Adrian Gonzalez (@Adrian_ElTitan) - Former MLB fir

Mark Cuban. How you do anything is how you do everything. If you're not, you don't pay attention to detail on the little things, you're not gonna be in the habit of paying attention to detail for the big things. Ken Griffey Jr. Hey, he wears his hat back first. Well, where my hat has this, because my bad hat of throw, and I wonder where his hat, and

if I put a hat on at 86, and he's got a eight and a half, and I got like a little five, it's not gonna really stay on my head. Jeannie Buss. Thank you for having me. Let a nice turn out. It's good to see everybody. John Smoltz. If you don't have the imagination and the willingness to fail, or not being afraid to fail, I don't

think you can be truly great. Candace Parker. I have so much hope for this generation coming up that I've grown up with women in sports, in leadership roles, on television, speaking about sports, speaking knowledgeably about sports. To me, all the work that I've done, I look at military work that I've done, has always given me great perspective. It has allowed me to keep my feet on

the ground, and has really put, and reminded me, what's truly important. Damien Miller. That was for Seattle. Just to name a few. Welcome to Sports Business Radio. Now, here's Brian Burgers. Thanks for joining us on Sports Business Radio this week's edition of Sports Business Radio is presented by Ron, the official menswear company of Sports Business Radio. Ron makes the absolute highest quality best fitting and most

comfortable performance driven clothing for men. Ron is offering sports business radio listeners 15% off your purchase. Go to Ron.com. That's our H O N E.com and enter promo code SBR 15 at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase. I am loving my commuter shirts and pants, my spa joggers and my rain tech hoodies during the fall months. Again, go to Ron. Ron.com.com. Enter promo code SBR

15 at checkout to save. This week's guest on Sports Business Radio is Adrian Gonzalez. He's an Olympian, former Major League Baseball First Basement with the Rangers, the Padres, the Dodgers, the Red Sox, and the Metz. He was the number one overall pick in the 2000 Major League Baseball draft. He's now a serial entrepreneur, one of the founders of five M X. It's really insightful things to

say about why Major League Baseball players aren't marketed better. Say, like NBA players are, he tells us what he'd change about baseball. If he were Major League Baseball Commissioner for the year, it's really good ideas there as well. And he's appearing at the Los Angeles Innovation Conference. It's at Sofie Stadium. It's tomorrow, November 9th. If you want to register and go to that conference and go

see Adrian speak on a really interesting panel by entrepreneurs, you can go to lsports.org, lsports.org and look for the Innovation Conference Registration. I'm joined by Executive Producer Brian Gray. It's Greg. How are you? I'm doing great. And Adrian has some fascinating things to say. I love his take on baseball and it's current state. And you know, he's played in some great teams and great organizations. And

he's got some good stories. And you know, another guy that's expanded beyond the field and has done some great things and doing some great things in his entrepreneurship and everything he's got going. So fun interview with Adrian today. Well, I won't give away what he says, but I'll tell you what, I've never had a Major League Baseball player on this show who's been more critical of

And I think our audience will find that interesting as well. And then like I said, if he were Commissioner for a day, what were some of the things that he would change. I found those interesting too. Anytime you can get the perspective of someone who's been on the field and played the game for as long as Adrian Gonzalez has at that elite level, it's always fascinating

stuff, Greg. Yeah, I agree. And that's I think that's the cool part is getting that take from the person that's been there. You know, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say,

I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to quieleri oh, get him. Oh, face him. Hey Jesse. Hey. Hey, hey, how upaste Yeah? I'm going to say, what's good?. Oh, hold on. Okay. Now we no, Oh, if we get two people working on right in this stream. Oh, I suppose it's a good hour. Yes. Ok then thank you all for

joining us. And now David. So the three thousand ninety three regular season games the most of any manager who would not want a world series. So now he's a world series champ. He's a really good guy. He's a future hall of favor. How can you not be happy for dusty Baker. Yeah. And what a fun character. And I love his superstition stuff. You always see different

head bands and things on his wrist and how he sits and where he looks and who he talks to I love that stuff. And like you said, long drought for him not winning a world series. And he found the right team Houston just dominated that. I think they're the best team all year. They've been the best team all year. I saw him destroy my mariners. So

I know that they they deserve the win in dusty Baker. I'm happy for him. I mean, they're starting pitching is ridiculous. They had a no hitter in game four combined no hitter. But you know, timely hitting and great pitching is going to get it done. The Phillies, you know, the 60 they barely got into the playoffs. We're run for them. But you know, you run into

a team like Houston and this is a case where the best team all season long was Houston Astros and that's who is in the winter circle at the end. So it kind of worked out the way it was supposed to. The Phillies played really well up until they ran into that buzz saw pitching staff. But some other news from the series mattress Mac. He's like a

household name at this point. He always puts down big bets on sporting events. He won 75 million dollars with the Astros win. It's the largest win for a sport. In the history of sports betting. So mattress Mac was very, very happy. I don't know if you saw the video on social media, but jump it up and down and you know, he has money to lose. But

that's a big win for him. 75 million dollars. It's a big win for anyone. Yeah. That is a mass. I mean, you talk about people to have luck. I think this guy knows how to play it. Man, he is one some big jackpots over the years. But like he said, he has money to throw at it. So he can really put down a bunch of money,

which usually gives you a better return. But man, he knows how to pick it and his celebration videos are pretty fun. This is what I'm going to call my nocturard Thomas sports bet of the year. So a guy walks into a sports book. I think it was MGM in April. Start of the baseball season puts down 50 dollars. You and I could afford 50 bucks. We

