hold their own political beliefs, it’s terrible optics for the Red Sox to promote someone like Dermody during Pride Month. The team is scheduled to hold its annual Pride Night June 13.

Pride Nights are about making sure LGBTQ+ people feel comfortable at the ballpark. It’s hard to imagine there are any LGBTQ+ Red Sox fans comfortable with cheering for Dermody, who’s said gay people are going to hell.

But yet, the Red Sox will still try to sell them rainbow hats and paraphernalia.

The Red Sox and Kennedy sure had opinions on radio hosts and had no problem calling them out in public. But when there’s something controversial on their own team? You get a a much different tone.

Fraudulent.

To no one’s surprise Dermody was released after the game Thursday night. Because of course.

But that should not protect the team from criticism for the way they handled this from the start.

On Saturday’s Belmont Stakes…

And then there was one.

The final leg of racing’s Triple Crown takes place Saturday in Elmont, NY as nine three-year-olds head to the starting gate for the 155th running of the Belmont Stakes.

No racing Thursday at Belmont thanks to the haze from the Canadian wildfires. But lots of racing content created for you here at MutStack.

Jessica Paquette, Dick Jerardi and myself back to break down the huge day Saturday. If you’re subscribed, you got your podcast Thursday. If not you can listen to the right here -

Or you can watch the broadcast on Twitter - just click this link.

Thrilled to be back at Mohegan Sun Saturday for their Belmont Bash. It’s an awesome event that will only be enhanced with a MASSIVE carryover in their Alive to Five contest. It’s only $10 to enter - and the pot is expected to be close to $25,000.

But you have to be there to play. If you’re planning on playing the Belmont card anyway, this is a no-brainer. The whole goal of this gambling thing is to bet a little to win a lot. You have that chance with the Alive to Five contest.

Advanced seating is available and suggested - you can get seating by clicking the image below and navigating to the orange “Reserve a Seat” tab. It’s that easy.

Click the image for seating

I’ll be there to help you find some winners starting at 1230 - alongside the Beast of Belmont “The Big A” Anthony Stabile. Looks like an awesome card with some nice betting opportunities.

They start today with a damn good Friday card. I’ll likely be posting some picks on the Notes tab here so make sure you’re subscribed. And on Twitter @MikeMutnansky.

My Belmont Final Thoughts will be posted here Saturday with my pick and race analysis.

And on this 50th Anniversary - there’s only one way to end this Four-Pack.

Thanks for reading. And listening.

Good weekend.