 Hi everybody, it is time once again to bring a little joy to the world. This is becoming Ian the favorite part of my day right now. Talking to you. Well, I'm glad because not only are we talking, we're now texting, there's Skype conversations, there's a bit of FaceTime, so it seems like I can't get rid of you Bob now. You're in my life 24 seven and I love it. I sent you a fax last night, which was completely out of the blue. Makes no sense. Hey, so today's episode as we dial back to our last conversation a couple of days ago. Oh, the places you'll go. Oh, yeah. I coffee cup to my daughter bought me when she transferred into USC my alma mater. She bought this for old pop. So cheers to Madison. By the way, I have a Madison. You have a Madison, right? Yes. You do have a Madison. I didn't know you had a Madison. I have a Madison and the Tyler. Oh, fantastic. I've got Madison and Alessandra and a Harvey. Love it. Beautiful. Is Harvey, is that a family name or? No, Harvey was a name of a good friend of mine growing up and I always just love the name, the sound of the name. And then my parents almost called me James and I thought that's pretty cool name as well. James Joyce. So I called him Harvey, James Joyce and he's got it's got a nice ring to it. You know, and I told you he's a lefty like me. He's all left side of left foot, left arm. So this guy is, he's something special and he's a wild one as well, man. He's got that aggression, you know, when athletes have that aggression, he certainly has it. We talked about that fire starter, remember by the prodigy dialed up before matches. Hey, how are you being? How's it been going? I mean, obviously we're all in isolation. We're taking all precautions necessary during this difficult time. How's it been for you and the family going so far so good? Yeah, it's been great. And you know, it's funny because I think we've gotten accustomed to it now, right? I think those first few days we all talked about getting a little stir crazy, staring at the walls. I think we've come up with a new routine, right that, you know, obviously the washing of the hands and everything, but the self isolation. I think I haven't gone out in about three days except maybe to take a walk in the neighborhood. Yeah. Line with it. I'm just finding other things to do. Yeah, it's pretty amazing how you think out of the box where normally you're used to a routine of if you need to go grocery store, you just jump in your car and go to grocery store. You take the kids, you take your family, do whatever you've got to do to get about your business. Go to work, come back, walk dog, the normal things in life. Now all of a sudden you're thinking out of the box. So yesterday I did get a little bored. My wife was cleaning the house for the 14th time in the last seven days. And I decided to pull out my golf clubs inside the house and came up with a little game. And what I did do Bob wasn't we're going to talk a little travel today and of course with travel comes some of your passions and one of my passions is golf and I know you play golf as well. So I'm going to challenge you to this little quest right here yesterday. What I did do is I put a glass on the top of my kitchen countertop and I stood probably about 15 feet away with my pitch and I pitched it as many times I possibly could to get it into this glass. I've actually sent you the link. So if you've got an opportunity, open the link, check it out now and let me know what you think. Do you think you can do this? Here it is. Yeah. So you're challenging me, right? I'm challenging you and I'm challenging everybody at the yes network to do this as well. You got to go put a glass. So basically the plastic golf balls or ping pong balls, ping pong balls. Just get a ping pong ball or a plastic golf ball. If you have one, you can do it no matter what. So check it out. Open up it. Open up the link and have a look at this one. Of course it might take you a little while before you get it done. It's a really good address by the way. Oh, you just yanked out a little. That's in the other fairway. Take a while. Are you kidding me? On the second one? Oh, I can't wait for people to see this. That is phenomenal. Good. I can't believe it either. My nephew sent me a video of him putting it into a coffee cup and I thought, okay, I got to go one better. So he had the coffee cup on the floor and he just pitched the ball. It was a plastic golf ball. Pitched it straight into the coffee cup and I thought, I got to, I got to outdo him here. So I put a beer glass on the top of the countertop and I had to pitch it up onto the top of the table into the glass. And as you could see, the first one almost took out the window on the left hand side. If you watched the video, I mean, everybody could see it now. I'm looking for someone to celebrate with because I got it and there was no one there. I was celebrating on my own. So I'm challenging you to see how many times it takes you. You got to let me know the next time we're on air and then also send me the clip so I can check it out. All right. And if you take more than