put down 50 bucks. We do that with underdog fantasy. 50 dollars. His bet is the Astros will beat the Phillies in the world. If you do that, you're going to get a good deal of the series. Griggs off his $50 bet. Guess how much you want? Oh, go. I'm going to say $3 million. Well, not that much. $125,000, which is still pretty good after. Yeah. After

only putting down $50. But how in the world do you walk into a sports book in April? And know that the Astros are going to beat the Phillies. And I know crazy. You know, people put down crazy prop bets all the time. But to put that bet down. And when a 125 $50 to me, that might be nocturard almost better the year. Yeah. I mean, I

just don't have luck. I can put a quarter in a machine and I'll somehow lose money on it. And yeah, I just these guys that walk in and can pick these things six, seven months ahead and win money. It's baffling to me. A sale. Finally, now he hasn't said he's going to sell the team. He's exploring a sale. But that's still a bigger step than he

was willing to take before where he wouldn't even explore the sale. Griggs names are coming out of the woodwork, but the group that seems to be the leading candidate. Jeff Bezos from Amazon. Jay Z. And all right, all right, all right. Matthew McConaughey. How about that for a group? Nice. I mean, you got some interesting characters in that group. I want to see that group win.

So Bezos and Jay Z had a two hour dinner in LA this week. And McConaughey wants into that group. Other potential buyers, Byron Allen, who is a billionaire. And he tried to buy the Denver Broncos. And he's going to be a big fan of the DMS. Didn't get that because the Walton family outbid him. RG3, who played for the commanders for four seasons, says he wants

to be part of a group. He certainly can't afford the team by himself. Kevin Durant, a native of the DMV. He wants in on a group. We don't know what group he'd be tied to. A lot of times you say I want to be a part of a group. And then you tie yourself to what looks like it could be the winning group, which again, that

Bezos. Jay Z. Matthew McConaughey group is going to be a tough one to beat with all the money that Bezos has. And then Josh Harris, who own stakes in the Sixers, the New Jersey Devils and Crystal Palace of the Premier League. He's another name in the mix. Griggs, you know that Commissioner Roger Gidell and everyone would love to have new ownership of that group. Because there's

been so much controversy around dance night. And then he's a leader. Jim Urse, the owner of the Colts is the first owner to kind of put his name on the criticism of dance nighter, saying it might be a good idea if he sold the team. But a lot of people are saying this team could go for six to seven billion dollars, which would be the highest

amount ever paid for a sports team in the US. So it's not like dance nighter is going to walk away empty handed after selling the commanders. Yeah, look, it's an iconic team. Iconic brand. Great fan. I think that first group, I mean, Jay Z's already got to deal with the NFL for the music he does. And I think he's an easy and obviously Bezos got the

money. And then all right, all right, all right. Let's football. We've seen him at the Texas Longhorn games. He's out there. And Austin FC too pumping the crowd up. I mean, he's definitely a sports fan. I think that would be a fun group to have. And a great group for that team. Because I think it's just an iconic brand. It's just it's a fun organization. I

think they need to move on. This is a good move. They need to obviously get some good blood going and get this moving on the ground. Right direction. So I'm all for that first group. But it'll be fun to see how it comes out. All right. Another team could be hitting the market. Fenway sports group has put Liverpool FC, which they've owned since 2011. On the

market, the team is valued at 4.45 billion dollars. You might recall that LeBron James has a 2% stake in Fenway sports group. So he's a very minority owner. Liverpool FC, but this is another team, Greg's that will command a pretty penny on the open market. You know, it's crazy. We just talk about all these teams and organizations for sale. It seems like that never used to

happen. People would own teams forever. Now it's like every season. We're talking about new groups being sold, new ownership, new stadiums. There's so much money being moved in these organizations. And it's always fun to follow the stories just to see where they end up and who ends up owning them. Yeah. Did you watch the LSU Alabama? I'm a game on Saturday. To me, the two best

games of the year were Alabama Tennessee earlier in the year. And now Alabama LSU. I'm not a big Brian Kelly fan, but I give him all the credit in the world for going for two. I think he knew that the more he gave Bryce Young back the ball, the more, you know, Alabama was going to score every time they had the ball. They were at home.

The team was hot. They had momentum. So he went for the ball. I'm not a big fan of going for two in that situation, but against a team like Alabama where you just can't make mistakes. You got to go for the win. You can't go. You can't play not to lose. You got to play aggressive and play to win. I'm not a huge fan of analytics

and going forward on fourth and five and, you know, getting cutesy and all this stuff. Take the field goals, which by the way, if Alabama had just kicked two extra points instead of going for two two point conversions, I think that's a good thing. You never have overtime in the first place, but I get Brian Kelly a lot of credit. I mean, that's why you signed

Brian Kelly if you're LSU is in your first year there. You beat Alabama. You make a gutsy call like that. You have job security. So you know, you're not going to get fired if you lose that game. You're going to be there a long time. So why not? Yeah, I think I love that. I love his call. And yeah, risky, but I agree. You can't give

