Hour 4: Mariners Pitcher Bryce Miller on His Preparation Process on a Day He Pitches

Get in the freaking auto! From the Quantum Fiber Studio, this is Brock and Salk on Seattle Sports. Brock Heward and Mark, Matt, Marcus, sorry about just that. Heward, not exactly Joe Capp there in the pocket. Now here are your hosts, Brock Heward and Mike Salk. I can't believe we're doing this, Salk. Can't believe you're making us do this. some years ago I walked into a clubhouse talked to Jared Washburn and I got the evil eye from everybody yeah how dare you even look at the starting pitcher on the day he's pitching well to be fair that was during the regular season I don't care I don't care what it was it was during the regular how dare you even approach the starting pitcher on a day that he's going to pitch and then he is in game mode and just in three hours this young man sitting across from us is going to take that ball and he's going to have to shove it and we're going to bother him on the day he's pitching. You're going what, five, six innings today? What's the plan? We'll see. Bryce Miller with us. Thanks for doing this on a day where you're pitching. Yes, sir. What else do you have to do? What do you do today when you're not pitching? Before you're pitching, right? It's pretty relaxed, especially this first one, spring training. I'll get about two hours before the game get into my normal pregame prep, but it'll be pretty light today. We got early, I mean, 20, 25, maybe 30 pitches. What does mental pregame prep look like for you in the season? In the season, you know, I'm one of those guys that's pretty relaxed pregame. I'm not anybody different, you know, on pitch day than I am on other days. But I don't know. I think hopefully I kind of figured something out at the end of the year in the postseason. I kind of changed my mental prep, went out in Toronto and kind of had a little bit of alone time out there, kind of sat on the field and did some visualization stuff. I don't know, that game went well, so I guess I'll probably need to keep doing that. So explain. So what led to it? How did you feel like it helped? Obviously it was new for you. We've talked to Brian Wu in the past. I know he does a lot of mental coaching or receives a lot of mental coaching, and it's really been helpful for him. Take us behind the scenes of that a little bit. Yeah, I mean, Byrne, he's our mental skills coach. He's been on me for years now to kind of do a little bit more of the visualizing stuff pregame, and I've tried doing it. I'm not somebody that likes to think much, so I've tried doing it like in the hot tub before the games and that kind of stuff. But I think, I don't know, personally it was more of like, you know, the way the year went for me, it was kind of had so many ups and downs, and I was just fortunate to be able to, you know, get the ball in the postseason and have the trust of the team and of Dan. And, you know, I just wanted to do everything I could to make the most of that and put myself in the best position. So just went out there, kind of, you know, did some thinking. and it went well. So I guess we'll keep riding that and give a little bit of credit to Byrne for talking me through that and giving me the idea. Two things here, Bryce. Number one, last year there was something called GripGate where people felt like I touched your hand in a really funny way with the grips. What do you mean felt like? I watched it with my own eyes. Some people felt like it was awkward. Did you feel like it was awkward? I don't even remember. I don't even remember it either. Yeah, I don't even remember it all either. So I'm not going to make you go through that again with any new grips or any new things you're doing because it's obvious what, like right in front of us, you put on some size. I did. What was the reasoning for that, the thought behind that? Or is it just growing, just kind of growing up? No, it's just, it's always been difficult for me to put weight on, but that was kind of my main goal going into this offseason was to try to put as much on as I could. I think my first weigh-in when I got to the house after the postseason, I was 192 and got it up to as high as 208. So pretty good amount. Steak, creatine, protein. Bunch of venison, bunch of chipotle. What's the order at chipotle? I get the same thing every time unless sometimes when they have the carne asada, I'll get that. That's good. But you're a burrito bowl guy, right? Yeah, I'm a bowl. I get white rice, black beans, chicken, double pico, light, the spicy red sauce, light sour cream, corn, cheese, guac, lettuce. That is almost exactly my order. I'm very, very similar on that. The only thing I will say, you can ask for light sour cream, and then they take that scoop, and they'll just dump a whole thing of sour cream on there. They don't care about light. But if I don't say light, they go in the back and grab a shovel, and they shovel that thing out. Yeah, they sure do. And it's sour cream soup. So the stocking cap is another thing, huh? Yeah. Is that your brand? We just rolling with it? I like it. I actually got this exact one. Whenever we traded Levi Stout, he kind of left a lot of his Mariner stuff, and I grabbed the beanie out of his bag. So this is going on, what, year four now? Yeah. And there's been a few days where I have a little panic, and I think I lost it. It usually doesn't go far. It's usually