Then how did the Michigan Farmers Union, how did you guys reach your decision to back Dr. Abdul in the Senate race? What was it about parts of his platform that really resonated with the union?

Well, one of the principal things that we have been fighting against or for, whichever side you want to say, is the power of the federal government needs to be applied to break up the power of the corporate monopolies that control such a large portion of our agricultural markets.

Our ability to compete is no longer there.

There are only four meat packers in the country that control over 85% of the product.

A lot of times when you go into the marketplace with our cattle, there's only a single buyer, which certainly is not a competitive market.

I think his attitudes towards breaking up those ag monopolies is right in our wheelhouse, as well as, more specifically, an issue that is very dear to our hearts is the right to repair our own farm equipment, which has been stymied in a lot of different areas, a lot of different original equipment dealers, manufacturers are deliberately putting roadblocks into computer systems on equipment that we pay very dearly for, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then We don't have the opportunity to try to fix them when even a $50 part might go wrong.

So those are a couple of things.

I've been reading some stories and I want to know if this is kind of consistent with what you've been hearing is all these factors leading some farmers in the state to just have to come to that tough decision that maybe it's time to retire.

Is that true, Bob?

The Emmys next year will not be on broadcast TV.

They'll be on Prime.

The Oscars are going to be a little longer, 29, I guess.

They're going to YouTube.

I mean, the last vestiges of what we think of as broadcast TV are making their way to streaming.

And in the case of... uh the emmys it'll be exclusively it won't be on broadcast tv at all so that's one uh thing the other i guess it's and you remember the old days when the fall would come and you'd get that big fat tv guide fall preview and you'd like open it up when you'd circle things i mean that was a big deal uh when that came out.

Now, do you see cable going away first or network TV going away first?

What specific changes in how you make decisions that really resulted from everything that you went through and how Maybe how is that different from how many people, the average person that hasn't been through what you have been through makes a decision? What's the place of maybe fear and looking at things like urgency after a crisis? How does that look like for

you? For me, I think persistent progress is a massive thing and I think it gets overlooked in a lot of areas.

We have a tendency to come from a hustle atmosphere, which is fine.

The problem with that is that everybody assumes that if it's not going well, you're not working hard enough.

We hear a lot of the gurus that are, well, you need to get up at 5 a.m. and go take an ice plunge and then Meditate for 30 minutes and exercise for an hour.

And then if you're not succeeding, you're failing.

And that's not the case.

As we begin to round up, is there anything more that you would like to share with our audience?

But I'm learning

for some days.

so so

Please welcome Bob Thompson.

So, Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, I need better non-conference games, otherwise the person cutting the check is not gonna like cutting the same type of check." Can they play a big role in, in pushing for these games? I don't know if you can force it on them, but I would imagine if you want a bigger TV deal, you gotta play some ball here.

You definitely gotta play some ball, and I think...

Uh, my understanding is, is that the SEC came out and kinda floated an idea of N Power Four games in a year in order to be eligible for a 2014 playoff.

Now, that's really one of the few times that we've heard 2014 and, uh, the SEC in the same sentence.

So if, if you have to play more Power Four games, uh, and you, you've gone from nine conference games and now you've gotta play another at least one Power Four non-conference game, just naturally there's gonna be better games.

It's just, you know, p- p- From that, right? So I think that can certainly help.

Um, it's disappointing to me to see some of these games being canceled.

Yeah

What Ohtani lacks, says Thompson, is a sense of relatability and fun that Fidrich brought to the game, particularly given the rise of money in baseball, even in the mid-70s with the onset of free agency and big business.

As baseball and professional sports in general, and college sports for that matter, were really already well on their way to becoming these corrupt cesspools of big business, to put it quite directly, becoming just so huge money-oriented operations.

And even in baseball at the time, there was kind of free agency and strikes and all that stuff going on.

And I think that whole comic relief stuff that he did – gave this sense that here was a guy having fun playing

Syracuse University pop culture guru Bob Thompson said there's a reality there.

I think the one most obvious thing though, and I think we learned this from practically, it's the big story behind so many things, is that all worldly things are fleeting.

You can be as successful and famous and completely at the top of your world as a guy like Fidrich and a mere 50 years later, within the lifetimes of many of the people who watched you, you are simply no longer part of the cultural consciousness.

Syracuse University pop culture guru Bob Thompson said there's a reality there.

I think the one most obvious thing though, and I think we learned this from practically, it's the big story behind so many things, is that all worldly things are fleeting.

You can be as successful and famous and completely at the top of your world as a guy like Fidrich and a mere 50 years later, within the lifetimes of many of the people who watched you, you are simply no longer part of the cultural consciousness.

He partied backstage with Elton John, exchanged pleasantries with President Gerald Ford at the All-Star Game, and toasted Frank Sinatra at the legendary crooners' 61st birthday party that December.

Mark Fidrich was central to the soul of the summer of 1976.

When I caught up with Thompson, he told me the name Mark Friedrich conjured images in his mind.

When I heard it just a bit ago, I suddenly was transported back to a world when I was 17 years old.

The thump of disco music could be heard in any dentist's office, and it was the mid-70s all over again.