Bryce Young an Alabama more chances. Nick Sabin in that crew knows how to win games. And if you keep giving him a chance, you know, you can just get him to win games. They're going to win the game. So, uh, but it's must watch TV. And each time you get a good SEC battle like that, you know, down LSU country, man, that was fun game. It's

fun to watch. You can just see the coaches going back and forth. And the, you know, just, uh, I just love it. You can just feel the energy. So that was a fun one. So I tweeted out this week. And I know some people may disagree with me and you play for the love of the game and you play for your teammates. And I get all

that. But if I'm Alabama quarterback, Bryce Young, I shut it down right now. I mean, you've seen what happened to you. You've seen college football players get injured. Alabama cannot win the national championship any longer. They're they're eliminated essentially with two losses. So I don't know, you know, I know you're playing for your teammates. You're playing for the love of the game. But Bryce Young is

one of the highs. Metrophy. He's done everything you can do at Alabama. I'd shut it down and I wouldn't risk getting hurt and I'd prepare for the NFL draft. Am I being ridiculous? Grigs. It's a smart take. I saw that tweet. And I'm like, you know, I have to agree because he's such a talent. And like you said, he's got the national title. He's got the

Heisman. He's done all the record breaking. He's done their Alabama already. And football's such a dangerous sport. And the quarterbacks get hit every play almost now. I mean, you just can't, you can't take a break. Right. And he runs. You can't take a break. You can broken leg or a busted knee into the draft. It's not going to help you. So I agree. I think why

not put him on the bench. Yeah, it'll be interesting to watch out. All right. The last headline and and I'm going to spend a little bit of time on this. It really bothered me. Kyrie Irving. I mean, this is a guy who for years has been a distraction. He's a great talent. He's won a championship. He hit a big shot with the calves and game seven

against the Warriors. Yeah, that was his his highlight moment. But ever since he went to the Celtics and left the calves and now he's on the nets, this guy has been one distraction after the other. And I would say has tainted the brands of the brands he's been associated with. He, you know, thanks to Earth is flat. He didn't get a COVID vaccine and, you know,

let his teammates down. You can say whatever you want. He won about the COVID vaccine, but he let his teammates down and has been a distraction. Well, he liked on social media. A movie that is appalling. And, you know, I know a lot of people have run in the movie. I don't even want to say the name of the movie because frankly, I'm hoping people don't

watch it because it's garbage. It's fiction. It's not a well made movie and it's not based on fact or truth. And what a lot of people don't understand and our company, everything is on the record, works with companies on this, works with athletes and celebrities on this is even if you like a post, it's seen by many people as an endorsement. If you retweet something, it's

seen as an endorsement. It's seen as promotion of that. And by Kyrie tying himself to this documentary, it's seen by a lot of people. And as his promotion or endorsement of the documentary, now what a lot of normal people would have done or people in a position like his who are making millions and millions of dollars from a high profile entity like the NBA, they would

have further walked the documentary and they would have come out and said, you know what? I made a mistake. I apologize. I'm distancing myself from this. I'm going to take sensitivity. Training. I'm in a walk away from this. But I made a mistake. I own it. And I should have done more research before I like this and you know promoted this and tied myself to this

documentary. Not only did he not do that, Driggs, he came out and doubled down on his endorsement and was defiant when given the opportunity to apologize. Well, look, if you're out, you're not going to be able to do that. Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA or your Josie, the owner of the nets. Kyrie Irving is tainting your brand. I mean, when you have people sitting

courtside or you have sponsors who were coming out in opposition of the NBA and the net because of Kyrie Irving, that is tainting your brand. Now Kyrie Irving is serving a five game minimum suspension. He has six items that he must come up with. He's got to be a complete in order to return to the team. This is according to multiple reports. He's got to apologize

and condemn the movie. He's got to make a 500,000 donation to anti hate causes, which is interesting because he already made a $500,000 donation in that organization. Return it and said, we're not going to be used as the PR tool here in order to help Kyrie repair his image. Kudos to them. I'm not a huge betting man, but based on the Kyrie Irving that I've seen,

do you really see him going through all of those steps? Do you really see him? I'm going to be remorseful. So if I'm Josie, I have my lawyers working around the clock and trying to find, is there a morality clause in Kyrie Irving's contract? Is there something that says, if he taints my brand and the NBA's brand, I can part ways with him much like we've

seen with whether it's Lance Armstrong or Trevor Bauer or other athletes who have found themselves in trouble who have tainted the brands of the brands they've been associated with? I mean, Phil Nicholson has lost all of his sponsors. There's a long list of people who have lost sponsors for what they've said or done. You would think there's a morality clause. And if there's not, there should

be an all future contracts for athletes. I mean, we've seen the Nike's and the D this is of the world put those into contracts, a standard language, but athlete contracts with their teams and with their leagues. And frankly, with the players association should have morality clauses that give people the opt out if there's something like this. But Kyrie Irving has not learned. You can throw money

at things. That's great. That helps things. But if you don't change your beliefs and who you want to be, you know, you can't do anything. If you're a person, then throwing money at things is just window dressing. It's just it, like I said, it's a PR tool. And again, Kudos to the organization that returned the 500 grand that he donated previously, because they were just being

used as a tool for his PR repair of his of his image. But I'm going to be watching this closely. I think this is going to set a precedent with other athletes who may cause damage to the brand of the brand. What is the talent of their team or league Nike has, you know, suspended their partnership with Kyrie and he has one of their highest selling

shoes. Because he has cool colorways and things like that. So I would expect his other partners to probably suspend or terminate their relationships with him. But, you know, here's the guy making $30 plus million. He's one distraction after the next Steve Nash is gone. As the coach, you're talking about hiring Emma Udoca who has his own controversies around him that he may bring from the Celtics.