in somebody else's locker. I don't know if they're plotting against me or if they just really like the look, but I usually get it back. How would you characterize your year last year? It was a tough year. It was the first time ever spending extended time on the IL. And whenever I was throwing, it felt like a struggle and never really felt like myself until the postseason. Is that pain? Is that discomfort? How would you kind of frame that? Is it a loose body? We got a loose body in there, right? No, it's connected. It's just a little growth in the joint. And so it was, you know, as outings would go on, like as pitch count would climb, there would just be one or two pitches that like it felt like I overextended kind of and it would kind of slam into my other bone in there. And then after that, the rest of the game, like it would just get tighter and tighter. And then Velo would drop and then I'm looking up there and it's like, you know, first inning I was 97, now I'm 93. And then I'm like, I got to throw harder. and then I'm, you know, rearing back, trying to throw max effort to grab a 94, and then I'm, you know, losing command, and so it's just, you know, it's a little snowball issue. So, yeah, that didn't help with confidence either, you know, knowing that, like, obviously anybody, you know, your stuff plays better at higher velo, and my fastball has always been big pitch for me, And, you know, as games would go on, if I would lose velo and lose command, then I lose confidence in that pitch. Then I'd be putting myself in bad counts. And, you know, it's just a lot of stuff. So, yeah, I mean. Anything different in the offseason with that? More rest, less rest? And you feeling great today? Yeah, I feel 100%. I mean, I didn't have a single issue all offseason. Awesome. um so far spring training i mean i think shoulder elbow i mean it hasn't felt this good since probably 2022 so um i think that was another reason i wanted to put put more weight on i think you know it'll help i think throughout the year whenever i lose weight like it just kind of you have less strength um to kind of slow the slow the arm down and so it's taken more um I don't know, more stress on the elbow. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm really happy with where we're at. Scare the crap out of you, though, last year? The first time? I mean, like, it's got to be weird, right? It is, yeah. I'm just not able to do what I normally do. Yeah. I mean, you know, doing the imaging and stuff, like, everything structural, like all the ligaments, UCL, everything is in great shape. It's just that spur that was giving me issues. And we did multiple different injections. And finally, the last one I did was I think we found the answer. And Dr. Meister over in Dallas, he basically said, if you feel anything at any point, go get another injection. And it's super quick. Like I can take two, three days from throwing and, you know, not have to miss really any time if I need it. that you found a new arm slot like midway at some point late in the year just like maybe i'll try it here and it ended up working to take a little of the pressure off of it um no not really i think uh during when i was no you didn't hear that that's why i did hear it doesn't mean it was true actually you didn't hear it did hear it doesn't make it true no i changed changed a little bit whenever i was here in arizona okay building back up um but really it was only i've in the past i noticed sometimes i would get real high on my front side um i was just trying to stay a little bit more more level um less you know jerky a little bit so um that was the only thing i really i think that's gonna be your you know we talked about what jobs we'd have around here i think you could be the p guy right cleaning up the p when tucker p's on the no i think he's the tester if i if maybe i'm wrong on that but i think he's got to watch the guys you know drug test is that is that the drug test guy it's one of them yeah that's one of them i don't think that's a job i'd want thanks i mean i appreciate it no i don't know if that's like the number one job i'd want here that a hard job by the way i sure it is at all man no thanks so you said no i mean just miserable look at the poor guy he far enough off now he can hear us But what an existence right You gotta just come and watch Now that you doing the mental skills stuff you gonna start Do you guys want to interview him? I can go ask. He's a drug test guy? No, we're good. We're alright. Now that you're doing mental skills, are you gonna start taking on all of Logan's bag of tricks? Maybe the R2-D2 ball or... Nah. What is he doing? I don't know how to... I watch him all the time. I don't know where he comes up with some of it, you know. But, hey, he's been doing it for a long time. He's been doing it. I mean, it's been working for him. We'll let you go here in a minute. But we talked to Logan about it the other day. Truly, how much love is there between you guys as a group, the starting pitcher group? Yeah, I think I can't speak on other teams, but, I mean, we've got to be at the top for the closest group of guys. I think, you know, we have a bunch of really good dudes in the clubhouse. And, you know, the starting pitchers are around each other all the time. and well, I mean, you can probably zoom in on the camera in games and whoever's not throwing is probably sitting next to the