Bernie Fratto Discusses the World Cup Final, the ESPYS, and Wemby's $51M Gamble

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, that's right, you heard the man. It is that
time of week. My name is Bernie Friday. We are
coming to your line from the Fox Sports Radio studios
here in Las Vegas. Will take after three m Pacific
six am Eastern as usual, an absolute jam pack show.
We've got a lot of stuff to talk about. A
little ballgame tomorrow which we're gonna get into in a

(00:21):
minute here at NFL camps open this week. Like I said,
we've got a lot to talk about tonight. Great three
great midnight hour topics. You'll I'm looking forward to hearing
the peeps weighing on. But be advised, please be forewarned.
We will not be talking about the indecision. We will

(00:44):
not be talking about the self proclaimed king sixteen years ago.
We suffered through the decision. I get it. The Boys
and Girls Club made three million. All good, don't care
about the indecision. Take your time, take as long as
you freaking want. I don't care. Goever the hell you want.

(01:06):
I couldn't care less. Play as long as you want.
Miss me with that one. And now we've got to
hear this sound. By this, this poignant sound, by talking
to his twelve year old daughter. You mean everything to me. Okay,
I'm okay, fair, I got kids. My daughter means everything
to me. So there's my son and my wife. What

(01:26):
if this daughter said, uh okay, daddy, I want you
to retire. Uh okay, do what you will with that.
Talk talk amongst yourselves. Sure, kid, we'll we'll see. We'll
see about that one.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
All I know is I I don't again. I'm not
gonna repeat what I just said. You get it. I
will say this and we'll get in and out in
ten seconds. I want to guess. I always pride myself
on being sourced. I'm not sourced on this. I don't care.
I'm looked into it. No one knows. Lebron knows. He's
probably known. I guess he'll make the decision this week.

(02:02):
Why because the World Cup end Sunday and NFL cams
open towards the end of the week, and so he'll
have a nice little four or five day window there
for Lebron week. Make no mistake, he can say. It's
not about the money, it's about happy, It's about the spotlight.
I want to be in the spotlight. I'm the self
proclaimed king. Watch me go and the other the second

(02:23):
guess will be he's gonna be around for at least
two more years. I say at least two more years.
It may be two years, it may be more. It
won't just be one. So those are my two guesses. Well, great,
my guesses next Saturday Night. A. He'll make the decision
this week because it's the most self serving situation for him,
be it'll be at least two years. Come on, man,

(02:45):
I got nothing against the guy, nothing against the guy,
nothing about love for Lebron. I don't hate the guy.
I just think he's completely full of crap, and you
do too. How about a couple of names that are
really relevant for Sunday and one has been for a
long time, lem And Namal and Leo NeSSI. The twenty

(03:06):
twenty six feet for World Cup is thirteen hours away,
the final tremendous showdown the European champion Spain the defending
World champ Argentina, Sunday, July nineteenth, noon Pacific time. Excuse me,
this is a generational showdown. You got a thirty nine

(03:28):
year old legend and Lionel Messi. He's going to face
a nineteen year old phenom l min Ya Mal. That'll
give this sort of a cinematic narrative, as if this
game even needs any more up. You know, a billion
eight one point eight billion people are slated to watch
the World Cup game Sunday. Argentina. What a matchup. This

(03:49):
is going to be an epic matchup. Argentina has scored
eighteen goals in this tournament. Spain has allowed one. Can
Argentina repeat? That's another storyline no one has ever repeated.
Argentina hunting for their fourth World Cup title again, trying
to be the first back to back champion. That just

(04:12):
stand correct at Brazil, I think repeated in sixty two guys,
if I know, that's what my research shows, Spain trying
to get their second every title. Their first one was
in twenty ten. And by the way, if you're into
halftime shows, super Bowl style halftime show, coldplay, I'm a
big Coldplay flan. I don't even I don't know. I

(04:32):
founder in three thousand, will be there Madonna justin Bieber Shakira?
What wasn't up with America available? Or I don't know
what was that a halftime show? All right? Great, I
mean you might miss me with that one, but you
won't miss me with the game. Because right out of
the gate, there are things that I think we all
need to watch, even if we're just casual fans. Yeah,

(04:53):
we're all casual fans. Okay, what do I have? You know,
season tickets to Manu No, but you've got to watch
these things. Will Spain be able to stifle Messi? That's
obviously the primary concern of any team that has to
play Argentina Lionel Messi. He defies logic. He's thirty nine
years old. He doesn't give speeches about kicking father times ass.

(05:15):
He just goes out there and puts his team position
to win championships. He's delivered multiple moments of brilliance in
this tournament. Sometimes they're just subtle, but it's hard to
take your eyes off the guy. And as Spain plans
to subdue Messi and if anybody can do what they can,
but we'll see. Look, there's one thing about Messi, and

(05:36):
he reminds me of Wayne Gretzky. He's not only probably
the greatest player to ever play in that's sant a
lot because there're a lot of good ones, and he's diminutive,
which means nothing. He's probably the smartest, headiest player that
there's ever been on the pitch in football or soccer,
whatever you want to call it. He just always knows
where to be, knows how to make positional adjustments on

(05:57):
the fly. He can react to whatever's happening. When England
shifted to a back five in the semi finals, for example,
what did Messi do. He exploited it. He used the
space created by a substitution, took over the game. He
inspired Argentina's latest comeback. There's no doubt about it. He
drew that double team, had a perfect pass which led

(06:17):
to the first goal, and then a perfect centering pass
for the header goal. And now this is going to
be interesting because Spain has seen that they're they're by
far the best defensive team in the tournament. Again, just
one goal conceded in thirty eight days. And this is
going to be Messi's toughest test in the World Cup,
all right, If he wants what Spain did to France

(06:38):
and completely smothering them, they'll try to use ball possession
as the best form of defense. They remind me of
their Russian hockey team in the eighties. The you know,
the NHL was a dump and chase league until the
European and Russian influence got here in the eighties. They
possessed the puck and that's just what this is what

(06:58):
Spain does. If their philosophy is if we've got the ball,
you can't score, and so look for their ability to
pass for possession, pass for penetration and simply possess the
ball is going to probably give our Argentina some fits.
We'll see. Now le Me and Jamal, he arrived at

(07:20):
the World Cup. He had a hamstring injury that kind
of ended his club season prematurely, and he almost wasn't
able to play in this World club Fortunately for everyone,
including Spain's opponents, you want to play against the best.
He's been able to play. Now, what's interesting is Jamal
has a goalden opportunity to put the kind of signature

(07:42):
game that will be remembered forever if he somehow steals
the spotlight from Messi. So is this Laval's moment. Will
Spain stifle Messi? His kid's dazzling, But he's also going
to come up against the veteran team and veteran defense
and they're going to try to isolate jam All. Now,

(08:06):
the other thing to watch can Argentina break the counterpress
Spain and it's not close. Has the best collection of
pure technicians in the world, especially in this tournament, especially
in the midfield, and they are so skillful. It really
they're so effortless in the way they do it. It
sort of masks the fact that Spain has this relentless

(08:29):
aggression they are. They counterpress, they suffocate in the matter
of the state of the match. This is a lesson
France learning. In the semi finals they had a devastating
attack and Spain completely nullified them completely. My jaw dropped. Now,
how Argentina will handle that high press will go a

(08:50):
long way into satting who ends up hoisting the trophy Sunday. Argentina,
unlike France, they'll be able to pack the middle of
the pitch because theyn't have three midfielders that because of
the style of play they have that will provide quick
outlets and they'll have different passing options when they win
the ball back. If they win the ball back, plus,

(09:11):
Messy can drop deep to provide the ultimate press resistant player.
So if Argentina can control the middle, win possession back, Yeah,
that all sounds good until you have to do it.
And then break the initial Spain press. Then there'll be
open space to exploit and perhaps scoring opportunities. In hockey

(09:31):
they call those odd band rushes. I don't let the
call um in soccer football, whatever the hell it is. Whatever.
Another key factor consider here is the rough's gonna let
them play, or other the ref's canna let him play
if Spain's press gets broken. You know there are professional

(09:51):
files sort of that can be called the halt potential
Argentine counter attach. You can only do that so many
times before the yellow cards start flying. Argentina, you know,
they got a bunch of big game physical guys that
in soil Spain. They're going to try to disrupt the
passing flow and break up the rhythm of the match.
We'll see how the referees keep a handle of this.

(10:14):
Argentina plays the four to four to two, explaining Spain
plays a four two three one one other thing just
do for posterity their path to the final. They were
both first in their group, all right, but then Spain
just went out on the road. These teams like a
stack horse. They shout out Austria three nil, Portugal one nil.

(10:38):
You saw they beat Belgium two to one. Belgium got
the only goal against them, and they beat France two nil. Meanwhile,
Argentina for a bit of time looked like they were
whistling through the graveyard for frankly, the whole knockout stage.
They beat Cape Verdi three to two an extra time.
They beat Egypt three to two. Two Egypt could have

(11:01):
won that game. They beat Switzerland three to one. Score
a little deceiving. Switzerland played them tough, and you saw
what happened against England. England led into the seventy eighth
minute last Wednesday and lo and behold. So Spain is
seven and oh check that Argentina is seven and oh
and they've scored nineteen goals and they've given up seven.

(11:26):
Spain scored thirteen goals, giving up one. Messi's still looking
for the golden boot. Both countries have excellent tournament pedigree.
I mean Spain their only championship was in twenty ten.
Argentine's actually won it three times, seventy eight, eighty six
and in twenty twenty two. And here's some other interesting
facts to put in your pipe and smoke. Incredibly, you

(11:48):
look at these two powers, Spain in Argentina they've only
met once before in the World Cup, one time sixty
years ago nineteen sixty six. If you're scoring, I'm gonna
hope you are. Argentina got the two to one group
stage victory. By the way, Spain has reached six major

(12:09):
finals in its history between the World Cup and European
Championship and their five and one their loan defeat came
against in eighty four against France. Meanwhile, Spain won for
one in World Cup finals, lifting the trophy again in
twenty ten. Argentina now, I think they were helped by
this expanded format for the this Summers event. They're the

(12:31):
only the second team to win seven matches in a
single World Cup twenty oh to two. Brazil did it
as well. Argentina. For now they've been the comeback king.
They scored eight goals between the seventy sixth and the
ninetieth minute of matches in the Summers tournament. Only one
other team, Netherlands in nineteen ninety eight, has scored more

(12:52):
multiple match winning goals in the final or in the
ninetieth minute at the same World Cup tournament. By the way,
only two players have completed twenty or more dribbles at
this summer's tournament, Messi twenty five and Yamal twenty two.
And if they show that picture of the baby Yamal

(13:12):
with Messi, who was friends with Emal's dad, looking down
into the little baby character or whatever it is, you
have how many times have I seen that photo? Now,
I don't know. If I had a nickel for every
time they showed it, I'd out my own private playing
with twenty four hour access and Elon Musk could be
mowing Milan. My prediction, I'm gonna give it to you
at the end of the show. But I do have

(13:33):
a very I have a very strong belief and who
will win this game and why and why one team
just simply is the best in the world and they're
not going to be denied. And it may not be
who you think it is, but I'm gonna save that
for the end of the show coming up. It may
not have been a great success for the US team,

(13:55):
per Se talked about that last week, but twenty six
FIFA World Cup was an extraordinary success on our soil.
Extraordinary success. I will give you all the receipts and
details and stats coming up. As FIFA twenty twenty six

(14:18):
World Cup comes to a close here in about well,
the game will kickoff. The match will kick off in
about twelve hours and forty five minutes and figure two
hours after that. Although it would not surprise me for
one extra time, and honestly it wouldn't surprise me if
it went to PK, it wouldn't surprise me. But I

(14:39):
don't think that's gonna happen. So why was the World
Cup such a huge, massive success on our soil? Well,
i'll give you the receipts. Coming up. I'm Bernie Fradewer
coveringy line from the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio Studios.
Keep it locked right here. You're listening to the Bernie
Frattle Show.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Alrighty, we are back on the Bernie Fraddle Show Fox
Sports Radio. Come you live from the Fox Sports Radio
studios here in Las Vegas. We are thirty six minutes
away from the midnight hour. We'll get to that. We
have three excellent topics. They'll set that up just a minute.
Oh well, yeah, and you'll want to dial in at

(15:28):
eight seven, seven, nine, nine sixty six three six nine, eight, seven,
seven ninety nine on Fox. Again, the US team might
not have had the success we had hoped for based
on expectations in the World Cup. However, you cannot deny
that the twenty twenty six feet for World Cup in

(15:51):
the United States was an extraordinary success at tenance records,
completely shattered television viewership historic You looked at the world
class stadiums and the infrastructure, the events, the media, and
all of a sudden, we have again this surging domestic

(16:13):
passion for soccer. We'll see if it continues. But there
were so many wonderful storylines, and I know there were
early concerns that expanding the tournament to forty eight teams
would dilute the quality. But the event has captivated the
American public. It did, and you talk about a massive
commercial triumph, it's undeniable. So how did it happen? What

(16:38):
are the key factors? Why do I make this proclamation
that it was a incredibly extraordinary success the US. First
of all, again, there was record breaking attendance because the
games were played in massive stadiums. One of the things
about the United States kind of cracked me up by
the way, you know, you know, tea Mobile and Seattle

(16:58):
was not the Seattle Stadium, Los Angeles Stadium, and Boston
Stadium in atlant That was kind of silly. I know
why they did it, but it was still kind of silly.
But the one of the things United States has is
an incredible existing network of massive, world class NFL stadiums,
and so that eliminates the need for any new stadium
construction or add ons or enhancements. And it basically the

(17:22):
ability to control the crowds and get people in and
out and accumulate historic crowds was effortless because this is
what the US does. The tournament shattered the all time
attendance record, previously held in the nineteen ninety four World Cup,
conveniently also played in the United States. It surpassed three

(17:42):
point six million fans early in the tournament, and it
kept stadiums and incredibly, We're ready for it. Out of
a potential one hundred percent ticket sold, there was a
ninety nine point seven percent occupancy rate. Now, there was

(18:04):
a single day at Milestone on June sixteenth alone. The
tournament was set a single day a tenance record with
two hundred and eighty two hundred and twenty three fans
across four matches. That's never happened before. Success. Yes, were
the historic US television ratings, well with games broadcast and

(18:28):
favorable domestic time zones. Yes, that helped a lot. Television
viewership reached levels competitive with all the biggest American sports.
But the blockbuster of them all was when the US
played Belgium in the around the sixteen. There were thirty
million viewers on Fox alone, peaked at thirty seven man

(18:49):
at one point during the game, an additional twelve million
on NBC Telemundo at one point. There as many fifty
thousand pairs of eyes tuning in on the US Belgian game,
making it the most the most watched soccer telecast in
US history. Now, there were a lot of neutrals viewership

(19:11):
as well, because American fans just turns out, we didn't
just turn in to watch the men's team. The group
stage matches averaged and unprecedented five million English viewers on
Fox alone, four point seven million Spanish viewers on Telemundo.
And by the way, it proved that the US does

(19:31):
have a deep engagement with this global game we're not
one of the better teams in the world because for us,
it's just a nice to have, not a need to
have strategic streaming accessibility. Now, as we have seen, we've
had topics on this in the midnight hour where people

(19:53):
watch games and only to come find out that you know, well,
they can't watch tonight becausey don't have Netflix, they don't
have amont Plaster or Amazon Prime or whatever or Peacock.
But for twenty bucks flat hardcore fans were able to
stream every single match in English via Fox one on

(20:14):
NBC's Peacock offered every single game for just eleven and
for you know, for if you can't go to the
game and pay four thousand a ticket, that's the next
best thing. That streaming accessibility clearly helped, no two ways
about it. There was all kinds of on field drama,
all kinds of star power that the stars showed. Okay,

(20:37):
Leonel Messi, Killian and Boppy, Harry Kane, Earling Holland, they
all performed at elite levels. They became half assed household
names here in the United States. And if you've been
listening to the World of Soccer Future, which we do
every Sunday, morning two thirty am Pacific five thirty am.
That we've been doing since twenty twenty two. Before the
last World Cup, you'd have heard of the these names,

(21:00):
especially early Holland, Harry Kane. I was in London with
my wife May at twenty twenty four, got a full
tour of Tottenham Stadium Hotspur. I miss Harry came by
five minutes and he was on his way to another
team by the way at that time. But they all
performed at elite levels. They were scoring, they were driving,

(21:24):
their fan engagement was excellent. Everything about it. They wore
the star labeled well plus you know what else kind
of helped. Yes, I know, for the most part, soccer
can a bear to be a slow moving chess match.
But there was actually a scoring average of three goals
per game. That's kind of a lot for soccer. That's

(21:46):
basically the equivalent of an NFL game being decided in
the twenties instead of a ten to seven defensive slugfest.
So there were, you know, very few steelmates, and when
there were that that just created the drama and it
kept I think casual American fans hooked. Finally, you can't
deny that the cultural vibrancy. I would call it the

(22:11):
cultural vibrancy if I could speak English, really impacted the
tourism surge, the local economic status. The data analyzed by
a Bank of America revealed that the overall spending and
host cities rose by almost seven percent, and seventeen percent
of that surge was from non local and international visitors. Okay,

(22:36):
then there were these FIFA fan festivals and city marches.
Seattle had this record setting twenty three thousand person march
through the city center that proved beyond the shadowed out,
the US has evolved into I think an authentic, passionate
soccer nation. So it's been a hell of a lot

(22:58):
of fun thirty eight days, uh and I expect the
game Sunday to live up to its billing. And I
will tell you that one of the things I one
of the conclusions I drew was I really do believe
that Frankly, the shootout what they call it a p

(23:23):
k in uh in uh in? You know, the World
Cup is the most exciting uh play. What's the word
I'm looking for? The event in all of sports, however
you want to call it, because there's so much fear

(23:43):
and drama and and human emotion. Uh, it's so pressure filled.
And I know it's debated by people. Uh we now know.
We we heard after the German you know, when Germany
lost in their and their in their PK shootout, four
players allegedly refused or to decide that they want to

(24:04):
do it. But you can't deny that there was instant drama,
instant and you actually feel it. I had nothing invested.
Every single kick can directly change the team's chances of
winning or losing and a person's future. Who's a lot
of time talked about that. Thiery talked about that it

(24:25):
creates legendary status for goalkeepers also who make their crucial saints,
and it makes the underdog. It's kind of this great
evening out process. It gives the weaker teams a realistic
chance to defeat their you know, David versus Tepe giants.
It is peak tension because the emotional stakes from minute

(24:46):
to minute are higher than any other moment in sports.
It just is you feel it. I know that critics
don't like it. Man, you feel it realizes too much
on luck rather than team skill. I don't know if
I agree with that. They think it's perhaps any climactic
after one hundred and twenty minutes. The team sport should
be decided still on the field versus isolated individual mistakes.

