you're listening to miller and molten coming at you from the floor meister studios floor meisters keeping it real and now here's mark miller and david molten hour two of miller and molten on this hump day we hope your week is going well if not well we'll help get you there We'll at least do the best we can. Miller and Moulton, millernmoulton.com, Miller underscore Moulton on X. Do we just have the one poll question? Because today's National Pistachio Day. Are we doing anything with that? We can always go nuts, David. I'm not afraid to go nuts. Look at you. I love pistachios. I'm so horrible. And they are expensive. It's an expensive nut. But when I get pistachios, I even go more expensive. because at Costco they have the bag of already shelled pistachios. So I can just eat them by the handful, and they're fabulous. So you don't want the enjoyment out of splitting them open and what have you because some people actually, I don't know. What's the enjoyment of waiting to eat? I don't know. Some people like to work for their food. It's like part of the process. It makes it more enjoyable because you have to wait just a little longer for it. They're not stone crab. That is the only food that I will work for. Okay. All right. I'm just asking. Got it. So I didn't know. First of all, I just wanted to go straight and up or down on pistachios. And Mark's like, oh, don't do that because I'll have to hate everybody that doesn't like them. And I go, well, I don't know how popular they are. And then Mark's like, well, let's go most popular nut. And Rick and I immediately went cashews. Yeah, cashews are good nut. There's nothing wrong with the cashew. I'm trying to figure out after cashew and pistachio where you'd even go. Well, because you can't go peanut because it's not a nut. It's not a nut. Right. Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't. Exactly. Pecans. All enjoys got nuts. Mounds don't. Because. Yes, Rick. I just said pecans. Oh, yeah. It's a good nut. I need them candied. I got to get them a little snobby there. Walnut. Yeah, okay, if you say so. Why, I'm just saying. They're not that good. It just sounded like you were struggling to fill out the poll question. Rick and I are just trying to help. I mean, the Brazilian nut? I mean, we can sit here and name nuts. I just. All right. All right, but, I mean, and we are a little nuts, so it all fits. Well, there's no doubt about that. Thanks for being with us. We do have the one poll question, though. nhl resumes tonight because the usa won gold will you watch more hockey than before right now 61 of you say you will not watch more hockey before david's one of them and his excuse is he can't watch any more hockey than he already does i don't think it's it's possible i really don't so along the lines of watching hockey the ratings came out dinner time right at 5 30 ish five ish yesterday eastern and um we had guessed speculated what have you mark's like man if it could do 15 million i'm like oh mark it's gonna do 15 million and i was so you know i was feeling it sunday and monday i'm like mark i think this could do 20 and then he's like, come on, big boy, you know what does 20 in this country. Okay, game seven of a World Series and the NFL. Take it easy there, fella. And I went, you know, you're probably right. So my prediction was it was going to be over 17, less than 18, over 17. Yeah, it did 20. Almost 21. Yeah. Damn near 21 million. I mean, really, you've got to round up. 20.7 million was the number. Yeah, and it was at 26 million when overtime started, and that only went a minute 41. I mean, if we had gotten a lengthy overtime, which I don't know if you can have a lengthy three-on-three overtime with that much skill on the ice, but so it's the second most watched hockey game ever. Now, I don't know if that's true. No, second most watched on NBC. Gotcha. Because the 2010 U.S.-Canada gold medal game, Sidney Crosby with the golden goal. Both the 80 games against Russia and Finland did a bigger total number. They were both in the 30s, but remember that was on ABC. Correct, when we had three networks and PBS. So second highest watched hockey game ever on NBC, and it did almost 21 million. To give you an example, Monday Night Football for the year. Now, you know, you could argue the doubleheader games hurt Monday Night Football and the ratings, and they do. But Monday Night Football did 21 games this year. It did 18.7 million on average. Now, they had a lot. They had probably half their schedule that got as much viewership as that hockey game did. But that's Monday night at 8.15 Eastern. And Sunday morning, drop the puck at 8.10 a.m. Eastern. Most watched sporting event in this country that ever started before 9 a.m., which was kind of to be expected. So and something that should be pointed out, that Vancouver gold medal game that started at three in the afternoon Eastern. On a Sunday, not eight hours earlier. And it was in North America because it was in Vancouver. Just saying. So there you have it. Big. Big numbers. And NBC had a glorious Olympics. They really did. Glorious. It