other one or the other three, four and just chatting it up. So it's a hard pick for best man, isn't it? It's going to be hard. Congratulations. Thank you. A lot of love in the air. Who's in the wedding party? I haven't. It's early. It's early. All right. No, but. Logan will fill out a tux, I think. I'm looking at him over there. I hope Luis is going to be there. But do you want somebody that tall on your wedding? That's true. You don't want him on the end of the line. You put him on the end. Yeah. Put Luis next to you? Yeah, maybe. Thank you, Bryce. We appreciate it. And, Brock, thank you for not touching him during the interview this year. We'll come right back. We'll give you guys everything you need to know next. Need to know. 15 minutes past every hour with Brock and Salk. Presented by Marquee Data. Here's what you need to know. A first. How do you feel about a tie in baseball? You like a good tie? Only in spring training. I think everyone likes the tie in spring training. You know what else you saw? It's over and everybody gets to go home. You know what else you saw, by the way? Wu came out because he had reached his pitch limit, and then he came back in the next inning. Something you only see in spring training, too. Yeah, that is a rarity. Yep. That is cool. Well, we just talked to Bryce Miller. He is in there today. He's a starting pitcher. And the lineup looks like this. Donovan, Cal Raleigh, Julio, Randy, Luke Raley, Canzone, Connor Joe, and then Arroyo and Colt Emerson. So, a lot of guys we've been seeing. Not making the team, but we're going to do our big takeaways for the whole week tomorrow. Connor Joe's a great baseball player. He's been around the league. Not a big league, just a baseball player. like in 10 years he'll be a coach somewhere and he'll tell people rightfully so i played in the big leagues and you'll be like dude it's just a baseball player i haven't really seen oh my gosh i was watching him in the cage really and once again like the line between a big leaguer and a 4a player is so at times fine he just yeah i mean he's a good athlete he's got great swing he played multiple positions and you know this this roster unfortunately we're gonna be too good But maybe he's one of those guys that ends up helping you at some point over the course of the season. And so, yeah, that's what we're looking forward to today. Here's the second thing you need to know. Combine, Brock, you've been checking the Combine measurements. I have. Punters, kickers, D-linemen, and linebackers today. Yep. There are going to be some – you want a headline for tomorrow? Yeah. Arvel Reese broke the Combine. Really? Nick Emanwari, what? Yeah, he's an absolute creature. Edge linebacker. From Ohio State, he's probably going to run 4-4 and jump 40-something inches. And, yep, kind of just one of those superhuman guys. He'll be drafted in the top five and everything else. But, yeah, starting to see. I mean, this is a group, honestly, today, and I will watch a little bit of it later and catch up on all of it. This is a group that you want to watch with some intent if you're a Seahawk. Right? With what's going on. We started the week talking about DeMarcus Lawrence and Boya Moffey. And, you know, the edge is a big part of what Mike McDonald does. He knows what he's looking for. And this is a supply chain that's pretty diverse, Baskin Robbins-esque, when it comes to some of the talent on that D-line. And they will be working out this afternoon. The message of the day from Mike McDonald yesterday was just staying on message, staying with your philosophy, not changing at all, staying with what got you here. Cut seven. He was asked about having a new offensive coordinator, and he went right back to the message. Well, we're going to be the Seattle Seahawks, and we're going to have a different evolution of our offense, and it's going to be built on the same principles, but how it comes to life and the exact plays that we're going to run, I can't answer that yet. I don't know the answer to that, but I know how Brian's going to operate and how our offensive staff's going to operate, and I'm really excited to see how they make this thing come to life. It's pretty remarkable in just two years, Salk. It's been two years since he's been the head coach to really cement that culture. And he says it so doggone confidently, and he knows exactly who he is, and 12 is one is real, and all the other pillars in two years have just been kind of like you see those high-rises built in Seattle, and they've got to dig way, way, way, way down, right, to put the fittings underneath. Those fittings are in place. And in just two years' time, man, the envy of a lot of people in the league. Here's the third thing you need to know. I'm just excited to hear this Lane Lambert cut again. We played it twice today. I can't get enough of it. I was excited to eat your mom's marshmallow fudge brownie thing, and it delivered. So good. It delivered. So you came walking in here, by the way, and you're surprised your pops just blew right through security. I mean, he's like, we run this place now after all these years. My friend Joel, his wife Courtney, and his kids, Jackson and Savannah, they go through the front. They wait in the lobby. They wait for me, this, that, and the other. They follow the rules. And meanwhile, my dad just like, pfft. Your dad is going to this place. He's got like a cocksure