Zen Golf & Cheaters

Monthly hybrid of fictional and non-fictional stories ranging from time changes to sports scandals, featuring personal golf insights and observations on modern-day frauds.

• Daylight Saving Time affects our daily rhythms and outdoor activities for a third of the year
• Congress remains divided on making DST permanent despite bipartisan Senate bill
• Zen Golf philosophy emphasizes staying present, accepting outcomes, and maintaining emotional equilibrium
• Meeting "The Shaman," a Zen-like golf partner with ayahuasca-influenced perspectives
• "Baggate" scandal in competitive cornhole where players modified equipment for advantage
• American Cornhole League now has 155,000 members with top competitors earning up to $500,000 annually
• $300 million sneaker resale empire collapsed under unfulfilled orders and fraud
• Money in competition often increases participants' willingness to bend rules
• Post-election relief from political ads only to be replaced by insurance and pharmaceutical commercials

Chapters

• 0:00 Just Tales Introduction
• 1:16 Isn't it Time to Act?
• 5:05 Zen Golf Philosophy
• 9:33 Baggate: Cornhole Cheating Scandal
• 16:27 $300 Million Sneaker Scam
• 21:49 Post-Election Relief

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

Welcome to another episode from Just Tales, a monthly hybrid of fictional and non-fictional stories that compel me to rant. There'll always be a golf story or two laced into my blog because, well, it's where I spend a good amount of my recreational time. So, whether you're a golfer or not, if you're a skeptic, doubter or open-minded, this is the place for you. So kick back and listen. In this episode, I'll rant about Zen Golf, one of my favorite golf books, and my credo for playing the sport. More stories about cheating in sports, that is, if you can call cornhole a sport. Traffic cops trading tickets. For a little tickle, a $300 million sneaker king comes undone. But first my thoughts on our moving our clocks backwards again in a segment I call Isn't it Time to Act? I'm counting down the days until Sunday, march 12th, 2023. Now I'd give you an exact number of days, it would be 125 days from when I started writing this, but when you hear this it'll be far less than 125. So let's just say over a hundred days when darkness comes way too early. Over a hundred days where I have to leave the golf course early or when I have to make plans earlier to hit the links or be challenged by the threat of darkness over the last few holes when, by the way, the match is always on the line or 100 days where early sunset messes with my circadian rhythm, inducing cravings of pizza, burgers, beer, bourbon, alright, so that's not just a bad thing. Over a hundred days of binging every streaming service, until my second bottle of Visine and Refresh have squeezed out their last drops, I think you get it A third of the year spending more hours indoors, eating, drinking, binging, and if you're lucky enough to be in a relationship with someone, you want to spend time with more hours of intimacy. See, there's always a silver lining.

Speaker 1: 3:05

I am a big fan of longer afternoon daylight hours. The Senate passed a bipartisan bill, introduced by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, to make DLST permanent starting March of next year. Yet Congress hasn't picked up the measure to bring it to a vote. And why not, you ask? Because it's not a big enough issue to waste their valuable time? That's what they say, I mean. What's wrong with us? What possible lobby wants a third of the year with less afternoon hours? Does the alcoholic beverage industry do? They prosper in the dark, probably. Does the entertainment industry benefit from less daylight hours? Maybe Do Trojan condom sales engorge during the 127 days of darkness? I actually know that answer, hint. August is the most active birth month of the year. I don't think it's as much an industry force that's preventing us as much as it is a divisive Congress that purposely disagrees on just about anything that looks like a meeting of the minds anything that looks like a meeting of the minds. I read where there was this guy who would not recognize the change in time at a protest, which just has to piss off his friends, family and business associates, since he's always going to be an hour late or an hour early for everything, depending on the season. Hey, congress, get your shit in order and let's start with something simple like time Sign the bill and let's keep daylight savings time.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Zen Golf If you're all tied up in knots when you're out on the course, maybe you should try it Sometime back when I was in my 30s and started to take golf too seriously, you know, like winning was the only measuring stick, I would allow my drive to win influence my attitude and my reaction to shitty shots, which, by the way, becomes a downward spiral. So once this small little startup company called Amazon made it easier for me to find and buy books online, I found this book, Zen Golf, by Dr Joseph Parent. I needed to understand myself, to better control my mind, attitude and appreciation for the sport that's given back to me so much, for the sport that's given back to me so much. Zen means action with awareness, being completely in the present moment, free of anxiety or doubt. Whenever I arrive at a tee box and hear one of the other guys in the foursome proclaim I freaking hate this hole, it signals to me that doubt, anxiety and fear are the dominant emotions driving his actions on that hole, usually followed by a really shitty shot. Some golfers are good at instilling reverse psychology on themselves to prove themselves wrong, like, oh, I hate this hole. And then they overcome whatever that anxiety is and overcome their fears. But most of them dunk it in the drink, hit it in the bunker or the woods or gorilla, whack it out of bounds after a statement of fear.