worked for NBC. For a lot of us, it didn't. But, boy, a glorious Olympics for NBC. Big, sustained numbers. The primetime viewership was in the mid-20s. Okay? You throw in an 8 a.m. hockey game doing nearly 21. I mean, they had a glorious Olympics. Yeah, they really did. And like you said, other than the hockey and the curling, I didn't watch anything. I watched a half second of bobsledding before the Sunday morning hockey game just because I was up. And I was trying to pay attention during our show to Schifrin's run in the slalom. I had it out in the background, but it was going on while we were working. But I did not watch any skiing. I did not watch any bobsledding, any lose, some of the stuff that I usually will watch. I just didn't. Well. But I will say I watched a lot of curling. You did. I will fully admit I watched a ton of curling. But NBC, first off, we'll say it again. You go back to the beginning of this month. They had the Super Bowl. They had the NBA All-Star Game and the Olympics. NBC. Now, they had to spend a lot of money. They did. I mean, the broadcast rights for these games are not cheap. Okay. Never mind all the employees and the travel and the whole thing. I mean, the expenses were 10-plus figures for NBC. But they put over $2 billion in the bank this month. $2 billion in revenue they generated. Off of the Super Bowl, the NBA All-Star Game in the Olympics. Bubba, bubba. This month, three weeks. Right. And it proves again that sports television right now is working. You know, not just the Super Bowl always works. We get it. The Olympics worked in a big way. The NBA All-Star Game did its best number in forever. You know, as much as you hated all the commercials, the Daytona 500 sold out their inventory for the race. Yep. So as we had, you know, and I am interested now, you know, because NBC is going to have Sunday night baseball. How's that going to do? What are we going to watch during the summer between now and when football starts again in late August? What will we watch and will those numbers continue to be better than they've been? Certain NBA numbers are up. Certain ones are down. But early PGA Tour ratings are outstanding. College basketball ratings this year have been very good Very good Very good All networks all platforms Yes Ratings are up People are watching their sports There no question Now that football and the Olympics are over, will it continue? I think you and I believe it will. And we've been bullish on this for a long time. Now it is what we do for a living. It makes us happy. The more people that watch sports, we hope means the more people that listen to sports radio. Right. So we certainly are sports all the time and we're watching. I mean, you know, I've found myself watching more college hoop this year than I've watched in a long time. You know, here I've had this stint where between the hospital and the hotel, people get, you know, so many people have texted all these different shows to watch. I've not watched the shows because college hoops been on every night and there's usually a good game. I mean, I was watching Texas Tech in Cincinnati last night. That would not have happened a couple of years ago. It just wouldn't have. Duke was pounding Notre Dame, and I'm like, well, hell, what am I going to watch? I guess I'll watch Texas Tech in Cincinnati. Heck, I don't know if it would have happened three months ago, although the start of the college basketball season was outstanding, and if it got you, well, it hasn't let up. But beginning tonight, how many of the 21 million, how many of you are going to sample some hockey going forward tonight, tomorrow, over the weekend? Will you watch the final third of the NHL regular season? Or are you more inclined now to maybe sample the Stanley Cup playoffs in a couple months? That's where we'll notice the ratings bump. If there is one. Right. And, you know, I have largely said I don't think it will happen. I think this is a wrap yourself around the flag moment. And I'm not sure it translates to better ratings. I hope so. I mean, don't laugh. The NHL would be thrilled, thrilled if 1% of Sunday's audience were to start watching the NHL on a regular basis. That would be 200,000 more viewers to their weeknight NHL on Turner or ESPN. Games that are drawing between 400,000 and 500,000 viewers. You're darn right. you're darn right one percent one percent can they make it happen well and if you're if you're espn or if you're tnt are you switching what you put on are you trying to put on more minnesota wild so quinn hughes is on tv i mean do you know what part of the problem is you can't show him wearing the Team USA stuff in your promos. NBC ain't going to give you permission to do that, I don't believe. So when you show him, you're going to say his name, but he's going to be wearing his NHL jersey. Still can say gold medal winning Quinn Hughes. You're listening to Miller & Moulton. And now, here's Mark Miller and David Moulton. 