and it's a way about him today. He's ready to go. Look at him. He knows the challenge of are you smarter than a fifth player. He's also got a hoodie on. He looks like young and sprung. I'm ready to attack. I'm ready to go. Mora's got hard questions for me, apparently. Like Lane, apparently. Lane was not happy with the way the team played last night. They got destroyed 4-1, didn't play very well. He wanted them to shoot a little bit more. Stop passing the puck. Very clear and cut 15. I don't know. We just, we failed to execute in a lot of different situations. For whatever reason, you know, we had a, apparently we had a pass first mentality instead of a shoot first mentality. You know, it just doesn't work with our hockey team. And, you know, there's no excuse for it. There's no reason for it. We've got to be better. Is there a more derisive way for, I love it. Between that cut today and John Schneider with the legally blind player that Jets drafted, back-to-back days. Laugh out loud. Yeah, laugh out loud. It's pretty good. Well, don't worry. My guy Jacob Melanson did have seven hits in less than nine minutes of play, so he's out there doing his job back from the break and hitting everything that moves. That is everything you need to know, quarter past every hour, here on the Brock and Salk Show. So, yeah, only one more day here for us, Brock, and there's not really going to be too many people around tomorrow morning because they've got a night game. Kevin Seitzer will join us tomorrow. We've taped with a couple folks, so you will hear from Ryan Sloan, who we talked to. He was awesome. I really enjoyed that conversation. It's not often the 20-year-olds really. And Brock wasn't weird at all. Was I? It was a little weird. There was like three straight quad questions. Yeah, it was pretty weird. They were deserving. You saw his quads. They were deserving. It was pretty weird. Their quads were huge. Don't get me wrong. It was still weird. I think you made him a little uncomfortable. Yeah, especially because he's so much younger than you. True. There was a harassment element. It's almost like a father sent. Yeah, it was weird. Creepy old man. But he was awesome. He sort of has like, he's mature enough to have like thoughtful answers, but also young enough to have not been turned into a cliche machine. Yep. He had a little of that like Nuke David or Nuke Lelouch. Yeah. Rather from Bull Durham where he's just like, yeah. Let's go. He's pretty funny. I think you guys will like that. And then Justin Hollander tomorrow as well. And maybe others. We'll see. We'll see where this goes. In the meantime, every year around this time, my dad, Larry Salt, makes his way to our spring training set. Hopefully he's got sunglasses on to sit in the guest chair over here. He does. He just got hit by the door. Yeah, he just got taken out. So I think we're ready. We're going to ask him some are you smarter than a fifth grader questions. I've got some other sort of. Because he didn't want to do ranked, right? He feels like that's been played out. I think he feels like he's mastered that art, and now it's time to move on to something else. And so we'll see where this goes. All right. It's next on Brock and Salk. From the Quantum Fiber Studio, you're listening to Brock and Salk. Weekdays 6 to 10. On Seattle Sports and 97.3 FM HD2. Kind of Brock and Salk's next few minutes here. My dad, Larry Salk, with us, Brock. Are we ready for this? I feel this is kind of a weird feeling for me. Okay. I kind of feel like Larry and I are teammates. Against me? This is like the British Bulldogs versus the Road Warriors. It's you and Maura versus me and Larry. I'm kind of Team Larry on this one, I think. There's no team. We're up against each other. I don't like him being ambushed. He's not being ambushed. I told him ahead of time what we were doing. I was asked to put together questions. I didn't do anything. And I warned him last night. All I can say is if I'm ambushed, my will will be reconsidered. Okay. Good to know. Maybe I'll be in less debt later, then. We'll see. All right. Before we dig into a little Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, I've been down here now for almost a week staying with my parents, which is a joy, as you might imagine. Have you turned your back on me so you can see your screen? I'm trying. It is so bright, and now the screen is actually so hot that the mouse isn't working. So I can't move anything on the screen because the mouse isn't actually functioning, which is great. It's that hot out here. But I've been staying with my parents all week, which has been great. Had a lovely week, right? Yes. We had a couple dinners. You negotiated the temperature in the house Well there have been some interesting moments that I thought I would tell slash ask about a little bit So one was we went out to dinner the other night which was great. We had a really nice dinner. At the end of it, there was a dessert to be ordered to be shared. You're talking about a four-inch chocolate chip cookie brownie with some ice cream on top. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Kind of the whole thing. A fairly standard dessert. Hard to screw up dessert. And it was not screwed up. It was great. It was actually the highlight of the meal. Really good. So the guy brings, for the three of us, three big spoons. Three spoons. What does my dad say? What does my dad say to the waiter? Is this one of the questions? Are you smarter than a great year old? What does my dad say? What does Larry say? I said, you have a fork. But not just do you have a fork. What? What did I say? You have to eat this with a fork. You can't eat it with a spoon. You have to have a fork for this. Very demonstrative. I was brought up. Cakes, pies, anything that you cut into that's cakey, you use a fork. But there is ice cream there. And you can put the fork into the ice cream. I know, but you can also put the spoon into the soft brownie. That is good. Okay. So the guy brings out one fork, puts it in front of him, looks at me, shrugs his shoulders, and off he goes. Yep. So that was good. That's perfect. It was a good brownie, though. My dad, so I. Not as good as those. No, my mom. James Brownies. Oh, my gosh. She added some marshmallow to her game this year. This is more of a fudgekin than a brownie. This is a what? It's called a fudgekin. Oh, my gosh. That's what my mom calls them. Really good. Another note. So I stay upstairs in one of the guest rooms, in the guest bed here. My parents' bedroom is downstairs. Sure. So I'm sort of above them. And it gets a little toasty down here. So there's a ceiling fan in the room. So I pull on the chain. It's one of those three-speed ceiling fans, pretty standard in a home like this. And I pull it once. It goes to high, and it's too much. But it's hot. So I go down to number two. Two. And my parents now like it hot, hotter than when they were younger. They've reached the stage of life where they want it to be hot. Circulation. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my dad had a heart attack a few years ago. I understand. So it's a little warmer than maybe it would have been 10 years ago. So I put it on medium. What does my dad say the next day? What? Are you looking at me? Yeah. I said that you said it was really warm. I said, why don't you open the door? The night's here and the night should get very cool. No, that's not what you said. And then I said, you only really need to leave it on the lowest setting. I love the revision. And then the door opens up. Sure. The cool breeze comes in, which it does at night. That's not what you said. That's all completely false. That's just a complete lie. That's not what you said at all. What did I say? What you said was, hey, when you go to bed tonight, can you not put the fan on high? Because it shakes the whole house. It does. And I couldn't sleep. And I said, well, I didn't have it on high. I had it on medium. Well, it's very loud. And I can hear it downstairs in my bedroom. It doesn't keep you up? And I said, no. Why would it keep me up? It's a fan. It's like a nice white noise. Well, it shakes the house. Please put it on low tonight. I was like, okay, I'll open the door and put it on low. First of all, I might have said that, but not in that tone. I said it in a much nicer, conciliatory, maybe you would consider this tone. Are we talking tone now? Because then we can get to the two conference calls we each had this week. Now, I've been accused of having a lot of similarity to my dad. And I will admit that I was on a very frustrating conference call on, what was that, Tuesday night? That really drove me crazy. And I was mad. I'm not going to lie. I was very upset and doing my best, I think, for good reason. I had a lot of reasons to be upset. But the night before, my dad was on his softball board meeting, and there's nothing more sacred than this. There was a moment where we thought that my call and his call might be at the same time, and he was like, well, I need to go to your car. You want to go to your car? Yeah, you may need to rent another house. I'm going to be doing the softball board meeting. It's not true. This is not true. Now talk about revisionist history. So he's in the middle of the call, and my mom and I are, like, he wants to eat dinner. So we start ordering the food and this and that, and he comes in. And now he starts to get upset. Like, we're going to make noise. And he's going to be like, shh. I can't tell if they can hear you. He's getting more and more worked up. That is not why I was upset. Why were you upset? I was upset because I lost my video. And when I lost my video, I couldn't tell whether I was on mute anymore or not. So I was concerned that maybe I wasn't on mute, and they would pick up what you were saying. But we weren't saying anything. Not yet. I was trying to hold you off. You really admonished us, though. It was worrisome. A little bit. Tell me about the softball board meeting and the big topic of conversation. I mean, it was over like two and a half hours. Yeah, it was a long time. It was a very long meeting. Replay review going in? No. I wish. I got the ABS system. I wish. All right. Dad, explain the big debate that you guys were having because this is fascinating. The big debate was over what happens when somebody completely ages out of our league. The league has six or seven divisions, I forget. Each division is pretty much dependent upon your skill level. So let's take skill level one, top tier. Skill level seven, bottom tier. Age group of the bottom guys is probably 80 plus. Some of the guys are really at the end of their career. And the question came up as to whether it was fair to cut them, so to speak, if they couldn't keep up with the rest of the guys in their division, even though the