The nets are a mess of an organization. And Kyrie is kind of at the center of a lot of this. So I won't be surprised if Kyrie doesn't play a game again this season and I wouldn't be completely shocked. If he's done. I mean, he may just not be worth the headache. Super talented player. I don't know, you know, a lot of people have said, oh,

they'll just trade them to the Lakers. Do the Lakers want to take on this headache? Do they want someone? I mean, look, let's just call it as it is. Two of the largest markets for Jewish leaders in the country are New York where the Brooklyn that's play in Los Angeles where the Lakers play and the glippers play. So in either market, he's going to be condemned.

There's going to be controversy that follows him as there should be. I just don't see where he could go play where they'd be like, oh, okay, we'll just forgive everything and forget. And we'll move on with business as usual. I just don't see that happening here. Yeah, not to mention. I mean, every season, he's yet to play a full season in NBA. I mean, he's out

every year. And most of those aren't because of injury because of his off the court antics. And you know, other teams looking at him, do you want a star player that's not going to play a whole season? Probably not. You want to start player that's going to come and, you know, taint your brand and do all this PR nightmare stuff. Probably not. I mean, I know

we know Jeannie bus. We've had her on the show a couple times. I don't see her taken. I mean, she's a smart smart woman. I would be really, really shocked. Right. I would be really, really shocked. Yeah. So I just, and like you said in the first minute, you take here. It's like he's not just a single guy. He's hurting this whole team. He's hurting his

teammates. He's hurting the brand. He's hurting. There's so many people that he, you know, layers he's hurting with these decisions he's making. So it's just it's a part for the course for him sadly. And it's not good. Well, even someone like Kevin Durant gets dragged into this, right? They ask him about it. If he doesn't say the right thing, then he's got to clarify like he

did on Twitter. And so you're putting your teammates in front of this controversy as well. And I'm sure they don't appreciate that. But here's the moral of the story for everyone listening to this. Your brand, your personal brand ties to your employer's brand, whether you like it or not. If you tweet out something or you like something or you retweet something on social media, if it's

controversial, your employer's probably going to have to address it at some point. And you're not making $30 million a year. I'm assuming maybe you are, if you are kudos. But it's going to be a lot easier to cut ties with you. Right. Then it is with Kyrie Irving. So understand this isn't just about you. And you're not going to be able to do that. Your beliefs

and your actions and your, you know, what you do on social media. This is also about your employers and the people around you who, like I said, like Kevin Durant or Steve Nash when he was there or Joe side or Sean Marx, they have to answer questions about this. All because Kyrie tied himself to this appalling documentary that is not based. In fact, so it'll be

interesting to see where this is going to be. I think that's what it goes. If I'm anyone watching this situation, I make sure at my company or my team or my league or my brand that my social media policies are very clear. I mean, I think the stat I saw is that only 27% of all companies in America have social media policies. Are you kidding me?

Like would you let someone get behind the wheel of a car without giving them some policies or some training? No, heck not. Why would you let someone get behind the wheel of social media or the computer or texting or email without giving them the guidelines of here's what's expected of you while you're employed by this company? For instance, a like or a retweet is seen as

an endorsement or is seen as promotion. I just think people need to get their heads around that a little bit more and their need to be able to do that. To be very clear concise rules and regulations there, Griggs. And again, I'm surprised that more companies forget about the net or the NBA. More companies don't have policies. And by the way, you've got young people working

for companies. And I'm not saying old people don't make mistakes too, but the young people are constantly on social media. And at some point, you're going to make a mistake. So you need to know what the rules and the guardrails are so that you don't hopefully make those same mistakes and taint the brand of the brand that you're associated with. That's a shockingly low percentage 27%.

That's crazy. I mean, with all the huge corporations and businesses and small ones too, you feel like it'd be higher than that. And like you said earlier too, the morality clauses have got to be a part of every contract from now on. I mean, they just have to be. I completely agree. And I think we're way beyond the days of the play. Players arguing, well, no,

that's, you know, too strict and too stringent. No, we have case study after case study showing that athletes have damaged the brands of some of these companies that they've been tied to. And if they do that in the future, the companies or the teams or the leagues need to be able to avoid those contracts. So again, Josiah is a very wealthy person. I'm pretty sure he's

probably got his lawyers. And look, you know, Adam Silverer, wanted to come out and do some stuff. I'm sure as well. He did come out with a statement. But whether it's the league or the team, they should be able to do this. And by the way, I don't want to just sound like I'm honing in on the players here. I've said this on past shows, recent

shows, these owners, your dance nighters and your Robert Sarvers, they need to be vetted better too. Right. This isn't just a player thing. This isn't just a coach thing. This isn't just a coach thing. This is ownership too. And if owners screw up, they need to be held accountable or they need to be forced to sell their team. So this is across the board. And oh,

by the way, the rules need to be updated regularly. Because guess what? Social media, it changes. It evolves constantly. We can't just say, oh, we wrote the guidelines 10 years ago. And you know, things are relatively the same today as they were 10 years ago. No, they're not. I mean, what are we in 2022? In 2008, 2009, social media was just starting. I mean, we're talking

like 13, 14 years ago. That's not that long ago. Yeah. Social media was just starting. So things have evolved and developed. I mean, I would say that Twitter is evolving right now or sinking. One of the two, but it's changing drastically under new ownership and leadership. So things are constantly changing. And you have to evolve. You have to evolve with the platforms that are evolving. And

you have to update your employees on the guidelines accordingly. And if you don't, then shame on you. They can come back and say, well, you know what? Maybe this was common sense, but you never put it in writing. And, you know, I should still be paid. Like this should be done for liability purposes as much as anything else. I know I have some lawyers that listen

to this show some sports lawyers and, and, you know, I mean, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm sure they agree with me. Like you got to cover your ass and, and, you need to put the training in place and, and put these clauses in the contracts. Sadly, common sense is no longer a common sense, right? People don't get it.