21 minutes past the hour Chris Perkins to talk some Dolphins their general manager the new GM spoke about you know who they're keeping who they're getting rid of how they're going to manage the cap so we'll talk to Chris about what he had to say at the combine yesterday Seth Everett coming up in a little more than an hour if I may and I want to word this properly because I know your baseball dream involves the Tigers winning another World Series because it's been over 40 years. So I know that's your ultimate baseball dream. Just like Rick Church is producing today, his ultimate baseball dream, it's been 35 years for the Twins. I thought his ultimate dream was for the Twins to be sold. That's true because he may think the only way they ever win another World Series the sale has to happen first. So, okay, it's a two-part dream, the sale, and then eventually one day another World Series. So I get that. But, and Rick, you've got to play along here. Mark Miller, for the 20 years that we've been on the air, has really wanted one thing and one thing only when it concerns Major League Baseball. He has wanted a computer to call balls and strikes. That has been his, this is what I want until they do it. All right, they're doing it wrong. I don't want to hear it. Blah, blah, blah. Did you see or hear what happened in Fort Myers yesterday afternoon? Was that the umpire that just had the horrible game? I didn't know where it was played, but I know there was one game played in which the umpire was just awful. And ABS was correcting nearly every pitch that was thrown. This was your in-game baseball fantasy. All right? It happened yesterday, Mark. As Jim Lampley famously said, it happened. It happened. Pirates, Red Sox. All right? Jet Blue Park. Triple-A umpire Mitch Trechiak. It may be Treziak, but he's officiating the game. He's the home plate umpire. Five consecutive pitches were challenged. Remember, only a pitcher, a catcher, and a batter can challenge a pitch. Five consecutive pitches were challenged. The home plate umpire went 0 for 5. we haven't needed this at all david this is not a necessary now this is a guy who's not yet ready for prime time and he is umpiring when you don't have to be ready for prime time but he missed five in a row if a major league home plate umpire has a bad game a bad game He misses 15 to 20 for the game. This guy missed five pitches in a row. And very quickly, each team gets two challenges. But if you're right, you're allowed to keep challenging. You still got your two. So it didn't matter whether it was the pitcher, catcher, or batter. They're challenging. They're right. Okay, you still got two. right because you know i read an article the other day and i thought it was a good piece that talked about abs strategy when do you know when are when are we going to use these hey if it's a ball outside that you think's a strike and it's a oh two count it's early in the game do you use it there or do you have to make sure that you're 100 right and save it for a more critical time right also do you only allow certain it's kind of like the steal sign you know do two guys on the team usually they can run whenever they want everybody else has to be given the steal sign i mean like the you know i'm a mets fan juan soto has maybe the best eye in the sport if you're the mets soto can probably challenge whenever he wants but how many guys on the team you're going to give that to well and i they're they're you know let's go to sports that have replay you know basketball you can now challenge a foul or not a bounce player you know there's certain challenges in hoop that they have and they they put their finger around and there are there are guys that are doing it all the time they don't always challenge football whether it's you know a possession a fumble an interception a catch right do you trust your receiver who says he caught the ball when he may indeed not have caught it how many times have we seen a receiver get up and be pretty adamant that he caught the ball they then challenged the play and guess what he didn't catch it now obviously though in football the receiver has to convince his coach to challenge it that's why this is interesting it's pitcher catcher batter all right this isn't like the old you know this isn't are we going to use replay where it's supposed to be done in two seconds but we all know what does everybody do they look into the dugout the team is scurrying their video people upstairs have rewanted okay and then they're going yeah challenge or no he's safe okay we all know and then eventually the manager will turn around and tell the home plate umpire we want to challenge it or no let it go and they allow that to go longer than the rule is intended but this is pitcher catcher batter who get the challenge the ball strike calls made by the home plate umpire five in a row I will say for those of you that attended the game yesterday, there's a lot of talk that this Griffin kid from Pittsburgh, their young hitter, had a couple of home runs yesterday. They're pretty excited. There's a bunch of young guys. and because the rookie of the year award if you get it and your player is on the roster when the season begins you get an extra draft pick if