Transition with Holmes & Vitali

0:00You know, he can never be my enemy. We went a lot of places today on this show. We went a lot of places. Thanks again to everybody who came out here to Cody's public house, taking place in Lakeview for the show. We had a great time thanks to our sponsors, Circa and Miller Light for being out here, sports betting the way it should be with no bet fees. Miller Light, the official beer of the Chicago Bears. Thanks to CS, Ray Diaz, Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, Cody, West Berlin, Ryan Pore, hanging out here as well. Thanks to everybody who is working today here at Cody's public house, working early for us. So we would be able to hang out. It has been a fantastic time to our guests, Danny Perkins, herb-powered. We are happy to hear from him as well in the great Jason Kipness for joining our show Tyler Beauty Bond, Tyler Faringle back at the station. So now let's go live to the second part of our day that is brought to you by Circa and Miller Light. This is great. We got a streeterville from one bar in the city to another.

1:03We are at Timothy O Tools now, Carmen Vittelli and Lawrence Holmes. Hey guys, how are you? Hi. What's up, Layla? How are you? I'm good. I bring regards from Grote. He had to leave for transition. So it is just me holding it down on the north side now. Does Grote hate us for some reason now? No, I think it's a disappointment. No, well, I mean, you should be able to take away some bears from him. If you want for the micro persons giving of the bears. I agree. That's true. I agree. Yeah, between that and skipping out for a dentist appointment, I think he gets some minus bears. No, he got to take care of that stuff when you can. I get it. And of course, Grote left something in his in his wake if he always does. He did it yesterday. He came back into the studio yesterday because he left like a, like a backpack at an umbrella. And like, what? Like, don't you need both of those things? Yeah, he left a headphones bag. Grote is, Grote is never far behind. You know how to find him.

2:03He leaves a trail. So I'll bring that back to the station. How was the show today? It was a good time. We had a wonderful crowd. There were many happy dogs who were here keeping us company as well. So really, you can't ask for much more. You know, good crowd sports patio, beautiful Chicago day. Dogs, pizza popcorn. Like it's a red letter day with you. I got to meet Peter Herbstreet doing radio row at the Super Bowl. And while we were live, while we were on the air, Peter Herbstreet was just walking past and we're all losing it because he's the fluffiest golden retriever we've ever seen. And he came right up on set. It was, that was the dogs and radio go together. And you were without Mazzie, though, right? Mazzie didn't make that. Not that Super Bowl. He was at the Super Bowl before. Okay. My dog has been to a Super Bowl and tell people what Mazzie is short for. Mazzie is short for a mozzarella stick because he looks like a mozzarella stick. He looks like the breading and then Laila, he's got a, he's got a white stripe down the center of him. And so we were like, well, that's his cheese pole. So he's mozzarella stick.

3:05We didn't want to name after like anybody, though, because like you never know, you know, an athlete or whatever, you never know the news that are going to come out. And if you're going to regret it, we went to the middle name. Like is he mozzarella stick? Stick. A tally stick helmet. So we're actually, we're all helmets in the family now. I've officially changed my name too. Is it on the license? It's on the license. It's on my social security card. It's not professionally, though. I will still always be car me V. That's right. Switch mob boss car me V here. Do you want to do a mob boss? We do. And I mean, Connor Hunter is usually the mob boss, but he was like, you know what? I got about down. I got a, I got a, I got a take a knee when, when car me V comes around. Oh, but it's mean that in Tannies open that always includes something from the sopranos. I feel like it's very apt. And I don't take that honor lightly. I'm, I, I really, I'm appreciative of the Twitch mob. I always enjoy like when you're like, look, I'm going for the mob wife.

