Season 2 - Episode 8 - Eric Metz

In Episode 8 of Season 2 Mike welcomes his undergrad and north side of Chicago friend Eric Metz to the podcast where they discuss the Breeze/breezin’, what life was like in the city of Chicago in the 2000s, Eric’s first home purchase, the origin of the nickname Mike Jones/Jonesy for Mike D, and Mike offers Eric and his wife Kathryn a public apology for missing their wedding.

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Key moments from the pod: 

0:30: Mike welcomes listeners to Season 2 Episode 8 featuring Mike’s friend Eric Metz.

1:40: Mike breaks down the immense level of positive feedback that has come in related S2E7 (the Jack & Nolan Tate episode).

2:15: Mike then takes the listeners through a bevy of corrections from past episodes (focused on Episodes S2E6.5 and S2E7). 

6:15: Mike updates the listeners on what’s been going on with him, which mainly centers around the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.

8:00: Mike gives a little more background on this episode’s guest, Eric Metz, while highlighting a classic song they used to listen back in Chicago.

11:25: Mike welcomes Eric Metz onto the podcast.

12:50: Eric gives the listeners what they want: his life story growing up in the Flint, MI region.

14:40: Eric then gives an update for how his very busy life is going these days.

15:50: Mike and Eric talk about the surprisingly tight geographic region they frequented back in the day in Chicago.

17:00: Eric then talks about his longest running friend, Brett Quayle.

18:45: Mike and Eric talk about the last time they hung in person and it was an embarrassingly long time ago.

19:30: Mike and Eric retrace some of the earliest memories of their friendship, back to their days at the University of Michigan, including when Mike only knew Eric as “Spinderella”, how Eric’s basketball skills are similar to Giannis Antetokounmpo, Eric playing college soccer at U-M, and how Eric ended up in Chicago.

23:40: Mike and Eric trace the earliest origins of the “Breeze” rec hoops team, which went on to set the north side of Chicago hoops scene on fire as well as the completely unnecessary car Mike leased after law school.

25:30: Eric and Mike then tell the story behind Mike D’s infamous nickname “Mike Jones/Jonesy”.

27:50: Eric and Mike then talk about the insanely large patio at Eric’s post-college condo in the River North neighborhood in Chicago and how it led to one of the all time legendary annual summer social events, which was inspired by the fashion choices of Sean “P Diddy” Combs.

32:10: Mike tells the story about how Eric introduced him to a tradition of buying in bulk known as “Bottle Service”, which was really more of an economics lesson than anything else.

34:40: Mike and Eric go DEEP on the history of the Breeze hoops team, one particular ref they had issues with, post-game traditions, commentary on the hoops games’ of each of the original team members, how they “fund raised” on behalf of the squad at Halligan’s Bar in Lincoln Park and how “breezin’” was a state of mind.

40:40: Mike comes clean and apologizes to Eric about something in their past that had been weighing on Mike’s mind related to Eric’s wedding weekend.  Eric graciously accepts.

44:10: Eric breaks down how to keep a friendship going at this point in his life.

45:20: Eric then talks about what he’s excited about coming up in his life in the next months.

46:10: Mike takes Eric through the (not so) Rapid Fire segment, including talking about Eric’s favorite place to grab food in undergrad at the University of Michigan, favorite north side of Chicago spot to breeze at, his favorite sport to play as a kid, his favorite ‘04 Piston, and his favorite road U-M tailgate he attended with Mike when Mike was still living in Chicago.