you do the call up like most do so you can preserve a year of service time for that player you do not get the draft pick you know the national league player and i can't the life of me i can't remember who it was but the nl guy was there all year the al guy wasn't and draft picks were awarded accordingly so it is something that's been talked about and you know the tigers have a rookie that's looking to make the team and a hitter the pirates have a couple of guys i mean there are a bunch of young kids who may be on opening day rosters this year by the way i think that's good for the sport i hate the wait until you get that other year. I understand why teams do it, but if you're good enough to play, you're good enough to play. And now they've incentivized the teams to keep those guys on the roster. So it's just something worth watching here as spring training Wendell's down. Okay, let's be brutally honest, though. I'm with you, obviously. What fan doesn't want the best, most exciting players at the majors as soon as possible? But you're the Pirates. We all know the economics and what have you. The draft pick or another year of a guy that you think is going to be a stud. And all you have to do is send him to AAA for six weeks. They'll send him down. But I will say draft picks have never been more important in baseball. I understand. The game has changed. I understand. I actually think, you know, listen, the Pirates spent some money. They made some deals. If I'm the Pirates and it's it sounds like the Pirates are trying to sell their fans on believing that they really do want to win. OK, then they should put them on the opening day roster. And by the way, thanks. Drake Baldwin was the rookie of the year from Atlanta. So, you know, I hope they do. I mean, you're selling Skeens. You're selling this 19-year-old. By the way, Skeens said he'll pitch two games in the World Baseball Classic after Scoobles said he would only pitch one for what it's worth. Exactly, because Scoobles is a dog, okay, and Skeens is a pitcher. Well, and look, I blame Skeens. I mean, I blame Scoobles, but how much of that is his agent in his ear? Does he have the wrong guy represented? You tell him to show him. I don't care. I'm going to get paid. Look at me. I've went back-to-back Cy Young's. I just got $32 million in arbitration. I'm getting paid. I'm representing my country, okay? I want to wear the Team USA jersey. I'm pitching. It's five more innings, Scott. Besides, you work for me. It's five more innings. 22 minutes till Chris Perkins will join us at the top of the hour on Miller and Moulton, Millerandmoulton.com, Miller underscore Moulton on X. It's National Pistachio Day. Just letting you know. Someone did text in macadamia nut. I could go cashew macadamia nut pistachio. That's a good triple threat right there. Okay. All right. You handle these things because I think I've only been able to successively post a poll question once in all our years together. So I leave that to you. Let me ask a couple of things I want to get to. Okay. One of which we didn't talk about last week when Tiger did his interview at the Genesis and was asked if he would rule out the Masters this year. he gave his little tiger smile and said no right and that was all he said uh-huh but more importantly because one if he plays great he's not has any no chance of winning i don't even think he could make the cut right now if he plays it's basically symbolic and good for him if he does it would be great it truly would i don't think he will be able to but the pga of america has pressed him they want him to be the captain of our next Ryder Cup team in 2027 when we play over in Ireland. Tiger hasn't given much of an answer one way or another, but they've said they want an answer before the Masters. First off, do you think Tiger's the right guy to lead Team USA in the Ryder Cup? yeah i do but i don't think he is right now i think he's got too much on his plate and that was his answer too he's like i don't know if i can do a good job because quite frankly i'm obsessed with the pga tour and what it's going to look like I mean, it sounds like there are two people shaping the future of the PGA Tour, the commissioner and Tiger Woods. I know. And I find that. What's more important? What's more important for golf, the new look of the PGA Tour, and particularly in this country, or giving the United States the best chance to win the Ryder Cup? The PGA Tour. well their vision of what the tour is i don't think's a good vision well i think the two people that are leading this tiger and the commissioner there uh i i don't like their vision i don't like what they're doing i don't think it's good for golf i'm totally with you okay and it's ironic as hell i mean tiger sounds like he wants to do more liv than phil wanted to do five years ago seriously i mean the tiger wants this tour to be like an exclusive country club i mean really does he wants to make it like the signature events at pebble and uh riviera there like 80 to 100 guys that's it He doesn't want this, you know, 125, 150, no interest. Also, 22, 24 