Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger Discuss the MLB Hall of Fame Ceremony

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio living the dream once
again on a fabulous Sunday. Hartmann and Orenburger with you
here in the Fox Sports Radio studios. All what a
day we have today, And it's a day that I
appreciate a lot more than Rich because it's Cooper's Town

(00:21):
Day today. That's right, it's the Baseball Hall of Fame
induction day. They're just beginning the festivities there in Cooper's Town,
New York. By the way, you know Cooper's Town probably
better than I do growing up in New York. How
far off the map is Cooper's Town for you, Rich
as you grow up in New York. I mean this,
Cooper's Town seems like it's in a different world because
I think a lot of people here, well Cooper's Town,

(00:43):
New York. I don't think they understand that if you've
never been there. Cooperstown literally is the middle of nowhere.
Oh no, no, no, yeah, New Yorkers, And I don't
I don't mean this to sound of offensive, but New
Yorkers wouldn't really consider Cooper's Town or where it is
like a part of like New York as they know it.

(01:04):
We call that upstate New York. Right, So you have
Long Island, which is comprised of Nassau County in Suffolk County.
You've got the five boroughs of New York City, you know, Queens, Brooklyn,
Bronze Manhattan, Staten Island. And then you have these outer areas.
You have Western New York and as far west as
you could go, you know, you get out near you know,

(01:26):
Syracuse and and all that. Yeah, right, well that's actually
a little that's more north um. But either way, like
New York, upstate New York, where Cooper's Town is, it
is like people think of New York, they think of
the city. There is nothing city about Cooper's Town that
is cut out of the middle of the woods next

(01:49):
to a lake. Yeah. I mean, I remember the one
time I was at Cooper's Town, believe it or not,
it was over forty years ago. I remember getting off
like the main highway right, and then it's like, all right,
where is the place? And we drive into Cooper's Town
and there's nothing impressive about the exterior of the Baseball
Hall of Fame. It just looks like this little building.

(02:11):
But if you're a baseball fan, I will say this,
you owe yourself a trip to Cooper's Town, because once
you walk inside that museum, it is intoxicating if you're
a baseball fan, which I certainly am. Uh today as
a as a big day, and I wanted to start
this af because we got a lot of NFL news

(02:31):
are gonna get to. Obviously, training cants are blowing open around.
We got a lot to do NFL wise. Today we
got an update on college football. Still waiting on a
Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving deal, so NBA news to
get to. But I want to start with this today.
And I mean, look, I could make arguments put foreign
against certain people to get into the Hall of Fame.

(02:51):
Rich and I are of the same mindset. Rich of
course doesn't really put much stock at all in the
Hall of Fame. But I think one thing you would
agree with me on this, Rich is in terms of
a hall of fame. If I give you a name
and you say, is this guy hall of famer? And
I have to pause to think about it, He's not
a Hall of famer. I mean a hall of famer
to me in baseball is like, oh, I don't know,

(03:14):
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. They're they're they're the they're
members of the greatest who have ever played this sport,
right they should be the best of the best. And
the fact that we're sitting here, with all due respect
a big poppy David Ortiz or the Jim Cotts or
Tony Levis or Mini Minosa's of the gil Hodges, are
the Bud Fowler's or the Buck O'Neills of the world

(03:34):
those are getting inducted today. None of them were Barry
Bonds or Roger Clements. And the fact that these two
all time icons, a seven time m v P, a
seven time Cy Young Award winner, are not being inducted
today in the Baseball Hall of Fame, to me, really
weighs heavy on the credibility of what is supposedly Baseball's

(03:58):
greatest shrine. I just don't love the idea that we
we wait for these voters to tell us who the
grades are, like why it's so important to so many people.
I I look at the Halls of Fame as antiquated
as I do the All Star Games in the Pro Bowl,
like it used to really be important. It used to

(04:18):
be almost a requirement and necessity, so that the history
of the game wasn't forgotten because the sports they weren't
discussed the way they are current day. I mean, there
was a point where people had more important things to
do than really pay attention to sports. But it is
a welcome distraction in today's society. It is one of
the most heavily viewed live programming that there is available,

(04:41):
and so advertisers love it, and so sports has been
pushed to the front and center of the mind's eyes,
so much so that you could turn on any game
at any time, any place always. Yeah, it's just there's
nothing that limits your ability to view sports. So I
don't need an All Star game to tell me who
the best in the game are. I have websites to
go to so I could look at statistics for myself.

(05:04):
I can. I can view virtually every single big moment
every single night because every night one of these twenty
four hour sports news services, including our own, we just
came out of an update. We'll tell you what the
highlights are today and who's doing them. So I know
who the All Stars are, I know who the greats are.
And as a matter of fact, if I want to,

(05:25):
and oftentimes I will, based on conversation, go back in
the past and look at other people who either are
greater than the contemporaries or as good as the contemporaries. Now,
don't get me wrong, I love museums. I love going
and walking around museums, and I love I love looking
at old pictures, and I love looking at old artifacts

(05:46):
from yesteryear. That's what this should be. This should be
a museum. It shouldn't be some gate keeping event where
Barry Bonds isn't welcome or or Pete Rose isn't welcome, Like,
get the hell out here. These guys are as important
to this game as anybody who's in the hall, and
so until they're in the hall, it completely disc discredits

(06:09):
the ability of us for us to call it a
collection of the greatest, because it's not. I have a
lot of friends that are Baseball Writers Association America members,
and I consider them friends. And we've had many debates
over the years because they're in charge of the whole
writing of the history of the game. They've been from
the beginning. They vote for the awards, they vote for

(06:29):
the Hall of Fame, they have final say and everything.
And I've talked to right directly to their face about
total hypocrisy. Look, I was covering Major League baseball at
the height of the steroid era. Anybody with eyeballs that
worked could see what was going on. What kind of
supplements were these guys using. I remember Mark McGuire and

(06:50):
Sammy Sos literally saving the game of baseball with this
chase of the hallowed record of Roger Marris Baseball four
years before it can't of the postseason. They were in
a spiral downward and that home run chase and suddenly
put baseball back in the map. Together combined, those two
guys hit almost home runs in their career. You're gonna

(07:12):
find him in the Hall of Fame. No, Barry Bonds,
ROGERI Clemens a raw down the round the road. You're
gonna find these guys on the Hall of Fame. No,
we could see what was going on. Everyone saw Barry
Bonds shoe size, his body build over the years and
during that run. What were the baseball writers doing handing
hum M v P awards? Why? Because he was the

(07:33):
most Valuable player in baseball four years in a row,
at the height of his steroids. Then all of a
sudden they want to rewrite history. Everyone can see what
was going on with McGuire and Sosa back in ninety
it was apparent to anybody that had any vision right.
And yet now in retrospect, they want to penalize these guys.
Oh you you, you cheated the game. They didn't cheat

(07:55):
the game. They did it with the blessing a Major
League Baseball. They were encouraged to do what they were
doing back on the day because baseball desperately needed a
shot in the arm. I am so livid as a
baseball history into a certain level of what they've done
with this Hall of Fame. And I blame the baseball writers.
They have no business in making these decisions on how

(08:17):
to actually chronicle the history of the game. And I
don't even get me starting the whole Pete Rose situation.
So this, this is sort of a bitter pill for
me to swallow. With the Baseball Hall of Fame. They
don't do this for the Pro Football Hall of Fame
or the basketball or any other hall of fame. Only Baseball.
They hold everyone to a much higher standard and and
go to every clubhouse in Major League Baseball right now,

(08:40):
thirty different clubhouses. I promise you, I promise you that
there is something happening inside of those clubhouses that in
a ten years, twenty years is going to be made
illegal through the Competition Committee in Major League Baseball. At
some point it will be and it's either a suspension
or it's either a subst that is being quote unquote

(09:01):
abused right now, or it's a technique that's being abused
right now that they they they deemed too dangerous or
against the greater good of the game, and so they're
going to rule against it, and guess what, guys will
start getting popped for that, and then there'll be this
revisionist history where Major League Baseball, patting themselves on the
back and smiling while they're doing it, will punish guys

(09:24):
for doing things completely on the up and up while
they were doing it. Now, look, were their rules broken, Yeah,
in certain cases there were. Were their consequences, Yeah, there
absolutely were. But there was a time in baseball when
these drugs weren't even tested for whose fault is that?
It's not the players? It's certainly not the players. So

(09:45):
if rules were skirted and and and by the way,
and no positive drug tests were found, uh, we're we're
found during that time, I I don't, I mean, who
do you blame. Do you blame the person who's using
or do you blame the tab stir? You know, it's like, oh, hey, listen,
there's no way this student could possibly gotten a ninety

(10:05):
on this exam. He must have cheated on this exam.
Well where's your proof? Well, I don't have proof, but
I feel it. I I just he's not smart enough
to get that great. Well where's your proof? Well, I
I don't have proof, but you know, when you when
you look at the whole situation, look at all the
term papers he turned in, look at all of the
tests that he's taken, and look at this one example. Well,

(10:27):
how do you know he didn't just study really hard
for that example. I just know that's not good enough.
That isn't good enough. So I mean, spare me, you know,
spare me all that. It feels like it feels like
a lot of like crying and gate keeping and and
uh and and lording something over the last and most
important in certain cases to these players event in their

(10:50):
professional playing life, which is entrance to the Hall of fame.
I say let him all in. I just say let
him all in. I think it's stupid anyways, So maybe
I'm the wrong person tasks, but why not let them
all in? Well, the thing I've always got to me
is the hypocrisy when they talked about, well, they threatened
the integrity of the sport. You mean the integrity of
sport the banned an entire race of people for sixty

(11:12):
years that sport. You mean the sport that literally banned
people from their sport. What integrity. It's a game, It's
a sport. It's nothing more than that. And all the
Hall of Fame should be doing is recognized those that
did it better than anyone else. That's what a Hall
of Fame is all about. So it's a bitter pill
for me to watch Cooper's Town and I interested. Yeah,

(11:32):
am I happy for a guy like Jim Cott who
won two three games, was never really a star pitcher.
Uh he won sixteen gold gloves. They hand those out
like Eminem's. Uh. Tony Levo was a great hero. Career
was shortened because of some knee problems. I think he
was a legit. He's sort of like a Terrell Davis guy.
You know, a guy had a short career but dominated
over a short period of time. Gil Hodges again, you

(11:54):
know Gil Hodges wasn't the best of the Dodgers, but
he's a beloved figure. So again, throw whoever you want
to the Hall of Fame, but don't leave out those
that actually earn their way in by dominating their eras
as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens did. So we'll lay
it to rest Cooper's town. Big day today. We got
a lot to get too. Rich On the other side,
training camps opening around the NFL. Which training camp? Seriously,

(12:20):
which training camp? If you had a chance to sort
of hang out in one of the NFL training camps
this year, which one would be the most intriguing. We're
gonna tell you our thoughts. Coming up next, Steve Harman,
Rich Hornburger, Fox Sports Sunday. Rich, I have found out
our dear friend John Palmer Rosie, our Fox Sports Radio

(12:41):
Baseball Insider MLB network, is in Cooperstown. He will join
us in our final hour unless there's something going on
extended with the speeches against seven new inductees into the
Baseball Hall of Fame, three are actually still with us,
including eighty three year old him caught eighty three year
old Tony Leaving. Of course, big Poppies. So we hope

(13:04):
to hear from John Paul Morossi live from Cooperstown later
on in the show this morning. All right, so NFL
training camps, Rich, we talked a little bit about last week,
the Bills and the Raiders got things started as they
open up their camps to their rookies. But this week
everybody's going to be in camp as they get ready
for the start of this NFL season. So let me

(13:25):
ask you this, if you were assigned to any NFL
training camp, just based on what you think will be
the most interesting in terms of storylines, which NFL training
camp would you like to be part of over the
next few weeks. Well, that's a good question, um to
that come to mind, because they're breaking in new quarterbacks

(13:48):
at least in the team, and one is breaking in
a new head coach as well. Is the Pittsburgh Steelers
and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Now in Pittsburgh, it has been
Big Ben forever. I mean, this is the first time
we're gonna see anybody at the helm at the starting
quarterback position outside of injury in a very long time

(14:12):
in Pittsburgh. And this is truly an opportunity to see
if if either one of these two guys, because Drabinsky
the jury's out that he's done being a starter in
the NFL. Like this guy very well could impress during
training camp. And if the Steelers end up having success
with him, who's to say that they need to immediately
move on to Kenny Pickett. I mean, if he's exceptional,

(14:32):
he'll be their starter. I can promise you that Mike
Tomlin's not gonna mess with a good thing if he's
getting the job done. And then you look at Jacksonville.
You look at all the issues they had with Urban
Meyer the first year for Trevor Lawrence last year going
into his second year as a starting quarterback now with
a brand new head coach in Doug Peterson, and Doug
Peterson was able to win with two starting quarterbacks um

(14:58):
under center during a Super Bowl run that netted the
city of Philadelphia it's first ever Super Bowl. So I'm
very curious what that looks like. And I would love
to be, you know, just hip pocket just listening to
their discussions and conversations all throughout training camp. Let me
give you two other teams, and really there's I I
there about ten of them seriously that I could sort

(15:19):
of give you a reason why it might be interested
in hanging out over the next few weeks of their
training camp. I'll give you two different teams. One is
the Miami Dolphins. Um, you talked about a new coach,
Mike McDaniel taken over there, the whole Tyreek Hill impact
on that Miami Dolphins team, and of course a lot
of controversy with their owners Stephen Ross down there. There's
just been a lot of bad blood. Brian Flores of

(15:41):
course finally in a lawsuit against the Dolphins organization and
and to a tongue of by Lola, I mean, you know,
a few years ago, all of us seemed to be
in agreement that two was destined to be the number
one overall pick in the NFL Draft after his big
year at Alabama. Then he got hurt and suddenly his
stock fell. Dolphins still took a over Justin Herbert. No
one really said anything about that until we actually saw

(16:04):
to a play in Justin Herbert play and they're like,
well are they thinking, um, will Tyreek kell have an
impact on that team? And and Mike McDaniel. We know
Kyle Shanahan was calling to play place for the forty Niners.
So what exactly does Mike McDaniel bring as a head coach?
Did he does he bring some level of expertise offensively
some of the things we saw with Deeba Samuel in

(16:26):
San Francisco? Will that apply? Uh? You know with Jayalen
wat you know some of the guys that they have
there in Miami. And then the other team is the
forty Niners themselves. I mean, they have Trey Lance as
they're starting quarterback. You know he's going to be the guy.
And we haven't heard a lot of positives about tray
Lands since they basically mortgage the future to move up

(16:50):
in the draft to take this guy. We've heard all
kinds of reports like he doesn't really get it. Kyle
Shanahan wanted to make this move because he felt he
was limited with Jimmy Garoppolo and that trade Lance brought
a different skill set to enhance their offense. Is that
going to be playing out? So it's always interesting to me,
Like you mentioned the new coaches, quarterbacks moving everywhere, you know,

(17:13):
I mean, I I could go down every list, but
this is why it's so interesting. But rich let me
ask you about this from your own experience in the NFL.
The idea of having these shortened training camps. By the way,
we're only going to get shorter with time. And we
remember two years ago we had no training camp, and
yet the start of the season didn't look that much
different than normal because of the pandemic. But in terms

(17:36):
of evaluating talent, in terms of putting in new things,
new wrinkles offensively, defensively, special teams, is it more challenging
with limited time and training camp or that is that
sort of overblown. It's it's overblown to a certain extent.
And here's why. If you're a player who's trying to

(17:57):
catch on during training camp and you're and your thought processes, well,
I need more time to catch up to the playbook.
Well here's the deal. Like you look, you're you're they
need they need the players they need, right, you know
what I mean. So it's not gonna be a situation
where they're just not gonna sign guys because they haven't

(18:18):
had enough time. They still need to fill out a roster.
So you know, come the time where they're knocking the
roster from down to seventy five, from seventy five down
to the fifty three, plus the extra quarterback on the roster,
all those things, they're still going to fill the roster.
So all of these guys who you know, former players,
are current players who are nervous about the opportunity. No, no, no,

(18:42):
they're They're still going to be as much opportunity. It's
just there's gonna be less time with that opportunity. So, yeah,
I get it. Some guys maybe it takes all the
way until the final week of the preseason and the
four preseason games are really important in their minds to
make the team. And maybe they were even told by
a coach or two, Hey, if you didn't have that
stand out special teams performance in Game four, I don't

(19:04):
know if we would have kept you. We need to
see more of that at practice. And and yeah, I'm
not denying the birth of careers comes in in in
the final waning moments of any evaluation period. There's no question.
All right, let me ask you this man roster in
the NFL, on average going into training camp, how many

(19:25):
spots are really open per team on average toward that
fifty three man roster. Look not many, to be perfectly frank,
I mean, it might be an average. Let's put it
this way, on average, I would argue it would be
closer to ten on average that are up for grabs
that are up for grabs. So you're talking about only

