The Fellas with Anthony Gargano & Jason Fitz talk NBA Eastern Conference Finals, MLB Broadcast Issues, & MORE!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, Rip
Buddy well habby Abby Abby Abby Fox Sports Saturday Live
from the Fox Sports Radio studios where the fellas Jason Fitz,
Anthony Gargano here as uh we get ready. We got

(00:26):
our no playoffs last night, no hockey, no basketball. But
it's back at it with a great one because it's
Nicks and Pacers Game six. This is gonna be a
lot of fun, very interesting eight o'clock tonight eastern right

(00:46):
on TNT, and it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Indiana have to close. Now. There's a lot of pressure,
right you know you you you had the buffer game.
Nicks went and they held home court, they roll, They
played really well in Game five, blowout City. Now there
is a bit of pressure. There's a bit of pressure

(01:08):
on the Pacers to close this series out because they
don't want to go back to the Garden for Game seven.
Fitci Yeah, I feel that.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
And the funny thing is I was watching it thinking,
you know, okay, this you know, my ever analytical mind
sometimes as the Game five was ending, I was thinking, man,
you know what we're all gonna do don't want to
go back to a Game seven at the Garden, Like
that's just what the talking Boy's gonna be. Yeah, And
so I spent a day trying to figure out if
that was right or just overblown, you know, bloviating gas bags,

(01:38):
and I just I can't get away from it. You're right,
it just feels like, no matter, it's not about the
Garden even. It just feels like the amount of lost momentum,
all of those things that come if you end up
in a Game seven where you've lost two straight, just
feels like the pressure mounts with every single step more
towards the side of Indiana. That being said, man, the

(01:59):
two losses that they have in this series, I just
don't feel like Indiana playing their normal style of basketball.
And I know that's over simplification, but Anthony, it does
drive me a little crazy, Like you had the opportunity
to go in and just end this thing, and you
came out a little bit flat.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
You didn't have your usual sort of.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Pace, you weren't shooting particularly well, all the things that
happened in the other loss, and I just sit there
and think, Man, it is frustrating when you watch a
team that you know is capable of being better not
deliver that in the biggest moment when they need it,
and now they have to do it at home.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
I don't know, that's interesting, it's an interesting thought. It's
to me, it's more the ying and the yang of
his series, right, And it's a closer matchup. It's not
like OKAC Minnesota, right. I think the Knicks through the
knockout punts. I could say, you know, I agree that

(02:55):
Indiana didn't had the same defensive energy. But you know,
part of it too, is the Knicks are taking you
out of that, right, Like that's a prideful team. The
one thing about that Knicks team is you say, wherever
you want, it's not, you know, supremely talented and that
it's one of these elite teams ever. But it's got

(03:16):
a ton of grit. It's got a ton of pride.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Man.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
They were a prideful bunch. They go out and they
play ball and they're gonna, you know, back against the wall.
You know, you're not. They're not laying down in a series.
They're they're coming out throwing aymakers. And that's kind of
what I saw of Game five.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
I agree with all of that. I think you know,
yesterday there was a viral clip but a lot of
people might have seen that was blown up and it
was a reporter from Indiana asking the question to Siakam
of how they got out efforted, and it really was.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
It came across really poorly.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
I understood some of what the question was based on, though, Becau,
because I think what's shocking for a lot of people is,
like you said, the Knicks do have pride, which I expected,
And the Knicks came out and they were just swinging
like Mike Tyson in his prime, which I expected. So
sometimes you look at these things, or I look at
these things and say, man, it's just hard because everything

(04:16):
that New York was in game five is exactly what
I expected.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
Them to be.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
So I thought Indiana would be more capable and ready
for that, and it just felt like they weren't. And
you're right, like it is EBB and flow within a
series and when teams.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Minnesota probably like okay, see game game was it four
right again? And Minnesota back against the wall and you know,
play and they blew okay, see that it was game three,
they blew them out. And in game.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Fours like a human tendency. I guess, like it's just
it's hard to wrap my head. Like you and I
talk a lot on the in the fall about the
fact that when like I personally, when the team comes
out flat, I think there are there are just times
that's gonna happen, right, that there are times, no matter,
it's a human element that we have to acknowledge. It

(05:12):
is frustrating for me in college football or the NFL
when it happens, because there are so few games, right,
So when it happens in the long NHL or and
NBA season, okay, there's it's just a Tuesday night came.
Sometimes there are team's gonna be a little flat. That's fine.
In college football and the NFL, there's so few games
you just can't afford that luxury.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
In the NBA playoffs, there.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Are just certain moments that I sit there and say, Okay,
like I guess I had built up Indiana because it's
just think Indiana is a much better team than the Knicks.
I built this up to the point that I expected
game flow of Game five to be Nicks come out
absolutely punching, the Pacers have to dig their way back
into it. Second half starts with a little bit more
desperation and then and the Pacers have to answer that, like,

(05:54):
that's in my mind.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
I think that's entirely fair. Like, you know, I liked
Indiana for the series. You and I talked about it.
I liked Indiana early the playoffs. We said, I think
we both said, okay, see in the Anna. Even the
other night, I agreed with you. I thought halftime, a
buddy of mine is uh does a lot of this stuff.

(06:19):
He's him in the brain. They always bet games and stuff.
And he asked me, He's like, what do you think
because he had Indiana, and I go listen, I think
there's a chance that they come out and in the
second half, and you know, this is their run. Can
the Nicks stave off their run? And they did, like

(06:42):
they Didn'iana did come out with a run and the
Knicks just counterpunched. I mean, Towns was ridiculous brunce. You know,
when you have brunch in the town's gun, when they're
gonna be tough to beat. So I fish took that
more as an admit and flow of this series and
less an indictment on the end. Now, I do believe
in the pressure of Game six like, I know it's

(07:05):
kind of a lazy narrative, like, oh, you know what
a game seven, but it's true. It's like it's these
mind bleeps that happened during a series, right, That's what
a series is, man Like, You're never truly comfortable unless
you're up three to zero. You're never truly comfortable, right, Like,
oh it's you know, oh my god, what happens. So

(07:27):
when I was a little kid, the Sixers and Celtics
had these epic series. The Sixers are up three to one,
and uh on the other side was Moses' rockets. So
everybody fell out and thought the Sixer is gonna win
a championship and they blew the three one lead and
it was like, oh my god, like and I remember

(07:47):
and in the following year they did the same thing
and they blew a three on lead. It's three three.
They gotta go to Boston Garden for Game seven, and
everybody in the whole city counted them out like they're dead,
there's no way, and they won, right Like, so you know,
it does happen, but we know what that's going to
look like, what that's going to feel like, Like, could

(08:10):
I see the Nick's winning tonight and then Indiana going
to the Garden in a Game seven and somehow winning. Yeah,
I mean I could see it. But you and I
both know that once you're once you had that momentum
that is real and in the in this series that
Nicks are a creature of confidence, man, Like you know,

(08:33):
if they're feeling strong, like they just outwill you. And
they had that kind of way where they could they
could kind of get in your head a little bit.
So I think tonight it's going to be interesting.

Speaker 4 (08:46):
One thousand percent.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
And that's why I said, you know, I did the
same thing looking at it, saying, man, is it just
a lazy narrative? But I just can't escape it, like
there is a ken Indiana winning the Garden? Yes, but
does that just does everything feel different if it goes
back to a Game seven in the Garden, Yeah, it
absolutely does. Now should be noted for anyone that hasn't
seen this, the Pacers haven't lost back to back games

(09:09):
since March tenth. They didn't lose three straight games all season.
So do I still believe the Pacers control this series?
Heck yeah, but that's gonna be man. I expect the
Pacers to come out tonight with the thunder of the Gods.
And it's interesting because you mentioned the one variable on
this from the Knick side that I think is wildly frustrating,

(09:30):
and that's Karl Anthony town Oh yeah, We've talked about
it how many times, but like, yeah, sometimes it feels
just so easy that Yep, if Cat's on fire early
and just swinging on all cylinders, then they're gonna win
that game. And if he's not, they're not. Like it's
it is alarming, how up and down that level of
the seams.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
It's so funny. You said that one of our fine listeners,
Tasty Cake Dom, who's recovering from surgery, wish them well
just hit me up and go and said just what
you said with he's a great basketball guy. He said,
it's all about Kat. Brunzig will get his. But if
Kats get if Kat gets twenty five Nicks win, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
That's I mean, spot the lie. It's And what I
can't figure out is is that a defensive effort issue
from Indiana or is that an offensive output issue issue
from Karl Anthony Towns. Like this is this is why
Karl Anthony Towns is sort of where he is in
the lexicon of NBA players, because the greats bring the

(10:35):
greatest every single night, and that just hasn't been the
result for him. So I mean, that's that's just that's
a fact, right, So just figuring out how he settles
into this game and how Indiana takes him out of
this game, it's gonna be interesting. I also know, Anthony,
Like what Indian have twenty turnovers.

Speaker 5 (10:52):
In the lot?

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Yeah, the two losses they had in this series, one
was their worst shooting percentage, the fewest threes that they've
taken in the fewest three that they've made all season.
And then they go into their next loss and it's
their worst offensive output with twenty turnovers that we've seen
all postseasons.

Speaker 4 (11:08):
So, I mean, my god.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Like Indiana just they got to get out of their
own way a couple of times in this thing.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, yeah, getting back to towns. Like, I'll be honest
with you, I was shocked. Was a Game three, I
forget which game I was, where he was in foul
trouble and it looked like the Knicks were dead and
him and Brunton her both in foul trouble and he

(11:34):
just woke up and was just a monster and he
it was the end of the third quarter and he's
bagging three. He remember it was the game Indiana was up, yeah,
and the Mikes come all the way back and it
was I was shocked, I mean truthfully, because I had
never seen him done that. I've never seen him do
that before. Kat never saw him do it. And you know,

(11:57):
I was surprised that that he won up and was
getting and just shot him.

Speaker 6 (12:02):
You know.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
I mean, he can make that shot and when he
gets hot, like he's he's got unlimited range. But I
was surprised, I really was, because to me, he was
never that guy. Like he was a good ballplayer, really good,
but always came up small.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Yeah. And I think if you're a Knicks fan and
you're looking for through all of this, because I want
to stress whenever the next season ends, this season has
been a tremendous success. And I know Knicks fans won't
feel that way without a championship, But I'm just being honest.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
I look at it sometimes and.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
You look at it and say, hey, what's the thing
that's gonna make us better next year? Like I think
what you hang your hat on is when you do
see this, Like if Tibbs can unlock Karl Anthony Towns
night in and night out to be what he has
been at the best moments of this series, because you
know he's got it in him, right, you know that
it's there. If Tibbs can unlock that consistently. Man, if
I'm a Knicks fan, I'm feeling good for the next

(13:00):
year or too. It's just nobody's been able to unlock
that every single night.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
To be who he is. Yep, yeah, I mean it was.
It was you know, all those iterations in Minnesota, right,
trying to build around them, and you know it's it's
kind of it's worked. I'd be honest, I didn't even
like the trade. I thought I didn't fit. The trade
was smart. But where it's worked, well, see, now it's

(13:28):
going to be him. Like do you want to talk
about changing legacy? He changes legacy. He comes back and
beats in the Abba, it gets his team to the finals.
He's changed his legacy. Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
Like if this, if this Knicks team comes back and
wins this series and they are immortalized at that point
and no matter what happens for the championship, which is
you know it is, it's just this is that moment
that New York fans always talk about where they say, well,
if you can win here, like my god, yes, if
Karl Anthony Towns helps, just absolutely this behemoth comeback.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
The legend of this particular next team will never be
It'll be like a fishing story by the time it's
by the time you're sixty, everybody would have been at
every game, everybody will talk about it. I saw that
next team like that's there is such a moment here
that that transcends. And by the way, if we're being honest,
I think that ESPN and TNT and the NBA would

(14:28):
appreciate that very much if the Knicks could make this
a seven game seriously.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Ah yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been a rough playoffs for that,
that's for sure. I honestly, I've enjoyed it. You know.
I mean I wish, okay, see, Minnesota would have lasted,
but you know, I mean you kind of saw that
Minnesota just didn't have enough bullets to play with that team.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
But you watch and you've been I'll give you credit,
and I think we've tried to do a good job
on the show for the last couple of months of
touting in and Oklahoma City for who they are. If
you watch these games over the course of the last
week and a half, you're reminded just how good the
Pacers and Oklahoma City are when they're playing the way

(15:12):
they play.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
It's it's fun basketball, it's good basketball.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
It's everything for all the conversation about market size and
what the league wants. Man and Okay See Indiana Final
would be a really fun series to watch and it
will help make new stars. I just think that at
the end of the day, you also need your product
to go out there and really shine in these moments.
And frankly, the NBA playoffs have been so good that

(15:37):
for a minute, we've all stopped being talking about, you know,
the load management and the current problems with the NBA.
Like that's how good this playoff run has been for
the league. And I think all of us watching it
have loved it. This is why we get so frustrated
during the regular season because playoff basketball is so incredible.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
I know, it's so good, it really is. It's so
much better than the regular season. You know, it's funny,
we talk about this all the time, but the two
sports are like that. But basketball is by far it's
so much better in the playoffs hockey because of the

(16:17):
nature of the sport. And I remember PK Suban talking
about this and he's I love PK. Suman, but he's like,
we have to give effort every night, Like that's just
the way the sport is, like you the nature of
it up and down, you know, the line change is
like we have to give as much effort. So the

(16:40):
playoff hockey is ridiculous because the goal is magnified. So
every up and down, the every rush up of that
ice is like hold your breath. Playoff baseball is infinitely
better than regular season baseball. And I have a baseball think.
IM going to get to with you today. But football
is the only sport real where it's not much of

(17:02):
a difference because of the few games. But basketball, it's
just it's so much better. The playoffs. It's amazing.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
There's there's no it's an intensity that just can't You
cannot make a Tuesday or Thursday. And I would say
the same I said the same thing on air when
I was covering the Nashville Predators on the local flagship
radio station. You cannot put the same meaning on a
random Tuesday night game. That we all know at the

(17:32):
at the end of the summer won't really matter. You
cannot make that matter to anybody as much as what
we see every single night in these series. And that's
there's just no way to replicate the desperation that comes
with the playoffs. And that's that's the beautiful thing about
the playoffs. And in some ways maybe it's broken, but
in a lot of ways, man, it's beautiful because I

(17:54):
sit here and watch NBA playoff games, I watch all
the Stanley Cup stuff, and as you watch it happening,
you just realize that this is what the sport was
meant for. So I appreciate where we are.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
As it's Is there a way? I'm sorry, but I
I need I won't even think about this, all right,
And I apologize, but I won't even think about this.
Is there a way to put that in the bottom?

Speaker 5 (18:16):
Man?

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Is there a way? Is there a way to fix
the regular season to where it's never going to be
this like you describe? But you're spot on, dude, You're
so right. Is there a way to fix this thing?
I racked my brains. The only thing I come up
with is shortening the the regular season. That's the only

(18:40):
thing come up with.

Speaker 3 (18:41):
Yeah, And the problem with that is that everybody involved
would have to be willing to give up money to
do that. So when you follow what really matters to
everybody involved at the highest level of the sport, the
viable solution. You know, if I if I wasn't speaking
with any passion for any sport involved, and I was
just coming in as a consultant, and the NBA and

(19:02):
the NHL hired me, they and said, what's the first
thing we should do? And I didn't care about any
of the things in the sport. I cut each of
the regular seasons in half and then all of it,
and I'd make the playoff field smaller, and then all
of a sudden it would matter more. But short of that,
I'm not where And I realized all the complications. That's
why I said, it's just as a consultant, right, But

(19:22):
I think that's the easiest way to actually give it meaning.
And you know, to be blunt, I got in trouble
at one point because again I was working for the
flagship radio station for the Preds and I flat out
set at one point, tell me how we're supposed to
make a third line defensive pairing matter on a Thursday
night game in November.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
Because it doesn't like it just it doesn't, you know.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
And that's that's the whatever happened throughout the course of
the regular season for all of these teams not named Indiana,
Oklahoma City, Kansas or can say the Knicks, you know,
like if it's if it's not one of those four teams,
that whole regular season was just you know, it was
just for entertain purposes only. So I hope you had fun,
but you can't make that matter the same.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Way now now you're right on it's either you got
to pick your poison right. Either you put the weight
on the regular season and you eliminate the number of
playoff teams, or you cut the regular season down and
either way they're losing inventory. So they're not going to
do it. So I struggle at times. I think about
this a lot because I go, all right, well, how

(20:26):
how would you fix this thing? How is it possible
to Is there a way? Like you know, they try
to dress it up with the end season tournament, which
is Fobo gets like that's stupid, it's ridiculous. Like if
you want to do something fun and interesting, uh not
today that matters anyway, But like you do it like
an NCAA tournament. You rank the teams one through thirty two,

(20:50):
and then you play like you take a random day
of the week and everybody plays at the beginning at
eleven am, and you play the games throughout the course
of the day like that would be fun. And you
play at Cuba tournament style. Other than that, I mean,
they in mid season tournament stupid. So it doesn't matter.
You can give you all the cups you want. The

(21:11):
fan will never buy into it because it's it's a
gazy Well we'll get to take quick too. We'll come
right back. Lots to get to FITZI I got a
baseball thing later today. I'm gonna bust your stones about it,
like I need you to baseball today.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
I'm in all right.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
I knew you would. I trust you. See you're you're
a good friend, like you always got my back. If
I say, dude, I really want to talk about this,
You're in man, You're always like I'm down. Let's have
a good conversation and I want to make you. I
want you to want to bring it up all right.
After that game last night between the Yankees and Dodgers.

