Rich is solo today with Covino in Toronto shooting his History Channel special, and the show opens on Dolly Parton, gone at 80. Rich puts her on the very short list of people nobody on earth had a bad word about, and makes the case that the Imagination Library, the program that mailed a free book a month to kids from birth to age five, might be the best thing any celebrity ever built.
Then the Padres sell for 3.9 billion and new co-owner Kwanza Jones walks into her press conference with her own walk-up music and starts guaranteeing championships. Rich cringed at the clips, watched the whole thing, and came out completely won over. That turns into how much ownership actually matters, from the Wilpons to Steve Cohen to the McCourt years, and whether San Diego with an open wallet becomes a real threat in the West. Everyone in the studio also admits their first reaction was to check whether the video was AI, which leads to the fake Maxx Crosby fight Rich’s mother keeps sending him.
Football takes over from there. Rich and Danny G go through all 17 Cowboys games with the Vegas spreads in front of them and land on 11-6, with Dallas favored in 11 of them before a snap has been played. Javonte Williams paid, the George Pickens tag, Rashan Gary in the Micah Parsons trade, Caleb Downs looking like the best safety in the draft, and Brandon Aubrey deciding half these games. Plus the Jed York sting, where Rich, a Niners fan getting cornered at school dropoff, runs the Ozark theory: it’s never the first time you did it, it’s the first time you got caught.
Hour two belongs to one question. On the 87th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz, which Isaac has somehow never seen, the phones open up: what does everybody else love that you just don’t get? Rich leads with Bruce Springsteen and braces for it. Camping, guacamole, pro wrestling after age 11, the Beatles, the royal family, twelve dollar Starbucks, and a ninety dollar Erewhon vegetable platter that would have cost ten bucks at Ralph’s. Waffle House gets defended. Twitter does not.
It closes with new Big Fellas Club inductees and Red Sox pitcher Payton Tolle, whose mom used to scream “you’re so pretty” from the stands to embarrass him. Those words are stitched into his glove now. She died of cancer. Rich lasted about 20 seconds before he had to change the subject.

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