(25:07):
How are you going to do that? They've been playing
this game a long time. I can't argue. I can't
argue with their philosophy, but it places this devastating psychological
burden on every single player who steps up. They have
to kick that ball, and especially if they miss and
their team loses. It's incredible. But listen, soccer brought some

(25:29):
other excitement, you know, the comebacks with Argentina, the rivalries
we learned about international rivalries, counterattacks and last minute winners,
and the fact you think a game might be over,
but it's not. Yogi, it ate over till it's over.
So that's my two cents. The bottom line was a

(25:51):
highly successful tournament here on our soil, and I think
we've got a hell of a matchup. I did my
best to break it down on the opening monologue, and
we'll see what we shall see in twelve hours and
twenty six minutes. By the way, be sure to subscribe
to the Fox Radio check out the Fox Sports Radio

(26:13):
YouTube channel. Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and
you'll see our best videos from all of our shows.
And don't stop there. Hit that thumbs up icon and
comment away. Let us know whose takes you like and
he just takes you don't like. Just search Fox Sports
Radio and YouTube and subscribe. Coming up to midnight hour
eight seven seven nine nine six sixty three sixty nine,

(26:33):
I'm gonna set up the topics for the midnight hour.
We'll take your calls starting at midnight, and we will
go over time. No one gets turned away. So if
you spill past one am, no guests anymore. At one am,
we'll take your calls, and coming up, I'm gonna set
up all three topics. I think you'll like them, and
I know I'll like what the callers have to say.
Remember remember the most boring conversations when everybody agrees. Twenty

(26:59):
five minutes away from the midnight hour, where it turns
midnight literally here in Las Vegas, figuratively for all of us,
because you get the last word. I'm Bernie Fraddle. We're
coming to line from Las Vegas. Fox Sports Radio Studios.
Keep it locked. You listen to the Bernie Friddle.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
Don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
All right, Back at the Bernie Friddle Show, Fox Sports Radio.
Come to your line from the Fox Sports Radio studios
here in a Las Vegas we're just getting started. We
are eighteen minutes away from the clock striking midnight literally
here in Las Vegas, perhaps where you live as well,
but figuratively it's the midnight hour for all of us,
which means you get the last word. Callers, do a

(27:41):
great job. We will go over time. If you don't
get in, please pack your patients. I want to hear
from everybody, and uh, you can reach us at eight
seven seven nine nine, six six three six nine or
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox. And here we
go topic number one. All right, this past week, the

(28:05):
SBS were once again on TV this past week. I
did not watch them, just MYNT opinion. They started back
in nineteen ninety three. It's a ceremony that's hosted every
year by ESPN, and those folks do a lot of

(28:25):
good things. I don't particularly happen to believe the sb's
is one of them. And what's interesting is I've done
my research on this now and there's a very differing
public opinion on whether the SPS, which stands for Excellence
in Sports Performance Yearly awards are legit or annoying? Really,

(28:49):
and so I really looked into this and it's split
a hell of a lot more down the middle than
you realize. And so the question I want to ask
my peeps tonight, because my callers are great, do you
consider the SP's a legitimate enterprise or merely a self serving,
self aggrandizing exercise. Is this a legitimate enterprise? Well, it

(29:11):
is because it's a moneymaker, I think for them. But
is it merely a self serving, self aggrandizing exercise? And
if you look into this, a lot of people find
them legit because the SBS allow fans to vote directly
for their favorite teams or check that their favorite athletes
or their favorite moments, So they're giving the public a

(29:31):
voice like we do on this show. Then in the
pastor have been you know, emotional tributes, they've honored human resilience.
I'll never forget watching the Arthur ash Award for Courage
or the Jimmy V Award for perseverance before not now,
there is a lot of star power too. It serves

(29:52):
as a major culture crossover where there are a lot
of elite athletes in Hollywood celebrities and they coop mingle
together and it's kind of a planning in the middle
of the midsummer, you know, is baseball is going on,
the NBA's done, and he haven't gotten football yet. But
there are a lot of people that find them annoying.
Why critics pointing out the awards heavily favor an ESPN bias.

(30:15):
Only the leagues and sports at ESPN broadcasts or heavily
promotes on their network, and that's their right. And so
a lot of fans find it annoying because they believe
it's a glorified popularity contest because it relies on fan
voting and athletes with massive social media followings or those
from major market teams, they seem to win the lion's

(30:36):
share of you know, being a candidate and winning awards.
Then a lot of people the show has been accused
of sort of this fake vibe. Many fans feel the
show as an overly manufactured corporate event. It's just designed
to generate viral social media eclips. It's not really an

(30:57):
authentic sports celebration. Again, those are the com the pros,
and people like them because fans are involved. But if
you compare the SPS to other major awards. It's considered
on a prestige level. It's considered very low, maybe moderate.
It's just mainly for entertainment and pop culture fans and
certain selected executives vote. Then you got the Player's Choice Awards,

(31:21):
that's the competitor of the SPS who votes on that,
fellow athletes. In terms of prestige level, that's considered higher,
much higher, because now you're earning peer respect. And then
you've got League MVP and awards who votes on that
Sports Writers of Media that's actually considered the highest prestige

(31:41):
level because those types of awards start to define Hall
of Fam legacies. So I ask you callers, do you
consider the SP's a legitimate enterprise or merely a self serving,
self aggrandizing exercise. By the way, you can throw in
there if you watch as well. Topic number two, this one,

(32:10):
I'm gonna go off the grid a little on this one.
We did last week. I'm gonna do it again because
our callers are good at it. As you know. The
House representatives recently passed a build that would make daylight
savings time permanent and would eliminate the disruptive twice yearly
clock change and provide later sunset times in the fall,

(32:35):
and now has to go to the center. I don't
know if it's going to pass or not. There are
pros and cons. I want to know from my callers.
Do you want to keep everything the same or would
you like to see daylight savings time permanent? Now I
know they do it in Arizona, it's permanent. There's one
other state as well. Sleep experts they heavily oppose the move.

(32:56):
They believe it misaligns our natural circadian rhythms, which well,
that'll lead to darker winter mornings, and they say increase
risk for heart attacks, strokes, and mood disorders. That doesn't
sound too good, but there are pros as well. More
evening light. A permanent shift gives everyone an extra hour

(33:17):
of daylight after they're standing working working hours or even
school hours, which they say promotes outdoor activities and active lifestyles.
They also say that extending daylight saving time historically stimulates
retail shopping, stimulates tourism and local industries even like people
who will go off and barbecue, and it boosts the economy.

(33:38):
They also say the permanent daylight saving time improves roads
safety because the presence of ambient sunlight later into the evening,
and our people are commuting during rush hour helps lower
rates and pedestrian fatalities. And if you eliminate spring forward,
they say, when you know, that's the one thing. When

(33:59):
your forward, as we just did in March, you lose
that hour sleep. I don't know who did the research,
what somebody did, it's out there. They swear there are
there are documented cases beat data where there are spikes
and heart attacks, spikes in traffic accidents, spikes in workplace
injuries when you abruptly lose an hour of sleep in March,

(34:23):
I don't know. Again, the cons darker winter mornings. When
you shift to daylight to the evening, it mean sunrise
would occur as late as eight thirty or nine in
some northern regions. So if you go back to that
dark you know, if you turn the clocks back in November,
which were slated to do, I think once they on
November eighth or something. I know because I do a

(34:45):
five hour show every year. I get to two am
and it becomes one am, so I'm on the air
five hours, which I kind of enjoy. So far, I
had any heart attacks or traffic accidents. But it's out
there and they say that, you know, when they did.
By the way, people should know this. This was done
in nineteen seventy three during the Arab oil embargo where

(35:08):
the US went to temporarily or just that's an oxymoron,
temporarily permanent daylight savings time. No, it lasted for a
couple of years, I'm not sure, and they ended it
because there were apparently some negatives, okay, And one of
the issues was, you know, school children going to school

(35:28):
in the dark nine am and children having to wait
for a bus. Adults don't really like to commute and
pitch black conditions for an extended period of time. Again,
they believe, you know, health professionals believe that the morning
sunlight is very essential for regulating our internal clocks, and

(35:49):
if you deprive yourselves of morning sunshine, they can crouse
chronic sleep issues, metabolic issues, and decrease productivity. So there's
your pros and cons. Okay, that's kind of a full
So topic number one are the esp and are the
SPS legit or annoying? You know where I'm going with that.
Topic Number two, daylight savings time. It's possible it will

(36:15):
be voted on, It will be voted on. Will it pass?
I don't know, but what do you what say? You
do you believe if we went to a year round,
permanent daylight savings time, it's something you'd be in favor
of and and if or or not, would you not

(36:36):
be in favorite of it? And again, as I reminded you,
they did this in nineteen seventy three. It did, it
didn't work, then they and they canceled it. The third topic, Uh,
we're back to World Cup a little bit. One point
eight billion people will watch the World Cup final here

(36:59):
coming up in twelve hours and eight minutes. We're finding
that the US interest in World Cup remains high despite
the US men's team and they're exiting around of sixteen.
The Sunday broadcasters estimate that Sunday finally between Spain and
Argentina could draw up to fifty million American viewers. That's

(37:26):
a lot. That's a lot. That's not quite what the
Super Bowl is that we get here, but it's a
lot casual viewers get I know have probably dipped since
the men's elimination, men's team elimination, but you still got
core soccer fans and sports enthusiasts are highly engaged. And
I think there's this cultural full footprint now in America

(37:50):
that's larger than we realize. And you know, my grandpa
Giuseppe got off the boat in nineteen twenty seven, came
over here for Italy or maybe I'd still be there.
So we're all for somewhere else. And that's what makes
America great. And I think I will watch the game
because I want to talk about it. But the other
thing too, is I mean, it's simple, Okay, you root

(38:11):
for the story, and I want to see what the
story is going to be. Not only who will win,
but what's the story? And did they stop MESSI? Did
you mean Lamal? Step up? What happened? We want to
find out what happened and why it happened. I always
want to see it. When Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's

(38:32):
ere I saw it live. Didn't have to hear about
the waller cooler one day. They still use that term.
All right, Well you know what I mean? All right?
So Topic number one are the SBS legitiate annoying? Topic
number two daylight savings time? Do you want permanent or not?
Topic number three? Will you be watching the World Cup Sunday,

(38:52):
and do you think they should expand to sixty four teams?
That's another thing they're talking about doing it. Should they
expand the sixty four teams? I want to throw that
in there, and every time they've done it, March madness,
the tournament's gotten bigger eight seven seven ninety nine on
Fox eight seven seven nine nine six six three sixty nine,
The Bernie Frowler Show the midnight hours here keep it locked.

(39:14):
That's right, you heard the man. The Bernie Frowner Show
keeps for rolling right along. My name is Bernie Frownder.
We are a comedy line from the Las Vegas Fox
Sports Radio compound. Take up to three am Pacific, six
am Eastern, twelve hours away for the World Cup Final.
I broke it down on the opening monologue, but we
got bigger, better things to get to now. Three topics

(39:35):
for the midnight hour. Let's remind you what they are.
The SP's enjoyed their what thirty first year on television.
Didn't watch, but I want to hear from you. Do
you consider the spis a legitimate enterprise or merely a
self serving, self aggrandizing exercise. M Number two daylight savings time.

(39:59):
It might be come permanent. Now if you live in Arizona,
you know what that's all about. Not everybody agrees with it.
They tried it in nineteen seventy three and it failed.
But there are a lot of pros and cons. What
say you? My callers are always interesting. Finally, number three,
they're talking about expanding the World Cup to sixty four teams.
Would you like to see that? I know, by the way,

(40:20):
you're gonna watch Sunday it's time for the bend that hour.
All right, we waste no time. Let's dive right in.
We go to our main man from the Great Commonwealth
of Massachusetts. We welcome in Jim from Massachusetts Department of

(40:41):
Redundancy Department. Welcome in Jim.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
Hello Jim, Yeah, Hello Brank.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Go ahead, pal here in letter rip.

Speaker 5 (40:52):
Yeah. The essuy's of self serving. Yeah, I never really
cared for it.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
When it broke, do we lose Jim? Hello? Okay, Jim
trying to call back, but I don't know what happened,
but we'll get her figured out. Call back and right
to the top of the queue. Stephen in Kansas City
Joints to Stephen, you were regular for a long time.
Where you been, buddy?

Speaker 6 (41:23):
Hey, it's football season again.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
I'm I'm back. Good, Welcome back, Stephen.

Speaker 6 (41:29):
I think that I don't have a problem with sixty
four teams in the Cup. I think more is more
is usually better.

Speaker 7 (41:38):
I will want I want.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
More because I want to make sure the US qualifies.
But go ahead.

Speaker 6 (41:45):
I would watch tomorrow because it's the old conversation of defense.
Will will defense win championships over over offense? Such a
messy needs two goals for the goal and boot and
Spain will become the greatest team of all time.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
Excellent reasons to watch. All right, let's go back to
the first topic. I want to get your thoughts on
the SPS.

Speaker 6 (42:12):
Well, I just I just think they've become too much
self self promotion and not about and not about the spy.

Speaker 8 (42:19):
I don't think.

Speaker 6 (42:20):
The I think they need a better voting mechanism.

Speaker 8 (42:24):
I don't.

Speaker 6 (42:24):
I don't think the category is that. I watched a
little bit of it, but it just they aren't rewarding
the right the right right people.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
So all right, what do you feel about, Steven? How
do you feel about daylight savings time going permanent? Yes?
Or no? Oh?

Speaker 8 (42:42):
I'm mine for it for sure, for sure.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
All right, buddy, hold on the fourth there in Kansas City. Man,
good luck to your chiefs this year. I don't know
what's going to happen. Well, it's it's going to be
worth paying attention to. We do have our man Jim
back Jim in Massachusetts. Let's just take it from the
topic in so you felt the sps are self serving?
Continue on.

Speaker 5 (43:04):
Yes, sb's are self serving. It was good in the
first couple of years, and then after that, it just
you know, it becomes stale. It's the same thing over
and over and over, the same script. So you know,
scratch that daylight savings time. Yeah, go to daylight savings time.
It's always better to have more light in the evening.

(43:25):
Families can do more, people can do more. You know,
I know it's going to be dark in the morning,
you know, kids going to school and stuff like that.
But when you weigh the pros and cons and like
you said, the economics of everything, you know, just just
switch it over, you know, I mean, that's my well,
my life long.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
They did it in nineteen seventy three after the Arab
boil and barble and then canceled and so I'm going
to look into it more. I think it's going to
be pretty highly contested in the center. We'll see, Jim.
But I think you know your points are well taken.
And finally your thoughts, should the World Cup expand the
sixty four teams?