(21:47):
We'll talk about it. We're just getting started with the
fela's Jason Fitz Anthony Garganta right here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 7 (21:55):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR
to listen live.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Fellas Jason Fitz Anthony Gargane fits and it Anger with
you every Saturday. How was your week, buddy man? My
week was good?

Speaker 4 (22:23):
How was yours?

Speaker 3 (22:24):
I am excited tonight by the way, headed up to
Gillette Stadium. That's right, the I'm walking into the Patriots
uh Patriots home. But I'm doing it my choice because
post Malone and Jelly Roll or jelly Roll, I don't
know why I said it that way, post Malone and
Jelly Roller playing tonight at Jeel. I'm making making a
little trek going up to Foxboro, just gonna hunker down

(22:45):
and do some pre party and go see some good
old fastened country music and then uh, you know, party afterwards,
because I'm not going to sit in that traffic for
five hours, so I might as well, like just go
sit in a bar somewhere, so you know, sit in
a bar.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
But you know it'll be a good time.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Ah too, that's awesome, that's that'd be great. Anyway to
get you on stage.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
Now, So you know, I I shamelessly tried one of
my best friends in the world. Shout out to Derek Wells.
D Wells is the musical director for Post, so uh
you know I hit him off.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
But no, no, no, no love there and I haven't yet.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
While I have a ton of mutual friends with Jelly
Roll Jelly Rowland, I haven't actually connected on a personal
level yet, so you know, no, no, uh no inroads
to Jillette, but you don't know.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
It'll happy.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
There might be the opportunity to uh to make that
connection with Jelly tonight, so hopefully we get to hang.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
Oh that'll be good, all right, I like it. Will
you be at the Sphere at any point during the summer.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
I'm trying to go to the Sphere to see the
Backstreet Boys because you know, we got buddies and Chesney's
playing it right now.

Speaker 4 (23:55):
I've seen.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
I figured I didn't know if you would do it
with Chesney.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Now like I and Chesney's a really good visual performer,
so I it's it's a great show. I've heard incredible
things about it, but I'd already sort of earmarked this summer.
Try to get down to see the Backstreet Boys there.
I know they put a ton of work into that
that show. I just take me with you.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
I will do anything. I'll drive, I don't care.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
It's it's not a bad drive for you, right.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
No, Like I'll drive, I'll go get you and then
we I'll drive you to there, like, I don't know,
just let me go.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
Look if I if I end up going, I'll let
you know. Like Team Outing, right, Team Outing, we'll we'll explore,
explore the sphere.

Speaker 4 (24:43):
Come on, Anthony, come into.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Bays Mark in a Backstreet Boys show?

Speaker 3 (24:48):
Like sounds that sounds that sounds flawless. And would you
do that?

Speaker 2 (24:54):
I do anything for the plus to hag with you guys.
I would. I would be in on anything. You know,
probably it probably difficult, but I would. I would do
anything with you guys. It sounds like fun. A friend
of mine sould you too at the Sphere and he
said it was incredible, just you know, just a unique,
unique experience. I didn't know if you would if you

(25:17):
knew Chesney and you might play it because that would
be interesting. I love to hear like if you were
playing like dude, I would go anywhere.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
I would go to Chesney like like that, you know,
so but yeah, no, I don't. Yeah, Chesney and I
aren't like like that.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
So uh not.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
Not that there's any we just don't. We just don't
know each other on that level. But a bunch of
the guys in his band I've known forever, but you know,
Kenny himself, we aren't. We don't have that existing friendship.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
So actually I would to go where where. Well, I
want to go where you play. When you sit in
and play Brie, and I'll go to watch you.

Speaker 4 (25:56):
The next time I'm sitting in somewhere.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
I'll give you that. You'll get the advanced head.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, very we'll go. We gotta go see FITZI what do.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
You done done?

Speaker 2 (26:05):
I'll call in sick to all my jobs and we're there.
You know what sucks. It's one of the things that
I miss is going to shows I have. You know,
when you're a dad and you're constantly just doing stuff
like you just don't get to go to shows. Like
my buddy, he's got two grown kids.

Speaker 5 (26:21):
Now.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
We used to like we went to Metallica. I don't know,
it's a year is the Black album came out? Right, Like,
so it was a long time ago. And we went
to see him a couple of times during that tour,
and so they were just that looking financial field and
sure enough, like I get the video of him my

(26:44):
buddy Joe Ben and he's like, yo, bo, look where
I'm at right now? Remember five years ago whatever? It
was black and blue marks punching each other, right, it was.
It was funny and it was like, oh damn, I
wish I forgot all about it. I would love to wet,
you know. But you know, I got a torn thement

(27:06):
every day, I got a sporting event every day.

Speaker 3 (27:10):
Well, and not to mention the fact that, like just
the cost of going to these things.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Then there's that right, like then there's that yes exactly.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
Like obviously I love going to concerts, but like if
I don't know somebody, and I like, look if if
I'm up on up my own wallet, like it stings.
I there's a long like I'm gonna think for a
long time before I just say yes to a bunch
of these tickets. I'm going to a bunch of different
shows here and there this summer and just every time

(27:39):
I have to buy tickets to it. It just hurts
my soul a little bit that it has gotten this
financially out of control to just go see concert. Like
I'm I'm lucky that I didn't grow up in this
era because like coming from we didn't have those means,
Like there's no way my parents would have been able
to send me to concerts now like they did when
I was a kid, which is just a bummer for
you know, the future of concert goers.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
I mean, dude, it's the same way in sports, right,
Like you know, we used to go. I can't tell
you how many games that we went to as a kid.
Last minute, Hey you want to go to the ball game.
Hey we're gonna see six is a you know, Jordan's intown. Hey, uh,
you know Gretzky's in town. Want to see the flyer flight?

(28:24):
You would go day of the game. Now, the Phillies
played the VET so it held sixty eight thousand people,
So there was always a ticket and it was cheap.
It was cheap. The whole thing was cheap. Like you
could go, you walk to the game. You you know,
we lived in the neighborhood at the time. So you
walk to the game and you go and you bring

(28:48):
food because back then you didn't you could bring your
food and you went and watched the game right like
you loved it, like you spent. We spayed, We shoued
to go there. Many times. My parents would take me,
like my mother and my aunt Cookie would take me
and my cousin and we would go Friday, Saturday, Sunday
like old weekend series. We go to you know, forty

(29:08):
games a year, easy just to go. Hey, want to
go to game? And that's what you can't do that
now you can't go to one of these games without
spending you know, four hundred dollars family of four forget
about it.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Yeah, which is just I don't know, Like there's no
easy way to fix that. And I'm the first to
admit that I don't have a built in solution to
the pricing issue. But man, I just don't know what
happens to everybody at some point.

Speaker 4 (29:42):
If you price out.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
People from going to live events, then how do you
continue to grow. I just don't I don't know the
answer to that. And hell, like I we've talked about before,
Like I remember being a kid, like just basic math classes.

Speaker 4 (29:55):
If you in high school, you eventually had to buy the.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
Texas Instruments calculator, which my parents couldn't damn afford, like
the t I eighty one or whatever it was. Like,
So now I think about what it's like to just
have to have an iPad for your kid or a
computer for your kid in elementary school, and that stuff
is so wild to me. I just then on top
of it, you know, you want you want to have
these great memories going to sporting events with your kids,

(30:17):
Like I don't know how you do that. Like if
you I have friends who live in Vegas and you
just think about what it's like to try and take
your family to a Raiders game, like it's it's almost impossible.
So you know, in good luck Titans fans, like when
that new stadium gets built in Nashville, it's going to
be the same thing there, like and its just it sucks.
It sucks that there's not there's not a solution that

(30:39):
I know of that helps keep these things in a
price point that is actually reasonable.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah, because you you got parking and you got concessions,
and concessions are just outrageous that other than Arthur Blank.
Fact you very much, Arthur. The it's it's just crazy anymore.
I mean, you know, just to go get a hot
dog and a soda, like forget about a beer, and

(31:08):
you know other stuff like I took the kids to
the Phillies game the other day. Now I get the
tickets for nothing, right, So I took the kids to
the Phillies game a couple of weeks ago, and they
wanted that pizza, right the first of all, all right,
you know you pizza ball game. It's fine. And the
pizza is like a personal sized pizza, right, And it

(31:31):
was thirty dollars, Oh my god, thirty dollars a piece
CAUs a piece, you know, five dollars of water and
you know whatever. Actually it was eight dollars for water
or seven dollars. And then the soda was you know,
six dollars. Water costs more than a soda. I mean

(31:52):
it was insane. I mean, just it is what it is. Right,
then you want to go to New Jersey. That's that's
easily buck and a half. You know. The other thing
that's that's talking about gouging is a cat like you know,
you're fifty dollars dude, that's if that's if you get
it on sale, that's.

Speaker 4 (32:16):
I don't that's wild to me.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
At some point it really is going to price out
of the live experience and then you know, nobody will
care right now, but eventually it becomes a bit of
an issue, like you know, the stadiums do need to
be full, and you know, for how long have people
complained about the Super Bowl being a corporate vibe. That's eventually,
in my mind, going to be what ninety nine percent
of live sports are, because you're gonna have to be,

(32:41):
you know, some level of rich to get out there
and get into these arenas and stadiums.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah, it's wild, but anyway, I just you brow up
the concert and it just goes hand in hand. Yeah, yeah,
just does with with sports. All right, let's let's uh,
let's get off for that. I want to I got
to talk with you, all right. We're gonna talk about
the NCAA tournament that looks to be expanding. We will

(33:07):
always get into football, that's always it. We are ninety
seven days away from the start of the NFL season.
Ninety seven buddy, that's nothing, man, ninety seven days is nothing.
Hold your breath. It'll be here soon, so we'll talk
some football as we always do. We will get back

(33:28):
to the NBA playoffs at HL. We got it all ahead.
Where the fellas Jason Fitz Anthony Gargt. I'm hanging out
right here. On Fox Sports Radio, Mark always comes up strong,
Mighty Mark, one of our terrific, terrific sound engineers or

(33:50):
Fox Sports Radio. Don't be be sure to check out
Fox Sports Radio's YouTube channel sounds of great videos from
any of our Fox Sports Radio shows. Just search Fox
Sports Radio on YouTube. You'll see a whole bunch of
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to subscribe so you always have instant access to our

(34:11):
Fox Sports Radio videos on YouTube. That's right, Fitzy. Last
night Yankees Dodgers New York, LA greatest rivalry, you know,
I mean, it's just it's perfect, great theater. Two of
the great baseball towns left. In fact, there's three cities

(34:38):
where baseball is still number one, and it would be LA,
New York, and Boston. And those would be the three
cities where baseball is still number one, maybe even Saint
Louis to some extent, But in those towns, baseball's number one,
and it's Yankees and Dodgers. It's the pre franchise. They're

(35:01):
head to head, it's Otani and Judge, and on a
night when it's Otani Judge, it's incredible. They both hitcomb runs.
Otani hits two of them. It's the biggest thing ever, right,
this big moment and these two dudes who could be

(35:22):
the two greatest baseball players hitters, offensive players ever. And
obviously we know what Otani can do with his arm,
but this is incredible theater. And I think it's underplayed,
Like I almost get frustrated by it.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
Well, I mean, part of the reason I feel like
it's underplayed is it's hard to find. Last night's game
was on Apple TV, and it was on stupid late
on the East Coast. So it's just I don't know
what the right answer is because everybody's got to go
get theirs. But to me, the right answer isn't When
I open up YouTube TV, which is what I use personally,

(36:04):
the game isn't even it's not even reflective that it's
on there. I didn't even know, Like, so to your point,
you know, for me just kind of sitting around, not
as a baseball fanatic, The reason that I even knew
to turn on the game was because I saw people
tweeting about how do we not know that this game
is on right now? And I was like, oh, that's real.
Oh shoot, I'll check it out.

Speaker 4 (36:26):
You got, you know, the two most marketable guys in
the sport.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
Arguably they're up there with the two biggest brands in
the sport, and you stick it it late night and
you stick it on Apple TV. I just think that's stupid.
I realized again, I don't have answers for all this stuff,
but man, if you're trying to get the mes of
the world into watching, you don't put that game on
a place where the mes of the world won't even
know it's there unless we're opening a specialized app.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
Yeah. I mean that should have been Fox, right, Like
that should have been that should have been Fox all
day long. I mean yeah, and that's what.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
You mentioned all day long too. That's something that like,
I don't think we always put enough weight in. Like
I used to say when I was on ESPN Radio frankly,
that the biggest function of ESPN Radio is an advertising
arm for everything that's on ESPN.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Like that's what we did.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
So whatever game was going to be on, we were
talking about it, and you spend all day, Like, if
you are a person that has ESPN on in the
background of Fox Sports on all day in the background,
what are they doing, They're all they're all talking a
storyline over and over and over again.

Speaker 4 (37:40):
That's just all of these.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
Shows are regurgitating the same four or five big hits
and they're playing them over and over again, which is
which is what sports talk TV is, and it's great.
It also builds the hype all day for a matchup
of some sort. And I do think that sometimes what
happens when you're Major League Baseball and you don't really
have a major broadcast arm that spends that time talking

(38:04):
about it, the matchup isn't built up all day, like
in college football. By the time we get to Saturday,
you know whatever those matchups are. If you love college football,
you've seen it everywhere. In the NFL, they spend all
week just getting you ready for a matchup. Who's doing
that for baseball? So like, if you're not a baseball fan,
you also don't have all day of it being shoved

(38:25):
in your throat.

Speaker 4 (38:26):
Oh my god, look at this matchup. Look at this matchup,
and I think if you do.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Oh that's genius.

Speaker 4 (38:31):
I mean, just be real.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
You're right, you're right, you're right. That's one of the
things that's missing, like it should have been all day Yesterday.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Showdown, show Hay, Judge.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
I mean, it's the ultimate, you know, cong versus Godzilla.
I mean, seriously, are you kidding me? You know, it's
the New York It's La, It's Judge Otadi, two of
the most prolific home run hitters offensive hitters. I mean,
what they're doing is unreal, unprecedented, and they both go yard.

(39:09):
It's are you kidding me? It's you can't make this up?
And yet it goes without a whisper. Oh, you're right. No,
everybody should be bagging the drump for that. Everybody. I
don't know if you know what steven A was talking
about yesterday or what first take was going on, I
don't know, but it should have been that.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
When it's not their broadcast, they rarely do, and so
you know, and it's baseball on top of that. So right,
you're right, it should have been that. But that's that's
one thing that baseball has gotta figure. That's what baseball's
got to find a way to have people yelling on
shows like first Take about why it's the epic thing
you have to watch.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Yeah, let's dive in more interesting topic. Fellas on Fox.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Well, good morning, Good morning buddy Abby, Fox Sports Saturday. Fellas,
you're sitting fits. I'm Anthony Gargana Fits the every week
right here, Fox Sports. Ready where the Fellas? Yo? Man, So,

(40:19):
Mike our coach you know, I coach baseball too, and uh,
I'm like an assistant and our head coach is at
the field. You be getting rained like I have right
in Connecticut. Oh yeah, nonsop non stop. Right, yeah, rain,
it's been the raining is spring. It's crazy. So we

(40:43):
have a tournament and they're out by the field and
it's our home tournament that we're hosting, and the baseball
field it's just it's it's mud. There's no way we
can play today. I don't know how we're gonna be
able to draw this out. It's a grass field. We
had flooding last night, like crazy rain and still rating.

(41:08):
I don't know how we're gonna play. The coach just
sent videos like dude, this is the field and it's
just mud. Like you look at the infield. It's just mud.
I can't play that.