(19:47):
maybe of the roster available for turnover, and that's either
due to losses in free agency or guys getting injured
or cuts because you just looked at your roster went yeah,
we're not great in a couple of spots here. It
can be more though, And and what what Booie's that
number higher is certain teams there's not a lot of

(20:08):
turnover at all, and other teams you have a brand
new head coach and there's a lot of house to
clean while he's you know, indoctrinating a new roster to
assist him, and they make a lot of decisions and
and training camp the evaluation process expands to the first
two weeks of the NFL season, where there's a lot
of players who were in training camps on waivers, and

(20:29):
you have a lot of your pro personnel directors going
through all the preseason film and making decisions on who
they'd like to add to the roster, whether it be
on practice squad or make a cut. Maybe if you're
the fifty or the fifty second player on your roster,
you get cut because they feel like they can get
better by adding somebody who's on the scrap heap from
somebody else's team, who at the waiver wire. Like those

(20:51):
things happen too, So you know, look, I I have
never been a believer that to play football you need
this excessively long on ramp to play the game. You don't.
You know, you've heard coaches for years talk about how
well you need to do it otherwise you're gonna have
a massive leap in injuries. Well we did it during

(21:11):
the pandemic, and guess what, there wasn't this massive leap
in injuries. You know, you'll hear coaches say we need
to do it otherwise the football will look sloppy. Well,
we have the season as proof the football didn't look
all that sloppy. So why do we need to do
this now? Well, it's because there's a lot of coaches
who are stuck in their mind who believe that they
if they don't work with these players for at least

(21:33):
a month or at least two months before the season,
it's not gonna work. But that's all been proven wrong.
So save the mileage on these players legs less practicing,
less preseason games, and let's get rolling on the regular season.
On the other side, we're gonna get rolling on what's
next is for is big salaries for quarterbacks around the NFL.
But first let's find out what's trending right now. And Rich,

(21:56):
you're not gonna believe who's back this weekend? Who is it?
That would be David Gass My gosh, yeah, wow here
yesterday back together. I mean, you know, he's spend the
world traveler back to the lays of multiple teams around
the world and uh actually literally around the world. Yeah,
it's unbelievable. I was white was literally we were watching

(22:16):
a game on Gascon's voice was on Berlin. I mean
it was ridiculous. It was who wasn't Sam was Berlin?
And who how are you today? David? I'm doing alright.
I'm doing a right, a little a little hungover, a
little tired. Um. I did Steve Rich, I did make

(22:40):
you promise to Steve that I will be traveling down
south on the five three way to go visit you. Yes,
I was. I was in the East Coast. I don't
know if I was in New York or Florida, but
the one fascination that you have on the East Coast
is a lack of quality Mexican food. And I saw
you not eating but swa allowing a breakfast bruto. Well,

(23:01):
he saw the bacon wrap breakfast burrito. By the way,
our TikTok Hartman and rich show if you haven't seen it,
we have all kinds of food tastings with a variety
of foods out there. But yeah, Richie seemed to be
very intrigued. And all I could tell was, and when
we talked about this, if you take the bacon away,
it's already an insanely delicious burrito, giant burrito, but the

(23:23):
whole dynamic of wrapping it in bacon, a it's not greasy,
be the bacon taste doesn't overwhelm the rest of the
burrito in essentially absolutely insanity. The thing about it was
rich could eat one of these monsters I ate about half. Yeah,
I could. I could take down a quality breakfast brutou
So yeah, rich and I saw that burrito. It was

(23:47):
maybe maybe homesick, need listen. I would go to Santana's
off of Morino Boulevard in in San Diego, the Sea
World Best California burritos in our in our republic, and
when it comes when it comes to Mexican food, San
Diego is yeah, but it was it was near due
to my heart, rich I was in your in your

(24:09):
world in Manhattan and it was like every street, every block, bagel,
pizza bagel, pizza bagel, pizza bagel, and a pizza pizza
on a bagel. Now you know what fueled the NFL career,
mostly poppy seed bagels, cream pie. There's the reason you
need to skip leg day. It's because you're carried all
that man lot of car You know. It's funny because

(24:31):
like if you're in New Orleans, right, you can get
good gumbo anywhere anywhere. Right, you could go to the
biggest die bar ordered gumbo and it's delicious. Same thing
with New York pizza. But that's the best part because
like in those places in New Orleans or New York,
the best places of the ones aren't even advertised, like
not the you literally walk into like a bar, you're like,

(24:53):
you know, you're you're staggering in right, or you you
lean up against a window and somebody hands a pizza.
Yeah just oh oh yeah, yeah, here's a doll. But
I mean gumbo in New Orleans, Pizza New York. Yeah,
it's hard to fail. It's good man, it's real good.
Uh speaking of good Uh, you guys hear the Strow
jimmers say it's been tillion dollars. Yeah, pretty belt Yeah

(25:15):
w C w BC Championship belt, um nineteen. I have
a couple of autograph Muhammad Ali gloves. Now do you
have power rankings on your when with your will? Do
you have your power rankings? You have a will? I
would imagine rich. Does you know I don't have a will.
I'm I'm like rich as a young guy. Yeah, but

(25:38):
you I'm talking about you, like Drake Garrett, I have
a will? Yeah. So like, is there a power rankings
on like which son or your daughter gets certain? That's
a great question. You know, I really have never addressed
it because you think of the big things like the
house and everything else. But you're right, I mean all
the you know, when my my parents passed away, my
sister and I pretty much looked at each other. Do

(25:59):
you want that I'll take this? You know we didn't.
There wasn't really much argument, but you know, it's a
brother's sister thing. But I got two boys and my daughter.
I don't know how they're gonna divvy it up. That's
a funny way to put it to also, like like
power wreckings, Like like every year in the preseason, whenever
you decide is the preseason for will season, you say, like, look,
I mean, I hate to say this, Garrett and Drake,

(26:21):
but Paris is in the leave. I don't know, because
see Paris has gone up against the cap. She's paid
the luxury attacks on the cap, you know, like she's
cost Steve a lot of money for the years. I
would imagine Garrett and Drake because I have one son
that's totally into the movie industry and the other son
is into sports, so they don't really look at things

(26:41):
the same. I don't know about you, Rich and how
this is gonna play out with Tie and Sebastian, But
at some point there's gonna be a power struggle over
all your amazing artifacts and everything else. Then you have
to decide who gets what's that's real tough. Now, if
you both your sons are working in the sports and
entertainment industry, they could be broke for quite a way.
But yes, you know, so that might be taxing on

(27:02):
on YouTube. So it was interesting. Um you guys, Major
League Baseball copies for one of the Phillies right now,
Angels and Braves underway. Uh, no scory just yet. From
the A t L Dodgers looking for a sweep against
San Francisco. Clayton Kershaw's on the bump today seven r
A Padres in Queens against the New York Mets. That's
their nightcap at seven o'clock Eastern. Man, give me a

(27:24):
weird sprint to the finish line? Is there a buzzing
San Diego still about the Friars with tattoos rehabbing? Yeah?
I mean when is he coming back? I mean the
four Fortunately for the Padres, they won a couple of
games in New York against the Matt's. Course, the Dodgers,
ever seem to lose anymore, so they're chasing that. But
they're trying to get a wild card. Yeah, we got
I'll tell you one of the big highlights for Rich

(27:45):
and I this week. We're gonna get a tour of
the new stadium on Wednesday. Rich, Yeah, that's right. We're
going down to snap Dragon Stadium in Mission Valley, the
brand new San Diego Stadium where the San Diego State
Aztecs will open they're season against the uh, the Wildcats
of Arizona on September three, and uh, we're going to

(28:06):
get a preview. We're gonna get to see everything tour. See.
This is what I hang out because he's like, you know,
a god in the Adztecs athletic department. Member of the
broadcast team. I was hanging out yesterday there was a
golf tournament in San Diego with the athletic director at
San Diego State and some of the executives. Uh, and

(28:29):
I was just asking them, I said, because I hadn't
been there since they were putting the steel in, you know,
at field level, and these guys are like, oh man,
it's going to blow you away. I can't wait to
see it. I love new stadiums. I love walking through
and seeing the design decisions that the architects made, that
the people who are in charge have made. I can't

(28:50):
wait to see what this looks like. Alright, So, uh,
let's talk a little bit about money right now. I'm
looking at a headline here, can Lamar Jackson earned Murray
type of deal? I'm like Murray type of deal. You know,
when we look at the money that you know, Kyler
Murray got, and obviously Deshaun Watson these two thirty million

(29:11):
dollar contracts. Of course, Deshaun's was completely guaranteed a hundred
sixty million of the two thirty million guarantee for Kyler Murray.
Lamar Jackson's had a better career than both these guys,
And honestly, it's not even close. Whatever measurement you're looking at, wins, losses, honors,
and everything else, Lamar Jackson has had a vastly superior

(29:33):
career than either Deshaun Watson or Kyler Murray. So Ken
Jackson earned a Murray type of deal. No, no, no,
no no. He goes the next level with Harst quarterbacks.
If you were starting a season today, but which one
of those three would you want? I still want Lamar Jackson.
If you were in a postseason game and you were

(29:55):
going to have to choose one of the three to
start for your team, which one Lamar Jackson? He can
do him more things to scare defenses than any one
of these quarterbacks. And super Bowl I assume the same,
like there's no clutch factor that you see differently with
either of the two. Would be Lamar. No, because we
remember the early knock in Lamar after they last that
playoff game when they had the fourteen and two season.

(30:15):
Then he proved the next day he came through in
the playoffs. Look, last year he was hurt. Okay, he
was hurt. And by the way, when he went out
the Raven season totally caved in. Yes, next ten years,
when you look at the three quarterbacks, who do you want,
Lamar Tyler or the show. I'll still take Lamar Jackson.
I agree with you. I agree with you, and for
all the reasons you just mentioned it. More I think

(30:37):
Lamar Jackson is the guy when it when we talked
about the three or the two most recent quarterback contracts
in the one down the pike, which is his own.
And also I argue this, and I argue it all
the time. It almost doesn't matter which quarterback we're talking about.
It's when it doesn't matter which quarterback we're talking about,

(30:59):
it's win win. Are they signing their contract? Okay, so
look we all get it, Like Dak Prescott is who
Dak Prescott is. We've seen enough football we know exactly
who Dak Prescott is. But he was next up to
sign a contract, and he signed a big old contract,
now was it the biggest? Know? And very soon after that,

(31:19):
Aaron Rodgers becomes the highest paid player in NFL history,
gets a fifty million annual dollar deal with the Green
Bay Packers. And I get it. But but if you're
gonna be a top half quarterback, if you're gonna be
a quarterback who's who's within the top say, twelve to
fifteen range, you're going to get that kind of money.

(31:39):
These days, you are, you are shopping in the most
expensive real estate in sports, or close to it outside
of you know, professional basketball players. It really is. I'm
talking about in the United States. It really is, like,
you know, comparatively like shopping in Beverly Hills. Yeah, I mean,
could you buy a mansion in Omaha, Nebraska. You could.

(32:00):
It's gonna cost a lot less than the mansion the
same size in Beverly Hills because it's more sought after
real estate. So when you're looking at a Lamar Jackson,
who's arguably a top ten quarterback, if not top twelve,
if not top fifteen, if you're being overly critical in
my opinion, you gotta pay him, and you gotta pay
him north of forty five million dollars these days annually.

(32:22):
That's just the cost of doing business. So whatever Dak
signed for, Kyler is getting more and it's because of
when he signed. He signed after dark. Whatever uh Deshawn's
signed for, it's gonna be more than the forty million
that that got more than. And when Lamar side, it's
gonna be more than the highest. It's it's just the
way it goes. Now. Is he gonna get fifty million dollars?

(32:44):
I don't know, But is he gonna gettt nine? I mean,
even if he asked for fifty one, even if he
asked for fifty two, why would you say no? At
this point? I just don't understand it, because in in
four years, that con tracked is going to look like
a bargain, I promise you, with the way the salary
caps going in the NFL. Let me interject here, because

(33:06):
you know, Patrick Maholmes has been asked about all this
money these guys are getting. He says, Oh, no, no, no,
I've I've I'm I'm perfectly happy. I don't care what
anyone else is making. Let's forget about what Lamar Jackson
is gonna make. How about the next two guys? Joe
Burrow and Justin Herbert, They're gonna go well past fifty
million a year, no question about it. I mean, that's
where the bar is gonna be said. At some point,

(33:28):
Malmes is gonna be looking at his deal saying, maybe
maybe maybe I should be making a little more. I
can't even I mean, Burrow and Justin Herbert continue on
their projectory right now, they're gonna go way north of
fifty million per year in their new deals, way above that. Well,
right now, the way it stacks up is you got

(33:49):
Aaron Rodgers on top at just to take over fifty
million a year, Kyler Murray obviously at forty six point one.
Just behind him just signed was Deshaun at forty six
and Patrick Mahomes is sitting at forty five. And you're
absolutely right. It's an arms race, and and I mean
quite literally and figuratively, it's an arms race. When you
have an arm that can deliver you wins, when you

(34:11):
have an arm that can stabilize a stabilize the franchise,
when you have an arm that can consistently get you
into the postseason, which, by the way, and it isn't
going away. There are fourteen teams into the postseason every
year fourteen, so that means almost half the league is in.
If you have a top half quarterback in the NFL,
if you have a guy who's in the like I said,

(34:32):
in the top twelve, top fourteen, top fifteen in the NFL,
and he can be your franchise quarterback, you're gonna have
to pay him north of forty five million dollars the
next time his contract comes up. And in the case
of Lamar Jackson, I promise you and I say this,
the Baltimore Ravens will be making mistake if they wait
until the season to get this deal done. Because if

(34:53):
he comes out guns a blazing and he has an
amazing first half of the season, he's going to be
the highest eight player in the NFL. He's going to
command a salary of north of fifty million dollars a year.
And that's just that's just that you're gonna have to
eat it. So if you want to eat five extra
million dollars a year on this contract, wait, But if

(35:15):
you want to get him for a bargain quote unquote
and pay them only, say forty seven, well sign him
right now. And that's what I would do. If I
were the Ravens, I would sign that contract right now.
All right, by the way, in Cooper's down right now,
they're introducing the returning Hall of Famers. It's always amazing
when you're looking at older men and you're trying to
figure out who exactly is that, and you're like sometimes like, oh,

(35:38):
I recognize them instantly, and then you're like, wow, is
that what he looks like right now after all these years?
Sort of mind blowing? All right, Well, much more as
far as the NFL is concerned, including the defending Super
Bowl champion Rams and the new bling that they got.
What is going on with these Super Bowl rings? We

(36:00):
we got an update for you coming up next. Hey,
it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Mallory.
Would meet a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey. You're asking one in God's name
is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin
off of that Ben Maller show. Cold Hit overnights on
FS are Why should you listen? Picture if you will?
The world will? We chat with captains of industry in media,

(36:22):
sports and more every week Explorer, some amazing facts about
a human nature and more let'sten to the fifth hour
with Ben Mallory on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Steve Harvey, Rich Hornburger,
Fox Sports Sunday. They got a lot of these Hall
of famers showing up in Cooper's Town. The one guy
that I show great reverence too, of course, is the

(36:43):
immortal Sandy ko Fax, who was elected to the Baseball
Hall of Fame fifty years ago. He was only thirty
six when he got elected. Of course he had to
retire early because of arm problems. Uh looks great, I
mean no, And first baseball game I ever went to
see I was eight years old, and Sandy Kofax's last
year pitching for the Dodgers, and uh, wonderful man. Very

(37:04):
unassuming man, but at one point he was the biggest
superstar and baseball so big times going on in Cooper's
Town right now. With the Baseball Hall of Fame, we
mentioned John Paul Morossi's gonna join its life from Cooper's Town.
A little bit later on the show. By the way,
did you see these, uh, the the new Super Bowl
rings the Rams got handed, which, by the way, reports
are they each ring is worth a hundred thousand dollars. Yeah,

(37:29):
I saw the new rings. I think they look really cool.
I think they are very, very eerily similar to the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers super Bowl rings. Um. You know, they
definitely tried to one up the Bucks in terms of
carrot weight and the number of stones that they had
and all that stuff, but in terms of just like
looking at the ring and saying, like, what differentiates it

(37:51):
from the Buccaneers ring because they were the first ever
to have to have the you know, you could pop
the top off and inside inside this RAMS ring is
um and you pop the top off is a piece
of the game ball. Yeah, that is then piece of
the turf or something like that. So there's a little
remnants of the turf that they played on at so far.

(38:14):
And then well they could do that because that it's
their stadium. Same thing with Tampa, right, I mean we
have back but it never happened before, right where a
team won a Super Bowl in their home field and
it happens in back to back years. Um, yeah, but
what do you do with that thing? I mean, you
can't wear it. I mean, I mean it it's not
a really wearable ring. I mean, even these big guys

(38:34):
are showing out the ring and just dwarfs their hand.
You can wear it, you just you just have to.
I mean, like it's it's one of those things. I'll
give you an example. I was given a watch one time,
um by a very very grateful for it, a very
nice gift by one of the quarterbacks I played for.