Speaker 5 (44:02):
Well, if they're gonna expand the sixty four teams, when
are they gonna start June first and end on Labor Day?
I mean, the more you expand, the more it's gonna
be drawn out, and then.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
It's gonna be I think they could work it out, Jim.
What would happen is the group stages. It would be bigger. Yeah,
a lot of games.

Speaker 5 (44:18):
The people might not stop watching until it's winter. Go home,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 9 (44:25):
Try it.

Speaker 8 (44:26):
Let's try it.

Speaker 5 (44:27):
See if it works it out. They can always they
can always cut it. But one last thing on the
opening monologue, Yes, Argentina for Spain won.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Okay, Oh my goodness. So they've given one goal in
thirty eight days and they're gonna give up four goals.

Speaker 5 (44:44):
Yes, yes, they're gonna well, and I'm gonna tell you
MESSI is like bird. He's two or three moves ahead
of everybody else out there. Like you say, they double
team them. He'll do this, they do something else, will
do that, And he can think on the fly while
he's out there, and uh, you know, you play good
defense until you get scored upon.

Speaker 8 (45:04):
Then what are you gonna do about your offense?

Speaker 5 (45:07):
So if I had the TEENA scores first, I think
that's gonna that's gonna be it. And I think it's
gonna be four to one. They're gonna do a three
to one something like that. They're gonna they're gonna overwhelm them,
especially in the second half.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
Thanks a lot, buddy. We'll take your victory if you
if you're right about that, you take a big victory
lap Next week, Uh Don in New Orleans. Uh is
up next joining the Bernie Frauder Show. Welcome in, Don,
How are.

Speaker 7 (45:33):
You happy to be on your show? As far as
the st yeah, they are self serving. I don't find
the categories are really that relevant anymore. I think it's
just basically, you know, a matter of trying to acknowledge,
you know, athletes in certain areas and those that are
self promoting. So I don't I don't even know the yes,

(45:54):
he's wrong, honestly, until you just said it.

Speaker 8 (45:57):
That's number one.

Speaker 7 (45:59):
Number two, Uh, I want my hour back. I mean
because in the profession that I'm in, I want that
extra hour of sleep. I could care left. I'm not
coming home and delving into a backyard project, you know,
because I got an extra hour of daylight. No, I
want the extra hour.

Speaker 8 (46:15):
I feel like it's healthier.

Speaker 7 (46:17):
And number one, number two, I know how I feel
when I have that extra hour of sleep, and I'm
I'm in a much better frame of mind. Number three.
As far as you know, the World Cup, I think
it's outstanding. I mean, I love it. Most of my
my my son's played soccer. My oldest son followed it
so passionately, and you know, he has opinions about you know,

(46:40):
what we saw was not manufactured, saying fan participation like
we have with you know, our NFL and even in basketball,
you know, or even when we go to baseball. You know,
the fans just basically are being entertained by the by
the moment. And yet what you saw was organic.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
It was pure passion there.

Speaker 7 (47:02):
I mean just they were just it was all into it.
And I think we may have taken a page and
learned a little bit, you know, from these other countries
and how they support their teams, So you know, I
just I think that as far as spanning it, I'm
not so sure because what are the countries all there
out there that would be competitive once you get passed

(47:24):
to the round and what is that we have now?

Speaker 1 (47:26):
It teams like Italy. I think it deserves a look.
And thanks a lot excellent points you made, Don, appreciate
you checking in. I think there'd be plenty of competition.
I'm not worried about that. I think there actually would be.
I know every time that March madness expands, people teeth
nashings up working. And by the way, I want to
reiterate to everybody, because Don brought up a couple of

(47:47):
good points. We've already got varying opinions on the daylight savings.
Time In nineteen seventy three years I set at the top.
Because of the OPEC oil embargo, President Nixon signed a
new law. He called it the Time Energy Conservation Act.
Eighty percent were for it, but just four months later

(48:09):
fifty if only forty percent were for it. They didn't
feel any meaningful energy savings, and then they believe there
was a danger to school children. They didn't like the
dark mornings. I'm just giving you what the stats were. Okay,
we go back opt to the southern part of the
and I'll tell you what we've got. Solomon in La. Hi, Solomon,
I don't mean just get past you there, you're up next.

Speaker 8 (48:30):
Hey man, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Yeah, I get to get to your topics. Number one,
the Spies. I've never watched them. I probably ever will
I get my fill of athletes enough during the season.
You know what I'm saying. All the promotion and all
the talk and this, that and the other. I can
care less about some show dedicated to all that stuff.
That's just me. Secondly, daylight saving time, Boy, you hit

(48:56):
the button. Personally, I hate it. I didn't want to
clarify one thing, Bernie. Arizona and Hawaii are permanent regular time.
They're not a permanent daylight savings time.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
But it matches up with the daylight savings time, doesn't it?

Speaker 8 (49:11):
Am I wrong about you?

Speaker 2 (49:12):
Know? No? No, no, I'm telling you man.

Speaker 8 (49:14):
I live in La and during the.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
During regular time, when you go to Arizona, they're an
our heads like normal.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Yes they are. They are.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
Yeah, it's just when we go to daylight savings time
in California. Okay, now it's the same in Arizona.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Okay, fair enough, Yeah, okay, I'm telling you.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
I have a great solution. Personally i'm against.

Speaker 10 (49:39):
It, but here's my solution.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
Okay, six months daylight savings, because now it's like eight
or nine months, which is just stupid. And six months regular.

Speaker 8 (49:48):
Oh but where do you change the clocks?

Speaker 2 (49:49):
It's so simple.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
Well, basically, March to November is daylight savings and November
check it out.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Check it out. April first, April fools say, hey, don't
be fooled. Don't remember to change the o'clock. April first,
six months, you get Labor Day, you get Memorial Day,
you get July forth, all your summer vacation days, you
got extra time. Great. October first, we're done because, like
you were pointing out, people have older climate. You know,

(50:19):
it doesn't work. It's not going to pass in the Senate.
I'm telling you, man, it won't pass.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
It might not, might not. What are your thoughts? Should
the World Cup expand to sixty four teams?

Speaker 2 (50:30):
No? No, leave it alone. It's fine, you know, it's
just it's enough. I mean, I've loved it, I've watched
it you're trying to make it so that Europe and
South America don't dominate. Good luck. They're still the best
teams and most of the world can't crack it, So
don't give the more inferior teams a shot. You know,

(50:52):
it's I think it's fine the way it is. I
think sixty four is way, way, way too much.

Speaker 1 (50:57):
Will you'll be watching Sunday, Solon, Oh, oh my god,
Well you couldn't leave that.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
That's the game is a century practically. Let's let's see
what happens.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Damn there, damn near. I mean the build up, yeah,
one point anything. People were like, all right, good stuff,
uh good, thoughtful stuff there, Solomon, you're down to Arkansas.
Welcome in, Big Mike, Big Mike. You've called the show before.
Welcome back in. How are you?

Speaker 11 (51:19):
It's been a long costs I call this show anyway?

Speaker 1 (51:24):
All right, I'll start with the pick number one. Yes,
b's ESPN SPS. Are they legit?

Speaker 12 (51:31):
I used to.

Speaker 11 (51:32):
I used to walk the hell out of that. But
if you all stop watching and you're reading sometime, I
just well, actually, for a long time I wasn't home
with time to watch it anyway. Next topic, what's the
next topic.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
So the next topic has to do with daylight savings time.

Speaker 11 (51:51):
U why not split the different put the half hour
and then go from there? Why I would.

Speaker 13 (52:00):
God you.

Speaker 11 (52:04):
And half half hour, then go on from there. I've
never escaped by everybody wilts to go before? Hey will
just split it in half.

Speaker 9 (52:15):
Half hour?

Speaker 1 (52:16):
Right, A litter of your congressman, right, a lit of
your congressman man.

Speaker 11 (52:20):
You gotta voice say, I promise with the ady of ull.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
Game of the world. You never yeah, you never know,
you never know it? See you try? All right, then
let's move on. Uh to the date to the World Cup?
All right? Uh? Are you watching it Sunday? And uh? Also,
uh do you think they should expand it sixty four times? Okay,
thank you? Uh, moving on, We'll go back out to Boston.

(52:46):
Scott in Boston joins us. Scott. Welcome into the Bernie
Frattle Show.

Speaker 10 (52:51):
Oh hey, thanks Bernie. They discussed this on the Toucher
and Hardy Show. I've always wanted to ask you if
you knew them because they're from Michigan, Fred Tutcher and
A Hardy. So they said that Boston should be in
the Atlantic Times. Don't mind up with Nova Scotia. That
would actually be the correct move, but it would be
a problem with New York City because of the stock
market all revolves around New York City. So this is

(53:12):
the only point I want to make, Bernie, because I
think you're missing it. So I'm just going to hang
up and hear you off.

Speaker 8 (53:17):
See.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
I thanks man, Okay, I think Scott feel free to
call back, because what we're trying to do is get
a gauge and put our finger on the pulse of
my audience. Right now, we earn daylight savings time. If
nothing changes around November eighth, will lose an hour. You'll
turn the clock back, you get an extra hour sleep,

(53:38):
and it's gonna be darker in the morning. There is
a vote coming up in the Senate to make daylight
savings time year round. The other two topics, of course,
we're talking about, should the World Cup expand the sixty
four game teams or you watch Sunday? And of course
the SP's all right, are they legit? Are they legit
enterprise or just a self agrandizing exercise? Read to call

(54:00):
back Scott as far as Boston in the Atlantic time zone. Yeah,
I fine, by me. I don't know and I don't
know who that show has never heard him, but I
appreciate you calling my show. Scott. Let's go out to Tacoma, Washington.
We're joined by James and Tacoma, Washington. Welcome in, James, James,

(54:25):
can you hear me? I can hear you now, James,
fire away, buddy, Yes.

Speaker 12 (54:29):
As the act I actually forgot that they were on.
Have you have any awards like in the January at
the end of the year's awards, I didn't watch it.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
I would like to see who already know who knows
what's really funny. I haven't talked to a single call
yet that watched it, and some have never watched it.
This is very revealing to me. All right, I take
you at that. James. Let's move on. H Do you
believe you'd like to see a daylight savings time year
round or keep things the way they are?

Speaker 12 (55:01):
Personally?

Speaker 13 (55:02):
I don't.

Speaker 12 (55:02):
It doesn't bother me at all. But remember it because
it depends on people have kids, parents have kissing. Again,
it should be dark at nine o'clock in the morning
in November, December, January.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
That's what was the issue in nineteen seventy three, and
that ended up kaiwatching it.

Speaker 9 (55:21):
Yeah, to see.

Speaker 12 (55:22):
I don't like it's the fact that it's light out
five fifteen in the morning June and July. And they
got neighbors doing it lawnmower five o'clock in the morning
because it's light out.

Speaker 9 (55:34):
Now it's giving light four o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
Now, hope the hell they have the headlight on their lawnmower.
All right, uh, daylight check that World Cup. James, are
you gonna watch Sunday? And should they go to sixty
four teams? Would you be okay with it?

Speaker 12 (55:49):
Yeah, I'm gonna watch it. And just remember FIFA stands
for TIS the net for Argentina FIFA.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
All right, James, you take it easy out there in Tacoma.
We're just off and running on the Menn hour, and
we've got callers on the line. When we come back,
James in Texas will join us, followed by Martin and
Orange Counties, Timitia, don Buquerque, Scott in Boston. Please pack
your patients. I promise I'll get to all you. If

(56:19):
we spill past one am Pacific time, you're still getting
on the here. I don't want anybody who took the
time to call in not getting on so you know
the topics. We're off and running so far, I'm talking
to one person yet who even watched ESPs. I'm Bernie Fraddle.
We're coming to your line from Las Vegas, Fox Sports
Radio Studios. Don't go away. You're listening to the Bernie
Fradles Show.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
listen live.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
All right, we're back on the Bernie Fradle Show, Fox
Sports Radio. We continue on without further ado with the
men that hour. Let's go out to Texas. We're joined
by James. James and Texas. Welcome into the Bernie Froutle Show.

Speaker 14 (57:07):
Good morning, Bernie.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
Yeah, I'm doing well.

Speaker 8 (57:10):
So are you?

Speaker 2 (57:12):
Oh?

Speaker 11 (57:12):
Just getting going?

Speaker 9 (57:13):
Man?

Speaker 11 (57:13):
Heading up driving?

Speaker 9 (57:16):
Living right?

Speaker 1 (57:19):
Well, thanks so much for listening. If you please turn
down your radio during the call, I can hear myself
and it down. Okay, my friend, it's all down. Letter rip,
letter rip. So the first topic is the ESPN SP's
legit or annoying.

Speaker 11 (57:35):
It's just now it's a bunch of bullloney.

Speaker 14 (57:38):
In my opinion, I don't watch it anymore for sports people.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
You know, terrible. I think it's a little self serving.
I haven't watched you. Oh yeah, all right, let's talk
about daylight saving stunts. You're up early working. Uh what
are your thoughts about this bill that is headed to
the Senate.

Speaker 14 (58:00):
They should be standard time constantly along the I mean
the way it was before. There should be no daylight
saving times was we want to stay with nature.

Speaker 8 (58:10):
You screw up everything when you change the time.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
Actually, that's what animal is love. Yeah, that's what health
professionals said. You. You're so just so everybody's clear. Uh,
this November we're slated to go back to standard time
November eighth, which means you turn your clocks back. You
believe that's where.

Speaker 11 (58:28):
I need to stay all the time right there.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Just wanted to make sure everybody understood you clearly. Uh.

Speaker 14 (58:33):
I know, it's so confusing, it's so they you know,
but it depends on which end of the time zone.
I leave from Dallas and go to Amarillo, and I'm
on the other.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
End of the time zone.

Speaker 11 (58:46):
And by the time it gets dark out there, hell's
nine ten o'clock.

Speaker 13 (58:50):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
I hear you and I hear the animals just screw
them up.

Speaker 11 (58:54):
You know, that's nature.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
The cicada rhythms for humans too, see exactly exactly. All right,
So you're working hard Sunday already? Will you have time
to watch the World Cup final? Do you want to
watch World Cup front? And do you think they will
or should expand to sixty four teams?

Speaker 8 (59:12):
Oh?

Speaker 11 (59:12):
Yeah, we have more of than Merrier, I guess.

Speaker 14 (59:14):
I mean, I really don't care about soccer all that much,
but you know, it's I've been entertained by it.

Speaker 9 (59:19):
But I watched one.

Speaker 14 (59:20):
USA game and they lost, so I jinxed them, I guess.
But other than that, you know, it's it's I mean,
it's entertaining, but I don't stop and you know, and
sit down just to watch a game. Maybe today, if
I get to the hotel.

Speaker 8 (59:39):
And the end of my day, maybe I might.

Speaker 1 (59:41):
I might take off about two pm your time Sunday.
So you still got about twelve hours.

Speaker 14 (59:47):
Now, I got fourteen hours, So okay, Thanks, Bernie, have
a nice one.

Speaker 8 (59:51):
Appreciate you all.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
Right, you stay found the roads out there, James, thanks
for checking in my man Art Martin and Orange County.
What's happening Martin.

Speaker 15 (01:00:00):
Bernie, greetings and salutations. I hope you're having a great morning.
How are you today, Bud.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
I'm doing fine, Martin. How are you? And thank you
for your service to our country? Pretty good?

Speaker 15 (01:00:13):
Pretty good. But I never served our country, Bernie. But
I have friends who dave. I will never I will
never take no type of stolen valor. But I am
a soldier and the Bernie Fratto Army, so here I am.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
All right. Letter at Martin. Bring the ladies and john
boys and girls, Martin, take it away, Bernie.

Speaker 15 (01:00:39):
The SPS, I'm proud to say I've never watched one
single sp award show. Award shows are a waste of time, Bernie.

Speaker 16 (01:00:51):
The SPS, the Oscars, the Slammies, the Whammies, whatever you
want to watch, they're a waste of time. The only
two award shows that are worth their salt what happens
in my home state. That's the Cannabis Cup, where we
judge the best.

Speaker 15 (01:01:09):
Marijuana from around the world.

Speaker 16 (01:01:11):
And the second. The second happens in your hometown, Bernie.
It's the av Ends.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
If you know you know hey, By the way, Martin,
do you mentioned the Slammies. Always be careful if you
piss off legions of wrestling fans. They will never forget it,
my friend.

Speaker 17 (01:01:29):
Never, Bernie, Bernie.

Speaker 15 (01:01:31):
All I have to say to those guys is, oh, yeah,
you can bring the heat.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
So all right, topic number two, mart Let's move on
to daylight savings time. Yeah or nay for you.