two attempts to try and get it in there, maybe speed it up a little. No kidding. You know what? Seeing that reminds me of a game that my brother, Tom, and I used to play growing up. We lived in a single level home in Southern California, but it had like a couple, like a step down into sort of a patio room and we would putt. We set up like we, we'd put the little cup out by my dad's desk and we'd have to putt down the hallway to the right down the stairs. And we'd say part three, it's a part four, and we'd play 18 holes and see who came out on top. And it was like, you would have to putt across the kitchen floor, which was, you know, like laying on it or whatever. So be really careful that, you know, fly. Yeah. You could. Those are awesome games though, right? The games back in the day that used to come with when you were just a kid hanging out with your parents in the house. Yeah. Yeah. Great stuff. I'm glad I'm challenging you to this one though. Let's see how it takes. I'm looking forward to that. All right. So speaking of the places you'll go, I know where you're going at some point very soon. You're relocating from the West Coast to the East. So tell me about that move. And I know it's going to be the New York City area, but on our last show you talk about how much you love New York City. Yeah. I mean, it's been a long time coming. And of course I've sort of held back from, from telling many people in media, you never really want to talk too much. And somebody found out about it two months ago, a sports media outlet found out about it and wanted to put it out. So I managed to hold it off for a while until some guy a couple of days ago started talking about working on Yankees pre-game shows on the Yes Network. And then I thought, oh no, now I'm going to have to bring it out now. But it actually was coming out this week anyway. So there was a story went out this week and the reaction I put out to a letter I had said thanks to many people at Fox, but it's been a long time coming. I knew that I wanted to move over to the East Coast for a long time. And you know, there's that pull from, from sports media in particular and entertainment in New York. It's just a passion, a desire. And you know what it's like. You've worked there for such a long time that, that you can't get enough of it. And for me, there was always that pull. And when I bought my house in Los Angeles, I told my wife, and this is only four years ago, I said, listen, the only place we're moving to from this house is to the East Coast in New York. And she said, okay, I agree. And of course, that's what's happening. So yeah, we're going to make the move to the East Coast. And we've got a number of really nice opportunities over there are opening up. So I'm excited for it. I'm excited to get out there. I love the city. I'm obviously been traveling there for a long time. One of the most, my most favorite things to do, Bob, in the world is when I get to New York City to get my running shoes on and run around Central Park. It's an inspirational run for me. It opens up my eyes to see the buildings, to run past people. And it's got this appetite of desire for me to be able to think out the box. And I love it. I can't get enough of the city. You know, before I moved up here, I lived in Atlanta and I commuted back and forth with yes for a couple of years. And every time I would land at LaGuardia, JFK, wherever it was, you feel the different energy. Oh, yeah. It's like it's like it's it's a rush. And that's it on a daily basis. And that's not always a great thing, right? That kind of energy permeates everything that New Yorkers are about and in the area, you know, New Jersey, Connecticut, etc. But again, I always relate it to Yankees fans. You can relate it to NYCFC fans. That energy, that passion is there like 24-7. Yeah, I mean, it is it's a feeling you have when you're inside the city. And I don't think it's just necessarily sports. I think it's just New York in general, the music, the industry, the entertainment industry, restaurants, bars, clubs, you know, just business people, financial district. Like all of that gives a great energy. And as you know, I'm wired and very energetic. So I need to kind of have that fixed for myself. And New York always seems to give me that fix. So I'm excited to be there. But of course, every time I go or have gone over the last five years since I've been at the yes network, I've always tried to hit a new restaurant every single time I've gone. And I've got two or three favorites that I like. But is there a restaurant that is your favorite that you go to in the city or maybe it's a date night special? No, there's not because we have so many good restaurants out here in Connecticut where we live, that we just kind of stick to the local, you know, but there's so many good ones. The one thing I want to ask you is, it's such a melting pot that New York City is this beautiful amalgamation of so many cultures and people, are you adventurous when it comes to eating? Oh, yeah, I never used to be. I never used to be. I can guarantee you that I used to