4:05Look today. That's what I'm with. Yeah, that's what's happening with the, the nail. Actually, this was for LSU. I was at, I was in Baton Rouge this last weekend. And I have tiger stripes on like my claws, Lala. I wish you could see them. I think you'd appreciate them. I would because I've never been to a night game in Baton Rouge and I was so Saturday night. That's how I went. Yeah, how did it go? It was, I would listen. I went to Arizona State. Right. Yeah, I went to Arizona State. So I am no stranger to big football programs, but the SEC is just a different animal. And it did rain and Dave was really like sad for me. And I was like, listen, honey, it's early September in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Not just that I expected this, but I did not expect it. And so we were hanging out in the tunnels. I'm drinking my little daiquiri and just happy as a little clam until we got out there. And then LSU put the hurt and on Clemson. And now we realize just how far behind the curve, Davos Weaney really is. He's so far behind. I don't know if you saw this, but they're playing Georgia Southern this week,

5:08which has been an up and coming program. And the coach for Georgia Southern was like, yeah, we looked at the tape. There's a lot of things that we think that we can exploit. Can you imagine it's a world where someone would say about Clemson under Davos Weaney. Yeah, we're feeling pretty confident about our chances. Listen, you have to get with the times at some point. Davos just refuses to exploit the transfer portal. He is not about the NIL stuff, which affects recruiting. And you can see it. The talent on that roster just did not measure up that looked like an FCS opponent, like in Baton Rouge. And I will say the student section, the LSU students are so coordinated. I've never seen so many coordinated chance dances like for every first down, they do something for every third down, they do something for every time the defense gets a stop. They do something. It's wild. I have like, I know Arizona State could never. And I can say that with confidence. You know, I do think it's interesting that we have yet another example of somebody who refuses to acknowledge change and watches the world go past them.

6:11I would say that is fairly common practice in 2026, as is the expected results. Laila, I enjoyed you and Grote talking baseball. And as the raining mayor of Worreetown, I've talked to a lot of my constituents over the last few days. And I was at White Sox on Sunday and I ran to a bunch of people on the concourse. They're like, hey, are they going to, are they going to not finish this thing? Are they going to miss the playoffs? I'm like, I think they're in pretty good shape, but the way that they're playing right now and the way that Milwaukee just owns the Cubs. And it's so disappointing. I heard you say it. I thought it was so true. And it was how I felt the night before. Like they allowed the Cubs allowed you to hit the eject button early yesterday. Now they fought back a little bit, but it was the same thing with the White Sox two nights ago. Like, no one wants to have the, that this thing end up being the Cubs of the third wild card team and

7:14barely hanging on to being the third wild card team. And the White Sox lose their way out of a division. I think I'm at the point where number one, did they just outperform expectations given all of their starting pitching injuries? And because of that, it affected the trade deadline and because of that, you're in the spot because instead of your original guys being healthy, like Justin Steele and like Cain Horton, you're having to trade for starting instead of relief pitching. And maybe the the Mirage was how well they were doing previously, but that doesn't make it feel any better. And the Brewers are such a good mirror. It's just, it's just like what's going on in the, in the NFC West to me. The LA Rams do exactly who they needed to be. They knew exactly what the standard was. They saw it better than anybody else. And your job here was to build the team where you saw the standard right in front of you. May not have been the standard in the playoffs, but you knew that based on what you guys were going to spend. But it was definitely the standard to help you breathe either easier once you get

8:17into them. And I, it's insulting to watch a play out like this day and a day out in these series. It's so interesting that the ironic part is that both of these teams, two weeks ago between the White Sox and the Cubs had every momentum. They, you, you like almost couldn't fathom. They're like very comfortable, very comfortable. Either team, but what's interesting to me is that the Cubs had these expectations going into the season. And I understand the injuries to starting pitching and I understand that that affects the trade deadline and all that other stuff. But you have to be able to withstand that if you have real expectations. That's not something completely, I mean, it was unfortunate, but season, the season is long. Injuries are a certainty. So I don't really buy that as an excuse for a team that had expectations. Now the socks you could argue that. But I think that one of you guys was saying this yesterday when I was listening to the radio, it might have actually even been groty, Leyla, but it was like, you can't play both sides of, hey, we're ahead of schedule, but also halfway through the season, you were talking like, no, we want to win.