Speaker 15 (01:01:45):
You know, Bernie, I'm in California. We do daylight saving times.
It doesn't bother me. I kind of look forward to
that little uh drawback if we were gonna stay consistent,
I would like uh more daylight time just for those
fathers that get out of work and can spend a
little extra time with their kids. And that's all I
gotta say about that one.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
All right. Finally, Martin, should the World Cup expand to
sixty four teams? I think they're gonna do it. And
will you be watching later today, Bernie?

Speaker 15 (01:02:14):
The World Cup can expand to one hundred and forty
four teams if they want to, because there's a fan
base in these countries that'll watch.

Speaker 16 (01:02:25):
But don't get it twisted to get at the end
of all that, we'll still be watching France, Spain, Argentina, England,
possibly Germany once in a while, but in Netherlands all.

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
The Blue Bloods.

Speaker 15 (01:02:39):
Will I be watching later today, Bernie? Hell, yes, I'll
be watching later today. I got up being chilling in
the fridge already.

Speaker 9 (01:02:49):
I'm ready for this game.

Speaker 15 (01:02:51):
I'm ruined for Spain, although I was ruined for France
and they get me my team. But you know what, Bernie,
Spain is not lost in two years in Argentina, this
alligator blood they had.

Speaker 16 (01:03:04):
I just don't know what's gonna last. So I'm taking
Spain to win it. Everybody, let's watch this World Cup.
Enjoy it because they won't happen again until another four years.

Speaker 15 (01:03:15):
I'm out, Bernie.

Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
I love you all right. Rest easy out there, Martin,
rust easy, my man. Keep that beer on ice, and
you enjoy your Sunday. Smitty in Albuquerque joins the Bernie
Frouder Shore. Now, Smitty, are you a first time caller
to this? I am the first time longtime listener. Oh well,

(01:03:36):
thank you. I appreciate that, and I appreciate you taking
the time to call in. Let it rip, my man.

Speaker 18 (01:03:41):
Okay, So when it comes to the the SDS, I
used to watch it for the monologues, and I would
strongly suggest anybody to YouTube the Jay Moore and the
Norm McDonald monologue.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
Oh my goodness, did you know, by the way, Smitty,
you know that he had that I don't have the
balls to say it on the air, but he had
that infamous line about the OJ and the Heisman Trophy
and said, don't say it. They took it out and
he said it anyway.

Speaker 8 (01:04:14):
Yes, sir, it's great.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
Yeah, good memory, hell of a memory. I saw Norman
don alive a couple of times here in Vegas got rested.
So all right, Uh, anything else on the Smez Smitty, No,
but Norm McDonald on that, on that subject, he was.

Speaker 18 (01:04:29):
He's one of my out time favorites and he's very
much so respected amongst the comedic community.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
Just one of the most incredibly under underrated clever comedians.

Speaker 8 (01:04:41):
Yes, sir, all right, we're with you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
I don't want I we could do a whole bit
on that, all right. Moving on your thoughts on daylight
savings time, Smitty, I.

Speaker 18 (01:04:51):
Never really thought about it until the way Mark put it.
I live in Albuquerque, and I really dig the the
cooler mornings, and and then you know, these are the
times because we the football game starts at eleven where
I live, and so I dig it for the cooler
weather when we get it. But I'm forty two years
old and I'm kind of used to it, so you know,

(01:05:11):
it doesn't really bother me all that much.

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
Fair enough. Finally, the World Cup. Will you watch the
game later today? And they're talking about expanding to sixty
four teams? Do you care? Do you think they should?
What are your thoughts?

Speaker 18 (01:05:24):
I'll watch it, but as far as expanding it, I
don't think so. I thought there was a lot of
for America being the host. I thought there was a
good level of anticipation and then people are still excited
about it, so why would you? But then again, it's
an international sport, so my American opinion doesn't really hold
water all that much. But I will definitely watch it tomorrow.

(01:05:46):
I thought it'd we did a good job of hosting
the World Cup this year this summer around.

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
All right, Hey, Smitbe, thanks for taking the time to
call him, but he don't be a stranger. You areys welcome. Okay,
we do have Scott from Boston back. Scott, you brought
up an interesting point. I just I'm not sure we
were on the same page in terms of what I
was looking for out of the topic. Do you want
to you want to recalibrate.

Speaker 11 (01:06:06):
That or yeah, yeah, we did.

Speaker 10 (01:06:08):
You go through the topics again if you want on my.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
Yeah, real quickly. So the first topic was the SPS ESPN.
They've been doing it since ninety three. Do you consider
those to be legitimate enterprise or just some sort of
self agreement?

Speaker 10 (01:06:24):
Yes, well for Boston it was legitimate because Tatum talked,
I don't know what happened to his sleeves on his shirt,
but he said that, you know, Jalen Brown got traded,
and just the way the business goes. Jalen Brown is
still in Boston right now. He hadn't left yet.

Speaker 8 (01:06:37):
He was over in the seaport today.

Speaker 10 (01:06:39):
He's not He's not headed to Philly anytime soon. We
can move to the next one, all.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
Right, So the next one has to do a daylight
savings time your thoughts they're talking about.

Speaker 10 (01:06:49):
So it doesn't help Boston because the sun won't come
up till nine am, so you'll have to put kids
at the bus stop at at nine am. And and
there's other parts of the country that it doesn't help
you there. So, like I said, Boston should be in
the Atlantic time zone. But that doesn't help out New
York Times.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
I got help you. I see where you're going with
that now I do. Yeah, okay, oh, and you listen.
That's exactly why I failed. In nineteen seventy three, people
were gun hole about it, and five months later not
so much. And I don't want to go into the
litany reasons why. But it actually didn't work.

Speaker 10 (01:07:20):
Yeah, I don't understand the back end of it where
it's going to be dark and other places. I just
understand how it's going to affect Boston, but at some
places it's going to affect even worse. It only affects
those Western states, you know what I mean, because we
should all be on the same time zone like China.
China has the same time zone. We should all have
the same time here because of the stock market. I mean,
this is a capitalistic country. There's no reason why we

(01:07:41):
should have all these time zones here. It makes no sense,
you know. And we can move on to the World Cup.
So the World Cup was in Boston. So actually I'm blind.
I live in the North End. I'm friends with Mayor,
actually went to college together. So I thought that Targan
Army was a real army so I actually got a
lot of attention from this to national media and then
it's pretty cool actually, but it's been an amazing time

(01:08:02):
at the World Cup. I mean people get together, not
even sports fans, and it's a.

Speaker 11 (01:08:06):
Great way to make a date. Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:08:08):
So that's been the whole concept behind it. And then
the people come from England and oh I've interacted with
all those countries so well.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
For them expanding to sixty four teams, then the more
the marrier, Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:08:18):
Because it's so good for economies all over the world.

Speaker 9 (01:08:21):
It helps.

Speaker 10 (01:08:21):
It saved the bar scene here, like the bar seam
was wrecked here.

Speaker 8 (01:08:25):
It totally saved it, you.

Speaker 9 (01:08:26):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 10 (01:08:26):
Yeah, yes, yes, yeah, So it was a win. It
was a win. I mean they raised my taxis eight
hundred dollars this year. I'm nervous about that part of
the World Cup. So if I mean they say that
the state of Massachusetts should have made a billion dollars
on the World Cup, I don't know how they made
that much money because where the stadium is, Foxborow. They
couldn't get across Root want to go to the business.

(01:08:47):
It's the World Cup. Fans weren't interested in Foxborough they
were interested in Boston, so the government in Massthusetts had
to give those businesses a million dollars. They actually lost money,
and then Bobcraft sued the town of Foxborough. We're gonna
find out what happened with the World Cup in Boston
sooner or later. And since I saw that eight hundred
dollars tax increase, I actually sent an email to a

(01:09:08):
city council right before I made this call, and I said,
I can't afford to have my taxes increased eight hundred
dollars this year over the World Cup. I can't afford it.
It makes no sense. So I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
You know, all right, listen, thanks for taking the time.
Hope to hear from you again. Scott checking in from Boston.
We are going to continue with the midnight hour and
just a second, Steve from Phoenix, you will be up next.
David in Vegas. You're right behind him. Eight seven seven
nine nine six six three six nine. I don't want

(01:09:40):
anybody to be turned away. Jason Romanello writes, and love
the show. ESP's not interested. Won't watch World Cup sixty
four World Cup. The further the US will fall, these
four daylight savings time got to love you. Force Field
Rob says taking calls for hours is so lazy. I agree,
That's why I only do it for one hour. I
love my callers. We average eighteen to twenty six calls.

(01:10:02):
I don't want to turn them away. By the way,
why don't you call in, force Field Rob. We'll get you.
We'll get you in. Or maybe you're lazy, but I
appreciate you listening to my show. I'm Bernie Frattle or
coming to your line from the Las Vegas Fox Sports
Radio studios. Keep it locked. The midnight Hour continues. You
listen to the.

Speaker 4 (01:10:16):
Bernie Fradle don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
All right, back at the Bernie Fradle Show. The Midnight
Hour continues eight seven, seven, nine, nine six six three
six nine eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox. Still
plenty of time to get in. You will not be
turned away. We go out to Phoenix, where daylight savings
time is year round. Welcome in, Steve Stephen Phoenix, Welcome

(01:10:43):
into the Bernie Fraddle Show.

Speaker 8 (01:10:45):
How are you, sir?

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
Good? How are you Steve?

Speaker 8 (01:10:48):
You're a legend. You're you are a legend, sir?

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
Keep going?

Speaker 8 (01:10:54):
Well, So what I'm saying, is.

Speaker 19 (01:10:58):
Is Seattle going to get a team back?

Speaker 8 (01:11:02):
Do you know anything on the inside information?

Speaker 19 (01:11:04):
I know Vegas is going to get a team, but
it's Seattle is going to get their team back? And
will it be the SuperSonics that I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:13):
I don't know what the new ownership bowl, the new
ownership group will name it. And I believe the entry
fee is going to be about seven billion dollars. I
know that Bill Fully here in Las Vegas, who owns
the Golden Knights, is bidding for a team, among many others.
But yes, NBA expansion will happen. I think it's going
to be probably five years before you see any of

(01:11:35):
these teams on the floor. That's a guess. But yes,
I would be very confident that Vegas. Yeah, go ahead, Bernie.

Speaker 8 (01:11:43):
I took a charge against Jerome Cursey back in Summer.

Speaker 1 (01:11:46):
League Trailblazeruck me, what's up? Former Portland Trailblazer?

Speaker 8 (01:11:53):
Right, yes, yeah? At rest in peace?

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
Well yeah, rest yeah, rest in peace? That's sure?

Speaker 5 (01:12:00):
He got what's that?

Speaker 1 (01:12:02):
Just want to get back on it, Yeah, I'll tell
you what. I just want to get back on track. Steve,
do you have any thoughts on our three topics or
did you going to you know, I have a thing
called Iran too. Someone has to wants to just rant
about something. I'm good with that.

Speaker 8 (01:12:15):
No, no, I'm not ranting. I just go ahead and
give me, give me the topic.

Speaker 1 (01:12:20):
So the first topic is okay, So the first topic
the ESPN SB Awards. You consider them to be a
legitimate enterprise or just some self aggrandizing exercise negative? All right,
good enough for me. I think where you're going with that.
Let's talk about the daylight savings time proposition you already

(01:12:41):
have in Arizona. It's pretty much. So what are your
thoughts for other folks in other states?

Speaker 19 (01:12:47):
Well, I fly all over the place, so it's not
really a big deal. You know, an hour doesn't really
bother me any which way.

Speaker 8 (01:12:55):
So anyway, topic three.

Speaker 1 (01:12:57):
Topic three is the World Cup Final ear is in
about eleven hours and twelve minutes. Are you gonna watch it?
And do you think they should expand to sixty four teams?

Speaker 8 (01:13:08):
Well, if I liked soccer, I played it when I
was six.

Speaker 1 (01:13:15):
Okay, so what you're then I turned to basketball, so
I don't really understand soccer and then they flop.

Speaker 8 (01:13:29):
I don't like the flop.

Speaker 1 (01:13:31):
You know, you're not wrong about that. That's one of
the things I seem to have noticed more about this
year's tournament than in any other one. Now only did
they flop, they stay down? All right, anything else.

Speaker 8 (01:13:41):
Steve, anything else, buddy?

Speaker 19 (01:13:43):
That's it, my friend. Hey, Bernie, you're a legend. Hey,
I love you, man, Take care and I will talk
to you at some point, hopefully in the future.

Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
All right, appreciate you checking in, Thanks for listening to
the show, and certainly appreciate all the kind words. Steven Phoenix,
come back out to Vegas. David in Vegas, joins us.
Welcome Bovin. How are you.

Speaker 13 (01:14:05):
I'm doing great? Throw on some more kind words for you.
I really appreciate you doing your show. I have sports
talk radio on at least of the background all day
and all night all week at yours is the single
best post show.

Speaker 8 (01:14:23):
Every week.

Speaker 1 (01:14:24):
I appreciate the kind words, so I certainly do. Don't
take it lightly, all right. Do you have thoughts on
the topics?

Speaker 13 (01:14:31):
Sure, sort of, except the first one I don't. The
spis I would be, you know, a phony if I
gave you an opinion. As biggest sports fan as I am,
I've never seen an sp I don't know or I
never watched one.

Speaker 11 (01:14:43):
This is.

Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
Not to cut you off. We've gone a full hour.
I haven't talked to a single person that watches the SPS.
So you know what that that is revealing in and
of itself, David. So we'll just move right along. Thoughts
on daylight savings time.

Speaker 13 (01:14:59):
I'm it gives year around daylight saving time. I got
a year round daylight saving time. Either leave the system
the way it is or go to year round standard time.
Because sorry, you're.

Speaker 1 (01:15:17):
The second or third person that said that you're around
standard time real quickly, Uh, just enlighten us. It seems
like you've given us some thoughts. So what are the
factors you considered in determining that would be your conclusion?

Speaker 13 (01:15:33):
Well, it's it's mostly the safety of children going to
school in the moorings of the dark. I mean there
will be tragedies. It's happened before, it will I mean,
I mean it's it's not safe for kids to be
out there in the really in the darker knight, waiting
for big moving vehicles.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
Well, listen, you're I will tell you that again. This
was tried in nineteen seventies after the air Bullpit oil embargo,
and it was discontinued for some of the very reasons
you point out. All Right, the World Cup, David, it's
eleven hours away. You're gonna watch the game. And should

(01:16:14):
they expanded sixty four teams.

Speaker 8 (01:16:16):
Here's the statistic for you.

Speaker 13 (01:16:18):
They've played one hundred and three games in this World Cup, right, Yeah,
David in Vegas has watched all one hundred and three
of them.

Speaker 1 (01:16:28):
That's amazing. So you'll be watching later today for sure.

Speaker 13 (01:16:31):
So I even watched the consolation game, but yeah, sixteen
for going. I mean, I'm still sort of I was curious.
I've been watching World Cup.

Speaker 8 (01:16:42):
Since night sixty six.

Speaker 13 (01:16:46):
I'm big on them, and I'm still dealing with the
expansion they did to the forty eight games. It seemed
like a lot, especially for guys committed to watching all
of them.

Speaker 5 (01:16:59):
I wouldn't be.

Speaker 13 (01:17:00):
The worst thing in the world to go to sixty
two or sixty four teams, as long as they don't
have any more single elimination period. In other words, anything
they add is just got to be at the group stage,
all right, By going to that extra game and extra
ren a low scoring games, single elimination format like soccer is,

(01:17:21):
the chances of fluke eliminations just get too great distance.

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
Do we losing them?

Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
All?