rest of the guys in their division were sort of behind things anyway. Yep. Pass their prime. Or whether to just let them continue to keep playing and just let them be. Sure. And have them kind of— So this isn't to demote them from a higher division. No, this is once you've hit the bottom division. There's no division below this. Can they kick you out of softball? Right. And so what did you guys end up working through? Well, I think kick out is the wrong word. I think basically if somebody can't do five basic skills, five basic skills, which would be throwing probably 30 to 40 feet in the air with some accuracy, being able to hit at the plate without falling down, I'm not kidding, being able to catch a ball that's thrown to you, catch it in the air so that it doesn't hit some other part of your body if you miss it with your glove. You have to be able to run to first base in under 10 seconds. Think about that just for a minute. First base is how far away? We play 65. 65. 65, yeah. Okay. So 10 seconds to run 65 feet is practically walking. And so the question came up, should we just always find a home for people to be able to play until they just can't play anymore? Sure, right. Or are they ruining the game for those guys that can play fairly well at that age? Gosh, there's some comparison to your phone call. I know. Yeah, there actually is a little bit. Actually, there is. Top and the bottom. Top and the bottom, right. But this is the lowest. I mean, like, this feels... These are 80-year-old men still trying to live a dream. I will tell you there's a couple of guys that actually pitch into their 90s. Oh, yeah. Because they can still pitch. Okay. Burble, I-11, pitched in 90s, didn't he? I think he did, yeah. The 12-6s. Jamie Moyer wanted to, that was my understanding. And Russ, as you know, is going to be playing football into his 90s. Correct. So what was the final decision? The final decision was not to... Don't cut him, right? Yeah, the whole point was... What about safety? Do we want to make a rule about this, or should it just be kind of an unwritten rule? Yeah. and let the division coordinators, of which there are two or three, and the managers kind of get together and make a decision on each case as it comes down. Is there a mental acuity question? Yes. Because we do have a text question, is there a dementia division? Yes. There's no division. That's a text. I didn't write it. I just read it. It's messed up, Matt and Oregon. There have been cases of some of the guys in that division having either some Alzheimer's, degree of Alzheimer's, or dementia. So how does that play its way out? They're not running the wrong way in the bases. No, but again, it's a safety issue. Right. I mean, even if the guy plays first base and somebody throws the ball to them, can they catch you without the ball hitting you in the face? Well, since we're talking mental acuity, what a perfect opportunity to play a little game with my dad. Are you smarter than a fifth grader? The game that Lyle dominated. True. To be fair, Lyle dominated. He was smarter than a fifth grader. So even more pressure now. Earlier this week, we were. Dominated. He dominated. He dominated. Did better than expected. Exceeded expectations. How am I supposed to know what a mammal is? Lyle exceeded expectations. Earlier this week in talking about tiki bars, my dad was telling me about some tiki bar in Boston. I was like, oh, I didn't know about that. He's like, oh, yeah. I was like, it spawned Trader Vicks. And I was like, well, Trader Vicks is the most famous tiki bar of all time. Are you sure it wasn't the other way around? Oh, yeah. Totally sure. I was like, well, it's a good thing I've got the internet. I'll look it up. Yeah, sure enough. Trader Vic's like 20 years older. He's like, well, not in Boston. Like, oh, okay. Well, I didn't realize that we were putting those parameters. We couldn't figure out where Trader Vic's was in Boston when Polynesian Village started. But the actual Trader Vic's was in L.A. Was in L.A., I think, yeah. All right, let's play Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? Lyle, hit the music. Let's see how my dad does here. Lyle, hit the music, huh? Brady. Sorry, Brady. I'm looking at Lyle. I'm sorry. Sorry, Brady. Speaking of dementia. I was looking at Lyle. Let's see if we can get the sun out of my face enough to at least pull this up on the screen. Are you going to be the Jeff Foxworthy guy in this? I have a lot in common with Jeff Foxworthy. Yeah, very similar. I bet you do. Okay, here we go. Yeah, that kind of helps, actually. All right, Dad. What is the numeric value of the Roman numeral L? What is the numeric value of the Roman numeral L? L. 50. That's correct. One for one. Absolutely right. One for one. Nice. You're now a sixth grader. I'm on Cecily's level. She's a lot smarter than I am. All right. Question number two. Mark Twain is the pseudonym of what famous American author who wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, amongst other things? What was his real name? Samuel Clemens. That is two for two. Wow. That is two for two Seven He told me I made these harder but I have more confidence in you than Lyle Thank you Lyle sorry Lyle just gave me the most disparaging look you could imagine Here is Lyle Oh there he is There he is. If you want to call Lyle to phone a friend, you can. Don't. I don't recommend it. I wasn't going to do