be a very picky eater, but now traveling more than I've ever done before, you've got no other option but to try other things. I mean, I've I've tried everything from octopus to steaks to your hamburgers, whatever it may be. I've tried a lot of different things. I love a good sushi in New York as well. When I'm there, one of my favorite restaurants is called Catch. That's in New York, also in Los Angeles and in Las Vegas. But they want to New York's got a real good New York vibe to it. And that's a great place. If you've never been there, I'd love to take you. And of course, I love the regular old school places in Brooklyn, going to Peter Lugar's and all that sort of stuff. So I mean, you can't beat those type of places, right? Yeah, you can't go wrong with any kind of steak place. I remember one one trip that this into the city six years ago, I went to meet a buddy of mine who had just relocated to the city. Yeah, and he and I went to see a movie together. And when we came out of the movie, it was snowing. So it's that that first part of the snow and it's almost like a quiet. Yeah, you know when it's falling, beautiful feeling so cool. And we're like, let's go find something to eat. And we're trying to figure out what to eat. I'm like, you know what, dude, this is so beautiful. We got to go to like do something big. So we went to a Smith and Walensky's. Oh, yeah, powered down a big steak. And it was just it was just right with the conditions outside and everything. Yeah, yeah, it's special. And that's another thing that I've actually learned a lot about not just staying in Manhattan itself, trying to get over to Brooklyn, because it's such a changing market over there. One of my buddies just opened a restaurant called Lillia in Brooklyn. It's fantastic. You cannot get into this restaurant. I took I took Woody Fryman with me as well, one of our bosses. And he loved it out there. So it was great. But I recommend Polly G's Pizza Place. And of course, Peter Luger's another one out there as well. But I love that whole vibe that Brooklyn vibe. It's got this cool like artsy feel about it now. A lot of my friends are moving there. So it's not a place I'm going to move to with the kids, but certainly a place I'm sure I'll spend a lot of time in. So obviously, because you're getting pretty close to making this move, you've done your research, right? Like you've looked at areas that you might want to live. What jumps out at you? Well, it's difficult with the kids. I mean, as you know, it's not easy to be in the city with children. And I I'm a fear father. I always think of the worst things like subways with my children and the busy streets with my children. So I have that fear factor of not wanting to live in Manhattan because of the busyness about it with my children. So I think there's there's no doubt that we'll probably end up moving closer to either Connecticut or New Jersey, where it's a little quiet in the suburbs and and get a house out there and settle down. I mean, when you make a big change like this, as you know, you've you've gone from Atlanta over there to Connecticut. It's a big deal and you've got to think about schools. You got to think about like what your entertainment is, you know, how quick it is to get to work, accessible to get into the city. And all those types of things, travel and commute in Los Angeles has been a pain in the butt because you're obviously sitting on the freeway for a long time. There's no public transportation. So that's pain in the butt. But definitely in New York and around Connecticut is is a place that we're favouring right now. Because as you mentioned, the lifestyle, the quality of life is very good there. You can get into the city pretty quickly. Great golf courses because I love a game of golf restaurants. And, you know, the children are going to be great in school out there as well, because the school system is very good. You've got a lot of yes colleagues that are willing to tee it up with you. Me, John Flaherty, David Cohn. They all play golf. They love it. You know what, Bob, that's a show in itself. If we all get out in the golf course, that could be a show itself. I like it. And then we'll air it on. Yes, we'll sell it to the golf channel as well. Hey, listen to this one, right? So I know the last thing we talked about travel. And of course, now being in isolation and your mind starts to go. And I know a lot of people who have been tuning in and are really enjoying what we're putting out there. But I think at times when you're stuck in a position or you've been told to stay at home or you're told to take all precaution necessary, you start to miss certain things and travel is one of them. And I wanted to ask you, you know, what is your most popular destination? Maybe it's a city or a beach destination that you've ever been to. And then the second part of that question would be, where's your dream destination that you would like to go to? Well, I think the dream destination, I'll just start there. It would be someplace like a Maldives, Bali, the overwater bungalows, the whole experience, Fiji, whatever