Speaker 8 (01:17:29):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:17:29):
Listen, we're having a listen now, do me a favor.
Don't be a stranger, David. We do this every week.
We're having a little phone issue there, my man, but
duly noted. We're getting up against it here. I wish
I had more time for it. Thanks for your comments
and thanks for checking in. I appreciate your opinions. We're
going to continue on into overtime because Manuel and Guardina

(01:17:50):
will join us, and you love what Manuel has to say,
and certainly Paul North Carolina will follow him. If you
didn't get in, there's still time. And I just want
to put my two cents in here about the sixty
four teams and why they're talking about maybe doing it,
Just to add some inflection here, more teams, more matchup,
larger broadcast audiences, more qualified countries. Believe it or not,

(01:18:11):
even if you expanded to a sixty four team tournament,
FIFA has two hundred and eleven member associations. That means
seventy percent of the country still wouldn't be in. So
this gives historically underrepresented regions in Africa, Asia, North America
a better fair shot competing on the world stage. I
think they're gonna do it. Also, there's another thing to

(01:18:32):
consider here. If you structure a tournament with forty eight
teams as they did this year, that requires complex group
stage math. But a sixty four team tournament fits perfectly
more symmetrical into a traditional bracket. Sixteen groups, four teams,
two from each group advancing to the clean round of
thirty two knockout stage. So we're going to continue with

(01:18:53):
the three topics right after the top of the hour.
Manuel from Gardina will be up next to Paul from
North Carolina. If you want to get in, you know
what to do. Eight seven, seven, nine, nine, six six
three sixty nine. Keep it locks, the Bernie Fraddle showed. Yeah,
that's right, you heard the man. Bernie Fraddle Show keeps
rolling right along. My name is Bernie Frownle. We are
coming to your line from the Fox Sports Radio studios

(01:19:15):
here in Las Vegas. It's been a Rockers two hours.
We've got two more hours to go, and we are
now officially in overtime, where I guess maybe we should
call it extra time. In the mind that hour, and
we continue on. We welcome in, gentlemen, the Man, the myth,
the legend. Ladies and gentlemen, please stay seated for the

(01:19:37):
entire performance, as we welcome in the inimitable Manuel from Guardina.

Speaker 6 (01:19:43):
I'll be will child.

Speaker 9 (01:19:47):
To wait for the midnight hours and the extra time.
What Bernie Burn, What what.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
Were you been? Man?

Speaker 10 (01:19:55):
Well?

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
Damn where you been? Man?

Speaker 9 (01:19:57):
Oh man? You know, gotta work, Hey the bills.

Speaker 11 (01:20:00):
Man.

Speaker 9 (01:20:01):
Not all of us are like sightless Scott in Boston
and get a stipend for our money, so you know,
got to bring home the bacon. Sometimes I can't call in,
but I'm always listening, and I always get a kick
out of all the callers like you do. And tonight
it's been a special night. A lot of Hicks calling
in and I like it, like the Redneck Riviera Saturday Night.

Speaker 1 (01:20:24):
I'm loving it. We take all comers. We only have
one rule here. Can you fog up a mirror? Well,
by the way, if you can't flog up a mirror,
you could still call in.

Speaker 9 (01:20:36):
That's what I hate. Solomon Grundy's on hold as we see.

Speaker 1 (01:20:39):
Oh my god, there's a name from the past. Poor
Solomon Grundy, He's still have thirty.

Speaker 9 (01:20:46):
Oh yeah, hey, so Bernie. The topics at hand. Man,
I'm kind of with everybody in the majority here. I
never missed asking because I never watch it.

Speaker 1 (01:20:56):
That's wrong.

Speaker 8 (01:20:57):
Our guy Rob Parker told us that a long time ago.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):
Well, I did probably two hundred shows with Robin Detroit
and that was one of his all That was one
of his staples. I never miss it because I never
watched it, So I never miss it. You know. Well, Okay,
we've got one more caller after you, but I'm gonna
ask you guys, but we've got a clean sweep. Not
a single person I've talked to you tonight watches the SPS. Now,

(01:21:22):
I didn't do this to BASSI SPS. I don't give
a flying horses patuit. But this is amazing to me.
And this is why I enjoyed this segment, because you
so tell me what am I? What am I missing?

Speaker 9 (01:21:34):
You're not missing. It's a bunch of self you know,
patting on the back.

Speaker 1 (01:21:39):
Well that that I know, that I know. But what
how did I underestimate the fact that so many other
people think the same as me on this on this object?

Speaker 9 (01:21:49):
Well, you know, Bernie, You and I still remember when
ESPN mattered, and it's been a sad fall for ESPN,
you know, And the truth be told. I mean, I
don't think that this is the sham of a show
that SP's had any anything to help, although I mean
I'm surprised when you say it's been running for thirty

(01:22:09):
three years. Man, I can't believe that it came out
when I graduated from high school. But uh, yeah, I'm
not into it. I've never been anywhere. I'm like that
guy that called earlier, you know a word. Shows don't
do nothing for me, man, other than the ones that
he mentioned.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
You know, I just feel it's a contrivance. I feel,
with all due respect to shows, a contrivance. It's just
it's like meet the Fokker's ninth place medals. Let's let's
let's pat ourselves in the back. All right, we're on
the same page. Let's move on daylight savings time. Man, Well,
you're in God's country there in Guardena. How do you
folks feel about that?

Speaker 9 (01:22:46):
Man? I you know what, I love my sun shine. Man.
You know, I'll never leave CALLI and I'm happy. You know,
I'm a company at another angle. I'm very happy about
this because apparently the Senate has solved all the problems,
you know, hunger, issues with housing and all this, that
they could spend time on freaking daylight saving time? Are

(01:23:09):
you freaking kidding me? Man? How about you guys get
to work. You guys have been off for like six
months this year, and now you want to pull this crap.
I could give a rats ass man, give us some
real life, real solutions. Who cares about turning the damn
clock back once a year? Get used to it or don't,
it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (01:23:31):
Yeah, yeah, you said a mouthful theier real life real solutions. Man.
I don't know about all that. It's the biggest clown
show going. But it's only except it's not funny. All right, Well,
you been watching the big Game later today? Manuel? And
should soccer expand to sixty four teams?

Speaker 9 (01:23:48):
I'm sure I will. You know, my dad, he's somewhat
of a soccer fan. I thank god that we're some
of the only Mexicans that are more of a baseball
family than a soccer family. But we'll watch that that
that championship game. I mean, you know, it's something you
got to give him credit. Especially Meshew, he's a he

(01:24:08):
may be the boat of all goats. And then as
far as STIFA, I mean, that's a whole other thing.
Day makes the NFL look poor. That is the ultimate
cash cow, Bernie.

Speaker 15 (01:24:20):
What does FIFA really own?

Speaker 9 (01:24:22):
They don't own squat but a tournament. They don't own stadiums,
they don't own teams. All they do is have a
license to collect money, money, money, money, So you know
it's gonna happen, and like you said, there's enough talent
for it to happen because the world is soccer crazy.

(01:24:44):
So let's do it. Man. They hopefully some of us
can get some of that cage.

Speaker 1 (01:24:50):
All right, man, Well, always a pleasure one man. Appreciate you.

Speaker 9 (01:24:53):
I love you, Berne.

Speaker 1 (01:24:55):
Thanks Man. Well, all right, we wrap it up with
Paul in North Carolina. Paul, say so much for your patience.
You are up next letter rip Hey.

Speaker 8 (01:25:05):
Good morning, Bernie. Listen, what an honor to be the
exception of all other callers. I do watch the SPS.

Speaker 1 (01:25:13):
I do, okay, fair, fair, tell me what were you?
And you know what, I'm glad. As I've always said
in this segment, the most boring conversations are when everybody agrees,
So let the folks know the entertainment value you glean
from that or why you do watch it.

Speaker 8 (01:25:29):
Welling in Folders Foster. I'm the biggest sports fan I know.
I literally watch sports every every single night, all sports,
and people make fun of me, and I tell people
difference between sports in a movie or a TV show
is that sports are an unscripted drama that's right behind
and behind every game. There's a story. In your level
of fandom is how much you care about that story.

(01:25:50):
People that don't give the dame about sports, it is
useless competition. People like myself love the competition and love
the story that drives us sports. And I think the
SPS do a great job of bringing in that and
bring the normalcy of sports and kind of tell them
the story behind the scenes, and it gives at home.

Speaker 1 (01:26:06):
Accept that. I accept that that's an I accept that
that's an excellent explanation. Since I haven't watched in years,
I haven't partaken. But you said something that really we're
on you know, as jo Geberer would say, we have
different similarities. I used to that used to be my
opening tagline was that sports are the greatest reality show.
You can script everything but the ending, so there always

(01:26:30):
is a story behind it. So I accepted. I just
felt it's a little sappy. And there's an old saying
Mark Train once said, Uh, too many people buy things
they don't have with check that. Too many people by
things they don't want one money, they don't have to
impress people that don't even like I just feel it
so self serving. But that's you got the floor.

Speaker 8 (01:26:49):
You know, Bernie. I think you are one correct and
saying that, And I think when you watch it just
you have to accept it for what it is. It's
the sap factor. But there are some cool like thegen map.
That piece is a great story. Both have to remnumber two.
It's great shoulder programming for ESPN throughout the year on
all of their networks, and it's a huge money making
for the v Foundation. So I think it does have

(01:27:09):
you know, play merit.

Speaker 1 (01:27:11):
That's a lot of merit. Okay, fair enough, you lay
that out quite nicely, all right, daylight savings time permanently
or keep things the way.

Speaker 8 (01:27:19):
They are Listen just for selfish reasons. The worst thing
of the year for me is when we turn the
clocks back in here in North Carolin where I live
in western North Carolina. It's dark at five o'clock. If
I hate it, I can't stand that if we can
get more daylight. But it's just selfish. I don't really care.
Bigger fish.

Speaker 1 (01:27:34):
A lot of people feel the same way you feel.
You're not. You'd be surprised how many calls I took
tonight that are on your side. Finally, Paul, will you
watch it? Just kind of goes out saying that you're
obviously a big sports fan, so I'm assuming you watch
the game later today, And do you believe they should
expand the World Cup tournament to sixty four teams?

Speaker 8 (01:27:54):
Absolutely? Of course I'm going to watch it. I actually
manage a national sports bar. There's not many of them,
can the tree at which one, So of course I'll
be watching it. But the excitement we've seen and grow
throughout the tournament has been unbelievable. But I'll tell you
why they can to expand it. When you look up
the reason, like Fox has the World Cup to shoe
because the last World Cup, FIFA changed the schedule because

(01:28:16):
it was in the Middle East and that went against
NFL football for Fox, and Fox was so pissed they
were essentially given broadcast rights to this one, so the
next one goes up for bids, and with all of
the excitement and all of the growth of the sport,
what I think you can see is maybe like four
different pods around the world where maybe like your first round,
your couple run will be kind of get people brought in.

(01:28:36):
You can watch the game on primetime, no matter right
around the world, and then maybe the top thirty two
would advance to whatever site you'd have your more traditional
World Cup. But you would get by having those four
pods of sixteen around the world, you would kind of
get everybody drawn in, sucked into the stories, and then
again you know have that the big fight for the
thirty two, and it done that way. But about then

(01:28:57):
you'd have the world's attention and the broadcast rights, which
they didn't want to.

Speaker 1 (01:29:01):
Paul, great stuff. Man, appreciate you checking in. And I've
got to believe your bar is going to do a
booming business on Sunday. That's one of the stats I
read throughout this tournament. So we do this every week. Paul,
don't be a stranger. Always welcome back in. And look,
I just just to put an exclamation point thanks to
all the callers tonight. Look critics said about it. With

(01:29:27):
respect to adding sixty more teams to sixty four, critics
are saying the same thing they said about March Madness.
All right, it will water down the field too many
uncompetitive lopsided group stage matches. Look, there are two hundred
and eleven countries to play soccer right now. Forty eight
get in. Used to be thirty two. They go to
sixty four. That's similar to thirty percent of the world. Okay,

(01:29:49):
I know they've talked about blair player burnout and fatigue
and such in the earlier callers who said he's watched
all one hundred and three games tomorrow, check that later
today Sunday will be the one hundred and fourth expanding
it to sixty four. There's more symmetry with the group
stage setup actually, and it will only be twenty four
more games two one hundred and twenty eight, so I
think they're gonna do it. One of the other issues, though,

(01:30:12):
is that there's only a small handful of countries that
possess the stadium capacity, hotel, transport networks, et cetera. And
they'll be able to accomplish that in twenty twenty thirty
because the country's are so close together. But maybe as
a result of that, we'll get to have it more
in the United States. And you can't tell me this

(01:30:33):
has captivated the intention of a nation. There's just no
question it has. You know who else, says Victor Wembanyama.
He did something recently that you know Lebron talks, but
womban Yama did this. I'm gonna tell you what he
did and why. It may turn out to be an

(01:30:55):
incredibly magnanimous move that may lead to championships San Antonio
sooner and maybe more than one and one. You know,
he's not the first one to do it, and the
history of people that did what he did before him.
If you followed all that, you're better than me. Paid off.
I'm gonna explain why. By the way, with the iHeartRadio app, okay,

(01:31:19):
you can stream us wherever you happen to be. Catch
us and all of our Fox Sports Radio shows live
twenty four to seven in the new and improved iHeart
Radio app. Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app
to stream us live all day, every day, and be
sure to select Fox Sports Radio is one of your
presets in the iHeartRadio app, so it will always pop

(01:31:39):
up at the top of your screen. Coming up, we
talked about Wimby and at the bottom of the hour
we got Brandon's Fantasy Files. Remember, teams are in camp
this week. It all starting up. You're gonna have to
pay more attention than around. Bernie Frattle recoveredy line from
the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio Studios. Keep it locked
right here. You're listening to the Bernie Frattles.

Speaker 3 (01:31:59):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
listen live.

Speaker 1 (01:32:12):
Fire back of the Bernie Fotter Show Fox Sports Radio.
We are coming to live from the Fox Sports Radio
studios here in Las Vegas, about nine minutes away from
Brandon's Fantasy Files. Hey, NFL teams starting Wednesday, they're going
to be in camp and I think they'll all be
in camp by July twenty eighth. Here we go, Here

(01:32:35):
we go. By the way, if you miss any of
tonight's show, you'll want to catch the podcast. Just search
Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts. Right after
the show, Well, tonight's podcast we'll be posted. Be sure
to follow the podcast rated five stars. You can even
provide a review. Again. Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever
you get your podcasts, and you'll find tonight's full show

(01:32:59):
right after we get all off the air. We're not
going to talk about the self proclaimed king. He talks
a lot when I talk about him. Tell you who
are we going to talk about tonight, Victor wemb and Yama.
Did you know that Victor Wemby recently signed a five year,
two hundred and fifty two million Rookie Max contract extension,

(01:33:24):
opting for wait for it, a baseline twenty five percent
salary cap hit rather than the thirty percent super Max
escalators he earned as Defensive Player of the Year. What
does that mean? He left fifty one million dollars on
the table to preserve financial flexibility for your San Antonio Spurs.

(01:33:49):
Lebron says he'll take less. You know what, There's an
old saying in life, don't tell me, show me Wemby
did it. By doing so, this basically ensures that your
San Antonio Spurs now have the cap health needed to
not only avoid the punitive CBA second apron, but they

(01:34:12):
can extend their young core pieces who have already stepped
up and proven you know, proof of performance very earlier
in the career, guys like Stefan Cassel and Dylan Harper.
This is a selfless mindset. I give it up to Wimby.
I've run hot and cold with him. I don't doubt
his talent, but this is a selfless mindset. There's an

(01:34:34):
old saying in life, the smallest deed will always outweigh
the greatest intention. Wemby left fifty one million dollars on
the table. That is not common, but when it's been done,
it's been highly effective, which I want to get to
in a second. So what this also does for Wemby

(01:34:58):
is put him in a prism of a group of
players that mirror a deep legacy of athletes who became
iconic because they prioritized team building over individual earnings. Yes, now,
the one guy I'm not going to talk about says

(01:35:19):
he wants to be happy one week, that he wants
to win. You know what, if he really wanted to win,
really wanted to win, call up the Spurs and say
I'll come there for the minimum three point nine million.
I'll sit on the bench and you only need to
play me fifteen minutes a game. I'll be your number
eight option and we'll get a ring. He doesn't want that,
wants to be the center of attention. Now Wemby really
wants to win. I'm convinced. Yeah, I know, five year,

(01:35:43):
two hundred and fifty two million, that's a lot, but
context matters. He could have gotten over three hundred million.
The beauty of it is this decision fits seamlessly into
the historic culture Antonio. This is the franchise he novel
not only represents, he leads. The Spurs built a multi

(01:36:06):
decade dynasty by precisely doing what Wemby just did. And
I've got three seats to prove it. Remember Tim Duncan
legend his nickname the Big Fundamental. Now fourteen years ago,
fifteen years ago, I want to say these not almost

(01:36:28):
you'll laugh. Tim Duncan famously was the first one to
make this mold. I guess with when the when, the
when the when the big money started to take off.
Here's what I mean by that. He signed in twenty twelve.
Duncan signed a three year, thirty million dollars deal, which

(01:36:50):
sounds like peanuts these days, right, Uh, but again, context matters,
So Tim Duncan the big fundamental that's three. You're a
thirty million dollars deal that Duncan signed, well, that was
roughly half of what his market maximum value would have
been at the time, which directly allowed the front office

(01:37:11):
to retain key pieces of the Spurs and they went
on to capture the twenty fourteen NBA Championship. Now, two
other guys that will forever live in the lore of
San Antonio Spurs basketball, managing Obli and Tony Parker. They

(01:37:35):
formed the Big Three, Tim Duncan, managing Obli and Tony Parker.
They remained intact under coach Greg Popovich because both Parker
and Genobili both accepted several, not one, but several below
market contracts through the two thousands and twenty tens. They

(01:37:58):
passed up much larger paydays in free agency so they
could ensure continued success and depth on the bench. All right,
now again, Wemby this past week signed a five year,
two hundred and fifty two million dollars rookie Max contract,

(01:38:20):
which saved us for a fifty one million dollars. They
now avoid the second apron and they have young core
pieces like Stefan Castle and Dylan Harper they can now
take care of. And I'm going to continue on with
some other examples in a minute, but I also do
want to recognize that in twenty ten Lebron, d Wade

(01:38:41):
and Chris Bosh took pay cuts. They signed for about
fifteen million each so they could afford all all three
maximum talents. But what they did wasn't nearly as glorious
as what the other guys did. And I'm not going
to go into the reasons why, and the all time
I will tell you the all time time, at all
time king of the Hill in terms of taking this

(01:39:03):
type of selfless paycott as Jalen Brunson. I had a
fifteen to twenty minute monologue on that three weeks ago.
How when Brunson came to the next yes, he signed
a four year, one hundred and fifty six million dollar extension,
but he could have got a two hundred and seventy
dollars million dollar maximum. He left one hundred and twenty
million dollars on the table. Though this was a massive
sacrifice that allowed the Knicks to build the roster that

(01:39:26):
secured the twenty twenty six NBA Championship. Coming up, I'm
going to get to the rest of them. There are
other basketball players, but I'm also going to share with
you players in the NFL that also did it, players
in Major League Baseball that have done it, and yes,
players in the National Hockey he did it and He's

(01:39:48):
are all big names. You're not only going to recognize,
you're going to realize that it worked. Sacrificing for the
greater good so that your team could backfield talent, build depth,
build longevity and consistency actually kind of works. Coming up,

(01:40:11):
we will dive into that a little bit more deeply
because I think that kind of attitude, as it were
in this specifically in this day and age, deserves to
be recognized and congratulated. But now we want to bring
you a segment that's increasing in popularity every week, and
for good reason. Now because we are just days away
from teams entering NFL camp and this guy really does

(01:40:33):
his research. It's time for Brandon's Fantasy Files.