9:18Now we've got a locker room or a clubhouse to win now. So there are two teams that got here in very different ways with very different expectations, but the disappointment is the same again for different reason. And the thing is is that when you look at Pete Karan strong, and we talked a little bit about it, like he's a 10 war player. He points to win the MVP and not he's going to win MVP. Have a successful show. Hay has been put on IL. So there's no one that can stop Pete from winning the National League MVP, except for voters. And they would be crazy because he's three wins above show, Hay, O'Connor, right now. The fact that you've got a 10 war player, I give, I give, Leyla, I give Craig a lot of credit. I feel like he's done a really good job of managing this, but to your point, maybe he shouldn't have had to. Like it maybe, maybe it shouldn't be the manager having to make magic and that it's, it's an issue of your, your, the way that your roster was constructed. Now there's still time, but now like, and we're going to talk with Bruce about

10:21this a little bit later on on the show too, but it was that you were just kind of looking up at the brewers and going, okay, can we catch the brewers? Well, the answer to that is no. Now you're in a space where now you're looking up at the Phillies, you have to pay attention to the game of their plan against the Astros right now. And you have to worry about the Padres that they're on their way and the Diamondbacks, where before it was like, oh, well, if the, if the Cubs don't catch Milwaukee, well, they've got this great lead in the, the wild card, and now September baseball is baseballing. Sorry guys, I had to change headsets there. We are, we are striking set here at Codys. I think they're bringing some of those over here. Yeah, they're bringing the, so we can be on Twitch. They're, they're bringing all sorts of stuff over here. Speaking of the Twitch mob, they are, they're like, hey, hey, where's the, where's the picture? Where's the, don't worry. We're getting in there. We're going to get the bosses taken care of.

11:22I'm caught in a counter-counter-own Donald. And well, I think the issue became, yeah, you were ahead of schedule. The White Sox were indeed ahead of schedule. And there was a part of me that thought that too. But I think the problem became, look at the significant difference. One bonafide starter would have made on this team. And I'm not saying a Louise Castilla where you're trying to salvage something, and you're also exchanging an asset that has depreciated for you and Sir Anthony Dominguez. I'm not saying Jose or Kitty who I feel like was found money. I'm saying when the difference became as marginal, as just one bonafide starter, not a one, not a two, how different this team would be because of it. That's enough to buy you the insurance you need to win this division. And then it's enough to get you into the playoffs. You didn't have to mortgage anything. It matches how you are. You have a firm system to do it. The Cubs don't, but they do. It matches the talk that was coming out of that clubhouse too around the train deadline. And so, but it doesn't seem like the front office got that memo

12:24or decided that this was a team that was fit to win now and that they are, they're happy to be ahead of schedule. But how are circumstances going to change next year? So here's my thing. I, and this has been a working theory that I've continued to gain evidence on for my own feelings. Everyone else can have their feelings on it. I hate the concept of we're yearly. And I hate it especially like when you look at all the things that are connected to the white socks. And I wasn't as on fire about what they did at the train deadline as Leila was. Leila was on it. I was like, all right. Every time Leila talks about it, I can tell like Leila, you just go, like you can you can you take it up another gear. Rightfully so she's on it. Right. And I was like, you know what? I didn't mind what they did. But part of my thing is like, if you've got a chance, there's never been a better chance. The way that the American League was playing out at the time, there was never a better chance for a white socks team to come up in surprise. Now, there's been some equilibrium here. Sir, the American League has gotten way better.

13:26Like you said, September baseball has been September baseball. And you look over at the American League East now. And you go, oh my God, they could have all of the wild card teams. So now it's like, if the white socks don't win the central, are you even going to be in the playoffs? Do you even play off, bro? And that would be playoffs. That would be the saddest into what has been like a really fun season. Now, I believe in baseball variants, captain variants, and I have been friends for a very long time. And I know that with the Cubs, like if you get in, you give yourself a chance. I've heard the dog. But my goodness, like you just, you don't want to see teams fizzle out. And seeing that I joked, Leyla, I joked with Speaks yesterday. I'd almost rather see the Cubs matched up in a playoff, in a five game, in a series against the Dodgers instead of the Brewers. Well, I mean, one of the teams you've proven you can beat in a series.