Speaker 4 (41:19):
Do the kids Do the kids like playing in that?
Or is it just if we get adults.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
I'm like, I want nothing to do with it. I
just didn't know if the kids were like, no, you
can't even at.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
That age, like, you can't play that baseball. You can't
play that. It's just unplayable, you know, unless you know
these you know, some of these really wealthy areas have
these turf fields with dreaming systems, like almost like mini ballparks.
But let's you have that. You can't you just can't

(41:49):
play on a field that's like puddles and mud, like
the game just won't you can't play, you know, the
infield is filled with you know, the huge puddles, like,
you can't play that. So I don't know what they're
gonna do. You know, they probably we may have to
either cancel it or hope that by later in the

(42:10):
day it somehow dries and we could play, like, you know,
two or three o'clock.

Speaker 5 (42:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
I love the image of Anthony sitting there and being like, God,
I hope it's a rain day. I hope it's a
rain now day because I just would not want to
sit out in that. I just there's no way I
wouldn't want to. There's no way.

Speaker 4 (42:25):
You're a better man than I.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
Yeah, you know what, I hate missing It's almost like
Stockholm syndrome where I look forward to it. We didn't
have a tournament last weekend, and I was like, I
missed it, and I think it's Stockholm syndrome. So let's

(42:49):
talk about baseball. You made, We're going to get into it.
In case you just joined us. We talked to that NBA.
If I will definitely get back to Nick's pages tonight,
it's definitely gonna be it. Well, we always have our
football hour two hours, if not for more. We got
a lot of stuff to talk about. But it's Yankees
and Dodgers last night now. And this is a perfect

(43:10):
conversation for Fitzie because baseball is four on Fitzi's list.
If I'm correct, it would be football, hockey, hoops, baseball,
Is that right?

Speaker 4 (43:26):
Yeah? I give I give it.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
Yeah, I'm a lifelong die hard Dodgers fan of like
three four or five months.

Speaker 4 (43:31):
Well, they won the World Series.

Speaker 8 (43:32):
That was cool like that, It's not as far as
I've got Yeah, and baseball is a distant four for
you too, Like it's it's football, like we all are right,
and then it's hoops, hockey hoops, and then way down
is baseball for you?

Speaker 4 (43:48):
So like I love going to baseball games, I should qualify.

Speaker 5 (43:51):
I just.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
It's just hard for me to watch it. It's hard
for me to sit down and just get into a
baseball game that I don't have a huge root interesting.
So yes, like last night, last night was just Taylor
made for me. When you have Aaron Judge and Show
Hey taking each other on, and you have these two
brands taking each other on in this sort of as
a World Series rematch, all happening on a Friday night

(44:15):
where there's no NBA playoffs and there's no NHL playoffs
and there's no significant NFL news of any sort. Last
night was Taylor made from Major League Baseball to have
this huge impact on people like me.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Yes, yes, I mean amazingly it did not disappoint. Like
the game itself was incredible. I watched that game from
I actually looked forward to what n I know there
was no other playoff games which I actually thought would
work in its favor. But you're right, it was Apple TV,

(44:50):
and you had to seek it out. Now I knew
it was playing. I knew the game they were playing,
so I was writing and it was either but I'm
a little geek, right, so I was waiting for it.
The game was awesome. It was just ridiculous. Judge Homer's
in the first. Otani leads off the bottom of the
first with a home run, right like, are you kidding me?

(45:11):
Like it went bang, bang, the monsters go yard. It
was incredible, I mean, it really was. It was one
after another, and then the Dodgers come all the way back.
They're down five to two, and they come all the
way back and win it ate five.

Speaker 7 (45:28):
It was.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
It was great, just great baseball. I mean, I mean
it was everything. Those two players are so good they
may be the greatest canters I've ever seen. Like leading
up to it, I covered baseball as a writer for
some years and during my career, and I mean, you know,
I saw Bonds and I did the you know, the

(45:51):
juice home run derby between Sosen maguire and you know,
I don't care what anybody says about about the juice
and Heids, but Parry Bonds is the best hitter I've
seen in my lifetime. And I mean it's not even close.
I'm watching O'tinian Judge and it's not like guys who
aren't throwing one hundred and four right like they're throwing gas.

(46:15):
And these two dudes are unhittable. They're easily I know people,
especially old heads, they get very defensive about the game
itself from back in the day. Oh Tiny and Judge
are the two best hitters I've ever seen. I mean
bart Nne. You look at you know, the hot chart,

(46:36):
like if you see a player's hot chart, right his
is all shades of red. Every other mortal you'll see,
you know, like a red spot like over the plate,
and then you'll see like a pink spot a little
bit in and then there's a couple there's a deep
shades of blue where they're cold. No not Judge, Judge,

(47:00):
all read shades are red. O Tani same thing. These
two dudes are ridiculous and they're both about like Judges
a monster like it was a great athlete steal spaces.
Oh Tommy Pitches is working his way back from Tommy John.
These two dudes are the greatest we've ever seen play together.

Speaker 4 (47:23):
So think about the.

Speaker 3 (47:26):
If the NFL had yesterday a rematch of the Kansas
City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, right and within that
rematch of these two Super Bowl teams there was It
started with an eighty yard touchdown for Mahomes and then
an eighty yard touchdown for Saque and then the Chiefs

(47:46):
get out to a big lead and the Eagles battle back,
so you get this epic ending to the game. That
storyline in general would have been so hyped leading up
to the game and so hyped after the game that
it's all anybody would be talking about it. We captured
the entire conscious of this sports world, because that's what
happens when you essentially spend all day, all night obsessing

(48:12):
over these things, like the way the shows are run,
the way everything's done. That's the way it would happen
in the NFL. The fact that all of that happened,
and much of it happened blind last night, is pretty
shocking to me.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
And there are moments where you've got to look at
it and.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
Say, Okay, what's our objective. Our objective is to take
non fans and make them fans, to take fans and
make them super fans. For every sport, that's the objective.
How you don't have an arm that can promote that
that's happening, an arm that's promoting the reaction to it,
and a way to make sure that every single TV
that's turned on all night is focused to it is

(48:48):
a huge loss because what you just described is everything
that was beautiful about last night, and it will take
everybody like me right back to where we were in
October watching this World Series matchup that was absolutely freaking incredible,
right like there was. I fell in love honestly with
everything in that World Series. It's first time that baseball
has truly captivated me. Didn't they have the opportunity last

(49:12):
night with the exact storyline you just broke down of
the way the game played out. Didn't they have the
opportunity to reconnect me to the sport? And if they did,
how the hell did they blow it?

Speaker 4 (49:22):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Like that? Because that's.

Speaker 4 (49:25):
It's huge.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
It's those are opportunities when we talk about marketing your sport,
marketing your stars, that's what we're talking about. Like it
just that's such a fail from Major League Baseball to
allow that to happen behind essentially a curtain and closed
doors because nobody was paying attention the way they could
have and would have if it was just on Fox
at night.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
Yeah, exactly, it nailed it. I mean, it's a World
Series rematch, it's the two great greatest players, and it
happens without any fanfare. It's unbelievable. You're right, it had
to be on Fox. You know, you nail did about

(50:06):
the Apple TV thing. You know, listen, like you're right
about generating revenue and that's all well and good, but
you're not at the point where NFL could go and say, yeah,
we're gonna be on Roku. We're gonna be on uh
this through this new platform called the the the Fits,

(50:30):
and we're gonna be on the Fits tonight and then
everybody in the free world's gonna find the Fits. Right.
They don't do that with baseball. They're not gonna go wait,
second games on Apple TV? Really, is it? Yeah? I'm
out right, Like that's the first thing that they're gonna
they're gonna they're out You're not at the level of

(50:51):
where the NFL is where they'll find you no matter what.
And yeah, you're spot on, like that's where a Friday
night Fox game like that's where the networks still matter. Like,
I know, we live in a streaming world and I'm
a that's probably ninety percent of my viewing is streaming, right,

(51:12):
And you still got the network still matters for sports?
It just does. It still matters to sports. That's where
I'm with you. Fox should have bit they missed it
a huge opportunity.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
I love the way you said that though, because I
think we have to understand that the same rules don't
apply for everybody. Like whatever you do doesn't matter. The
same rules don't apply for everybody. So in music, if
you release a really bad song and it's your first
ever single, your career is dead in the water. If
you've had fifteen number ones, then you release a song

(51:50):
that's kind of crappy, the world wi't forgive that like
you've earned that. They will hunt you down. If you're
a brand new artist that nobody's ever heard of and
you put your music out, we're going to struggle to
get it hurt. But if you've had a long career,
you don't need that same level of luck like that.
That's just the way for sports ARC Radio. Like when
you first get into sports Ark Radio, you think, well,

(52:11):
I'm just gonna do whatever I want. No, you can't, Like,
there's a lot of things you sort of have to
do and rules you have to follow before you can
get to the point that you can just sit back
and shoot the shot and everybody loves your personality.

Speaker 4 (52:20):
They got to get to know you to have that happen.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
Like, there's a process for everything. I think it's fair
to acknowledge that the NFL is far further along in
their process than any other sports. So if you are
the NFL and you say, you know what, we're going
to bury these games wherever we want, well, you can
chase the money because ultimately people will follow.

Speaker 4 (52:40):
The great debate is that can you afford to do
that if you're Major League Baseball.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
So when we talk about some of the broadcast splits
and the things that have happened for MLB in the
last year, I think one thing that we're forgetting is
that while most sports can come in and say, hey,
you need us as much as we need you, I
don't know that every sport can do that in every situation.
I genuinely believe that you know you you need. In

(53:07):
this situation, major League Baseball needed broadcast partners like ESPN
more than ESPN needs Major League Baseball. And it's just
it's just being honest. And I remember again when I
first started on radio at ESPN. At the time, I
remember there was some UFC thing that was coming up,
and we were talking about whether or not in our
production meeting, We're like, we're going to talk about this,
and at the time our boss has laughed and said,

(53:29):
my god, no, like at UFC, nobody listening really cares
about UFC. You don't need to talk about it.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
It's like, okay.

Speaker 4 (53:34):
Well, then ESPN signed.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
A partnership deal with UFC like later that year, and
before like a week later, it was, hey, we want
you guys to start having Ariel Hawani every week as
a guest to promote the UFC fights. Why because they
had invested interest. So now UFC became a talking point
like that's that's just real, you know. And so if
you're Major League Baseball and you felt like you were
being poorly treated in that process, you also have to

(53:58):
acknowledge that every time you shut down an avenue, it
just makes things tougher. So are casual fans gonna flock?
Like I happen to have Apple TV, I already have it, right,
So it's not like I have to turn around and
pay for Apple TV. My god, if I had to
pay for Apple TV, there's no way I was watching this. Like,
There's not a chance in hell that I, as the

(54:20):
non baseball fanatic, would turn around and say, you know what,
I'm gonna subscribe to Apple TV just so I can
watch the doc Honestly, chance.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
I'm a huge baseball fan. I love baseball, right, I
wouldn't do it. I mean I wouldn't. I mean, you
know the only reason why, Like I did the ESPN Plus.
It was early in the year I was was college football, right,
but I caught by also at hockey Like ESPN plus.

(54:49):
It was worth it, right because I got every game
and I was able to, you know, justify it. But
if I if I didn't want to, I have Apple
TV because of the content, right, because of it shows.
But I wouldn't do it just for baseball. I mean,
I just wouldn't. I mean, and I'm a huge baseball
fan right like, but I wouldn't get another streaming service.

Speaker 5 (55:12):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
It pains me, dude, it really does. This sport's great.
Like if I went through, like I could talk about
this sport today and the players are awesome. Just some
of the best players in my lifetime are playing today.

(55:35):
Ellie day La Cruz from the Reds is one of
the most exciting great players. And he's a great kid,
great dude. He hits. He's a five tool guy, shortstop,
hits for power. Don't let him get on base because
they'll steal all day long. You got guys throwing gas,

(56:00):
you know, just get making pitches fall off the table.
The other night to Reschooble, he ended a complete game.
His last pitch in the ninth inning was one oh three. Like,
there's great players. The sport is way better now. I mean, listen,

(56:23):
I know people would argue with me, like of you know,
old head people, and I get it's, you know whatever.
But if I'm looking at objectively and I called the
way I say it, you know that fitsy. I mean, honestly,
I just look at it and go If I think
the game is better in the day, I back up, dad,
say it. I think the game's better now. The only

(56:44):
thing that I think it misses it lacks is starting pitching,
going deeper into games. But that's pitch counts.

Speaker 4 (56:53):
But that's it.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Other than that the game itself. The game's awesome, It's
a great sport. Players are great athletes are amazing baseball acumen.
These kids are working, they know the game. They're not
drinking beer you know, after games and partying, and they're
like I covered baseball in the nineties, you know, I
mean it was it was a different mentality. These dudes

(57:16):
are working at their craft, they're prepared coming into it.
I mean, it's a great game, and I feel like
nobody cares.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
Yeah, it's I think that hit home last night, particularly
because of the hole in the calendar, you know, when
you when you you look at it. Honestly, the fact
that we didn't have a Stanley Cup playoff game, we
didn't have an NBA playoff matchup, we didn't have any
other distraction. And you have the two biggest but like

(57:45):
we're not the world wasn't asking everybody to watch two
random teams play like this. This wasn't two teams that
maybe this wasn't it just happens to be that Kansas
City and Cincinnati have the two best players in the sport,
Like this wasn't that this is New York, LA. So
all of those factors together that that that does feel,
and the fact that it delivered such a huge beginning

(58:07):
that frankly most people only heard about on Sports Center.

Speaker 4 (58:10):
That just feels like a miss it.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
It's mine. It was amazing. Is mind bogging to me
that the sport is able to pay players what they
pay players, because I just don't think MLB registers with
you know, I'm in the middle of the travel ball
kid circuit and you know, they watch it, but they

(58:34):
consume it differently like they you know the kids today,
will they watch it in pieces? So you know whatever,
they do the same thing with the NBA. So I
get it, But nobody else really feeling is watching this stuff.
It's it's my boddling where the sport is. And I,

(58:55):
you know, like it bothers me. I don't think anybody
really cares. Honestly, I really don't. You know. You look
at you know that scene in Edmonton, like this is
hockey right now. I get it's Edmonton, Okay, so before
you tell me it's Verton, I get it. But you

(59:15):
know that scene where they're out in the time in
the square and they're watching the game and they're they're
packed and they're freaking could you imagine that for baseball.

Speaker 4 (59:27):
No, I mean no, not at all.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
I mean it's be October, right, Like, could you imagine
October and they're all and there's scores of fans outside watching,
you know, in La somewhere watching the Dodgers. That just
I don't say it.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
No, that's part of what makes the hockey fandom so
specials are those block parties that happened during.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
The But they did it with the NBA like they
used to do it in Toronto, the Great White North,
you know.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
Like the world fell in love with the Raptors that year,
not just because of the Raptors, but largely because of
those scenes of what the.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Great White and reason remember they called it Jurassic Park. Awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
Part of the reason that there's a piece of me
that just would love to see like the chaos lover
and me wants to see Indiana take down the Knicks,
but the lover of sports just loves the idea of
watching New York go through an NBA finals like that
would just be such an incredible scene from somebody that
has no vested interest in it one way or the other.
Just that would be mind blowingly cool. But you know,

(01:00:38):
it's just to see those sorts of scenes that Kennedy
gives us naturally all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Yeah, yeah, all right. Anyway, I'm sorry I drove everybody
down this baseball thing, but I just can't believe it.
And Judge Otadi Judge Otadi and they both hit home
runs and it's an epic it's a great ballgame, and
it's a rematch. I mean, I'm like, I can't get anybody,

(01:01:06):
even you, like, God bless you, like you're you're going along,
You're like all right, like you know, it's good conversation.
Let's move on, You're and that's exactly the appropriate way.
But I'm just like blown away by it. And I
guess that's just what it is. It's a it's a
passe sport, and until they figure out the correct marketing strategy,

(01:01:32):
it's always good. It's just passe and and it's that's
what it is.

Speaker 4 (01:01:37):
I know, we gotta take a break.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
I have a thought on the pass portion of it,
how it ties into everything else we're talking about.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
I'll just tease that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
Oh, I like it. I like it Fellas on Fox.

Speaker 7 (01:01:47):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports radio
dot Com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
Fellas Jason Fitz, Anthony Gargana hanging out with you, getting
ready for a little game six Indiana. Oh, there's gonna
be a lot of tightness in Indianapolis today, a lot
of nervous energy get ready for the game. And I

(01:02:22):
but you had a thought because we were on this
baseball thing. I'm kind of I have neurosis of the
with all the baseball, the fact that this incredible matchup
happened and nobody watched it. What's your thought?