Speaker 3 (01:40:38):
Fantasy Files with Brandon Deutsch, your go to fantasy football segment.

Speaker 15 (01:40:44):
Are you one gone?

Speaker 1 (01:40:47):
Welcome to Fantasy Files.

Speaker 20 (01:40:48):
I'm Brandon Deutsch on the Bernie Bratto Show, and look
what we're going to go over today. I know in
recent weeks we've been doing a lot of rankings and
a lot of updates, but now we're going to go
into a singular player. Why you need to fade them?
And remember last year I told you guys to fade
Saquon Barkley after his RB two finish in PVR leagues.
He was the touch leader. And we will go into

(01:41:10):
the history of touch leaders in this video as well.
And guess who was the touch leader last year? You
want to take a guess. Was it Jamier Gibbs No?
Was it Devon Hm No? Was it Saquon No?

Speaker 1 (01:41:21):
Was it Bijon No? Was it Christian McCaffrey.

Speaker 7 (01:41:25):
Yes.

Speaker 20 (01:41:26):
And although Christian McCaffrey has had multiple top two RB
finishes in a row, the only player to do that
since LT, he hasn't had an RB one season back
to back and the year that he was the RB
two and then followed the year with the RB one performance,
which happened twice twenty two to twenty three in twenty
eighteen to twenty nineteen, he was not.

Speaker 4 (01:41:47):
The touch leader in that previous year.

Speaker 20 (01:41:49):
So guess what fade Christian McCaffrey this year, I was
all the way in on him. Last year, I'm all
the way up. Not because I think he's watched. It's
because history tells us to fade the NFL's previous touch
leader every single time. Look at his career, and I've
already mentioned this. Twenty eighteen R two to twenty nineteen
RB one, twenty twenty played three games, twenty twenty one
played seven games, and he was the touch leader in
twenty nineteen. So that's why I played three games in

(01:42:09):
twenty twenty, twenty twenty two RB two, He's traded to
the Niners twenty three RB one following year after being
the touch leader, he played only in four games. There's
been a ton of volatility throughout his career. The obvious
counter argument is CMC won RB two at RB one
both in eighteen nineteen twenty two to twenty three. Why
can't he go RB one to RB two again. But
the answer is simple, I already told you guys, he

(01:42:30):
was the touch leader. That's the problem with this whole predicament.
With Christian McCaffrey, the situations were completely different both of
those stretchers. McCaffrey was not the NFL's touch leader in
the first season. That's the key difference. Being the league's
touch leader has been one of the biggest fantasy football
curses of the last decade. Since twenty sixteen, Here's what
happened in the NFL's touch leader the following season. McCaffrey
in twenty nineteen, he was fifty four the following year,

(01:42:52):
Derrick Henry in twenty twenty he was the RB twenty two.
The following year, Najee Harrison twenty twenty one, and he
was the RB fourteen the following year. Josh Shacobs twenty
twenty two, he's the RB twenty eight the following year.
Christan mccafery again in twenty twenty three, obviously got injured
in twenty twenty four, was the RB sixty nine the
following year. In last year, Saquon Barkley, who was the
touch leader in twenty twenty four, finishes the RB fourteen

(01:43:13):
last year. In fact, besides Ezekiel Elliott in twenty eighteen,
there has not been a top ten finish for the
touch leader following year in twenty plus years. The workload
cliff is real, and like I mentioned, the only exception
is Ezekiel Elliott. He led the NFL with thirtye hundred
and eighty one touches in eighteen, and he finished as

(01:43:34):
a top five running back again in twenty nineteen. One
exception in a decade doesn't make me want.

Speaker 1 (01:43:39):
To bet against the trend, though.

Speaker 20 (01:43:42):
I told you guys to fade Saquon Barkley last year
for this exact reason. The volume catches up heavy workloads,
increase injury risk, reduce efficiency, and make it incredibly difficult
to repeat a leite fantasy production. And because of that,
Christian McCaffrey, though he had a ton of he had
an RB one finish and who had a ton of
CA His yards per carry was an all time low

(01:44:02):
pretty much his longest run was the lowest of his career.
He had the least explosive play percentage of his entire career.
And maybe they were stacking the box. Maybe we'll give
him the benefit of the doubt there, but it's obvious
he's getting older. He's going to be thirty. All bets
are against Christian McCaffery.

Speaker 1 (01:44:18):
Now.

Speaker 20 (01:44:18):
Can he finish still as a top two RB?

Speaker 1 (01:44:21):
Absolutely?

Speaker 20 (01:44:21):
Can he be the RB one in back to back
years in that offense, Absolutely, But ninety percent of the time.
If we do one hundred simulations, ninety of them, he's
not going to end up as a top five running back.
That's just the facts. That's being the touch leader. He
had twenty more touches than anybody else in the last.

Speaker 1 (01:44:41):
Decade for touch leaders.

Speaker 20 (01:44:42):
By the way, you remember his Eagle Elliott's number of
three hundred and eighty one and twenty eighteen. The reason
why he was able to have a top five finish
the following year is because he had forty less touches
than Christian McCaffrey's four hundred and twenty last season, which
was by far the most of the last techade. He's
one of the greatest running backs we've ever but if
I'm betting on probabilities instead of hoping for an outlier,

(01:45:03):
I'm fading the previous year's touch leader every single time.
Fantasy football is about playing the percentages, not chasing last
year's points. Fading Christian McCaffrey at this current price, fade
the touch leader. You'll thank yourself later. I'm Brandon Deutsch
back to the Bernie Fratto Show. Following me at BSD Takes.
You can find me at Brandon es Deutsch on YouTube
and on Instagram and on TikTok BSD takes on X Back.

Speaker 1 (01:45:24):
To you, Bernie. Once again, excellent research by Brandon Deutsch.
Outstanding stuff. I'm telling you you got to take notes.
I try to keep up, I try to do my research.
I'm no longer involved in fantasy football, but I it's
a billion dollar industry and what Brandon just shared with

(01:45:46):
you has historical precedents. Historically, running backs to surpass three
hundred and seventy touches in a season see a sharp
drop off an efficiency and even availability. And Christian McCaffrey
had over four hun and thirteen touches in twenty twenty five.
I know Kyle Shanahan instead, he is actually moving to

(01:46:07):
limit McCaffrey's wear and tear this year. So let's be honest.
If you have less touches, you're gonna have less points.
And keep one thing in mind, and none of this
is to be smirch the great Christian McCaffrey in any way,
But he had this massive twenty twenty three season, and
his two yards per carry ever since then have been
trending down. He dropped to three point nine yards per

(01:46:28):
carrey last season is he still a stud Christian McCaffrey, absolutely,
is he still a mainstay? Absolutely? But if you listen
to Brandon's research on fantasy files, you will see that
this is something to very much pay attention to. Is
you look for every little edge so you can strive
to win your fantasy league. Coming up, we continue on

(01:46:51):
with examples that led to Victor webbin Yama making his
selfless decision leaving fifty one million dollars on the tape
last week. We know former Storers players Tim Duncan managing
Obli and Tony Parker have done the same thing. I
mentioned Jalen Brunson. Well, there's more NBA players that have

(01:47:11):
done it too, And it's not just the NBA. When
you have observed in history when other great athletes in
their respective sports have been magnanimous and taken a little
less money for the betterment of their team, it's amazing
how that seems to work out. I'm Bernie Fraddle comedy
line from the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio Studios. Don't

(01:47:32):
go away. You're listening to the Bernie Frattle Show on.

Speaker 4 (01:47:35):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:47:39):
Alrighty, we are back on the Bernie Frattle Show Fox
Sports Radio Comedy live from the Fox Sports Radio studios
here in Las Vegas. We'll take you up to three
am Pacific, six am Eastern. We are now just about
ten hours and seventeen minutes away from a match will

(01:48:00):
be watched by one point eight billion people globally. Fifty
to sixty million Americans will be watching it will it
will dominate I believe the sports conversations for a bit
of time. This is really something and Victor Wemeniaman is

(01:48:22):
hoping to do the same thing when the NBA starts
up here again in October November. He recently signed a
five year, two hundred and fifty two million dollar contract.
That's a rookie Max contract extension, but he opted for
a baseline twenty five percent salary cap hit rather than
the thirty percent supermax, which means he left fifty one
million dollars on the table. Why. He wanted to provide

(01:48:46):
and preserve financial flexibility for the San Antonio Spurs. By
doing it, he insured the Spurs now have the cap
health needed to not only avoid the CBA second apron,
which is very punitive, but now the other core piece
is like Stefan Castle and Dylan Harper, who proved their
medal in the NBA Finals this past year. Well, they'll

(01:49:09):
have an opportunity to get paid as well. And what
Wemby did was mirror what a deep group of iconic
players who left the legacy of prioritizing their team building
capacity over individual earnings and allowed them to have big success.
I mentioned Tim Duncan, I mentioned Manager Loblie and Tony Parker.
Jalen Brunson is the master class at this He is

(01:49:35):
the gold standard by which all other selfless contracts will
be measured. By leaving over one hundred and twenty million
dollars on the table, Dirk Nowitzki did it many times.
The Dallas Mavericks consistently left tens of millions on the table.
Most famously, he signed a three year, twenty five million
dollar deal twelve years ago to ensure Dallas could remain

(01:49:55):
active in the free agent market. Dallas finally got one
championship in there as well. Even Kevin Durant did it.
He took a highly publicized ten million dollar discount on
a one year contract extension back in twenty seventeen when
he was with the Warriors, and that gave management the
exact flexibility they needed to retain very crucial bench pieces

(01:50:16):
like andre Iguidalad and Seohn Livingston, and they got a championship.
Now it's not just the NBA where players have been
willing to take less. Tom Brady, one of Rob Parker's favorites,
famously pioneered the strategy in the NFL cumulatively in his

(01:50:39):
twenty year career. It's been estimated that Tom Brady actually
left sixty million to one hundred million dollars on the
table to again ensure the front office in New England
that they would be able to afford e lead defensive
talent and offensive line depth. And it worked. Brady consistently
structured his contracts with below market based salaries. He would

(01:51:03):
take a heavier signing bonus and deferred cash that allowed
the Patriots to build basically a defense first roster. And
there's no arguing that in the salary cap era, they
sustained a two decade dynasty result against six Super Bowl
rings and what are they You know how many Super
Bowls they go to? Ten? So look, because the NFL

(01:51:23):
features a strict, non negotiable hard salary cap, every dollar
you save on a superstar quarterback. Well, it's going to
directly translate into an elite starter at another position, and
you can't have too much talent in the NFL. Guess
who else did this? He did it back in twenty twenty,
the great Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes signed a highly publicized ten year,

(01:51:45):
four hundred and fifty million dollar contract with the Chiefs.
And now, while the total value was massive because of
the extreme LinkedIn structure, which pundits called into criticism, Well,
that allowed the Chiefs to repeatedly restructure the deal and
they manipulated the cap space and they were able to
capture multiple championships. Mahomes and Brady huh, Well, if it

(01:52:10):
worked for them, what about Major League Baseball? Now, we
all know that Major League Baseball does not feature a
traditional salary cap. They use something they call a competitive
balanced tax, which is a luxury tax. What it does
it penalizes high spending teams. The Dodgers no better than
anybody sort of the Yankees or the Mets right on
down the line. And oh, by the way, don't get

(01:52:33):
me started. This is one week. I'm not going to
update the CBA stuff in case you missed it. And
it's really kind of a shame because we have this
great quirky Pennant race going on that's hitting the stretch
drive here in Major League Baseball, and the allure of
Major League Baseball this season is the fact that we

(01:52:54):
have come to expect the unexpected. And I'll give the
I'll tell you what I'm going to get into that
in the top the hour. What do I believe is
gonna happen when the CBA expires December. First, I'm on record,
it's no secret the owners will lock them out, which
doesn't mean you thin because nothing's going on, but it
brings free agency signings to a hall, trades to haul,
et cetera. Where it starts to get real. Itsh gets

(01:53:15):
real in February when teams are ready to show up
for spring training. If they're locked out, there's no CBA,
well there's no baseball. That's when it starts to get real.
So we'll then negotiate, we'll see what happens. There's been
a lot of peeing on each other's shoes so far,
so what happens then, Well, if spring training doesn't start
on time, the next thing you watch for is when

(01:53:37):
it does start. If it does start, how many spring
training games do they miss? And then if it starts
too late and potentially spills into the regular season, how
many regular season games might they miss? And that's where
it really gets real. That's what happened in twenty twenty one.
Somehow heads were able to prevail cooler heads, and through
a creative schedule league, even though the season started late

(01:54:00):
in twenty twenty one, they were able to squeeze in
all one hundred and sixty two games. I'm not so
sure that's going to happen this time. Am I predicting it?