Speaker 1: 7:20

I'm not immune to bad shots, probably a lot more than my handicap suggests I should have. But what's different in my game now is Zen golf. My temperature remains the same during the entire round Good shots and bad shots. I stay in the present for each shot, accept the outcome of each swing or each stroke and hopefully learn something and apply it to future shots. Every once in a while I come across other Zen golfers. You know guys like Mike K Southern, brad Paul Bunyan and some others. These are guys I've talked about and even interviewed in other episodes. Their pulses never vary much during the round, during good shots or bad shots.

Speaker 1: 8:37

I recently played golf with this character I'll call the Shaman, who exemplifies the Zen experience. I've given that name because of a trip that he took to a place called Rhythmia in Costa Rica for a week. He went there for a week of psychedelic ayahuasca experiences. He told me that his last psychedelic experience ended up with him seeing get this, seeing get this a six-foot praying mantis standing before him and placing his raptorial legs into the shaman's heart. Once he told me that I knew I had to spend more time with him on the course just to discover his spiritual outlook on the world between his birdie putts and, if nothing else, just to enjoy his crazy. Everybody has their crazy, by the way. He shot a 76 that day and shared his outlook on the world. I mean, what could be more Zen than that? I mean, what could be more interesting than playing with somebody with a Zen attitude. Now I have to offer a slight disclaimer.

Speaker 1: 9:47

The Zen attitude Now I have to offer a slight disclaimer. When he shared his thoughts on Bill Gates propagating the mosquito population with a deadly disease as an evil plan to vet world population, or the hidden child trafficking epidemic in the United States to the tune of 10,000 missing each year, I had to laugh out loud and just say, okay, let's put a cork on some of the conspiracy theories for now, before I bust a gut laughing in which, as every golfer knows, you can't laugh and hit a good shot. The shaman always had an interesting take on introspection. He'd say things like perception is reality and how you always have to consider the source, and he had a healthy distrust of anything government, which also makes him interesting. He's an interesting golf partner, never a dull moment. So back to Zen golf. If you have one golf book to buy to help your outlook on golf, zen golf would be my choice. Approach life as if you're an empty cup and you'll just be surprised on how much you can fill the cup with Zen golf.

Speaker 1: 11:13

Bar gate another sporting controversy about cheating, with an ever clever word gate at the end to signify another scandalous act. A couple of episodes ago, I spoke about cheating in the most obscure sports and skills. I thought I had heard it all after the anglers who try to win a steelhead fishing competition tried weighting down their alleged winning fish with lead weights and fish fillets. I can't believe you fell for the oldest trick in the book. What a goof I mean. That story was only to be eclipsed with cheating accusations in internationally ranked chess. So last week there's a story in the news about cheating in cornhole.

Speaker 1: 12:18

In August, at the 2022 American Cornhole League World Championship in Rock Hill, south Carolina, mark Richards and Phillip Lopez were accused of throwing underweighted resin-beaded bags. When they just kept launching them into the cornhole, they'd hit the slanted board and they would go right into the cornhole and understand. This was telecast live on ESPN, opened here on ESPN8, theo Cho, bringing you the finest in seldom-seen sports from around the globe since 1999. If it's almost a sport, we've got it here. Hello everybody and welcome to this year's annual Las Vegas. After an official inspection live on TV, the judges ruled that the bags were in fact, too small. But that's only half the drama. Lopez and Richards, in retaliation, accused their competitors of throwing non-compliant bags which, after official review were also non-compliant, which, after official review, were also non-compliant. So now the incident is called Baggate. And why does the media have to use reference to Watergate every time there is an accusation of a scandal? You know Deflategate, bridgegate, dieselgate and now Baggate. Anyway, back to the scandal.

Speaker 1: 13:44

Cornhole is growing quickly with deep pocket sponsors and serious competitors. The ACL, american Cornhole League, claims that their membership exceeds 155,000 members. That is a 24% increase from a year ago and a 60% jump in events, topping 22,000 events a year. Get this the top ACL competitors can make up to a half a million dollars a year in winnings, endorsements and sponsorship deals. So why the concern about the size and weight of the bags? So why the concern about the size and weight of the bags? A lighter, thinner bag poses a scoring advantage when tossed it flies truer and when it hits the angled board it slides easier into the hole. So some players are even boiling their bags or washing them with vinegar to make them more pliable and stick. Some competitors drive their cars over their bags to soften them. I mean, it's getting crazy, right, cornhole bags by regulation must be six by six inches flat and weigh 16 ounces. Now, once you start boiling the bags or crushing the resin beads, it changes the structure and can make it easier to score.