It's not. And, and, you know, many, many people, even billionaire owners of these teams will say, well, you never told me this or, you know, you never said that or that wasn't in writing anywhere. And that's a loophole. Well, come on. Yeah. Again, if you're a team owner, and, and I think there are some team owners that know this really like you're the custodian of the

communities. Most prized asset and cherished asset. You are one of several people who have owned the team over time. You're, you're really just the custodian. And the owners that understand that that you're, you're taking care of this treasured asset that's part of the community. That you play in. Those are the owners that get it. The ones that come in and think, oh, this is an asset

on a spreadsheet or, you know, I'm going to take this and increase the value and. Spin it off in five years or 10 years or, you know, we don't have to protect the integrity of the asset. Like, come on, that that's not what you should be doing, but. Sadly enough, in a lot of cases, it has to be spelled out. Yeah, that's the sad part of

our current. The world is you have to write it all out or people don't get it. They just don't, it's not there in the brain. We're like, I shouldn't say that. I shouldn't tweet that. It just doesn't people don't think about it. Yeah. Well, someone who gets it and is very candid with what he gets Adrian Gonzalez, former Major League baseball player, now a serial entrepreneur.

He's going to join me next. You're listening to sports business radio. We'll be right back. When it comes to your health and longevity, you hold nothing back. You understand what it means to push harder, reach farther and go the extra mile. This relentless drive runs in your blood. That's why inside tracker provide you with a personalized plan to build strength, speed recovery, and optimize your health

for the long haul created by leading scientists and aging genetics and biometrics inside tracker analyzes your blood DNA and fitness tracking data to identify where you're optimized and where you're not. You'll get a daily action plan with personalized guidance on the right exercise, nutrition, and supplementation for your body. And when you connect inside tracker with your Fitbit or Garmin, you'll also unlock real time recovery pro

tips after you complete your workout. It's like having your own personal trainer and nutritionist in your pocket. For limited time, you can get 20% off the entire inside tracker store. Just go to inside tracker.com forward slash. My guest is Adrian Gonzalez, Olympian, former Major League baseball first baseman with the Rangers, the Padres, the Dodgers, the Red Sox, the Mats, he was the number one overall pick

in the 2000 MLB draft. He's now a serial entrepreneur and one of the founders of five M X Adrian. Thanks for joining me on sports business radio. How are you? Doing well. I'm doing well. Thank you. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, I was just saying for those who watch this on our YouTube channel, Adrian has one of the best real backdrops of anyone I've ever

interviewed on this show. You must be joining me from Los Angeles. I'm assuming I am here in Los Angeles. Yeah. Now this is my favorite spot to take calls with this tree in the back around here. So it's, you know, right now the noise out here is kind of quiet other than the crow. So, you know, overall, you know, I feel good about it. Yeah, it

looks great. I'm jealous. All right. Let's start by what is five M X? I mean, you're a serial entrepreneur. What's five M X and what are you investing in? So five M X is a tech development company. We developed apps for what we call AACs, which is at least artists and celebrities. So they can monetize their social media currency is the best way to describe it.

You know, there's been there's been a big trend lately this year on articles of, you know, companies that are doing this where you're creating. An app, an individual app for the people that have a large following on social media. So they can bring their community that tight niche community that are the the serious followers of that person are individual. And, and that way you can bring

them on and be more intimate with them and and and not be under the algorithms and everything else that comes with the social media world, right. And, and then that these people have have a direct access to you. And what you're doing is, you know, you're doing a lot of things that you can do. And what you're about and up and coming news and merchandise sales

and memorabilia sales and and and all the stuff that you're doing on on on the foundation or, you know, being out in the about in the community and doing good things in the community. So just bring everything into one spot and and have that that whole universe of that individual, you know, in one spot. I asked us a lot of the guests on this show at

what point during your playing career. Did you start thinking about post-creation? What's your career and things like this being a serial entrepreneur? Well, for me, honestly, it happened when I got traded to the Dodgers. Lawn Rose and who's who's there with the Dodgers, you know, just having having a lot of conversations with him and he gave me a lot of examples of a magic Johnson was

able to do. Right. And so just those conversations and being around people that that understand the business world all the way up until, you know, Boston, I was so focused on baseball and just, you know, you know, my baseball career. But then when I got to the Dodgers and I had people around me that were successful off the field or off the court or, you know,

on the side of what their sport was doing and you started looking at these opportunities. And my first, you know, investment was was in Jersey, my ex as a partner in the franchise franchise stores. And from there on that, just started looking at opportunities and this opportunity came about and and being that I hit home with with the way that in baseball that the players aren't

really you being able to monetize this great, you know, there's what they do off the field. It seemed like a great great company to get to, you know, get get into it and be more of the founders. Explain that to me. You know, I feel like baseball more than any other sport. We don't really know the human side of the players. I don't know much about