Speaker 20 (01:54:08):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:54:10):
Am I, you know, putting it into the universe like
I got some kind of power. No, I'm merely reporting facts.
Believe me. The beginning of my radio career was nineteen
ninety four, in the strike that began August eleventh and
canceled the World Series. It was incredulous, but I digress. Shoheyotani.
In December twenty twenty three, he signed a historic ten years,

(01:54:33):
seven hundred million dollar contract with the Dodgers. This was
an unprecedented move to kai to fird six hundred and
eighty million of the total until after the contract ends.
That lowered his annual luxury tax hit to around forty
six million, which allowed the Dodgers to spend heavily on
other stars. And they've spent wisely, and they spent intelligently

(01:54:54):
because there are people on that team who could have
got more in other cities and wanted to be part
of the Dodgers. DNA not even a Dodgers fan, but
I game recognized game. I have respect for what the
organization has done. Will they repeat? I think so. No
one believe me when I said they'd repeat last year,
and they almost didn't, but they did. And I know
that pisses teams often. There in lies the impetus behind

(01:55:16):
so many folks anonymously and not so anonymously being upset
with the current CBA as it stands because of what
the Dodgers were able to do. They think it creates
competitive imbalance. If you dig deeper, you'll realize that only
two times in twenty six years as the team who

(01:55:36):
spent the most money won the World Series, the Yankees
in two thousand and the Dodgers in twenty twenty six.
Just spending the most money really doesn't guarantee a lot,
except usually an exciting regular season, because you put fans
through parn styles. Because you're paying big time players to
be there doesn't guarantee Polsea's success. The NHL has also
gotten into the act, not just Major League Baseball. Like

(01:56:00):
the NFL, the NHL operates under a rigid, hard sorry cap,
So if you overpay a star, you potentially cripple a
team's death. Well, you know, potentially you do. But Sidney
Crosby the faith of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He famously obsessed

(01:56:21):
over team building in his favorite number eighty seven. Crosby
signed a twelve year contract in twenty twelve with an
average annual value of exactly eight point seven million per year,
which was vastly below his true market value. This sacrifice
allowed the Penguins to build a deep roster. They went
back to back Stanley Cups in twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen,

(01:56:42):
and in my last year in Michigan, I moved to Vegas.
In February twenty ten, I covered the Red Wings Stanley
Cup Finals against Pittsburgh in which Pittsburgh came back from
a three to one deficit to win to win the
Stanley Cup in Detroit in Game seven. And if you
don't think Sydney Crosby was all at You can't say

(01:57:02):
all that in the bag of chips unless you want
a channel, you know, two thousand and three. But I
just did it. The dude was the goods. He took
less money and it worked finally, Nathan McKinnon. Before signing
his massive extension, McKinnon spent we spent the prime years
of his career playing on a highly team friendly, seven year,
forty four million dollar contract, which is only a six

(01:57:23):
and a half million dollar average annual value. That extreme
discount gave the Colorado Avalanche the financial room to acquire
and retain the supporting cast that won the twenty twenty
two Stanley Cup, and Colorado and the Avs they are
relevant every year. So there you have it. He's your

(01:57:44):
household names. Nathan McKinnon, Sidney Crosby, both Stanley Cup champions,
show Yo Tani, back to back World Series champion, Patrick Maholmes,
four Super Bowls, two champions, Tom Brady, you know the drill.
Kevin Durant won one, Dirk Dewitzki won one. Jalen Brunson
got his last year managing Obli. Tim Parker checked at

(01:58:04):
Tony Parker and Tim Duncan the backbone of the Spurs,
which leaves his doctor, Victor wembin Yama, who left fifty
one million dollars on the table to try to join
this group of iconic athletes who prioritize team building. Coming up,
we talked baseball. You're gonna want to hear this. Keep
it locked the Bernie Fraddle Show on Fox Sports Radio.

(01:58:28):
That's right, you heard the man. Bernie Fraddle Show keeps
rolling right along. My name is Bernie Frattle. We are
coming you alive from the Fox Sports Radio compound here
in Las Vegas. We'll take you up to three am
Pacific six eight m Eastern, ten hours away from the
Game of the Century. Well got to call it something
Spain and Argentina. Will Argentina repeat? You scored nineteen goals?

(01:58:53):
Are playing in an opponent of who's only scored giving
up one? A lot to talk about. Well I did it?
Do you opening monologue? But at the very end of
the show, I'll give you my prediction in why. But
for now, after this, you know I have to say
that congratulations to Major League Baseball, even though we've got

(01:59:14):
this weird looming into the world. Hugh clouding over the
sport because the team owners are going to initiate a
lockout of the players right after the World Series. How
long will it lasts? No clue will the sports economics
be transformed by then? Everything is uncertain. But what is
not uncertain? As Dollar Bill used to say in billions,

(01:59:36):
I am not uncertain. Major League Baseball is experiencing an
historic business resurgence. I mean what's driving it? Well, record
setting revenues, multi year highs and television viewership in the
stadium attendance growth has been sustained. Now the real changes

(01:59:57):
of shortened game times. There's been this highly competitive penety,
all that stuff. But Major League Baseball has now reached
an all time record of twelve point one billion dollars revenue.
When I started covering baseball in an official capacity for
WTK and an Arbor on June seventeenth, nineteen ninety four,
baseball is a one billion dollar industry and the owners
wanted a salary cap. They didn't get it. A World

(02:00:17):
Series canceled. They said the sport was ruined. No, what
twelve billion dollars? Now this massive wave of growth again,
strong ticket sales, a major spike in corporate sponsorships, lucrative
new broadcast extensions. So the World Baseball Classic, by the way,
for scoring at home, and I hope you are brought
in a massive two hundred and thirty million dollars windfall,

(02:00:39):
which was one hundred and thirty percent increase over the
World Baseball Classic three years before. So, whether it's national
broadcasts that are averaging two and a half million viewers, oh,
a forty four percent year over year increase from the
year before, the best in ten years. Whether it's network growth,
You've got major partners that are enjoying massive of upticks.

(02:01:01):
Fox's Saturday coverage is jumped forty percent, TNT Sports TBS
up twenty one percent. Well, you get the picture. New
media packages, streaming in digital, the traffic, the projections, forget it,
I mean, and milestones. The Dodgers will they became the
first franchise since two thousand and eight to eclipse four

(02:01:22):
million single season home fans. Okay, even the Podres. I
love the Podres, but they've been an ulcerand forever. They
set franchise records by drawing over three point four million fans.
These are not numbers to sneeze at. That's what's going on.
One of the great things, one of the interesting things,

(02:01:44):
is that there have been a lot of expected events
this year and a lot of unexpected events. One expected
thing which even casual fans have probably noticed, the Dodgers
remain the Dodgers to do for an encore. They're back
to back champs. Do I think they're gonna reepeat? I do?

(02:02:08):
They're twenty six games over five hundred show heyw Tony Well,
they got his knee rain the other day. No one's perfect,
he's human. I think he's a cy young, volteworthy pitcher
who's having a down year at the plate because he
might only hit forty home runs. Now, in recent years,
the Padres have kept the National League West race interesting.

(02:02:31):
Not now doesn't mean they won't make the playoffs. But
they're about eleven and a half games behind the second
place Diamondbacks. They were at that at the break Tuesday
night during the All Star Game. So that's the expected thing.
The Dodgers continue to be the Dodgers. They're on pace.

(02:02:51):
What tred games. Again, here's what's unexpected. Most of the
rest of what's going on, which is frankly again capture
the imagination. That's why you have the statistics that I
just read and why baseball is seeing this incredible renaissance.
Let's start with the Chicago White Sox. In the past

(02:03:13):
two years, they won one hundred and one games total.
They were one hundred and twenty two games under five
hundred cumulatively the last two years. Not this year. The
White Sox. They lead the AL Central. They're tied with
the Cleveland Guardians. Gotta love that. The Red Sox were

(02:03:34):
fourteen games under five hundred on June twenty fourth, having
already canned their manager Alex Korra, their popular manager, Alex Cora.
But all of a sudden, the Socks thirteen wins in
fifteen games. Heading into the All Star Break, they are
on the cusp of looking at a playoff berth Baseball's
better when Boston and New York are in the playoffs,

(02:03:57):
they might do it. You wouldn't have thought that in June,
last year's World Series loser. On the other hand, the
Blue Jays, their last in the AL East. Lad Garrel's
sluggy percentage is three point fifty seven. Forget the Mendoza line.
I don't know what line that is. You may remember
a player named David Eckstein. He was about five foot five.

(02:04:19):
Love the guy. He was MVP of the two thousand
and six World Series. I know I covered it. He
played for the Cardinals against Detroit Detroit. The Tigers were
prohibitive favorites and lost that series in five games. David
Eckstein was the MVP, and David Xstein was also a
stellar performer as a shortstop for the Angels in the

(02:04:40):
two thousand and two World Series, in which the Angels
beat the Giants in seven games. But I digress. David
Exstein's career slugging percentage is three fifty seven. Lad Guerrero's
should not be that. What the hell's going on up
there in Canada? But the ultimate streaky team is the Cubs.
What if I told you? And they're very much in

(02:05:01):
the hunt. They have two separate ten game streaks, one
ten game winning streak this season, one ten game losing streak.
How about the Pittsburgh Pirates. Last season twenty twenty five,
the Pirates were dead last in runs. Now they're time
for the most runs in baseball five hundred and sixteen

(02:05:24):
and just sitting outside a wildcard spot. Despite Paul Skins
and a pitching staff that is now formed into one
of the best pitching staffs in all of baseball. Credible,
incredible to see what the heck is going on in
Major League Baseball. Cal Raley go figure last year's Ale

(02:05:50):
MVP runner up, and again the Mariners still constantly on
the edge of a wildcard spot, despite you know they
could win the A they played the first half in
a game under five hundred. But cal Rally is not
having anywhere near the season he has had last year.

(02:06:11):
Of course, when he what h'it? Sixty home runs? First
switch hitting catcher, you get the pitcher. Now, nobody really
knows what the trade deadline will work. You know, look
like it's August third, so the trade deadline will be
a week from to check that, check that two weeks

(02:06:32):
from this Monday is a trade deadline. What's interesting, though,
is only six teams hit the brake with playoff chances
of seventy five percent or better. That makes it kind
of messy. And once you get back to predictability, the Dodgers,
you know, there aren't any other villains, So we will
see what happens after the trade deadline. But anyway you

(02:06:56):
slice it, no one can deny the Major League Baseball
again is enjoying this massive financial and cultural resurgence. They
do have new media rights and the pitch clock games
are working, major international stars are exerting themselves, and so

(02:07:17):
what has happened. They've kind of parlayed the least kind
of parlayed rule changes and revitalized digital presence and do
nothing but revenue records. Period. One of the things too,
is people are really attending games more than ever. Games
are now down to under two hours and forty minutes
on average, and that seems to be bringing fans back

(02:07:37):
to the ballpark now. The attendance at the All Star
Break was up marginally over last year, about two percent,
and they're on track to have the fourth consecutive year
where they will cross seventy million dollars. Check that seventy
million in attendance. That makes baseball the most attended sport
of any sport period all right. And by the way,

(02:08:01):
this streak the first four year sustained growth period since
two thousand and five through two thousand and seven. Bottom
line is they're on their way to having seventy one
million fans at ten baseball games this year. Fortunately, the
Tampa Bay Rays, they returned back to drop Canna Field.
Their jump is seventy one percent over the year before.

(02:08:21):
In the first place White Sox and play in the
same stadium. Their attendance is up thirty six percent. Again,
the World Baseball Classic really helped smashed previous metrics. A
two hundred and thirty million dollar boondoggle two hundred and
thirty million dollars windfall club gate receipts. The Dodgers continue

(02:08:41):
to set those records and look national media portfolios when
you consider ESPN, Fox, TBSNBC, and Netflix. That's generating a
billion eight annually. Now why the owners want a salary
cap is beyond me. When they do have an econometric system,
it's working. It just simply is. And I say that

(02:09:03):
because it was a one billion dollar industry in nineteen
ninety four and they've grown exponentially. Now baseball's a twelve
billion dollar industry. If it wasn't working, how could it
have grown the way it's grown. You don't mess with
something that's working. But this is really sad because you
know they're going to and it's going to get ugly,

(02:09:24):
it's going to get be concerned, be very concerned. Coming
up you know throughout the couple of years, poor old
I'm not going to mention the king self proclaimed king.
As the indecision continues ad nausea, Hey take all the

(02:09:44):
time you want, man, I don't give a damn Go
wherever the hell you want. I couldn't care less. You
want the spotlight, knock yourself out, that's all you really want. Well,
only guess will be he'll make a decision this week
because World Cup ends and NFL teams don't start to
really file in the cap towards the end of the week,

(02:10:05):
he's got three to four potential days of look at
me week. Yeah, that's the way I see it. It's
a guess. And the other guest is it ain't gonna
be a one year deal. It's going to be a
two year deal. And that didn't mean to be done
in two years. I told before he signed a tier
extension with the Lakers back prior to the twenty twenty
four season, I said this won't be his last contra.

(02:10:26):
Oh this is it? For No, it's not. I think
the guy wants to play at least fifty But I digress.
Let's talk about Bronnie. You may say, why are you
doing that because I actually think I have real news
and we're not making fun of him. This is actually
real news about Bronnie in while there's a cloud looming
over Major League Baseball, the future might be a little

(02:10:49):
brighter for Bronnie. I'll tell you what's going on. Coming up,
I'm Bernie Froder. We're coming to your life from Las Vegas,
Fox Sports Radio Studios. Keep it locked, you're listening to
the Burn Fraw.

Speaker 4 (02:11:01):
You don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 1 (02:11:05):
All right, back at the Bertie Frauile Show, Fox Sports Radio.
We're about nine minutes away from Chris's World of Soccer.
We are nine hours and thirty nine minutes away from
kickoff on the World Cup final match between Spain and Argentina.
I'll have my final thoughts on that at the end

(02:11:26):
of the show in my prediction. In the meantime, believe
it or not, Bronni James might be getting a chance
to actually blaze his own trail in the NBA. It
doesn't look like he'll be following his father's footsteps. Whoever,
whenever the hell of that happens, Bronni is currently with
the Lakers at their veteran mini camp and kicked off.

(02:11:48):
I believe about a week ago, now a few days ago,
and for the moment, he is expected to actually compete
for minutes in the Lakers back court this next season. Now,
let's not go crazy here, Bronnie, he doesn't shoot well
enough to be a shooting guard in the NBA. He

(02:12:09):
doesn't handle the ball well enough to be a point guard.
But he's still only twenty one years old, and he
had a hard time beating the nepotism allegations. But he's
gonna get an opportunity to prove himself. Okay, now that
lebron officially is not welcome back to the Lakers next season. Now,
last season, Bronnie, this cat surprised me. He actually appeared

(02:12:33):
in forty two games for the Lakers, averaged two point
nine points one assist per game. His shooting spits were
not great. Okay, also made fourteen regular season appearances for
the South Bay Lakers of the NBA G League. There,
he averaged fifteen points and three assists per game. He's
shooting stats were better, a little bit better. Now, Bronnie

(02:12:56):
actually is a willing defender, Okay, would I say his
defense is above average? I wouldn't say that, but he'll
contest you his three point shot is improved. But that's
like telling me somebody who weighed eight hundred and fifty
pounds not only weighs eight hundred and forty, but nonetheless
it's improved. And the jury is out on whether or

(02:13:20):
not Bronnie, who's actually fully guaranteed two point three million
next year with the Lakers, belongs in the NBA Amazona Court.
But he's gonna get a shot because in his first
full year in the NBA actually checked that second second
full year, Bronnie was drafted in twenty twenty four. And that's,
of course, when you know JJ Reddick said he famously

(02:13:43):
earned it. Come on, man, really, what an insult. But
I believe the way Bronnie's conducted himself since he's been
in the NBA earning a living in the NBA is admirable.
He conducts himself like a pro. There was some rumors
earlier in the month that one potential lebron suitor was

(02:14:06):
saving up a roster spot for Bronnie just in case.
But you hear so much crap you don't know what
to believe. The truth of the matter is, if Bronnie
really truly has a legitimate shot to be a productive
NBA player. I think that best shot comes where he

(02:14:26):
is right now with the Lakers, Okay, getting away at
the shadow of his father, being part of an organization
who's already got a couple of years invested in him,
and it'll be close to six million dollars. I never
wance said he didn't play hard. I just never thought
he was of NBA caliber and I'm sticking to that.
But he's got a chance to prove us all wrong too,

(02:14:48):
So I think we let that play itself out. In
these last two minutes have been more Brownie coverage than
I've had in what the past the year, which fine
with me. But let's see what happens. Okay, I always
root for the story. Let's see what happens. Speaking of stories,

(02:15:10):
we are nine hours, thirty five minutes away from what
is going to be an epic matchup Sunday between Spain
and Argentina. One team has scored nineteen goals are trying
to repeat. They're led by Messi, who has been argued
the greatest player of all time. The other team, looking

(02:15:31):
for their second championship, won an earlier one in twenty ten.
I think they're the best team in the world. They've
given up one goal, one goal the entire tournament. So
you start to watch as you head into the game,
and you start to get your freak on watching this game.
These are the observations that I think will become prevalent.