that would be. Yeah. But I will say this, and this is not an ad for sandals. A couple of years ago, my wife and I were having our anniversary. We were like, let's do something like that. I think I had like a week and a half off. Yeah. And we found just by happenstance in Montego Bay, there's a sandals that has the overwater bungalows. Yeah. And they're booked like a year out. Right. But I clicked on the website and there was one available. And we jumped on it. We got a flight down there and it was like, I mean, it was like, you didn't want to leave the bungalow. Yeah. It was that good. Like you could experience any part of the property you wanted. We'd always just migrate. We watched the Super Bowl down there, right? Oh, wow. First half we watched like at this restaurant and had chairs out there. We're sitting outside watching it and at half time we're like, hey, you know what, let's just let's just head back to the bungalow. It's amazing, really. I mean, that's another one of my dreams, going to the bungalows on stilts out in the ocean. And what you did there, going to Jamaica, getting lucky, finding one last minute, jumping down. There's no better feeling when you do it like spur of the moment sort of thing. One of mine is Bora Bora. That's another one I want to go to because that's that's the place I've dreamt about since Fast and Furious, when Vin Diesel mentioned it about being his dream destination to go to. For me, it was the same thing. I always wanted to go to Bora Bora. So that's that's in my dream. And what about cities in Europe? Like, is there a favorite city of yours that maybe people can start to think about venturing themselves if they're listening in? Yeah, I mean, I wrote down a couple that just have jumped out of me. They had great experiences. Barcelona is obviously one of them. Beautiful beach. You'll laugh at this. But my wife and I went down by the beach, right? And it was a little cool still. I think it was February or March. And we walk into this hamburger place. Again, it's Barcelona. We'd already had our share of ham, jamon. So we walk into this burger place called Maka Maka. We just sit down to just have like an appetizer. And this the playlist they had was so good. It was like this 80s techno something was going on. And we're just like, wow, this is really good. I think we ended up staying there like two hours. Yeah, I went to Barcelona to have a hamburger at Maka Maka. That makes no sense. But but that was fun. Prague is another one. Venice, I'm part Czech, so Prague was cool to go to. Venice to me was I felt like I'd been there before. Is that kind of weird? Like I was walking around Venice and I'm like, I feel like I've been here before. You know, you ever have that experience? Like, oh, yeah, you feel so good. It's like a deja vu when it hits you. They're like, I feel like I've felt this feeling once before in my lifetime. I've been to this place. Have you noticed recently with the news and what's been happening in Venice, how the waters have sort of cleared up? The pollution sort of made a little bit cleaner out there. Yeah. Yeah, that's to see. And then they had dolphins in some of the canals, I think, right? Oh, yeah, that's fantastic. I'm loving the fact that obviously with people and fortunately sticking at home because of these difficult circumstances that you are starting to see less pollution in Los Angeles. And yeah, certainly in the oceans around that maybe it's a little sign of what we've got to come because we can obviously protect the earth just a little bit more than we are doing instead of just getting back out on the motor boats in Venice and driving around there, right? OK, so I love Barcelona. I've never been there. One of my best friends lives there. So that's definitely on my bucket list to do. Prague, I have not been to, but I know the beer is very cheap, so I can guarantee you that I'll definitely visit there at some point in my life. Have you ever been to Germany? No. Never been to Germany. So that's something we have to do together because I need to take you to a soccer game in Germany. OK, my club, my former club, St. Pauli, it's in the red light district of Hamburg, the city. And it is it is a flavorful club, should I say. It's one of the most amazing experiences you'll ever have. Going to a soccer game in Germany is great anyway. The stadiums are packed and there's a passion there. They make like the tickets to the games like five, ten bucks so that everybody can go and you can take your kids and have a beer and have a bratwurst for like 20 bucks. But also the experience on top of that going to my clubs and Pauli is incredible. You're getting music, you're getting grunge, you're getting a nice rock and roll feel about the game. They play like Song 2 from Blur every time they score a goal. You know, like everybody's going nuts. So I want to take you to Hamburg, that's my city. So if people are watching and thinking, hey, I want to go to Germany at some point in life, they got to go to Hamburg because it's my city, my favorite city in the whole of Germany and