Mike trout. I don't know much about Mookie Betts. Some of the best players in the game. On the other hand, you know, I come from the NBA. I have an NBA background. I feel like I know like the 10th guy on the bench and what he's doing more than I know Mike trout. How can baseball help introduce the human side of the players better to the

public? Well, the best way is to, you know, to come on board and let us do apps for Mike trout and all these players, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm, you know, you know, what really happens. It's said in the NBA. I think the best thing that the NBA does is when they're promoting so the the Lakers, right? When the Lakers are promoting the NBA, I think the

NBA is the best thing that the NBA does is when they're promoting so the Lakers, right? When they're team, they're not promoting Lakers. They're promoting LeBron and they're voting the players that they have and the stuff that they're doing. So when you go as a fan, you are connected to the player. The one thing that the that MLB does a really poor job of is that,

you know, for every team, every organization focuses on the organization and the team, not the player. So when the fans go, they go, you know, they want the fans to go see the team, but not the players because there's so much movement. I guess that's maybe that's their mentality behind that. There's so much movement in players, but you know, the fans really want to go see

the players, but all the promotion, all the advertising, everything is focused on the team name. And I think that's that's that's the that's the problem. And that's why Mike trout hasn't, you know, companies out there are wanting to have Mike trout young commercials and do all this stuff. But if they want Mike trout using an an angel's jersey, it's going to cost the company over a

million dollars. Mike trout's probably only going to get a hundred fifty thousand dollars out of that. So companies are going to be like, no, I don't want to do that, right? Because MLB does a really poor job. They want that they want to take all the money and for themselves. And at the end of the day, you end up not getting the player. Wow. I mean,

I look at what Bryce Harper is doing right now. And I mean, he's acting like the best player in baseball. He's certainly having his moment during these playoffs. He's a marketable guy. He's personably gets excited about things. And I'm like, why is this guy not in any national commercials like we see with LeBron or Tom Brady or some of these other players out there? He should

be, you know, he should be in a lot of times that the the commercials want to use the the Jersey and and and, you know, show that it's a Philly player. You know, and and and MLB is going to take a huge chunk of that and that MLB makes it more difficult with the licensing and order if a player wants to wear his real Jersey or,

you know, team gear in a commercial. They're wanting to take a big part of that. And that's maybe why these commercials don't happen. Exactly. No, that's definitely that's definitely I know personally for me, you know, there was there's multiple times when when brands would go and when I found out later on what what the team charts versus what I got. And and you know, the sponsors

really just want to play or they're not really worried about, you know, the name of the Jersey. They just want to be able to show in the commercial that it is a baseball player because maybe a lot of people don't know the face. And but, you know, I found out that, you know, there was times that I did commercials were, you know, the what the team

got was eight to 10 times what I got. So how from where you set running your company? Can you convince Major League baseball? Look, you're hurting the brand of the player and you're also hurting Major League baseball by making it so difficult to showcase the team and the player in these commercials. I mean, I think the best way to, you know, that that I would convince

them is let's do a team app where we have all the players and then the fans can go to that team app and then they can go into each individual app from each individual player. And they get to get to know the players through that. And that way you're promoting the team, but at the same time the players have the ability to promote themselves and put

a bunch of, you know, you need content on their apps and the fans can really know how to engage or be able to engage with these players on the more personal level. You know, teams teams are always telling you to stay away from Instagram, stay away from Twitter, stay away from all these social media stuff because of the fact that if you say one wrong thing

or do one wrong thing, Alvis Son, the world comes at you. When you're in the more intimate space within your app and every person has has to, you know, put their information in order to join the app. All of a sudden, you know, the team is going to be like, you know, the people that are out there, you know, just crawling and trying to say negative

things aren't there anymore because now there is an email and there's a person behind each comment. And so you can curate that. And before anything is posted on the app, you know, it has to go through through through a couple different screening processes. So nothing that is going to be controversial. You know, there is something that is controversial that might get posted. It might get ran

back to the to the player and be like, Hey, are you sure you want to post this because this could have a negative impact on your image. You know, you get at that point, that that player can make them more educated, you know, choice. so there's there's many ways to control that and and and you know that we know the social media world, especially with athletes.

You make one mistake, you fail one time in Alvis Son, everybody's after you, you know, when you have your own individual app, it's really your true fans, and they're going to support you, whether you, you know, you hit that home run and gain seven the world series or you strike out. And so that I think the best way is to just be able to, you know,

have their own individual app, you know, do their, you talk about being able to show the world like what their routine is, you know, before every game. You know, what drills they do, all that stuff is unique content that is theirs and they can put it up on on their app and that could be the stuff that, you know, really the fans would really be attracted

to. You know, are really learned so a well known thing. Most thought they've little talent too. But now they get to marathon performances, see the ones who are on trial and against the right hand side, whether they're going through apps and social media. that's where the young people are. I have a daughter as a team. She's not sitting and watching a two or three hour sporting

event. She's on... watching the highlights. She's looking and seeing how you prepare for the game or how you train or things like that. So I feel like, Major League Baseball maybe needs to do a little bit better of a job of reaching that younger demo. Yeah, I mean, you know, the New Tech World, the New Generation, they're all about techs and apps and unique content. And

so this is what we can provide, right? Our app provides unique content to its followers and people following. And then they get on and when they fall in love with the player, they're going to buy the shirt and when they're going to buy their hat. And it's not team-licensed stuff. It's their own personal brand that you're putting out there. And so I feel like this is

the way for players to connect with their fans on a more intimate basis. And so I feel like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, all these are great to do and to build your image and to get people to know you. But those people that are really following you, you know, the app is where it's at for them. You're listening to sports business radio. We'll be right back

