This week LA hosted its championship parade for the hometown Dodgers.
They are now back to back World Series winners, and their Game 7 comeback was the most watched MLB game in 34 years.
There's dynasty talk surrounding the ball club as their betting favorites to repeat in 2026, and the fixation with star Shohei Otani is as high as.
Joining me on this Friday morning to weigh in is Rick Horo, CEO of Horror Sports Ventures.
Happy Friday, Rick.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Well, what a World Series with not one but two crazy endings in Toronto last Friday night as well as Saturday night.
So what was your reaction to the Dodgers coming back in Game 7, which drew a whopping 51 million viewers?
A number of quick contexts.
First of all, great with the prop.
Second, hate to be a Canadian this week.
One inch the other way, day one in the 11th inning.
Next, it's amazing what $416 million annual payroll can do.
Money doesn't always buy happiness, but I sure want to have that money.
And by the way, as you said, most watched MLB game globally in 34 years.
Kudos to the Walter Group and Guggenheim.
That same week.
The Dodgers win the series, become the first multi-winner since 2000, the Yankees, but second, he gets approved as the owner of the Lakers for $10 billion.
George Steinbrenner, 50 years to date, buys the Yankees for $10 million.
This guy gets approved 50 years later for $10 billion.
It's a beautiful world, by the way.
Well, Rick, let's talk about star power here.
So Miguel Rojas and Yoshinobuyamamoto have stolen the show, but Shoheotani is as popular as ever, and his rare rookie trading cards are selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars, talking about a pretty penny.
So tell us about the market for Shohei trading cards.
Well, the market is very interesting because now the list price for a rookie card is 840.
It was $320 before his mammoth World Series.
It should be more, but at the end of the day, a lot of investors are hanging on because they're not sure how high creating cards can go in the digital marketplace, but they're going to hang on because the one sure thing about him and Babe Ruth is they ain't going anywhere.
He can pitch, he can hit, he can feel, he can do everything.
And a lot of people are saying let's not get rid of our Otani trading cards right now.
Let's hang on to them because they may be as valuable as gold.
They're not going to hit 3 home runs.
Gold is not, but the card may.
Yeah, speaking of which, Shohei throws fastballs.
So let's talk about something that's definitely our speed.
And here on Wall Street, we watched as Penn Entertainment plunged 10% yesterday, and this came after ESPN ended its sports betting partnership and is instead changing teams and going with DraftKings.
So what do you make of this trade?
Great segue.
I'm not sure what the internal working is with Penn Gaming were, but it's a 10 year, $1.5 billion walk away, so ESPN doesn't take it lightly.
Everybody's speculating is ESPN getting out of the gaming business?
No, of course not.
They're not.
They're trying to find the appropriate partners that will give control of the ESPN as they conquer the world, but yet also give them the ability to maximize revenue.
FanDuel, DraftKings, and some of the other collaterals are always there.
You have to look at the contract to see what the out clauses are for the legal ramifications, but it did shake up Wall Street.
You're absolutely correct.
And Rick, Americans were glued to their TVs as well as social media on Tuesday night, which also happened to be election night, but they did want to learn the results of the college football playoff selection committee's initial rankings.
So with about a month left in the regular season, we're seeing the Big 10 Conference represented at the top with Ohio State and Indiana in the top 2.
So what are the takeaways from the decision?
Hey, a lot of coaches have been on the hot seat.
We've got the guy at Auburn, the guy at Florida, the guy at LSU, the guy at Arkansas, all with massive $15 to $20 million dollar buyouts.
So in this topsy-turvy world, you can't lose a couple games or you're gone.
The teams that are in there from 13 to 20 better get serious because only 12 make it.
You saw the graphic.
But let's pump the brakes.
It's the beginning of November.
We're going to have this conversation every week until the first week in December where the final, final, final rankings are there.
Then the inevitable 12th, 1314, 1516 whining about we didn't get in.
And where prediction, of course, is by the next two or three years we have 16 teams in the playoffs and then 1718, 1920 get to one.
And Rick, let's race to the finish here.
There was some excitement here in New York City this Sunday as the marathon took place, and while many just run for fun, there's some serious money out there up for grabs.
So with winners from the men's and women's division taking home $100,000 take us through the business of running.
Yeah, well, you know, anybody who goes through 22 or 23 mile posts ain't running for fun.
I don't know what they're running for, but they're running for endurance.
A lot of these runners, Susannah Sullivan earned 18 grand for a recent appearance in Tokyo.
The top female and male runners can make 1000 or more.
The issue is not just that, but because it's become such a lucrative business, some of the top runners may go 456 marathons a year.
A lot of the health wags, say 2 or 3 for even a world class finely tuned body, may be too much.
So this is an example again of money driving someone beyond.
The realm of what might be healthy, but the bottom line also is marathoning is a big, big business.
It's not like Rosie Ruiz.
Remember her New York Marathon.
She tucked into the subway when no one looked and then showed up at the finish line.
It took a couple of days for them to figure out that she didn't even run it.
So everybody don't heed that advice.
If you're going to run, run all the way.
OK, Rick, well, we will have to leave it there, but as always great to have you on the show.
Thank you so much for joining us.
See you next week.
Bye.