tournaments. None of this 38, 42 tournaments stuff. Which Tiger didn't play a lot of tournaments on tour. No, he played 15, 18. Right, and he played a bunch of events around the world where he got paid to show up. And I'm surprised, too, that the PGA Tour, The PGA Tour is thinking that the DP World Tour is going to be able to negate the LIV Tour around the world. I thought the PGA Tour would look at some of the places that the LIV has had really good success selling tickets. And how those countries and those markets were like, oh, thank goodness. We've been waiting to see premier golfers forever. And I thought the PGA Tour was actually going to cut LIV off and grab their top six places and basically say there's no reason for you guys to be in existence anymore. I'm with you. And I thought by offering the olive branch and Kepka coming back and now Patrick Reed coming back, I thought they had their opportunity to get Rom and Cam Smith by doing some of the things you talked about. But if they don't want to play golf during football season in this country, why wouldn't the PGA Tour have an event in Australia whenever? Totally. You know, play two tournaments a month for, you know, the fall around the world. I mean, here's my question. Is the Canadian Open going to be part of the PGA Tour going forward? I can't imagine how it would. And I'm being serious. Why? And, hell, there was talk back in the day that when the Canadian Open, it was bigger than winning the players. Trust me. Ask Nicholas. Ask Trevino. When the Canadian Open was a big deal. And now we're going to have less tournaments, and you're going to tell me they're going to have five majors? That doesn't make any sense. Well, that's the other thing. This commissioner every time he been asked about it he wants I think he wants the tour to have a major What we joked about he doesn find funny that Augusta runs the Masters that the PGA of America runs the PGA, and the Ryder Cup. Right. The USGA runs the US Open, and obviously the RNA runs the British. Right. And the PGA tour is like, no, we want a major, the players. And I will say, if you want to do best field, they can make the case we have the best field in golf. Now, the Open Championship would argue with them because they go, we've got more golfers around the world. You guys don't care about the world. Our field's better. Okay. When it comes to world golf rankings, which we all know are a bit screwed up, the players has the best field, has the most top 100 players in the world of any tournament. So just I thought that was interesting. One other quick golf thing last night, the TGL. And I know most of you don't watch it because the ratings have gone down, and I don't think they've done that league any favors by when they're putting the matches on. 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to maximize viewership, but whatever. They don't talk smack. There's a few things that Moulton and I, Miller and Moulton, would love to see. Them, you know, communicating and talking a little smack and making it like your Thursday game at your club with your buddies. But the mics were hot last night, and Fleetwood started going into a lesson he got from Harmon. And it was all on microphone. You could hear every word, and you got a great tip. I mean, you basically got the lesson. It's out there if you want to find it. And I thought that that's the best audio they've had since this league's come into existence, David. Agreed. Agreed. If you're a golf geek, you're into that. We think they should be selling that, and we think that they should be saying to the players, listen, this is not as much about golf as what you guys normally do. This is entertainment. That's what this is. This is entertainment. So what do we have to be? Entertaining. And Miller and Moulton would help them out by going, Here's a cocktail. Try to love your idea. I love your idea of the cart girl. Yeah. And a rap sponsored cart driving out. That is actually hysterically fun. Yes. It just reminds me of the old bullpen golf carts that they used to have back in the day. Right. Okay. And I don't know about you, but I mean, the Yankees games. Okay. The bullpen car was sponsored by Toyota. Okay. Every time, you know. And the Mets had a bullpen. They had a golf cart with a big Mets hat on it. Yeah. Okay. And that's how the pitchers would come in and the pitching change and what have it was always brought to you by a Rangel, which was a big thing because Schaefer was the big Mets beer and Rangel did the Yankees. So that was controversial. It's like, oh, it's a way for Rangel to get in here. So just wanted to get to that. And then our full question is the NHL resumes play tonight because the USA won gold. Will you watch more hockey than before? 