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
Doesn't it also tie into what we started talking about
with the difference in the feel of playoff basketball versus
non playoff basketball. We sat we're talking about you just
can't give a Tuesday or Thursday matchup tremendous meaning in
a long season. I think it's probably pretty fair to

(01:03:02):
say that I'm not sure you can do anything to
make Major League Baseball mean something in the middle of
the season, which is part of why the playoff expansion
conversation always happens, right because we look at the fact
that there is no meaning. If I'm being honest, a
you know, Tuesday night matchup between the Panthers and the
Oilers means nothing in the NHL, but a matchup next

(01:03:24):
week is for the Stanley Cup. Like we all know that, right,
So there is this element of you need bigger stakes
to make it matter more. This all speaks to the
fact that, of course baseball matters more in October because
the games actually means something. Every single pitch means something.

Speaker 4 (01:03:42):
You can't bring that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:43):
Same meaning to what we're seeing in a regular season
matchup just can't mean as much. So it's it's actually,
while it feels lost, I would remind everybody that we
felt like maybe the NBA was lost a few months
ago in the middle of the regular season, and now
in the playoffs, that conversation is completely just because it's
been an epic playoffs. So as long as we get
these superstars, you know, hopefully in the World Series again,

(01:04:06):
that's the real answer for Major League Baseball. I don't
think this is a unique problem to baseball. I think
this is a problem to everything not named football.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
Okay, so yes, to a degree, I think you're right.
But I could probably make the argument that a matchup
of this elk. Remember it's not like the Dodgers and
the Yankees play each other all the time, right, and
you have this, so there's a uniqueness there. If this

(01:04:37):
was a rematch between the NBA Finals Boston, I don't know,
or go back a few years. It's Lebron and give
me the give me the counter, right, it's the Lakers
and whomever, right, and it's this the stars are going
at it, like the two biggest stars in this sport

(01:05:00):
are on stage and nobody cares. Like I get nobody
really caring about you know, Phillies and Red Sox or whatever, Like,
just give me two teams that are any good? All right,
it's regular season. You know, nobody should care outside the
local market. I get that, But this is the two
greatest players in the sport and epic players like all time,

(01:05:26):
Like we never see anything like Otani or Judge and
nobody could watch it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
Nobody watch You make a really fair point that it's
I guess the first comp that comes to mind is
when we get Lakers, or when we got Cleveland Golden
State after Golden State came back from from down. Maybe
you know, when you get Lebron versus Steph Curry, that
is a landmark moment, Like if we end up with

(01:05:53):
Indiana OKC. Then next year in the middle of the season,
if we're getting you know, that same matchup again, if
it's Alberton versus SGA for the first time since the championship,
that's probably gonna get some some pretty serious Yeah, I'll
get probably pretty right about that. Yeah, you know, and
and it's and those aren't the two best players in
this sport, but the stars will certainly, you know, continue

(01:06:14):
to make people gravitate towards it. So I think that
is a fair fair point.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
Yeah, what's my boggling is, in fact, is they delivered.
What's my boggling right right? Otani hits one of his
first in bat. I mean, Judge hits one top of
the first, is first to bat, and Otani leads off
the bottom of the inning with a home run. Are
you kidding me? Like they both came through with home runs.

(01:06:43):
It's hard at a home run Like, it's not easy.
And those two didn't the first inning back to back
like lot, Like, that's what's so my boggling about it.
They delivered. Like I guess I'm marveling more at the
anomaly of the two greatest players in this sport who
may be the greatest players ever to play the game
or greatest hitters or we want to call it, and

(01:07:07):
they both hit all broads like that's that's unbelievable, and
like that should have broke the internet on a non
playoff night.

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
Mm yeah, no, you're right. That should have broke the internet.
I aqueous to all of that, Like that should have
absolutely that should have been the moment that the world
stopped and everybody said, oh my god, you got it.
Like this is what we all see if you're if
you're scrolling Twitter x during a game half the time,
especially like think about how often we see this during

(01:07:38):
you know, college football whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:07:39):
It's like, flip over to this right now.

Speaker 3 (01:07:41):
This is epic, right, like and the number of times
it's like, oh, well, I wasn't watching this random Mountain
West game, but everybody's tweeting about it, so I'm gonna
go ahead and check it out. Like the consciousness was there.
It is a very for a point that even that
conversation didn't exist last night, Like I wasn't watching Twitter
blow up and say, oh my god, home runs by
both of them, Like the tweets that you would expect

(01:08:03):
from that just weren't there, which is a reminder that
the casual people that would create that conversation just weren't watching.

Speaker 5 (01:08:09):
They just weren't.

Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
Now, no, no, no, And that's it's that's why it's languishing.
Quite frankly, as much as we talk about the NBA
and non football languishing. I mean, look, you know, the
world's gonna be watching tonight, like we're everybody Nicks Pacers
game six. Now you got the Knicks, so it's it's

(01:08:34):
a big draw, I get it. But still, like this
is kind of this is an interesting matchup people have.
You know, during the course of these of these playoffs,
Sga is blossomed into a superstar, right, He's just true
super people now know about sta it's just coming out party.

(01:08:55):
Same thing for Halliburton. Now all of a sudden, that's
on the line. Now, all of a sudden, cat who
was a big name kind of fell a little bit
off the perch his back and like he's got an opportunity. Brunson,
what a series he's had to you know, it's incredible,
Like you could see people in sports world will be

(01:09:17):
watching tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
Yeah, and by the way, that's the beautiful thing that
has happened for all the negativity in the way that
we usually talk about problems with the NBA, and I
think that's they're fair. What's happening right now is a
great situation for the NBA in the sense that what
you have are star building moments. Because we talked about
this a couple of weeks ago, but realistically, legacies are

(01:09:40):
made in the playoffs because that's when people pay attention.
It doesn't it doesn't matter what Halliburton does in the
regular season because most of us are not gonna sit down,
stop everything we're doing to watch an Indiana Pacers game.
That's just being honest, right, So you see little snippets,
but you're not really consumed by it. During the playoffs,
over and over every couple of nights, you're getting the
opportunity to see these guys, and it does become a

(01:10:02):
star making moment. So I believe that as much as
we've talked about everybody's talked about well, you know, okay,
see in Indiana this there was a period where people
were looking around Saint Golden State like that's that's gonna
be the team, Like hey, why not if you're okay, See,
you got some young players growing up together in front
of everybody.

Speaker 4 (01:10:22):
The people are falling in love with it.

Speaker 3 (01:10:23):
It feels reminiscent of a sweet sixteen run. And it's
not it's number one, you know, it's it's the best
team there in that conference, finally getting the attention that
they deserve as the best team in the conference. So
I do think that there's actually some great things about
the way that it's built, in the sense that legacies
are being made, stars are coming out to a higher level.
We're seeing fans lose their minds in such emotional ways,

(01:10:46):
and we're not talking for once about any of the
other issues with the league.

Speaker 4 (01:10:50):
Like the playoff has been a.

Speaker 3 (01:10:51):
Massive, massive success for the NBA because it truly has
shown hey.

Speaker 4 (01:10:56):
Like we get it.

Speaker 3 (01:10:57):
We're willing to sacrifice the entire regular season to be
half asked as long as the playoffs come out great,
that's what the league is depending on. And guess what
this year, it's working. I mean, people are flocking to it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
It is and that includes a huge hit that it
took with Tatum. Right, Tatum is injury. I mean you
could argue that, you know, if Tatum is healthy, Boston
is probably in this.

Speaker 3 (01:11:24):
In the series, right, Yeah, probably, right, and I yes, and.

Speaker 2 (01:11:31):
Likely and likely going to play Nix right and likely
going to play Okay, see, would have.

Speaker 3 (01:11:36):
Been a hell of a series. I'm not gonna right,
that would have been a would have been a hell
of a series. I'm not I'm not mad.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
At that right so so, but my point is is
that the these playoffs survived a major hit, major hit
that Tatum going down and the and the Celtics you know,
getting knocked out. That to me is a big hit

(01:12:01):
because I still think even though I hate the way
they play with you know, shooting all the threes and
everything else, I mean, I still thought they were the
best team in the East. But you know, they go down,
Tatum gets hurt, they get knocked out, and I think,
you know, listen to Indiana and the Knicks have stepped
up and it's fun and it's good ball.

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
Yeah, it's it's the scene of Madison Square Garden combined
with everything else is just such a powerful one that
it's you get this great moment because I'll go back
to eighties wrestling where they always say you got to
have like somebody has to put you over. So for
hull Cogan to become hul Cogan, he has to body

(01:12:47):
slam Andre the Giant. Right for Indiana to really get
over on the entire NBA world, getting through Madison Square
Garden is a great way to do that, right, Like
it's Golden State taking down Lebron as part of the
legacy that really catapulted Golden State. Like that's the beautiful

(01:13:08):
thing that's happening in the way that it's all broken down,
is that you get this crazy energy from fan bases
that haven't been there in a really long time, that
have like a passion, Like the scene in Indiana tonight.
We haven't even talked about that, but like the scene
in Indiana tonight is going to be epic, And I
think people forgot how great Indiana can be as a
basketball community, and this has just been such an eye

(01:13:31):
opening reminder. Like those are the things that I think
become really incredible by specifically taking down presuming they do
taking down the Knicks, but being in this battle with
the Knicks has brought so much more attention to it
because of.

Speaker 2 (01:13:42):
The it's you know, small town versus the big city.
You know, it's it's the closest thing you'll get the
Hoosiers in the NBA. Yeah, The biggest star in Indianapolis
is Pat McAfee, right, Compared the celebrity row in Manhattan.

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
It's it's macaface world.

Speaker 2 (01:14:01):
We're just living in a brother God bless him. He
was great the other night. To look.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
What he's doing.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
He's great at that stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:14:09):
He is.

Speaker 2 (01:14:10):
He's awesome. I love him. I think he's great. He
really is. Anyway, Uh, lots to get to coming up.
Expansion this year in the tournament? Is that possible? We're
the Fellas right here Fox Sports Radio Fellas Jason fits anthing.

(01:14:36):
So FITZI, I'm curious. Do you like this expansion in
the NCLE tournament. They're talking about going this seventy two
or seventy six teams as early as next season. The
decisions good expected with him probably by early summer, right,

(01:14:57):
Good about another month or so, a couple months and
you're looking. It's getting a lot of steam. They're talking
to all the streamers because you know what's going to happen.
You gotta get that streaming money. Do you like expansion
in the tournament?

Speaker 3 (01:15:17):
I dislike so much of this, and it just what
I dislike about it is the conversation that eliminates and
So to me, every time you expand understand what you're
gaining versus what you're taking away. And I understand that
more March Madness games means more attention because we all

(01:15:38):
know that that's what people pay attention to. We've been
talking a lot about that people pay more attention to
the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (01:15:42):
That's fine. What you do though, in this expansion process is.

Speaker 3 (01:15:47):
You take away a ton of the drama that's already
been sort of watered down in conference tournaments, right, I mean,
at that point, so many teams are getting in. How
much is there in the last two weeks of the
season when doing bubble Watch? Are we really going to
be doing bubble watch for that many teams? I would
argue no. In fact, this year it was pretty hard,

(01:16:08):
I think, to find a compelling reason to get super
worked up over who didn't make the tournament. It'll be
even worse in an expansion world. So in the sense
that people will watch it, sure, in the sense of
it just makes it makes the last two weeks, which
is really the most meaningful part of the college basketball
regular season. It makes the last two weeks even more meaningless.

(01:16:29):
So I think what they eliminate is a ton of
the conversation, you know, and for everyone that wants automatic
bids across the board for everything in college football, I
would argue the same thing, like, it's hard for college
football in the fall to really cut through. But what
we do talk about once the rankings committee has started.
Every Tuesday and Wednesday, people are obsessing over how the

(01:16:50):
rankings Committee is going to rank all of these teams
because it matters. And what that does is it creates
midweek conversation about college football that otherwise wouldn't exist.

Speaker 1 (01:16:58):
I like that.

Speaker 3 (01:16:59):
I think it's important for the sport for conversation to
continue to bring storylines and narratives like we've talked about
with other sports. So I think you lose a lot
of that with the expansion of the tournament.

Speaker 2 (01:17:10):
Yeah, I think you almost turned it into the NBA playoffs,
right where the regular season really won't matter. Nobody it
already gets it already starts way too soon, right like
it starts in October, and but nobody cares. You're in

(01:17:32):
the middle of football, You're winding down with the baseball playoffs.
The NBA and then the NHL are starting their seasons.
Nobody's looking at December nobody's looking for college basketball even
in December when it gets starts to get a little
bit more pronounced. Now with the way college football is
that they're going to own that month in the NFL,

(01:17:55):
it'll get lost. It gets lost now the regular season
and people don't pay attached it until after the Super Bowl.
So now when you just added love a tier of playoffs,
it what of the tournament? They're really just gonna look
at it all right, Well, you know these are the
teams that are in.

Speaker 3 (01:18:12):
Yeah, and it makes everything sort of just not matter,
you know. And that's again, it's if the only thing
you're capable of marketing is your tournament, then I'll give
you some some leeway on that, But man, of all
the ways to make your sport matter more in October November,
it doesn't accomplish that. So it will give them more

(01:18:33):
money from the streaming services, but it will dilute the
money they're getting from the other partners.

Speaker 2 (01:18:38):
Yeah, yeah, dude, I don't know. I don't know what
do you do for they like, what do you do
is they're going to just gonna be another It's still
going to be the Thursday Friday first round. They just
add the games during the day or do they now break.

Speaker 3 (01:18:53):
It up more play in games.

Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
Go Yeah, where the fellas, We'll talk about it. Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:19:03):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:19:06):
Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning,
good morning, everybody. Abby Abby, Abby, Uh, last day of May,
May thirty first today, and that uh something we're gonna

(01:19:27):
talk about this hour because the countdown is on ninety
seven days until football nine to seven under a hundred.
We're in double digits now. Jason fitz Anthony guar I
got up fellas with you. You know, we get a
little bit more, a little more pep when we're talking

(01:19:48):
about the National Football League college football ninety seven days, FITZI.

Speaker 4 (01:19:55):
It feels like that's kind of wild.

Speaker 3 (01:19:58):
I mean, honestly, the amount of attention we're going to
start paying to everything, especially with Aaron Rodgers just sort
of dangling over the football consciousness. The amount of time
we're going to spend getting ready for OTA or getting
ready for training camp is going to be absolutely crazy.
And you see it from fans, the explosion of OTA overreactions.

(01:20:19):
You know, this quarterback that we touchdown, so the Giants
fans were wildly pleased because Jackson Dart had a good
OTA practice and Raiders fans were losing their minds because
Gino threw a couple of picks in OTA practice, and
it's like, what.

Speaker 2 (01:20:31):
Are we doing?

Speaker 3 (01:20:32):
That's we're so starved that we're reading every single report
from every single reporter that we even remotely like, just
to yell about their coverage of our favorite team. So
just remember that when we're all sitting here saying that
a particular weekend of action sucks in the middle of September,
that we're so damn thirsty for it, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (01:20:52):
Well, you're so right, Like, you know, we're breaking down
OTAs OTAs it is because we're starved. It's amazing to
me that we're bringing down a safe you know, training
camp doesn't matter when it comes to guys throwing picks

(01:21:13):
and you know, the whole thing. Let alone, you know,
when you're truly in shorts and he really is seven
on seven, Like you know, come on, man, you know
I get it too. I love talking about it. But
like you can't be worried about your quarterback. You can't
be or you can't be fumping your chest about Jackson
Dart like all right, Like maybe the kill complay whenever

(01:21:36):
you're not gonna know anything for a long time.

Speaker 3 (01:21:39):
Hell, go back to last season, in the first couple
of weeks, like when bow Knicks was throwing everything basically
at the line of scrimmage and everybody was laughing about it.
Jayden Daniels, for the first month and a half of
the season, people were actually questioning whether he was going
to be allowed to push the ball down the field
at all. And then think about where those guys were
at the end of the year, like it's such an evolution.

(01:22:01):
It's a slow and low game. But nobody wants to
hear that right now. I mean, if you can't be
excited about your favorite team right now, then the hell
are you doing? Because my god, they'll prove most of
us wrong by the third week in September, so you
might as well enjoy it now while you have it.
But it is wild how much we just obsess over
every single angle of all of it. And it makes

(01:22:21):
me wonder, like I don't even remember from when I
was again, I remember when I was a little kid,
little like elementary school. I decided one day, and because
I love football so much, I was going to write
my own Football Preview magazine, and I quickly.

Speaker 4 (01:22:34):
Realized back then, like I didn't have any The.

Speaker 3 (01:22:36):
Internet didn't even exist when I was a kid, so
the concept of googling things didn't exist. What do we
do back then when season ended, you know, at the
beginning of January and you had nothing until August. It
just there had to be a time when we found
other ways to occupy it, because we just couldn't do
this back then. And now it's every single day we're

(01:22:58):
wanting and reading and walking to content on our favorite team.