(38:55):
We're played with and and when I have it on
my wrist, it's so heavy. The face on the watch
is so large that I I can only it's not
in everyday where, Like it's only every once in a a while,
like I'm going to a wedding or we're getting up
dressed up fancy for a dinner or something like that
where I can put this watch on. Otherwise, like legitimately,

(39:17):
it feels like my left arm just hangs at my
side and yanks at my shoulder joint because it's such
a heavy watch. That's how I feel about those rings.
You put on that ring it probably weighs a solid pound,
you know, so how you know, it's like doing a
bicep curl every time, you know, lift your drink to
your mouth. So yeah, I don't know how practical it
is as an everyday where, but you can still wear

(39:38):
it around when you have to do an interview. Yeah,
that thing's going in a safety deposit box. That's where
it's I would be so nervous were in that ring.
What do you bang ring? I mean you or buying
a safe Yeah, just you know, put it away. But
impressive where indeed, all right now, coming up in the
next hour, we got a lot more NFL news will
continue to monitor what's going on in Cooperstown. Also, we're

(40:00):
gonna get to some nbaight news. By the way, as
of today, Kevin Durant is still a member of the
Brooklyn Nets. So is Kyrie Irving. What happened to the trades?
Remember we're talking about this three weeks soo the imminent
trader of these two stars. And by the way, there's
even a bigger story coming out of the NBA, one
that could devastate the league. We'll tell you why coming

(40:25):
up next. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart
Radio app search f s R to listen live. Rolling
along on this Hall of Fame a Sunday, This is
Fox Sports Sunday. Hartmann and arm Burger from the Fox
Sports Radio studios. Before we get to some big breaking

(40:48):
NBA news, potentially breaking NBA news, I gotta ask you this.
They're introducing Jim Cott right now, eighty three years young,
of course, a long time broadcaster and now member of
the Baseball Hall of Fame. He won two three games,
he won sixteen Gold Gloves. But I think more impressive,
And I've asked you this before as a former athlete

(41:10):
about longevity, right, I mean, this guy pitched for twenty
five seasons and you've you've told me Rich, like in
terms of football like longevity, like a Frank Gore played
sixteen years as a running back in the NFL, sixteen years.
And it's interesting, not only you, but other players I've
talked to when they turn talk in terms of a

(41:33):
guy's legacy. It seems like players have a greater appreciation
for longevity then maybe some of the writers or anyone else.
And yeah, they're just padding stats and everything else. But
why does why does longevity in a in an athlete's
career impress his peers? Why? Why is that impressive? I

(41:59):
have literally left Rich speechless, just like that was that
a cricket that just got into our system. What happened there?
We just literally got a cricket into our system? Sam,
Did I hear a creature there on the air? What happened?
Some kind of internet bug? Has he been taken over
by some kind of invasion of insects? Rich is going

(42:21):
through a metamorphosis? Right, I was gonna say, I had
such a beautiful lead up to him, and then all
of a sudden here like insects sounds well, listen, you
guys were sounding just the same to me. So whatever
it was turning into a praying mantis for a second there,
So you heard what I asked. But why is longevity
amongst athletes impressive? What impresses you about those that are

(42:46):
able to extend their careers over a long period of time? Well,
think about think about an artist, right, you know, And
I don't want to be too grandiose here and act like,
you know, you know, a picture, you know, is anything
like Salvador doll Lee or Molay or Rembrandt. But you know, yeah,
don't get me wrong. Artwork. Artwork is really impressive, even

(43:07):
if it's just a singular piece of artwork, or even
if it's you know, just historically significant piece of artwork
and it's a one off. But what's more impressive than
that is when you have a painter who's prolific. We
we we we view UM singing songwriters this way. You know,
when you have a guy like Bruce Springsteen or the

(43:30):
Rolling Stones or Aerosmith or you know, you have UM.
You have anybody who's been able to perform for an
extended period of time and continue to write hits. Elton
John whoever, right where it's just year after year after
year they seem ageless. And it's just that like that
is the comparison I'll make it like because it brings

(43:52):
so much enjoyment for so long, it's almost it defies time.
You know, normally time catches up with it, doesn't I
mean it could be you know the in golf, right,
you know you're you lose your feel around the putting greens,
and in painting, you know you you can't keep a
steady hand on those fine lines. And vocalists eventually their

(44:14):
voices start to fail them like everybody, eventually time catches
up to them. So anybody who can be prolific and relevant,
and we know how taste is when we're talking about
the arts. You know who can keep up with the times.
We know how you know your abilities compared to the
times when you're playing a sport. You know, if you're

(44:35):
a picture these days and you're entering year twenty of
your career, you better be able to just absolutely throw
heat or get a ton of strikeouts. Because that's the
world we live in. We live in a feaster famine
world where guys aren't just you know, uh, swinging for
contact anymore. They want to put it out of the yard.
So got like Wayne right right now for the Cardinals,

(44:57):
defies logic that he's still able to do, but he's
keeping up with the time. How about Justin Verlander, who
wrote the Majors and Wins after missing an entire season
with Tommy John surgery at eight thirty eight, says back,
I look at I'm with you. I mean, I have
great admiration for athletes in general, having been around in
my entire lives, because everything they have to go through,

(45:20):
not just physically, mentally, there's a lot to be said,
a lot of pressures having to perform on the biggest stages,
and yeah, there is something to be said. I mean,
I'm looking at Jim Cott right now it looks great.
He's eighty three years old, he's been a broadcaster for
many years. He pitched his last Major League game thirty
nine years ago, and here he is at age eighty three,
and he's getting his day in the spotlight. A guy

(45:42):
who pitched for twenty five years. He pitched in four decades,
the fifties, sixties, seventies into the eighties, and was he
a dominant picture? Never he buy his own a mission.
I was like the number two or three starter in
every step that I was on, which is an exaggeration
because he had one year where he went twenty five games.
It wasn't like, you know, he wasn't winning games, but

(46:02):
he was never really considered a star. But there is
something to be said about somebody that has that kind
of longevity. Side. I get happy for guys like this,
I really do. I I agree with you. I think
it's very cool. I think it's uh. I think it's
the reason why we admire so much the greatness of
Tom Brady. But also like when when you see I

(46:25):
mean a lesser, I'm not gonna say lesser. That's probably
being unfair. But somebody who may hasn't havn't achieved at
the level of a Tom Brady, like a Frank Gore,
or you know, even in Adrian Peterson, who was hanging
in there for a very long time, deep into his thirties,
almost forty years old. You know, you you look at that,
and even if they're not the same player they once were,

(46:47):
the fact that they're still suiting up and they're effective
is just as impressive because think about how many players
have gone in and out of the NFL during their
careers who just could hack it, or couldn't hang on,
or couldn't stay healthy, or weren't tough enough to block
out the pain over time and how to retire. I
mean I put myself in that category as soon as

(47:10):
I got to the NFL. I mean, my goal was
to be a Hall of Famer one day, or to
be one of the greatest players at my position to
ever play and be respected and renowned. My body started
falling apart immediately. Shoulder surgery after soldier surgery, after knee injury,
after concussion after back injury, like it just it piles up, man,
And so when I see guys who can have a

(47:32):
twenty year career, it just blows my mom, You and
I ran into Andrew Whitworth at golf tournament recently. By
the way, he's a big man. He's a big dude,
but I mean a long career. He's in his forties,
he's playing offensive tackle on a Super Bowl winning team.
A lot to be said about that, all right, I
want to switch gears for a second A little bit

(47:52):
later on. I want to get more into this dynamic
of why Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving are still members of
the Brooklyn Ats. But there's a much bigger story in
my opinion, concerning the future of the n b A,
and I think there could be devastating effects. And I'm
talking about the a parent or maybe departure of Charles

(48:14):
Barkley from Turner Sports to take the big money deal
with the Live Golf Tour. So we're talking reports are
rich that we figure that at this point Charles is
making in the neighborhood of about ten million dollars a
year from Turner, which is great money. He's being offered,
reportedly in access of thirty million dollars a year to

(48:37):
join the Live Tour as a golf analyst, which by
the way, would require a lot less time for a
lot more money. Let me let's there's twofold on this question,
but let's let's get to the effect on the NBA.
When I think about broadcasters the history of my lifetime
or broadcasters, there are three that stand out that we're

(48:58):
difference makers. The first one was Howard Coastell. When Monday
Night football came on the air. You've got this loudmouth
writer broadcaster out in New York who didn't play the
game and never seen anything like this guy. He became
the most polarizing guy in sports. He was both the
most admired and least admire sportscaster of his time. He

(49:19):
made an immediate impact. And then we had John Madden,
who was just the universal man, who was this great
coach who also had a bombastic personality that was so
infectious everywhere he went. He like Costell, you wanted to
know what they had to say. And then I get
to Charles Barkley, by the way, is not an analyst.

(49:39):
He's a studio guy, but he's so polarizing that you
want to hear what he has to say. And with
all due respect to Shack and Ernie and Kenny and
the rest of that great NBA team, it all circles
around Charles Barkley. If you take Charles Barkley out of
that mix, if suddenly Charles Barkley departs the NBA for

(49:59):
his own personal reasons to take the big money with
a lived tour, what kind of impact do you think
that's gonna have on the NBA. I think it'll have
a profound impact. I agree, I think, um, I think
part of the NBA's relevance, oddly enough, is the I
don't want to call I I don't want to diminish
it or to fame it by calling it a circus act,

(50:21):
because it's it's more special than that, because you're talking
about I mean, some of the greatest players of all
times sitting on that panel with one of the best
broadcasters are sports World or frankly our World can provide
with Ernie Johnson and this uh, this quartet has entertained
us for a decade and they have woven themselves into

(50:43):
the very fabric of the game at this point. I
don't want to overstate it, but I think the NBA
would suffer a gigantic loss if if any one of
the four left. But certainly I agree with you that
Charles Barkley is a standalone performer amid that group. I
think I think he's the most compelling. I think he's
the most um unbothered by public ridicule. I think he

(51:08):
trust me when I tell you. I think his money
is important to him, and what his sponsors believe um
is important to him to a greater or lesser extent,
and so I don't think he would ever want to
offend them. But they're used to his brand of honesty
and brashness, and so when they sign up to to
be sponsored by Sir Charles, they understand who they're signing

(51:29):
up to be affiliated with. But if it's a bridge
too far for his sponsors like Capital One, like Dick
Sporting Good, like some of the other ones that he
has mentioned in recent interviews, to go to live golf,
that means live golf is gonna have to make up
that money. That means they're gonna have to pay whatever
his salary he commands at T and T, but then

(51:50):
also cover up and and then some the money that
he could make in endorsements. So it's gonna take a
huge and enormous amount of money. But if they lose
Charles Barkley. I mean, now you're not only affecting golf
because of the addition on the lift golf side, and
potentially what that means for the p G A to
all of a sudden have this compelling voice covering the

(52:13):
sport of golf. But then you're affecting the n B
A and like I said, you're pulling out a very
important threat in the fabric of that game all of
a sudden, live live tour isn't just you know, taking
steps towards, you know, dimming the light on the PGA,
but it's also happening to the NBA. Now, well, it's
I know I'm not alone when I say this. When

(52:33):
your channels surfing, you're just looking for something to watch.
Riot it's NBA regular season, you're watching the game. You're
you're gonna pass over. I mean, it's it's regular scene,
even early rounds of the playoffs. But sometimes I'm channel
surfing and I get to Turner and there's the four
guys and Charls and I stop, I'm watching them. I'm
not watching the game. I'm watching them. They are the reason.

(52:57):
So NBA has got a dilemma right now, because Charles
has never ever shied away from the fact that he's
a compulsive gambler. He's made it clear that he never
wants to forgo this. This is something he's involved with.
He talked about his gambling buddy Pete Phil Mickelson, and
if you're putting more money in my pocket at this
point in my life, what what? What do I care

(53:17):
what other people think? Charles doesn't care. He's gonna do
what's best for Charles. And if you're gonna triple my
salary for a lot less work, I have more time
to have fun instead of be tied into a studio,
you know, throughout an entire NBA season, Where do I
sign up? So it's gonna be interesting to see what
decision he has to make on the other spide Okay,

(53:38):
so let's get into this. Kevin Durant is still with
the Nance. What happened? I thought he said he demanded
a trade. Why hasn't it happened? We have an update
coming up next Steve Harban and a rich Arnburger Hall
of Fame Sunday. By the way, Hall of Famer Dave
Winfield is presenting the Bud Fowler induction into the Baseball

(54:00):
Hall of fame. He was a pioneer, really integrated the
sports sixty years before Jackie Robinson. UM. But apparently Dave
Winfield really got into his story. So he is presenting
the speech on behalf of a true pioneer in the
history of baseball. Uh, someone I admired by the way.
Can you imagine what kind of athlete Dave Winfield was?

(54:21):
This guy was drafted in three different sports. He was
drafted in the NBA, HAJE League baseball. Um. This this guy,
he was not next level athlete, one of the all
time greats. So Dave Winfield on the stand, I want
to go back a couple of weeks ago. Here rich
our compatriot, Chris Broussard here on Fox Sports Radio put
it out. This was two weeks ago, and he said,

(54:44):
you know, all the noise surrounding Kyrie, Irvin and Kevin
Rand in the nets and they're breaking up and they're
going to be traded. He said, the nets realized they
hold the leverage in this situation, and because of that,
they're asking for the Moon and trade talks and becau.
As of this Roussard, things the Star studed due could
very well begin coming together with the Nets next season.

(55:06):
Now we assume now in the NBA that this is
not the case that the players have all the power.
But that was two weeks ago and here we are
two weeks later. Rich They're still sitting in Brooklyn right now,
and teams are dropping off the list, like Phoenix, which
was on the wish list of Durant, is out of
the running because of the eight and signing h We
talk about Miami, but they're like, well, we're not going

(55:28):
to give a bam at a Bayou and everyone's talk
about the Warriors. Why would the Warriors take a step back?
You're kidding, mean, they just won a championship. They're gonna
give up their young nucleus of players for a thirty
four year old Kevin Durant with four years or mania
on his contract, knowing full well that you have to
sort of accommodate a guy like Kevin Durant. So what
are your thoughts right now? I mean, if you believe

(55:49):
like ultimately they will get a trade because he's demanding
a trade, or is there a possibility that he and
Kyrie and along with Ben Simmons, it's let's give it
a run here in Brooklyn. If that happens. How would
Kevin Durant react, Well, I'm not saying that Chris Brussard
is wrong because he's reporting this. So he heard this

(56:09):
from somebody, so he heard it right. But it's who
he heard it from that has it wrong. Look, he's
one correct and is reporting that. The Nets surely believe
that they have the leverage right now for all the
reasons that you just pointed out. But at the end
of the day, who's the product here? The product is
the players. If the player refuses to play, then you

(56:33):
don't have a product. So the Nets essentially they can
tout that they have all the leverage in this situation,
and they can message through the media, which obviously giving
a member of the media a source to report is
a way to message to the player, you know, who's
the boss. But essentially, if Kevin Durant wants to he
can make this a huge problem for the Nets if

(56:55):
they don't trade him or lower the cost to trade him,
you know, because either a if they try to trade
him to a team he doesn't want to play for it,
he just won't play. If they try to keep him
at home base with the Brooklyn Nets and he doesn't
want to play for the Brooklyn Nets, he won't play.
So who really holds the leverage here, Kevin Durant. So

(57:16):
Kevin Durant can choose where and if he will play
next season. I mean, the retirement isn't completely out of
the question either, right, Kevin Durant could say, fine, you
don't want to do anything with my contract, I don't
want to play anymore, sorry, and yeah, while the Brooklyn
Nets will continue to own his rights until they decide
to drop them or until his contract expires, until they

(57:39):
trade his rights to a different team, should he want
to come back out of retirement, it can There's a
million different ways that conversation can go. But as it
stands right now, Kevin Durant still holds all the cards here.
If Kevin Durant plays for the Nets next season, it's
because Kevin Durant wants to, and for no other reason,
because he truly holds all the average in this situation.

(58:01):
There is a report out of New Jersey about this
Net situation that came out just a couple of days
ago from some of the UH people covering the team
covering the Nests. Well, actually this is out of New Jersey,
Jersey it's affiliated New Jersey. They used to be the
New Jersey Nets, but it's out of New Jersey. I
know it's the Brooklyn Nets. But anyway, Um, but they're

(58:22):
reporting now that both Durant and Kyrie Irvy no quote
unquote no a trade is unlikely to happen. So I
don't know if these two are sort of gonna get
back together. Remember they were brought together by mutual agreement, right,
This is the whole idea that Kevin Durant wanted to
leave Golden State and sort of start a whole new

(58:45):
uh you know, legacy for himself in turn out of Brooklyn.
Of course, Kyrie was going to join the team as well,
so they seem to be in Coue's The problem was,
even when they added James Harden, they were just rarely
on the court together and we we we really never
got a look at what these guys could all do together.
And now, of course James hard and has gun they have,

(59:07):
you know, a guy that I don't know, Ben Simmons
ever gonna play missed in the entire year. So uh,
still a lot of question marks. But yeah, I mean
I don't know what the options are anymore. And and
just getting back to where Kevin Durant is in his career,
because I've been watching social media, like there's heat fans
that are upset saying, are you kidding me? Like we're
not gonna give up Tyler Hero or bam at a bio.