Speaker 1: 15:15

Okay, I think I've given enough time to the ridiculous alleged cheating scandal in cornhole. As I've said in my previous rants about competition, once you add the element of money, it alters some people's degree of larceny. As soon as a buck's on the line in golf, the foot wedge comes into play. So here's a possible solution for a cornhole. Why not have the cornhole competition, sell sanctioned bags at the event and have a few referees to check to make sure it's a fair fight? But you know what they say about cheaters Cheaters are going to cheat and haters are going to hate.

Speaker 1: 16:06

Gonna play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play? Did you know that there's money in reselling sneakers, big, big money? Michael Melikzada and I'm just going to call him Zada for the purpose of just abbreviating he was known as one of the largest buyers and sellers of exceptional sneakers in the tune of $300 million a year. He would acquire the rarest Air Jordan and Yeezys and sell them through his online store, sometimes cheaper than the notable national retailers. As he acquired wealth, the 30-something-year-old would flaunt his Ferraris, his six-figure Girard Perregos while posing in a pair of rare sneakers, eating a cheeseburger, or he's riding his $29,000 Louis Vuitton bicycle inside of his multi-million dollar mansion. I mean, he is the iconic rich millennial. But here's the rub His business behind closed doors was collapsing under the weight of unfulfilled orders.

Speaker 1: 17:42

He was getting money up front with the promise of future delivery. Getting money up front with the promise of future delivery, which, in the beginning of his rise to celebrity sneaker stardom, was just rock solid. He'd get a volume commitment from suppliers and then turn around and sell out before he even received the inventory. This took a tremendous amount of trust, a concept I've ranted about in previous episodes. But when the supply chain died as a function of the pandemic shutdowns, he continued to take orders and payment up front for shoes he never received.

Speaker 1: 18:23

Early last year, zeta collected orders for almost 600,000 pairs of Air Jordan 2 gray sneakers, pricing them between $115 and $200. Now that's cheaper than the suggested retail price of $225. So that's what got everybody excited about what he was doing. He netted over $70 million on that deal alone. But here's the rub he only received 6,000 pairs 1% of the estimated 600,000 that he took orders for. So what did he do? Did he return the money for the unshipped orders? Hey folks, this is not Amazon. No, he kept the money. He spent over $10 million on luxury goods like watches, furs, handbags, and did a $600,000 renovation to one of his luxury homes and posted it online.

Speaker 1: 19:29

Meanwhile, all of his customers weren't getting their sneakers. I mean, this was a Bernie Madoff-sized scam for the sneaker market and the feds flew in like vultures after several thousand businesses and individuals filed suit against him. This was like a multi-level marketing scheme gone bad. Individuals and businesses that were buying the rare sneakers from Zeta were reselling them for profits. I mean, how can this sneaker craze get so out of control? Get so out of control?

Speaker 1: 20:12

Well, first you have to look at Nike, which generates over $29 billion from Nike and Jordan branded footwear alone. Last year, $29 billion. Second, you have to look at the perceived value and the status of wearing Air Jordans. Both inner cities as well as wealthy suburbs and celebrity circles. All were wearing them. During the Oscars, female actors were asked, who designed your dresses? While male actors sported rare Jordans on the red carpet. Nike made an event out of launching new and rare models, and Zeta, who grew up in Eugene Oregon, right around the corner from Nike, knew the game.

Speaker 1: 20:55

Wouldn't you think that Nike would want to control the integrity of their sneaker prices on the market, just like Apple does with all of their products? Nope, with all of their products. Nope, they might not have encouraged the gray and black market, but at $29 billion, they have a lot of clout with their retail resellers. I mean, think of Foot Locker. If you're Foot Locker, are you going to not stock Nike sneakers? So Zeta Kicks, which is the name of Zeta's company, is defunct and Zeta's assets are being liquidated to cover his debts. In the end, crime pays until you get caught. Then it pays the feds.

Speaker 1: 21:49

The last thing I'll rant about were the midterm elections, and no, I'm not going to take sides. There are good people on both sides. Where have I heard that before? All I'll say is this Now that all the campaigning, mudslinging, made-up shit on both sides of the aisle about why you can't trust that other guy or gal, because they'll steal from you, lie to you and vote for bills that are completely the opposite of the ticket that they're supposedly running on.

Speaker 1: 22:21

Now that that's behind us and all those commercials are behind us, now we can get back to watching commercials paid for by industries like Big Pharma that alert us on the cool drugs we could ask our doctors to prescribe for us to live a happier, pain-free life. Or we get to watch the campy insurance company commercials with Flo Gecko, the guy who crafts your shit, and anything else to distract us from the fact that our healthy premiums mostly pay for shit we're never going to need. And if we need to fix a car, a boat, a home, a motorcycle, it's probably best not to call your insurance agent, because you can be assured your rate increases will more than cover whatever it is they just paid out to you. And with that happy note, I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. No-transcript. No-transcript.