Speaker 2 (01:23:02):
And I and I have this conversation with my buddies
and we talk about all the time, like we love
all you know, we're we love all of our sports. Right.
But my buddy Boo, who's a huge coop guy, huge
oop guy, but he's like, dude, he goes, you know,
he goes, the only thing that truly makes me happy
is football. It's see, you know, the only thing that

(01:23:26):
truly makes me happy is football. And it's bizarre how
they how it's evolved like that, because you're right, like
when we were kids, you know, it was you know,
baseball was a big deal, which it's already said now
it's not the NBA playoffs and NHL players were way bigger.
The you know, every all the other sports were big.

(01:23:49):
The only one that.

Speaker 3 (01:23:50):
Remember Wimbledon coming on and you'll be like, oh, it's
Wimbledon this week, We're going to watch that.

Speaker 4 (01:23:54):
It's like, yes, but maybe because.

Speaker 3 (01:23:56):
We didn't have as many channels, as many options as
many other things, and it was just like, all right,
Wimbledon's on, and that's the sport that's on, so I'm
going to watch it because it's that are soap operas
in the middle of the summer, Like I'm not now
watching that.

Speaker 4 (01:24:08):
Like streaming didn't occupy so much of our mindset.

Speaker 2 (01:24:12):
Dude, you were sure what about tennis? Like I didn't
know who the number one they were touring with, the
number one center, the number one player in the men's circuit,
and I didn't know. I didn't know who. We had
no idea who it is.

Speaker 3 (01:24:28):
I know, like now, in fairness, I will acknowledge growing
up as a little kid in Vegas during the peak
of Andre Agassi, maybe that made tennis feel a little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:24:39):
I'm willing to acknowledge that, y'all. But like there just
was a moment, like the.

Speaker 3 (01:24:44):
Wide world of sports on Saturday was something you tuned
in to watch because that was the closest you got to,
you know, something sports related to watch on the weekend
during so much of the year, it's things like boxing
could matter then because there was nothing else to take
your attention away. It is interesting that as we got

(01:25:04):
more options to watch more things, we stopped paying attention
to more things and focused on less things. It's it's
kind of crazy to me that, you know, competition might
be part of why we don't watch that stuff as much,
like there's more things competing with our eyeballs. But at
the same time, my god, the NFL wins that competition
every single week and every week as somebody that loves
the sport, I don't know why, ud.

Speaker 2 (01:25:26):
Yes, And it's because And it's funny because you know,
look at the draft, like the draft wasn't as big
back then, right like the season was over, the season
was over, the like you know, we liked it or whatever,
we were nerds.

Speaker 3 (01:25:41):
Well, my friends made fun of me in the nineties
for sitting around watching the draft not stuffing, dude, what
are you doing? And I got made fun of for
and now like that's.

Speaker 4 (01:25:49):
All anybody does yes, it is.

Speaker 2 (01:25:52):
It's crazy like we loved it, man, we we I
don't know, but you're right, nobody else did. It wasn't
a big deal the NFL, the schedule. Somebody was this
is over the course of my professional life on the air,
somebody was brought this up to me that when the

(01:26:14):
schedule this is like the you know, mid too early,
like the aughts, like two thousand and five, six seven, whatever.
I would The Eagles PR guy was a buddy of mine.
He'd sent me the schedule and I would announce it
on the air. Oh I got this schedule. Oh my god,

(01:26:37):
here we go, September fifth, Eagles cowboy and I would
do it and I would, and he would just give
it to me. Nobody else like it didn't matter. Then
in the team. I guess it was the teens that
started to matter a little bit. And now you know,
there's the embargo and it's the big show and the

(01:26:59):
schedule break. But I mean, you're talking like ten years ago.

Speaker 6 (01:27:04):
It wasn't like that.

Speaker 3 (01:27:08):
It's so funny to me, and this sounds to a
lot of people like such an old man conversation. But
I remember distinctly as a child when my mom would
go to the grocery store. Once it was August, the
magazine NFL preview magazines would come out, so my mom
would literally just park me in the magazine aisle of
the store, because you could do that back then, and

(01:27:30):
I would sit there and flock through every and every
once in a while employee would come by me, like
it's not the library, right, they'd yell at you for
doing it. But that was the first shot I had,
most of the time at actually seeing the Raiders' schedule
is a kid, especially once we moved out of Vegas,
once we were on the East Coast, I wasn't getting
that coverage anywhere, right. And again, you can't remind people

(01:27:52):
loud enough that this feels weird now that we have
technology in our hands every second. But you just when
I was a kid, there was no such thing as googling,
so that didn't exist. So you waited for the magazines
to come out. You flocked to them, you ran to them,
you looked at it, and you wrote to W and
the l next to everything like that was the first
time you got to play the schedule game. You had
to wait all the way until August to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:28:12):
And now it's geez, it's parallel universe, parallel lives. That's
funny and like you're.

Speaker 3 (01:28:20):
A million times like imagine for everybody. I used to
walk to the store, the corner store, down to the
end of the block to get a USA Today on
Fridays because there'd be a ride up on the Raiders
game for the weekend. And on Monday I would go
there first and before school, before the school bus, I
would always go down pick up the USA Today because
there might be a ride up on it. And that

(01:28:41):
was the only way you could actually know what happened
other than we didn't. We didn't have the money for cable,
so a lot of times I couldn't watch NFL Primetime.
That was it, so like I wasn't seeing highlights for days.
I was waiting for the George Michael Sports machine. We've
gone from that world to a world where now somebody
drops a pass in an Ota and it gets tweeted
out by twenty five reporters. I guess it's crazy the

(01:29:03):
amount of information about our favorite teams that has changed
so much in the last thirty years.

Speaker 2 (01:29:09):
So it is right, but what it doesn't explain is
how we've become more football obsessed. That's like because theoretically now,
I mean, like you said, like you it works with everything,
with everything, And the fact is that you can watch

(01:29:31):
any game at any point, Like you can watch every
game game literally, games that already go watch every night.
But you'd rather watch you know, you'd rather know more
about OTAs than care about an actual game itself of
another sport. Why is that?

Speaker 3 (01:29:48):
I don't, Man, this is the most difficult thing for
me to try and figure out. For years, I've tried
to figure out why are we more drawn to drama
in the off season of the NBA typically than we
are with the actual games that will happen in the NBA.
Like the number of times, and I have a guilty
of this, I'll throw myself right on the scord, the

(01:30:11):
number of times I've been on national radio in the
middle of the NBA playoffs talking about the upcoming free agency,
Like we did that until a couple of years ago,
because the free agents were the sex of your story
over and over and over again. And so I don't
know when we became more into more drawn to drama

(01:30:31):
for certain sports around the game than the actual games themselves.
But that kind of feels like what happened. And I
don't know when that transformation happens. But the minute you're
more worried about who's playing where than you are how
they're actually playing in the games, I don't know how
you bring that back. And man, I don't know because

(01:30:52):
it was tough when I was a kid to find
Raiders games. If we're being honest, right, like you have
to wait for the ten minute ticker on NBC to
tell you this, Gordon, if they weren't on TV, that
we you just didn't see them. My Sunday ticket didn't
even exist. So how is it that over the process.
Now it's easier than ever to follow your favorite team
in every single sport. Yet that process is, for whatever reason,

(01:31:14):
drawing people more to the NFL and less to some
of the other sports. It's interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:31:19):
Yeah, and you know college too, because college is I'm
seeing it more and more too, now that there's a
real playoff, and you know, that's blowing up, you know,
the whole Aniol world. And I don't know if it's
just because I'm in the middle of it that I
just think it's it's awesome, but it's it's football. Because

(01:31:40):
back to football, we are obsessed with it. I know
I am like I am, like I've told you about
my buddy Boo, but I feeling the same way, like
I'm the first thing I can do is start the
one hundred days of football one hundred days countdown and
we're ninety seven, and I'm like, oh, this is all
awesome because now you know the beauty is I would

(01:32:04):
always I don't know how you would do this like
I would always do my I try to time vacations
and something just to get through this summer so I
could get to my happy place. That's it's bizarre.

Speaker 3 (01:32:24):
It's part of the bummer. I think, if we're being
honest about the fact that the NBA pulled their schedule
back to where it used to be, Like I really
hoped after the shortened season with COVID and they moved
the whole calendar. I hoped that the NBA would keep
the delayed calendar because we had NBA playoffs going all

(01:32:44):
the way into September. I wish that the NBA Finals
were time to be mid August. Like I just because
we've we've had the whole summer, so I say the
whole summer. It's not even June it feels like it is.
We've had the last what month of obsession over these
NBA playoffs. I wish it was all pushed back a

(01:33:05):
month so that right now we were in July getting
towards the NBA Finals and getting towards I realized that
hockey being, you know, an ice sport, makes it more
difficult to delay.

Speaker 4 (01:33:17):
But I wish that these sports.

Speaker 3 (01:33:19):
Took more advantage of the summer that they have, because
it's been a welcome distraction, if I'm being honest, to
the delay in the calendar that it takes to to
get to the NFL season, and that's sounds horrible to reduce.

Speaker 4 (01:33:33):
Their playoff to that.

Speaker 3 (01:33:34):
But I think part of the reason it's been nice
and we've paid so much attention is there has been
no football news post draft that's been worthy of taking
it over.

Speaker 2 (01:33:42):
Yes, yeah, you're right. Stefan Diggs the closest thing to it.

Speaker 3 (01:33:49):
Yeah, Stefan Diggs out there willing nilly with cameras everywhere
is interesting. I mean, like there wasn't a spot, dude,
where you were like everybody puts cameras away, Like just
put your cameras away. That the sneezy request to have Hey, Hey,
I'm I'm somebody puts your cameras away.

Speaker 2 (01:34:07):
That's bad, that's just lots of that's all. You're right.

Speaker 3 (01:34:10):
I love that. I'm not asking him not to pass
out drugs. I'm asking not to be filmed while I
was like, the bare minimum here is just don't get
filmed while you're doing it, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:34:18):
Right right, right, right, yeah, don't be stupid, you know.
Or if you're the you're a prime minister, you might
want to put the bag of coke down too, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (01:34:33):
You think, I just it's amazing how that's a difficult concept.

Speaker 2 (01:34:36):
It really is. The people are just it's it's my boggling,
it really is. It's completely mind boggling. Let me ask
you real quick because I need to I need closure
on this. And then we're going to get back to
really to to football and uh we'll spend the last
time we're talking about the game six tonight and uh,
patients next. But what is the like, what do you

(01:34:59):
think they do with the tournament schedule? If they go
to seventy sixteens? What do you do you make it?
What you do four days? You're not gonna do plans
because you were just adding that you're adding a whole
other tier, right, So instead of Thursday Friday, you do

(01:35:22):
what Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Speaker 3 (01:35:27):
Yeah, I bet that they start, you know, because they
we get the bracket on Sunday selection Sunday. I bet
Monday is your day to fill your brackets out and
Tuesday it starts. And like, the crazy part about.

Speaker 4 (01:35:41):
That is you might get it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:43):
I mean, that's kind of that feels rushed.

Speaker 4 (01:35:46):
Quick turn on. Yeah, I mean, and let's be honest.

Speaker 3 (01:35:50):
Part of the reason you're doing this is to capture
more attention, more money, more eyeballs. But also your partners
that appreciate the gambling aspect of it want to make
sure that that gets captured also, So you got to
give people a little bit of time.

Speaker 2 (01:36:02):
I don't know how to do it because you might
have to push everything back. I don't know, because you
and you're.

Speaker 3 (01:36:11):
Gonna get so many slaughters I mean just yeah, slaughter
after slaughter after slaughter in this.

Speaker 4 (01:36:20):
Process, and like that. That's fine.

Speaker 3 (01:36:22):
Let's just be honest about it. You're gonna get so
many slaughters.

Speaker 2 (01:36:26):
So let me ask you a question, do you do
you so you have your whole like you normally do
your you know, conference tournaments, your big conference tournaments. Who's
like big tens on Sunday right on selection Sunday. Do
you move selections Sunday to like Tuesday and have it

(01:36:51):
as a prime time special?

Speaker 4 (01:36:55):
I mean it works.

Speaker 3 (01:36:56):
Tuesday certainly works for them for the rankings, rankings and
the comment and.

Speaker 2 (01:37:02):
Then you start the tournament the following Tuesday. I just
don't know your wait a whole week, but if you're
gonna have all those teams or do you start.

Speaker 3 (01:37:11):
For those teams too?

Speaker 5 (01:37:13):
Right?

Speaker 7 (01:37:13):
Like?

Speaker 3 (01:37:13):
How you can't?

Speaker 2 (01:37:15):
You can't? How you turn around? You go from Sunday
to Tuesday? You gotta travel?

Speaker 3 (01:37:19):
Yeah, no, you're right, Like I don't think you can.
You're you're one thousand percent right, Like it's gonna you need.
I don't think they can change the start date of
the tournament, so they're gonna have to push everything back
some other way, you know. I mean, do they end
up still starting the same way and then adding instead
of making it whatever Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, do they

(01:37:41):
make it Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and then
take their.

Speaker 2 (01:37:44):
Break that's a good thought. That's actually a better fault.
I would go with you that Monday.

Speaker 3 (01:37:51):
Yeah, I mean I think I don't think you're gonna
have much choice, and then you're gonna have.

Speaker 2 (01:37:55):
To Yeah, yeah, all right. Anyway, that's an stick ken
under if you're gonna do that. All right, let's get
back to OTA's little NFL stuff coming out next. Where
the fella is right here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 7 (01:38:14):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (01:38:26):
Fellas Jason Fitz, Anthony Gargan, FITZI and hanging out every Saturday,
the fellas, let's talk about Well, let me tell you
about this too. Don't forget. You can stream this show
at all of our Fox Sports Radio shows live twenty
four to seven and the new and approved iHeartRadio app.

(01:38:49):
Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app to stream
us live. And one of the newest features in the
app is that you can select Fox Sports Radio is
one of your presets. Just look at presets on our
radio dot right, So be sure to preset Fox Sports
Radio in the radio app and it will always pop
up at the top of your screen. All right, give
us do us a solid there, So let me start

(01:39:13):
with the quarterback discussion. Well, I want to take a
different route. There's talking Philadelphia. Now. I had a debate
yesterday with the guy with my man who covers the
Eagles for our network, my buddy Zach Berman, who's terrific
at it. But we had a debate about what the
Eagles offense will be. And let me this is part

(01:39:35):
of a bigger picture that that has to do with
the quarterback position. So the Eagles, obviously Kellen Moore went
to coach the Saints. They're now looking for their priest.
This will be their fourth OC right in four years.
Kevin Pittullo is the Eagles new offensive coordinator. He's been

(01:39:58):
with the team for a while, but they have gone
through coordinators, right, that's what happens.

Speaker 3 (01:40:03):
You win.

Speaker 2 (01:40:04):
Shane Steichen when the Eagles went to the Super Bowl
against the Chiefs and lost a few years back, he
got the job in Kiandsas in the Indianapolis. Then there
was a failed experiment with Brian Johnson as the offense coordinator.
It comes Kellen Moore. He gets everything situated and then
gets the job in New Orleans. So the talk with

(01:40:28):
the new with Kevin Patullo is, hey, you know remember
when you were when the last time the inexperienced OC
took over. What happened? The offense languist, right, They even
though they started ten to one, they went into a tailspin.
And the Eagles want to losing, right so, and the
offense was a problem. So there is talk about because

(01:40:49):
the team's caught up to that they were running all
at zone read stuff. Teams figured a way to defend them.
So the talk now was all right, well, what's the
next thing. So my man, Zach Berman says, well, you
know they're gonna they're gonna throw the ball because you
know Saquon. They're not gonna have Saquon carry that kind
of workload, which I agree was extraordinary. But suddenly they're

(01:41:14):
going to become a throwing team because, let's face it,
Jalen wants to throw the ball. That's what he said.
And I go, all right, well, you have a great
o line. The reason why you won is because you
have a great offensive line and you had Saquon Barkley.

(01:41:34):
Why why would you just completely turn into a throw
first team, Why would you do that? What that makes
no sense? Like I get, I get Christian McCaffrey and
gotta be careful with the workload. They added AJ Dillon
to take some of the load off them, all right,

(01:41:54):
they gotta have a couple of young backs in camp
as well. Okay, Like I get not wanted to run
Saquan into the ground, but your identity was as a
downhill run team. They tried to throw the ball early
in that in the season and then become a They've
done that at times because I think Sirianne wants to

(01:42:16):
throw the football, but they're not good at it. Jalen
turns the ball over when he throws too many, when
it's too much, throw, throw, throw, and you're talking thirty
to thirty five times a game. That's when you run
into some trouble. That's when this offense starts to language,
even with AJ Brown and Devonte Smith. So the argument
was about, well, Jalen deserves to be able to throw

(01:42:38):
the ball, and my point was that's not chasing numbers
in three yard games and touchdown passes. Is it what
makes them a great quarterback? What makes me a great
quarterback is that if you put eight in the box.
He could throw the ball down the field and drop
it in a bucket along the sidelines to aj Brown.