(59:29):
It's Kevin freaking Durant. But this is also Kevin Durand
who finished last season with he and the Nets getting
swept in the first round of the playoffs by Boston,
and he didn't look great in that series. He looked
like a guy who is, you know, at the back
end of his career, which is what he is, And
you're taking on four years guaranteed of contract and you're

(59:53):
gonna give up what five, six, seven, number one picks?
Um I Phoenix is not going to do that. Golden
State's not gonna do that. I'm just trying to figure
out which team would want to do that for Kevin Durant.
Of course, we've been saying this about the Kyrie Irving
situation that until Durant's situation is resolved, we can't even
go with Kyrie Irvy. You know we're not hearing anymore.

(01:00:15):
Is Kyrie Irving going to the Lakers Now all of
a sudden, the Lakers, they were talking Indiana about a
deal with Russell Westbrook. Apparently that's dead. Now where buddy
he was gonna come over to the Lakers. We're not
even hearing the Kyrie irving to the Lakers anymore. Suddenly
that's off the table. So well interesting and by the way,
one I wouldn't I wouldn't say off the table. On
the table, here's the deal. We knew that this was

(01:00:37):
going to be potentially a long term process because what's
the rush, you know, I mean, these deals don't necessarily
need to get done right now, and what's the urgency.
There's also very little urgency right this moment. Now, will
that change? Yeah, absolutely, it'll change. I mean we're going
to get started on the next NBA season here in
short order, and teams are going to want to have

(01:01:00):
an idea of exactly what their roster is gonna look
like for this upcoming year. So yeah, no, I mean,
some some of these decisions will need to get made
here soon. But what does soon means? That's very subjective,
and it's up to the level of urgency a general
manager or an ownership or ownership group feels in the

(01:01:20):
NBA to get a deal done with the Brooklyn Nets
for either of these two assets, because that's what this is.
To the ownership, to the governors, whatever you wanna call
him in the n b A, to the front offices,
they look at this as as asset um gain or loss,
and as it stands right now, on your spreadsheet, if
you're looking at this pragmatically, if you're Brooklyn, you have

(01:01:43):
a couple of big l s on your sheet because
again the fact that Katie and Kyrie hold a lot
of leverage in this. They are the product and the
product can refuse to play for you if they want out.
And if that's the case, that causes you a lot
of discord and dis option next season, especially when we're
talking about salaries, and you know just the way things

(01:02:06):
are messaged, and it could affect your future with free
agent signings, and you just don't want to open up
that Pandora's box. So I do feel as though at
some point, even though the Nets are asking for the moon,
that number is gonna come down. And that's exactly what
these other general managers are waiting for. Because if you're
gonna onboard an asset, especially one as fickle as Kevin Durant.

(01:02:28):
You want to get him for a bigger bargain than
what's being offered right now, because there is some tentativeness
around him. If if he doesn't like the situation, he'll
beg out and he'll again, he holds a lot of leverage,
So I don't blame anybody for getting cold feet around
this trade, especially at the asking price that we've heard
from Brooklyn. Well, there's also the fact is he doesn't

(01:02:49):
have a no trade class in his contract, and if
he has traded to a team he doesn't want to
go to, then where are you? So we'll follow the story.
It's still unfolding, but out right now Durrant, Kyrie, they're
sitting there in Brooklyn, and at this point nothing seems
imminent as far as the trade is concerned. All right,
speaking of high maintenance, speaking of load management, which is

(01:03:11):
sort of a phrase that we follow all the time
in the NBA, here's a man that defies both of those. Yes, yeah,
there's there's nothing but humbleness. There's a man that works
tires ly in a multitude of jobs. He's not worried
about load management. It's like, how much more can I
add to my and that is, of course, add a

(01:03:31):
bank account one and only David Gascon. Yeah, I need
a vacation plus plus he's single and ready to mingle,
ready to mingle. He's beyond it right now. Oh yeah,
he is a mingler. Yeah, he is a mingler. Downloaded
every possible dating app. Well, you know, right is swiping
up approach of infiltrated J date, J date, farmers only

(01:03:56):
golfers now now rich uh Rich is Rich is always interested.
It seems seemingly interested. Maybe he's just entertaining me, but
start of interested in my personal life and how I operate.
And I know that Dave. David also seems to have
a lot of questions for me. I don't know why
anybody would reference me on any of this. I think

(01:04:17):
my track record is pretty shoddy, to say the least.
Every time I go into a studio with Steve, I
asked him how his day is going, and he sits
me down for fifteen minutes talking about procreation. I do
mag into creation. Yeah, well, how to create life? David.
It's not like Dennis Laudman's father, Philander, who has what

(01:04:39):
is it thirty something children. We went over this. He is.
Oh yeah, Philander, that's a great name for and that
has that many children. We can do that with the NFL, right,
we can go like Philip Rivers, Antonio Cromarty, Travis Henry. Yeah,
there's a couple you Cromarty I think is up to
a twelve or fort And this is after he got
clipped right. Yeah, yeah, want to look, life finds a way. Yes,

(01:05:02):
Jurassic Park by the waylander Philander Rodman, who passed away
a couple of years ago at the age of seventy nine,
he uh sired twenty nine children with sixteen different mothers.
That's amazing. Yeah, m twenty nine children with sixteen different mothers.

(01:05:22):
There you go. I was Sam is jealous. Daddy, Daddy,
Now there's a daddy. Yeah, there's there's news reports out
there today that Elon Musk was having some fun with
the I don't know if it was the co founder
of Google, but his wife, well, he's he's got to
what now, how many you got nine kids? I think

(01:05:44):
he's got nine? Yeah, you are. He's very nervous about
population collapse and he is getting ahead of it. Yeah,
in his own personal life. I don't think we have
to worry about population collaps. Yeah, that's that's good. May
I have a lot of people on this planet. There
are plenty, it feels, But is it the future generations?
He's well at least. Look he's a lot smarter than

(01:06:04):
I am, so when he talks about it makes sense.
If I try to good, it will not. I just
want Ellen to work on the tube. All right. We
need the tube. We need that too bad. The tunnel,
the tube fast tube tunnel. We need it for l A, now,
for l A to San Francisco. We just need for anywhere.
It sounds awesome. Califerns were gutted for that in taxes.
By the way, the way, speaking of a don't need
this sixth avenue, this three million dollars, the shutdown. It's

(01:06:28):
been shut down every day because people are going crazy
on this. They built this bridge in l A. Cuts
hundreds of millions and million over three million, and shut
down like over and over again because all these yahoo's
have taken over the bridge. I said, here's what I said,
We we trade the bridge for Katie that straight up.

(01:06:50):
Can't nice things here? Can people just behave? Speaking of Dumbo, Rich,
I visited Dumbo A couple of couple of weeks ago.
It's very nice word of town. Yes, Dumbo is an
acronym that stands for down under Manhattan Bridge overpassed. Yes,
And I had a couple of I had a couple

(01:07:12):
of friends who lived in that area and really really
nice area it's been. They actually have shots where you
take a photo of yourself under a couple of those
bridges right like you have the Brooklyn Bridge, it's right there,
you have the Manhattan Bridge, I think it is. And
then I don't know if it's the E that goes
through it, the e that goes yeah, so, but yeah,

(01:07:34):
they call it like they call it the social media
influencers spots where people are taking in what they tell
you something. If if it's it could be August. You're
going to see wolknet hats. You're gonna see, you're gonna
see interesting facial hair, and you're gonna see, you're gonna
hear people say interesting things like oh yeah, I was
just there like all that so bad. And then of

(01:07:59):
course you come out here to l A and you
could have some avocado toast. By the way, the bridge
Cotts five hundred and eighty eight million was, but it
was I think it was over budget by like a
hundred and sixty million. And Katie, it's just being changed
by by Yahoo's. I mean it's ridiculous. Nice job, Sam, Dave.

(01:08:19):
Did you go on the high Line in New York?
Did you walk the high Line? Oh? I've done that before.
It's amazing. So the meat the old meat packing district
is now like there's gorgeous like walking neighborhood. It's it really,
I mean, New York's really done. It's an elevated train
that got turned in Toto like a walkway with all
these trees and it's amazing. I did go on the
L I R R to go to Oyster Bay for

(01:08:41):
the fourth July. Oh wow, you were in my neck
of the woods. Yeah, Richie, off of the uh what
was my stop? The Merrick stop? It bounce over to man,
it was it was pretty pleasant. I'm not gonna lie
I'm not a huge fan of New York, but I
actually enjoyed my time there. It was called the ambush
on Oyster Bay, but it was it was like all

(01:09:02):
these sailboats. I think, uh, I think they had a
couple of owners, NBA owners that actually had spots like
in Oyster Bay. You're up there on the Long Island sound. Yeah, Yeah,
that's exactly what it is. Didn't realized how how close
Connecticut was, right across seven miles away. Yeah, if you
could swim there. I don't know, man, I don't know.
I'm it's a little polluted. You go the back work,

(01:09:25):
I don't know if it'll work. But guys, Major League
Baseball today, Angels five nothing over the Braves. Yankees got
another home run from Aaron Judge uh thirty seven and counting,
and right now they lead Baltimore by score of three
to nothing. This game from the fourth. Blue Jays scored
five times again against the Red Sox in the first
inning of this time and they lead by a score

(01:09:47):
of five to one. There Reds four nothing over the Cardinals.
Brewers on top of the Rockies. One does it there?
Dodgers looking for a sweep of San Francisco to nights
for this afternoon and met sin Padres is the nightcap
at games at seven o'clock Eastern. Joe Musgrove on the bump,
fellas eight and two two two r A. Joe Musgrove
has had a tremendous season. Whoa, whoa, But in the

(01:10:11):
story out of San Diego is Joe Musgrove. If he
doesn't get a contract extension by today, he is gonna
say shut down all contract negotiations of the Padres. I
will be heading to free agency after the season. So
today's the deadline, right rich Today? Yeah? Today officially? If
I mean, if you you talk about a week's time

(01:10:32):
and you enter the next week day, then yeah, officially,
the time's up. So if we're going to see a
contract for Joe Musgroven, for those who don't know who
we're talking about, check out his stats this season and last.
I mean, this is going to be one of the
hottest names in pitching free agency. Uh if he ends
up testing free agency, because if they don't get a

(01:10:52):
deal done for some sort of extension, he says that
he's going to test free agency. By the way, last night,
I forgot to tell you this. So last night I'm
doing television at kt L A and Los Angeles, and
I was in the makeup room talking a couple of
makeup girls there and they had a telethon going on

(01:11:13):
at the station, and into the makeup room walks the
Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti. So he walks in.
I looked to my right. He comes straight up to me.
He doesn't say my name. He says, this, you look
like a mayor. Now I'm in my suit, you know,
and everything else, and I said, Mayor Garcity, nice to

(01:11:35):
see you. And then he just started talking sports with
me like so. He never said my name, but apparently
he recognized like I'm the sports guy because he might
have seen the station before. I did ask him this though.
I asked him, let me ask you this. When you
have one of these bets with a mayor and your
team is playing each other, like in a Super Bowl
or World Series, do they ever actually pay off these bets?

(01:11:59):
And he goes out, hell, you this, you know, with
the Rams loss of the Patriots, and then the Dodgers
lost the World Series to the Red Sox. He goes,
I know I paid off. He never really answered my
question about that. He was just jabbing away about sports
and everything else. I kept thinking, boy, I could tell
you about your job. But he's leaving office right now,

(01:12:19):
so they're gonna have a new mayor in Los Angeles.
But I don't know that. He was strange, right, I've
never met this guy before, and he just walks straight
up to me. He goes, you look like a mayor.
You do look like a mayor. I'm like a mayor.
I mean, you know what, I've said this for a while.
I understand you're talented and and your good host, and
you have an enormous based knowledge in sports and sports trivia.

(01:12:41):
But I I do there's a part of me that
feels like you have completely missed your calling. Like I
really I could have been a politician. But I'm reminded
again a hundred percent of politicians that I've known what
are all there. It's it's it's like a performer, right

(01:13:03):
you You when you become a politician, you have to
perform as a politician. Now, you know, Donald Trump was
a little bit different because he wasn't a politician, so
he did in his own way, but he sort of
learned the game. And again this, like I said, with
this card said, and he just watched right a total
politician like you know, oh, you look like a mayor.

(01:13:23):
I'm like, okay, um, I've got the side part. Yeah,
we have zero interest in any of those politician jobs.
Maybe it's like that movie what's that movie called? Is
it called rock Star? Where Mark Wahlberg gets pulled up
onto the stage and all of a sudden thrust into
the limelight and he becomes the lead singer. Would not

(01:13:47):
want any part of those jobs. And when I was
a kid, I was enamored, you know, presidents and politicians
everything else. But once I actually became in contact with
these people and realized what was going on, I'm like, no, no,
thank you, not interested in that. All right? Coming up
on the other side, Uh wow, We've got a hundred
different directions to go. I do want to touch upon
the latest in college football, something we've been talking about

(01:14:10):
for weeks, and the changing landscape and we got believe
it or not, good news for the future of the
Pack twelve. Coming up next, we go our own way
here on Fox Sports Sunday, Steve Harbin and rich Armburger
with you there, introducing Tony Aliva, who did something that

(01:14:31):
I don't think may ever happen again. He won the
America Link batting titles first two years he wanted as
a rookie and his second year in the league. The
great Tony Alva. Uh he's a deserving Hall of Fame.
He had a shorter career, but he was a dominant player. UH.
We're continuing to monitor all the festivities in Cooperstown. John
Paul Morossi, Fox Sports Radio, Major League Baseball Insider Course

(01:14:54):
MLB Network. He'll join us a little bit later on
live from Cooper's Town. So Rich, We've been talking plenty
over the last several weeks about the big shake up
with the Pack twelve with USC and U C l
A UH leading in two and what does that mean
for the future of the conference. And we had all
these rumors that the Big twelve was coming after the
Arizona schools and Utah Colorado, and that the PAC twelves

(01:15:18):
on life support. They may not survive, maybe they have
to merge with another conference. Let's put all that aside,
because something that we talked about is the reality of
the situation the PAC twelve as it is right now
with tend schools, and maybe they add of San Diego State,
maybe they had a U N l V to fill

(01:15:39):
that void of the departed l A schools. Their value
has never been greater. It's never been greater because what
they offer, especially to a network like ESPN that carries
college football from the crack of dawn to late late
late late night, they provide that late night package. Then

(01:16:01):
in this day and age, when live sports is Yeah,
I heard this the other day. I thought it was
so true. The reason sports is so popular is that
it's sort of a shared thing because now when we
talk about program everyone watches programs on their own time.
It's not like it airs once at seven o'clock or
eight o'clock at night. Well, I've heard it from you,

(01:16:22):
but I heard other people back it up. Sports is
the one thing that we watch in real time where
America sort of comes together at the same time watching
something and then we react to it. I'm so glad,
I like I it's it's interesting when when you start,
uh start start repeating some of the things that I've

(01:16:44):
been I've been banging this drum for a long time.
I'm a big fan of sports for one reason and
one reason reason only. I'll be perfectly honest with you,
I wasn't. I'm still not a particularly good sports fan.
Like I don't my emotions don't get too high or
too low with any outcome during any game. Now, don't
get me wrong. When there is an instant classic being

(01:17:04):
played in front of my eyes, like if it's a
tremendous baseball game, especially in the postseason, or you have
a situation where you turn on it could be just
a random regular season game like two years ago when
the Chiefs played the Rams and it was a shootout
the entire way there there are moments like that in
sports that are exciting, and and trust me, I get excited.