actually my favorite city in Europe. So if you get a chance, Bob, me and you are going to play golf in Scotland. Take you to Glenny, goes in Scotland to play golf and then we're going to go to Germany and watch soccer game in Hamburg. I like it. I love it. You know, one other story is weird as I was thinking about this is travel. I just wanted to share, I was reminded of it because there's a picture of it in our basement. Is my wife and I one time went to Rio, this was years ago. Yeah. And you know, they have the Christ the Redeemer statue. Yes. Yeah, Binter. The day that we went, it was raining. It wasn't raining heavy, but it was raining and it was very foggy. And so that because it's so high up, the cloud cover was basically you could see his feet and that's it. Wow. And so we're kind of waiting it out. We're at this little cafe having a cup of coffee. And all of a sudden somebody's like, hey, the clouds broke and we went outside, we scrambled outside. We took the picture. So I'm standing below it with a, you know, his hands are like this and I'm below the statue. Yeah. And Ian, I'm not kidding you. By the time I walked down the stairs by my wife, the cloud cover had descended again. It was the weirdest thing. It was like this divine intervention, like I'm going to give you got a moment and a half to get your picture. So it was this cloud cover could only see his feet. It lifts. We take the picture by the time I get back down the stairs gone. No, what I'm feeling that is though, Bob, right, going to that statue. It is. And actually here, let me hold on one second. I don't know if you can actually see this. There's my little Christ the Redeemer right there. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I brought that. But yeah, I got this. I got this when I was there. I actually went to Brazil and I spent four four and a half weeks in Rio itself. I was broadcasting at the World Cup 2014 down there. I had this awesome studio. It was right on the Copacabana. I mean, we were in the studio and I was in a late night show because I was like last minute. So of course, you've got the backdrop of this beautiful Copacabana during the day. But at night time, Rio comes to life, right? So the beaches are full. I'm getting ready for work. It's crazy because some of the talent I've got some of these some of the most famous soccer players on the planet coming on my show. And they're all drunk by the time they get on my show. They've been drinking all day. They've been going to games partying. And it was the best show we could have imagined because the guys were saying things that they probably would never have said. And they were acting in a great manner where they were just energetic, passionate, talking about the game. And also in the backdrop from this studio, you can see obviously along the Copacabana there was this one hotel that Budweiser, no promotion here, but Budweiser had hired out and on the top of this hotel was like a DJ. So every night you could see the music flashing. I mean, it was just like disco, disco all over the Copacabana. And we're sitting in our studio until like 12 o'clock, like ready to get out there as soon as as soon as the show was over. We're back to straight to the hotel to the Budweiser party. It was the best. Great feeling, man. You just got like a zip line straight from your set to the to the club. So we'll wrap this up about travel. So Hamburg is a definite is a must. Venice, Barcelona, definitely. I want to throw one other one in the Caribbean, St. John is beautiful. The beaches are unreal. We have some friends that were friends for a long time in Atlanta. They moved there and we go visit them. And wow, I'm telling you, they take a shot at these beaches. Nobody's on them. The water is, you know, 72 degrees clear. Yeah, fantastic. I've only ever been one time to the Caribbean and that was to St. Lucia, that was the only time ever went. My parents used to go like every year, they used to go to obviously five or six different destinations, the couples destinations in particular. And I did that with my wife. I went to a no kids destination. It was the best feeling in the world, not a noise in sight. It was just perfect. Got one of these little small huts on the beach. It was just dreamland. And I think right now when we're all stuck in isolation, these are nice thoughts to have in your head because they bring back great memories and also get you excited about what's to come. Once we get out of this issue and we can get back to somewhat of a reality check in life and and also, you know, travel a little bit once more. There's a lot to look forward to. Yeah, I think we've given people some good ideas. I hope so. I hope they listen to us. I hope they're enjoying everything. The feedback we're getting is pretty good. And I'm really enjoying talking with you every day. I know we're supposed to stay to 10, 50 minutes, but 30 minutes, 40 minutes. I don't care, Bob. We're getting sub 30 today. So they'll be a little happy with us. All right, so we'll do it again soon. It's good, senior brother. Always a pleasure, my friend.