(01:42:59):
Or he can help. He can run the ball. He
can run and he really hurt. He's he's that extra
man in the run game, which makes them even more potent,
Like why does everybody have to be Joe Burrow? Joe Barrow?
And I love Burrow and this is not an invite
bore in him, but Joe Burrow didn't win FITZI.

Speaker 4 (01:43:21):
I think a couple of things you have to do
in this situation.

Speaker 3 (01:43:25):
Number one is ask ourselves was the person that you're
replacing doing a bad job? Because I certainly don't think
most would argue Kellen Moore did anything other than a
great job there.

Speaker 2 (01:43:36):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:43:36):
So now that you know that the person you're replacing
was doing a good job, imagine the interview process. You
come in and say, Okay, what do you want to
do with this offense? Well, I want to change everything
that just won year Super Bowl. I just don't understand
why that would even be part of the sales pitch.
I understand wanting to throw the football a little bit
more and see if you can accomplish a little bit
more balance in that way. I can understand that being

(01:43:58):
part of the sales pitch of the job if you were.
But like if I'm sitting gear and I'm interviewing today
for the offensive coordinator position of the defending Super Bowl champions,
I'm probably talking about minor tweaks and not major changes
to anything that the offense is doing, because that just
seems like the right process when you just dominated your
way through a Super Bowl. So I the logic that

(01:44:20):
they would suddenly become a throwing team, because that's what
Jalen wants, it just seems failed to me. And the
logic that they're gonna make mass changes in how they
call everything seems failed to me because of the success
they've had doing what they're doing. Even if you try that,
even if you're coming out saying, you know what, we
want to throw the ball more. All right, the minute
things go a little bit awry, what do we everybody's
gonna do? We're gonna look at it and say, well,

(01:44:42):
what was working? What needs to continue working. I just
don't think that it makes any sense to change what
got you to the dance when it was so dominant
and so hard for teams to stop last year, like,
don't don't fix one, ain't broken. NFL is already complicated enough,
it's already hard enough to win football games.

Speaker 4 (01:45:00):
You just want a bunch of them.

Speaker 3 (01:45:01):
So I think the concept of every quarterback needs to
be Joe Burrow is a failed one or Patrick Mahomes
is a failed one. Your fifty three needs to be
better than their fifty three. And right now, if you
go to the Eagles and you say, hey, what is
the mixed thing that made what is the special sauce
that made you Super Bowl champions? Wasn't Jalen Hurts. It

(01:45:21):
was their fifty three was better than the Eagles or
the Chiefs fifty three. Let's remember that the best quarterback
in the league got stomped.

Speaker 4 (01:45:30):
In the Super Bowl.

Speaker 3 (01:45:31):
Because you don't win Super Bowls just because you have
the best quarterback. You win because you have the better team.
I don't if the Eagles decide they're suddenly going to
change their offense. I think that is a flat out
stupid move.

Speaker 2 (01:45:42):
Well, so I had this debate with my man and
we were talking about Hurts, and he's like, well, Jalen
deserves to be able to throw the ball like First
of all, he does throw it. It's not like all
they do is run the ball. He played really well.
He had a great season last year. Great season. You

(01:46:05):
know when when the Steelers tried to throw eight nine
in a box and forced him to throw and played
press man. He made all he made the throws. He
played great. You know, the need for stats and numbers
to quantify how good you are, That's the what I'm

(01:46:27):
getting at. That's a problem that quarterback should not be.

Speaker 7 (01:46:33):
He was.

Speaker 2 (01:46:33):
He was great last year. Jalen Hurts so and it's
like so wat that some you know, somebody has him
ranked as the top ten, not a top five or
a top six, not a top three. Like, who cares
if you're the dominant team. He's been to two super
Bowls now he's won one. I mean, come on, like, what,

(01:46:58):
like why are we like? I don't think Key needs
and I would have this conversation with him. I don't
think you need voting numbers to add to your resume.
He's an ultimate winning winner.

Speaker 3 (01:47:12):
I mean I would look at everybody and say, what
would you rather have the stats of Joe Burrow or
the Super Bowl of Jalen Hurts. It's just It's at
some point it's not about, well, we're doing this because
our quarterback is limited. There's a difference between these are
the things that we have to do offensively because we
can't do other things, versus these are the things we

(01:47:35):
choose to do because we've patterned our offense off the
strengths of really good players. Like you were not masking
a deficiency. If you're the Eagles and you're talking about
your offense, you're not masking the deficiency of Jalen Hurts
in the way you're calling the game. You're maximizing the
strength of what makes your team really good. We have
to start to apply that mindset in there, because it

(01:47:57):
is super easy. I mean, I'm pretty sure if you
ask Dan Marino at this point, if he could turn
down some of those numbers, give back some of those numbers,
but get a ring instead. I've interviewed Dan and I've
talked to him about Super Bowls.

Speaker 4 (01:48:09):
He would one.

Speaker 3 (01:48:10):
Hundred percent do anything to have one of those rings
that Jalen Hurts now has.

Speaker 2 (01:48:14):
So it's so with Joe Burrow.

Speaker 3 (01:48:18):
Yeah, we've got to stop covering and talking about it
and thinking about it like it's Madden it's not like
you're gonna get paid if you're a great quarterback, so fine,
and great quarterback can mean you got paid because you
are just naturally we watch it, we see your great
Joe Burrow is great. It can also mean hey, naturally
we watch it, we see that Jalen Hurts is great
in a very different way, doing a very different thing.

(01:48:39):
Like they don't all have to fit in the same standard.
I don't. I don't understand why we have to think
less than Jalen Hurts because he just won a Super
Bowl exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:48:49):
And you know the problem, And this is why I
think the problem is the problem is the fact that
we all we do is incessly talk about it, which
is great, right, love it. But you got Chris Simms
who or whatever pick your pundit who says, well, Hurts
is not a top ten quarterback or top he's not elite,

(01:49:14):
Like I love the elite tier, the good tier is tier,
you know all this stuff, he's not. And I think Hurts,
here's all that I know. Jalen hears all that stuff
and it eats at him. And listen, as any prideful athlete, right,
like you want to go dumb man, like bleep you.

(01:49:34):
I am a top whatever quarterback. I am elite and
I won. And I don't want to hear that I
was a passenger on my team on the Barkley train.
I don't want to hear that. And that is the
disease of me, right. That always that pat Riley talked
about years ago, And that's what the Eagles have to
make sure doesn't creep into their thought process, like who

(01:49:58):
cares with you? Who cares what you were great? You
were an MVP, Like kidding me. The Eagles don't win
without Jalen Hurts at the quarterback last year.

Speaker 3 (01:50:08):
So take like where that or sleep all night at night,
and that ultimately, at some point has to be the
driving force of this. Like everybody, what I say to
you all the time when we talk about this stuff
is that I want my favorite, my favorite team's coach
to be like a chef on the TV show Chopped,

(01:50:30):
open a basket of ingredients and cook with them. And
I think what's happened is sometimes if a quarterback isn't
putting up the numbers of you know, Joe Burrow or
Patrick Mahomes, we look at it and say, well, suddenly
that's a bad ingredient in the basket, And I would
say that there's a million ways to skin a cat,
Like it's okay for Lamar Jackson to be a different

(01:50:54):
type of quarterback than Patrick Mahomes, who's a different type
of quarterback than Josh Allen, who's a different type of
quarterback than Hurts. The question you have to ask yourself
as a franchise is do we believe that the quarterback
that we have can win a Super Bowl? And if
the answer to that is yes, then it's okay. How
do we maximize that ability to win with that quarterback?

(01:51:15):
And like, that's the simplest answer here for Jalen Hurts.
As you look around and say, hey, there is a formula. Okay,
he wants to throw the ball more Siriani wants to
run the ball more people in hell on Icewater, Like,
at some point you look at it and say, we
have a formula here that is winning us games, so
we need to do the best to maximize that formula.

(01:51:35):
It doesn't mean the quarterback's deficient. It just means that
we are building around the quarterback the right way for
this team, and it doesn't have to look the same
for everybody. That's why I hate it when we sit
here and say, well, is this guy a top ten quarterback? Well,
there's so many variables to that, like the system they're in.
Is this guy with this coach, with this offend, this
offense together, are they a top ten combo?

Speaker 4 (01:51:58):
And that's a much different conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:52:00):
Hot takey, right, and we're always hot takey. Everybody wants
to be hot tachy. But that's the truth of the matter.
And this is where it manifests itself. It's words dangerous,
the hot takes of the all these pumpits. It creeps
into people's minds. You're human beings, and it's like, no,
I need my chance to be able to throw for
three hundred a game, you know, No, So off of that,

(01:52:22):
I want to do this with you. And it's not
hypocritical canny this quarterback win a super Bowl and then
go through the list, not about how good, how what
kind of numbers they could put up, but just is
this guy capable of winning at some point with everything
around them? Can we do that exercise?

Speaker 3 (01:52:42):
I'm in, I'm in, all right, that's coming up.

Speaker 2 (01:52:45):
Fellas FITZI and hanging Fox Sports Radio. Fellas, don't forget.
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(01:53:08):
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Speaker 6 (01:53:25):
Hey we find out now show hey Hinson a mile
high into the air way back all right, Herron Judge
at the wall, he leaves, he cannot bring that one back.
Show Hey, old Tani with his second.

Speaker 3 (01:53:39):
Of the game.

Speaker 2 (01:53:41):
That's right, and that brought the comeback, that started to comeback,
made it five to three. Dodgers go on to win.
Otani Judge, you know they were both incredible. Otani with two,
Judge with one, uh, great night. All right, but let's
start our little exercise quarterbacks. Who are the quarterbacks that

(01:54:07):
you feel comfortable in saying they can win the Super
Bowl no matter what the system is it's got obviously,
it's gotta be the right system and the right people
around them, the right coaching, you name it. But it's
off that exercise. It's what you said Fitzie. So let's start.

Speaker 4 (01:54:27):
You ready, here we go, right, Yeah, I'm ready for this. Yeah, okay,
so I was.

Speaker 3 (01:54:34):
I was just letting him, colle make sure you get
to make sure Anthony is good.

Speaker 2 (01:54:38):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:54:38):
So the main ones we all know, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen,
Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow.

Speaker 2 (01:54:42):
Well, let's go by division. I'm gonna get I'm gonna
throw them at you. All right, we'll start division. Let's start.
I'll start at and see east and all right, we
know her, it's already won. Uh. And then I'm gonna
go Jaye Daniels, Right.

Speaker 3 (01:54:56):
Yes, yeah, I think so. Yeah, Okay, yeah, it's early,
it's early, you know me. I'm cautious to put that
much praise, but I think so Jadon Daniels was so incredible. Yeah,
I'll put him on the S list.

Speaker 2 (01:55:07):
All right. Now here's an interesting one.

Speaker 5 (01:55:10):
Dak.

Speaker 4 (01:55:13):
Oh man, that's so like.

Speaker 3 (01:55:16):
Man, I've been like the I feel in some ways
like the champion of the Dak fan club for a while.
Like I think we've gone too far on the Dak's
overrated train. I think Dak's a very good quarterback. I
really believe that. But man, Do I trust Dak to
go out and win me a super Bowl?

Speaker 7 (01:55:35):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:55:35):
I god, I mean, do I trust him to stay
healthy enough? Do I trust him not to have a
bad playoff game because we've seen that. No, So i'most
say no, matter the system, No, the answer is no.
With the right system, yes, but no matter the system, no,
I can't put him on the absolute Yes, he can
win a super Bowl by himself train.

Speaker 7 (01:55:54):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:55:55):
I mean we've the problem with Dak is we've seen,
you know, we've seen when he had all things working
for him, home enough, town around them, and you know,
came up small. I mean, that's that's gotta matter now.

Speaker 3 (01:56:10):
Yeah, especially the proof of concept on it is so
that we've just we've seen the meltdown over and over
and over again. It feels like, so, yeah, no, I'm
with you, it's a it's a do I But like,
I believe that if Dak found his Kyle Shanahan, he
could definitely win a super Bowl. Like, I do believe
he has the potential, But I don't think he can
bootstrap it up and just be like, boys, we're winning

(01:56:31):
the super Bowl this year.

Speaker 2 (01:56:33):
Hmmm, Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:56:36):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:56:37):
I don't know. If I'll be honest with you, I
don't know. I don't know if he can win it.
No matter if you think Dak is more like in
the the you think Dak is more, I think he's
a bad court like. Put it this way. I don't
think he's bad, right, but I don't know that he's
got the gene, the winning gene.

Speaker 3 (01:56:56):
Yeah, I mean that's real. I've certainly never seen it.
We've certainly never seen it.

Speaker 2 (01:57:02):
All right, so let's go on to let's go to
the north. Let's go to golf, which is really interesting because.

Speaker 4 (01:57:10):
A super Bowl.

Speaker 3 (01:57:10):
Yeah, we know you can. You can win a Super
Bowl golf.

Speaker 2 (01:57:13):
Come on, right, I'm throwing it out asking you.

Speaker 3 (01:57:15):
Yeah, no, I'm confident you can win a r Yeah.
I mean yeah, I mean he's in such a great situation.

Speaker 2 (01:57:23):
But yeah, well he's in he's in the optimum situation
for him.

Speaker 3 (01:57:28):
Right right here is the quarterback of I mean another
team that wasn't his fault.

Speaker 2 (01:57:33):
Way, Yeah, it wasn't his fault the meltdowns because defensively
they got you know, but you know, he's he had
a couple of bad games, five pick games.

Speaker 3 (01:57:45):
Yeah, he had He's had a couple of he's had
a couple of meltdowns, but I still think, yeah, you
could win a Super Bowl with him.

Speaker 2 (01:57:50):
All right, all right, well we'll continue this on the
other side. Get back to Nick's patis as well. The
fella is right here on Fox.

Speaker 1 (01:58:00):
Listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:58:02):
Well, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning. That
be happy last day of May, baby summertime, summertime June July,
and then football ninety seven days away. But we got
some business in the NBA and NHL to take care of.
Welcome back to the fellas, Jason fitz Anthony Gargano. That's right,

(01:58:25):
FITZI and aunt As we hang out shortly at the show.
You missed any of it, the podcast goes up, So
if you missed any of the show, be sure to
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Rate it five stars again. Just search Fox Sports Ready
wherever you get your podcasts. You'll see this show posted

(01:58:48):
right after we get off the air. That's it, all right, FITZI, Tonight, Indiana,
New York. We know where the pressure is. We know
all about this. How do you see this game, like,
let let's talk, let's get back, let's dive into it.

(01:59:09):
We'll get back to the quarterback discussion and a little
bit a little bit, but we do have a huge
game tonight in the Eastern Conference. How do you see
this game playing out? And how do you see Indiana,
you know, kind of warding off? You know what the
Knicks have done.

Speaker 3 (01:59:29):
When Indiana plays with their usual pace and takes even
remote care of the basketball, they win. And you know,
again the two losses in this series, the first loss
was a season low and three points, three pointers made,
three pointers attempted, and three point percentage, right, like, that's
the worst of Indiana what they can do. They lose

(01:59:51):
in the Garden in a game where they were reckless
with the basketball. So, you know, I think there's a
fine line between trying to push your pace and being
reckless with the basketball. But man, it just felt like
Indiana in Game five took a bunch of hits and
they weren't really ready for them. I think they learned
from that. I think they come out with a lot

(02:00:12):
more composure in this game, and I think they shoot better.
They should shoot better obviously being at home, although that
hasn't always been the case for Halliburton. I think they're
gonna come in, they're gonna shoot better, they're gonna play
with their usual pace, and they win this game. That
being said, let's acknowledge that a lot of these games
have been weird, and so that makes me a little like,

(02:00:35):
it's weird how dominant each team has looked in different
phases of this. So it makes me a little nervous.
But I expect Indiana to come out and just be
trying to push the pace from the outset of this
thing to get themselves back to their normal scoring levels,
which is how they win. When they score a bunch
of points, they win. It's just that simple. So they're
gonna try and score a bunch of points.

Speaker 2 (02:00:56):
Do you worry about Nasmith?

Speaker 3 (02:01:01):
I just can't believe that we're sitting here, Like if
I'd have told you that the Bengo card would say
that n Smith was the most important guy, like the
the other guy that was going to come through throughout
the course of the playoffs, I'd be pretty stunned. I
am concerned about you know, the injury obviously was a
big impact, so a little bit, but I also think, man,

(02:01:22):
we've talked a little bit about Siakam, but this feels
like a Siaka moment, just made like there is a
guy in this Indiana team that understands exactly.