(01:17:27):
But the most important part of sports to me, and
I think it's echoed through our culture, is the fact
that it is a true last national community event that
we have all together. It's truly the last water cooler
talk that you don't feel like you have to say
spoiler alert before you pour yourself a coffee and start

(01:17:48):
talking about the game from last night, because it doesn't
matter what you're watching on television. Somebody can record it,
somebody can DVR it, somebody can put in their YouTube queue.
Uh they may not have gotten to it yet on
Prime Video or Netflix or Hulu. Uh so you can't
talk about it openly, But did you see the game
last night? It stands up today. Nobody records games to

(01:18:12):
watch later on, and if they do, they're in the
vast minority. Most people they want to watch sports live
because it is still one of those community events, and Buddy,
that is my favorite, hands down, my favorite part about sports.
And so yeah, that's that is that is as important
as it's ever been. And of course because of that,
it puts greater value, constantly increasing value on live sports,

(01:18:36):
which brings us back to the future of the Pack twelve.
The fact is they fill out the rest of the schedule.
Now you may have a deal where ESPN goes to
the Pack twelve and actually offers them more money than
their previous deal, with the caveat of course that we're
gonna have a lot more night games now. They already
have a lot of night games in the Pack twelve,
and of course you broadcast in the Mount West Conference

(01:18:58):
where you just have almost cons at night games, uh
in that conference. But again it's all based on money,
which is the bottom line for all of this and
what is necessary to get your hands on the money.
So believe it or not, Not only is the PAC
twelve alive and well right now, now, who's gonna be
in the PAC twelve We don't know. Is anybody leaving
the Pack twelve We don't know, But the PAC twelve

(01:19:20):
or a fact similey of a West Coast college football
conference is always going to be in demand. That is
not gonna change. So it's ir The irony is you
could lose USC and U C l A and actually
end up with a more lucrative TV deal. Yeah, and
I could see this and and mark my words, I'm

(01:19:41):
saying it today on whatever it is what July. I
think part of that television deal is you're gonna start
seeing some wild kickoff times for the PAC twelve. Like
I could see, like a Stanford San Diego States should
they join the conference? Uh kickoff at seven am West
coast time. This way it's in a ten am window

(01:20:02):
on the East coast. I could see. I could start
seeing as part of this, this this new recalibration of
college football, some of the old traditions falling by the wayside,
that this sport is relegated to the afternoons or the evenings.
We've got some big name baseball players losing money. Why

(01:20:22):
You're gonna find out Coming up next, Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com
and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
R to listen live. Continuing here on another big, big
Sunday in the Sports World, Steve Hartman and Richard Arnburger.

(01:20:43):
This is Fox Sports Sunday. Hall of Fame ceremonies are
continuing in Cooper's town. The great Tonya Levi speaking right now.
Three time American Link batting Champion John paulme Rossi is
there our Fox Sports Radio MLB inside. I hope to
catch up him a little bit later on. In today's show,
we got lots of news. We are obviously very excited

(01:21:05):
about the start of NFL training. Cans will get much
more into all the uh NFL news. It's been a
fascinating offseason. We got new news as far as when
are we gonna get a decision here on Deshaun Watson,
all of that still to come. I did want to
bring up a story though, baseball story that came down today,
and that is two of the biggest stars in the

(01:21:27):
National League and certainly two of the biggest stars for
the St. Louis Cardinals, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Eronado. The
Cardinals have a two game series in Toronto against the
Blue Jays and they're not allowed in because they haven't
been vaccinated. And by the way, along with another player,

(01:21:47):
Austin Roman, their catcher. They will forfeit their money salaries
for these two games. Aeronauto loses three and eighty four
thousand dollars. Goldschmidt loses two hundred and forty two thousand dollars.
Roleman needs to get an agent because he's losing meth

(01:22:09):
less than eleven thousand dollars. But all three players are
placed on the restricted list, will not be paid or
accrew any Major League service time for these two games
because of the Canadian laws not allowing them to enter
the country. Is that? Am I off? When I'm thinking?
That doesn't sound right to me? I mean, why are

(01:22:31):
they forfeiting salary based on Canadian law of whether or
not they can actually enter the country to play in
the games? What am I missing here? Well, it's it's
what the players and owners agreed to, and it was
the way to get this, uh, this game up and

(01:22:52):
running through the pandemic and through this next c b A.
You know. So, look, I mean, do I feel like
maybe now we're in a different space medically and from
a societal standpoint regarding COVID nineteen then we were months
ago or even years ago. The answers, Yes, obviously, but um,

(01:23:13):
but the rules are the rules, and so whether they're
antiquated or not, that's up for discussion. And it's certainly subjective, uh,
depending on who you speak to, and that includes in
the medical community. That's the rules, and so it may
seem unfair, it may seem like a competitive disadvantage or
advantage depending on which side were discussed. By the way,

(01:23:36):
they are allowed to replace those guys on the rosters,
So the Cardinals will call up three guys. I get
the idea. Okay, so you're not allowed in the country. Yeah,
but why am I force fitting salary? I meant it.
I don't understand I I know you don't understand it.
And frankly, if I were arguing from a player's standpoint,
I would argue the same. But it's what they agreed to.

(01:23:58):
And you know, when when you're in a board and
you have disputes or you have agreements that are struck
between the players and the owners, and it's a league
situation like that like this clearly is it's not just
one team or one entity, it's it's all thirty that
have to uh, you know, that are obliged to follow
these directives. UM, because it is an international sport. It's

(01:24:19):
it's odd to think of it that way, but it is.
You know, you have Canadians team same as same as
in the NHL. Uh So, yeah, you have to follow
different rules. And we actually saw this during covid uh
or I should say in the NBA during during the
height of the covid U with UM the decision making
of New York and Kyrie Irving. I mean, it just

(01:24:40):
sort of is what it is. And is it unfair?
You can make that argument subjectively. Is it a competitive disadvantage? Certainly,
but but it is the rules that the players and
the owners agreed to. So the only the only spot
you've got to blame is yourself if you're a player

(01:25:00):
who is upset with this rule because you did agree
to it, you know. So is there room for ap peel.
I'm sure there is if a player or his agent
wanted to make a big enough stink about this. But
I'm sure in the upcoming seasons some of these rules
are going to relax. I would assume we'll see baseball
celebrating its history today, which is part of these Hall
of Fame celebrations. That's one thing I oh, sort of.

(01:25:23):
You know, we can get an argument like who's a
Hall of Famer and not a Hall of Famer, but
it does sort of celebrate these sports that have been
such a big part of our country for so many years.
The Baseball All Star Game this year was at Dodgers
Stadium for the first time in forty two years. Um.
You know, the whole telecast I actually watched the entire
game was sort of in the background, you know, I was.

(01:25:43):
I had the home run derby on on Monday and
the Tuesday at the background of the All Star Game
when I was working on other things. It looked great.
I mean, they did a lot of things right, and
they're trying again. We've in some new dynamics that might
appeal to a younger audience than everything else. The All
Star Game and thirty years ago was held in San Diego.
There were twenty two million viewers on CBS for that

(01:26:07):
All Star Game. The All Star Game this year had
seven point five million viewers, UM seven point five. Thirty
years ago, we were at twenty two millions. By the way,
that is still a big number. It's still a big number.
It's bigger than most. I agree with you, Um, but okay,

(01:26:27):
let's take let's talk about this dynamic for a second here,
all right, Like you said, it's bigger. For instance, more
people watch the Baseball All Star Game than the other
All Star games. Okay, so they get the Pro even
the Pro Bowl. All of the Pro Bowl numbers are
still hanging. We don't even know there's gonna be a
Pro Bowl anymore. But anyway, um, as far as the
All Star Game, Baseball still, even with those free fall numbers,

(01:26:51):
is still at the top and certainly bigger programming. Seven
point five million, that's what most shows dream of. So
if your Major League Baseball, do you look at that
number and saying, hey, we're still ahead of the pack
in terms of where the overall viewership of television is
these days, or do you sound the warning that, okay,

(01:27:12):
we still have work to do because at the very
least we're not trending in the right direction. We were
hoping that this All Star Game was gonna take up,
not down. If you're way down, you're not going to
You're not going to change a thing, because that's not
Major League Baseball style. If there is a league more

(01:27:35):
adverse to change, name it because you're wrong it's them,
it's Major League Baseball, and they can't seem to get
out of this tact where they wait too long to
change everything. No, I mean Baseball lose his viewers at
an astonishing rate, and then the changes they make are
so incremental you wonder, you wonder, like what what are

(01:27:56):
you even doing? Like what what sport are you watching
versus the sport all of us are watching. You know,
I've I've heard Colin Coward speak about this recently. I've
been banging this drum for a very long time. I
I think the NFL is way ahead of the curve
in terms of making knee knee jerk adjustments and whether

(01:28:17):
they're right or wrong. They'll fall flat on their face
sometimes and they'll hit it out of the park sometimes
and sometimes it's a slow burn, like sometimes immediately it
doesn't seem like it's the right move, but then over
time you go, oh, that's why. And I'll give you
some examples, like the knee jerk reaction to change the
past interference rules after the Saints got bounced from the

(01:28:39):
NFC Championship game on a passing interference. No call was
a bad change. Everybody knew it when they changed the rule.
Everybody knew it. When the preseason occurred and they try
to enforce the new pass interference rules. The review of
past interference was an absolute disaster. They got rid of
it after a year. That is being nimble, that is
being quick and aggressive of it didn't work, but they

(01:29:02):
quickly fixed the problem. I remember when they changed the
rules about protecting the passer better, and and receivers who
couldn't protect themselves better, and the defensive world in terms
of the sport of football, I mean, they were appalled,
they were aghast, they they they sounded the alarms. This
game is getting too soft, this game is it's so

(01:29:24):
different from the way it used to be. And everybody
was like, whoa look, look at the ratings. Some of
these ratings drops may suggest that protecting the quarterback is
the wrong way to go. Well, now they're still king
and their ratings are are I mean they're they're going
up every year, and we can see that protecting the
passer and making the game more offensive has made the
game more successful, more popular than it's ever been. And

(01:29:47):
so though that's a change, where at first it wasn't
received all that well, and over time it matured perfectly
in baseball. Steve, you know this. I know this. We've
been talking about this for a while and I certainly
have been sound the alarms on this. Baseball is so
slow to change that. I promise you the way the
All Star Game looks today, it'll probably look the same

(01:30:07):
in fifteen years. And if their viewership numbers dropped down
below three million, they're gonna be sitting there tapping their foot, going, well,
but at least we're still winning All Star Game viewership ratings.
You know, if they still are even at that point,
they just they're just so adverse to change. It leads
to an inferior product when you look at other sports.

(01:30:28):
During the broadcast, one of the pictures was Mike did
you see this? Yeah, they were talking to the picture
as he was making pitches. It was Nestor out with
the Yankees. Yeah, well it was Wait, they actually had
a couple of pictures. I saw nest There was another
I think what was the other picture? Anyway, there Nestor
Cortez with the Yankees, who I was talking about. So

(01:30:50):
they're talking to the pictures while they're on the mount.
I thought it was I mean, it would seem to
be distracting though, Like it's when you're a pit there's
a lot to think. I think one of the things
that it sort of got me too, is there's a
lot of thought process here, right. I mean, it's beautiful.
You know, you're you're sitting there. You threw one pitch
to set up the next pitch, to set up the

(01:31:11):
next pitch. Obviously, you and the catcher gotta be on
the same page. I mean, while somebody's talking here in
your ear saying, gee, you know, maybe that's gonna be
a good pitch right now, It's like, dude, I'm concentrating,
and I know it's an exhibition game. I thought they
did a great job handling that, But you keep thinking about,
all right, what spin can you do in baseball? There's

(01:31:31):
things about baseball. He got guys standing around. I thought
it was cool when they had how standing and and
judge talking back and forth on the same But is
that gonna bring the eyeballs yes to the game. And
I'll tell you why. How often are you watching a
baseball game where you're hearing the broadcaster talking drawn on
about something that happened, whether it be in the past

(01:31:52):
or in the city recently, or with the team and
and you've heard the story before because you pay attention
to sports, or you're just not really particularly interested. You're
locked into the game and it's and it serves as
a distraction. But it's such a long game and there's
so much space in between the action that these announcers
and I don't blame them because as a color analyst,

(01:32:15):
you know different sport In football, you feel like you
have to color in the picture, like if the pictures
left blank. Yet you have to find a way to
emphasize what's happening or what will happen based off of history.
If you have a situation like we just pointed out
where I'll use the example I saw where Nestor Cortez
and Jose Trevino, two players who are working together on

(01:32:37):
getting a batter out, are having this ongoing discussion about
it was actually Alec Minola, Well, I know, but I'm
talking about and Cortez and Trivia is what I saw
when he struck out the three guys via Mike dep Yeah.
But my my point is like when you hear that, right,
they're going back and forth and it's like, all right,
you got them right where you want him now? You
could go anywhere, you could do anything, and he goes, okay,

(01:32:59):
it goes slider, yes, slider, and then he throws a slider.
Is gonna want to talk? I know that, but if
that's interesting. In other words, they knew like Manoah said, yeah,
I'll definitely play. And he did a great job. He
took us through the entire and he struck out the side. Um.
But you know, not every every player wants that. I mean, yeah, no, no.

(01:33:19):
And you imagine back in the day, like a Greg
Maddox if you try to come on. But we talked
about this all the time. You know. Look, sometimes changes,
they're like players hate him. And I just mentioned one
of them specifically protecting the quarterback better. Do you think J. J. Watt,
T J. Watt, Miles Garrett, Aaron Donald were fans of

(01:33:40):
the rule change. You know that that if they go
too low or too high, they're going to get flagged,
whereas a year ago it was a perfectly legal sack
or QB hit or what have you. The answer is
absolutely not. But you are just because you're getting paid
millions and millions of dollars. I think we baby these
baseball players too much, especially these pictures. Oh wow, you
want to take your time on the mound. You don't

(01:34:01):
want to pitch clock. Well, guess what, there's a there's
a guy working on the back of a garbage truck
who's making less less money over a year than you
do during each game you play. So save it. I
I don't really care. I mean and and frankly, if
we're talking about, you know, giving us a little more
insight into the game, so you can earn even more money.

(01:34:23):
Because if viewership numbers go up, mind you, so will salaries.
Because the more popular the sport, the higher the salary cap,
the bigger piece of pie the players get. So what
are we really talking about here. It's just all such nonsense.
These players and and this is the same thing with golf,
This is the same thing with baseball. They clutch their

(01:34:43):
pearls so tightly that they don't realize they're strangling the
sport they play. They can make even more money, they
can be even more popular, they can be even more endorsable.
Can you imagine if you have a particularly colorful picture
on the mound? And we have a rule instituted in
Major League Baseball that we need to hear every discussion
they have with their catcher and Mike everybody up and

(01:35:04):
and he would be it would make himself immensely more endorsable.
Like you could play some of those clips on commercials.
I could see it right now. But these guys clutch
their pearls so tightly they don't want the game to
change that they will not welcome in these advancements that
can bring people closer to the game and make the
game more popular. All right, Uh, speaking of a game

(01:35:25):
that doesn't need any change. But where are we going
with the NFL? We got camps opening up all over
the place. When are we going to get the final
word on the fate of Deshaun Watson? In two? We
got a hint coming up next Steve Hartman and a
rich Armburger, one of the daughters of the late great
Gil Hodges making the speech now at the Hall of Fame.

(01:35:48):
Here's something unbelievable. So Gil Hodges and Jackie Robinson to
the all time great Brooklyn Dodgers passed away just months apart,
at very young ages, uh fifty years ago. V two
And we just talked about Rachel Robinson, the widow of
Jackie Robinson, just celebrated her one birthday. Gil Hodges wife

(01:36:11):
is still alive. She's ninety six years old. So here
they are fifty years after their husbands passed away all
too young, and their widows fifty years later are still alive.
So unbelievable. So big day for the Hodges family with
the induction of Gil Hodges. Oh, by the way, before

(01:36:31):
we get to an update on Deshaun Watson, Rich, I
was just talking to Iowa. Sam and Ryan are producer here.
We we mentioned earlier on the show that there's a
new football stadium in the city of San Diego. The
old stadium, which hosted three Super Bowls and many great
events over the years, is gone completely obliterated. The old
whatever you wanna call the murv Qualcom Stadium STCCU had

(01:36:53):
had multiple names over the years. So they have a
new stadium. We're gonna be out there on Wednesday to
get a little private tour of this new stadium which
will open up for Sandy Go. Stay. By the way,
their first game, which is against the University of Arizona,
will be on National TV. It's a day game CBS,
and of course Rich part of the broadcast crew for
the Aztecs. But I was talking to them about the eats,

(01:37:17):
the eats at this new stadium. So what they do
and this is this is so smart. I don't know
why more don't do this. What they wanted to do.
And this was a big search of like what would
be the main food venues for this new stadium. They're
all local, Like you have eight main eating venues, all
with local ties to San Diego. Variety obviously of different

(01:37:39):
kind of food out there. You actually sample And when
I say sample, I think I'm being a little low
bar in this. Uh you indulged? Would that be more accurate?
Feasted on a variety of the food? So Sam Rich
is gonna tell you your choices because he's asked me.
He said, Can I come on down and enjoy the food?

(01:38:01):
Or all right? David did as well. I got a
quick question to ask. Now, you guys will talk about food,
but I didn't know cocktails. So is Stone or is
arrogant bastard in the building for cocktails? Oh? Yeah, the
local brewers there. Yeah, I'm glad you asked. I know that.
So from from the standpoint of the food, we'll get
to the beers and necks. But from the standpoint of

(01:38:25):
the food. They've got these eight different vendors and we
tried them all and they were outstanding. Like they're gonna
have Cali b b q um. That's like you know
for your brisket, your ribs, all that types of stuff.
Gag Leon Brothers, the cheese, steak sandwiches, Um crack Shack,
which is popular down in San Diego. There sandwiches for

(01:38:47):
o dads for burgers, the tacos stand, which is famous
across the one of those tacos. Did you sample I
mean four or five? Five? Six? I mean I kind
of lost, you know, it's uh. You know, they're gonna
have best peach and brew batch and boxing. They're all
over it from a food standpoint. In terms of beer,
I'm less from it for obvious reason. I'm less less

(01:39:08):
familiar with the beer. But I'm looking it up right
now because I know there's plenty of local beer vendors
at the stadium. But the food is gonna get you, right,
I can promise you that. And the trolley stop correct
me if I'm wrong, But there's the trolley stop is
right there too, right if it's off of there's one
off of Fryars, it goes right to the stadium parking lot.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. See. I like the fact that

(01:39:30):
you go local venues. I'm such a big believer in
this and Gascony. I mean, you you're traveling all over
the country and you're like rich, and I like, you
go somewhere I want local. Yeah, I don't want to
eat something I could eat here if I'm down in
Miami or New Orleans or New York or anywhere, Seattle,
wherever I'm going, I want to get that local flavor.