after this. Hey, everyone, Brian Berger here. Ron is the new official menswear partner of sports business radio. I love their product. I've been a fan for a long time. Did you know David Stern was one of their first investors. Ron makes the absolute highest quality best fitting and most comfortable performance driven clothing for men. They're in tire line places emphasis on an active, balanced and purpose

driven lifestyle. I'm wearing my spa joggers. I've got them in Heather Gray. I've got them in Navy. I've got my Moleskin commuter slim pant. I've got my regular black commuter pant. I've got my dress shirts. So when I'm out in in person meetings, I have the nicer, Ron product to wear. But most of the time I'm working for home. And I've got my rain long sleeve

gray Heather camo. I've got my rain long sleeve hoodies. I am wearing the shorts for workouts. The seven inch make-o shorts. So I'll tell you what, from top to bottom, whether it's casual or business wear, Ron has me covered. I know they're going to have you covered too. And Ron is offering sports business radio podcast listeners 15% off your purchase. Go to Ron.com or H O

N E dot com and enter code S B R 15 at checkout like sports business radio 15 S B R 15 at checkout receive 15% off your purchase. That's Ron dot com or H O N E dot com and enter promo code S B R 15 at checkout. Now back to sports business radio with Brian burger. All right, let's talk about the Los Angeles innovation conference.

It's the first of its kind in the LA area. It's coming up on November 9th. I know you're involved on a panel. Tell us a little bit about the conference. Yeah, it's a conference, you know, for athletes in the business world. And you know, it's, you know, it's exciting for me because I get to talk about different things that, you know, I'm doing and I get

to see other other panelists that are going to be on there. And so I'm going to talk about the other panelists that are going to be on there. And so I'm going to talk about the other panelists. I'm going to talk about the other panelists that are on there. And I'm going to talk about the other panelists that are on there. After our career and, you

know, athletes are one of the few that retire. And when you retire, you start to hold any career up. And, and, and at most of the times, if you've had a successful career, it's, you know, you're late 30s, early 40s. And you're still young and you're still, you know, wanting to do things. And what better way to set, than sending yourself up in different business, you

know, ventures that that can keep, keep your brain moving, keep, keep your, you know, you're, you're adrenaline going and, and, and, and keep you active. Yeah, your panel is in the YouTube theater at Sofie Stadium. I love that facility. I went there for Super Bowl with the Rams and the, the Bengals and saw it for the first time and gosh, that's a beautiful facility, but you've

got met a world piece Josh Childress Angela Huckley's you've got some really good people on your panel. I'm sure that's going to be one of the highlights of the day. You know, I'm just, I'm just, you know, glad and thankful to be a part of the panel there and the, and just, you know, talk about my experiences. Really, you know, hopefully, hopefully when you talk about

the things that you've lived through and the things that you've done and, and your experience is hopefully that motivates somebody else to, to go out there and, and, and be active and, and, and, and do things in the business world outside of, of the sport that they're playing. And I know if people go to LA sports dot org and they look for the innovation conference, that

they can sign up and, and get a ticket and I guess at the end of the day, you even get like a VIP tour of Sofie Stadium. That would be pretty cool. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Yeah, I mean, I've been, I've been to the stuff I'd watch games, but I've never, never, never done a VIP tour. So that would be cool. All right, I got to

ask you some baseball stuff before I let you go. So, all right, I'm watching the new format for the Major League Baseball playoffs. And it's interesting. I mean, you've got the Phillies, the, the sick seed and the NL who made it to the World Series. You've got the Dodgers who won 111 games who got ousted before the NLCS. What do you think of the new format?

And do you think it's, penalizes or makes it tougher for the Dodgers, the Metz, the Braves, the teams that have a really good regular season? I personally don't mind the format. I think there is, there isn't enough punishment for the teams that are the wall cards. So if I was commissioner for the day or, you know, for the year, I would, I would make the wall

card teams not have any days off after the end of the season. And then no days off before the NL DS series. So basically, they would go into the season, three straight games or two out of three, three straight games. They win the first two, then they get it. They off. That's their reward. But three straight games and then have to travel after the third game

and go play game one of the NL DS. That, that are completely good things. It makes the, the, the break for the teams that get the buy only be three days versus the five or six that they got, which is the best. So it's just really detrimental to baseball or to, you know, to, to playing the game and timing and everything that goes with what you

need. And it makes it an extreme grind for the NL wall cards or the wall card teams that do advance. It's been a grind to have to go to the end of the season, play the three games and then go right to the end of the S. They can't set up their pitching their bullpen is going to be taxed. You know, that, that makes that makes

it a punishment for not winning the division. And I think that, that, that eliminates that. The remark or the, or the thought of, you know, there is no, no benefit to, to getting a buy. There's actually, you know, negative something to getting a buy. This one, this way, it would be a benefit to getting a buy and it would be a negative to be in the

wall card. I know you do TV for the Dodgers. Why do the Dodgers always have great regular seasons, but then they have a tough time in the postseason. I know they broke through during the pandemic. But all these other years, like they get to the postseason and they just can't get over the mountain. You know, that's, that's a really tough question to answer because every year's

difference. Right. And so, not, you know, generalize 10 years of success and only winning one, one world series into why, you know, it is because every year has been a different roster has been a different team. My, the biggest reason why in my opinion teams win the world series. I'm not going to say lose, but why teams win the world series is because. In my opinion,