Speaker 4 (02:01:32):
What it takes to win a championship. So I think
that this is a big Siakam night coming up.

Speaker 2 (02:01:38):
Well that Miles Turner can't get in foul trouble because yeah,
you can't have Siakam guarden Kat because Cat is just
too big and strong for him.

Speaker 3 (02:01:48):
How I mean you mentioned the foul trouble, Like foul
trouble has been such a dictator to so much of
this series, like the ebbs and flows. Just watching like
how these officials call it is going to be a
And all I ask is, did they're consistent throughout the
course of the game, which I think for the most
part they've been pretty consistent.

Speaker 4 (02:02:05):
They've had a few stupid moments, but that's.

Speaker 3 (02:02:08):
All I asked for. All of it is like, just
for the love of God, call it the same throughout
the course of the game for both teams. That's all
you can ask for. But man, it makes a massive difference.

Speaker 2 (02:02:17):
Well, on that note, a buddy of mine said to
me this, and I had to think about it. He said,
let me ask you a question. Should you get rid
of disqualification for fouls? Because it's such a CHICKI chat,
It's such a subjective thing. There's been so many ticky

(02:02:40):
tack fouls in the series, and it has impacted it
in a big way. Like you know, we shaw brunch
and get a couple of the ticky tacks picked up
three fousand and four thousand, one quarter. I mean his
point is, do you just get rid of the disqualification
because you just don't trust officiating and it's not fair

(02:03:02):
to the outcome.

Speaker 3 (02:03:04):
I think the problem with that is every single rule
that's ever made or changed, and I don't care whether
we're talking about sports or law, every time there's a
new rule or law that's being put in place, I
think what you have to ask yourself is what will
the worst person want to do in this situation? Like
what is the absolute worst case?

Speaker 5 (02:03:23):
You know?

Speaker 3 (02:03:24):
And and then gear everything towards how to prevent that.
So if you're right, right, like if you if there
is no foul out limit, then you're just going to
you were going to slow games down to a crawl
because there's no reason for anybody to play with any
caution anymore. And right, man, that that's too ugly. You're

(02:03:45):
going to have to live with the egg on your
face from the officiating and consistencies at times, because that's
better than the egg on your face from a three
hour basketball game because there were four hundred and thirty.

Speaker 2 (02:03:53):
Well yeah, because yeah, it would be it would be ugly.
I said, it's I told them. I was like, no, man,
that's ridiculous, right, But I didn't. I didn't even have
that argument. I just slow, I just was like no,
like just that kind of slept it off. But then
as I started thinking about brought up to you, you're right,

(02:04:16):
that's the that's the only reason why. That's the biggest
reason why. But I hear his point because his point.

Speaker 9 (02:04:23):
Was it's so frustrating when you have really good players
that are hampered by fouls when a lot of the
more TICKI tech and it has dictated this series.

Speaker 2 (02:04:35):
Now, I think he was on the losing side. That's
why he had that kind of mentality.

Speaker 3 (02:04:39):
Is my guess, Uh, what if you gave like every
team one one get back, one get back in the game,
like one file out, one foul out person could come back,
that'd be interesting. Look, I'm over here fixing things that
don't need to be fixed. But no, at least interesting.

Speaker 2 (02:04:55):
No, he brought it up. But it was funny because like,
I like, I get it. He's like, because it was
the it was the knixt one where it was you know,
because Brunson was in foul trouble and Cat and he's
crying about it. I'm like, you know, and listen, Cat
came back and won the game. He got hot and
was burying. You know, he becomes rangeless. You know, there's

(02:05:21):
no limit to his range when he's hot. And that's
the truth is Carl antv. Towns, Like, if they come
back and win this series, it's the Cat like retribution
kind of moment.

Speaker 3 (02:05:38):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean it's it changes the way we
talk about Cat. It changes everything about Cat. The thing
of it is, it's all there. It's just do you
believe that he's the player that will take advantage of it?
And as I've said kind of repeatedly lately, you know,
Minnesota needed somebody with the skill set of Carl Anthony Towns.

(02:06:01):
And even though they needed somebody with that skill set,
they had him in the building and they were like, yeah,
we're good not having this guy here anymore. And how
often throughout the course of the last series did we say, Man,
if only they had and I'm not saying Carl Anthony Towns,
if they only if only they had the two K
version of Karl Anthony Towns, like that would have been
a big help for them. In that series, they had
the real life version and said we're gonna let you

(02:06:22):
walk because they understood the inconsistency is not something you
can bank on. And I mean, just I'm not trying
to be harsh to Carl Anthony Towns here. I just
I think we need to see him come in night
in and night out and be the best version of himself.
And if he if he does that, if Karl Anthony
Towns plays the way he's played at his best in
this series throughout these playoffs, if he bottled that up

(02:06:44):
and gave us that every single night, the entire way
we perceived the player would be vastly different.

Speaker 2 (02:06:50):
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, he was in such
a tack mode the other night. Look, I mean I
thought that they had to try to back into it
like you expected that third quarter run, and they had
a little bit of a run. It got stamped out
pretty quickly. But like every time they tried to get

(02:07:10):
a bucket and they went and because Turner was in
foul trouble, just could not stay with him. Man, he
was he was physically overmatched by Cat.

Speaker 3 (02:07:24):
I mean, you forget how huge Cat is as a
human being until you watch him in these types of
series where it's like, yeah, he is just physically if
the two guys were playing on the playground, like if
they were walking down the street, the physical difference between
the two of them, of course, it's a nenuce for Siaka.

Speaker 2 (02:07:40):
I know, you know it's funny because the Nise Smith
injury worries me because he's such a val and I
hear your point, but he's such a valuable role player.
She starts saying, he defends, Like one of the issues
is is your defense, Like they're a much better defensive

(02:08:03):
team when he's on the floor and he's not. They're
they're just not that good defensively.

Speaker 3 (02:08:11):
You're absolutely right, Like he's a disruptor on the defensive side.
Just he's the type of defender that makes everything agitated
and makes everything difficult.

Speaker 4 (02:08:21):
And that's that's huge.

Speaker 3 (02:08:23):
And what do we talked about earlier too, like when
you need that level of intensity, particularly on the defensive
side of.

Speaker 4 (02:08:28):
The ball like this, he matters.

Speaker 3 (02:08:31):
He matters a lot there and you can't put enough
value on on where he has been for this team.
I just unfortunately, I don't think physically he's You can't
undo an injury like that, you know, And that's that's the.

Speaker 4 (02:08:47):
Moment of hope here.

Speaker 3 (02:08:48):
If you're a Knicks fan, you're looking at it saying, hey,
we have something to attack now, and there's nothing that's
going to make him suddenly feel better.

Speaker 2 (02:08:56):
Did you like the the move that, you know, the
bringing Josh Hart off the bench?

Speaker 3 (02:09:03):
I mean I felt like it. Yeah, I mean I
thought it brought up it brought a little bit of
size and a lot of spark, So yeah, I mean
I had no problem with it.

Speaker 2 (02:09:11):
You No, I thought it was great and it was
Josh Hart's idea, which I loved that he thought and
he thought it would be better because he'd be better
come off the bench.

Speaker 3 (02:09:23):
Doesn't that speak to what you talked about earlier about
this next team though, Like you want to talk about
ultimate buy in for Hey, this is what it takes
to win, and this is how we're going to do
it like they are a resilient they are a team
oriented bunch, like it is all four of these remaining
teams that we've had. Yeah, it just the final four

(02:09:47):
gave us true team basketball in a really cool way.

Speaker 2 (02:09:51):
Yes, Yes, good ball, man, real good ball. Do you
are you you find yourself rooting at all for any
for either team Celebrity Row.

Speaker 3 (02:10:05):
Yeah, I mean it's easy to root against Celebrity Row.
It's easy to root against just how much the knicks
are being shoved down everybody's throats, and it is easy
to The troll in me loves the fact that they
were renaming streets and partying in the streets like they
just want a championship for a second round win over
the Celtics. I just I still think that's such a
wild over celebration. The troll in me would like to

(02:10:28):
see all of that, just a little bit of crow
eating in that situation. But also, I just I think
that throughout the course of the season, we have spent
not we you and I, but we as a collective
have spent a lot of the time just ignoring Indiana
and Oklahoma City because they're just not as sexy and
so for me, having an opportunity for a team like

(02:10:51):
that to win is a little bit of a in
your face to everybody that only wants to talk about
the Lakers and the Celtics. So I be honest, If
I'm being honest, part of me finds myself just rooting
for one of those stories because you know how many
years in a row we're gonna have to see a
Denver or Indiana when before we're gonna have to start
paying attention to the Denvers in Indianas.

Speaker 2 (02:11:10):
Yeah, I would agree, who gives it? Who makes it
for the who makes it better? Finals?

Speaker 3 (02:11:18):
Indiana?

Speaker 4 (02:11:19):
Okay, See it's the best basketball. I think that's the
best without.

Speaker 2 (02:11:22):
Best experienced play because if he can't play that, that kills.
I think the.

Speaker 3 (02:11:32):
Basketball has a chance to be better in the Indiana
Oklahoma City series. But to see the Garden in the
NBA Finals, my god, dude, like that'll be you want
to talk about electric every single game like that getting
beat down or not. Just to see finals games in
the in the Gardens, it would be pretty impressive. So
I I do think that there is an element of

(02:11:54):
that as a fan of of just environments, that that
would be wild, That be InCred them.

Speaker 2 (02:12:00):
And the last time was I covered the series the Rockets,
that was the in fact, one of the games in
Houston was the OJ game. Oh my god, that was
the last time they were in the finals.

Speaker 3 (02:12:17):
It's just it's been so long, and for a team
that we talk about as much as we talk about them,
it's it's crazy. This is the NBA equivalent of the
Cowboys finally making the Super Bowl. If it happens, you know,
and my god, like that, that just the conversation alone,
just the way that it will be covered by everybody

(02:12:38):
will be both beautiful and sickening all at once.

Speaker 2 (02:12:40):
Right like it, they'll get all the noise, even though
ok is much better. Like I'll be honest with you,
I don't I agree with you. If as long as
thesewith is healthy, they're the Patris are more competitive. I
saw someone sagas the odds of Talk the Brain coming up,

(02:13:02):
But the odds had the Knicks as a low like
they the Vegas had the Knicks as a better series,
closer series. I don't see the.

Speaker 3 (02:13:17):
Knicks are taking on Okay, see that's a five game series.
That's a five game as Wolf.

Speaker 2 (02:13:23):
I agree, because they're they're too deep. Okay, c is deep.
They're gonna run them off the floor.

Speaker 3 (02:13:33):
They're deep and fast and explosive.

Speaker 2 (02:13:35):
I mean, it's just I mean, look, I mean, I mean,
I love I love Jalen, right, I love big Jalen
Bruns a fan. He gets it. Like you know, he's handsy, right,
and you know he's not He's not as strange as
a foul trouble. How's he going to guard Okay, how's
he gonna guard U? S g A and still be
as dominant on the floor and stay out of foul truble?

Speaker 4 (02:13:58):
He's not SGA.

Speaker 3 (02:14:00):
Hammer and the Knicks for an NBA title would be
such a just big legacy building moment, It really would.
It would just be because it's the Knicks and because
you're gonna have the big personalities reacting to it every second. Oh,
I mean, it's just if your SGA, You're you're feasting
on the tiers of Knicks fans all the way to

(02:14:21):
legendary status.

Speaker 2 (02:14:23):
Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be wild. All right, we'll take
a look at it from a betting standpoint. The brain
will join us, so we'll do that and then we'll
get back to our quarterback discussion. As well, we're the
Fellas right here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 7 (02:14:41):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen Live.

Speaker 2 (02:14:54):
Fellas fits a hanging out with you guys every Saturday
right here on Fox Sports Radio. Always time to out
to talk to one of our boys, take a look
at the weekend's card from a betting standpoint, and he's
an overall sportsman, so we love to chop it up

(02:15:14):
with him. He's our man, the Brain, Brad Feinberg Brain.
Good morning, Good morning, guys. How are you today, Well,
you say, buddy, big game tonight?

Speaker 5 (02:15:24):
Great, Yeah, huge game to night. Yeah, it should be,
it should be great. Looking forward to it obviously, you
know a lot of pressure on both teams here. It's
I'm looking forward to it. I mean, Indiana obviously laid
an egg in that last game, but I thought that
was a you know, tough spot nix for you know,
obviously down three one, you know, had everything that they

(02:15:46):
had to go out there, and but this game, obviously,
you know, this is I was even if Indiana loses,
which I don't expect them to. I don't necessarily think
they would just be dead in the water for Game seven.
They showed that last year, right, They won that Game
seven in New York. Last year they actually blew them out,
So I don't think if they somehow did lose this game,

(02:16:08):
I don't think they'd be drawing dead at all for
Game seven, because I know we're not gonna be ab.

Speaker 2 (02:16:11):
Until next week.

Speaker 5 (02:16:12):
But I do think that Indiana certainly would be able
to win even if they lose this game.

Speaker 3 (02:16:17):
How much does what we saw in the last game
impact the way you approached today's game from a gambling standpoint?

Speaker 5 (02:16:27):
Serious like this, it's the honestly, not at all. My
honest answer, not at all. Luck did I think that
there would not be You know, look, you have two
teams that are very close to even, and these teams
are close to even. I personally think Indiana is a
little bit better, but I think they're very close to
the even. You're going to have situation for one team
wins fifteen plus points. That's just going to happen, right.

(02:16:48):
It's like if you spend a Rolett wheel enough times,
your number is going to come up, and you know
it was just one of those games where again all
in game for the Knicks and they you know, they
played it again, they played a good game at home
and they won. Do how does it affect how I
see stuff going forward?

Speaker 2 (02:17:07):
Is?

Speaker 5 (02:17:07):
I said, it really doesn't because I think that it
was just one of those things. We have two pretty
well matchings playing and one team just had it had
their day that day. So for me, I don't necessarily
think there's any carryover it all. Look at the Timberwols
series against the Thunder. You know these teams are all
garading running by forty five points, right, I mean, so
I don't think necessarily there's any carryover at all, to

(02:17:29):
be honest.

Speaker 2 (02:17:30):
Yeah, the only thing we were talking about the Nie
Smith injuries. The only thing that kind of concerns the
human huge same.

Speaker 5 (02:17:37):
Yeah, No, I'm with you on that. Like he's like
one of my favorite players, and I absolutely agree with
you that is a potentially a huge thing, and he
obviously didn't. First defensively too, I saw the stats, guys,
him versus Nmhard was literally Nike and Day versus Brunson.
I mean it may forget the offense where we know
he's way better, but defensively was even a bigger different

(02:18:00):
singing Nie Smith to me, if I had to pick
the guy I thinks most hunger rated player in the NBA,
he had probably been my pick. That is a big thing.
And I think that they probably, you know, they here's
the thing. They do have great depth Indiana at least
uh so, at least they do have that going from them.
But obviously that's a yeah, that's a very significant thing
I do. I agree with you guys one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (02:18:21):
So if this thing goes into game seven again, we
won't have you before then when we look at game
seven's like, this is always interesting to me because your
metrics are your metrics, so your numbers are your numbers.
Does it matter at that point that it would have
been two straight wins for Indiana and it's in the garden.
Does any of that matter? Or does the numbers just

(02:18:42):
say what the numbers say?

Speaker 5 (02:18:44):
I think the numbers just say what the numbers are
gonna say. Now again, obviously, then you say, you know,
there's an emotion side to Okay, you have a team
that was up three to one. You know, how are
they going to take going into this game seven knowing
that they had a three to one chance. Now, oh
my god, the sky is falling there. You know, it's
three to three. But as they said, I think because
to the same team, and we're comparing apples to apples here,
if it's like the same team went into the garden

(02:19:06):
last year and beat them by I think twenty five points,
I wasn't close. They shot I think an NBA right,
and I sat like sixty nine percent of the fours.
I scene like that to me. Again, to me, I
don't think it would. I don't think this team is
necessarily be drawing dead. Just my opinion. I think they
absolutely would have a legitimate chance even if they would

(02:19:26):
have lose this game. But again, I do think they're
going to win this game. But again, this same game
I'm personally betting on. It's not because it's interesting, because
to me, the value, let's think about it. I was
able to bet the Pacers minus two or one and
a half these last few games in Indiana. Now, okay,
now we have to lay a much bigger number. Okay,

(02:19:49):
we have to lay and a half or even four.
Actually mostly fours out there, three and a halfs and fours.
So you know, to me, the value of taking Indiana
lang one and a half and two was totally there,
laying three and a half four not so much.

Speaker 2 (02:20:05):
So how do you attack tonight?