(01:39:51):
And they really do that. They do that at Pecko
Park where the Padres play, and they're doing it here
at Snapped right and get the local flavors, right, that's
part of the experience. Well, I'll say this about stadiums
in general, not focusing just on snap Dragon, but just
really on like like on ballparks and stadiums and arenas

(01:40:11):
across the country in the world. Frankly, like if you
if you are trying to get people to leave their homes,
where for very reasonable prices you could get a television
over fifty inches, you could put up you know, some
level of a sound system, depending on the size of
the living room or the viewing area you're in. A

(01:40:32):
soundbar that can fill the whole space with as much
sound as you need to, or surround sound for really
reasonable prices these days, comfortable couches, you know, game time snacks,
a bathroom at your beck and call whenever you need it.
Like if you're going to try to defeat the ability
and comforts of people to to really take in a
high quality viewerships, uh uh from a viewership standpoint, a

(01:40:57):
game at home and drag them to an arena a
ballparker stadium. You better have something they can't get anywhere else.
And that's what these stadiums are doing now. Finally, the
stadium experience is really starting to escalately to the point
where you know, you go to certain ballparks you could
have like like a four or five star meal experience

(01:41:18):
while you're watching a game. It's absurd how far this
is all advanced. I have no idea what I'm gonna eat.
Let's see crackshacked tacos, stand ho, Dad's best pizza and brew?
How many of those batchbox cookies did you eat? I
mean I I I would be lying if I said
that I didn't embarrass myself and then bring some home.

(01:41:41):
It was it was Yeah, very revealing. I'm hoping that
when we get out there rich on Wednesday to check
out this place, maybe they might have something to eat
or something on those lines would be nice. Um. All right,
on the other side, we will get to the latest
on the Deshaun Watson situation, but first let's find out
what's trending right now. By the way, do you make
are you making plans? Obviously you're gonna be down at Snapdragon,

(01:42:03):
right David? I couldn't you know? Distance from where I
lived to where you guys would be at a hundred
one miles, so would be a lot of tag along.
Oh yeah, we don't know going out. Yeah, we don't
know all the start times and the games yet. A
lot of these are last second, you know, because of
TV and everything else. But you know they'll be plenty

(01:42:24):
of night games out there on a Saturday. That. Yeah,
we'll see what happens with the uh with the Aztecs
and where they'll actually be right that packed twelve for
the Mountain West or Well. The good news is when
you have a new stadium, it certainly builds your profile.
Let's put it this way. Uh, well, their profile has

(01:42:45):
been on the com Ian. You have two tailbacks that
rushed for over two thousand yards in the top twenty
five defense in the nation. Well, they just had the
winning a season in school history. So no, they're sitting
pretty right now. But you know, we we got to
see how the dusk settles. The problem is for them
is that if you have U c l A and
USC gone, they're bread and Butter's basketball. And so for

(01:43:09):
the longest time, they trumped u c l A. They
trumped Arizona like they were the top dog in the
West Conference on the West Coast in terms of college
basketball powerhouses. And now if you have those two teams
obviously going to the Big Ten, and it's outside of
just football, that's that's the world that hurt for the Aztecs.
I got a game here for Iowa sam Sham October eight,

(01:43:33):
which is a Saturday seven thirty kickoff your favorite schools Hawaii.
I saw that in town, so Hawaii taking on the Aztecs.
That's seven thirty kickoff. Plenty of time to get down there. Yeah,
it might be want that might be the game I
go to. Yeah, that'd be pretty fun. Plenty of times.

(01:43:54):
You know, Kaufman Stadium right next to Arrowhead Um, those
two those two ballparks are excuse me for relities. They
distance is not that far away. It's probably like what
a mile maybe two almost. The the food at Arrowhead
is phenomenal when you're getting like the local Tri Tip,

(01:44:14):
the brisket. I mean I went in there in straight
blue and orange with the Bronco colors, and they could
not be more hospitable in that city. Yeah. I thought
you're gonna say hostile. Well, I mean they're hostile when
the game's going on, but hospitable outside of the environment. Man,
I mean, I love the barbecue in Kansas City compared

(01:44:34):
to Texas. But man, that that places. But you look
at like San Francisco they do the garlic fries. Right.
There's just certain venues that do the food and they're
not exorbitant amount of prices, right, I mean, what seriously,
what is it? Because I went to Pecco, David didn't
know the story, so I took my son, Garrett Topecco

(01:44:56):
and Richard tipped me off about these Tri Tips sandwiches,
and as good as it looked and smelled, when I
bit into it, it was like ten times that it
was like butter. It's right, that was so incredible. But
the whole atmosphere right when you got good food at
a sporting venue and he got the cold brew, come
on nothing. And the one thing that's good about San

(01:45:19):
Diego San Francisco cours Um they have the public transportation
that reduces the stress level. And you worried about, all right,
how much can I consume? Where do we at the park?
You know? That takes that load off, right, So you
can go from you know, Mission Valley or al Cahone
or like you know, down in the Vista, take a

(01:45:42):
trolley up to Petco Park. Same thing in San Francisco,
same thing in Denver for the you know, it's for
the Rockies of the Broncos of the Avalanche. Um, they
do that stuff for the Nuggets too, obviously, but they
do it right. LA is too vast in terms of
distance going from like so far to to Crypto. But man,

(01:46:02):
some of those venues just do it right. So good stuff.
I need to get some food and get some fat on. Um.
There's sports going on today, fellas uh, Cubbies and Phillies
right now. The game when the final Chicago wanted four
three was the final score. Aaron Judge with the home
run three nothing, Orioles down to the Yankees Judges thirty
seventh home run of the season, Angels clubbing the Braves

(01:46:23):
to the tune of eight to nothing. In the Blue
Jayson at it again over Boston eight to two. Toronto
scored five times in the first inning. I'll be curious
to see what the run totals are in this series
when it wraps up, because, uh, obviously Toronto had its
way with Boston a few nights ago. So hell of
the US? Would you be? Would you? I mean, for

(01:46:44):
as good as the Yankees have been this season, would
you be fear foot all? If God forbid the Rays
and the Blue Jays capture wild card slots? Oh? Absolutely,
I mean, you know we've seen time again wild card teams,
teams that have the most wins. Remember the Dodgers a
couple of years ago against the Nationals and then the

(01:47:08):
Nationals coming too Dodgers Stadium, deciding Game five. Dodgers are
upping the game. They bring Clayton Kershaw and relief. He
gives up back to back home runs and they lose
that game. No, I'm the Yankees. They haven't been a
World Series since two thousand and nine, a long time
since the Yankees were in a World Series. So yeah,
I'd still be nervous about that. All right, well, David,

(01:47:28):
thank you very much. I want to get to the
latest on DeShawn Watson. Uh. There, here's a here's a
date to keep in mind. The Cleveland Browns actually open
up their training camp coming up on Wednesday, So the
July so that is Wednesday that the Browns will actually

(01:47:50):
open fully open up training camp. Right now, they got
some guys out in camp with the full camp will
be open on Wednesday. We have this federal judge, former
federal judge Suell Robinson. Uh, she had all the hearings
and everything else. Um, and so they're they're saying now
most likely. And by the way, Deshaun Watson's there at
camp right now. In fact, it was an amazing picture.

(01:48:12):
I saw him standing next to Josh Rosen, who the
Browns signed as a backup to Jacoby Bersett. Still not
understanding when or if we're gonna see Deshaun Watson in
a Brown's uniform in two but I gotta think with
camp opening up, and and by the way, this judge
Robinson has said that she's gonna be on her own

(01:48:35):
time clock. I get a sense the league maybe nudging
her a little bit, saying, look, because even when she
makes a decision, then there's a potential appeal of that decision,
either by the Union or the league that would have
to be processed as well. So, um, by the way, well,
I again, we're just gonna wait on this whole thing.

(01:48:56):
But are you with me? Like it would seem like
we are days away from at least a decision from
her and then obviously the appeal after that. I look,
I I think we are very close to hearing the
resolution of all this. And I do mean resolution, I
think the I think the judgment handed down by Robinson

(01:49:19):
is going to be soon forthcoming, and I think very
quickly after that the appeals process will be expedited. I
don't see this dragging out. I see the NFL taking
tops after the initial judgment is given by Judge Robinson
or former Judge Robinson, taking days, if not a full week,

(01:49:40):
to discuss and make their distinction on what the um
the punishment the discipline should be for Deshaun Watson. And
then I think the appeal, if there is one, will
come swiftly in response and I think that's going to
be organized and um I'm figured out within that same
time frame, within like a days to a full week,

(01:50:02):
but nothing beyond that, because what else is there to
discuss here. The NFL knows exactly how long they would
like to punish Deshaun Watson for in terms of his
length of suspension. Okay, I don't believe for a second
that they want this to be a protracted, prolonged suspension
if they could avoid it, I really don't. I think

(01:50:23):
that if they start receiving backlash or pressure, or if
more information becomes available, you know, if there are more
allegations against DeShawn Watson, which is not completely out of
question at this point, or if this um these remaining
for UH victims, alleged victims want to take the Shawn

(01:50:44):
Watson to civil court in the future, that this could
be the last of the discipline from this event. But
I I don't think that. I don't think that the
NFL wants to dwaddle here. I think they're gonna want
this to get figured out during the preseason. This way,
the sole attention UH can be on, you know, the

(01:51:06):
the normal successes of the NFL, and in some ways
try to put this behind them. Let me ask you something,
because you have pointed this out looking at the Brown schedule,
that the second half of their schedule, at least right now,
has no schedule primetime games, no Sunday night or Thursday
night or Monday night games, meaning that let's say he's

(01:51:26):
suspended for half a season and returns that somehow you
can sort of ease them back into the NFL with
a lot without a lot of fanfare. But I'm still
wondering about that because we talked a few people about this,
and of course you always have a flex possibility. I mean,
let's say the browns irrelevant, maybe they've survived without Deshaun Watson.

(01:51:46):
Then he comes back, he's playing well, and suddenly he's
a hot ticket again. The concern obviously is sponsors, right,
I mean, you always have that that fine line if
you're the NFL. Alright, well, maybe we get more eyeballs
if we showed Deshaun Watson in prime time, But are
we gonna get some sponsors getting pressure on them saying hey, hey, hey,

(01:52:10):
you know fine, he can play, but we don't want
to really spotlight I'm gonna be fascinating, and the reason
I mentioned this because I remember when Michael Vick was
convicted and spent prison time for the whole dog situation,
and I thought at the time, there is no way.
I mean, we've seen, you know, domestic abuse, we've seen,

(01:52:31):
but the whole idea of harming animals just I thought
that he had crossed the line, like, there's just no
way this guy's ever gonna play again. And not only
did he return to the NFL, he played some of
his best football with the Eagles. Now he helped his
own cause because he was very remorseful, very apologetic, He

(01:52:52):
paid back a lot of people, He did everything he
needed to do to ease his way back in. I
just really don't know where we're going with his John Watson.
Remember one of his teammates is Kareem Hunt. Well, we
still have a video out there him shoving and kicking
a woman on the ground. He's been playing in the
NFL and it happens to be his teammate. We have

(01:53:13):
no video evidence here. We certainly have the testimony of
a lot of women, no reason not to believe them.
But I'm just gonna be very curious whenever he does
come back, what public sentiment is going to be toward
him and the Browns in his return to the NFL.
I think public sentiment is going to be similar to

(01:53:33):
that of other NFL pros who suffered, you know, similar
consequences for similar not the same, but similar uh. I
don't want to say crimes, but similar issues because he
hasn't been committed of a crime, but he is being
alleged uh in assaulting women. UH. He has active civil

(01:53:58):
suits against him for for sexual misconduct and assault. I mean,
these are serious allegations, and there have been serious allegations
in the past, but I just the NFL has for
years now been able to navigate these very treacherous waters.
Definitely in retrospect because at the time it always seems

(01:54:19):
so clunky. It always seems like they're really tripping over
their feet to get the discipline just right. But the
truth is, if you look at the overall picture, if
you look at the fact that well fans still support
these players even you can see it on their fantasy rosters,
and you can see it in Jersey sales that the
NFL wins, the NFL has gotten it right, that that

(01:54:42):
that the future UH, Jersey sales and viewership numbers and
the fact that there hasn't been any outstanding boycotts that
shifted the NFL one way or the other to to
to legislate this all differently. Um, they've won. So again
it's like twice, what was it once bitten? Twice? Shy?

(01:55:03):
The NFL has never been bitten by any of this.
Now they've been condemned and they've had articles written about them.
I'm sure certain fans have been very upset with their hands,
their handling of the Ben Roethlisberger's suspension, or the Cream
hunt or the Tyreek Hill or what have you write.
I mean, all of those things that have popped up
and have come and gone over time. But the truth is,

(01:55:24):
the numbers are the numbers, and they keep marching forward
in terms of viewership ratings, in terms of the money
that they're making, in terms of the jersey sales from
these these players that have been alleged in some serious
misconduct against women. So what what information is there available
that is leading me to believe that they're going to
handle this any differently? There isn't, and so I think

(01:55:45):
that they won't outside of having Judge Robinson preside over
this and give her opinion on it, Roger Goodell still
has final say and what the discipline should be. Even
if it is appealed afterward by either the NFL or
Deshaun Watson's camp, it still goes back to Roger Goodell's
desk or a designate that he appoints. So nothing's changed.

(01:56:08):
It's all the same. And unless there is some substantial
boycott or an enormous sponsor decides to pull their money
from the NFL because their moral conduct uh is such
that they don't believe they want to spend their money
there anymore, nothing will change. So we'll see, we'll see
what the outcome all of all of this is. But
the closer we get to this season, and the more

(01:56:30):
people are excited about the start of the NFL season,
and the more the Deshaun Watson storyline begins to fade
as people are turning their attention to their favorite teams
and their favorite players, I think the more I believe that,
I think we're gonna see a relatively low number of
games suspension whatever that means half a season, eight games,
nine games maybe, and you know, compared to what it

(01:56:52):
was being discussed earlier in the year, uh And and
as a result, DeShawn Watson will play some important football
for the Cleveland Browns as we approach Thanksgiving. All right,
so we're waiting on a timetable for Deshaun Watson. We're
looking for a destination for Jimmy Garoppolo. The latest coming
up next Steve Harban and a rich Armburger Fox Sports Sunday.

(01:57:16):
Big Poppy making his Hall of Fame speech will be
the final speech of the day. And again John Paul
Morossi should be joining us Life from Cooperstown sometime coming
up in the next hour, anxious to get his thoughts
on this big day as seven new members are inducted
into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. All Right, we're
talking quarterbacks and Deshaun Watson. We think that the announcement

(01:57:39):
at least from this judge is imminent, could be happening
in the next few days. We're not as certain about
the Jimmy Garoppolo situation, and apparently the forty Niners have
passed it on to Garoppolo's agent to make his own
deal right now, and I think you and I are
on the same page, Rich when we're still not a

(01:58:01):
hundred percent certain why it is that for precautionary reasons
based on the complete lack of experience of Trey Lance,
a team that was what a dropped interception away from
the Super Bowl, Why exactly are they turning the page
on Jimmy Garoppolo while they actually might need him in

(01:58:25):
two I'm still of the mindset. I know it's a
cap hit, and you don't want to pay million dollars
to a backup quarterback, but in this league, having some
kind of insurance, especially with a guy with his track
record and his win loss percentage as a starting quarterback,
I don't think it's the worst idea for the forty

(01:58:45):
Niners to keep him, not only keep him, but potentially
have him be your starter next season. Look, if you
can't trade him, and that's your goal, even if Jimmy
g knows that you're goal, and he does obviously with
this uh this new report that the forty Miners have
allowed Jimmy to pursue his own trade should he be
able to, well, if it doesn't work out, it doesn't

(01:59:06):
work out. And if it doesn't work out, you then
have two choices, well really three. You either cut him,
you bench him, or you start him. And if you're
asking me, what I'm most in favor of. Again, I
understand the value of experience and playing experience is extremely

(01:59:27):
important for a young player. But if Jimmy Garoppolo still
Day one of the NFL season is still your best
option at starting quarterback, well guess who you should probably
start Jimmy Garoppolo. Now, that doesn't mean he has to
be your starter come in into the season, doesn't mean
he has to be the starter in the Super Bowl
should you make it that far. It could be Trey Lance.
At some point, Jimmy g might get hurt make the

(01:59:49):
decision for you. But yeah, I'm I'm with you, Steve.
I've said this from the beginning of this trade situation,
like what what's necessarily the what? What? Why make so
much about this? If the outcome can be that you
have a pretty damn good quarterback who has led you
to some pretty damn good places recently at your starting
quarterback position or at very least on your roster. Yeah,

(02:00:11):
there are reports of the Falcons could be interested in
a deal to get Jimmy Garoppolo. But again, with training
camps opening right now, you gotta make a deal soon. Hey,
we'll get an update from Cooper's Town coming up next.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app

(02:00:33):
search f s R to listen live. Continuing our role
here on a big Sports Sunday, Fox Sports Sunday, Hartmann
and arm Burger with you. It's a big day in
Cooper's Town. Were the class of two in the midst
of making their speeches. The final speaker today, Big Poppy, Uh,

(02:00:54):
David Ortiz And I'm watching him right now as he's
continuing his Hall of Fame speech. Are we reminded Rich
that three years ago this guy was shot in the back? Yeah,
I mean he was in the Dominican Now, there's still
an ongoing investigation. There's been a lot of accused here.
Was that a case of mistaken identity? Was he the

(02:01:14):
actual target? Uh? There was an accusation that someone that
he actually knew had gotten jealous of him and he
had ordered a hit on him. But he was shot
in the back. He had three surgeries, He lost his
gall bladder, some of his intestine and everything else. And
you watch this guy and he's always all smiles and everything.