that. But you can. No, it's Jane. Look, Jane's got both of those. I was going to call Jax over here. All right. Here we go. Dave Clark played what instrument for the Dave Clark Five? I mean, really. That's smarter than a first grader. It's embarrassing. Lyle? I'm just kidding. Brock? Come on. No chance. I got it. Maura? Never heard of him. Justin? Guitar? Don't see it. No. Dave Clark, who founded the Dave Clark Five, played the drums and actually sang while he played the drums, which is not easy to do. No. No. My guy Phil Collins can do that. Phil Collins can do it. Don Henley can do it. But it's rare. Although Henley, when he plays the drums for the Eagles, he doesn't usually sing. No. I believe Larry's three for three. Well, I made that one up, to be fair. I kind of threw one right into his. That was not an Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. Oh, give him the vegetation one. I think it's the last one. The last one? About the trees or whatever. Yeah. All right. We'll get to that one. Oh, okay. Oh, there's more? Yeah. What gas do plants absorb from the atmosphere? And through what process? Through photosynthesis? Yes. And the gas would be... You're taking me back to 10th grade biology. It's what the plants absorb. I don't remember very well. They absorb sunlight. Some airlines allow you to try to offset it, to try to buy offsets. It's not methane. It's going the other way. No, that's oxygen. Oxygen? No. It's actually carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide. It's CO2. They take in the carbon dioxide. They spit out. Do I get any credit for knowing it's CO2? Absolutely not. We were looking for carbon dioxide. After you said oxygen and like seven other elements. I had half of it, though. I had the oxygen. You're hitting 750. You also added the photosynthesis part. I'm not making this easy for him. He got that part. He should get a point for photosynthesis. Thank you. Okay, so he's hitting 800. He's four for five. True or false? This is a 50-50 question. Four for five. I could make this harder by not making it 50-50, but we'll keep it easy for you. True or false? The word monsters is the subject of the following sentence. Jackson, you better get this. Okay? Listen closely. He's going to help me. What are you, sixth grade? All right. Come over here. Sixth grader Jackson. Here we go. Two and I together. Ready, buddy? The word monsters is the subject of the following sentence. True or false? The idea of monsters living under his bed kept Kyle awake at night. is monsters as used in that sentence. The subject. What do you think, buddy? You think so? You're not sure? Read the sentence again, please. The sentence will be read one more time. In Latin? Please don't read it in Latin. The idea of monsters living under his bed kept Kyle awake at night. I was going to say false. I think Kyle might be the subject. The answer is false. Nice job, Jackson. I don't know whether idea would be the subject. I think idea is the subject. The idea of monsters. The idea is the subject. Five for six. But nice job. You got it for the wrong reasons. Would Mrs. Gonson be upset with me for that, Jim? Five of six. Pretty impressive. He's dominating. I'm not surprised. Crushing this. I don't know. You told me I made him hard. He's doing well. How many more questions do we have? How come you didn't want to do ranked? You feel like ranks overplayed? To be honest with you, I couldn't think of anything special to rank this time. Really? We kind of done that. You set the standards so high. Mike said he was going to interview me, and I said, that's fine. We can just sort of have an ad lib thing. Yep, okay. And here we are making fun of me, but that's okay. Making fun of you? You're five of six. Who in the world can make fun of you? You're just shoving it in their face. What else you got? The Strait, not of Gibraltar. Strait of Magellan? The Strait of Magellan runs through the southern tip of what continent? Not only will I give you the continent, I will tell you what state it's in. Yes. It's South America. It is. And the city from which you leave if you're going to Antarctica is Ushuaia. Wow. You can look at it. Am I right? Ushuaia. Ushuaia. Wow. Ushuaia. My mom confirms. I will also tell you one other little piece of information. Aaron Rodgers likes to smoke Ushuaia. Yeah, I think so. Ushuaia. Lyle should be over here learning things. No, he doesn't care. This is all worthless information. Nobody should know it. It depends. If you go to Ushuaia, there is a salt pharmacy. I've seen it. Well, the name after Jonas. We don't know. We don't know. So we tried to find out. It might be named after Larry. A friend of mine was going to Antarctica on a trip. Stopped in Ushuaia before you board the ship to go across. Okay. Took a picture of Salk Pharmacia. Heck yeah. And we tried to figure it out. Who owned it? We couldn't tell. No. Jonas probably gave that away, too. Could have. Probably did. Was he your great-great-grandfather? No. It's my dad's father. It's my dad's father, Jonas. I believe seven of eight. Yeah, he's doing really well. And he's basically saying, if you don't have anything else stronger. If you don't have anything else, let's just stop him. Yeah. Stop while he's ahead. Bern is the capital of what European country? Oh. Ooh. I should know this with my travel. Spell it for me. B-Y-R-N-E. Not like David Bern. Oh, not like David Bern. David