Speaker 5 (02:20:08):
Again? Always looking to live bet these things, Anthony, always
looking to live that these things. Did not bet the
side in this game. And I will tell you this.
I did bet Miles Turner over four and a half freebounds.
Now he's calling under this, I think four straight games
against Nicks. But I can't help myself. He's averaging six
and a half rebounds for the year. Let me repeat
six math not five and a half, six and a half, okay,

(02:20:31):
and he's getting the same minutes. I just think it's
a little bit of a fluke that he has not.

Speaker 2 (02:20:37):
Gotten faul trouble too.

Speaker 5 (02:20:42):
Yeah, he's in foul trouble again. No, he certainly has
some Brook Lopez in them right where he's never been
a dominant rebatter, you know, though he's a good player.
But to me, this number is just, uh, it's too low.
It's too low.

Speaker 2 (02:20:54):
I played it.

Speaker 5 (02:20:56):
I also did McConnell over six.

Speaker 2 (02:21:00):
Me.

Speaker 5 (02:21:01):
He goes over every game. I just he doesn't even
need many minutes to go over a game, but he
just he averages nine, making it six and a half
even in the sixteen minutes fifteen minutes he's I think
we'll go over, and Michael Bridges, I do not think
we'll go I like under four and a half rebounds
for him, he averages three and a half. I think
it's one too high. Those are some props I personally

(02:21:22):
bet in this game. But again, as I said, always
looking to live bet these things. I encourage people to
watch the game, see how the game's going, see what
you're saying, trust your eyes. I guess my favorite way
to bet the NBA playoffs.

Speaker 2 (02:21:34):
So you real quick, just right jumping? Yeah, go ahead?
Fancy yeah, no, go ahead. I'm sorry, I just want
to follow real quick. You said something about live well,
when you talk about live betting, right, so you live
bet this thing. What are you looking for to make
it a to make it a play like value?

Speaker 5 (02:21:54):
Value? Like specifically like okay, game game five, Right, the
Knicks were a I think they were going about four
and a half point favorite. Okay, they were four and
a half point favorite. They were at home, so and
I say they're the better team, the better team in
terms of that day. The lines favored them by four
and a half points, right, they were up by eleven

(02:22:18):
and a half. I took two and a half in
the second half. So just think about this. You have
a team at home, favorite to win, trying their hardest
in a non blowout game, taking two and a half points.
You can't lose the possible twenty five years of data
to show it. You cannot lose. Things like that are
extremely extremely profitable. You know you will go repeatedly three

(02:22:41):
two or five and three, which is a ridiculous percentage.
Or again, if you're just seeing something where maybe someone's
in foul trouble and these algorithmsn't necessarily pick that up.
Maybe you see that Kalen Brunston has four fouls or
whatever five thousand or color Anthony Towns has four fouls,
or he looks hobbled, or just something that you see

(02:23:01):
that just in the game flow, right, that's leading you
to believe, Okay, maybe in this one game, they're just
matchup wise, one guy's having his way, so to speak,
against another player, and they're just They always come back
to regression in the NBA playoffs. And I don't necessarily
think things come back to regression in the NBA playoffs.
I think sometimes things are the way they are. Like,
that's why we've seen some of these fifty point NBA games,

(02:23:24):
right while we've seen okay, see beat teams by bazilion
because they're just better and it doesn't necessarily regret back
to what this original spread was.

Speaker 3 (02:23:33):
All right, So, while we're on the topic of live betting,
is that how you approach the Standing Cup final also?

Speaker 4 (02:23:39):
Or is their value No, started we know who you have?
Is their value early on this one.

Speaker 5 (02:23:44):
No, I don't live bet really the NHL, but I did.
I did bet Ed McKinnon the series at a pick. Look,
I give both these teams credit. Luck. I'm not going
to sit here and tell you I thought either these
teams would be here.

Speaker 2 (02:23:58):
I didn't.

Speaker 5 (02:24:00):
But again, hockey is the biggest grind to get to
the finals and to win the Stanley Cup. Give both
these teams a lot of credit. This is for the
third straight appearance for the Card of Panthers. Incredible job
by them. Obviously a really tough team Edmonton, obviously second
year in a row. They were down for nothing last year.
Now getting back chance to rematch. Now they have the

(02:24:21):
home ice, they would have that Game seven if it's there.
Not that homece means a ton of Manchell, Guys, I
don't think it does, but you know what it is,
and I'm just going to be The difference to me,
guys is last year Skinner the goalie for Edmonton, I
thought was a huge negative. Now he's still maybe a
huge negative, but it also could be a Nick Foles
thing where it seems like what I mean by that,

(02:24:42):
it seems like he's playing really well right now today
in this exact pocketive games right Maybe next year start
so we'll go back to be beating an average goalie.
But right now he's playing really, really really well. And
I think that that Stuart Skinner is not a negative
for this team. He's playing great right now. So because
of that and the great firepower that this team has

(02:25:04):
the top with mc david and dry title, I think
that it's going to be Edmonton who wins the series. Uh.
And I actually did bet them at a pick. I
think at Merrick's a bet and as they said, I
mean to me, one of the difference is the skinner
of the goalie, UH is just playing really really well
right now and because of that, UH, I think they're
going to find a way to win a close series.

Speaker 2 (02:25:27):
Yeah, I love Eve, It's funny. I like Edminton Farest
nasty man, They're just they're nasty. But Edmonton's what really
impressed me is that the way they've closed games out,
the way they closed Dallas out. Dalla's got a lot
of firepower and they closed them out by checking and
they controlled, they really controlled play over the last you

(02:25:50):
like of the last like the third period part of
the game makes you know, and McDavid's.

Speaker 5 (02:25:58):
Level, I think it's weird. Edmonton last year in the
playoffs beat the Kings in the first round. They beat
uh Dallas in the conference finals, and they played Florida
in the in the Stanley Cup. And this year they
beat the Kings in the first round. You know, they
beat Dallas again in the conference finals, and I mean
it's the same exact road that they had last year.

(02:26:19):
Just really interesting that the exact same path. Don't know
how that happens, but yeah, I think Edmonton's going to
do it.

Speaker 2 (02:26:26):
I really did.

Speaker 5 (02:26:27):
Plus some root for him too, about that means anything,
but I think Edmonton, Uh.

Speaker 2 (02:26:30):
Yeah, I'm I don't on this show.

Speaker 3 (02:26:34):
Picked Edmonton at the beginning of the Stanley Cup playoffs too.
That was you see, you know what it's got along,
I got a long way to go. I picked Edmonton,
but got a long way. I'm not counting my chickens.

Speaker 2 (02:26:46):
Ve take a bow here.

Speaker 4 (02:26:48):
I picked at the beginning.

Speaker 2 (02:26:50):
You did.

Speaker 5 (02:26:51):
I'm counting the chickens. The chickens are being counted.

Speaker 2 (02:26:54):
It was impressive, very very good selection, very good. Hey,
real quick, because we were talking about this, what's the
line if it's the Knicks, what's the line of it's
if it's Indiana, it's gonna.

Speaker 5 (02:27:09):
Be It's not gonna be really any any different. I
mean I expect, which okay see, to probably be about
a seven to one favorite in the finals. Let me
see it's even coming. It's fine. I'm expecting about minus
seven hundred. I'm sure I'm gonna be somewhat close on that.
Maybe it'll be minus seven fifty, maybe minus six fifty,
but I know it's going to be probably in that
seven to one area. I think power rating wise, we

(02:27:32):
have a situation where uh, right now, okay, okay, so
he's my seven fifty. There you go, my seven fifty.
Uh and they have right now, yeah, the hypothetical series,
if they play Indiana, it's minus seven seventy against Indiana,
so I guess against the Knicks. Maybe they're saying it'll
be maybe minus seven twenty, so it'll be a little

(02:27:54):
bit lower against the next. But again, I personally think
the Nicks and Tasters are pretty pretty even.

Speaker 2 (02:27:59):
I look at dis agree with if Man. If Indiana loses,
then I don't see them going into garden winning. I mean,
let you talked about last year. Knits were banged up
last year.

Speaker 5 (02:28:11):
Yeah, I understand that. But but here's the thing is
that Indiana has shown Listen, let's let's let's be scara.
I mean, they played a Cleveland team that won sixty
seven games, and they smoke them, and they won three
games in their building.

Speaker 2 (02:28:27):
I just don't a game seven in the garden. Well
you're coming, You're you've squadered a three one lead. I
don't know that.

Speaker 5 (02:28:35):
Let me ask you a question again. I'm gonna rest
with you a little bit here. I'm not saying it's ideal.
I'm not saying it's ideal, but you know, think of
the movie or whatever, Gladiator or one of those movies.
You're like, all right, guys, listen, yeah, no one is
picking it. Everyone's going to he goes this, this is
going to be our like watershed moment. We're gonna shut
everyone up. We're gonna send this crowd home. It's gonna

(02:28:55):
be glorious. It's gonna be glorious.

Speaker 2 (02:28:57):
Yeah, we lost.

Speaker 5 (02:28:58):
Like remember the last year against the Celtics, they were
up three to one, Anthony right, they were up three
to one, and then they lost game six or it
was two years No, it was two years ago. They
were they were up, they were up three to one.
They lost Game six at home when dark White tipped
in a shot at the buzzer. Then they go into
Game seven, they were actually they were up three nothing,

(02:29:20):
I think even three.

Speaker 2 (02:29:22):
Yeah, it was three uh.

Speaker 5 (02:29:23):
Yeah, and they went to Game seven.

Speaker 2 (02:29:24):
At the I'm not saying it's never been done. I
mean the Sixers did against the Celtics and years ago,
so I know all about it. But I mean.

Speaker 5 (02:29:35):
Those are Next year, the Knicks are gonna be favorede Yeah,
Knicks will be favored. Absolutely'll be favored. They'll probably be
in that spot if they win this game, they'll probably
be I'm sure there'll be more than than the four
point favorite the Pacer made. The Knicks will probably minimum
of a five, probably even higher because of what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (02:29:52):
They look did make cover, but I just don't. I
think the Knicks went, I mean any amy cover, but
I think the Knicks would win. Real quick baseball. What
do you got today?

Speaker 5 (02:30:00):
Give you a couple of things. Antonio ten Satala pitcher,
Colorado rocks two good on miss guys. Colorado historically bad
over under five and a half hits, giving up over
five and a half hits all eleven games. This year's
giving up over eight hits the game. The Mets don't stink.
I love over five and a half. That's also over

(02:30:21):
two and a half runs. He's going over that eight
of his last nine. And what's great about him he
stinks on the road. He thinks that he stinks on
neutral fields. No offense to him, So to me, that's
just a really strong bet. Mike Soroke, I like over
two and a half runs. Unfortunately as a guy had
a great rookie season. Ever since then, injuries have derailed him,

(02:30:43):
a guy constantly having it already over five Arizona has
a really good lineup, Like over two and a half
runs for Soroka, and I took under four runs in
schoobl versus Michael Walkup, Tigers versus Royals. I know Scooba
will pitch great, that's a given. Walking Holid pro been
decent enough in low three r A. Again, anytime I

(02:31:07):
can get under four with school pitching, with a decent pitcher,
I'm always going.

Speaker 3 (02:31:10):
To do it in the five.

Speaker 2 (02:31:11):
Anyone.

Speaker 5 (02:31:11):
I don't want to go to the bullpens one school
believes or once walk as. That mean I don't love
you can't see his bullpen either. I'll take under four
runs in that game and take my chances, right.

Speaker 2 (02:31:21):
Buddy, Well, listen, good luck to you. Appreciated brain.

Speaker 5 (02:31:24):
Appreciate both of you every weekday, both you guys.

Speaker 2 (02:31:28):
Here he is the brain. Well, take a quick t
we'll come right back. Fellas wrapping it up right here
in Fox Sports Radio. Fellas, you're playing his song Fitzy
there he is blue eyes and Fitzy eyes he got perfect. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:31:50):
It just it just makes you realize that our four
hours are almost almost done, and there's what ninety six
more days so we got I don't know, quick math,
what like twelve thirteen more of these and then Ben,
we'll be right into football seams.

Speaker 2 (02:32:04):
Oh man, I can't wait. I get oot wait, hey, fellas,
don't forget For the best pregame show every weekend, be
sure to tune into Fox Sports Radio and uh It's
Countdown presented by BEDMGM every Saturday and Sunday. Right there,
nine am to noon Eastern six to nine Pacific, We'll

(02:32:26):
cut you down to all the biggest games. Tune in
the Countdown presented by bed MGM every Saturday and Sunday
morning right after we get off the air, Fox Sports
Radio and the radio app. You gotta check it out. Yeah,
forgive me, I'm I'm we are playing. I just got
word that the fields are open. They were like giant
puddles fitsie. So but apparently they got they were able

(02:32:50):
to dry the field out a little bit. So our
tournament is on. So as soon as we get off,
I mean, how we feel? How are we feeling about that? No,
I'm glad. I want to play and it's going to
be nice tomorrow too. So we have the like what
happens is these tournaments, like we have two games today

(02:33:12):
and then you get slotted right and then you could
play upwards to you know, anywhere from two to four,
two to three or four more games depending on where
you're come in at, uh for the championship, So like, well,
I'll beat the field for a little good bit today
and then all day tomorrow. I love it is that is.

Speaker 3 (02:33:39):
It's a beautiful bonding thing for you, for you as
a dad, and it makes you a great dad and
great with the boys and the family to do it,
for sure.

Speaker 7 (02:33:46):
It is.

Speaker 3 (02:33:47):
It makes me appreciate it truly, how much life is
sucked up by those sorts of things as you get older.
It's just you know, I was talking to some the
other day about the concept right now, especially for younger
people that are growing up in a work at home world.
For so many people they're trying to figure out, you know,

(02:34:08):
how do I balance, Like, you know, companies want all
this time, and by the time I go to work
and do I don't have any time to myself. And
I just think back to what it was like for
most of us growing up and how little time our
parents had to do anything. By the time, like if
you drive an hour to work, as many people that
work in big cities too, and then you work your
eight hours and you know, nine hours because you don't

(02:34:30):
get pay for your lunch hour and you drive your
hour pack and then you get home, like you're making
dinner for your kids, and then you're you're out of time,
right like and helping with the homework and you're out
of time. And then the weekends are all about you know,
I'm taking my kid to this game and this game
and this game and this game. And it's just wild
how much of life is occupied by the necessary things
that have to be done and how little is just

(02:34:51):
occupied your feed up and enjoying.

Speaker 2 (02:34:54):
Yeah, there's there's none of that, man, Like you know, listen,
it's a fly my period of time though, right, And
it depends what sports are, you know, and it depends
what sports your kids are into, like you know, the
the uh you know, flick, we're starting football soon and
uh for youth it's a little different. You know, high

(02:35:16):
school are already working out now and they'll you know,
they've been lifting and it'll start workouts football actually workouts.
We'll start uh this week or actually next week, and
so they'll they'll have you know, three days a week
where they'll be doing football stuff for youth because I
help coach youth. Youth will start in July, so we'll

(02:35:41):
do July and it's and then you know, once we're
into it, like we're five days a week and then
five nights a week, and then but it's well it's close,
you know, it's close to the house, so it's you know,
six to eight practice usually, you know, sometimes you know
to a thirty. But like I see these hockey parents,

(02:36:03):
my god, like they're track like you think, like I
go for baseball. They're traveling constantly. That we have two tornments,
we have one in South Carolina and one in Cooperstown
this year. But like hockey parents are on the road
every week. Who's going to New England, Who's going to Chicago,
Who's going to Canada? Like that's a real commitment.

Speaker 3 (02:36:29):
It's just it truly is crazy to me because you
just you wonder how anybody has ever, how generations made
time for anything in life. And I don't have the
answer to it. Like I want everybody to have a
better life, each generation to have a better, easier time
than the generation before. I'm still trying to figure out
how in the heck, Like, you know, there was that period,

(02:36:50):
my great grandparents period or my grandparents period, where like
most of the time only one person worked, so the
other person took a lot of that responsibility on once
we became, you know, a world where by necessity particularly,
so many people are like my parents both worked my
whole life growing up. I don't know how they had
time to breathe. Yeah, I just when you look at

(02:37:10):
the commitment that my music took compared to everything else
on top of work and top of life.

Speaker 2 (02:37:16):
God, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (02:37:17):
I just don't know how parents did it.

Speaker 4 (02:37:18):
I don't know how parents do it.

Speaker 3 (02:37:19):
I don't know how parents were well.

Speaker 2 (02:37:20):
And the sports has got changed as it's going on,
I mean back in the you know, but this is
a good problem to have. I mean, it's a paying Yeah,
it'sn't get me wrong, but you know, other generations they're
worried about food eating. So everybody that will do it
for us, have a great day. We love you, See
you next Saturday.

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