(02:01:36):
I mean, he literally has become like the most beloved
figure and all the Major League Baseball And one of
the things I always looked back this guy played in
three World Series for the Red Sox, all of which
they won. You want to hear stat lines, how about
this four career World Series batting average in fourteen World
Series games with an ops of thirteen seventy two. Okay,

(02:01:58):
so that's that's why I he is deservedly in the
Hall of Fame. But yeah, I'm watching him and he's
just you know, smiling away and everyone loving on him.
This guy was shot in the back. It was only
three years ago. Crazy, No, it is crazy. And what's
actually crazier to me than even that story is the
fact that, you know, you talk about this guy's life

(02:02:20):
and you know the historical impact he's out on the game,
and uh, how close we came to losing him before
seeing this moment for him, and how important of uh
of a moment this is for Major League Baseball. You know,
you think about how the MLB has turned it's back
on some of these other you know, professional athletes who

(02:02:43):
have undoubtedly woven themselves into the fabric of the game
before they were ostracized and penalized to the point where
they no longer could be spoken of in the sport,
like Barry Bonds or Roger Clemson. I know we talked
about this a little bit earlier, Steve, but every single
time I'm seeing members being inducted to this very highly

(02:03:05):
touted group in Cooper's town, I to me, it just
serves as a constant reminder of how falsified that hall
is until you actually admit these other players who are
arguably better than all of the recent cross Well. I
mean again, when we talk about Barry Bonds and we

(02:03:26):
talked about Roger Clemens, these are Mount Rushmore guys. I
mean yeah, I mean these are a seven time m
v P and Barry Bonds. No one else, by the ways,
one more than three. He won seven. And who's one
of the most awards. That's Roger Clemens, he won seven.
Here's the difference for those two guys. Though they're not
warm and fuzzy. I mean I was around both those guys. Um,

(02:03:49):
a guy like Ortiz is warm and fuzzy. You know
what's interesting to me is the the new candidacy of
Alex Rodriguez. So he was on the ballot for the
first time, three time m v P, almost seven career
home run obviously Hall of Fame credentials. He got thirty
three percent of the vote. Now he got suspended by
Baseball because of p d us. He admitted that he

(02:04:09):
did p d s when he was briefly with the
Texas Rangers before he came to the New York Yankees.
But we see a rod everywhere. In fact, he's always
side by side with Big Poppy, right, he's on the broadcast,
he's doing everything else. And you wonder whether it's a
conscious effort by Alex Rodriguez to maybe paying a new
narrative like, hey, I'm likable, Okay, yeah, I did some things.

(02:04:31):
I've even admitted I did some things wrong. And what
kind of sway that's gonna have on the Hall of
Fame voters. Stay again, he's still got nine more years
left on the ballot. Didn't come close his first ballot um.
But we'll see how that progresses out there. But there's
no doubt look at suspected. I'm not going to accuse anyone,
but when you look at the Mike Piazza or Jeff
Bagwell or Pudge Rodriguez, who suddenly lost forty pounds in

(02:04:55):
the off season when they started testing for p E D.
S um whether they participated or not, or other guys
that have already been elected the Hall of Fame, they
weren't surly or let's say, less than friendly with the
media as so what was often the case with a
guy like Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens. So again this
gets into favoritism and everything else, which should obviously never

(02:05:19):
be a factor in deciding who should be rewarded based
solely on what they did as a player, which to
me is the only criteria. And by the way, quick
note Pro Football Hall of Fame when they get into
their meeting and their selectors, there's about forty seven of
them before they even get started with the finalist list

(02:05:39):
and discussing who should go on the Hall of Fame,
they are reminded, because I have a lot of friends
on that committee before anything gets started, that every candidate
should be judged solely on what they did in terms
of football, coaching, playing outside noise, character issues, that's not
to be factor in basic on what they did in

(02:06:03):
terms of football. That's the way, in my opinion, it
should be. With baseball as well we'll remember. Look, I mean,
and again not to defame anybody for anything that they
weren't found guilty of, but you know, you mentioned Pedro
Rodriguez is stunning drop in weight during his career. What
about David Ortiz? Was it the I forget if it

(02:06:25):
was like it was the Yeah, it was after the
Metro report, but was was around then? It was while
I was still playing in the NFL. I remember one
season started and all of a sudden he had this
new diet, right and it was like this crazy diet
where he couldn't eat chicken and he was heating like

(02:06:46):
a yokes and salmon or something like that. It was.
It was wild no alcohol, and he claimed that was
the reason why I dropped all this weight. Seemed a
little suspicious in the timing, but okay, alright, you know
everybody's sort of rolled with it, and articles were written
and life moved on. But it's just to me, I'm
not saying suspicion should be the only reason why somebody

(02:07:08):
has counted in or counted out. I I don't care.
I'm on the side offence is I don't really care
if you if if you, if you weren't caught even
if you were okay, if if the numbers are the numbers. Now,
if if you want to make a rule in baseball
and you want to say, okay, first suspension ten games,

(02:07:29):
second suspension thirty games, third suspension, you know, a full season,
and then the final suspension lifelong ban from any any
baseball together, including Cooper's Town. If you want to jurisdicted
that way, I'm fine with it. But if we're talking
about crime and punishment, right, uh, if you're talking about

(02:07:53):
um offenses and discipline in the game, isn't the whole
purpose of having discipline to sort of rehabilitate, right The
idea of giving somebody a suspension is so you slap
him on the hand and you say, never do that again,
and hopefully they listened to you. Isn't that supposed to
be the punishment. Why does the punishment extend into your

(02:08:14):
post career unless you make a rule where they're specifically
supposed to be banned from Cooper's Town? Why are they
then banned from Cooper because they can You're absolutely d
percent right on all of this. And by the way,
with all due respect a big poppy, and I've made
this clear. I don't care what they do. I don't
I honestly. You know, he spent six years of the
Minnesota Twins before he came to the Red Sox, and

(02:08:37):
he was a very forgettable player with the Twins. He
literally puts on a Red Sox uniform where he, by
the way, was teammates with Manny Ramirez. Suddenly and suddenly
he became this insane power hitter and putting up these
monster numbers. What happened? The baseballs were the same Minnesota, right,
all of a sudden, he puts on a Red Sox uniform.
He's got a new teammate named Manny Ramirez, who we know,

(02:09:00):
you know, got busted a couple of times r P E.
D s. And all of a sudden, there's this change.
I don't personally care about any of that. It's to me,
it's again, I get back to sports being an entertainment.
It's entertainment. When you're going to a movie and you
see a movie star. You know, Humphrey Bogart wore a twopee,

(02:09:20):
So did John Wayne, so did Bing Crosby. Did I
think any less of them as stars because they had
some sort of enhancement, Don't get me started with actresses
out there that have done all kinds of things to
look better on the screen. Do I hold it against them, No,
because the viewing pleasure is greater for me, the entertainment
is better instead of you know, looking at a receding

(02:09:42):
hairline and a big cross. I'm not thinking about them
listening in his voice, what you know, going old school.
But the same thing with these baseball players. They are entertainers.
And and you talked about this before when Bonds and
Clemens allegedly were involved because they never got busted for
any of this stuff, were no rules in baseball disallowing
them from participating in exactly right, And like the same

(02:10:06):
way you just brought up actresses, right, I mean, look,
I and we're not gonna do the role call here,
but how many of them have had breast augmentation? Right?
I mean nose jobs and those jobs like we're talking
about Monroeux had a nose job. Does anybody think about
the fact that she had a nose job? Now? Sex
symbols of all time, timeless, classless, classic beauty. That's what

(02:10:29):
people think of when they hear Marilyn Monroe and a
life cut short by drugs. Of course, there's other things
about it. But you know, when we talk about certain celebrities,
and that's what these athletes are. They're celebrated for their
athletic endeavors. If we're talking about these athletes as celebrities,
they are, like Charles Barkley put quite quite honestly, not

(02:10:51):
necessarily role models. Sometimes they're just people who had certain gifts,
certain talents. They went out and provided an entertainment avenue
for people. And whether you have your kids look up
to them or not is your business. Whether you believe
the hype that they can hit you know, thirty or
forty home runs a year naturally, or they're doing it

(02:11:13):
um nefariously, if we want to put it like that,
you know, that's that's up to you to decide. If
they haven't been busted for anything. But the truth is,
the entertainment is the entertainment. You know. Now, if again,
if there are specific rules put in place, like there
have been now since where you're not allowed to use
certain drugs because if you do it is anti competition, fine, fine,

(02:11:36):
then test them and if they get popped, then they
can be penalized. And if that penalized, if that punishment
includes a potential risk for their legacy where they can't
be inducted to Cooper's Town later in their career. Well,
then they understand that's a risk. But to have guys
who didn't necessarily break any rules may have used some

(02:11:57):
elicit substances that made them more powerful during the course
of their career, and maybe that's widely known, or even
if they might even admit to it at a certain point,
If there are no rules against them being involved in
this Hall of Fame being considered one of the greatest
of all times, then why aren't they That's the part

(02:12:18):
of it that's so confusing, all right? On the other side,
a live report from Cooper's Town, John Paul morosi are
Fox Sports Radio MLB Insider will join us live from
Cooper's Town. Coming up next Steve harbur Ret Hormburger, Fox
Sports Sunday. The speatures are done, seven new inductees into

(02:12:40):
the Baseball Hall of Fame and joining us right now
live from Cooper's Town as a man that took it
all in today, he of course, is our Fox Sports
Radio MLB Insider MLB Networks own John Paul Morosy. Before
we get into just specifics, I want to know from you,
JP and your love is this game of baseball? What
a day in Cooper's Town on induction day means to you? What?

(02:13:04):
What is it? What does it mean to someone that
loves the game as you do to be there for
an induction ceremony for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Well,
Steve and Rich it is one of my very favorite
days of the year. And I'm just steps away from
the podium where David Ortiz just finished up his speech.
It was a great way to conclude today, and I

(02:13:24):
think really a perfect celebration of seven new inductees. I mean,
it's something that I look forward to doing every time
I've been able to. This is now my third induction ceremony.
I've been to Cooper's Town in my life, probably seven
or eight times, and and every time I get here
there's a special It's just there's a special goose bumps
feeling every time I get here because of what it means.

(02:13:45):
It is as the spiritual and when you're here, you're
transported both. I think the two places number one the
earliest roots of the game, and of course today a
part of the was born in this seed. As the

(02:14:07):
black player in the pre segregation minor leagues of the
nineteenth century. If you think about how far back that
was in the in the eighteen sixties and seventies, and
then and he then has to go and play on
barnstorming teams without of this career. We go all the
way from Bud Followers story who was born and actually

(02:14:27):
is buried here in the Coopersound area, to David Ortiz,
who brings within legions of supporters from the Dominican Republic
and Dominican flags being woven all through all through the
valley here. So it's just it's an extraordinary place that
sort of takes you back into the history and the
Bud Follower here and understand, I think the gravity and
the weight of history, and how the history of baseball
is so from my perspective, inextricably linked to the history

(02:14:50):
of our country. And then you go back to whenever
you were a kid and fell in love with the game.
And so for me, when they when they introduce the
Living Hall of Famous have come back for the ceremony.
For me, my favorite players growing up, Alan Trantal, Jack Morris,
they're here, and so for me that those those moments
where you're reminded of your love of the game as

(02:15:10):
the kid, and you get to appreciate being here as
a grown up and that that kid's love of the
game for me is still with me. And that's why
I still do what I do. You know, j P.
You mentioned so much history there in one breath. David
Artiz and the international flavor that he obviously has brought
to this game in his time, and the many players

(02:15:32):
who are inducted and recognized who broke down the racial
barriers of this game, and obviously just a career achievements
of these players who are being inducted today. Is there
anyone player that stands alone among this list as the
most impactful on the game from this year's class? Rich,

(02:15:53):
I would say this, there is only one life size
statue that exists in the Hall of Fame and has
for the several years going back at decade, I believe,
and that is the Buck O'Neill, because there is an
award in Buck's name, UH that honors commendments to service
and citizenship from within the baseball family. The most recent

(02:16:13):
recippient is the late Great David Montgomery, the Philadelphia PHILLI
is a former chairman of the Phillies. And so when
you consider that Buck had a full life size statue
dedicated to his impact on the game off the field,
obviously he had a great on the field career as well,
but off the field as a humanitarian, someone who has
preserved and championed the stories of the Negro League and

(02:16:35):
given them voice and texture and permanence in our culture.
That's a that's a really impactful life in the game,
a rich life in the game. And he handled the
indignity and injustice obviously of of having to play through
a segregated time in our country and in our sport
before the color barrier was broken, but also missing by

(02:16:57):
one vote in two thousand six, and he was already
at that point in time, I've announced all of us
in the last year of his life. So he was
denied entry in February. He gave a speech here still
in July on behalf of those Negro Leagues players who
made it. So think about the grace that takes as
a human you miss induction by one vote and then

(02:17:17):
you're asked to, oh, by the way, can you come
and give the speech on behalf of all those who
have passed away, But we're elected even though you weren't elected,
can you do that? His answer was an immediate yes.
There was zero bitterness um or spite in his speech,
and in fact it ended with everybody in the crowd
holding hands and singing. So you think about that that

(02:17:38):
kind of person. And Lee Smith, who is one of
the three Hall of Famers the Buck O'Neil signed as
a scout for the Cubs, joining Ernie Banks and Lou Brock.
So Lee Smith is here today. I just think that
that legacy is is so powerful and so important because,
you know, Bob Kendrick, the president of the of the
negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, has spoken so

(02:17:58):
powerfully about the impact of what that museum represents. And certainly,
as we've had turmoil in our country the last couple
of years, people have looked to the negro Leagues Museum
as a place to go for thought, leadership and perspective
on civil rights. And they're there and and now in
the exact building where more than a d years ago
the negro Leagues were founded. They're gonna they're going to
establish the Buck O'Neill Learning and Resource Center and help

(02:18:23):
for their education on on civil rights. And baseball and equality,
and so for me, it's it's Buck O'Neil. And then
when you think about the way that his who did,
his impact continues to this day, and how it just
lines up that they're gonna be able to open that
center in his name to help educate the next generation.
Um is a very powerful thing, and I think is
it's something I've been thinking about a lot today. Well,

(02:18:44):
when you think of the Baseball Hall of Fame, is
to celebrate those that had immeasurable impact on the game.
And I think back to two players, Mark McGuire and
Sammy Sosa and their chase of a hallowed home run
record combine almost twelve undered home runs in their career,
neither in the Hall of Fame, not to mention a

(02:19:04):
seven time m v P and Barry Bonds and a
seven time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens. It's very
hard for me JP to look at the Baseball Hall
of Fame with a lot of credibility when some of
the biggest names in the sport are not in the
Hall of Fame. And it's unlike any other Hall of Fame.
And I have a number of friends that are members

(02:19:25):
of the Baseball Writers Association, And when I bring up
the fact that they rewarded Barry Bonds with four consecutive
m VP awards, when hey, I was covering baseball, I
can see something's going on. I was covering baseball in
when McGuire took off his jersey and these size of
an oak tree, I didn't think anything of it. It's
like bigger, stronger, faster. Okay, part of the game. But

(02:19:47):
for baseball to chronicle their history and admit an entire
generation of some of their biggest stars, Alex Rodriguez, let's
see what happens there, A Manny Ramire is, how does
that sit with you? That this Hall of Fame excludes
those that, by the way, did not break any baseball
rules at the time, although some later did, but certainly

(02:20:09):
Bonds and Clemens did not, and their exclusion seemingly forever
from the greatest honor the game has to bestow upon them. Well,
a couple of things. Number One, I'll point out that
Bonds and Clemons obviously fell short this year in the
last year of eligibility, but a majority of writers voted
for them. Okay, it takes to get in, but a

(02:20:32):
majority of writers voted as I did to vote in
Bonds and Clements. And my reasoning on this is that
if you did not test positive under MLB's drug Plan,
drugs Trevement Plan, or have a suspension by MLB, then
if I look at that generations of players, I say,

(02:20:54):
who are the truly best players of this generation? And
I vote for them? And so I do vote for
Bonds and Clemons. I do not vote for a Rod
or Manny or Ameras because they're both suspended. I do
draw a distinction between a season award and the Hall
of Fame. I think that you have to consider all

(02:21:14):
eligible players for their performance during that year. So that
for me is that there's no dissidence there. I also
think it's important to point out that the achievements of
people like Bonds and McGuire and Sosa and Clemons, and
even there are parts of this museum, the museum, part
of the Hall that that have Pete Rose's history on them.