Bern is the lead singer. From the talking hit. There we go. Okay, see, I knew that too. Bern, B-E-R-N. Oh, it's... The capital of what European country? Hmm. I keep wanting to say Switzerland, but I'm not sure that's right. Basel in Switzerland. You want to phone a friend? I don't think anybody in this group knows. Anybody know the capital? Mom might know that. Do you know it, Jane? Bern? B-E-R-N? Huh? Who what? You sent someone there. To Bern? Yeah. No. No. If I sent somebody there, I'd know where it was. Not to be confused with the Deep Purple song, Burn, that was for a while the intro music to the old Mike Salk show, as Justin can tell you. Burn is the capital of Switzerland. I said that. No, you didn't. You said, I want to say Switzerland. No, but he did. Planning to say it is the same thing as saying it. He wasn't confident, but he said it. It's not like I said it was the capital of Lichtenstein. That's right. I was right there. Yes. I got eight of nine. I got one more question. He might hit 900 here. He's eight of nine. Okay. And in that seven-level softball league, let's make it clear what level Larry plays. Let's start with what level is we now. I can't ask him this one because this one is too far up his alley. Really? Ask it anyway. I'll ask it, but this does not count. Okay. What do you call a scientist that studies weather? A meteorologist. What do you call somebody who watches the news every day and grades all of the meteorologists in that city? A dad. My dad does the same thing. Yes. You haven't gotten there yet? We watch the news because of the meteorologists, not because of who's doing the news. Yes, it's true. All right, there are two counting questions left. That's it? Just two questions that involve counts. Okay. Or, yeah. Is it the Count of Monte Cristo? How many justices serve on the Supreme Court? Nine. Nailed it. Wow. Just total confidence. No problem. Go ahead. That's nine of ten. This is almost like having the answers to the quiz before you take the quiz. Well, it's not are you smarter than a genius. It's are you smarter than a fifth grader. And you obviously are. Nine of ten. Give me the last one. How many Great Lakes are there? Five. Goodness gracious. Can you name them? Goodness gracious. This is impressive. Ontario, Erie, Michigan, Superior, and Huron. Good Lord. Whoa. I think we're done here. I think we're done here. I think we're pretty well done here. I think I should be in your chair. You should be over here. I can ask you some questions. Let me go. Yeah. Bring them on. Well, I have to think about it. Yeah, that was impressive. That was pretty impressive. What level were we playing at? One through seven. Ran the table. Playing two divisions. One and two. You play one and two. We've got a long way to go. It's a long runway down. The problem is that the number one division is 50 plus. So I'm getting... And you are? 77. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Now the funny thing though is... What level would you play at right now? Of the 50 plus? Well, I'm not 50. What level would you play? One through seven? I'm not playing. You think you'd be level one? I didn't say that. The last time I saw you play, you would easily be level two. Easily. if not level one. I think you could possibly win. Wow. Depends. Can you still catch a fly ball? I think I can, yeah. Then you'd probably be okay for level one. Well, how far does he have to run? Well, but they have 19 guys on the field. There are every year in each one of those levels. Your son has not run in a year and a half since he tore his hamstring. They should completely rename their divisions. It shouldn't be level one, two, three, four. For each level, they should just say how many outfielders and fielders they have. We have the 10-fielder division, the 11-fielder division, the 12-fielder division, the 13-fielder division. And if you can't get a hit with 17 fielders on the field, you're done. We're done with you. You've got to move on. That's right. Good. Larry, well done. Thank you. Thanks, brother. Nice job. That was very impressive. Very impressive. Yes. The softball what? Ages. Oh, I know what she's saying. The age rule? No. I know what she's asking. She just wants to make fun of me a little bit more. I turned 77 in December. Okay. But as soon as you roll the calendar over to January, my softball age is 78. Because I was born. That's right. In that year. Yeah. So even though I'm born literally at the very end of the year. But your softball age is 78. And still playing level one. Which actually makes it more impressive. Because when guys say, you're 78, you can still do that? You say, no, I'm only 77. Of course I still can. It's not even a problem. Dad, thank you. My pleasure. And thank you for having me down here. I love you. It's great to be around you. Amazing job. Thank you, Mom. You too. Love you both. Thank you. It was pretty. 10 of 11. Think about all of the awful phone call guests, like phone call contestants we've had. Yeah. My dad just dominated every one of them. Is this going to be on ESPN right now? It may. Yeah. Stump the Schwab. Yeah. They're going to do a special division just for you. Me and Boomer. We got to go. We'll see you guys tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Thank you, Dad. Thank you, Mom. Love you both. And until then, Brock, you know where the hay is? It's in the barn. See you, everybody. Get to the chopper!