Hour 1 - The Blue Flu

“The Dodgers who have absolutely been sleepwalking going back until right around the All-Star game up until now. In fact, it’s more than sleepwalking. They’re enjoying their REM sleep here.”

That was Ben Maller’s diagnosis of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ August slump, delivered in the first hour of his overnight show. The episode wove together three distinct stories: the Dodgers’ prolonged offensive collapse and the team’s defiant public posture, the Detroit Lions’ quiet quarterback swap after Teddy Bridgewater’s retirement, and a eulogy for the late NBA coach Don Nelson. Each segment served as a vehicle for Maller’s signature style—skeptical, historically informed, and willing to call out what he sees as institutional denial.

The Dodgers’ “Blue Flu” and the Limits of “Don’t Panic”

The episode’s longest segment centered on the Dodgers, who had just lost a weekend series to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Maller zeroed in on first baseman Freddie Freeman’s postgame comments, in which Freeman told reporters, “It’s baseball, ups and downs. We’re going to go through it.” When a reporter pressed him on the team’s 9-15 record over the previous month, Freeman pushed back against the notion of concern.