(02:21:36):
There are artifacts from his career in Hall of Fame,
so he is not So he is in the Hall
of Fame Pete Rose, but he is not in the
plaque gallery the Great Hall, if you will. So there
there there is a distinction to be drawn there about
the history and the way that it's presented. An experienced
and then those that you honor in the Great Hall.
There is a distinction there. Um. It's not perfect. A

(02:21:59):
few things in American society are. Um. I would never
pretend to be able to pass morality or judgment on
any other human being or servants baseball player. All I
would say is I'm trying to present vote for the
best players and support the best players of the era
in which I've covered the sport. Um, those of whom
who were not suspended for steroid US. I believe that

(02:22:20):
once two thou five rolled around and suspension started, the
game changed, and and I think that you're held to
a different standard once any sort of ambiguity was removed.
It was obviously anti bolox there has been illegal under
US law, but they were not expressly forbidden by baseball
rules and penalized as such until two thousand five. So

(02:22:42):
that I get that, and that's why I vote the
way that I do. The majority of the majority of
the writers, Okay, the majority of the fighters agreed with
me and voted for Bonds and Clemens, But it takes
seventy per cent and that is why this Hall of
Famous so special JB. I hate. I hate halls of fames.
I love museums like you know. So from the historical

(02:23:04):
context of what Cooper's town stands for and the many
memories and important and impactful cultural moments that baseball has
brought the United States and frankly the world, I am
so in favor of keeping an accurate portrayal of the
the impacts and the the histories that that you get

(02:23:26):
to wander through as you peruse the galleries. But I
really don't like the idea of staging it as the
best and something beneath that. I mean, we don't do it.
It's like the only place we do this. And I
understand like this truly is there's some objective ways to
look at sports, because there's stats, and there's home runs,

(02:23:47):
and there's wins, and there's you know, uh saves and
you know, name the stat there's a stat, right, you know.
But we don't do that with Monet versus Rembrandt. We
don't do that with Da Vinci against my Michelangelo, like
we we we look at sports so differently. Well make
the argument, I guess is the question I'll arrive at

(02:24:08):
for a Hall of Fame over just a great museum.
That's a fair question. I have to go check the
record to see how money Stanley cups dia Vinci one
before I on that. But it's a pretty good center,
you know. But now I I think, here's what I'll
say for me. We have and and I come from

(02:24:29):
a family that loves sports and loves art. Um. I
think they appeal to different parts of your sensibility, and
different parts of humanity, and different parts of our our culture.
Sports are an inherently competitive enterprise. Sports exist because on
some level competition, winning and losing appeals to our identity,

(02:24:53):
at least the identity of those who love sports. I
think arts by comparison, it exists for art's sake, at
least that's how I have come to understand it. I
can I can appreciate beautifully played piece of Chopin's music
because it is. I don't have to compare it to
the Beethoven or book. And I think similarly, I think

(02:25:14):
if you look at a great baseball player, I don't
think we have to say, well, I like Sodo more
than Otani or vice versa to appropriately appreciate them because
they are. There are artists on the field now in
their own way. I just do think that the accumulation
of of career, whether you want to call them achievements, accomplishments,

(02:25:37):
wins and losses, we do, like I think, as a society,
and again right later, only to gather, to gather the
best there and and to sort of enshrine the greatest
of of what we believe to be an important sport
in one place, I would I would also point out
that there is a there's a Caribbean, Latin American Baseball
of Famers, a Dominican Baseball of fambors of Cuban Baseball

(02:25:58):
of members, of Canadian Baseball of Fame. There's a Japanese
Baseball of Fame that I've actually visited, and it's an
amazing museum and hall of fames, somewhat similar to what
we have in Cooper's Sound. So it is, it is
a worldwide phenomenon, and um, we can argue whether or
not it's We could argue whether or not all of
the best players are in the Great Hall. Obviously they're not,
because there are a few names that we're talking about

(02:26:20):
here that are missing. But does the Hall of fame
get it right most of the time. In honoring the
past and celebrating greatness. You know, we we love great moments.
There's a reason why Derek Jeter was here last September
and all those Yankee fans came. I would I would
suggest that if Derek Jeter had won zero championships instead

(02:26:41):
of five, there wouldn't be there wouldn't have been that
many people there. And that's why that's why I think
we as baseball fans, sports fans, we do we do
kind of love winning. It's what kind of draws us
in and makes us a fan of particular teams. And this,
this place does, I think, celebrate the greatest champions, of
the greatest winners. And when we talk about David Ortiz,

(02:27:01):
there's a lot of talk about oh four, oh seven,
and thirteen, and left talk about twelve when they finished last.
We'll tell you what JP. First of all, we really
appreciate it. I know it's exciting time in Cooper's town
just seeing all those Hall of famers on the stage.
Every time I see Sandy Kofax, I get chills. I
actually saw my first Dodgers game and he was pitching

(02:27:22):
when I was eight years old. That's a long time ago,
back in nineteen sixties six. But JP, enjoy the rest
of your time in Cooper's Town, and as always, we
appreciate every second here on. Thanks so much you, Betty.
I have a great week, guys, it's a wonderful time here.
Thanks for making time for me on a business Sunday.
Really appreciate it. All right. That's John Palmerosi live in

(02:27:42):
Cooper's Town, a man that truly loves the game as
we do. By the way, a very special day. Indeed,
all right, let's find out right now it's trending. Let's
bring on David Gascon. Have you ever been anywhere near
Cooper's Town, New York? No, no, no, you really have
to go out of your way to get down. It
is literally in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, I can't imagine.

(02:28:06):
It's a place where if you go, it's I mean,
it's a drive, right, so you're spending at least a day,
maybe even two there, right. Yeah. The one thing that
my one and only time that I went to Cooper's Town,
which was forty one years ago, my buddy and I
were on a cross country trip. We decided let's do
it let's go to Cooper's town. We did, and you know,
from the outside it doesn't look like much, but then

(02:28:27):
you walk inside and if you have any appreciation of
baseball history, you were just mesmerized. There were no clocks
in there. I wasn't wearing a watch. I remember I've
been there for about an hour, right, and we thought, well,
maybe we should get something to eat, and I'm trying
to find a clock. I finally asked somebody the time.
We had been there for three and a half hour.

(02:28:48):
Tom flying like it was like, literally felt like we've
been there an hour and we've already been there three
and a half hours. We were just sort of in
a daze looking at everything. Have you been in Toronto?
I have? Have you been to Canton? I've been to
Canton seven times. I played in the Hall of Fame game.
We walked through there when I was playing for the Cardinals.

(02:29:10):
All's the fame are awesome. I mean, from the standpoint
of the historical aspect of I love museums, um, but
I just don't. I don't I And I think JP
gave the best description of the reason why he believes
that halls of Fame are important. You know, to sort
of keep the competitiveness alive even post career. But I

(02:29:32):
don't know. I mean just from the standpoint of a
collection of stories that tell the game, whether or not
somebody like a Barry Bond should be included in on
that story is up to baseball writers. Like brutal it's brutal,
it should be, it should be the fans of the game,
if anybody man. But it takes away I think a
lot of this now is so just mean Bud Seeley

(02:29:55):
getting in the Hall of Fame. Yeah, a man that
benefit obviously thought massive that entire aeron. How about Tony LaRussa.
Did he benefit with Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire with
Oakland and St. Louis's You know, yeah, he might have.
I don't know if he wins as many games out
to those two guys juicing out of their minds. So

(02:30:15):
you look at a lot of hypocris what happened in
zero discipline handed down to players, and they'll be several
players on a few rosters on those teams will be
in the Hall of Fame someday. And I promise you
there are players in the Hall of Fame that used
performance enhancing Druss. Oh yeah, one thousand percent, so percent.

(02:30:38):
I still wouldn't vote in a guy that couldn't throw
out Sid Bream from shallow left field in a certain
interesting just just saying, so, um, guys, Major League Baseball
tons of actor right now, Blue Jay's Red Sox eight
to four. Toronto's up right now to on and two
men out in the top of the eighth inning from

(02:31:00):
away Twins eight to one over the Tigers, Yankee or something.
The Angels nine one, they're beating down the braves. It's
down the top of the ninth thing from the a
t L Dodgers already one to nothing over. The Giants
are looking for a serious sweeping four games copies one today.
Reds beat the Cardinals today as well. Aaron Judge doing
what he does best, another home run. Yanke's five nothing

(02:31:21):
over Baltimore. Judge two for four in the contest, batting
to He's got thirty seven home runs on the season.
So that your American League MVP right now. It is
absolutely I know a lot of people still say otay,
but but but we said this about Mike Trout, like
the Angels would have these losing records, and then he

(02:31:42):
gets that War number and people are handing him m
VP Award. It's so different though, between the two guys,
Like that guy Trout is a five tool everyday player,
Otani is fantastic. But the numbers for Judge just they
dominate Otani's teams in first place. By the way, I
mentioned you mentioned, uh Aaron, you know he's a free agent.

(02:32:07):
Way anybody interested who's gonna get more cash though him
or Soto? Well what's interesting about Aaron Judge to me
is that, and I heard our buddy Willard talk about
this the other day. He has made less than forty
million dollars in his baseball career. I mean, thinking about that,
in six years, he's made less than forty million. That's

(02:32:27):
what some guys are making a year. Uh. They never
gave him any big deal, And now of course he's
gonna be up for free agency. Who knows, he's gonna
have sixty plus home runs this year, but he's also
gonna be thirty one years old next year. Like I mean,
it's not like a twenty three year old Soto or
twenty eight year old old Tani. So you have to wonder,

(02:32:48):
you know, Yeah, he's got quite a bit out of
Aaron Judge, and it will be interesting to see where
he goes on. In fact, let's get to that on
the other side there, because we got the Soto deal.
Anybody interested in show Heyo Tawny one question I did
not get to John Paula Rossi and Aaron Judge kind
of money we're talking about. We'll have that coming up next.
Steve Harbor, Rich Armburger, Fox Sports Sunday. We can't do

(02:33:13):
without the guys Oiowa, Sam fully mended. I have I
got some some things to do this later summer and
fall in terms of visiting some venues around southern California. Yes, well,
we've already got your date for the new Snapdragon Stadium
in San Diego, Snapdragon. I gotta check out the Caliseum

(02:33:35):
for USC game. Yes, and uh, I think I'd like
to to get to Petco Park sometime in August. How
excited are you to like have Iowa come into town
to play USC and U C l A. I mean,
when when's that going to be, like a decade from now? Well,
I don't know, it could be. It could be as
soon as lucky. I mean, yeah, the scheduling has to

(02:33:56):
be done. Yeah, it could be a decade for I
don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I love
going to sporting events, I really do. I'm reminded of this,
you know. For years I got a little cynical about it,
like you know who. But then when you go and
it's like a good time, Like I had a Peco
a few weeks back, it's like, yeah, I like this,
I really enjoy this. Uh. David Gascon, we don't know
if we'll see him again, but he was back this week.

(02:34:18):
T D. Yeah, tv D. But it's a busy guy.
Thought I did a good job today. Yeah, I had it,
did a great job. Yeah. I sat down with him,
you know, sort of daddy's son talk what we do.
It's not like that. It's a little bit like I
share my life experience and see how listen, you do
not have these conversations with your sons. Raincoat day, Daddy.

(02:34:45):
It's the daddy. I'm the daddy boy. Uh. And then
Ryan of course, and I feel like a father figure
did him as well, doing great jobs. Green. We got
JP on light from Cooperstown. That was very very cool.
All right, Speaking of a baseball here, we are approaching
the trade deadline coming up here, shortly. In fact, when

(02:35:06):
we sit here a week from now, we're pretty much
they're rich. Uh. Juan Soto, is he gonna get traded
by the Nationals or is his agent, Scott Borrows just
playing games to try to get more money out of
the Nationals. By the way, the show Hey Otani story,
there's a report now from the Angels that they have
zero interest in trading show Hey Otani. So speculation there.

(02:35:28):
And then you've got Aaron Judge who's having, yes, I
believe an m v P season for the Yankees. Uh,
and he's a free agent. How do the Yankees let
that happen? Trying to figure out that because I mean,
the numbers that we're looking at, I don't know. Doesn't
it seem like it doesn't make sense, Like we keep
talking about baseball's ratings go down, down, down, and yet

(02:35:51):
the money goes up up up. Yeah, I'm missing something here. Well,
what you're what you're missing is the fact that it's
it's just not true what the owners will say about
the harrows of owning a major League Baseball team. For
the most part, there are certain guys who are honest
about it. In the in the position of ownership. But

(02:36:11):
there's a lot of them who will try to eskew
how profitable it is. Don't a major league baseball team.
So yeah, there's plenty of money to be have. They're
making plenty of money and plenty of profits at the
eighty one dates that they allow fans admittance to their
ballparks first and foremost, and then secondarily the amount of
money that they're getting from these networks. I mean, it's

(02:36:33):
it's just ridiculous amounts of money that they're able to
profit share. So yeah, there's plenty of money for Aaron Judge,
and he will get paid by some way. It's just
a matter of how much. Yeah, it's uh, I don't
know when we talk about how much are you willing
to give up for some of these guys, right? Uh?
The one Soda situation, somebody put a graphic up on

(02:36:55):
Soto's numbers and where he is at this point, and
he is literally in historic levels, like when we talk
about on base percentage and ops. These are historic numbers.
And by the way, he got off to a slow
start this year, but now it's been heating up. Um

(02:37:18):
and I don't know, I don't know the price tag, right,
he's turned down four forty million dollars from the Nationals,
and that seems like a shocking thing to walk away from.
But not really, No, not really. I mean, you're like
four d forty million. If this guy plays it out
for a couple more years and hits the free agent market,

(02:37:41):
I mean, he could dwarf that number on the market
at are you kidding me? With his primers ahead of him.
So I don't blame his agent, Scott Barris from just
you know, laughing at any offer coming from the Nationals
right now. I don't know what you have to give up,
but I think some team's gonna get Like they're talking
about the Giants right now. We talked about it in

(02:38:02):
San Diego. Obviously, the Padres who who I mean, who's
not interested? Right right? And so everybody, anybody who has
a chance to win anytime soon is interested. I'm guessing,
And this is my guess. He's going to be Baseball's
if he continues on this path first five hundred million
dollar man um I could easily see him signing a

(02:38:24):
deal something like five hundred thirteen year, five hundred million dollars,
earning somewhere north of thirty eight million dollars a year,
like I mean, you know, and again, if he continues
staying on this historic pace that he's on at twenty
three years of age, even even if the rest of
his career is something lesser than what he's been able

(02:38:46):
to produce this early on, that deal is going to
mature really elegantly. And you're not going to overpay for
this guy's talents. You just won't. So I don't know.
I mean, it feels it feels like it's gonna have
been soon because there's been so much talk about it,
you know, a trade, a big contract, whatever. But we

(02:39:06):
know how this goes. I mean, this could go all
the way up until the beginning of August. We don't.
I mean, it's this and then in terms of a
deal that may not happen for another two years. We'll see,
all right. So next week I'm looking at trade deadline
right there at the finish line as far as baseball
is concerned. We'll also have a week of NFL training
camp under our belt, and Rich, if you can believe this,

(02:39:29):
we're literally like less than two weeks away from the
first preseason game. Oh thank goodness, it's just what a
good feeling that I'm I'm, I'm checking the schedule right now,
and the Hall of Fame game between the Jacksonville Jaguars
and the Las Vegas Raiders is coming up on Thursday,

(02:39:52):
August four. Look at us like ten days away. I mean,
I I'm I'm now getting itchy now. I feel like
I need to fix sooner than that. Oh so we'll
have it all covered for you, and then all the
other news out there. I don't think we're gonna see
any action in the NBA. I think Duran and Kyrie
are staying put for right now. But for all the

(02:40:14):
news as it's happening, You're where you should be. Just
keep it right here on Fox Sports Radio.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger Discuss the MLB Hall of Fame Ceremony