61% of you say no. David's in that no simply because he says he cannot watch any more hockey than he's currently watching. It's not possible. But I bring it up because the U.S., obviously, we know they won gold. We talked about it all day Monday. We talked about the ratings today. They were unbelievable. Here's the problem that both ESPN and TNT have going forward. The Kachuk brothers, one plays for Ottawa. We're not putting Ottawa on U.S. television. That's not going to draw numbers. And the Florida Panthers right now are in last place in their division. They're eight points out of the playoffs and have to pass a bunch of teams to qualify for the postseason. The captain of the team, Austin Matthews, he plays for Toronto. Quinn Hughes plays for Minnesota. Now they're good. His brother Jack plays for the New Jersey Devils. They're not making the playoffs. Two of the players play for the Rangers. We're stuck watching the Rangers far more than we should ever have to watch the Rangers this year. They're a bad hockey team. Hellebrook plays for Winnipeg. They're not going to make the playoffs. Oh, by the way, did I say he plays for Winnipeg? So you've got Dylan Larkin. You've got Thompson there that plays for Buffalo. Larkin that plays for the Red Wings. Those are draws. They are. but the majority of these players aren't playing for teams that are good the guys that play for you know mckinnon and mccarr both play for colorado that's the best team in the league but they both played for the canadian team now you've got getzel in tampa and obviously you can you can put a lot of tampa down your throat because that's the good hockey team but they had a ton of olympians most of them played for other countries a couple for Canada a couple for European teams you know one that would have played for Russia if they would have been in the tournament so it is a tough thing to promote the gold medal when you look at where the gold medal players are playing in the National Hockey League it's a tough sell there's no doubt but one good thing working in the NHL's favor with a quarter of the season left when it resumes tonight. Actually, a third of the season left. Most teams have between 25 and 27 games out of an 82-game season, soon to be 84. But seven of the eight teams in the East are from the States. Like, there were two teams last year. Because didn't Ottawa make it last year and lose in the first round? All right, I thought they did. I thought they lost in six. and toronto of course made it well neither one's making the playoffs as of today so seven of the eight teams in the east are american and pittsburgh and buffalo didn't make the playoffs last year and right now they're in detroit didn't make it last year and right now they're in uh those are three of the five highest rated tv markets of the country for hockey so that is the one advantage Yes, there's an awful lot of stars on the U.S. Olympic team that are on teams that are not going to make the playoffs. But right now, like we talked about this a month in advance last year, we said the NHL playoff ratings are going to be lousy because here are all the teams that attract viewers who ain't making it. But, yeah, you've got McAvoy for Boston. Right now they're a playoff team. You've got Thompson for the Sabres. They're a playoff team. You got Larkin for Detroit. They're a playoff team. You got Getzel for Tampa. They're a playoff team. But, you know, the Hurricanes didn't have any U.S. players. They had some Olympians on there playing for Finland. But, you know, second best team in the West, tied for the second most points in the league, the Minnesota Wild. Mark, who plays for the Minnesota Wild? Quinn Hughes. I'd be giving us a lot. And Billy Guerin, who was the general manager of the team, is the GM of the Wild. so did see a funny video showed a guy shooting a crumbled up piece of paper into a garbage can he makes the first one and goes kobe he misses the second one by four feet and goes mckinnon whoa whoa So that's the dilemma that ESPN and Turner have in trying to take advantage of this gold medal. As David pointed out, NBC is not going to let them show the players in the USA jerseys. Now, maybe they can show some still photos that they purchased from the AP or somebody else who took the photos, but they can't show. Unless they're going to have to ask for permission, honestly. And if I was Bettman in the NHL, I would call the NBC and say, can you do us a solid? I would beg. What do you need to make this happen? By the way, we did you a solid. I put the boys back in the Olympics for you, okay? We did you a solid. Can we use and come to whatever agreement they have to so that TNT and ESPN can use Team USA footage, even if it's just still pictures of Quinn Hughes in a jersey or celebrating or whatever. But right now they can't use any of that. Please. By the way, you don't draw 21 million if we don't put the boys back in the game. So I'll just tell you that right now. Exactly. They don't have hand. I mean, it's not where Bettman has hand. but I do agree with you that Bettman's got to go to NBC and say, come on now. Yep. 20 million. You're not getting that. If it's college kids or AHL players or whatever the case may be, they put the, we put the best of the best out there. That's what people wanted to see. So you always want here. Miller and Moulton, Chris Perkins to talk dolphins and Seth Everton, 45 minutes on Miller and Moulton.