14:26And it's not the Brewers. And that's the problem. You end up four or nine against the Brewers for the season series. The other part of this is, is I think once the socks declared themselves as buyers, you took a different pathway. And I did think about the Mania Machado thing. That was brought up yesterday. It was the 2021-2021-2020 Trust the Prospects group. And everybody forgets. They were doing the things they were supposed to do, until they didn't cement the superstar, until they did not cement at that point, the career five-war player. And that's what makes this hard. You know, that's what makes this so tricky. You get so close that then you don't realize when it's gone far away. And we are going to look back on this season, not necessarily next year, not necessarily two years from now. But what you don't want is to look back on it three years from now and say that was our chance and we didn't do it. That's the hardest part about all of this. Yeah, there's no doubt about that. So, Leila, how did you enjoy the opening of football season? And I know that it kind of caught everyone by surprise.

15:29And you're like, oh my god, it's like real football that's on. And then immediately... I was going to say, didn't really look like real football for a while there. It wasn't great. It wasn't great. It was still football. It was still football. It still counts. That's the Seahawks whole goal, guys. And what did we see? Is in the fourth quarter and closing time, the Patriots yet again played right into the Seahawks drinks. Yeah. Jackson Smith and Jigba does his thing on fourth and one. He ends up with a massive amount of yards in this game off of eight catches. The Seahawks defense does exactly what it's supposed to do. You're still disguising looks better than anybody in the league. New force Drake May with a 70% completion percentage to throw three interceptions in the fourth quarter. I would say their mission is accomplished at 13 to 10. Drake May wasn't hell last night. Just he. And I put a lot of that though on when you watch this offensive line, because when you look at the looks that the Seattle defensive front gives you, I mean, you have three texts

16:29that might as well be five texts, the way that they are spread out. And the offensive line has just had no answer for the leverage that those guys were able to create by those exotic looks and the pressures and the simulated pressures and all of that. You know, who else was in hell was Will Campbell. The Patriots left tackle who was a top five pig who did not look like a top five pig from the fundamentals I saw out of that kid. I was furious because I love Drake May. I love Drake. He was one of my favorites in that that 2024 class. He was my favorite in that 2024 class, which we're going to talk about a little bit more. But I like and Will Campbell came out and he said all the right things. He's going to die for his quarterback and this he's crying on camera. And I'm like, all right, let's go. And as someone who also watched Will Campbell at LSU, I had my concerns, but hey, I was willing to give, you know, a strengthening conditioning staff in the NFL and a, an offensive line coach in the NFL, the benefit of the doubt to kind of get his fundamentals and technique techniques, right?

17:30And I don't see that. I did not see that last night. And the way that he was getting backed up into Drake May, Drake can't worry about his footwork. He's trying not to get stepped on by his left tackle. What are you supposed to do with that? It's an issue as you can tell. I'm fired up. I fired up. She is ready to talk some ball and we are too. Here's what we've got planned for the show today. Dave Helman. I know that guy from somewhere. I might know from somewhere. He's going to be on the show of the athletic football show. By the way, did their Bears preview? We'll talk with Dave about that. We'll talk about you guys just trip to LSU. I'm looking forward to getting his thoughts. Adam Amine is going to be on the call this week of the Bears game against the Panthers. He's going to join us and we'll figure out. He might actually join us here at Timothy O'Toole. Yes, provided that he can get out of meetings with the Bears players and coaches on time. And if he can, that would be great. And if not, we'll figure it out. Coach Wants that is going to be here. And I'm told that Patrick Manley is going to make his way to Timothy O'Toole's as well in the five o'clock hour. There's a little bit of baseball that we want to do with our guy Bruce.

18:32We'll find out what he thinks about what's going on with both teams. But football is back and we are celebrating football with Circa and Miller Light here at Timothy O'Toole's. We're going to be here until six o'clock. So if you're in the area, you've dropped by some people have already said, hey, I've made my lunch a little late or I'm not going back to work because I want to get in the car. I'm going to get out of work a little early. Maybe I could have worked early. Coming, hang out at Timothy O'Toole. We got laptops at the bar right now, which I always appreciate. All of that is going on. So we are going to do that. We're going to talk about the opening of the season after Tannies open, which you know is must listen radio. It's next here on the score.