(02:15:54):
Will Spain be able to stifle Messi? Now, anybody that
plays Argentina, that's always going to be your primary concern.
But a thirty nine years old Messi continues to file logic.
He's been brilliant, and not only just in brilliant obvious moments,
but other subtle moments, because in every match there's a

(02:16:16):
force of will and intelligence that Messi seems to have
in an aura that's unmatched almost in any sport. All Right,
can Spain subdue or stifle Ssi? Messi? Excuse me? He
has you know, as John Fascena would once say, to
describe Messi would be to drain the superlative of you know,

(02:16:41):
of compliments. And here's a guy who's not the biggest
guy in the world, which I've always said sports besizes
is the least important aspect. But I think he's not me.
These are people who really have worked inside the sport,
have participated in the sport in some form or fashion.
On the world level, they are saying he's the smartest

(02:17:03):
player that soccer has ever seen. Football. I likened him
to Wayne Gretzky because he knows where to be when
he doesn't have the ball, and knows where to be
but he has the ball. His positional adjustments, Messi's ability
to react on the flight and whatever's happening on the pitch.
You just saw it three days ago against England. Four
days ago, England shifted, they made an in game adjustment

(02:17:24):
to what you call a back five, and Messi was
able to exploit it because all of a sudden he
had extra space and there was one particular substitution and
Messi took that opportunity to take over the game. With
seventy nine minutes into the game, on the double team
made an incredible pass which led to the first goal

(02:17:45):
and then a centering almost not a corner kick, but
you know one of those balls with top spin on
it that curls right in for the header and the
winning goal. And Spain saw that on film. There's no doubt. Well,
they've got the best defense in the tournament again, one
goal conceded thus far. This will be their toughest test

(02:18:07):
at the World Cup, all right, They're going to have
to smother Argentina just like they did against France. They
possessed the ball, they passed the ball. Their motto you
can't score if we have the ball, and they are
brilliant at holding the ball. But whatever the score is,
when you get down to the last ten to fifteen minutes,

(02:18:28):
this is where Argentina seems to have had this magic
pixie dust. Because of their will, their DNA, their teamwork,
their grit, their ability, all those things, Argentina earned their
way into this moment. But man, that looked like there
were times when they were whistling through the graveyard. So
once again, once again, Spain will try to use ball

(02:18:51):
possessions the best form of defense against the team from
Argentina that's registered a tournament leading nineteen goals going into
Sunday's game. Finally, could it be Ja Maal's moment le
Meana Maul He almost missed the World Cup with the hamstring,
but now he has a golden opportunity at nineteen years old,

(02:19:11):
to make the kind of signature game that will forever
be remembered the animal of the annals of the World
Cup if they can steal the spotlight from Messi. He's
a dazzling young player, but he's going to be coming
up against veterans that will try to make sure he
can't get isolated in dangerous areas. So I'm going to

(02:19:32):
give my prediction on the game, when the score and why.
I think Spain is the best team in the world.
But remember, the best team doesn't always win. How many
times have you seen that in sport? Where you know
what I'm talking about. But let's face it, both teams listen.
Argentina will have their counter attacks. You don't get to

(02:19:55):
this plateau on the world stage without earning it. And
no one knows better than that that our next feature guest,
you've listened to this segment for four years now, It's
time for Chris Burfett's World of Soccer.

Speaker 17 (02:20:10):
The Greatest Goals, The thrilling finishes.

Speaker 3 (02:20:19):
The international drama.

Speaker 13 (02:20:23):
I am.

Speaker 3 (02:20:26):
It's all here in this report from the World of Soccer.

Speaker 21 (02:20:30):
This is not the final that I thought we would have.
It is the final, however, that we do have. I
haven't been a confession to Fay make as we start
World of Soccer, all of my predictions. It feels like
in the World of Cup have basically come wrong when
it comes to who moves around where in this knockout bracket.

Speaker 17 (02:20:47):
So I feel terrified picking this game.

Speaker 21 (02:20:50):
So I'm gonna wait and try to walk us through
how we got here to Spain Argentina. With Argentina a
chance to repeat as a World Cup champion, the last
World Cup for Lionel Messi. I refuse to believe people
are talking about him playing at forty three, forty four
in Spain, Morocco and Portugal.

Speaker 17 (02:21:09):
It's just not that kind.

Speaker 21 (02:21:11):
He had retired once from the international team. Feels like
a tree to see him try to go out on top,
competing for a second consecutive World Cup title after basically
being denied it for so long. But let's start with
that England Argentina game as to illustrate how Argentina's got here,
because Argentina has basically done this. It's every game it

(02:21:34):
feels like we're talking about someone with pulling off a
magic trick, pulling a rabbit out of the hat, where
they're constantly trailing into the final twenty minutes of a
game sometimes tied in extra time and they just find
a way to get a goal done. They did it
against Cabo Verde, they did it against Egypt, and now
they've done it against England.

Speaker 17 (02:21:55):
Who I thought was way too good to do this.

Speaker 21 (02:21:58):
But I think there was a real breakdown in the
strategy of manager Thomas Tuckle for the English team to
basically start after getting one goal in that game, to
suddenly start pulling a lot of guys, for defenders to
basically try to park the bus against Lionel Messi and
this Argentina squad for basically what amounted to a god

(02:22:22):
I don't know, was it thirty minutes thirty five, It
felt like a long time, and it set up Pickford
to basically fail with all those shots on goal because
I think, look to put into a basketball term, England
wanted to run a four corners to try to run
out the clock as if I mean, if this was
before like pre shot clock basketball. The problem is is

(02:22:43):
that defenders have to play that defense. Argentina had the
ball and they kept pelting Pickford, the goal the goalkeeper
as much as they wanted to until something actually got in.
Pickford still on his head for a good long time
and just all fell apart. Now, how did we get
Spain here? A Spanish team who I don't think have
played particularly well up until shutting down of France, And

(02:23:06):
it really did remind us that Spain, no matter how
much they change and how much youth they put in,
they are still the same Spain, a defensive minded team.
It's not quite the tiki taka of the aughts. It
does not look that that grotesque, but it is definitely
one that still values possession to control the tempo of

(02:23:29):
the game, and still values its midfield and its defenders.
And that's exactly how they shut down France. France, high
flying France who lost to England in the third place game,
but did not go down, lying down once again, kind
of like we saw killing Embape plot of hat trick
last vinal In Bape pulled out a brace against France,

(02:23:53):
and I believe Bradley Barcola tried. They got within a
goal at one point, but the attack of England was
just too much there.

Speaker 17 (02:24:03):
So, with all of.

Speaker 21 (02:24:04):
This out of the way, we now have Spain, a
very defensive minded team playing against Argentina who has always
been able to break through. This is obviously the best
defense Argentina will have seen up until this point. The
question is can they overcome it? Well, they certainly overcame England.
I think some of that was England shooting themselves in

(02:24:27):
the foot. However, man, this is just a styles make
fight kind of match, don't you think? It is really
a wall and possession team against a team that just
really knows how to dig deep. It doesn't matter if
they go down a goal or two. They always seem
to find the will to pull that out. Define scoring

(02:24:48):
Lionel Messi I think by design now given play his
play age and the heat takes it easy through the
game and then is able to unload on the back.
Usually with have a guy coming off the bench, but
they need Messi to stay fresh out there for most
of the game. But in the Golden Boot Race, Leonel
Messi basically doubled his assist numbers. Now all he trails

(02:25:11):
killing Embape is two goals, ten, ten and four assists
for killing Himbappe, eight and four for Lionel Messi, I think,
and Boppi's got it sewn up unless Messi just drops
a performance for the age on this one, which he's
still very well could do. But the final for the
FIFA World Cup twenty twenty six in the United States

(02:25:31):
in MetLife under a forest fire, choked sky is going
to come down to who will come out on top
the guys in white and sky blue who have gotten really, really,
really good at breaking down walls, or probably the best
constructed wall in this tournament to this point, one wall

(02:25:54):
that has been able to do without much input from
Lamina maul And unfortunately I just don't really see him
really start here. But again my predictions have all been bad,
so maybe he will turn it on.

Speaker 17 (02:26:05):
Ariarzabal seems to be.

Speaker 21 (02:26:06):
Giving them all the goals they really need so far,
and for Spain they don't need many of them at
the end of the day. So it's going to come
down to, once again with everything Argentina watching the final
twenty five minutes of this game. But if Spain can
bury them early, oh boy, that might be a little tough.

(02:26:26):
So this is beyond compelling. Will the Spanish Giants be
able to win their first World Cup since twenty ten?

Speaker 17 (02:26:33):
Solidify themselves?

Speaker 21 (02:26:35):
They were already crowned the Champions of Europe defeating France.
They've now defeated France twice in the last two years
in a big, giant knockout games like this or will
it be Argentina.

Speaker 17 (02:26:46):
Repeating I can't really pick.

Speaker 21 (02:26:48):
I'll hand it over to you, Bernie, make your pick
if you haven't already, because as we will talk about
on the next World of soccer, this World Cup has
had everything and it is absolutely true.

Speaker 17 (02:27:00):
We'll see you next time. Have a great World Cup final.

Speaker 1 (02:27:03):
Everyone, Well, I'll take the handoff Chris, because I have
a definitive prediction and it's coming up in just a second.
But I'll leave you with this thought. I think Spain
is the best team in the world. Three key factors
make it that way. There's an old saying a star
might win you one game, a team might win them all.
They favor a system over stars. They are masters at

(02:27:26):
passing the ball, and they have a coach who's an
incredible He's got an incredible story. He had almost no
experience as a club level manager, but he specialized while
he was working his way up through the ranks on
how to build a winning mentality and how to develop
you nine teams to a senior team. He's worked with
many of the same players on his journey through the

(02:27:48):
ranks over the last decade. Who now play for him?
I'm talking about coach dala Flente. He may be one
of the best coaches in the world. At any sport.
Luis dala Flente you'll see him on the sidelines Sunday.
He lifted the European fifteen under nineteen Championship in twenty fifteen,
the under twenty one Championship in twenty nineteen, the silver

(02:28:09):
medal at the Tokyo Olympics in twenty twenty. The nation's
league entitle three years twenty two to twenty three and
twenty twenty four euros. Five of the under twenty one
euro winning roster and eight of the Olympic team are
part of the Spanish squad coming up. I give my
prediction as the game kicks off in nine hours. In
twenty two minutes, I'm Bernie fraddlewer comedy line from Las Vegas.

(02:28:31):
Fox Sports Radio Studios. Keep it locked listen to the
Bernie Fraddle Show.

Speaker 3 (02:28:35):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
listen live.

Speaker 1 (02:28:48):
All right, we are wrap it up on the Bernie
Frattle Show nine hours and forty five. Check that, nine
hours and fifteen minutes away from kickoff and what promises
to be an epic battle between Spain and Argentina. Argentina
scored nineteen goals in his tournament, Spain's allowed one. Argentina

(02:29:09):
looking to repeat, and I'm gonna get to my prediction
in a second. I want to thank Brandon Chris Emmy.
He's got the same name. I love. This guy's name
is the goalie for Argentina, but wants to be called Emmy,
and so we respect the man's wishes. So we got Brandon,
Chris Emmy and Mark Ramsey. All the teamwork tonight as

(02:29:33):
part of the Bernie Frado Show. All right, Spain, you
heard me say, I believe they got the best team
in the world. They rely on a system over stars,
a starmant. Winning one game a team might win them all.
Part of that one of their key strengths of Louis
de Lafonte's team. They're not tied to any particular player,

(02:29:54):
not one particular player. I started naming all the names
like I actually know him, but you'll see him tomorrow.
You get the picture. They step up when the age
step up. Now you know, England shut Argentina down offensively
for what seventy eight seventy nine minutes? They went into
a prevent defense. I'm not going to second guess the coach,
but the hometown fans were not healthy and the happy

(02:30:18):
when you make a when you make a decision like
that like Pete Carroll made in Super Bowl fifty two.
You know what happened at the end of the Super Bowl.
If it works, you're a hero. If a doesn't, y'ar
the village idiot. So England got you know, even I
guess six to four beat in France. So we'll have all.
They'll celebrate somehow. No, maybe not, because both teams wanted

(02:30:38):
to be in the World Cup final. Okay, Now the computer,
which I don't care what computers have to say about this.
They give the it's something something called the Opta supercomputer
give Spain and win probability of fifty nine point six percent. Okay,
what do I think Spain is better? Their tournament consistency

(02:31:01):
has been unmatched for the past thirty eight days. They
have a flawless defensive structure. Frankly, I think Spain will
show superior physical energy on Sunday. It all starts with
their defensive control. They just know how to smother teams.
They know how to suffocate teams. They did it to
France France. France looked incredible until they ran into Spain.

(02:31:27):
Spain has conceded one single goal in seven matches in
the tournament. They've shut down elite attacks from multiple countries.
They limited what you would anybody would agree a star
studied French front line to a mere zero point three
to one expected goals in the semi finals. That doesn't happen,

(02:31:50):
and they denied. They denied in boppy space. I watched it,
so I believe they have this well drilled mid block
defense that actually is actually built to structurally swallow up
the spaces where Lionel Messi typically creates danger and resides.

(02:32:11):
I really think their defense is built to stop Lionel Messi.
One of the things Spain does as well as anybody,
better than anybody, is they dominate the midfield, and they
dominate Temple. They straight away from quote the England trap.
Unlike England, who surrendered possession after scoring a goal against Argentina,

(02:32:33):
Spain's midfield, their engine room well, you'll hear these guys tomorrow,
rod Ree, Fabian Ruiz and Danny Omo. They do not
invite pressure, They deal out pressure. They straggle hold their
opponent via possession. What does Spain do they excel at
using these short build up rotations. They starve opponents of

(02:32:55):
the ball. It's like tic tac toe back and forth,
right left, up and back left, and their temple manipulation
drains the life out of their opponents because you keep
the ball away from them. They dictate the flow. The
other team's running around like Benny Hill and meanwhile, Spain,
we've got the ball. We got this. We're better than you.
You can't take it the ball from us. When you

(02:33:15):
look at Spain's efficiency in ninety minutes, they clinically won
all four of their knockout matches in regulation time, which
means they exerted minimal energy. Argentina had a grueling schedule.
They endured a highly taxing knockout stretch. They had to
survive too late comebacks and play through two separate extra
time matches. Does the cumulative effect of that show up

(02:33:39):
on Sunday? I think it could. I think it will.
The extra rest omen now Spain benefits from an extra
day of rest. Also, remember they played their semi final
first on Tuesday. Historically, thirteen of the last fourteen major
European World Cup final winners played their semi final match first.

(02:34:00):
Spain played Tuesday, they beat France. Argentina played Wednesday, they
played England. So an extra day arrest, all the extra
time matches, late comebacks that Argentina had to endure plus
Spain a juxtapose that against the Spaniards, who won all

(02:34:23):
four of their knockout matches in regulation time. You know
what else, Spain has depth that we didn't know they had,
and impact subs that can impact the game. That's redundancy
of the department of redundancy department. Spain relies on a
collective discipline. Okay, they have a very tightly knit structure,

(02:34:46):
meaning their performance doesn't dip when individual stars have an
off day. They'll get tremendous impact from the bench. Spain
will manager Luis de Lafuente. Again, I talked about this
a minute ago. They have incredible squad depth. They have
a substitute mckail moreno who's already scored too late match

(02:35:06):
win he knockout goals this summer and he doesn't even start.
And that's what's interesting. What's what's interesting about Spain's team
system over stars. Now, it's a philosophy they have there.
How many of Spain's starting lineup from the France game
would you believe would start in a hYP hypothetical World

(02:35:27):
Cup game that's going to be played Sunday for that matter,
how many would you have named as Spain's best before
the tournament? Well, see, that's just it. Their key strengths
is that coach Dey la Fronte and their team, they're
not tied to any one particular player. If a certain

(02:35:48):
player is not at his best, then comes another one.
Are both You take Alex Bayana, Pedro Poro and Mikail Moreno,
those are three more players who've played major rules despite
not being automatic starters. Now, if you are facing an
opponent in Spain and you've got a fitness problem, which well,

(02:36:10):
I can't really say anybody in this tournament does, even
though it showed up a little bit, that's going to
be a major issue because Spain will space the field
and pace the field, and you better have a water
taight system to keep up with Spain. And again a
defining principal to Spain's World Cup is that if the
opposition doesn't have the ball, you can't score. It's become

(02:36:31):
a tenet of this Spain twenty twenty sixteam as well.
No team made it beyond the round of thirty two
average a higher share of possession In Spain sixty four
point eight percent. They possessed the ball two thirds of
the game. Remember, you can't score if you don't have
the ball, and Spain has the skill and the technique

(02:36:52):
and the tactical abilities and strategy to do it, and
it doesn't help Rodrigue. Sixty four hundred and ninety passes
is a tournament record since records began in nineteen sixty six.
By the way, in the semi final, Spain was faced
with the tournament's best attack, France. Simply Spain put France

(02:37:13):
on a carousel they couldn't get off, and Boppy was
dizzy by the by the time the game was over,
And across seven games played, Spain has conceded a single
goal faced an astoundingly small number of shots. Okay, people
can complain about Spain. Their passing can be overcooked, that
their attack is a horizontal bar fest. Yeah, until you

(02:37:36):
have to play them. They're consistent, they've got depth, they've
got a smart coach. I'm picking Spain to win. I
think it's gonna be one nothing. It could be two
to one, but I think it's gonna be one nothing.
That's just the way I see it, that's the way
I feel it. You do what you gotta do. I
know what I did. I'm not telling you what to do,
but I like Spain to prevail. It's gonna do it
for the Bernie Frattle Show, Have a great game Sunday,

(02:37:59):
Keep it locked. Firming up next on Fox Sports Radio

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Fox Sports Radio News

Host

Jonas Knox

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

Betrayal Weekly

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Bernie Fratto Discusses the World Cup Final, the ESPYS, and Wemby's $51M Gamble