the teams that are structured to win into playoffs have a two or three great starters. Two really good back in guys and a really good closer. And, and their lineup puts the ball in play. And so, home runs are going to be hit because home runs are hit, you know, into playoffs. But the teams that don't strike out in the playoffs, in my opinion, are the

ones that have the most success and, and strikeouts are a big part of rallies and getting runs in when they need to. Be driven. And so, you know, I see it, you know, you see the Astros, these guys don't strike out that put the ball in play. And that's why they tend to be in the world series quite often. And, and so to me, and then

they have great starters. And then they, they usually have a really good full pen with that kind as well. You played for the Dodgers and the Padres. This looks like it's going to be an exciting rivalry for years to come one so now with the Padres. What do you think about that rivalry since your, your base in Southern California? Yeah. I think it's a great. It's

a great rivalry. I think it builds up baseball here in Southern California and, and it makes it fun for all the fans. It's nice to see that the, that the Padres ownership is willing to put money into the team so they can, so they can play and have, you know, the level at the same, you know, the same type of talent as the Dodgers can have

with their ownership. So, you know, it's, it's going to be fun. You know, as, as long as the two teams can stick competitive and keep bringing on some of the best players in the game. Right. I'm going to go back to what you said a few minutes ago, where your commission is going to be. I'm going to make you commissioner for the day. I'm going to

make you commissioner of the day. Do we put a team in Mexico City? Yeah. I mean, I think you can. Absolutely. You know, I don't know. I wouldn't be able to sit here and say what team you take away from, from, from the US there. But I definitely think that the, the logistic part of it. I know the stadium in Mexico City is insane. But, but

yeah, you can definitely do it if, if that was, you know, what you wanted to do. The only thing is, obviously, what you want to do is, you know, the price of admission in Mexico City would be a lot lower than, than it would be in the US. Yeah. And then, you know, if your MLB commissioner for the day, is there any other things that you

look at, you know, they've, they've done some things recently with the playoff format. You got the Ghost runner on second and extra innings. You've got this pitch clock. What do you like or what would you change? I hate to go for a second. Yeah. A lot of people do the purest, do you right? To me, that's absurd. I can't even believe somebody thought of that and

thought it would be a good idea. Pitch clock, I don't mind. I think it's fine. Anything that speeds the game up that doesn't change anything is fine. I would definitely go with automatic strike zones. You know, because it eliminates that, that picture or the hitter that are, you know, getting mad at the umpire and taking their time because they, they're mad at the, at the call.

You know, if they don't like the call, then what are they going to argue with the system? You know, so that will, that will, that'll make the game speed up a little bit. One thing I did say, I did say because some of the data shows that the fans that go to the stadium don't mind the game being three hours long. But the people on TV

mind the game being three hours long or three and a half, right? And so one thing at this, at this suggests was, was to start the games at 630 instead of seven. But start the broadcast at seven o'clock and do a, a, the first three innings or the first three innings. So, it's pretty meant it's be, be a quick recap, you know, pitched by pitch without

breaks, you can, you can edit it. So it's just one, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then you caught, you catch up to the game somewhere around the third, fourth inning. And then when you, when you're on TV, you only watch fourth inning on. But in person, you go, you get there at 630 and you watch the whole game. That's interesting. That's really interesting. You know, that's

one thing that I suggested that, but you know, they want their, their commercials. So. Yeah. Yeah. It is definitely a business. All right. The Los Angeles innovation conference. Again, the first of its kind in the LA area, it's on November 9th. You can see Adrian there. It's at SoFi Stadium, YouTube, theater, get your tickets at L.A. Sports.org and look for the innovation conference on that website.

You can get your ticket there. Adrian, it's great to talk to you. Best of luck with all of your investments and everything that you have going on. I appreciate you joining me on sports business radio. Thank you. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you having me on. This episode of sports business radio has brought to you by Underdog Fantasy, the fastest growing fantasy app ever released

and the official gaming partner of sports business radio. And with early investors like Mark Cuban, Kevin Durant, Adam Schaefter and Jared golf, I know that underdog fantasy is made for people like me who are on the go and want something quick, easy and fun to play. And today we've got a special offer for sports business radio listeners. If you sign up to Underdog Fantasy using the

promo code SBR, they're going to double your first deposit up to $100. No risk, no long term commitment, just sign up using promo code SBR and your first deposit is matched up to $100 for free. I already played Underdog Fantasy on the Underdog Fantasy app. But if I didn't, I'd use that for $100 and go for a pick them contest where I can bet the over

under on individual players or team athletes. Or maybe the best ball mania three contest worth $10 million in total prizes. All you have to do is draft a team for the season, no waivers, no lineups, no injury reports. Underdog Fantasy takes care of all of that for you. So do what I've been doing. Go to Underdog Fantasy, download the app, sign up with promo code SBR

and get started right away with a free match on your first deposit up to $100. Well, that's it for this edition of sports business radio. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks to our team at sports business radio. Brian Griggs, Josh Blank, Ryan Nakajima, and our friends at CG Sports who power sports business radio. CG Young, Matt Amarlin, Nicole Wardle and Calvin Works. I'm Brian Burger. Have a

great week and we'll talk to you soon right here on sports business. Radio. This and every SBR podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and your favorite listening app. Follow sports business radio on Facebook, Twitter, at SB Radio, Instagram, at sportsbusinessradio.com. Sportsbusinessradio.com. Sports business radio is produced by Brian Griggs and Griggs Productions. GriggsProductions.com.